Proud to Be Malaysian?

I have been attending university in the United States of America since August of 2007 and this is my first time back in Malaysia since I left. I leave again in four days, which explains my frantic attempt to bring as much of Malaysia with me as I possibly can. As I shove packets of Mee Maggie(Asam Laksa Flavour) and Kuih Bahulu into my luggage, my mind starts to wander and I find myself thinking: What are Malaysians most proud of? What do we think makes our country special and different?

It is no secret that we have our fair share of political strife, crime and violence, as well as economic struggles -- just like any other country. However, I am confident that there is a lot that we can be thankful for that sets us apart from the rest of the world.

Since I take my responsibility as a Malaysian very seriously, I feel it is my civic duty to act as an unofficial ambassador of Malaysia. So, I love sharing stories about our cultures and traditions to people from other parts of the world -- although I must admit it is hard to explain things like what durian tastes like and how we manage to speak Manglish so fluently!

Here are the two things I ALWAYS mention when talking about Malaysia:

• Proud to be Malaysian! = Proud to have amazing food!

Any Malaysian who has been away for a great length of time will tell you that they miss the "makan". From the moment I left the airport, I feel like I have been on a 'seefood' diet. Where I eat everything I see! Whether it be Chinese, Malay or Indian, I felt compelled to taste as much as possible.

• Proud to be Malaysian! = Proud to be able to speak Manglish!

As I was busy stuffing my face, I realized that my friends gathered around me were Chinese, Malay and Indian as well, which made our discussions all the more interesting. As is commonly heard, our conversations were along the lines of: Aiyo, I so tired until mau pengsan la!


As I prepare to leave Malaysia again, I run through the images in my mind indexing the interesting anecdotes that I will soon share with my friends at college. I know there are many college students out there who are planning to further their tertiary education in foreign countries as well.
I am curious to know: What would YOU highlight about Malaysia? What stories would you tell?


Leave a comment!


To all Malaysians: Take it from me, the "makan" here is still the best! ;-)

Fight the current OR go with the flow?

"There are more than 100 million blogs in the world, with about 15 million of them active" - Sarah Boxer, The New York Review of Books.

It was probably a little geeky to start of with a quote but I thought it was rather thought provoking. See, this blog of mine has been one of the 85 million that have been inactive (i.e. dead), taking up all that internet space/URLs or whatever it is useless blogs take up!

I've been back in Malaysia for bout 2 weeks now and found out that practically everyone and their mom has a blog now (MY mom hasn't admitted to having one, but you never know)! My sis, bro, cousins, friends blog...blog...blog...

I will admit that there are certain informative blogs out there that have provided me with much solutions to petty day-to-day problems. My question is: Do we really need to be updated everytime one of our friends decides to try a new drink at the local coffeeshop or discovers he/she can roll his/her tongue???

Plus, I might just be paranoid but do you really want complete strangers reading about your personal life - schedules, loved ones, irritable bowel movements?

But then again with social networks like Facebook, Friendster and whatever else is out there, we (meaning teenagers and the computer savvy) willingly broadcast our life whether people give a crap about it or not.

So...
I truly welcome comments on this post. Your opinions will determine whether or not this blog will be "revived" from its long loooong slumber. Do you suggest I be 'alternative' and delete this blog OR go with the blogging trend and entertain you with my life stories?

To all bloggers: Blog safe! Blog interesting!
=)

PS: Here's the link to the article in the NYRoB (where I got the quote)
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21013