Tuesday, June 16, 2009

TRAVEL

Masaya ang maglakbay. Ang sumakay sa eroplano. Un nga lang kasi, minsan, ngaragan din, kailangang gumising ng maaga pero ang pinakamasaklap ay ang bumiyahe nang magisa... Wala kang makausap. Pinapatay mo ang oras na nakatunganga ka... Ang mahirap rin kasi minsan kapag nakatanga ka, naprapraning ka rin kasi kung anu-ano ang pwedeng pumasok sa isip mo...

Eh sa may ipod or mp3 naman kaso... mabibingi ka or masisira naman ang tainga mo kung lumagpas ka ng isang oras kakarinig ng kanta.

Eh sa may cellphone, maglaro ka or di kaya magtext? Okey sana kung unli eh kung sa kuripot ako sa load?

Eh sa may libro... eh di magbasa... pwede... un nga lang kasi minsan, ang mga librong gusto kong basahin eh mas malaki pa kaysa sa wallet ko...

Eh kung ung maliit? ah eh.. pwede rin... pero anong libro?

Ganyan ang mga kapraningan ko kung nagbibiyahe ng magisa... Minsan naman gusto kong maging friendly sa seatmate ko... kaso sabi ng tita ko "Don't talk to strangers"... hahahaha... Ah, basta, bahala na nga lang si batman...


Wednesday, June 3, 2009

2-6


Photo credit: flickr.com

As I look at the clock right now, it's barely 35 minutes before it strikes 12... and yep, JUNE 4 sets in...

Unlike my past birthdays, I have something planned for THE BEST DAY EVER IN MY LIFE... but right now... I have no idea... lol! I mean, when I say plan, plan for myself at least.. it's the only day in the year when I just like to be thinking about myself... hehehe.. anyway, so, first, I'll go get myself enrolled for first semester, submit my grades... then... I really don't know.. well, dinner's planned. That's it... ah! maybe find a SIMS installer somewhere...

Turning 26 is quite freaky... I mean 4-5 years before I get erased from the calendar... Now I know what "mid-life crisis means"...

Anyway, there are lots of things I am thankful for...

1. Grace and Mercy.
2. 26 years of breathing.
3. Family.
4. True Friends.
5. Traveling.
6. Shared laughters. Shared tears.
7. New loves...
8. Broken strings... (love the song!)
9. Sanity.
10. Tough stomach.

To complete everything, things that I hope for:
11. Grace and Mercy.
12. Health.
13. Protection.
14. A Canon DigiSLR camera
15. A pair of havaianas (slim, size 5.5)
16. umbrella... (hehehe...)
17. balloons!
18. pizza! (stuff crust)
19. more travel! (hehehe... parang hindi takot sa H1N1 eh)...
20. my own house.
21. my own car.
22. save enough to buy myself a husband... (hahaha, takot maiwan eh.. hahahaha)...
23. enough sleep... (back to my eight hours...)
24. have my own business... (charut.. libre mangarap! walang kokontra!).
25. bonggang birthday bash! (pang-kids ba?)
26. SIMS installer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

there you have it... things to thank and hope for...

x-o-x-o!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

WAITING REALLY KILLS...

Photo credits: http://www.scottburns.co.uk/images/blog/stressed1.jpg
Indeed. Waiting kills. I have barely two days left before I get into a room with my advisory committee... it's going to be judgment day...
Actually, I don't know how to feel right now... it's like everything's mixed up. I want to bake a cake, I know how to do it, it's just that I don't know if the finished product will be a cake. Well, I know the ingredients right? I mean, one click on the web and I know what to buy... I know what to do... but am not sure if the cake will turn out the way I want it to be...
I have been reading since early May, you know, just trying to recall things that I've learned during the past one year and a half... trying to recall words that have lots of meaning to me and trying to reconcile myself with just sticking to one definition. I've written concepts on manila papers and hung them on my wall. I've been reading articles just to make sure I don't forget the pratical side of what I am suppose to master... I've like exhausted every possible means of making sure I can recall whatever I have learned... and yet.. here comes the time when I go "Am I even reviewing the right thing?".
This thing makes you go nuts literally... We'll at least most, if not all, of my friends attested to this feeling. They keep saying "don't worry, you can make it... no need to review Lou, you'll just get frustrated... " If it were just easy to do this... (*sighs*)...
As I really wait for the day, the more I get anxious... well, I really don't want to get ahead of myself... I received a text message from my adviser right now telling me to review well and I replied to her that am actually going nuts... like my heartbeat is that of someone who jogged 10 laps... then, she just replies.. BE STILL AND KNOW THAT THERE IS GOD... WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER...
It's really comforting to know that even when waiting kills, someone is willing to wait with you...

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

AS IF IT WAS JUST YESTERDAY...

Today, the sun is shining at its peak. It’s the best time to be merry (not after a week of rain and gloom)... but right now, I feel at my lowest. I want to cry. Again. In silence. It’s one of the days when I get to see myself in the midst of my decisions and the midst of the choices I’ve made.

As if it was just yesterday when I met you, as if it was just yesterday that you sat beside me and asked me this word you barely understood, as if it was yesterday that you kept bugging me to join you for dinner, to go watch a movie, or to do something extraordinary, as if it was yesterday that you held my hand for the first time after so many months of being together, as if it was just yesterday that you stood in my defense over something... as if it was just yesterday that I got to know you inside out. AS IF IT WAS JUST YESTERDAY...

It’s just barely two weeks since you’ve been back, and you say you’re leaving again... and this time, you’ll leave me hanging, not knowing when you will be back. I knew this was coming. That was part of the deal. I had my mind ready for this... I know I will get over it... but guess what, it’s slowly sinking in... that maybe, I CAN’T... you have shown me how life is... how it should be... you taught me how life could surprise me and that all I need is to hang on... you taught me a lot of things... and that I am so grateful.

You were one of the people who have painted my life with colors unknown to men. And I don’t know if in the midst of this painting, I’ll start learning to let go even if it is yet unfinished...

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY...

Photo credit: http://www.chromasia.com/images/and_the_rain_came_down_x_b.jpg

It's summer and most, if not everyone, dread the heat. Everyone complains (even me) about how the heat just destroy's the momentum of having a "great summer". Then the heavens hear this lamenting and He gives you a dose of rain. Yep, when I say a dose, like it's a dose - non stop rain in short. Then, the vicious cycle of complaining runs its course again... It's too ironic that when something comes, we complain, and when we get the opposite, we still complain. No wonder somtimes, we're just stuck to where we are....
Anyway, so this nostalgic feeling this weather gives me today is just so unbearable.
Why?
1. I feel homesick
2.I just want to be under the sheets (I could enjoy the bedsore this time...)
3. I don't want to go out
4. I could live with eating soup (like forever?)
Too much for being a weather-lover eh?

Thursday, April 16, 2009

THE FLIGHT BACK HOME

The moment I set foot in Cambodia, I said to myself "I could get use to this..." though, I had to take note that a lot of major adjustments would come from my part. The usual scenery of the city didn't take me by surprise. The usual - traffic jams, heat, narrow roads, beating the green light, chinese food, etc.

I really had a laid-back vacation. I have to admit though that 25% of my brain kept bugging me about "your outline, your grades"... Well, it's good I had someone to snap me out of it.

The trip was worthwhile. Like any other vacation I've had, time just flies so fast. The first thing you know, I'm putting my sneakers on, then the next, am hitting the blankets.

The best part of traveling is that you get excited when the plane takes off; even an embrace from someone can't calm your anticipation. That's how it usually goes, your plans have been laid out, you have a list of things to buy, things to do, food to eat, places to visit, etc. However, sometimes, the straight road suddenly gets to a curb. Well the adage "Life never works out the way you plan" really worked for me - well, blame some minor "technical" problems.

Going home should've been the easiest for me 'coz it's still different when you speak the same language, you eat the food you've been familiar with for the last 25 years or so, not be mindful of what or how to speak, etc. But honestly, it was one of the hardest. Well, I won't go cheesy over here telling how it's going to be difficult for me not having him around.

The moment he sent me off to the airport, I was emotional of course, it would be two months or so before we get to see each other again. I wanted a hug, he knows that, but a hug is a no-no, not in their culture. After checking-in and walking towards the immigration section, I could still see his eyes stuck to me, and seeing him walk away just made my tear ducts work.

Sitting on the boarding area for more or less one hour prolonged the agony, I continued reading my book, but after five pages or so, I had to close it - this thing is just isn't working! I didn't care if people looked at me and wonder why the heck am I wearing my sunglasses at seven in the evening.

I had to compose myself at one point before I boarded the plane and thanks so much to "it's all in the head" thing, I was able to collect my wits back and put it in the right place.

So there you go, the ever wacky girl that I am.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

TO CAMBODIA AND BACK

March 28-April 9, 2009.
I went to Cambodia to have an early vacation before summer sets in. Did heaps of shopping... yeah, clothes there are pretty cheap, you can buy a quality shirt for $2.5 only... The food was superb, I actually filled myself with sea foods and fruits. I just so love this grilling restaurant somewhere, I told Sothea I could live there forever... hahaha.. Oh, and there's this super uber good juice drink made from winter melon, I could actually drink six cans if permitted but I value my liver so much that water was still my number one drink.
Toured the country actually. Went to the beach and visited Angko Wat (again)... Got to see the Mekong River and Tonle Sap Lake too.
Well, had a blast. The trip was worth it even if there were minor 'technical' problems...
Royal Palace, Phnom Penh

with Apsara, the celestial dancer... dapat magone-on-one kami sa ballroom, tignan ko lang kung sino manalo, basta hindi ganyan ung costume (walang pantaas) hehehe..



Royal Palace, Phnom Penh


Yes peepz, I got to ride on one... $20 for nine minutes.. oh di ba? bongga ang presyo... pero okey na rin iyon, kasi bundok naman nilakbay ni pareng Dumbo...


Aketch...


Me and si sweet corn.. charut!


With Sothea, Dr. Dizon and Daream... Love the tree...



Somewhere near Angkor Wat... (tsuri forgot the name of the temple).



The mass graves where 20,000 people were massacred and buried during Pol-pot's Regime.


This is where my heart went out: knowing that children where smashed on this tree. Actually, some pits were categorized: those that were beheaded, mothers and children together, etc.



The monument is where the excavated skulls and bones are kept. It was an eerie and creepy place for me. I was shivering the whole time. It's not a sight to behold, not when you see pits where some 20,000 people were massacred and buried.


At the genocidal center (tanghaling tapat yan mga friends... )



Still at Kamphong Som province. At a hotel somewhere...


At the border (Vietnam and Cambodia)


At the beach. Yep, had the leisure to even visit the beach at Kamphong Som. It was a five-hour drive from Phnom Penh but the travel was worth it. Loved the food, the scenery, and of course, the company (ehem!)...ΓΌ




At Phnom Wat. Good that the huge clock works hehe.