It's Time to Say Goodbye

Time flies. Love stays. Truly. Indeed.

Swiftly 5 months passed me by without me realizing. My final module here in Portugal ended last Friday. Reality jolt. I'm leaving Lisbon, a city I have grown comfortable to for the past few months. Another two days and I'm heading to Madrid to gather with Malaysians living in Spain, and the flight to UK. It is harder than I imagined to bid farewells, to the senior citizens I met in Igreja Corpo Santo's Irish Dominican parish, to my two Malaysian friends residing in Lisbon, and to the foreign friends I met in church..

I said goodbye to my Slovakian friend after mass over light lunch, hoping one day our paths will cross again. Earlier I bade goodbye to Gosia from Poland, then Agi from Hungary, promising we'll meet during summer. Plans changed and I'm going home earlier than I planned. There's UK visa application to submit and administration work to complete prior to my proper summer vacation home.

I have come to love colourful Lisbon and it's a huge pity that I didn't even visit Porto nor Coimbra nor Faro. I will try to make it to caveman's "Disneyland" Sintra before leaving. I will be back next summer for sure, to cover places I didn't cover. Though the banking system sucks and education system was far too relaxed for my likings, life is good here. Especially spiritual nourishment to feed my spirit man. It is appreciative that I went for pilgrimage to Fatima. GOD called me to Europe as a witness for His church. I hope I have been doing my part of witnessing despite being a woman of imperfections.

Meeting a special virtual friend who carves his name on my prayer list this early June too is a blessing from God. My almost daily encounter with him made me realize my needs are more important than my expectations and God will fill in my needs according to His time. My expectations and desires instead may not be healthy for me. Nobody would say McD is healthy food but everybody craves for it once in a while. Also, the need for me to be honest with myself and with God about how I feel. It's a daily challenge for me, for living in denial is always a more comfortable option for me. So facing this virtual friend, I'm brought to the level of being completely honest with him for once. I have no idea if we would ever meet but I look forward being still completely honest if we could become true friends in real life.

Two more days to go. Plenty to pack before DHL picks up my luggage... Adios!