Preview: "Look Into The Lights"

To Be Honest, This Is What

Dear Friends,
          With what has been a very productive summer half over, my mind has begun to shift its attention to what lies ahead in the semester to come. Now typically any kind of anticipatory emotion for the upcoming year wouldn't be considered blogworthy material for me, so here's the explanation and big public announcement: 

I'm going to be studying at Waseda University in Tokyo for a year!

           The past year has admittedly been an exceptionally busy, exhausting, and frustrating experience, but it has all paid off. To answer the obvious question "Why Japan?", it has sort of always been a backburner dream of mine to spend a part of my life there. I've always felt very connected to my mother's homeland despite being raised exclusively in Thailand. In fact, 20 years and countless cultural collisions later, I've learned to embrace that I, Mika, will just never be fully Thai. And that's cool. In addition, I've also realized that despite my less than perfect mastery of all things Japanese, there has always been and will always be an inherently Japanese catch about me. And that's really cool.

          For the lack of a better expression, I'm HELLA excited about the near future. Not only about being immersed in the environment (c'mon that's just too obvious) but, believe it or not, studying there. I'm honestly excited about the kind of dedicated learning culture I can expect from my professors and peers at Waseda. I feel a bit guilty for saying so, but it's been a while since I've been externally motivated. The second thing I'm absolutely stoked about is being new. Almost contradictory to my introverted personality, I've always enjoyed freshmen years more than the others. I feel like September 2013 - August 2014 is going to be just like another freshmen year for me. I may not be the most social person in the world, but I embrace adventures, invitations, and challenges. These things are HANDED to you when you're new. When you've been somewhere for so long (try 2 decades), it comes to the point that you have to make the efforts to FIND adventures, invitations, and challenges. Not saying that's bad or impossible, just often we lose the time and energy. Hey, we're not teenagers anymore. 

          The last thing I'm really looking forward to is finally getting to live on my own. I've been extremely blessed with loving and caring parents, and so I've been cursed with my relentless penchant for independence. I can't wait to move in to my own place, and then move in and out of it day after day according to my will. 
           So that's what's up with me at this point in my life. Just wanted to give you all a head's up that I'll be blogging from a new base for a year, starting September. Please keep in touch or just keep reading my blog and not tell me that you are...            

          

Peace.

- Meeks =]

Mobile Post: "Warrior Princess in the Garden"

Wow, this is the first time I am attempting to blog from my phone. Sometimes I can't believe where we've arrived with technology.

Anyways, in real time, I am on my way to eat a fancy Mediterranean lunch at the Le Meridien, located on Surawongse. Now I didn't wake up this morning and declare: "I'm going to be Pocahontas today!" - I'm not that inspired - but my look just came together that way. Must be my recent tan, newly dyed black hair, and this new turquoise "warrior princess" necklace I got from Richelle. Which altogether gave me a reason to camwhore this morning (aren't we always searching for one?). Here is testimony to my dorkiness... Ran outside barefoot (because putting on sandals is apparently too time consuming) to take pictures with the plants in my garden. Just to be "more Pocahontas". I smiled in the first picture because that is my natural habit, but then I realized Pocahontas doesn't really smile. She's got this sultry, ultra-sexy serious face. So, I tried to mimic that... In my garden alone. And not really alone because my neighbor was literally 3 feet away from me in his garage. Good morning, sir.  =]

New Childish Hobby #perlerbeads

Let's just say one of the digits in my age is entirely irrelevant.

And my partner in crime has returned to Bangkok after a year and a half:

No Middle Ground

          Three days before Clinton's graduation, the We Love Bankruptcy crew (there are only 3 of us) reunited at Namwan's for lunch and a Hannibal marathon. Well, it was originally planned out simple like that, but we ended up consuming hours by watching funny stuff on Youtube and our now favorite Pirate Radio too. It should also be mentioned that we spent a significant amount of the day indulging on imported chocolates, cuddling with Namwan's stuffed animal friends, and talking about our feels and the future - wow that sounded so girly... But okay, perhaps that was a very one sided description. We were watching Hannibal after all. And to clarify, we greatly admire the title character, a disturbing fact which led us to Googling "psychopathic traits" after there were no more episodes left to watch. In case you are curious, here's what we looked at:

If my memory serves me correct, we also crossed-referenced psychopathic traits with "professions". It was found then that I am most likely to be a psychopath out of the three of us... go figure. As with the stuffed animals, I have to note how misplaced they seemed in a room with metal band posters on the walls, screamo/rock music as ambiance, and three kids who look very questionable if seen outside together. And it so happens that Namwan, besides being into rock concerts, piercings, and shaving her head, is really talented at making cupcakes and has a stockpile of exotic chocolates. It also so happens that Clinton and I are talented at appreciating cupcakes and chocolates...
           The simple point I am trying to communicate is that the three of us are just very strange individuals. But that makes us so compatible as friends. We are actually very different if you take a step back and examine. We don't have the exact same music tastes. We each have a different preference for cute animal characters. We excel at different things. We look nothing like each other. We don't all have the same chances of being a psychopath - ha! But it's the commonality of being quirky and not what society expects that brings us together to celebrate cannibalistic entertainment, soft plush toys, and no middle ground. 

And now I hand it over to photography:

This is what I call Yin Yang.

Three's a party.

Party Playlist

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other.jpeg
^actual file name

No party is complete without a Totoro, right?