till the work be done.

my hands have never been so dirty and oily before.

my hands have never been so dry and rough before.

my hands have never been so full of cuts and bruises before.

these thoughts came to me when i looked at my hands while washing the dishes, and just suddenly made me so emotional and stressed. other negative thoughts started flooding my mind, like 'this is not what i wanted', 'why am i doing this?', 'i could have been lazing around somewhere', 'i wish i could just give everything up and disappear'... and i swear i just wanted to break down in tears immediately.

but hey, guess what? i'm no longer such a baby - i didn't cry and neither did i complain! over the past 2 months, i've been working almost everyday without any break at all and all my daily routines are messed up. i spend almost all my waking hours at work and hardly have any time for myself or my family or my friends. i'm always so tired and sleepy, sometimes to the extent that i could just faint. but things arent working out too well yet at the moment so i'll be strong and continue doing what i have to do and hopefully everything will be fine!

unity.

it's amazing to see how united our people are, and how powerful our people can be through what my parents call an 'once-in-a-lifetime event' which happened today - a state funeral. 

having heard my parents' stories of how the whole nation cried over Uncle Ho's death about 40 years ago, i've always wished i had been born a bit earlier or i had a time machine to travel back to the past to feel that kind of patriotism because hearing stories is simply not satisfying enough. and my wish kind of came true today because i've seen with my own eyes how millions of people from all over the country gathered from 5 am and waited for hours just to bid farewell to a man whom they might not have met before but consider their hero. i guess this kind of events don't happen often, and it just makes me so proud of our history!

i love reading about history, especially vietnamese history. and today i realised i've witnessed a very historic event which will be taught to future generations in history lessons at school. i'm thankful to be back here at the right time to be part of history! (: