I’m in a foreign country and I’m waiting for a sign

What does it mean to be in this strange land?

It means waiting 40 mins. to get to school every day. It’s about thinking of what to cook for dinner tonight,where to go this weekend, and who to spend it with. It’s about going to makeshift clubs, not knowing half of the songs, and meeting guys whose faces you won’t even remember the day after.

Living in a foreign country is about getting lost in translation each time, and not minding too much. It’s about fleeting moments at the Metro and having your heart broken by the flutter of time and distance. It’s about meeting someone special and knowing that there is a ticking clock behind that happiness, and bowing out gracefully when Fate takes its regular course.

You will meet a kaleidoscope of amazing, wonderful people and will get astounded by how personalities are crafted across cultures. You will fall in love with one, two, or three of them–maybe for the wrong reasons. But you will fall in love with their gentle accented voices, their opinions, and their utter difference to you.

Being a stranger in this land means taking chances everyday. It’s about being vulnerable and completely ignorant of all these new practices, and opening yourself to the prospect of looking like a fool. Making mistakes is a prerequisite to learning, granted, you’ll never make them again. Seeing all these new things, you’ll be swept off your feet, only to be planted straight up, and shaken back to bitter reality.

Ben Lee couldn’t have said it better: I’m in a foreign country and I’m waiting for a sign. I don’t want to be roused from this ever surreal world. I’m standing between the intersections of dreams and fantasies, and I refuse to wake up–even if staying asleep will pain me.

No regrets, just memories and a comic strip.