CLICK LINK FOR PART 1 : Interview with Sajidah (Part 1)
Me : Of all cities in China, why Shanxi or Xi'an? Would you recommend it to others?
"Two things affected my decision - first is the school I'm attending, XJTU, it is one of the best school in China; secondly is the food. As a Muslim, I care a lot for the accessibility of halal food. And if you'd been to Xi'an, you would know how easy it is to get those halal food. Just look at the size of Muslim street, you would literally need to spend months just to try out every available dishes there."
"So if you asked me whether I would recommend people to travel or stay here - yes, I would. This city is on the rise, but unlike Beijing, it is not a busy city that makes you long for home within the first few days of arrival. I, myself, do not like big city. I love the town I grew up in, so considering the contrast between my hometown and this city isn't so big, I didn't have hard time liking this place."
Me : There are wide speculations out there saying that China is a dirty country, having rude locals, completely messy and unstable. So, what do you want to say to those people who wish to visit this country, but having such absurd judgment?
"To me, if you literally think of any country that way, do me a favor and just forget your dream to travel. When you travel abroad, especially to such country with so little dependable facts as your guidance, you can't afford to have that kind of silly thought in your head. As a matter of fact, you travel to reveal the truth behind it."
"My people (Malaysians) are likely to think of themselves as the rightful standard, a benchmark to every goodness in the world. People with lower standard are deemed to be judged, while those who are overly qualified, are not one of them. They tend to think that the world revolves only around them. That's just pretty sick."
"This is why I love traveling so much, because it changes how I see the world. I used to be such an egomaniac back in high school, and my background kind of boosted it up. I was known for having good mathematical and calculation skills, a math genius. But when I first attended this university, that was the time when I realized I wasn't as good as I though I was. The locals here were ten times better than me and they didn't even need a calculator to solve a complicated equation. And that wasn't the only event where I felt so timid. Well, my point is, no matter how good you think you are, the world is huge, there will always someone who is a hundred times better than you."
"So, my word of advice is, people need to go out of their comfort zone more often. Traveling isn't just a costly or fancy lifestyle for the rich, it can be a learning tool for everyone. Of course, there are plenty other ways other than this. The world isn't as simple as you think it is. The moment you realize how tiny you are comparing to the universe, that's when you understand what am I trying to say here."
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