Day 14: Finale!

It was the last day and the times passed by so fast! I felt that it was yesterday when the trip started. I met new friends, I visited new places and ultimately I carved a lot of memories! All in all the trip was the best memories I had so far. Being in difference place with different languages, cultures and lifestyle really taught me a lot on how human are different from each other. It trips also taught me to be more tolerable to each other everyday life knowing that the human relationship is more important that the feeling of oneself.

All in all, I never regretted my decision in joining this trip. I knew a lot of new friends and I knew my old friends way better that I did before. If I had given a chance to join another trip next time, I would not hesitate to join it. I love to travel and it will be my passion.

Day 13: Paris!

This is our last destination before we went back and it was on my birthday! I remembered that my friend act differently and just want to piss me off on that day. I was frustrated as they knew it was my birthday but it seemed everything was not right at that day. I stayed in Paris late to snap a picture of Eiffel tower at night while everyone else were back to the camp. I met the other group from the trip and joined them. It was already 13 days into the trip and I never talked to some of them yet. I just knew we were in the same trip. But it's good to know them before the trip end, I would say.

We missed our last train back into the camp and once again we had difficulty dealing with taxi as many of them were not even know English. We had to used body language and ultimately I just showed the driver the addresses and he drove us away. I don't know whether we were heading to the right place but that is the only thing that we can do at that moment. Anyway, the incident was a good ice breaker for us. I wished I knew them earlier.

We went back to the camp and we killed the night with chats and games. It is the last night for the trip and everybody enjoyed it to the fullest.

Day 12: Disneyland, Paris!

Everyone wanted to go to Disneyland, but I never did. I wasn't raised with Disney character. I might watched some of them, but I never really had an actual memory of it. Almost everyone else in the trip would like to go to Disneyland. I said to myself that I don't lose anything to try and experience the Disneyland.

We waited for several hours for a ride, rode the roller coaster for two minutes and then walked away. That was not my type at all. It was tiring and I don't know how these people manage to stay put and wait for the next ride. However I was not expressing my feeling to other people in the group as it might ruined the day. I think that it is better to keep the thought to myself and go with the flow. 

That was not the only time. I always found myself in a situation where I need to kept thing to myself in order to prevent things to become worse. I found it good to be that way because expressing thought sometimes can be detrimental in friendship. Sometimes, there are thing that is better not to be said. 

Day 10 and 11: Switzerland!

There was nothing more exciting that I was waiting for before the trip than skiing in the summer! Swiss Alps was one of the reasons why I chose to go to Europe in the first place. I started skiing when I was in my freshman year. I even never actually touched snow until that time. When I was my first time skiing, it was horrible. I was almost gave up and kept whining about me falling of after several meter. My friends answer was simple "You never touched snow in your whole life and you expecting that you know how to ski right away?" The answer kept me going and I was determined to ski again. I'm glad to have such friend that was so supportive. They wait for me when I fell, they even help me to put the ski back when it loosen. Not long after that, my ski level kind of fair and I started to go to more challenging trail. The feel of the adrenaline rushed was worthless.

Summerski!

When I was in the Alps, it was during the Summer and the Sun went straight up. It was cold with the snow everywhere, 3,500 m away from the ground. I was super excited to went to the ski park and the ski park was not the ski park that I was imagining all this while . It is just a recreational spot if anyone want to try ski. I was frustrated but considering two other people in the trip ask me to teach them to ski, I skied as well.

Skiing in the cloud! 

I'm glad I did. Even if it just a beginner trail with some bumps at the side, but who else can ski in the middle of June? The picture of me in the air after jumping from a bump had bring jealousy to my friends. I used it to encourage them to explore the world! It was awesome.

Day 9: Pisa, Italy!

It was day 9, one of my friend that come with me from the US was burned out. All she want to do was sleep in the tent whenever she had the chance. I would say the trip was tiring, having to pack up the tent every single day in the evening and set it up in the evening was a lot of work. It is just the matter of time when everyone started to feel totally exhausted doing all those stuff. I kept myself occupied and always chatted with people in order not to be overwhelmed with all those thing. I already had a mind set it is a budget trip and I was not hoping for five class services. I guess I had it all covered.

Pisa!

 However seeing one of my friend left the group and stay at the camp while we were having fun visiting Pisa was not fun. I always love to be in larger groups of people. As people said, the more the merrier. I believed that everybody should enjoyed the moment and sincerely I felt bad for her. Anyway, there's nothing I could do at that time and it was just her that cam give herself courage.

Camwhore with the street mural painting!

I probably did not have a lot of friend, but every friend that I had were worth to be friend with. The analogy is, if it is a products, the quality is better that the quantity. I love to have a lively communication with friend and keep the conversation long. Sometimes it was bad especially when the time wasn't right but I did think it works most of the time to keep somebody happy. Somehow I managed to cheer her up and we were visiting Pisa again that night so that she would not missed it!

Everyone was happy again!

Day 7 and 8: Florence and Rome, Italy

After Venice, the other part of Italy did not seem to be interesting. The people in the trip started to get exhausted especially the adults and the kid. However, the trip must go on. I also felt exhausted as nothing compelling was there, and there is no excitement. The main reason was because I did not know anything about the place that we were visiting in Florence and Rome. I had seen it in the movie before, but I just did not know the story well enough so that the places can be appealing to me. I don't spend time reading about those places that I was about to visit and I just felt that my money just went down the drain. It is just empty. I definitely took some picture of the place that I went but they don't have any value to it.

What's this sculpture represent?

That was also happening when I was studying in RIT. There were some classes that I did not know anything about, maybe because of the professor wasn't be specific about the course goal or maybe the class outline was not my interest at all. It did not have value to me and I just tend to forget it right after the class. Yes, I had to remembered it before the exam but that the only it.

The Colloseum.

We end our trip in Rome with boring faces. I saw it in almost everyone. I was thinking probably everyone was having the same dilemma as I did. As a take home lesson for the day, never ever went to a trip without reading the ins and outs of it. The more the values, the sweeter the memories are.

Day 6: Venice, Italy!

When we were on our way to Venice, we watched The Tourist, a movie that was filmed in Venice. In the movie, Venice was depicted as a truly beautiful city. The surrounding was nice, the street was not crowded, and the water was crystal clear. We were super excited after watching the movie to experience Venice firsthand.

My expectation went down to the ground along with my first step on Venice. My first sight of it wasn't as depicted in the movie. Venice was so crowded, the water was smelly, and there's a lot of trash. What makes it more difficult for me in Venice is that the local does not speak English at all. It's kind of difficult, but their actions were justified. They just did not want to adopt other languages and left their language at home. Seeing by the amount of tourist that were in and out of Venice everyday, I would say they can speak English fluently if they chose to adopt the language.

It's kind of a good thing to preserve their languages. They still have a lot of tourist coming in and out everyday despite the never speak English. They have the demands and speaking Italian was not changing anything. It was not the case back in my home country. There was a time where Mathematics and Science were taught in Malay language, then changed to English, and recently they tried to change it back to Malay. They said it because to preserve our own identity, our own language. I wasn't happy with the decision at all. It just make it difficult for the student when they entered university level as everything will be in English. Even me myself had difficulties studying in the States during the first year I was here even though I learn both in English.


I learned English since I was 5, but never actually had a conversation until I was 17. It was during my scholarship interview! The education system was tailored to teach the students to write and read in English, but not the speaking part of it. We don't have the demand and we basically need to follow the global trend. We just need it.

Sometimes, we just need to sacrifice big thing for larger benefits.