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A guide to applying for Standard Visa to UK for Cambodian Passport

Hello guys! Long time no see and yes I have been doing other stuff in my life and I nearly forgot that I, myself, have a blog. Since I could not concentrate on my study anymore. I have to be at least more productive than sitting around watching Douyin and Movies. To make myself less guilty, today I’m going to explain or guide you in applying for a UK tourist visa on your own. I heard a lot of people said that they don’t know where to begin and rather spend money on agency for them to prepare all the documents but to me I think it is a waste of money on top of the visa and biometric fee and you will forever rely on someone else to do it for you when you can just do it on your own.

Without further ado, let me walk you through the process and what are the supporting documents that you need and how to increase your chance of getting the visa from a less powerful passport like Cambodia. I hope that the tips will work for you guys. 

Step-by-step guide on how to apply for the standard visa 

  1. Create your own account via this link https://www.gov.uk/standard-visitor/apply-standard-visitor-visa 
  2. Click on the apply now and fill the forms as details as possible, you can still come back and edit later by clicking save and send the link to your email, so that you can go back and forth whenever you have time to fill the forms
  3. Pay 126 USD for the visa fee after completing the form
  4. Book appointment for biometric collection and pay around 70 USD 
  5. Attach all the required documents in pdf file: after the appointment was booked, there will be an email send to you on what to do next which required you to attached the supporting documents 
  6. Go to your visa application centre for biometric collection: all you need to bring is your passport
  7. Wait for the email informing you to collect the passport (around1 and a half month) 
  8. Collect your passport on the exact date and time, if not, you will need to wait for another day to get it. Check the passport collection day via this link https://visa.vfsglobal.com/khm/en/dnk/attend-centre/Phnom-Penh 

Supporting documents that you need to upload 

Some of these might not be compulsory but I still recommend you guys to upload them if possible. All the documents should be in english and original color.

  • Copy of passport
  • Certificate of Employment or Certificate of Enrollment if you are a student
  • Copy of National ID card 
  • Travel Itinerary 
  • Statement of Purpose  
  • Flight Reservation 
  • Hotel Reservation 
  • Bank Statement for the last 3 months
  • Collateral or saving accounts 
  • Passport Stamps to showcase your travel history

Increase the chance of getting the visa 

  • Build up your passport before applying to UK 

I strongly believe this is very important for a less powerful passport like Cambodia to build up the travel experience to many places before deciding to apply for the UK visa. Why would I say that? Well, from the immigration officer’s perspective, someone from a developing country applying for a tourist visa while having no travel experience to other countries before would sound suspicious. It could scream a red flag and when your visa is rejected, it will be recorded in the system which mean when you apply for the second time, it could affect the pass rate of the visa and in the completion form, there will be a question “if your visa has been rejected by any country before?”. Therefore, I suggest you travel to a neighboring country first. For example, I would go to Thailand and Vietnam first in one year and the next year would be Singapore and Malaysia. Then maybe Indonesia for Bali and then Japan, South Korea and  Taiwan next. 

  • Build up your bank statement in the last 3 months in a normal pace 

The problem about the majority of people that fail the visa is due to the fact that they try to deposit the money into their bank account to show that they have enough financial support to support themselves while traveling. However, the mistake they made is that they deposited it in the lump sum amount which from the officer’s point of view is quite suspect. My suggestion would be if you are planning to apply for the visa, you can try to deposit the money one step at a time. I believe 10,000 USD is enough for a one week trip. 

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Experiences of One Semester in Singapore

I cannot say for a certain that the National University of Singapore has always been my dream university but what I can say is that I was inspired by my sister who was here on an exchange program for one semester. I have always admired the university life that many people go through by living on campus with such a dynamic culture.

With a blink of an eye, a few months have passed already. As I reflect back on the old memories that are still so fresh, from the moment I landed at Changi Airport to stepping my foot on Residential College 4. I have known that my new chapter has just begun and this journey would be a wild ride.

Learning Experience in the Host Country 

At first glance, I did not notice many differences between Cambodia and Singapore due to the same weather and Asian faces that are quite familiar to me. With such a diverse culture, Singapore can offer me a variety of different things in terms of foods, cultures, traditions, and environment. For instance, I can still find foods that are taste nearly the same as my home country. Therefore, this environment offers a convenient way for me to adapt well and slowly turn into a second home. 

However, to say that Cambodia and Singapore have no drastic difference would be an understatement. As one of the leading Asian countries in the world, Singapore has prepared itself to compete in international standards especially in the field of education where I have the opportunity to experience and immerse myself. First of all, university life is completely different from Cambodia. With the residential colleges and halls where students are packed in one building together, this dynamic element forms a close-knit friendship and lively community such as Interest Group, Inter-house game, Tealsday, etc. In my university, we do not get the chance to experience this where students mostly go to class for studying and come back home. There is no strong bond of a community like the one in NUS. Moreover, the system which students in my home university experience are to go to lecture and taking notes while in NUS focuses more on independence and self-studying. One of the interesting things about NUS is the bell curve system which is more about competitiveness where students compete with each other to be at the top of the class.

Personal and Leadership Development 

Throughout this whole journey, I feel myself become more independent and mature as time goes by. To begin, I did not expect to learn that much in such a short amount of time. During my community service, I was able to volunteer for the physically disabled people with i.Volunteer that is under NUS Red Cross where we went out to interact with disabled people. However, the interesting fact about this volunteer is that it focused on raising awareness to youths in society. On that day, I was able to learn the basic sign languages, listened to their stories, and experienced the incredible moment of dining in the dark where I got to go through the struggle of navigating through daily life from the perspective of physically disabled people. Something so normal to the point that all of us including me take for granted. After this insightful experience, I started to appreciate my eyesight and aware of the good things that happened in my life more. Moreover, I feel more empathy and the need to help or assist disabled people especially during waiting for MRT or at the bus station. Besides community services, I got to do some researches on social enterprise to prepare for the workshop and stumble upon the teashop which hired deaf people. This kind of social enterprise makes me learn that with our heart to help, we can contribute back to society and still make a living. Besides, I also applied an Australian visa on my own by preparing all the documents which something I would never do in Cambodia because it was out of my comfort zone. When I was in Phnom Penh, I could not find the purpose or the spark in myself. Therefore, life in Singapore was full of opportunities and chances for exploration.

All of these are positive ways of learning but I also faced some struggles that push me to be more responsible and independent. My laptop broke down in the middle of the semester, my student card failed, got lost in the city, and walked in the street at 1 am in the morning without a bus. All of these seemed to be intimidated but I have overcome it on my own, something that I would not have learned if staying in Cambodia, a comfort zone where I called home for the last 19 years. Academically, NUS has taught me to immerse myself in the study and not just going to lecture and taking notes but be in the classroom and share ideas with each other. Every time I come back from the tutorial, I learn new ideas that were shared among such a diverse background of students from different perspectives who bring out their ideas to the table. Additionally, with the help from professors, I learn how to think critically about what I read and not just memorized the information.  

Final Words

The idea of going back home is both sad and happy. The sad thing is to say goodbye to my faculty, and people who I meet every single day for a meal. I wish that I could able to interact more often with the locals through TF LEaRN program by including the buddies system. An exchange program is a one-time experience especially in the university because it teaches me to be better of myself and to see the world through another lens. It teaches the most important thing which is time is short but if we get out there, there is always something we can learn from.

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Book Review: The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System

Today, I want to introduce you guys to another Chinese BL novel that I just completed as well and I know it is a little bit unhealthy to consume so much BL novels in a short period. Anyway, this book comes from the same author of Mo Dao Zu Shi or Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation and Heaven Official’s Blessing which I really like since her books focus more on the development of the characters rather than the smudge senses (ofc if u want, can find it on the extra chapters).

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System has a different tone than the other two novels of hers. It is more light-hearted from the perspective of our main character, not our main lead since the main character knows everything beforehand so to him it is quite predictable. Without further ado, let’s get into the spoiler-free review. I will divide it into Synopsis, Characters, Writing, Rating, and personal view. 

Synopsis: 

The story follows Shen Yuan who transmigrated into Shen Qingqiu’s body who is the scum villain of the novel that he was reading at that time. Moreover, Shen Qing Qiu did not have a good ending because he was made into a human stick by his student (Luo Binghe) who has been abused by him since he was young. After knowing the ending of everyone and including himself, he started to find a way to change his tragic ending since he cannot go back to his real world (he died of food poisoning) and that is when you see how the story progress in contrast with the plot of the novel. Binghe is not abused by Shen Qingqiu anymore and Qingqiu has started to take good care of Binghe more than anyone. He still needs to complete his task in accordance with the system by pushing Binghe down to hell （魔主）。 

P.S. The system is something that stuck with him and it will alert Shen Qingqiu if he did something out of character (OOC) and give punishment for failing the task. There are punishment, incentive, and level up by adding or reducing the score basically it is a game that you play. 

Character: 

Shen Qingqiu

Shen Qingqiu: Actually, I don know how to describe his character other than someone from a modern world transmigrate to the novel he was reading. He’s a bit oblivious to the feeling Binghe has toward him since he always goes back to the plot of the novel as a reference without knowing that his transmigration has changed the plot of the story. Therefore, you can say that his dumb or whatever, but I guess he is just a normal person like us whose final goal is to survive in this world.

Luo Binghe

Luo Binghe: I think the fact that he is still the young Binghe after the plot twisted with Shen Yuan (in the body of Shen Qingqiu) came into his life, he didn’t change a thing. For this reason, I believe he just needs someone to love him and care about him. (SPOILER ALERT: he hugged a corpse for five years.)

Writing: 

In terms of complexity, I would say it’s a medium for me since I read in the original writing style, some of the vocabs might be a lot hard for me to understand as someone who studying Chinese as their third language but overall everything is okay. 

Rating: 

I would give it 4 out of 5 stars since the book series is great for some light read but I don feel connected with the main character that much. It would be a good read for someone who is not interested in a depressing story and it’s quite short compare to others. 

Personal View: 

Well, I would say this type of genre is something I still need to get used to since it has the concept of the teacher-student relationship which I am not totally against but I find it a bit uncomfortable to read when they develop feeling for one another. It is quite interesting to note that in Chinese novels and dramas, this concept is quite common and appears to be okay and cute (sometimes). I want to give this book a try since I don like the concept but I want to be open-minded enough and learn to accept that this relationship is okay. 

P.S. if you are interested in the donghua or animation of this story, you can check out this website but they only have Chinese subtitles. 

Link: https://www.ifvod.tv/detail?id=B12dNNlMa39

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Book Review: The Oath of Love

Another day, Another blog.

How everything goes so far for you guys? My internship is nearly coming to the end and I have so many things to say and write about but I could not find the time to sit down and write about what has been happening to me for the past few months. If one day I decide to upload that blog or have the courage enough to write about it, I will let you guys know about it beforehand. But for now, let’s just keep it to the book review, something little bit lighthearted.

Without further ado, in today’s blog, I am going to introduce you guys to another book called The Oath of Love. If you guys watch Chinese drama, you might know about the famous actor “Xiao Zhan” and his upcoming drama is the drama that was adapted from this novel. However, I have been anticipating for that drama for a year now and it still has not come out yet so I decided to read the novel first to get the grasp of the plot before continuing my long to await drama (tbh I also wanna know how good the plot? Is it sth I like since Chinese modern drama is not my cup of tea).

Fortunately, I really enjoy reading this novel. First of all, it is convenient to consume in a short period of time. Second, the whole story is not cheesy basically not the Chinese trope that I saw everywhere. Third, the characters are really mature for their ages, you can say that they are the people you can find in real life. Okay, I’ve been rumbling around for too long now, so let’s get into the review which is like old-time will be divided into a synopsis, characters, writing, and rating.

Synopsis:

The novel follows a love story between Gu Wei (doctor) and Lin Zhi Xiao (research student). Due to the sickness of Zhi Xiao’s father, she has to take care her father in the hospital for months and that is when she met Gu Wei, the doctor of her father, and from that on they start to develop their feeling for each other. However, it is not like the over sweetness and unrealistic like some novels, their feeling and interaction does not make you feel like it is too fake or what Chinese people use to say 偶像剧. I just want to stress that the gap between them is 6 years since Zhi Xiao is still a university student at that time. The whole story follows the journey of them from strangers to lovers, from being single to married, and how their family has involved in their relationship which is something you can find in real life as well. I am just gonna tell you at this point for now.

The Oath of Love

Character:

Gu Wei （顾魏）

Gu Wei is a doctor of Zhi Xiao’s father. According to the novel, he is 28 years old but very mature and I keep picturing Xiao Zhan as him since he played this role. I enjoy the way the author describes his appearance which is really suited to the Xiao Zhan’s appearance. First, the author describes Gu Wei as a very tall, skinny kind of person; he has very beautiful eyes that could just capture your heart in just a minute. Besides his appearance, his interaction with Zhi Xiao is so warm and cozy that remind you of someone that is down to earth and take very good care of him and the people around him. From the female perspective, he is a man of a few words and looks innocent enough in the first place however, when getting to know him, he can be spicy with a tamper.

Gu Wei

Lin Zhi Xiao （林之校）

I like her personality since the beginning especially as someone who is still in the university, she is mature enough for her age when making decisions. Her attitude toward her boyfriend is also respectful. For example, when dealing with his ex-girlfriend who still has feelings for him, she did not ask him to never see her again but she said that she can’t tell his ex-girlfriend what to do and it is not her place to make any decision for him. He is the one who should make it clear not her. I admire this type of character really much.

Lin Zhi Xiao

Writing:

I would say the wordings are easy for people like me to read since it is a modern setting novel. There ain’t any words like in the wuxia or xianxia’s world-building that I might need to check the dictionary on my phone or google translate. The pace might be a bit abrupt in the first chapter since the story starts right where they are in the hospital. I nearly forgot that the storytelling style is a daily journal from the female perspective and at the end of each chapter there would be a few sentences of them talking to one another while reading the diary. For the romance, I don find it too sweet. First of all, they are like a normal couple who has work and study that keep them busy so a normal couple might not have times to meet each other every day. Even the long-distance relationship, there ain’t any drama between them like most stories where there are cheating, falling in love for someone else, cannot live without each other. Maybe because of this writing style, it makes their relationship more believable for me.

Rating:

I would give it 4.5 out of 5 stars since I love the story and the pace of this novel. It is something that you can finish in one sitting. It is a light-hearted novel not too deep of a plot so you can still enjoy without getting yourself workup because of one novel. I think due to the mature relationship between the characters, I find theirs to be realist especially the transition from strangers to girlfriend/boyfriend and a married couple. However, the half star that I did not give is some of the writing does not make sense to me or maybe because of the different background of mine and Chinese people, so the slang or phrase might get lost.

Do I recommend this book?

I would recommend it to someone who likes to read some realistic relationship interaction and maybe who needs to escape from all those cutesy romance.

P.S. I hope that the drama can stick to the original story or something like this.

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Book Review: Thousand Autumns

Hey! It is me again. Long-time no see. I have planned many topics that I want to talk about because I thought that I have three months to do all of them. Unfortunately, I have an intern during this summer vacation for exactly three months (12 weeks) and full time as well. 

My first internship was exhausted maybe I am just not yet adjust to the environment and maybe my first half of 2020 is in lockdown that I feel normal to stay at home every day without stepping out of the house. For this reason, I don’t have enough time to do blogging. Anyway, enough about the internship (that topic might be discussed in another blog if I feel like it). Today, I want to talk about a book that I just completed which is called “Thousand Autumns or 千秋”. The review will be divided into 4 sectors: synopsis, character, writing, and rating. 

Original Title: 千秋

Author: Meng Xi Shi/梦溪石

Publisher: JJWXC

Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Historical, Martial Arts, Shounen Ai, Wuxia, Yaoi

Synopsis: 

Thousand Autumns talks about a story about a martial artist (Shen Qiao) who falls from the cliff after losing a challenge and meet the main lead character (Yan Wushi) who rescued him for the sake of seeing how Shen Qiao will face with all the obstacles ahead of him after losing everything. It follows a journey of Shen Qiao who has a core belief that the nature of human is kind. After the battle or the challenge, we followed his journey to become stronger and still stick to his belief after everything he went through. The story took place in a real historical period during the North and the South dynasty. It is a combination of politics, history, martial arts, action, and a little bit of romance. Despite the historical period, it is a wuxia genre with its own story. Nearly forget to mention that it is a BL (Boy Love) novel with a slow burn romance, so for someone who has never watched a BL drama or read the Chinese novel but wants to try it out, I think this book is for you. The romance is not covered the entire plot and it is not love at first sight, so you don have to be afraid that it is too fake or give you too much of a goosebump. 

Character: 

Moving on to the characters of this novel, I am just gonna focus on the two main leads: Shen Qiao and Yan Wushi. 

Shen Qiao

Personally, I really like and admire his character as someone who went through so much when everyone turned their back against him and when he had no one beside him. At the end of the day, he is still the person who he was. He did not turn into the bad guy that the main lead character expect him to be. It is really hard to find a character that is so perfect and kind that you feel like you will be safe when he is with you. However, he is not flawless and he did admit that some decisions that he made in the past might not be the best but he is content to have broadened his perspective after what he went through. 

Shen Qiao

Yan Wushi 

He is a crazy person as stated by the author so don expect so much kindness from him because he has no heart to begin with. As stated in the description, he helped Shen Qiao, not because of an act of kindness but the feeling of seeing someone like Shen Qiao suffer to bring out the devil in Shen Qiao (Shen Qiao is the student of a famous cultivator that Wushi used to lose to). He wants to experience the satisfying feeling. In his life, there are only two types of people: opponent and ant. After the progress of the story (or nearly the end of the novel shhhh!!), he started to realize that Shen Qiao cannot be categorized in these two types of people. Shen Qiao is a special one. 

Writing: 

Well! I cannot say anything about the translation cos I read the book in the original work. Therefore, judging from the writing style of the author as someone who is reading a Chinese novel for the first time especially wuxia genre, I can say that it is quite easy to keep up with the world-building and the development of the characters. There ain’t many poems that could be an obstacle for people who study Chinese as their second /third language. Overall, writing style for this novel is easy to follow up with. 

Rating: 

I would give it 5 out of 5 stars. Given my elaboration of this novel and how much I love the development of the two main characters, I cannot stop reading it even at three am in the morning but due to my final exam week, I had to put it down for one week before picking it up again. But, after one week, I still remember all the plots meaning that it has left a huge impression on me.

P.S. Tencent recently announced the Donghua adaptation of this novel with a trailer that you can check it out but it is a 3D animation not 2D.

Enough for today’s book review, I still have many topics I want to write about but hope that my laptop is still working properly. Bye!!

Thousand Autumns

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Traveling Alone in the Airport

Today, I am going to talk about my past experiences of flying alone. It is really funny how confident I was at that time.

The thing is I need to prepare everything before going anywhere and taking a flight alone is scary especially when it comes to transit as I only have a few hours to find another gate and eat something. If the situation is worse and the flight delay mid-air I would have to run to the gate where I have no idea of. For this reason, before taking the flight I went to search for videos on the process of taking flight for the first time, how to look for the gate, what can be brought on check-in luggage, handbag, and what to do during transit. My first time flew to Taiwan for a summer camp I was alone so I prepared every document that the immigration officer might ask since it was the first time and it was Taiwan. I was afraid that if they thought I was trafficked here (ikr it is funny but I needed to think of every possible thing). I was transit in HongKong for 2 hours and that 2 hours I was checking my phone all the time. Thankfully when I got there, I was okay and had someone waiting for me. However, becoming to Cambodia, I bought too many products from both Taiwan and Hongkong even after check-in luggage I still had three big plastic bags with me. These days, I was still amazed by my confidence to carry out all of those bags to Cambodia on my own.

Another flight is from Singapore to Melbourne. Actually, it was a direct flight and not my first time flying alone anymore so I was not as scared as the first time but I would like to share about my first moment stepped foot on Australia for the first time. It was amazing that I got to be there. I remembered when I stepped out of the airport and faced with those cool air around my face it was so Australia and so western. I was so happy because I could never imagine I can go to places like this alone.

It was a good flight after all. However, when I took a flight back to Singapore it was a total nightmare. Let me tell you how I vomited on the flight. Due to my flight at 10 pm. I was staying at bubble tea shop all day, playing cards, and came back to eat a few rice because I was busy packing all the stuff together. I forgot to tell you before that day, I was sleeping at my other friend’s house so no time for packing I rushed to the airport on time. During the flight, I could not sleep and my seat was in the middle of the middle, so I could not do anything but sit still (my personal space and the smell of others) and I was hungry but cannot eat (afraid that instant noodle’s smell affected others). Therefore, I was so exhausted no food! No sleep! I felt dizzy and wanted to vomit. Thankfully I went to the toilet because I was not okay. When the plane landed in Singapore, it was fucking 3 am in the morning so shops or restaurants were not opened. I was so hungry and got myself a jewel coffee and chocolate cake to stay alive and waited for the MRT to operate. Not until 10:30 am I could eat proper chicken rice of Singapore for the last time. After walking around the airport, I bought products and took the flight to Phnom Penh and landed at 2 pm. It was a crazy journey after all.

This is my story of flying alone. I hope you like it. 

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Book review: The Diary of A Young Girl Anne Frank

Hello guys! It has been a while since I posted on my blog because I have been addicted to Chinese drama and lack of motivation to study. However, today I want to share with you guys a story of self-discovery of a young girl called Anne Frank which is the book that I just finished. Some of the information might contain some spoilers so if I just want to say beforehand so you can decide if you still want to continue reading this blog. 

I will divide the part into summary, character, writing, lesson learned and rating. 

Summary: 

The book contains the diary of a young Jewish girl in Amsterdam who loved to write and poured out her heart that she faced in a very vulnerable way on a book that she called Kitty. It recorded all of the information while she was hiding with her family and another family in her father’s company office through the period of world war two when being Jewish meant a death sentence. The book is a journey of self-discovery and coming-of-age from graving for parents’ love to become a teenager who had ambition in life even though she lived in hiding in a small house without the freedom to go out but she never lost hope in life and the future that she wanted. It captured the journey of most teenage girls went through such as confusion, frustration, struggle, relationship, and loneliness. Through her diary, we can see how she matured through time by starting to see the world from different corners of the world and putting herself in somebody’s shoes.

Writing: 

Since this book was written by a young girl so the words that were used are hard to understand and it was already translated in English. I believe that anyone who just starts studying English can read this as well. So the writing is easy to understand and straight forward. 

Character:

Like I mentioned in the summary, she was a young girl with the ambition to be a journalist after getting out of hiding. At the age of fourteen, she grew more mature than her age through reading and reviewing books. She wrote with adult wisdom beyond expectation. I am sure that if you read this book, you are gonna see yourself reflected in her writing. As someone who went through some phases like her though not the condition she lived in, I can really see myself in her and together we mature through time. Even though it is a diary but she also highlighted her feminist character in the book with determination and yearning for knowledge to break out the traditional social norm. 

Lesson learned: 

Well! There are a lot of things we can learn from this book. She represented the youth’s voice in the world especially those who used writing as a way to portray themselves in society. I really love the part where she highlighted how society treated women unfairly during wartime and of course everyday life. She was a girl with ambition and promised herself to never live the life her mother lived by being an invisible woman in society. This is something I want to achieve as well because I never want to live under the traditional rule. I want to be independent financially, physically, and mentally. I do have dreams in life and I relate so much to her up and down life where confusion took over for quite a period of time.  

Rating: 

I would give it five out five stars and I will remember that once upon a time, a girl who lived an invisible life has given out her heart and soul in writing has left a footprint in the world like no one else. If you have a chance to visit the Netherlands, please don forget to visit Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam to fully learn and walk through all of those rooms using the information in the book.

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Book Review: Dreams From My Father

Dreams From My Father

It is time to start doing my book reviews. Since I finished high school, I didn’t spare my time on doing book review, something that I have enjoyed for a quite a long time. Just sitting in front of my desk and pouring all my reflection of books and movies that I have read or watched is fascinating because it is not only allows me to reflect on what I read but also tease out some concepts and ideas that I find to be inspirational.

For today, I am going to do a book review plus spoiler on “Dreams From My Father” by Barack Obama but before we are getting further than that I have to declare that I am not a good reviewer of any sort. I am just a person who wants to share her voice and opinion. So let’s get into this!!!

Overview:

The book is about the story of self-discovery of Barack Obama from when he was young to the point in his life where he went to Kenya for the first time in 26 years to discover his missing piece. Everyone knows who Barack Obama is but the thing that people do not know a lot about is his life journey which is so fascinating and adventurous at the same time. He is biracial with a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya and he spent his time in Indonesia, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Chicago, Massachusetts and Kenya. All of these places that he lived in were shaping who he is as a person with the background as an outsider or a misfit raised by white grandparents.

Writing:

The flow of each paragraph is easy to read and follow up with but there were tons of names in the books that can be quite confusing because of the extended family of Obama. However, it took me just a few day to finish the book since I got hook up from the beginning. I think it is a great book for anyone no matter you are a republican or democratic since the book was written in 1995 after he have finished his Harvard law school. For this reason, the book does not insert the political view much like his second book and from this book you can learn how humble he is as a person and can actually take a minute or two to put yourself in his shoes and discover the world from his perspective. Moreover, the story is quite refreshing and raw. He did not try cover up the fact that he used to smoke cigarettes, weeds, marijuana and became a sort of rebel child while in Hawaii.   

Character:

For the character, I am going to discuss only on Barack Obama. Barack is so contrast from Michelle who has a stable upbringing with a loving family while he is sort of an adventurous one where he jumped from one place to another trying to find meaning in life and who he is a person. Therefore, throughout the book you can see how he developed as a person and tried to find his missing pieces. I love how he slowly discovered the impact of religion and church in community. I really love that parts where he, himself and his friends kept asking about his faith and religion and how his friends shared about the Christianity and Islam which helped them to find their path in life. As a person who considers herself an agnostic and mostly feel empty toward religion because I was not raise in a church or pagoda. Throughout that particular part, I took the journey with him to discover faith and belief that people practices in the community. I started to understand how religion can give people the power of hope and bind them as a community through rough times. Through his lens, I also learnt that religion can sometimes make people stand one sided in their view of the world.

Anyway back to his character, I really admire how he grows as a mature person with the goals of helping narrow down the division between black and white. Even though, I cannot say entirely that I relate to all of his story like becoming by Michelle Obama but I learnt to understand from his perspective.

Rating: 5/5

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Trip to Australia

Travel Quote

Hello! It is me again but today I am going to tell you guys my experience in Australia while I was travelling like crazy in both Melbourne and Sydney.

Before going to Australia, I was so nervous that my passport and my visa would not be accepted by the immigration but anyways things turned out pretty well and I landed in Australia.

I spent one day travelling to seven places which is beyond my expectation and with the fact that we only got up at 10 o’clock in the morning. First, I went to Springvale market just to see how Asian that place is because there are a lot of Cambodian and Vietnamese’s restaurants there. It felt like I was living in Cambodia with all those people talking in Khmer. After that, I went to the city just to explore those shopping malls and summer clothes that I could not afford and the funny thing is that i was in Australia for the whole trip but only eating Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai food, instant noodle and fast food (In fact, only these kind of foods are the one I could afford shhh!! Don tell anyone). After all the cities things, my friend and I finally got to go to the beach (Brighton and St. Kilda) to take more photos and enjoys the breeze of fresh air, away from pollution and crowded people. We ended the day with eating ice cream near the beach where my crazy friend brought her special friend to eat ice cream too and then we went to watch penguins in the middle of the sea with strong air that I was so scared that I am gonna fly off in to the water. It was a crazy day but I had so much fun.

It amazed me with the fact that my friend in Queensland also happened to be in Melbourne as well, so the other two days we went to the city and great ocean road together. It was fun and the amount of laziness we affected each together wals surreal. One thing I nearly forgot to tell you was that we missed the bus in the middle of nowhere and my friend was so scared that we were gonna stuck in this place with nowhere to go to the point that she was thinking of asking strangers to take us back to the city. Fortunately, things turned out pretty well. The tour guide came back to get us and we were off to the next destination. (It was an adventure I must admit this)

With the wrap of Melbourne, I went to my friend’s university which is Swinburne University of Technology just to meet cute guys. It was so funny and I also happened to meet her special friend. We stayed there the whole day and I don know why but I felt like I was finally home. I felt like this is the place I want to settle in and the place I can truly feel like a local. That was my last day in Australia but did I tell you I also went to Sydney as well?

I went to Sydney for four days but the first day does not count because we were there late at night and directly went to our airbnb. We went to many tourist destination such as opera house, botanical garden, Hype Park, Museum, the rocks and Chinatown in just one day and at the end, we were so tired that we went back to our airbnb early just to play card and watch old Hongkong drama. The next day, we went to Manly beach but took the wrong ferry and went to rose bay instead. Our trip was always crazy and little things happened this and there but that is what travel all about. Manly beach reminded me of a little town with tourist but still a lovely place to travel to. After that, we went to get “mju” which is popular in Khmer but I don think western people eat those stuffs but it was good. We took more than one hour of train to get it because she hasn’t eaten it for so long since it is nearly impossible to find in Australia so we went there to get it and went back to Sydney opera house for night view. We went back to our airbnb around 10 o’clock to eat mju, play card and watch Hongkong drama. While the last day in Sydney, we got to many places as well since our flight was at 10:30 pm. At first, we checked out of our airbnb and stored our luggage at central station for the day and we were off to Sydney Fish Market for expensive seafood. There were a lot of seafood but too expensive for us and it was not as delicious as in Cambodia. We did buy some to eat and then walked to University of Sydney to take more photos since that place was so beautiful. After walking around the campus for a while, we headed to our last destination which was Bondi beach to see those big waves and put our feet in those cold water. It was a fun day indeed.

This trip seemed to be a wonderful experience but bad things also happened along the way because trust me, there is never a perfect trip that go as planned. We missed the last train to go back home a few times so we had to take didi which cost around 40 AUD. We changed plan most of the time, so our travel is not like what I had planned but I still liked it. I got lost and missed the bus with my other friend in the middle of nowhere and spitted out my Starbuck in Chadstone while laughing. I was a third wheel for a whole day which was fun too. My phone ran low on battery with no power-bank and my phone was my lifeline at that time. Nevertheless, this crazy things that happened along the trip were what made this trip so wholesome and hard to forget.

I am thankful for the scholarship in Singapore that let me have a chance to apply to Australia for a vacation and created such a wonderful memories at the end of this 2019. A trip to celebrate my 20th birthday.

Expenses on a nine-day trip

  • Visa fee: 154 SGD
  • Biometrics Collection: 52 SGD
  • Photo for visa: 7 SGD
  • Flight Reservation: 41 SGD
  • Flight ticket from Singapore to Melbourne round trip: 581 SGD
  • Flight ticket from Sydney to Melbourne round trip: 131 SGD
  • Airbnb for three days: 66 SGD
  • Great Ocean Road day trip: 120 SGD
  • Food and other things: 400+240 SGD

Investing as a Foreign Student in the U.S.: My Journey and Lessons

My Investment Journey:

Hi everyone, it’s been more than three years since I last wrote about my personal story. I almost forgot that I even have a blog 😅

Since my last post, I’ve graduated from two universities, got my first professional job at KPMG, stayed there for three years through thick and thin (mostly thick… not gonna lie), quit my job to pursue education abroad, and now I’m in the U.S., about to finish my MBA and starting a role as a Key Account Analyst. A lot has happened, but somehow I never really paused to capture those moments. I’ll share more about that part of my life in another post—hopefully it won’t take another three years this time.

Getting Started with Investing

For today’s topic, I want to share my investment journey, especially in the stock market. Before coming to the U.S., I had absolutely no idea how to invest or which brokerage accounts I could open because of my country status. I wanted to start, but I had no resources and no one to ask. Fun fact: when people around me hear that you invest in stocks, they immediately think you’re gambling. As a Cambodian, access to investment platforms is limited. Most people around me invest in traditional assets like real estate, while people my age are mostly busy enjoying life—partying, drinking, and just living in the moment (honestly… sometimes I feel like I missed out a lot).

When I searched on YouTube, most of the content was targeted toward Americans or Europeans. And yes, a lot of people say investing is basically gambling—but I believe it only becomes gambling if you treat it like one.

Opening My First Brokerage Account

The moment I got my SSN (Social Security Number) in June 2025, I immediately started researching brokerage accounts I could open. To be honest, I was pretty nervous. I didn’t want to just throw my money into some random platform and hope it wouldn’t disappear one day I eventually chose Robinhood because, due to my status as an F1 student (not a green card holder or U.S. citizen), I couldn’t open accounts with Vanguard, Fidelity, or Charles Schwab—the ones I originally wanted.

Why is an SSN important? Because it allows you to invest in the U.S. stock market through platforms like Robinhood, which offer commission-free trading. That’s actually a huge advantage compared to many other countries. I know this doesn’t apply to Cambodians living in Cambodia who don’t have access to an SSN. But there are international brokerage platforms available—you just have to pay commission and transfer fees. Honestly, that’s normal for most of the world. The U.S. just makes it feel “too easy.” I also opened an international account as a backup, just in case I go back home and need to transfer my assets without selling everything. I’ll talk more about that in another post.

My Early Mistakes (a.k.a. Learning the Hard Way)

After opening my Robinhood account, I realized there are thousands of options—stocks, ETFs, crypto… everything. It was honestly overwhelming. Like… where do you even start? From YouTube, I learned that I should invest in ETFs for the long term. So I did. But here’s the problem… ETFs felt so slow. At that time, the stock market was booming, especially individual stocks. Every time I opened my app, I kept thinking:

“If I had put this money into stocks instead, I’d be making way more right now…”

So of course… I did exactly what you’re not supposed to do. I sold all my ETFs and went all-in on stocks like NVDA, AMD, and TSLA. At one point, I was up almost 25%, and I felt like a genius. Like, wow… maybe I should quit my job and become a full-time trader (just kidding… but also not really).

But then… November happened. The dip came, and it almost wiped out my returns in just a few days. I remember opening my app and just staring at the screen like… “Wait… where did my money go?” That was my reality check. I realized I had been making decisions based on hype and advice from others instead of doing my own research.

Why I Focus on Stocks

The reason I currently allocate most of my investments to stocks is based on my personal situation. I’m single and don’t plan to get married (at least for now), so my financial priorities are different. I need to prepare for my own future—whether that’s in case I get laid off or if I end up being the “backup plan” for my family.

Two of my sisters are also not married, and honestly, I don’t think they’re planning to anytime soon (risky assumption, I know). The good thing is they’ve already invested in real estate, and we all live together back home. So overall, our family is in a pretty stable position financially—no major debt except for my sister’s mortgage.

Right now, I have about $20K in student loans from my sister (yes… family bank), but I’m planning to pay it off by the end of this year. I’ve already been allocating part of my paycheck toward that, so hopefully I’ll be debt-free soon.

As for real estate, I’m not planning to invest in it anytime soon. It requires a lot of capital, and honestly… I don’t really need it. When I go back home, I’ll be living with my family—so no rent, no pressure to buy a house, no “adulting” in that area just yet.

Also, since my family is already heavily invested in real estate, I kind of see my role as diversifying the “family portfolio” (sounds fancy, but it just means I do stocks while they do houses).

My Current Strategy (Now I’m Trying to Be Responsible)

As of now, despite market volatility (and all the global chaos going on), I’ve started rebuilding my portfolio with a more disciplined approach.

  • I invest $5 daily into VOO, VUG, and SCHD
  • I allocate 20% of my paycheck to investments every two weeks
  • Target allocation: 50% ETFs / 45% stocks / 5% crypto

Since I’m still in my 20s, I don’t invest in bonds. I’m going 100% equities for now—hopefully my future self won’t regret this decision

My Investment Mindset

I don’t use margin accounts because I think the risk is just too high for me. I prefer to sleep peacefully at night. My goal is long-term investing, so I keep buying consistently—whether the market is up or down. Most importantly, the 20% of my paycheck that I invest is money I’m willing to risk. Even if I lost it all (please don’t 😭), it wouldn’t affect my daily life. I think this is something a lot of people misunderstand. They invest money they might need soon, and when emergencies happen, they’re forced to sell—sometimes at a loss. That’s why it’s important to only invest money you can afford to leave untouched, so you can give your investments time to grow and let compounding do its thing.

What I’ve Learned So Far

  • Investing becomes gambling when you follow hype instead of doing your own research
  • Short-term gains can trick you into overconfidence (been there)
  • ETFs may feel slow, but they help you stay consistent and reduce risk
  • Diversification is boring… but necessary
  • Consistency matters more than timing

What’s Next

In my next post, I’ll share the international brokerage platform I mentioned and how it works for people outside the U.S., especially for Cambodians. Hopefully, I actually post it soon and not disappear for another three years

This is just my personal experience and not financial advice.

Reasons I Like Xiao Zhan

Today, I want to talk about the reasons that I admire Xiao Zhan who is a Chinese celebrity but has been through a lot especially in the year 2020. Before getting into the reasons, I want to mention that I knew about this person in May 2020 due to the Chinese drama called “the Untamed”. For someone like me who only watches dramas and don care about the actors much, Xiao Zhan happened to catch my attention with his acting and appearance. That is how I know the existence of this person. 

To me, the entertainment industry can be toxic especially the Chinese and South Korea with their crazy fan culture. Also, I usually believe that for someone to survive in that industry, she/he might not be a perfect person or has some complicated backgrounds, to begin with. That’s why I don really admire people from that industry. I would not use the word “fan” because I cannot be considered a fan since I am not contributed anything, only support his work. 

Okay, without further ado, I am going to list down quite a few reasons:

Background 

I think one of the things that distinguish him from other celebrities is his background as a normal person. He entered the entertainment industry when he was already 24 years old which is considered too late already. Before 2016, he went through the same thing as everyone else which are high school, high pressure of gaokao exam, university for 4 years, and even enter society by working as an interior designer for one year. These experiences are actually made him who he is, someone who has been raised as a normal person, not the type that polish for the entertainment industry since a young age.

Personality 

A person’s personality can determine how I admire that person. From his interview, his interaction with co-workers, the short clips behind the scenes, sneak shots without no one knows, his interaction with animals, etc. All of these can show the character of that person because you know celebrities are excellent actors in front of cameras but those small details, the angle that no one bothers to look at when he was not famous are the concrete evidence of his personality that comes from a well-raised family. I remember my impression of his words are “I’m just a normal person and go through the same things as everyone else”. He gives out the vibe like the neighborhood brother who excels in everything. He is intelligent and also knows what he wants. Why would I say that? After rising to fame, he did not put himself in gaining quick money by joining all types of variety shows which if he did, I would not admire him in the first place. In such a materialistic world, some people can be drowned in that world but he did not. He only appeared in two variety shows: one is Our Song and the other is Who’s the murderer (3 eps only). Our Song helped him mastering his singing technique which after this show, he improved a lot. The other show illustrated his intelligence in finding out the evidence and the murderer. Smart but modest.

His works 

For someone very good at answering the questions, I would say he/she is mastering the art of persuasion (which I’m majoring in “don tell anyone”) but to say it, take action and see an improvement is a person I want to be. Xiao Zhan is that type of person. I came to know him in the Untamed but from 2018 to 2021, I can see a clear improvement in his acting. From a stiff expression to a face with full emotion; from reading awkward lines to portraying those lines with emotion and fluent, every step we can see him trying to give out the best he can. I remember in January this year, I was waiting for his performance at midnight which he sang “余年”. To be honest, I did not expect much from his performance because he used to perform this song before back in 2019 and it was not stable. The song was hard to sing. To my surprise, I was blown off by his singing because it was exactly like a CD you know when you could not distinguish if it lip-syncing or real singing. Thanks to the Our Song variety show, I guess, a platform that helped him in practicing and mastering his singing technique. This example just showcases that he is improving every day. Recently, he just finished his first theater play in Wuhan which he received many praises from his seniors and those who specialize in a theater play. The fact that he dared to stand there challenge himself by performing 8-hour plays makes me really proud. Also, this theater play “A Dream Like A Dream” will be performed in nine cities this year which he is going to participate in all cities.

Interview & Conversation

The first thing that catches my attention the most about him is his appearance but what makes me stay and admires him further is his in-depth interview and answers that he provided are just showcase that he is an intelligent, sophisticated, and open-minded person. If you’re interested in finding out what he was saying after the controversial, his opinion on being called traffic star, his attitude toward his fan and some other conversations on being away from home to start a new career in Beijing and also provide some opinion on those who want to come to a big city to achieve their dream, you can watch some of the videos from the links I put down below. Some of those conversations will provide you a new insight into his mind and his path as an actor.

Animal Lovers

You could find his photos with all kinds of animals such as cats, dogs, rabbits, horses, donkeys, etc. He also has a female cat called “Nut” or in Chinese “Jian Guo” but now is staying with his parents in Chongqing due to his tight schedules. He couldn’t have time to take care of her properly. I will insert the photos of his cats which are adorable. I, myself, love animals in general and I will not befriend someone who hates animals. I remember him saying that “when you have decided to raise a pet, their whole world is just you. We can still have a lot of friends but for small animals, their whole world is just you”. Every time I hear this, my eyes are always in tears because I always say to people who want to have a cat or a dog, they need to carefully consider that they can devote their time to them. They really need to think about the responsibilities when taking care of a pet because it is a commitment for more than 10 years not just something you can say you want it you get it. They are not toys that people can throw away when they feel tired of them. When I hear him saying those words, I was so happy that we are on the same page.

Nut/Jian Guo

Career path 

The usual path for a celebrity like him during the famous period is to endorse many products, advisements, go to many variety shows, award shows basically to get as much as money as possible because they are just like a firework, you know only appear for once and then will disappear or be replaced by other young celebrities. However, in his case, it is completely different. He chose to act in the theater that lasts 8 hours long. The time that he chose to make this decision, just made me realize that I did not admire the wrong person. Like I mention, if he followed the usual path, he would not touch this kind of plays because theatre’s actors required patience, flexibility, commitment, and experiences as well. Due to the long hour’s play, it is a test for actors to keep the focus on their characters without getting distracted by the audiences. Moreover, theater play cannot NG. Actors have to be flexible when unpredictable things happened and it is considered low pay when comparing with acting in TV drama or movie. In terms of this, he does not have a background in acting (I mean graduated from those famous universities with acting as a major). So to stand there with all those experienced actors, you have to have a strong heart to do something like that especially when you are the focus of attention. People will use a magnifying glass to scan your every move which can be intermediated. But I can understand why he chose to do this. He used to say in the interview that he does not want to be the firework and he takes this acting career seriously. Therefore, I guess theater is a good place for him to really polish and improve his acting.

227 controversial 

Without this controversial issue, in my eyes, he would just be the famous “小鲜肉” that appears every year and will be replaced by another younger and more handsome than him. I would not say “thanks” to this issue for letting me get to know him cos this issue really affects him badly and not just him that was affected but his family and friends as well. I would say this issue makes me realize how toxic the Chinese entertainment industry is and how a person with no strong background to back will suffer the most. I guess if he was not Xiao Zhan, his career would be ended already and in one year his name will be disappeared like thin air. 

At first, I was intrigued as to why he received so much hatred and disappeared from TV for a long time. To me who used to know a bit about Chinese celebrities is that it is normal for those suddenly raises to fame to get much hate due to jealously and they would find a way to dig out the bad stuffs that you used to do in the past and put in out for everyone to see. For this reason, without knowing anything I thought to myself that it is normal maybe he did something bad in the past. However, when I discovered the whole story, I was shocked because he did not do anything, and for the past year that they tried to say bad stuff about him. They could not dig out the bad thing about his past, all they can do is creating fake rumors. I also tried to stand from the perspective of those who say negative things about him as well because I want to hear from both sides to make my own judgment of this situation. I forced myself to read a few comments and bad things about him but I would say 99% are just stupid people with nothing to do or do it for the money. Their saying was not backed by any evidence or even have some logical senses, to begin with. I like to think that they need a scapegoat to finger-pointing and put the blame on.  

His interaction with co-workers 

Due to his controversial 227, a stranger, who never meet or get to know him, might negatively think of him but I was fortunate to not using Weibo (a Chinese platform just like Twitter and FB) because Chinese entertainment can be toxic and a field play for those celebrities to exploit for their interest. It can be brainwashed, biased, and confusing. In May, I got to know him from the Untamed and he got my attention through interview answers which is quite surprising because it can be hard to find a well-rounded, open-minded, and intelligent young actor in an entertainment industry not just because of their look. Thus, his interaction with co-workers is fascinating to me because most of those who worked with him before always praised him for his character and personality. That is why the information on the internet is not going to determine how I see him as a person because I like to believe the words come from those who know him and work with him, not just some random accounts that created to blackmail or use bad words to say about another human being that they don even know. During the darkest time when everyone turned their back and no even dared to say his name on TV or Weibo, a few of his colleagues and those who used to work with him stood up for him on Weibo despite under heavy criticism. For example, the Untamed’s director.

There are many more reasons that I like about him but I’m just gonna end it here because it is too long already. 

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