Merhaba! It's been a long time since i planned to publish this article that I wrote about 5 months ago. and just now it came to my mind
I
have been involving in the cyber world since a very young age, 8. I’m enjoying
myself on internet by joining the penpal sites since I love to get know people
from every nook of the world.By befriending with them, I could wider my mind
withsort of knowledges especially aboutdifferent cultures, religions
and languages, which I loved most :D . Besides , I realized my English is improving little by little eventhough Im still not a good English speaker and writer. I also got chances to learn other languages such as Arabic, which should be my 3rd
language, Spanish, Japanese , Turkish and so on.
I
have a lot of besties from Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, Russia, France , Finland,
Saudi Arabia and many more countries. Internet is not the only medium for us to keep in touch, since we do snailmailing for several times! We used to
swap the coins, stickers, keychain, postcards and even hijab! Eventhough some
people might think the hobby im having is quite bored n childish?,im still attaching on it.
Since I was in primary schooI, I kept dreaming to visit my penpals in
their own countries and sleepover etc in their houses for some time. I really want to experience real life of the local people Until 2010, my dream became reality. I visited
Egypt for weeks and visit 2 of my
penpals in Cairo. One of them , named Arwa is a young British Egyptian
journalist. It was a coincidence that she was in Cairo since she is living in
Manchester, UK with her family. Another friend named Bardise, she came to my
aunt’s house in Cairo with her sister.We met in the last 4 hours before I left
Egypt! Eventhough I didn’t get the chances to spend more time with them I’m still
feeling so grateful because got the chances to meet them face to face. I was like,
LIVE! It’s a reality! Haha because before that I just ‘met’ them online.
One
of the best penpals I ever had since I was 12 is Muath. He is a 23 year old boy
from Baghdad , Iraq. I knew him from a penpal site and at that time, he
was only 17 year old. He is very kind
and open-minded person. We had many
issues to talk about , about our families, life as a Malaysian-Iraqian,
education systems in Malaysia-Iraq and had never get into nonsence issues as
some people might do. As time passing by, we had lost contact for almost 2
years. One day, I checked my email and was shocked to notice an email from him
in my inbox. In that email, he told me that he was just started his study in my beloved country,
Malaysia and still learning Malay
language . His family left Iraq and they are now living in Muscat, Oman because
of the bad conditions occurred in some parts in Iraq. Until that time, he was
studying in International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) for Bachelor of
Electrical Engineering (around 5 years)
and can speak Malay-Indo better than I am! But unfortunately, during that
5 years, we had never met even once! I don’t know why, I just can , but at that
time I felt bit shy to tell my brothers and sisters if I meet my friend who is
a boy. And now I felt bit regret :P lol no lah. Nothing could be done.Let
bygone be bygone.And what glad me most is he told me that he had planned to
pursue his Master Degree in my own university, University Putra Malaysia (UPM)
since the university is one of the best research university in Malaysia.I was
like WOW. Because we had known each other from a penpal site since 6 years ago,
and now we are going to struggle for studying under the same school!
Before I left UPM , I had spent much time
in the administration offices to settle with my application to leave the
university. And believe it or not, when I was at the office, I saw a foreign guy who was sitting on the chair, waiting for his turn to get to the payment
counter. My sister told me, "Aah, look! he looks like your Iraqi friend, Muath" .
I look for a glance and then left because I was in hurry, without remembering that he will pursue his study there .
And days after that, I saw him online and
he told me that he had enrolled in UPM since a week ago. Then I just remembered
about the Arab looking guy that I met at the office days ago, I asked him
whether he went there on that day, and his answer was yes. I was like.whaaat Im really sure that was him! Finally I met him but unexpectedly and didn’t
even get chances to talk and even say a salam.So days before I left Malaysia, we
planned to meet incase, in the next summer holiday I will be in Malaysia and he
will return to Oman. Again unfortunately, I had another stuffs to be settled
and we didn’t meet until I put my last step in my homeland. Insallah maybe
another time we will have the chances to meet and share our experiences after
long-term friendship. I just wanna share this experiences because for me its amazing coz full of coincidences :D
12.33 am
14 February
My beloved house, EMEK, ANKARA
