When I was young, I used to associate the word ‘birthday’ with presents, party, and celebration. I used to thought that holding a birthday party with friends was important. Getting a birthday present from my parents was important. Blowing out candles on a birthday cake was important. But I had neglected the one thing that mattered the most – the one person who gave birth to me. Well, now….

So, yeah…unhappy birthday to me.

One thing I did realized was that you can never expect what will happen tomorrow. There had been times when I want to do something and I always say that I’ll do it later and I never got around to it. So, I decided to do something that I had been wanting to do for a long time. It’s not something big – a life altering change or something. What I had decided was quite simple. I started to stop spending so much money on DVDs and instead on Myanmar books. Every week, I buy at least one or two books, mostly Ma Nine Nine Sanay and Sayar Linkar Yay Kyaw. For a while, I stopped reading English novels and the only English book I’m reading is a non-fiction about global warming and its effects.

Now that I’m in my second year, I know I should be focusing on my studies, but the only subject which interests me is Psycholinguistics. But that subject is quite difficult and I won’t be choosing it as the field for my thesis because it is insufficient to do a research study for only a couple of months. I don’t want to be criticized for doing an incomplete study.

Last year, I used to work part-time as an assistant teacher at a private language school, but I’ve quit the job now. I quit the job three days before my mother died. At that time, I quit it to take care of her and after her death, I didn’t want to go back there again. Besides, the pay was low and I didn’t like spending the whole day doing paper corrections. I will still be earning money by tutoring on the weekends

Well, at least now I have plenty of leisure time and I can finally participate in MYIA’s activities.

The first three days of Thingyan wasn’t actually peaceful at home for me because my neighbors set up some loudspeakers in front of the house and kept playing those quite annoying techno music (have I ever mention that I hate techno?). Luckily, a quarrel broke out among them after my mother told them to lower the volume so they stopped playing music at the end. Otherwise, I couldn’t concentrate on the TV or the books.

One thing I really dislike about this year’s Thingyan is that the electricity went out while MRTV was airing “Thingyan Moe”. It is the classic Thingyan movie which is only aired once a year. I had been looking forward to watching it for 3 years and I only got to the first 15 minutes. Blast it! I’ll have to wait for next year since I can’t download the movie from online like I used to. I was even thinking of writing about the movie in details but since I lack the necessary data, I can’t do so now

As I spent most of my times in front of the TV, I only managed read “Brisingr”, the third book of the Inheritance cycle and Jue’s “He/She Will Never…..You”. I had wanted to read back all the Jue books I have at home, but I only managed to read two books so far since my summer vacation starts.

We arrived on time this time to the youth center, but none of the children were waiting for us. The same lady from the first day told us that some of them are attending another class for domestic science (or something like that). Only around 20 children showed up on the second day. Maybe they didn’t want to come ‘cuz on the first day, we told them to write about what they can remember from Tin Myat Htet’s talk.

My sister (dawn_1o9) showed them two videos about plastic abuse and forest conservation and explain them in details afterward. Then, the children were divided into three groups and were asked to write down what they could remember from the video about plastic abuse. A representative from each group had to read aloud what they had written down fifteen minutes later.

We had a delicious lunch at the monastery before heading to Kyaikhtiyo Pagoda. To reach it we would have to climb 33 mountains, but thanks to the transportation development, we can now reach it with trucks. No other cars except these trucks are allowed to climb the mountains since the road is full of many curves. Even then, these trucks aren’t quite safe because there have been cases of trucks that fell of the mountains when the drivers drove too fast. The first time I was at Kyaikhtiyo with my family, we climbed up to Hermit Hill (Yathei Taung) with the trucks and trekked for around an hour and a half. It was quite difficult for me to climb and I can’t imagine having to climb the mountains from the base like in the past.

Actually, foreigners aren’t allowed to climb all the way up to the top with the trucks. They had to get off at Hermit Hill and walk the rest of the way. I think it’s because the other half of the journey is more dangerous and they can’t guarantee the safety of the foreigners. Not that they can guarantee safety for the local people also. If they can’t climb the mountains, they can be carried by local workers. as seen in the picture below.

My advice to those traveling with these trucks is to bring plenty of plastic bags with you in case you get sick or someone else near you get sick and vomit on you.

After paying obeisance to the pagoda, we went down the hills to put up more vinyl posters near the motels and restaurants. Most people stay overnight at those motels and have their meals there. So, it is the ideal place for us to place the posters and raise their awareness especially towards littering and plastic bags.

Many people were interested in our posters but they thought we were staffs from Nivea, our main sponsor. We got tired of explaining that we are from MYIA. We learnt a lesson to made our logo more visible and to add the acronym of our group at the bottom of the logo with big bold letters.

The last time, I visited other places like Crow’s Mouth Cave but this time I didn’t get a chance to visit other places beside the pagoda itself. I would like to come back again to stay the night and maybe visit the waterfall which is difficult to reach. Actually, I want to try climbing the mountains from the base of the hills, but that’s probably a wishful thinking lolz.

We walked down to Hermit Hill and caught a ride down the rest of the hills. By the time we arrived at the base, it was around five and it was time for us to go home, back to our suffocating, crowded metropolis, away from the fresh mountain airs and scenic beauties. I hope I can go on another trip before my second year starts again.

But next time I go on a trip, I will have to hide the gifts I buy for my friends in fear of certain someone who “tends to” keep making mistakes between her portions and my portions.

Credit pictures to dawn_1o9
Note: I’ll upload the rest of the pictures when the connection is better.

Seik Phoo Mountain is not actually a big mountain. I think it’s more like a hill. Located in the outskirts of Kyaikhto, it’s a youth development center housing around 800-1000 children. We arrived there around noon (or later) after checking in at the motel and having lunch nearby. Our reaction after arriving at the center couldn’t be described exactly in English ‘cuz we felt “arr nar” (အားနာ) which means ‘be restrained by fear of offending’. All of us were dirty and weary from the trip and the children (teenagers to be precise) showed up wearing white and green school uniform. We felt out of place wearing jeans in front of the kids. A lady at the center told us that the children had been waiting since 10 o’clock since we told them that we’ll arrive around that time. Oh! I felt so bad.

We expected a lot of children but only about 30 people showed up. Tin Myat Htet (Pink Gold) got right down to work and started talking to them about environmental protection. Afterward, we posted some vinyl posters which are concerned with protecting the trees, littering and avoiding the use of plastic bags.

Next, we headed to Kin Pun Camp, the base of the mountains which leads to Kyaikhtiyo Pagoda, to put up vinyl posters on the trucks and nearby. Since it was around 3 o’clock, it would have been too late to visit the pagoda as we were not going to stay there overnight. Then, we headed back to our motel to shower and rest before having dinner. After dinner, we visited Kyaikpawlaw Image and Mahamuni Image. While waiting for others to arrive, I looked around the paintings at Mahamuni Image and noticed a lot of illogical errors in the paintings which are supposed to depict the previous lives of Buddha. For instance, I noticed electrical bulbs, a wall clock and an iron grille in some of the paintings. I don’t know what is worse, the unnecessary household items or the fact that some of the buildings and walls were built with concrete. Not only that, some of the people were dressed in Bamar style, men with turbans (gaung-baung) and jackets (taik-poun) and women with blouses and cheik longyis. I really wonder the intention of the painter.

credit photos to dawn_1o9

As much as I am going to miss my friends, I can’t stand another day in the class, esp with a certain teacher who I won’t name since I’ll be seeing her again in the 2nd year I hope I pass the exam, especially her subject which was rather difficult for all of us since none of us are interested in the subject and also the teacher.

It’s really funny that when I was studying for the exam, my head was filled with ideas of what to do after it was over. But now, I don’t feel like doing anything. I did watch some movies, but nothing could catch my interest. I don’t want to start on any kdramas at the moment. I started reading “Not Out of Hate” by (Journal Kyaw) Ma Ma Lay last night so that I can participate in the discussion at the book club on Wednesday.

I want to watch “Kyoe Kyar Taung Pan Khat Tan”, a movie which got an academy award for the best picture and another award (which I can’t remember at the moment). I have read the novel after it got a literacy award in 2009. I hope I won’t be disappointed with the movie remake.

Also, this weekend, I will be going on a trip with MYIA. I’ll write more about it when I know the details.

Actually, not many people even know about Earth Hour so I doubt that they will be turning off their lights tonight, unless the electricity is out. I hope EPC don’t cut off the electricity in order to participate in the event j/k

So, out of frustration, I have watched a couple of movies to clear my mind. I have watched Inception (I still haven’t gotten back my copy yet, I had to rent from a friend), Camp Rock 2, Backup Plan, Breakfast at Tiffany, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and half of Prince Caspian. I enjoyed watching most of them, but Inception really blew my mind. I regretted not watching it sooner. I was never a big fan of the first Camp Rock, but I like the second one. I finally realize that I don’t really dislike the Jonas Brother. It was only Joe Jonas that gets on my nerves. Why couldn’t Nick have been the lead instead?

I was looking forward to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ever since my sister and her boyfriend went to see it at Naypyitaw cinema. I also had wanted to watch it at the cinema, but I had nobody to go with so in the end, I waited for the DVD release. Although I was longing to see Caspian (Ben Barnes) again, I didn’t expect him to have gotten so handsome. I could barely focus on the plot since my eyes were only on him After the movie ended, I wasn’t ready to part with Caspian again so I watched half of the second movie before going to sleep last night. He was cute in that one, but much better in the last one.

After I finish watching Prince Caspian, I’ll really start my studying. I have to work on Sociolinguistics subject now. Since we have done the assignment on code-switching, I think I can write well on that topic.

Actually, it was inspired by our professor. We were looking at a new chapter, titled “Language and Gender” in our textbook. On the first page of that chapter was a quotation about the release of the first non-sexist bible in which words like ‘any man’ were replaced with ‘anyone’ and so on. She explained that western countries have women liberation or women right, but in our country, such kind of movements are unnecessary because we allow the men to dominate while we, women, are content with our lives. And that’s when I blurted out that I disagree with what she has said. I respect with her as my teacher and professor, but I just can’t accept her view.

Why should we be content with our lives? Why should we allow ourselves to be inferior? I have nothing against men or anything, but as women, we shouldn’t think such lowly of ourselves.

Just take a look at the so-called parliament? Do you see any females there? No, all are men. Recently, I read an old article in Reader Digest about the lack of female support in the Malaysian government. In that article, the author expressed that some or most men (I don’t remember exactly) still believes that they have a right to beat their wife even though a law has been passed to prevent against such acts. These men seemed to care more about women being raped rather than wives being beaten. Now, I don’t much about the situations in this country, but I have read a case about a drunk man who beat his wife to death 60 times in a journal last week.

Even people like my own father thinks that women have no place in administrative areas at his work. At least, I won’t have to work in such kind of male dominated areas since I’ll be working as a teacher in some private school or language school in the near future. I think I won’t feel much oppressed since most of the staffs will be female at my future work, but I don’t think I can ever get married if I can’t find someone who will treat me as an equal.

Yesterday, I came home thinking that I will watch “Inception”, but I couldn’t find it. I bought that movie a couple of months ago, but I never found the time to watch it. I always put it up in front of other DVDs to remind myself to watch it. I searched everywhere and still I couldn’t find it. The reason was because my sister had lent it to someone without my permission. I swear I absolutely hate it when someone takes my things without my permission. I know that I have tons of other movies to watch, but I only wanted to watch it. If I can just buy it easily again, I would have go out and buy it, but that movie is out of stock, unless I buy the expensive version. She really had no right to lent it to anybody without asking me first especially when I specifically told her not to lent any of the new movies that are put at the front. After all, I paid for 95% of all the DVD Movies. At least I’m grateful that she didn’t touch my Kpop MTV Collections because I’ll definitely get into a huge fight with her if she did. I only lent them to close friends who are really into Kpop. Since they were expensive to buy, I can’t afford to have scratches on the DVDs.

Actually, I did think about hiding all the new movies in my room, but I didn’t think she will disrespect me like that. What makes it worse is that, the movie has been lent for 2 weeks already her informing me at all. Now, I never do that. I always ask her first before lending any movies that she hasn’t watched yet, even when I bought the movies. This is not the first time it has happened, but I can’t stand it anymore.

I’m not a stingy person. I always lent movies to my friends whenever I could because I like sharing. But, I hate it when they take a long time to return it back to me. It’s not like I pushed them to borrow from me. I still have one friend who borrowed a couple of movies from me but hasn’t return them to me yet. I know she’s busy, but I would like it she could return them back to me so that I can share them with other friends.

So, now, as a last resort, I have to put up a sign on the TV stand to warn her not to lent any more movies without my permission. Call me petty and childish, but I won’t be able to put it out of my mind unless I do something about it.

The sign says “No movies are allowed to be rent without seeking the owner’s permission unless they have been bought with one’s own money.”