Peace and Love, Reus

It's been a while, but i felt like digging up my diaries and journaling the rest of my Portugal-Spain trip, haha.

I arrived in Reus, a small rustic town off Barcelona. It's the birthplace of Gaudi, though i believe he was attracted more towards the big-city glamour of Barca!

Imagine my surprise when I was greeted by my host Blanca and her diving instructor David with a very hearty..."Selamat Datang!" Haha. Both of them are avid travelers too who've had their fair share of adventure in Asia, including a months-long biking trail across China! Definitely want to try that someday too, wow. 

We drove around for a bit, to return their diving equipment. Blanca has been taking diving lessons, to prep for her trip to Madagascar perhaps - she's going with some frens to volunteer and teach there for a year or so!! Along the way we even had a little accident with the local traffic police...but i can't really remember the details now haha.

Last stop for the night: home sweet home in Reus! Out of all the hosts I've had, Blanca had one of the most memorable homes. It was a small, cozy one-room place, intricately decorated with books, drawings, a plethora of stuff with a very personal feeling coming through - i could really begin to see what kind of person she was in the home she's built! 

I remember the little kitchen where there was barely room for two, and the fridge choke-full  of home-grown vegetables, from green pepper, chilli, onions and potatoes to carrots, long beans, tomatoes. Blanca actually tends to a small garden patch together with her other friends, and they just love harvesting them fresh for their meals. If you've never seen home-grown veggies btw, they look nothing like in the supermarkets! In fact i had a hard time identifying some of the veggies as they were in the oddest shapes and sizes.

Anyway I made dinner for us both, braised pork belly with green pepper, and vermicelli with carrots :-)

Yummy~ i hope!

 The next morning saw us taking a ride to nearby Tarragona, the capital of Catalonia with some very Romanesque ruins, from Cyclopean walls to an astounding amphitheatre!

 Managed to catch the weekly flea market by the Cathedral- an awesome experience! 

An amphitheatre by the sea - what an entertaining spectacle it must have been ~

We had a light breakfast, then snuck off for a long ride across the hilly roads of Tarragona, the scenery marred by industrial structures like power stations, processing plants. But the deeper we went into the mountains and valleys, the further we abandoned modern civilization ... until we reached the castled town of Montblanc, nestled away among the rocky Prades Mountains.

Our destination: to have a nice picnic at Blanca's frens Guillem and Cristina's house, which was still further hidden away in a nearby barren village! We first met up with her other frens Edgar and Eliz, and then shopped for groceries and lunch. Sadly Sunday is truly not a day for shopping, and only one muslim mom-and-pop store was open for us to grab some drinks and snacks.

Upon reaching Guillem's house, my eyes completely widened. Here we had a concrete blockish house that looked exactly like a hermit's adobe! Imagine it surrounded by spiny bushes, a reserve water pool, and no grid electricity or water supply - i can't imagine a closer reference to the olden times of Spain!

Reminded me of Heroes I's ogre adobe!!

If i were to choose one coolest place out of all my travels, this is it. 

Guillem, a DJ schooled in old-school traditions, housed hundreds of vinyl records and an inhouse music system in about one-third of the adobe. The other two-thirds comprised of a counter bar where flies buzzed about in the hot, dry air and cushy sofas to lounge in. We had live DJ music on his scratch pad (which Guillem taught me to experiment on - really really fun stuff to try!), and later more of their frens came to join in the picnic. Absolutely memorable sights, sounds and smells that are still coming back to me now!

Oh, something i forgot to add: besides Blanca and Edgar, none of their frens spoke english. Everyone was speaking Catalonian most of the time :)  Talk about non-verbal communication! Haha. I'm amazed i still managed to fit in somehow, as we lazed and chilled in the fun picnic atmosphere.

As evening approached, we took a quick tour around Montblanc, climbing up the old Roman fort walls. There, the setting sun cast our shadows across the town beneath, and the breeze and the bronze light cast a warm feeling in our hearts...

I guess this was the time when it struck me... that Life is long, and meant to be enjoyed, every single moment of it. To me Blanca embodied this life philosophy perfectly, in living life to the fullest yet with the deepest sense of hope, faith and love that it does not end tomorrow, but will go on forever. How vast, varied and interesting life can be! You can be anyone you want, do anything you love, and not feel the least bit of regret about it.

Yes, it was then that I felt my perspective on life has truly opened up for me, telling me that I can live life the way I want, not the way society dictates. I can lead different lifestyles and assimilate different cultures, i can explore many options on the places i'll go, the things i can do. I can slack like a bum or overwork for a cause. I can fail, cry, laugh, hug, inspire, pause, learn, read, play, go broke, seek help, volunteer ... and find fulfillment and happiness in my own life anyway.

Because Life is long, and meant to be good.

She has never voiced this out, and in fact we have never communicated that well in the sense of words and sentences due to her still learning english. But i could intimately feel her way of thinking, her way of life. It felt so deeply touching, and yet so comforting, to listen to her share her thoughts and experiences as though they were the most common thing in the world, when in fact it is so, so rare especially in this modern age of material greed and egotistic self-pursuit, a global village of disconnected individuals, a world where, so they say, Life is short.

Blanca, means white in Spanish. 

To me, she had truly brought the colour into my life perspective, like the brightness among darkness; an undying hope for a better life, a better world.

As I snuggled into the mat on the last night of my brief, yet life-changing trip in Reus, i was probably thinking...

Me siento agradecido por el regalo, Blanca.

A Comment

Kind words never fail to make me smile :)

From SG Cares' Alan:

Dear Sebastian, Thank You, NTU Student volunteers for the App.  

V aluable is the work you do, 

O utstanding in how you always come through. 

L oyal, sincere and full of good cheer, 

U ntiring in your efforts throughout the year. 

N otable are the contributions you make, 

T rustworthy in every project you take. 

E ager to reach your every goal, 

E ffective in the way you fulfill your role. 

R eady with a smile like a shining star, 

S pecial and wonderful - that’s what you are!

A long day (and night of volunteering)

Yawn... just woke up after one long, sleepless night up improving the mobile volunteering app, then one straight, tiring day volunteering at Highpoint Community Services.

It's surprisingly refreshing to go down to the ground and get our knees dirty in helping for a good cause! I had an interesting 'job rotation' as I carried sacks of rice with Meesala (an Indian MBA getting a job here), packed food with VL Jiaqi for homes of the elderly, being sent on a 'learning excursion' delivery route in a van with Ho Fai and Uncle Richard, and finally learning about high fashion while arranging old clothes with Anne. Along the way, I had a fun break drinking some weird ass drink some company donated crates of (for good reason i'm sure...) with Uncle Bernard, a 60 or 70-ish teacher who shared a couple of years of his life story and almost began proselytizing to me before i escaped =p.

I couldn't help smiling when I was doing some of the menial labour... guess I have a couple of bolts loose somewhere haha. I just felt a 'feel-good' sensation - and i guess it's the thing that keeps me going thru my past leadership experiences as well. Working for the sake of others cleanses the soul... it validates our common existence in this world of ours and makes you feel like you've gotten just a little closer to all the mass of human beings out there trying to eke out a meager living. It makes you feel alive - yes, for only when you are truly alive, do you think and care for others, do you share your love for the world. Otherwise, what differentiates you from a moving object, a machine?

It was invigorating, too, to get to share some of my thoughts and experiences with a common soul Ho Fai, whom I shared an hour or so on the delivery route! We really poured our hearts out, talking about our dreams and aspirations, our life stories that built us up. Amazing how a great connection just sparks like that, simply by being open to making new friends.

Ah well... I almost forgot my original purpose, to get more feedback for the mobile app! Still thinking about how to make it more engaging, more attractive towards users. How should we go about making people volunteer more? What makes people volunteer, and what makes them not volunteer? Will they do it if it's fun? If it's with friends? If they got recognition or rewards?

These are some of the questions i have been throwing around recently, to understand the real problem i'm trying to solve. It's not about thinking of what the app can do, but rather what people need or want. And there's no simple answer to this, so all i can do is to keep digging and digging, probing people, asking questions.

But truly, thanks to this project, I have gotten to thinking and learning a lot in more than one way. I like the new experiences i've been getting recently too. Even though there is much that doesn't excite me anymore, there is still a great part of the unexplored world out there for me to venture into.

After all, all we want is a reason to live.

One Night in Beijing, Two in Shanghai

Back from a grueling winter in Beijing and Shanghai, China! Pictures here.

I spent Christmas snuggled under the sheets, feverish and sneezing from a cold in the hotel. Not very merry indeed. And New Year's Day saw me climbing the Great Wall and leaving a trail of snot...haha.

I really loved the Great Wall though, it left me the same feeling as the Grand Canyon... 'Wow.' I must go back sometime and take a few days to walk and camp through the Wall...hmm is that allowed? They don't have patrols at night do they...

I feel like I still barely know China after having toured around the Jiang nan area. We were brought about to skim the surface of cities, a touristy ride through attractions and whatnots. But i still enjoyed getting a glimpse of how locals live, from the way they dress and walk, to the houses and shops they inhabit. The tour guides of course fed us loads of fun facts and themed stories, with the occasional historical tidbit. At the end of the day, I do not feel as though I have understood any of the great cities we have breezed through.

I breeze through Life not with Wind. - George Bernard Shaw

The propaganda was surely laid on thick, from the guide's resolute exhortation that we were 'people of China with Singaporean passports" to the incessant reminder of filial piety to our parents, our grandparents, whoever that could justify buying a new silk pillow, a kilo of green tea leaves for. I am proud to say that our group has bought it all and fulfilled every shop's sales quota along the way. My contribution to the table: $8 for a bottle of pearl cream that stun my eyes horribly after applying it like a facial mask. Well done.

I will never forget the impressive sales techniques practised on us, like we were little white mice rolling on a wheel. I have a true admiration for this art - it truly is an elaborate art - of putting thoughts into the minds of others. Kinda like Genjutsu, only better.

I especially like how we are so good at rationalizing things...religion and superstitions, all buttressed by half-truths and fallacies. Another thing that was rationalized - the Suzhou Industrial Park, gave me more food for thought. In the ever-present dilemma between development and conservation, we always talk about the benefit for the lives of the many versus the detriment of the few. In reality, it's a veil in disguise; very often it's not the majority oppressing the few, but rather the few with many oppressing the few with little.

It has still been a refreshing, enriching trip through and through, and I am grateful for this grad trip that has enabled me to reconnect with all my BCG coursemates. I pray the memories we have forged together stands strong like the Wall :)

Horizons

Back after a long hiatus!

It has been a refreshing blast of activity since the exams ended. I am actually hugely more busy now than during the exam period! I guess that hints at the mindset i hold towards taking exams now... haha. I studied maybe eight, nine hours total for each paper? The rest of the time, I have been indulging my passions...studying Go, reading Herman Hesse's books, taking long brooding walks, thinking about what I want to do.

After returning from overseas, I have been enjoying my new perspective on life.

Things like appreciating the simpler things in life, thinking up little projects like creative presents for friends, taking time out to admire a thunderstorm, and slowly chewing my breakfast despite being late for lessons.

Understanding and forgiving our weaknesses, observing people for who they are, and consciously giving praise and encouragement to close ones around me.

Dissolving my temper and negative feelings away, being more patient with things, seeing things from different angles, asking more questions about everything, and being thankful and amazed to know the answers.

Making dinner at home a priority, to talk more to my brothers, to cry more during sad movies, and laugh more during funny ones.

Taking charge in projects, learning to pay attention towards my teammates rather than the task at hand, giving myself hard chores and being hardworking for once... and rewarding myself after :)

Well.

Graduation is coming up soon, and job searching has been fruitless so far... ha. And i have just myself to blame... having applied to, say, 5 firms in total?

Guess i'm really stubborn about it. I swore myself to a life not of success, but of fulfillment. And I try to act on it. I realized that success-oriented, competitive environments or jobs that do not serve the greater part of society will not go with this. Hence I chose not to apply for financial, tobacco firms, etc.

I also aspire to be challenged in open and collaborative environments, to be pushed to reach new levels in my knowledge and skillsets... and so didn't apply for starting jobs in governmental, rigid organizations either. I'd love to hear from people who can share their experiences to refute my stereotyped views, but so far all my working friends have affirmed my beliefs in this.

Who's to say I won't conform to the rest of society and 'wake up' to reality? Nine out of ten friends around me absolutely adore bank jobs. The remaining one is already working in it. I've seen encouraging movements in the U.S., but the odds are stacked against me here in the zeitgeist of Singapore. I just hope to retain the new perspectives and mindsets I gained from my european friends, and be brave enough to fight for them.

Keeping my paradoxical aim of doing something challenging in a less success-oriented environment in mind, I have been actively tossing out competitive thoughts and ambition from my mind, and yet pro-actively seeking out opportunities to challenge myself in a fun, fulfilled way.

I find that strangely, my initiative towards things has actually increased as a result, while trying to be driven not by achievement but by fulfilment. To be pushed not by thoughts of myself, but of others as well. To be excited not by the chance to earn money but the opportunity to make a difference.

I set myself a midterm goal: to set up a nonprofit tech firm, something like Convio.

In the short run, I've recently made contact with Singapore's governmental agency in charge of volunteer orgs in Singapore, and managed to convince them to do a collaborative project with me and maran!

I have a dream of regular people, each and everyone of us, volunteering every so often for causes we believe in, people we want to help. I have a dream of reaching out to people, especially youths, to create a kinder, more caring society. It's an easy dream as far as dreams go, isn't it?

At least i know Technology can do this.

We're creating a mobile application that serves as a platform for people to freely logon, check out the latest volunteering events, and signup for them. Users can search for causes they're interested in, for events they have the time and energy to help out in. The best part? After using it for sometime, the app will smartly recommend the user what he's interested in, based on a model the app has constructed of him. That's what I call Artificial Intelligence :)

And to engage the youths and keep users going back to the app, we're making use of fun and social elements, such as achievements and reward points, and sharing on FB and twitter to invite friends to join the same event. How's that for viral marketing?

I'm really aiming to create something impactful and useful to society. We're in the heat of the action now, and some of my friends are joining me in this too, though we're still tight of manpower. Hopefully our creation will nudge up Singapore's volunteerism rate by at least 0.5% within the next six months. I'd really love to see that realized!

I don't think I would have gone this far in this project without my new perspective in life gained from my exchange in europe. I like that the lessons you learn, you experiences you gain, the people you meet, the memories you hold from traveling...they don't disappear the moment you leave, but simmer in your mind slowly, absorbed into your soul like little bits of your life.

Ah, what am i saying? Doesn't that apply to everything in our lives? Ha...

Anyway, that's all I have to rant for now. I guess it's a good enough update for these few months! Well, time to get back to work on my coding.

P.s.

It feels so good to realize that life is long, and meant to be good.

Thank you for teaching me that.

A Networking Dinner

A break from my travel posts! I still have a backlog of travel logs from Copenhagen to Rome...it's going to last me till next year haha.

Tonight we attended a networking event with alumni from a couple of industries: a full range of financial sector players as well as the accounting Big 4. I roamed about and spoke to many different personalities... (one of whom was drunk, haha!)

I wanted to jot down some of my after-thoughts. Firstly, i felt that i could observe the 'comfort circles' they have built for themselves. It shows pretty clearly, from the things they talk about, the attitudes they portray towards certain issues such as career choices and development paths. It appears that based on the values and mindsets you hold towards the world around you, the same environment can provide different insights and knowledge for different people. You even absorb information selectively, to support your pre-existing perceptions perhaps. It's very interesting. I acquired some very valuable AND different advice from different personalities.

Of course, it makes a difference that they are from different industries. Yet I feel that these people have actually drifted towards the place where they feel they belong. And once they fit in snugly in these comfort circles, it reinforces their attitudes and perceptions towards things. I guess this is probably necessary for a stable, happy life: to find somewhere you belong, and mould your environment as you see fit. The environment may be simply the decor of a home (this is big for my dad!) or the way you make out the world to be.

I cherish my student life now, because we have the time to explore our passions and interest, to forge and reforge ourselves in a continual journey of learning and growth. To constantly be able to throw ourselves into new, uncomfortable places. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to go on exchange in Europe, and to travel alone around the US and Europe. I just had the intuition that i could not find the next stage of self-development in Singapore. And i was right. I wish that i am able to convey the lessons learnt in my travel logs.

In the meanwhile, though, I will continue striving on, in this next phase of learning. Let me pray that i will never fall into a comfort circle - yet. It's just too early to stop learning, to stop failing and making mistakes, to stop doing what i love, to stop having fun...

It's too early to stop living life the way you want it. Differently.

... and farewell, Steve Jobs. Your life will be forever remembered as an inspiration to all.

Experience, Barcelona

The Media always gives you a distorted picture of the truth.

A brief snapshot, to be precise, of a long chain of events, bits and pieces that form up history. If you didn't know any better, you would probably come up with a perception shaped exactly by pictures, videos of the dramatic incidents shown by the Media. Yet the only way to feel and understand the present is to be there at that very moment.

The world, 2011, has seen the Arab Spring, and in Europe, a long summer of discontent arising from the financial crisis' still ongoing reverberations. I was there, ignorant and unaware of the historic Spanish protests recently. All over Madrid, and later Barcelona, young people demonstrated against high unemployment and the political establishment. What better way to feel the current situation than to live with my 20-ish host Joan, who is a university graduate and yet, like many of his peers, can't find a full-time job in one of the economic capitals of Spain! He had to accept a pay-less internship now for months, and survived on his own savings over the years.

With his friendly, happy-go-lucky predisposition, however, Joan isn't pressured into signing up for any of the protests - yet. But who knows how many disgruntled young adults facing the same predicament are readying themselves to take the streets. Spain's growth is lagging behind that of Central European countries and unemployment is at over 21 percent, the highest in the European Union. While unemployment under 25-year-olds in Spain is at a staggering 45 percent. 45 percent! That is a LOT of unhappy people, folks.

My first few days in Barcelona, I explored the city with a different slant. Walking down from the Arc de Triomf to Ciutadella Park, I witnessed a labor demonstration against the Catalan government, with blazing banners, loudhailing crowds, guards with tommyguns. Chatting up some of the protesters, I found out they were showing their discontent with some of the labor laws being proposed in Parliament today.

After all the MPs entered the building, they dispersed without any fanfare. Hum. So that's what a protest is about. It sure looks scary, but it really didn't feel so. In fact, just a few steps away, the protestors marched past a group of toddlers at play.

Scarryyy.. maybe not.

Cute! 

 I feel that there is so much information lost, from being in the moment, to written and visual media. Even an accurately captured video footage cannot convey every nuance of the atmosphere, the tone, the feelings at play. There is never a substitute for personal experience, i guess.

Anyway. Back to Barcelona. I scurried through the city with the local walking tour groups, and was lucky enough to get to know a Spanish guy from Madrid, here on vacation! That's basically the first thing i do - grab someone who speaks the local tongue (well, sort of... Barca speaks a closely related Catalonian actually). It just makes it so much easier to explore and understand the city, the culture. We managed to get a great tip on a local food joint (from an old lady, no less!).

I still count it among my favourite food experiences...Especialidade de la Casa during lunch time, a completely crowded little shop that is absolutely hidden from the masses of tourists filling the streets of Barca! In fact, it doesn't even have a signboard outside. I ordered (well, my friend helped to order - ) a sandwich: Lomo, Serrano, y Pimientos, with some Morcilla and fruity rose wine to go with it. All less than SGD10, too.

In the evening, I got to meet and know Yana's two Barca local friends, Eduard, an archaelogist, and his girlfriend, a singer. They treated me to an evening at the Poble Espanyol, admiring the musical fountain performance, Font Magica, and having an amazing Tapas dinner (at a cheap joint for students of course!), with dishes like Jamon Iberico, Tortilla espanola, Morro del Cerdo, and of course Sangria for drinks. A perfect way to spend a comfortable evening with new friends, local food and simmer in the culture. Oh, and they reminded me to grab some preserved ham for Yana, and to send their regards to her back in Munich!

Self-shot Fail. 

Sometimes I wonder why all these european friends I've met seem to hold such interesting jobs and interests. I mean, archaeologist? Singer? Not to mention: DJ, Madagascar teacher, etc, etc... Singapore's career choices seem dismally woeful by comparison. I'm pretty certain a standard of living should be measured not just by economic well-being and freedom, but also socio-cultural freedom, personal freedom. Just by being here and talking to people, I feel like i'm slowly being weaned off on my ignorance of the wider range of choices out there, be it in work or personal aspects. It's a liberating feeling... and I feel happier just by this knowledge that I can live out my life in so many, different ways.

Well, to sum up the rest of my Barca trip...i went to the beach with a couple of female couchsurfers (pictures censored), caught Messi in action at Camp Nou, hanged out with leather-clad tough bikers at the Harley Days exhibition, then took the train to Reus to meet a very, very interesting host...

But that's another story, for another time :)