I think most people know by now, but in any case, I’m home! I’ve been back for about 2 weeks now actually, and I’ve just been spending time at home and chilling with my family because I start my internship the week after next.

It was so much fun, surprising my family by coming home earlier. I was only supposed to be back last Wednesday and stay in Philly a little longer to relax and attend the commencement ceremony, but because my summer job was going to start on the 30th, I thought I’d like some extra time back at home. So, I skipped some meals and forked out a couple hundred dollars to change my flight details. And it was so worth it!

At first, I was really worried it wouldn’t work out because the flight was going to be so longggg and I knew for sure that my parents would be really curious if I wasn’t replying their texts for hours. I mean, so much planning went into this. I even called Qatar Airways to ask if the specific flight I was going to be on would have wifi even though I knew it would cost like $30 (the answer was no). I told my sister Aida about it when she visited me earlier this semester because she’d be in London and wouldn’t really be surprised by my coming home early, and we talked about how she’s going to help cover for me.

My parents did eventually pick up on the fact that I wasn’t replying texts of course, and they even texted my friend Shahirah about it. Sha naturally freaked out, but luckily she kept her cool and didn’t blow my cover. My friend Abrar kindly agreed to pick me up from the airport and I feel so grateful because he had to drive all the way to Sepang from work but it was so nice to see a familiar face and not have to get a taxi when I’m back in my own country. So thankful for the help of these two, really!!

Then, when I was close to my house, I called my sister Julia to get her to open the door for me—she was really confused and shocked. I wish I could’ve properly surprised her too but I didn’t have a house key and I had the idea of surprising my parents in their room for months, and I wasn’t ready to let it go. Also, it was a pretty good idea because she got to film their reaction.

Seriously, when my parents were pissed at me for being AWOL on whatsapp, I was so nearly ready to give up and go like “lol i’m in Doha see u later” but I really really didn’t want to let go of that vision I had. And people ask me, “what if they weren’t home?” or “what if they weren’t in their room?” and to that I say, I don’t know, I just knew they would be. Haha. They were so surprised, it took them at least a good 2 seconds to process it. It was AMAZING. I’m so proud of it. I want to put it on my resume.

But yeah, we just spent the rest of that night chilling. And oh my god, I actually did not experience any jet lag this time around which was great! I was so tired and slept so little throughout the journey that I guess when I got back, I just slept through the night normally because I was so tired. I had to stay in my sister’s room for the whole of last week though because I wasn’t supposed to be home and the plumbers were fixing my room and it was really dirty. I’ve just only moved back into my room and fully unpacked yesterday. I actually haven’t done much or gone out a lot, just mostly goyang kaki as they say, at home.

As I’m writing this, I am really supposed to be asleep because we’re going to Melaka bright and early tomorrow. In fact, I think, so early that it won’t even be bright yet. But I took a precariously long nap this afternoon for some reason and so obviously I’m wide awake. I’m hoping to make a Melaka video tomorrow like the Philadelphia one I made a few weeks back (link here if you wanna see it!) and I’m really excited because I feel like it’s my new hobby… or it could be, I guess, because I’m not quite good at it yet. But that’s all for now! Until next week maybe???? (I don’t know. Not being on a school schedule makes me so unaware of the time.)