I Got Faked!

The other day, I paid for something at Cellutrim, the gym where I work out. Imagine my surprise this morning when the owner told me that one of the one-thousand peso (approximately USD 21) bills I gave them was fake!

I always hear about fake money, but I've never been victimized before, so I've never really been cautious about the money coming into my hands. My money is always coming from the bank (and not from other people) so I've never been worried. This said fake bill however, was also from the bank. It could either have come from a local branch of RCBC where I had my salary check encashed, or from a BPI ATM where I made a withdrawal. I did not have any other source of money in the past week, so the fact still remains that the fake money came from a bank.

 Tsk. Goodbye, one thousand pesos.

I have no way of proving where this money came from so I don't think there's anything I can do. But let this be a warning to everyone. Just because your money comes from the bank doesn't mean you're safe. I've talked to friends, and apparently, this happens all the time. So check your one-thousand or five-hundred peso bills the moment you receive them. It is inconvenient especially if you're dealing with a considerable amount of money, but it's necessary. The fake bill I have is obviously fake when I look at it. The colors are duller, the paper is crumpled, and it's even smaller than the real one. I just didn't bother to check because I had too much trust in banks.

This was a lesson learned the hard way... but meh. God sees the evil things people do. I'm sure the perpetrators of things like these will get their karma eventually... or go to hell... or something.

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And I live!

Just when I thought I was going to die: starving, bereft of entertainment on my last month here in Japan... I live! Hahaha. In other words, I am not broke anymore! By no means am I rich, but, I believe I now have enough money to pay my bills, buy food, and to some extent, enjoy my last two weeks in the land of the rising sun. Thank goodness for arubaito! Yatta!

This afternoon, I'm going to go to my friend Nica's house (she's Japanese, I met her on the Undernet #Japan/#Tokyochat party) and stay over for the night. I believe we're gonna be doing some really Japanese stuff. Yay for me!

With my Japanese friends, Nica and Carol

arubaito - part-time job (which in my case, was just scanning a book and labeling some text)
yatta - a Japanese expression that denotes happiness/victory

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Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Wala pa gihapon among allowance! Ano ba toh?!? Graveh na ha! Graveh na talaga!

Hay, naku! Anyways, I'm at the IT center again, and while I was coming here, it was raining/snowing. It wasn't that cold, but it was snowing. It was kinda nice though, and even a bit sentimental, because it's also probably the last time it's gonna snow here. It's unbelievable, but it's already March!!! We've been here for 6 months, and we've only got 5 more to go! I can't believe Spring is just around the corner and the cold weather is almost over! I could still remember last November when the weather was still starting to get cold and I thought I wouldn't be able to handle it. PHEW! It's really a relief that it's not gonna be cold anymore, but I'm sure, when I'm back home, sweating buckets because of the heat, I'll miss and want the cold weather! Hay, ang buhay nga talaga!

I hope muabot na among allowance, because at least, ug naa koy kwarta, I can get stuff to entertain me!

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Money

Ok, let's see. Our allowance arrived last Oct. 31. And since then, I have withdrawn a total of 25,000 yen. In my wallet, I still have around 5,000 and at the bank I have around 55,000. I can't believe it! Money just slips through your fingers sooo fast, it's even faster than the proverbial "water slipping through your fingers".

If I were in the Philippines, I would probably be rich right now. My allowance in pesos is actually around 35,000 per month. Imagine that?!? My monthly allowance back when I was still at home would just be around 5,000 pesos max. *blink blink* See? But here, phew! You have to really scrimp if you want to save. Clothes are the ultimate downfall, coz the really good ones are soooo freakin expensive. Can you imagine I saw a 198,000 yen coat at the department store near Ferris. That was probably a real fur coat, which just makes it even more sad! Because, they had to kill a poor animal for the fur, and now they're targeting the pockets of vain people. Soooo sad! Where are the animal rights activists?

Oh wait, I haven't posted much about the Ferris Festival, have I? *giggles lots* Well, there's this really amusing thing they did here at the school. Of course, there were a lot of Japanese guys who came here during the festival. There was a "booth" where these guys could have their pictures taken, write their contact info at the back of their pictures, and then post them for the girls to see and contact them later. Actually, the pictures are still posted until now. Hehehehe. It's amusing, isn't it?

Sukiyaki

Last night, our coordinators at the dorm invited April and I for dinner with them. However, April couldn't come because her seminar class was having a welcome party for her (speaking of welcome parties, my seminar class with Haruki sensei is giving me one on the 12th). I was really scared with that, coz I thought I had to face them on my own! Imagine just one barely-Japanese-speaking girl in the midst of two non-English-speaking adults! Fortunately, I learned that the two Chinese exchange students, Kak-san and Tei-san, were also invited. *phew!* We had sukiyaki (which I ate for the first time), and it was absolutely, absolutely oishi!!! It's my favorite Japanese food now!

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