– Normal surgical masks are not effective in filtering fine particles (i.e. tiny particles that are 2.5 microns or less in width), although they can reduce the discomfort cause by haze by providing a barrier between the wearer’s nose and mouth, and larger irritant particles in the air.

14. Are surgical masks the same as N95 masks?

– Surgical masks and N95 masks are different and were made for different purposes. Surgical masks were designed to protect the surrounding environment from the user’s own spit or mucous. Healthcare professionals use them (e.g. in an operating theatre) to prevent their own germs from infecting the patient.

– N95 masks were designed to protect the wearer from airborne particles. Studies have shown that they are at least 95% efficient against fine particles that are about 0.1 – 0.3 microns, assuming good fit on the wearer’s face.

It was about a month and a couple of weeks ago, was just doing the regular prayers.
Committing and praying about the plans ahead.
Who dont right? 😀
Was asking the Lord about the future, sharing the doubts, asking where to go after my years in Jakarta are finished.

Through the conversations with friends and colleagues, plenty of opportunities were available.
Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, (just heard recently) London.

But thats the thing about having opportunities, its really not that easy to decide.
Especially considering Singapore is a good ground and my parents are still here.
So how?

It was a long stretch, been praying about it for a really long time.

So that night, after an interesting encounter, I felt a prompting in the heart, Korea. (nope, dunno if its South Korea or North Korea).

It was like a burden has been lifted off.

Although its clear that it would not be easy.

I thought I should visit South Korea as a birthday trip as well.
2 items were bugging in my heart, the future in terms of career and the future in terms of marriage. Who knows what that prompting was for right? only “God knows” as they said.

I went ahead and made plans. Even choosing not to have the refund facility available for flight tickets purchase, (dumb dumb…) so I die die will go.
I purposely chose the flight that had a stopover in Japan.

THEN!
The MERS scare came along.
Not just about making wise decisions (despite of prompting) regards myself,
but also the need to think about the home
and the students in contact.

albeit there is a 3 weeks gap before getting back into classroom.
and that South Korea has one of the best medical and cellphone tracking system
and that the advise was to observe if there were more cases, if there is means initial measures were insufficient, therefore should avoid.

So… me of little faith, I went back to the Lord again… 😀
and as we know, He doesnt answer us as and when we want and His ways are always higher than our ways.

I thought I could do the lots thing to appease myself.

and having been with the Lord for years, I know… He won’t give me an immediate answer. 😀
So I listed a couple of possibility and a blank.

and we know which one I picked:

😀 Its a joke. 🙁 but well. 🙂 I am not surprised. cos thats Just how He is. 🙂
With faith.

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!
There are like so many things to see and do in Jeju!

Interesting waterfall, caves, structures and formation..

In the end, instead of trying to do everything, I settled with doing the Ollie Routes.
The easy ones of course. 😀 albeit long distance ones.

Olle Routes are routes marked out in Jeju-do (Jeju-island) itself. Meaning from the start point, you’ll get to walk free and easy, guided by blue and yellow arrows on rocks and orange and blue ribbons on trees. Pretty awesome a?

While there are bus, I heard its not extremely good. and their Taxi fare goes by calculation of km multiply by an amount. 🙁 seems confusing to me.
oh well..

guess thats the good thing about getting on Olle Routes
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_4_12_13.jsp

Planning for this Korea trip has been quite a journey…
Not just the selection of location part, even the reading through and putting things into proper pieces took its toll on me.

Lets talk about me first.
Yup,
ME. 😀

I’ve always pride myself in being an introvert, a person with OCD symptoms.
This whole journey of planning for the trip really put things into perspective for me.

So, I’ve intended to spend a weekend working on the itinerary. Having started reading on physical books, I was glad Im more or less ahead.

Friday came, I chilled out, cos I wasn’t in the mood.

Saturday came, still chilling,
then its 5pm, ok, time to start, so I started on it. Had to do a Seoul one and a Jeju one.

Collected the information into a notepad.

Worked all the way into 3am. Managed to more or less put Jeju one together. Refusing to go to sleep bcos I really want to achieve something, I pressed on…
Suddenly its 4:30am.

So I stopped and went to sleep.
Woke up feeling light-headed and heart heavy bcos what I’ve started on is not finished yet.
Don’t feel like working on it as theres that bitter taste.
Ignored it and then finally started on it in the evening,
went to sleep on time.

Went to work, came back. felt the nagging impulse to do it, but still the bitter taste is nagging, okay, I shall not work on it bcos I won’t feel good going to work the next day.

and so this whole nagging impulse and bitter taste kept going on and on.
To the extend that I felt like running away from it entirely (a.k.a fly back to SG and not be bothered about it cos I don’t have the things with me)

and of cos after a period of not doing anything and resting up, I got it finished in the end.
and thats the thing I realise about me.

I understood it is therefore important for me to divide up the task and take time to complete a huge project.

If I began on a task intending to finish it there and then, its not gonna end well.