After two weeks of our so-called winter break, I’m finally back to the place where I can wear comfortable short pants in bed, sans several layers of fabric. Somehow, it was relieving to see once again the green and brown fields and feel the ambient heat, at least when we got out of the airport last week. Despite the different weather conditions in the places where we went, I actually had an enjoyable experience- thanks to our wonderful hosts in Ohio: Ate Ena and Pukoy; in Detroit: Janir and Joel; in Buffalo: Merced, Moni, Imee and Devs; in Toronto: Ruby and Pukoy’s Tito George, Tita Neoly and cousin Rochelle and thanks too to our traveling companion to Toronto, Nesha.
The year 2008 has been kind to me and ushered me into a new environment, which I am gradually getting used to. To end the year 2008, here are my top personal thoughts brought about by the new lifestyle- some of them are worth thinking about and some are junk stuff in my head waiting to be vacuumed out, to make way for junk space for 2009!
> I am still a teenager. At the rate that my pimples are making their appearance, I try to look at the brighter side and just think that I have juvenile skin. Haha! Thou shall not recommend me some pimple-control products for I think I’ve already tried a lot. They work for awhile, but it seems that my system develop a certain kind of immunity. These days, I am not at all stressed, but they still come on stage. Maybe because of the food I eat? Or is this genetic? If having or not having pimples is a matter of heredity, I swear I’d knock the pimple gene out in the future! Somebody even told me before I left the Philippines, “Yung mga pumupunta ng US, kumikinis!” Yeah right, I should have placed a bet on that! So again, I am still a teenager. Teenager = no wrinkles and crow lines. Talk about payoffs. The lesson is: always look at the brighter side.
>A good number of male parishioners attend Sunday masses here in the US. It’s really heartwarming to know that the guys you see in Church are not only those who were dragged by their wives or girlfriends. There are actually guys who come by themselves and really pray fervently. Back home, who do you normally see attend masses? Well, several widows and some ladies, young and old but a few of the men. In relation to this, there was this funny observation made by this priest we have in the Philippines. He once asked, “Sino sa palagay niyo ang mas mahaba ang buhay?” People didn’t really answer for they thought it was a trick question related to the gospel reading for that day. Then smiling he said, “Aba, eh di ang mga babae. Sa araw-araw ba namang nagmimisa ako, eh ang mga babaeng balo ang ka-date ko!”
>I now appreciate listening to weather reports and being updated about them. Weather conditions here are weird. They often change drastically each day, so it helps to be prepared. I have two favorite terms right now: “wind chill”. And the people who do the daily weather reports have the designation, “meteorologist”. You really would like to believe them. I miss Ernie Baron.
>Almost everything is online. It’s difficult to be illiterate in a place where every person or every activity largely relies on computers. You have to pay the bills? Go online. You have to buy something nice and cheap? Go online. You want to register for classes or receive your salary? Go online. You want to watch something new and interesting? Go online. You want to get your degree fast? Go online. You want to make travel arrangements? Go online. You want to contact people back home. Go online. You want to get married? Sure! Go online. This is where I felt the impact of the computing age. If you have no functional computer, you’re dead. Well not really, just digitally dead- you are not in touch with the world. You see, the world has become virtual now. When I go online, it has become a habit to open 7 sites in this particular order- Yahoomail, Gmail, TAMU email, Multiply, Facebook, Friendster, TAMU elearning. Yeah I know, the others are close to nonsense websites. But what can I do? They make me happy. Hahaha! Each requires a username and a password. And for the desire of enhancing my memory skills, I have different user names and passwords for all those sites. Kidding. The truth is I have different user names and passwords because I never realized that I actually have to remember all of them to log-on to the systems. I just carelessly entered user names and passwords just to finish the registration processes. Now I am paying the price.
>A particular kind of body odor can really make one nauseous and sick and yet the perpetrator doesn’t seem to notice. :p
>Guys love to shop. Bring them to an outlet mall that shouts “ALL MUST GO!” and the shopping scrooges turn magically into Paris Hiltons, right before your very eyes. And take note, one outlet mall is not enough!
>Now I am beginning to understand the kind of training I am getting here. Here, we just have to take four courses, some seminar classes and the rest, research hours. It just recently dawned on me, that back home, we had to take gazillions of courses (not even related to what you actually want to do for research) for you to get your degree, and teach for long hours alongside, if you are on assistantship. The Ph.D. degree is more about research, and how you can handle its ups and downs. I wonder why we can’t have a research-inclined curriculum in the Philippines.
>Appreciate small things in life. They make you sane.
>We have time. During our graduate orientation seminar last semester, one professor raised this question, “How come you kids seem to be always busy, when almost all things these days are automated and readily available?” I wondered just the same. Am I really busy? Or is the business just superficial? Or maybe, am I just not making the most out of the time I have?
>Laugh for no reason at all! We just did that last week. And the result- we were laughing even more because we were laughing for no reason at all. Haha. It’s a good exercise!
HAPPY 2009!
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