Crush

"Stimulation of sympathetic system causes the production of epinephrine from the adrenal medulla and prolonged activation and binding of the hormone to adrenergic receptor would elicit the effects seen in fight or flight reaction", she mumbled while writing the statements in her notes.

She flipped to a new page, gripping her pen even tighter but this time it slipped off her hand again. She frowned when she realized how sweaty her palm has become.

"In what flight or flight situation am I in right now?', she asked herself with a sigh. She pretended not to know the reason why, gently opening the zip of her bag to take a piece of tissue out of its pocket and slowly rubbing it against her hands.

It has been 21 minutes, she thought. None of the notes on the table has attracted her more than a group of seniors sitting at the table in front of her. Her eyes were constantly trying to steal a glance at one of the figures.

She stopped when she felt blood rushing to her face, slowly gasping for more air down her respiratory tract, with her heart beating fast and the lung expirate faster.

'I must have gone mad', she pulled her glance away from that person who was just having a silent conversation with one of the friends, flashing the most innocent and pure smile.

'Should I sit comfortably or cross-legged ?'

'Am I being watched?'

'I want to get noticed but I'm not confident to get noticed, am I on my right mind?'

Her mind started speaking subconsciously at a rate of 100 thoughts/ min.

She started imagining what could have happen if she was just as attractive enough to be friends with that person. Could they talk comfortably and go out very weekends for a lunch together? Can she stare at that beautiful face as long as she wishes? Can she ask everything she wanted to know about each other? What about going to the most beautiful park, walking several rounds for some pretty shots together? Does she have to split bills for all the fun? She quickly brushed that one off, gladly convincing herself that she would do so as long as they're both happy. 

I'd give all I have to own that smile, she thought.

She raised her head once again and her eyes met with that person. 

"Gulp", she choked but her eyes were still fixed on the others. It was a gentle 1 second before that person pulled the gaze away first. She was still in shock but she tried to breath normally again.

'What was that? This is not happening. It's so embarrassing', she immersed her head under her papers. Her face has gone absolutely red. She felt hot and shaking. She could feel that other people in the library must have noticed her being weird so she slowly went back to her posture. 

She can't seem to forget the sweet gesture and charisma flowing through that figure. The image of all Hollywood's sweetheart heartthrob started crossing her mind but none match the beauty of that person sitting before her. Not even Chris Hemsworth. She lifted her head up again and realized that the person has left with the friends. 

'Ouh', she sighed.

And at the same time, she was also relieved. 

She started noticing other things in the library as she got back into reality.

Most of the tables are occupied with people who are engrossed into discussions, some of others are silently typing on their keyboards, looking serious while browsing through thousand of words on the laptop screen. 

She looked at the time on the wall and realized she was almost late for her next class. Packing up her stuff, she glanced back at the table in front of her before carrying her items out of the library. She walked hastily to the elevator and tried to get her conscience back. 

The initial plan to revise on her notes was ruined and she felt even more devastated that it's not even the first time it has happened. 

Her best friend once said, "sometimes, we confused our mind with the feeling of love over admiration. The person probably have a characteristic that we like and that explains the reason for getting so attracted to them. We haven't got to see more people in this world yet. It's fair to give our hearts a rest before it founds its true love, shall we?" 

'Crush? Probably not', she affirmed.

The elevator's door opened and there she goes again, hot and shaking but she still dragged her weakened limbs into the elevator.

Her heart went pit-a-pat again and her face blushed a sweet red colour. She idly fidgeted her fingers with her eyes pinned down on the elevator's doors. 

"Hey, urm.."

She turned around to the source of the voice and finally, looking at that beautiful face again although she had to crane her face upward to meet the eyes of the tall figure. She stunted and was a bit confused too.  Her mouth was closely shut, completely numb. 

"I just noticed you around.."

She listened to the words closely.

"Have you ever imagined your crush listening to your mind?"

Her face turned pale. With her frozen body, she wouldn't even blink once and tried to digest the current situation. 

"So you're saying that I'm a better looking than Chris Hemsworth?" The person smiled bashfully. "That would be a too masculine comparison for me, don't you think?" The person continued. "I don't even have facial hair", this time it came with a giggle.

The girl or the person who she thought was a boy looked at her with a grin, showing off half of the perfect teeth.

'I'm definitely out of my mind, am I? She even read minds?!' Her mind speaks up for her frozen lips while looking at the person before her. Right at that time, "Ting!", the elevator opened and she slowly slid backward and out of the elevator. 

The elevator was about to close before she saw the girl nodding while waving, she was still smiling bashfully.

From that day onwards, she never met her crush again. 

The rest was history.

Trip to Japan (Day 3-8)

I sort of celebrated my new year 2018 in Japan with my sister and a friend, Ali and I could say that the trip turned out a lil challenging but it has been fantastic! We went for the 8 days trip from 11-18th January, planning to discover the places in Kyoto, Nara, Kobe and Osaka. Ali was the mastermind for the itinerary planning so he deserves all the credits for his effort and eagerness even months before the trip had actually happen.

Also, I've been pushing the progress of writing this post from one weekends to another because I have been too busy burying myself under piles of medical notes and thousand terms to memorize while procrastinating- which actually makes my life even more more miserable so I'd like to say sorry to myself and to my precious blog for not updating beautiful moments in my life routinely :(

Anyway...

Back to the story beforeIsuddenlywentintounnecessaryrants,

We decided that the highlights of our trip would be Universal Studio Osaka and ice skating at Mount Rokko, thus allocating 2 full days for those occasions respectively. I still can't get over the excitement we all had and already missing the entire moment we were there :')

Day 3- Osaka Amazing Pass

We bought the pass from a tourist information centre at Osaka Station for 2500 yen/1 day and the pass includes free access to several interesting places around Osaka. We tried our best to rush for every places but we only managed to tick off Tombori River Cruise, Osaka Castle, HEP5 and Umeda Sky Building.

Day 4- Mount Rokko Kobe

This is the one of the most exciting parts of this trip because I've always wanted to ice ski so badly and when this day came, I get to take ice skiing off my life bucket list. Basically, we had to pay around 2000 yen to ride on the train moving up the mountain and including a bus after which brought us to several other free access places along the way up such us Musical Box Museum and Snow Park. When we reached the skiing spot, we went to rent all the skiing equipments for around 3500 yen and immediately get changed to a proper outfit. Skiing was extremely fun but frustrating at first for a beginner. We kept stumbling and fell down the slope due to zero knowledge on the basic skills. Luckily, some Malaysian students and their French friends spotted us and were nice enough to assist on some of the important techniques of skiing so that at least we could ski down the slope and do the same routine over and over again. It was definitely the coolest thing I've done so far.

Day 5- Universal Studio Osaka, Japan. 

The most anticipated day came out quite sunny and less freezing than any other days. We set out early to reach Osaka and reach there at the same time USS opened. As we have bought our ticket pass at the airport on our first day there, we skipped the queueing part and went straight for the thrills and fun. The difference between the Studio in Singapore and Japan is the additional Harry Potter World in Japan which is pretty cool for a lowkey Potter-head like me. It was also funny that almost all the characters there were talking in Japanese instead of English, even Hermione and the Spiderman !

                                              

Day 6- Fushimi Inari Taisha, Yasaka Shrine and Gion.

Our cultural visit continues until the 6th day as we visited some of the famous temple near Kyoto Area, took several marvellous photos, walked around Gion to taste the finest matcha ice cream and Udon in Osaka (which is the hardest to find because we had to make sure if it's really halal to eat).

Scenes at Fushimi Inari Taisha

Yasaka Shrine

Gion !

Day 7- Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, Nijo-Jo Castle and Kiyomizu-Dera.

We considered our 7th day as the last moment we had in Japan due to early flight on the 8th, therefore we went all out to find some souvenirs for our family and friends and of course, good photos !
Unfortunately, the day started raining as soon as we left the house until the rest of our trip so you'll see a lot of our photos with raining coat and umbrella but despite that, we enjoyed the view and memories we had here.

Arashiyama Bamboo Forest

Nijo-Jo Castle

Kiyomizu-Dera

Day 8- Home !

We left early after Subuh prayer because the distance from Tambaguchi to Kansai International Airport is quite far by 2 hours and by the time we were there, we thought we had some spared time to walk around for more souvenirs but when the time came for us to get on board, the officers told us that we were late by 20 minutes. We rechecked our ticket and realized that the time has been changed. Luckily, AirAsiaX was nice enough to cater problematic kids like us so they made us run through the airport to reach the plane. Everything was so haywire and to make things worst, my Note 5 slipped out of my pocket and hit the floor. I didn't realize that until I saw my phone doing a triple rolls on the floor and the screen was in utter blank when I picked it up. I continued running and got on our seats in the plane to check that my phone has really passed away :( 

Overall, I really enjoyed my Japan Trip although we didn't get to explore Tokyo and generally the eastern Japan because of our tight budget but we vowed to work hard and gain more money so we can come back to Japan in the future for more memories and new knowledge. The weather was so cold and I have started to miss my clear and smooth skin while we were there hahaha. Hoping to share more travel stories on this blog ! xo

Trip to Japan (Day 1-2) | Exploring Tambaguchi, Nara Deer Park, Harukas 300, Nipponbashi Den Den Town & Dotonbori.

I've never experience travelling on my own in my entire 19 years of living until recently when my sister and her friend planned to explore Japan. The plan was between the three of us and several money spared from whichever source we could dig, mainly our bank accounts :')

Day 1
We touched down at Kansai International Airport after 5 hours flight journey, picked up our luggage and went straight to a telecommunication centre to buy a portable wifi. It costs 4500 yen which is quite expensive as we're only going to stay for 8 days so we decided to split among us three.

We also bought an unlimited 5-day pass for Nankai train and subway and Universal Studio Japan immediately at the tourist counter before making our way to our airbnb house at Tambaguchi. My first time being on The Land of The Rising Sun during it's winter season, I was shivering so badly and could hardly adapt fast. With my shaky body and trembling hands, we walked for another 1.5 KM to reach our small crib.

Upon checking in, we hastily looked for the heater and hot blanket to immediately warm the whole house. We were literally freezing with our numb hands and everything that we touch feels like slicing through our skin- even when we're already in the house but yeah, our heater took a lot of time to get heated up. The first day was all about exploring so that night, we went out to walk around the area and to 7eleven for dinner.

Day 2

Our first journey was about to be so amaaaaazing. No morning was early for us to wake up for a train ride to Nara Deer Park in which we could even make time to get new friend from Miami. He's a freelance artist who is on a solo vacation to Kyoto and Tokyo for 2 weeks before heading back to work. We talked about a lot of things including his fascinating experience going to other places in the world and he even said that me and my sister look like twins! I can't recall his name because it was a bit peculiar but I do feel miserable for losing contact with this wonderful man. 

Back to the story, we reached the park when the sun was shining so nicely and winter wind are blowing quite gently and that's when we knew that the deers that we've been anticipating to meet are EVERYWHERE IN NARA ! At first, we thought the deers would be staying at one place probably within the parameter of fence but we were wrong. They are indeed harmless but my first approach with them weren't really sweet - they sniffed my body and grabbed anything in my coat pocket with their mouth and swallow them straight down their throat and that time, it was my tissue. Can you imagine how freaking scared I was? But all was good. They are so cute. There were several stalls selling cookies that the deers love for 100 yen so we can feed the deers while walking around the park to other attraction sites like some of the temples and museums. A friendly warning here: feeding a deer would draw attention from other deer as well so you might end up getting swarmed by 10 deers at one time so I think it's better to feed a solo deer rather than a group of them.

While in the park, we walked into Todaiji temple and its museum. It was my first time stepping into a temple solely to appreciate their culture and practice. I get to learn a few things from my observations but it would've been a better experience to have english translations for every sculpture and architecture displayed in the temple :')

After having our home-cooked lunch on a public bench, we continued our journey to Harukas 300- an observatory roof garden on top of the skycrapper, Abeno Harukas in which we gained a wide view of developmental area of Osaka City. The view was stunning and on top of all, entry to that place is free. I bet if winter weren't too freezing, I would 100% sure to stay there for more beautiful photos.

It gets dark earlier during winter- 5PM. During the evening, we went to Nipponbashi Den Den Town where the anime geeks assemble for their favourite anime items such as figurines, comics and games, before heading to Dotonbori after that. Dotonbori is basically a place for night walk with vendors selling hot Takoyaki, udon and other Osaka hot menu for tourists.