Toki Pona Challenge have finally come to an end!!!!!!! Hooray!
7 day learning a new language! This is my record. I have never thought I would be able to finish any projects for as I said, I used to be a defeatist who easily stopped halfway through. But now, I have eventually been convinced that as long as I stay focused and make really great effort, I can accomplish anything.
I am really fed-up right now. I think I should go to bed.
I have spent the last few days enjoying the freedom of life: Hanging out with best friends, watching piles of movies (mostly scary films lol, and How I met your mother series!!! Super cool!), trying out several new recipes, and more importantly, starting applying makeup on my face. Honestly, I have never applied any makeups on my face except for the glowing lips for I am still quite young, and cannot bear the effect of chemical cosmetics ruining and aging my skin. Mostly, I carry out the daily skincare to refresh my skin and to make me get a better and brighter look. However, no sooner had I begun to cram a large number of makeup videos made by Michelle Phan on Youtube than I realized the benefit of applying cosmetics to look more beautiful. So yesterday’s afternoon, I pulled out the bag containing some products I bought several days ago (including a liquid eyeliner pen, a mascara, an eye makeup removal, a fresh orange lipstick, and a packet of cottons to help remove the final result) and started to apply them on my face. Staring at the mirror, watching Michelle gently moving her hands from sides to sides, I honestly admitted that it was really really difficult! After I drew the first eyeliner, it looked like the ink were dancing messily on my face, so I had to remove it. Then came another failure with eyeliner, then another one, and another one. I did not want to estimate how much eyeliner I had wasted on these trying times. After trial and error, I could finally apply quite accepted winged eyeliner. Then it was time for curl my lashes. I received my eyelash curler as a gift from my aunt when I was staying in HCMC. My eyelashes were so short that I could not curl anything, but after a while, they succeeded in getting curled under the power of the curler. The mascara was not as challenging as those two. I did not encounter any failure during applying mascara. Last but not least, I put on my lipstick with a specialized brush. And there I was, a new face with eye and lip makeups! I was too lazy to apply the foundation and concealer, but with just those two, I looked quite differently: my eyes looked bigger with longer-looking lashes, and my lips were glowing with orange light. Nevertheless, these makeups made me look older yet more beautiful and sharper. Still, that was my first time ever applying makeups! Not really a failure, isn’t it?! I will practice doing makeups more to have a perfect natural look.
1/ Is that funny? Yes: ni li musi ala musi? musi
2/ You have to tell me why: sina wile toki e tan tawa mi
3/ Is a bug inside me? pipi li lon ala lon insa mi?
4/ Do you like me? mi pona ala pona tawa sina?
5/ I can’t sleep: mi ken ala lape
6/ I don’t want to talk to you: mi wile ala toki tawa sina
7/ He didn’t go to the lake: ona li tawa ala ma telo
8/ sina wile ala wile pali? wile ala: Do you want to work? Yes
9/ jan utala li seli ala seli e tomo? Is the soldiers burning the house?
10/ jan lili li ken ala moku e telo nasa: Children cannot drink alcohol
11/ sina kepeken ala kepeken e ni? Did you use this?
12/ sina ken ala ken kama? Can you come?
Today is August 19th. It is 5:00 A.M now in my country’s time zone. When the clock strikes midnight, I have to completely finish studying and be able to write a complete note about my journey in Toki Pona. Talking about midnight, I suddenly feel I am the Cinderella in her gorgeous dress trying to overcome all obstacles to meet her prince. The dress here is my blog, the obstacles are the grammars and vocabulary of Toki Pona. At midnight, I could meet my prince, which is the accomplishment of the challenge! Oh, isn’t it wonderful to imagine that?
During the challenge, I have spent a whole week staying up at night to study Toki Pona for I am a night owl, and the peak of my brain starts around 10 P.M to 6 A.M in the next day. That’s why my skin become worse even though I still apply careful daily skincare. When I looked at the mirror yesterday morning, and seeing those red stupid pimples one by one appear on my face, and my skin become more oily and darker and my eyes, my lips look like a dead person, I just wanted to smash the mirror into pieces. After seven days staying up late until morning, I look exactly like an owl, and my whole skincare becomes useless. Even my best girl friend when seeing me was also surprised at my deteriorated skin. Before that, I did not even have any pimples, and my face was full of vitality even though I did not carry out as careful skincare as I do now. Worse, my body is full of fat, and I have gained weight although I have eaten less. The effects of staying up at night are extremely terrifying, especially for a girl like me.
I just can’t wait until the Toki Pona challenge ends that I can come up with a new challenge to completely better my lifestyle to be more healthy and of course to have a better skin.
Only when I scrolled down my whole TokiPonathon page did I find out that some bloggers had read my blog! Yay!! At times I felt like I was just alone in my own challenge posting such meaningless articles about my own like an autistic, and insanely cherishing the illusion that someone would read my blog. And finally that illusion comes true! That goes beyond my expectation. I cannot believe that a Vietnamese girl who is trying to spend seven days cramming a whole new language and blogging about her own experience, not in her mother tongue, but in English, could grab the attention of other bloggers. I am immersed in happiness now.
I am wondering what it is in my blog has drawn the attention of other bloggers? Is it because of the tags? I have recalled being informed to add some tags to my articles by WordPress. Before that, I had written many posts about Toki Pona. Tired though I decided to add some simple tags to all of my posts such as toki pona, grammar, vocabulary, etc. Is it because of them that other bloggers could accidentally track down my blog? Or is it because of their same interest in Toki Pona that they want to read some posts about it? Whatever reason it is, I am still delighted to see my posts being read by others. It somehow shows that I am not alone in this journey because there are still some people out there walking along with me.
Thank you for your reading my blog! Have a nice day!
mi wile toki e jan unpa mi tawa sina. jan unpa mi li pona li suli. ona ni li jo e linja pimeja e insa suli. oko ona ni li lili. jan unpa li jo e nena suli e uta suli. mi olin mute e ona tan ni: ona ni li pona tawa mi. mi wile toki e ijo mute tawa jan unpa. ona ni kule e mi. ni li pona tawa ona. mi mute li kule e kalama pona. ni li pona tawa mi mute. mi wile tawa tomo ona ni. tomo ona ni li lukin sama tomo mi. sinpin ona li jelo. ni mi li laso jelo li walo laso. mi mute li olin e laso. ni li jo supa. jan li pali supa ni kepeken kasi. ilo pimeja li lon supa. ilo laso li lon anpa supa. jan unpa li lape poka mi. ona li lukin sama jan lili pona. mi lukin e sinpin kapesi. sewi li pimeja tan ni: suno li lape. mi wile lape. mi wile sona e toki pona kin. pali mi li pini. mi wile toki e ali tawa jan kepeken toki pona. mi li sitelen kepeken toki pona.
1/ My friend is beside me: jan pona mi li lon poka mi
2/ The sun is above me: suno li lon sewi mi
3/ The land is beneath me: ma li lon anpa mi
4/ Bad things are behind me: ijo ike li lon monsi mi
5/ I’m okay because I’m alive: mi pona tan ni: mi lon
6/ I look at the land beside my friend: mi lukin e ma poka jan pona mi
7/ People look like ants: jan li lukin sama pipi
8/ poka mi li pakala: My hip hurts
9/ mi kepeken e poki e ilo moku: I’m using a bowl and a spoon
10/ jan li lon insa tomo: People are inside the house
1/ I fixed the flashlight using a small tool: mi pona e ilo suno kepeken ilo lili
2/ I like Toki Pona: toki pona li pona tawa mi
3/ We gave them food: mi mute li pana e moku tawa ona mute
4/ This is for my friend: ni li tawa jan pona mi
5/ The tools are in the container: ilo li lon poki
6/ That bottle is in the dirt: poki ni li lon jaki
7/ I want to go to his house using my car: mi wile tawa tomo ona kepeken tomo tawa mi
8/ They are arguing: ona mute li utala toki = They are fighting verbally
9/ sina wile kama tawa tomo toki: You want to come to the chat room
10/ jan li toki kepeken toki pona lon tomo toki: People are speaking Toki Pona in the chat room
11/ mi tawa tomo toki. ona li pona tawa mi: I go to the chat room. It is good for me = I like to go to the chat room
12/ sina kama jo e jan pona lon ni: You get friends there.
1/ mi jo e kili: I have a fruit
2/ ona li pona li lili: She’s good and small
3/ mi moku lili e kili lili: I nibbled a small fruit
4/ The leader drank dirty water: jan lawa li moku e telo ike
5/ I need a fork: mi wile e ilo moku
6/ An enemy is attacking them: jan ike li utala e ona mute
7/ That bad person has strange clothes: jan ike ni li jo len nasa
8/ We drank a lot of vodka: mi mute li moku e telo nasa mute
9/ Children watch adults: jan lili mute li lukin e jan suli mute
10/ mi lukin sewi e tomo suli: I look up at a big building
11/ seli suno li seli e tomo mi: The sun’s heat burned my house
12/ jan lili li wile e telo kili: Children want fruit juice
13/ ona mute li nasa e jan suli: They drove the adults crazy
Coming back with full energy, I am ready to swallow all the grammar lessons!! After three days messing around only vocabulary, I miss grammar so much. I could hear it calling me to cram it, to study it intensively because without it, I could not turn my vocabulary into beautiful and meaningful sentences. The building cannot be constructed without the blocks.
2 days to go, 9 lessons to go! Keep moving forward ^O^
