twenty things

Time flies here, it seemed to me that the week just started and it is now the weekend already. I've already been here for over a month and the beauty here never ceases to amaze me each day. 

I never imagined myself being ever able:

1. to see a sky full of stars
2. to see the milky way 
3. to witness five shooting stars in one night
4. to lie down on top of a water reservoir to do 1 and 2
5. to live in the wilderness 
6. to do 5 with people from Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, Egypt, England, Russia and the Bahamas
7. to reach the peak of a mountain
8. to sit on the roof of a bus with twenty other people
9. to wash buses and fix bicycles and change car tyres every Wednesday
10. to make lunch and wash dishes in the cafeteria kitchen
11. to enter a tattoo parlour and watch the entire process of tattoo-making
12. to befriend people from seventy-five and more countries
13. to live in a castle
14. to be able to communicate (almost fluently) in Cantonese!
15. to do online shopping for the very first time (bought a pair of boots online, myself just now!!)
16. to buy plane tickets online for the very first time (bought plane tickets online, myself just now!!!)
17. to be oh so happy that I am a Malaysian
18. to miss family, to miss friends - to miss home
19. to feel so blessed with my life right now...

20. ...but to feel so empty and painful on the inside as well

I never thought, in just a little bit over a month, I was able to do and feel so much. Now I guess it is possible. "Your life really has just begun" - You cannot be more right, mommy. 

just what more can you ask for upon witnessing such beauty...?

answer is, nothing

I have just taken a huge step in my life. And I guess, I guess I am finally growing up now.

But it isn't easy.