Strength

I need strength to keep going on with my life.

I just want...

I just want to feel belong. 

I want to heal, I want to feel, 

What I thought was never real 

I want to let go of the pain I felt so long (erase all the pain 'til it's gone) 

I want to heal, I want to feel…

Linkin Park 

Graduation!

5/15/2017

The highlight of my day, it's finally my graduation! It wasn't easy to finish your college in 3 years. Tears and sweat was paid off. 

When I first came to United States, 

I was a very timid girl. I did not have any friend or anyone to rely on. My family, friends, and everyone who supported me is back home. 

I was shy, I did not know how to approach people or talk to them. 

I was scared, to explore and get out of my comfort zone. 

I was weak, to survive the engineering world by my own. 

But I take this weaknesses as my chances to grow up, to be a better person. These three years taught me a lot. How to be brave, how to be adventurous, how to deal with myself. I started joining student councils, I started to be a leader, I started to be a teacher, and I started to be a human. I never taught that I would do all these things 5 years ago, but look at me. I made it!

Wearing this graduation gown make me realize that my journey has just begun. I need to grab as many chances I can, to be a better person that I was. 

Asia Backpacking: Singapore and Indonesia

12/25/2016
I took a bus from Johor Bahru to Singapore. Checked in my bag and waited for my friends to arrive at the airport. We visited the Merlion!
Fun Fact: A Merlion is half lion and half mermaid. It was a myth saying that it is protecting Singapore. That's the reason why Merlion is located at the end of Singapore 

Red dot museum has a collection of unique innovation from all over the world that won multiples award. All the product designs are the original design from the innovator and get commercialized on the later on. It promotes creativity and encourages people to view these products from a different perspective.

We spent few more days in Singapore and visited cool places.

Then we flew to Jogjakarta. I really wanted to visit the Borobudur temple, so I decided to visit Jogjakarta instead of Jakarta. It was super crowded, but the view is so worth it. Then we walked around Jogjakarta and experience the local attractions.

Well, that's a short trip to these two countries in a week. I had fun but I did not take a lot of pictures.

Europe backpacking - ICELAND

Hello, 

I feel like writing today. Not exactly, I feel like sharing pictures. In case anyone wonders, I did backpacking for 2 months in Europe last summer. Now I have the chance to share my journey. I took awesome pictures. 

5/17/2016

We flew from Boston to Reykajavic which is the capital city of Iceland. 

Tip 1: The exchange rate is 1 USD = 130 ISK 

The first place that we visited is their famous church called Hallgrimskirkja due to its architectural style.  

Fun Fact: Iceland is an inhabitant country, 90% of their population stays in the capital city. We camped during the whole trip with our own camping gear. 

5/19/2017

Tip 3: We rented a car from the airport. Need international licence. All the cars are using manual drive! 

Our first stop from Reykjavik is the Thingvellir National Park. The drive took about 40 minutes. This place is the plate tectonics that divide the North America and Europe continents. 

Tip 4: If you have a GPS, buy the Europe chip so that you won't have to rely on internet if there's no connection. 

After few hours spent exploring the national park, we drove to Geysir which is the active natural geysir that spouts water every few minutes. 

It was fascinating as we can experienced the water sprouts a few meters in front of us. 

Then we continue our journey to Gullfoss Waterfall. It was told that this waterfall is the most popular attraction in Iceland. 

Geysir and Gullfoss are 10 minutes away, so you won't miss the chance to visit both! 

5/20/2016

The next day, we drove to Seljalandfoss which took 1 hour and 30 minutes drive. We camped the night around the waterfall. 

Then we continue our journey to see Eujafjallajokull which means the 'island mountain glacier'. It is a volcano that is entirely covered by an ice cap and the last time it erupted was in April 2010. 

We also visited Skogafoss waterfall which is the famous waterfall from Shah Rukh Khan new movie. It was funny as we reached there, nobody was there and we had the place for ourselves. Once we were going back, people came from any side and started to crowd that place. We also did a lil bit hike here to view this waterfall from the top side. It was amazing!

Tip 5: Go to all these famous attractions early in the morning and enjoy the view all by yourself. 

 

After few hours, we drove to the famous Wrecked DC-3 Plane which landed on Solheimasandur beach 40 years ago. This attraction is famous as it crashed badly, but all the passengers survived and have been there ever since. We have to walked 2 km from the parking lot to the airplane and we did not expect any long walk. But we went through it for the sake of Iceland. Imagine that we have to walk for 4 km in total just to see this crashed airplane. Fuhh 

My favorite place in Iceland would be Dirholaey, which is a cliff 30 minutes driving from the airplane. The cliff is so amazing that all I can say is God is a wonderful creator.

Iceland is famous with its Black Sand Beach. It's so wonderful that I can experience a beach that is different from what I always see. 

As you can see, there's a cave, the opposite side of the cave is this magnificent view. The rock was natural carved to hexagonal shape die to the lava and erosion from the wave. 

5/21/2016

Skatafall was our  next destination. We hiked to see this waterfall with black basalt column. This is biggest waterfall at this destination. There were a lot of small waterfalls and we hiked to experience the nature here. 

The hiking was about 5.5 km and we can experience being in the peak of Iceland and enjoy the mountain views.
 
We travel to Jakursalon Lake, although it is summer in Iceland, the weather is still cold. We did not fully prepared for a cold weather, so we only bought our Fall jacket which was our biggest mistake. Went we reached Jakursalon Lake, we were in awe that the lake is still full of icebergs.

We drove to Dettifoss for almost 6 hours to experience the biggest power waterfall in Iceland.
5/22/2016

We stop to Namafjall before going to Godafoss which is the highlight of our nature expedition. Namfjall is a mountain ovelooking Hverir with boiling mudpots and fumaroles. We can see a lot of tourist took some muds from this place and apply on their face. I'm not sure about it effectiveness but it does sounds promising.

Our last destination before going back to Reykjavic was Godafoss waterfall. Godafoss means The Waterfalls of the Gods, and it is considered to be the most magnificent waterfalls in Iceland.
 
5/23/2016
We drove to Akureyri which is the second city in Iceland. This city is famous with their fish and seafood. At last, we managed to eat decent food after a week on camping ground and eat camping food. We spent the whole day in the city.

5/24/2016
We drove to Blue Lagoon which was the highlight of our trip. On our way, we stopped by the road to take picture here as the view was so nice and the rainbow there was perfect.

5/25/2016
We end our Iceland journey pampering ourselves in this natural hot spring.

The end. I hope that my journey can help any of you guys if you're planning to go to Iceland. This is only the first part of my summer travel, I have way more pictures to share. Just wait for it. :)

USA Backpacking - Florida

12/22/2015

The first and second day in Florida, we spent our days in Universal Studio Florida. It was awesome! I have been a fan of Universal Studio when I was a kid, and I have been to Universal Studio Singapore for three times. The reason why I love this theme park especially is because of the Harry Potter and Dr. Seuss theme. 

12/24/2015 

We drove to Miami and spent the day on the beach. 

12/25/2015 

Key West activity - Parasailing 

12/26/2015

We took a ferry to Dry Tortugas National Park from Key West port. It used to be a prison and the only way to go there is by this ferry. The ferry was about two hours from the mainland. We were able to explore the island and even snorkeling.

The package that we paid for included with snorkeling gear, so we did not need to rent any gears. Which is a plus!

12/27/2015
Everglades National Park is 5 hours from the Key West. If you would like to experience tropical life in United States, this is the place to begin with. It reminds me a lot of Malaysia

12/28/2015
Weeki Wachee river is famous with their mermaid performance. The theme park is not as big as Universal Studio, but we get to experience something that is totally different. We even had the chance to swim in the river and it was a very cool experience. It was a bummer as we did not have the chance to kayak as it was super crowded that day.

That is the end of my journey in Florida, the trip did not end yet. We still have Georgia and Tennessee!

Asia backpacking - Japan

8/11/15

Flew from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo.

1. Meiji Shrine



2. Shibuya



3. Gundam

 

8/12/2015

Took train to Ueno, visiting the outskirt of Tokyo. 

4. Ameyoko: The traditional city experience in Japan. Recommended to come here! 

5. Naritaya

8/13/2015

Mt Fuji. It was foggy this day, and we couldn't see the peak of Mount Fuji, and the person there told me the best time to experience Mt Fuji would on early February.



So we decided to go to Fuji Q instead. We chose this theme park instead of Disneyland. We even rode one of the fastest roller coaster in the world.



8/14/2017

We spent the whole day on the bus to Osaka. It took almost 8 hours. We should have taken the fastest train but we did not :(

8/15/2017

Nara Park is the the park full of dears. We can have active interactions with them. It was a unique experience.



Then we walked to Todai-Ji temple which is the most famous temple in Nara.



8/16/2015

This was a very unexpected trip. We decided to visit local attractions in Kobe. When I first arrived here, this place is not famous with tourists however, locals like to spent their time in Mount Rokko. We took a trolley to go up the mountain.
The most interesting place to visit on the mountain is their Musical Box Museum. They collected musical box from all over the world and from any era. It was so fascinating to see how music is created using mechanical tools. I even made my own musical box!
There are other activities to be done on top of the mountain too. We visited their botanical garden, and observatory.



8/17/2015

We took another train to Kyoto and explored the must visit places in Japan!

Fushimi Inari. It was a struggle to take this picture! This place was swamped with hooman!



Arasyimaya. The bamboo field.



And that's the highlight of my Japan trip. I would love to come here and explore the North side of Japan next time!

Najwa A