It constantly amazes me how the odd little "catch-ups" with friends from your previous schools can bring back such peculiar and wonderful memories, and how events that you vowed never to speak of again, are brought into the conversation and what once seemed to be uneventful and disastrous now seems pretty darn funny.

Lunch at a quaint little cafe near our homes with JL and DL. Unsurprisingly, the only two friends I manage to keep up with from my old secondary school class are these 2 wonderful people and even though we haven't spoken to each other in months, its peculiar how we have so much things to talk about, what with our new and ever-changing lives.

I'm still enmeshed in a state of denial with regards to the start of the school, which is odd because before I flew to Nepal, I positively could not wait for school to start. But now after spending 2 glorious weeks baking under the sun and shivering in the cold in the Himalayas and opening my eyes to a plethora of mystical wonders that the rest of my family can only dream of, I now want nothing to do but travel, travel and travel.

With nothing but a camera, pen and a notebook.

Of course, this might just be a temporary phase in life. Maybe when I'm trapped in a sea of school assignments and projects, all thoughts of traveling would cease for the next 5 months as I struggle to raise my CGPA.

Another interesting thing I've come to note is how many people turning 21 this year are throwing birthday bashes to celebrate this social milestone. Why, in the 1st week of January, acquaintances and friends have electronically invited me to their 21st "birthday bash" to commemorate the commencement of their adulthood.

My questions is, what is it with people and the need to throw elaborate, attention-grabbing birthday parties when you're turning 21? Its just a day when we turn a year older, isn't it? Obviously its just a social custom that's been blown into elaborate proportions that has become highly commercialized as some individual compete and see whose party is the most elfin' big one amongst their friends. However, I still do understand that it is an incredibly significant day for young adults like us, keen on roping in much more taxing responsibilities in life and relinquishing themselves from the unpleasant memories of their childhood.

Or maybe I'm speaking from a biased perspective, seeing as how majority of my birthdays are spent at home with but a simple cake. And how I positively hated my primary and secondary school experiences.

Wouldn't it be nice to spend my birthday away in a foreign land, dwelling in the anonymity of a tourist while I'm out and about strolling the streets of Venezuela or nibbling pastries in Sicily?