Lifestyle and living – Corgi Lumpur

Asian guy dating in America/Europe: On giving up and moving back to Asia

This is a sequel to the post I wrote nearly two years ago on results of first-hand data on dating discrimination as an Asian guy. Today we’re going to go over more upsetting truths about dating as an Asian guy in the western hemisphere, and why that’s ultimately driven me to move back. And moving back was something that’s never even crossed my mind until recent times.

The miserable life living in Germany that you need to know about

The line outside the German visa office at 3am. Only walk-in appointments due to the super high-tech appointment website in 2015.

Never in my life had I imagined I’d live in Europe. But in trying to escape living with my abusive hoarder dad, and being told all my life that Malaysia is a hell hole that I needed to escape from in general, and being tired of the US immigration system’s difficulty, I found myself living in Germany for a good amount of time. Since the early 2010’s, it has actually been incredibly easy to enter Germany, either as a student or worker, and attain German permanent residence shortly after. As I later would discover, there’s good reason why Germany doesn’t have skilled immigrants lining up at its door…

Review: Migration options for Malaysians to other countries (Part 1: North America)

Research on moving abroad has been something my family and I have done, even way before I went over to the US over a decade ago. Being at the point in life where I have “one more move” remaining and hope to settle in wherever that may be for a long time. For many Malaysians (and Singaporeans), there’s a lot of information and misinformation on migration and moving abroad, thanks to the gossip culture and unwillingness to fact-check and verify before spreading the word. I’m putting my thoughts into words here so hopefully this will help anyone looking for info based on my first-hand experience.

I don’t find the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown boring, in fact I’m loving it

Back in the 1940’s, people had to go out and risk death during World War 2 to defend their society and they did it. In the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, most people just have to stay at home and relax to help the situation, yet far too many of them can’t seem to do it. Barely a month in and there’s lots of complaining that the lockdown is boring; that they can’t wait to ‘get this over with’ and ‘be done with lockdown’ in the next 2-4 weeks. I’ve locked myself down at home for over a month now and am far from being bored – here’s how I’m enjoying it.

Why think about life in your 30’s when you’re not even 30? The Financial Sequel

“You’re still young! You should leave the worrying till when you’re older! Live life, travel, party, do something fun!” One of the most cringeworthy pieces of ~~stupidity~~ “advice” I hear parroted around by many young people (20-35 years old). Is it any surprise that you have to wonder out loud whether your employer will pay the month’s salary before Christmas, so that you can shop for the holidays, while “when will I get paid” is something I’ve never had to think about?

The true imbalance in employee “work-life balance”

How much free time an employee working 40 hours a week really has

Alternative title: How much free time does a “40 hour work week” white collar employee actually have? The short answer is not nearly as much as you think. Companies often boast about “work-life balance”, commonly described as working 40 hours (+/- 5 hours) a week, which the media gladly slurps up and parrots to make everyone feel better, and many people blindly believe and celebrate (see: your LinkedIn news feed).

Research: My experience with systemic racism against Asian men in dating

“You’re just cynical: people out there aren’t racist! You just gotta write a better profile! Take better pictures of yourself!” … are just three out of dozens of bullshit lines I’ve been fed in the last 3 years since I started my attempt at dating in Germany, several months after moving here.

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Why I plan to leave Germany and head back to Kuala Lumpur

I had planned to put together a post like this at a later point but I suppose it’s a good thing I get this post out there now to set the basis for several future posts that investigate in-depth where all of these feelings come from.

Why think about life in your 30’s when you’re not even 30?

…is the question I’m often faced with whenever the topic of conversation makes an inevitable turn towards how I’m liking this foreign city and how long I plan to stay, which is when I bring up dating and wanting to start a family, career development, financials and buying property, even early retirement; just general “planning for the future” type of stuff.

Continue reading “Why think about life in your 30’s when you’re not even 30?”