5 Things I Learned From My Chinese Roommate

When my sister-in-law, Geselle, and I have found a new room where we can stay together under one room that is, since we were placed in 2 different flats that time, we got also a new room mate, and she is Chinese.

I have nothing against Chinese. Just because I am Filipino and she is Chinese, I must have something against her because of that silly island issue thingy but I don't have hate against anyone not unless they did something bad to me, hehehe. It just happens that she is chinese and I am Filipino and we are of the same room and I learned something valuable from her.

So, why I really post something about her, because I really learned a lot from her with the simple ways that she did not know that I am observing her. She has given me lessons that are purely important in life. She gave me something to live by and something worth remembering. I will discuss them one by one as we go along.

A quote we always here but a quote that has been effectively shown in her. She has less of everything but has everything she needs even though its not much. I mean she has less clothes, I can only see 5 or 6 shirts and their pair of pajamas but she has learned to live with it. I mean, why would we need to live with more when we are only enclosed to work and hostel here in KSA, right? She only has 2 Abayas, one for work and one for going out on trips or for grocery and it worked for her. I mean, not much is living simply after all.

In modern times, it is often called as Modern Minimalism. It means having the most important things only, those that are functional and are versatile. It means that these are the things that can be used on different purposes but you only have one thing there.

Simply put that the less you have, the more because you actually have one thing that can do a lot rather than having a lot that do less.

Most of her diet is like fruits and veggies. She cooks them with less fat and mostly stir fried, more spices to help kick up the taste but mostly, its either steamed or stir fried. She drinks lemon water. Like she cuts lemon and put them in a jar and she drinks water from the lemon slice and I think that is really healthy. She rarely eats meat and when she does, she drinks a lot of fluids which is mostly water. I have not seen her drinking any soda or whatever. I admire her eating habit because it is really healthy. I eat healthy though but not really like her where she is really into that habit of eating healthy every single day.

She is that happy person that I meet. She is always smiling and she is careful about what she says that she might hurt someone. Although I can't decipher right away what she is talking, but I know in every word she says, she mean good. Although I understand her totally when she is angry that she has a louder voice or when she is calling her parents in China but I have never heard her curse so I think it is a good thing.

Clearly, since she is this "so tipid" kind of person, when she buys less, less of everything, except food though, means more savings for her. Less means, she rarely buys clothes, she does not even uses cologne although I don't consider that a good thing to practice, she does not use make up, she has less shoe collection and she only buys food which are on sale. She stock up though but those are on sale. It means, that she has more savings because she only buy those that are needed and not that wants.

She only has things that of use so it means that her space looks more spacious and bigger. She has less of everything, only the necessary ones, so she has can see everything right away. She can. Her space does not look that neat though because she is not this type of person who always clean but if she does, I can see clearly that everything will be in order right away and everything will look bigger simply because there is less clutter in her part of the area.

And when you have lesser things that means you have less time for cleaning, less time for folding, organizing and less trash to throw and more time for reflection, relaxation and meditation.