Homecoming In 4 Days!!

In four days, I'll be setting my foot on Philippine soil. I'm sooooo excited to see, taste, and smell (!) my country again. Still I can't help but feel a bit bittersweet about it. A lot has happened in the four months I was here and I feel that the Aileen coming home to her family and loved ones is not the same Aileen as the one who got on the plane at NAIA last January 22, Saturday morning. I have been changed by this experience definitely. I'm praying the changes in me are for the better and that it was Someone Up There who made these changes in me and not somebody else. ;p

Anyways, enough of the drama, kwento naman! Yesterday I went to some chateaux around Angers with my three Hongkong friends, Vienna, Lam, and Rain. Had lunch at Tours... sobrang init na dito! Temperature was at 31°C pero it felt like 39°C! Today I set for Paris with Vienna, Rain, Mikoy, and Anna. Might stay at our teacher's flat in Paris so tomorrow we can head to Brussels earlier and then head back to Angers on Monday. I know I'm taking too short a time to go everywhere... just making most of my free time here in Europe. Kumbaga e, sinusulit ko lang. Monday our friends from Bordeaux will be coming to Angers to do some sight-seeing. We'll be sight-seeing along with them na din, and take pictures of this city that has been our home for the last four months at lilisanin na din namin in a while. (tears tears)

On Tuesday I take my flight to arrive in Manila on Wednesday afternoon. Nats tells me my parents have prepared a special Thanksgiving dinner for me when I get home. That's soooo sweet of them! I dont know if they will be inviting some people over to "welcome me" home (how's a party for a welcome, huh?!) but I don't care... I'll just be so happy to get back! I dont know what I'll do first when I get to my house: kiss my cat, play my piano, fall on my bed. In my excitement I might just do everything at the same time!

Thursday I go back to my life, meaning I go to UP to enroll for my masters, maybe meet some friends in the afternoon, definitely go see Nats for dinner. Friday I continue with the same thing, plus fix all my powerpoints and materials for my classes which will start on Monday! Still need to schedule "dinners" with friends I've missed so much, plus appointments for my facial, spa, haircut and CANS (syempre importante yan hehehe)... I have so much to do until the weekend that I probably will hardly have enough time to unpack my clothes until Monday next week!

True Tales of My French Life

(apologies to my friend for borrowing this line, you know who you are ;p)
entrance to ESSCA... two weeks na lang before i leave this place... possibly never to come back :(

compare with february 05 and spot the difference 

a few of my favorite french things: cheese and butter! 

keeping me high 

keeping me grounded 

Finally Studying

After four long months of doing almost nothing but kill time here in France, I finally embark on actually studying this weekend. Since January wala na akong ginawa dito kundi tumambay, kumain, matulog, at magpataba. Am supposed to be enrolled full-time in a "European Business" program pero it feels more like a series of seminars rather than a full-load semester. They say it was intended to be that way because the pressures of living and studying in a foreign country are already hard enough that the school has tried to keep the study load of this program light to balance things.

Not that I'm complaining, though. Ehehehe. Actually I surprise myself na may intensyon pa pala akong mag-aral dito 'no?! Was planning to cross-stitch, read "Sophie's World" (sorry honey, wala pang Ethan's Universe eh, kelangan mo pang isulat) and chat all weekend! But seeing as so far I have three exams, one paper, around 4 "yearly decisions" on our strategy game, a 3-year strategic plan, and a conference abstract all due for next week, I may just need to work my a#@ a bit here... just a bit lang naman.

Pero pero pero... pwede rin namang puro laway lang naman dito sa blog ang aking self-professed intention to study. For all you know, I may just actually end up sleeping all weekend. Keber ko na lang sa mga trabahong tumatambak sa desk ko. Aba aba aba, when I get back to the Philippines I'll be facing work again naman di ba? So better take advantage of this opportunity to enjoy life sans responsibility. Para man lang even for these few remaining moments of time (Ate Whitney, take it away!) e lubus-lubusin ko na ang pagrerelax ko dito. Pagbalik ko ng Pilipinas, kayod na naman sigurado!

Pero BUT... it's really about time I start working. The bed is calling me to sleep but I will use all my WILLPOWER to get up and study. Kaya ko to: I can do this. Buti na lang nakabili ako ng capuccino mix dito... it's a far cry from my usual Sbucks or CoffeeBean drinks pero pwede na din. Hay buhay... Sya, let the cramming begin!!!

The Philippine Flag in Milan

38 DAYS TO GO!!

Hello all! Got new stuff on this blog... better yet, more pictures!! Hindi obvious from this view kasi I dated the posts when they happened. New stuff includes my last Paris visit (which now seems ages ago kahit last March lang yun) and my LA trip. Check them out in the March and April archives!

Yup, 38 days to go na lang, home sweet home na ako!! I am thankful for every little thing that I experienced on this trip but I also can't wait to get back to where I belong (...GMA? ;-p). There are times nga when I dream about it na eh, e.g. kwarto ko, dates with my honey, pagkanta sa choir, practice ng Praise Theme, malling sa rob/rockwell/gbelt... HAY NAKU ibalik nyo na ako sa pilipinas!

But as it is, i have to patiently wait until June 22 before masilayan ko ang aking inang bayan. Ay! alam nyo ba kung ano ang isweetest sight na nakita ko dito? Syempre pa ang ating FLAG na nagwawagayway sa milano! (SEE PICTURE ABOVE, FOLKS.) As in hindi ko napigilan kumanta ng "ibon mang may layang lumipad, kulungin mo at umiiyak" achuchuchu.

Hay, kakamiss talaga!!! :( Enjoyin ko na lang ang mga nalalabing araw ko dito sa Europa... still have to schedule trips to London, Slovakia, Rome, Munich before leaving France. Tapos pagalis ng France, punta naman sa Finland at HongKong for days-long stopovers. Sobrang delayed gratification talaga ang paguwi ko. Kahit hanggang May 26 na lang ata ako dito sa Angers, may almost one month bago ako talaga lalapag sa Pilipinas.

Until June 22 then, my beloved country!

7 Things Mr. C Learned From UP

This is a passage taken from Ryan Cayabyab's speech at the Graduation Ceremonies of the UP College of Music this year. Mr. Cayabyab, or Mr. C, as everyone in the Philippines calls him, I was surprised to find out, is a "true-maroon" son of the university. Not only is he a UP Professor and Alumni, he is also a UP resident, having grown up in the campus and lived most of his life there. The speech was printed in the Manila Bulletin last May 4, according to a colleague who emailed this to me. I actually want to post the entire speech here, pero I decided to make do with this na lang.

Meron lang akong dagdag na pabaon sa inyo para lalong di nyo malimutan, ang UP nating mahal. Ito ang pitong mga bagay-bagay tungkol sa buhay na natutunan ko sa UP:

• Ang buhay ay parang IKOT jeep. Ang iyong patutunguhan ay siya ring iyong pinanggalingan.
• UP lang ang may TOKI, sa buhay wala nito. Pero nasasaiyo na yon kung nais mong pabaligtad ang takbo ng buhay mo.
• Sa IKOT, puede kang magkamali ng baba kahit ilang beses, sasakay ka lang uli. Sa buhay, kapag paikot-ikot ka na at laging mali pa rin ang iyong baba, naku, may sayad ka.
• Sa UP, lahat tayo magaling. Aminin nating lahat na tayo'y magagaling. Ang problema dun, lahat tayo magaling!
• Kung sa UP ay sipsip ka na, siguradong paglabas mo, sipsip ka pa rin.
• Sa UP, tulad sa buhay, ang babae at ang lalake, at lahat ng nasa gitna, ay patas, walang pinagkaiba sa dunong, sa talino, sa pagmamalasakit, sa kalawakan ng isipan, sa pag-iibigan; at kahit na rin sa kabaliwan, sa kalokohan at sa katarantaduhan.

At ang panghuli...

• Sa UP tulad sa buhay, bawal ang overstaying.

Maraming salamat po!

Gushing

Received a "gushing" email from a friend today... If it were an email regarding a girlfriend, a potential girlfriend or even an ex-girlfriend, I would definitely say he was "kinikilig". But it wasn't about a girlfriend (present, past, or future)... his email was about an answered prayer. Reading his testimony made me ask myself: when did I last "gush" about my answered prayers? When was the last time I felt "kinikilig" about my God?...

When was the last time thinking about the Lord of my life sent shivers up my spine?

We throw around the phrase "falling in love" as haphazardly as we throw our bags around. We experience a few emotional highs here and there and immediately mistake these bursts of feeling for the real thing. Faced with love as its truest, however, our hearts freeze and our psyches harden.

We hesitate to give our deepest, "gushing-est" thanks when they are most deserved and we choose to hold back our most flamboyant expressions of love when they will be most appreciated. And it's not as if we lack the reason to fall in love with our God "with all our soul, all our heart, all our mind, and all our strength", right? To borrow (crudely) from the movie "A Beautiful Mind": He is all our reasons. The problem with us is that we use reason when we shouldn't and we don't when we should. Looking at it this way, it seems such a stupid, nonsensical way to behave. But we continue to behave like this anyway.

Thank God He knows when to apply reason and when to forget it: just reflect on God's paradoxical identity of Justice and Mercy and you'll know what I mean. His patience and understanding for us defy reason. True enough, when all reason fails, trust God to answer with something else. Thank God He applies Love instead of Reason. Instead of punishment, Grace.

So to my friend--you know who you are--thanks for your email. Gave me a check on the difference between "the real thing" and its poor shadow. Reminded me to be more discerning about to whom I give my heart to. That it's also prudent to gush, but only about things worth gushing about. And that there is no other feeling in this world quite the same as "kilig", but only for the (true) Lover of our souls.