Good and Bad

Ah, finally! After endless posts about bad days and unfortunate happenings, I can finally write some good news!

Mabuhay! Yahoo! ASIA Philippines Edition is now on the world wide web! It's not yet Yahoo! Philippines, but it is a start! :D

Flattered. Enrollment is over, and thankfully, contrary to what I expected, I didn't have a hard time. In fact, I had a really easy time! And, I believe I owe that to the fact that I went to Japan. Ever since, I went there, teachers and staff in my college have gotten to know me (or at least heard of me), and have been really helpful. Since we're still a baby college (i.e. new - 2001), I guess they're happy that someone from our group got that scholarship. They practically did everything for me, like figuring out which classes I should take, encoding and finalizing my schedule, squeezing me into one major class where I am an extra student without a designated pc, and called the Physics department to add me as the 36th student to an already closed 35-student class. *bows* Arigatou gozaimasu! I am indeed very grateful. And even though one might say that I don't love Silliman as much as I should, I love my college (College of Information Technology and Computer Sciences [CITCS]) very much indeed! It totally rocks!

Success. The Centennial Foundation Anniversary of St. Paul University Dumaguete was a truly meaningful one. Graced by prominent personalities such as the Sisters of Saint Paul of Chartres's (SPC) Mother Superior from Rome, and Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself, it was truly a momentous celebration. The highlight was yesterday's parade, which my high school batch joined, that started at the school and ended at Rizal Boulevard where there was a re-enactment of the arrival of the 7 original French SPC sisters who came from their mission in Vietnam to build a school in Dumaguete. Restaurant booths where tables and chairs were set up were teeming with alumni, and the highlight was the fireworks display which was done from a boat in the water. It a great sight. Since it is October, San Miguel Beer is having it's Oktoberfest, and last night they had a live band which old and young Paulinians alike danced to. Since today is the final day of the celebration, there was another fireworks display at the campus just a few minutes ago. We saw it from our house and it was great. :)

Something sad happened too, though. Mark sent me a text very early this morning and told me that one of his parents' two dogs, a cute Bichon Frise named Penny died because she got ran over. I could just remember all the stories he's told me about her and couldn't help but cry. The poor lil' thing. :'(

Mabuhay - a Filipino greeting used in welcoming; literally means "long live"
Arigatou Gozaimasu - "Thank you" in Japanese

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Once In A Lifetime

I feel very, very, very rotten. :( I missed a once in a lifetime event. I wasn't able to go to SPUD's Alumni Homecoming. It was today/tonight/probably still going on right this very minute, and I didn't care so much before, I thought I didn't feel the need to go, but now I am extremely disappointed that I'm not there. :'(

My mom really wanted to go (she is also an alumna) but she didn't explicitly tell me that she really wanted to be there. So I didn't care, and then I assumed it would not be today, but in one of the following days. Early this afternoon, we learned from some friends that it was indeed today, but we had no choice but not to go, since we had to sing for a mass at 5:30. After the mass, we passed by SPUD going home, and oh my God, that's when we realized what we missed and what fools we were for not going to the CENTENNIAL homecoming. All the lights in the campus were lighted, and there were soooooo many cars, you could feel just by looking at them parked from here to there, outside and inside the campus, that it was a very, very special event. The Mother Superior from Rome was probably there! Paulinians from all over the world probably came home to join this event. And I, who live not 200 meters from the campus, missed it. What a shame!

I could just kick myself. I should have been more vigilant. I should have realized beforehand that I needed to be at this occasion; for SPUD is my beloved. I gave so much to her, and she gave so much to me. I will never feel for my current school (Silliman University) even just a fraction of what I feel for St. Paul's--that I know.

Oh my. I am extremely, extremely disappointed.

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Playing Teacher

As you know (or might not know :P), I'm currently teaching/tutoring English to three Koreans everyday, each person for an hour. Now, this is a very good part-time job, and I am quite grateful for it (and the pay is quite big for Philippine standards). However, it does have it's, erm... confusing moments.

Like for example, the pronounciation. We all know Japanese/Korean people have a problem with their L and R's, right? Well, let's say I'm letting them pronounce the word fork. They can either say fork in the American accent, or because they can't properly pronounce R's, it'll come out like they're saying it in a British accent (with the sorta silent R). But of course, you know that it's really just their R difficulty. So, will you correct them? Adding to the confusion is the Filipino accent, wherein every letter is said out and enunciated, unless of course a particular letter should really be silent. Now, how should I teach English to them?

I asked them once when I was going to read some text: How do you want me to read this, meaning whether Philippine or [almost] normal American accent. They said, either way. However, if I don't enunciate every letter, they won't be able to understand what I'm saying. So, for teaching them, I've realized that how we do it here (i.e., enunciate) is best, because they are like beginners after all. Now, I'm just wondering, when they go back to their native country, will people recognize their English as proper English? They only learned in the Philippines. I don't know. After all, there are still some people who don't recognize our English.

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Week-end

Wow, that week-end just passed by without me noticing it! That's weird. Maybe it's because with my life now (no school and all) every day feels like a week-end! Ehehehe.

Oooh, my cousins and I are practicing an ethnic/folk dance 'coz our choir was asked to perform a number at a fund raiser at the church. Yeah, we sing and dance, yeah! :P~ Heheheh. We chose a Muslim nail dance ('coz the costumes are funky) and it's called Janggay. It has these really funky feet movements (you have to move sideways without lifting your feet off the floor) that's quite challenging. But, we're gonna put aluminum wrap on our fingers to make long, curled fingernails, so I like that part. ^^;

Janggay - brass nails (in a Mindanaoan dialect, I presume)

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Damn it all.

I am so upset. I just had another grueling piano lesson, and I just felt so upset afterwards that I couldn't help but cry. My wrists ache, my shoulders ache, my butt aches--I just don't understand why I have to undergo all these when I don't even f***ing wanna learn! Isn't learning this supposed to fun? Especially since I don't wanna make this into a career or anything?

My major is IT, and now I'm forced to learn the piano. What's next? Carpal tunnel syndrome?

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Amazing

I can't believe I haven't written an entry about the two-hour finale of The Amazing Race 5. I sux. Anyways, here goes. If you haven't seen it and are still planning to watch, don't read...

The star of The Amazing Race 5's Philippine leg

Whoooo. El Nido is the most beautiful place I've seen on TAR, ever. (Forgive me if I'm biased, hehehe.) I really, really wanna go there. >.< Palawan has always been the place in the Philippines that I really wanted to visit (aside from Bohol), and my is it pretty! I reckon it's even prettier than Boracay in a sense, because of all those rocky islands.

That was sad that they didn't know how the flag of the Philippines looks like. But I guess it's natural, after all we are just a teeny archipelago in the Pacific... ;.;

Colin was amazing on Lagen Wall! I know his attitudes pretty much suck, but in fairness to him, he is really hot and totally in shape. Oh by the way, did you know that he proposed to Christy at a tv show in the US after the finale was shown? I dare say, they deserve each other, really. ^^;

I was so happy that Brandon and Nicole won that leg in Palawan. At least they got a vacation to the Caribbean. It's not fair that Colin and Christy practically got all of the other prizes! :P~ Anyways, who was that woman who put on the lei (was that made of seaweed) on the the contestants. OMG, how she said "Mabuhay, welcome to Palawan!" was so... ugggh!

On the Airport in Calgary, I kept speculating that maybe CBS might have removed some people from the plane to give seats to the other contestants. If I remember correctly, the woman on the counter said something like, They're getting people off the plane to give you seats." Hmmmm. If Brandon and Nicole, Colin and Christy hadn't made it on that flight to Denver, it would have been very obvious right then and there who was gonna win. However, it didn't matter anyway, because the moment they arrived Dallas, it got really obvious that Chip and Kim were gonna win, no matter how "thrilling" CBS tried to make it. Hmmm. I've always had nothing for or against Chip and Kim. Don't like them, don't not like them, so I guess I wasn't pretty excited about them winning. I was a little suprised though about Chip's lying and scheming near the end of the race. It made TAR look like Survivor. >.< I was rooting for Brandon and Nicole, but ever since the beginning of that last leg, it was obvious they really won't be able to do it. However, the couples' speeches at the end made me cry though. *sniff*

And, I can't wait for Season 6 to begin! It's a good thing I only have to wait for just about a week. Heheh.

On another hand, I've started taking piano lessons. My teacher is the organist of another choir at my church. It's ok, aside from the fact that he teaches really fast. And then there's also the fact that I really don't have the passion for this... >.<

I invited close friends in High School to come over to my house tomorrow and just hang out and catch up. I'm looking forward to that.

Mabuhay - Filipino greeting, literally means

"long live" but also used to welcome visitors and in well-wishing

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Bed

Yippee! I got a new king-sized bed! hihihih... It really is big. Question now is, what will I do with a bed this big when I sleep all by myself? :P~

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Hahaha!

Quote of the week, month, or rather--season:

My ox is broken.

--Colin in Episode 11 of The Amazing Race 5

ROFL.

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Yikes!

Last Wednesday night was the opening of the Foundation Day celebration at Silliman University. I went to the opening of booths at one of the soccer fields with my friends, Daphnie and Ethel, and my cousin, Chary. Later that night, we went to the Boulevard, which isn't very far from my school where there was a Food and Beer Festival. They had a kick-ass band from Iloilo that was really, really good.

Last night we went to the booth festival at SU again. FYI, the booth area is filled with quite a number of native booths where people sell food and any kind of stuff. Anyways, every night there are programs at the booth area, and last night was a dance contest and a fashion show, to be preceded by a band. We got to watch the "fashion show" and it was, erm... amusing. After that, we left the booth area to go to the boulevard, but on the way, we got distracted by people preparing fireworks. It turned out there was a fireworks display at 10:00 pm. Since it was about 15 mins. before 10:00, we decided to stay about 50 meters from where the fireworks were, and waited to watch. When they were lighted, waaaaaaaaaa!!! It was ok at first, but soon, we got scared because they didn't get too high and they were exploding right over our heads. Yikes!

After that, we went to the boulevard for the Food and Beer festival, just when the band that was playing was just finishing. They weren't very good, not like the other band we witnessed, and as some people said, not unlike the band from Cebu the previous night. After the band got off the stage, another band took over, and they played techno-tribal music. Yikes! That was sooo fun... NOT!!!

The night went really worst for me, however, because my eyelids started getting puffy. In other words, I got allergies, goodness knows from what! It could have been the fish that I ate for the first time that lunch, but I thought it was because of the tree that we were sitting under last night. Oh my, they got so puffy and red like I've never seen them before, so we went home. Before, when I was growing up, my eyelids would get puffy sometimes (but never as puffy as last night), and I thought I was over that. My symptoms had changed to just sneezing. Gahhh!!! OMG, I hate this fuckin' allergy! Until now, my eyelids are still sorta puffy... *cry cry*

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The Amazing Race 5

I am soooooooo freakin' excited, I can barely stand still! The Amazing Race 5 passed through the Philippines, and they're probably gonna show it as a two-hour special! I don't know if they're gonna break it up into two episodes or not, but I can't wait to see which places they visited and what things they did! To top it off, the first episode of TAR 6 is gonna be shown the weekend after TAR 5's last episode next month. That means there won't be a long wait! Oooh, I am sooooo psyched! *jumps and screams all around the place*

El Nido, Palawan -- leg 12 site of The Amazing Race 5

*Sings: I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it!* LOL

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