| Start: | Sep 4, '05 5:30p |
| End: | Sep 4, '05 7:00p |
| Location: | South School |
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
More musings
Now's a good time to write. For one, I'm not in a very sociable mood, and that's always nice for writing.
For the most part, I enjoy being here. Maybe it's because I've been here for such a short time and I haven't seen all the scars yet. Sometimes, I get a little scared just thinking about how I would feel six months from now. I wouldn't want to be too jaded. By this time, I can say that I know the city enough to be able to describe it as more than just "a big Chinatown". And that's still not good enough.
There are also times when I wonder what I got myself into. I like the place. I like the people. Work's ok, usually. Being in a foreign country can be a little taxing though. At times, I feel so helpless and that can be very frustrating. I can't even order anything in a restaurant. I have to either have something written down to show the taxi driver where I'm going, or call a friend to have him/her talk to the driver. It's convenient but after a while, it can make one feel like a complete idiot.
And I don't enjoy feeling like an idiot. Nobody does, I suppose. But I just have to say that so I could put more emphasis on it. I don't think I could ever put enough.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Monday, August 29, 2005
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Friday, August 26, 2005
First Monthsary
It's been a month. Back home, we'd call it a monthsary. I personally had never used the term much but I thought I'd want to add more of a Pinoy flavor to this. So there.
If there's anything that this country is doing to me, it's making me realize that I'm more pinoy than anything. One time, I met a Filipino in a fastfood restaurant and I was so ecstatic. God, I had not heard anyone talk to me in Tagalog for such a long time. It sounded so good. That was one of the things I took for granted. I swear I'll never speak Tagalog as thoughtlessly as I used to.
This is the part where I start listing down things that have happened to me since I got here. So here goes...
I've been mistaken as a Chinese so many times I can't even keep count. One theory I have is that their idea of how a foreigner must look is basically what they see in Hollywood movies. I don't have blonde hair and blue eyes, then I must be Chinese.
I find that really weird because all my life, once people find out I have Chinese blood, they'd tell me I look like a true-blue pinoy. Of course there are a lot of Chinese in the Philippines and people can tell in a second if a person is GI or not.
I still can't get used to the "wok thu" sound, as my LB would call it. Just before they spit, they make this horrible sound as if they're grating their throat, and then they spit. That's the "thu" there. One time, it rained so hard the night before, the streets were flooded when I had to go to school the following morning. It would have been fine because I've waded through higher floods before. But just thinking about all those "thu" finding their way to my legs... ohgodhelpmeplease. And it took such a long time for that flood to subside. It was still almost knee-high by the time I went back home in the afternoon.
I've eaten silkworms and salted duck eggs, which is of course nothing compared to our balut. I miss those. I almost ate dog meat but good thing I was informed in time; just when I was about to put it in my mouth.
I've met some really great people. I swear my social calendar is way busier here than when I was in Manila. Back home, I'd be too lazy to get to wherever it was, usually Makati or Malate, my friends and I were supposed to have dinner at. Traffic was always heavy. I'm sure it still is. Plus Akoh would probably freak out if I stay out really late. But here, everything is like 5 minutes away by taxi. And yeah, no one's waiting up. Hehe.
Since coming here, I've increased my alcohol tolerance. One bottle of beer here is roughly equivalent to 3 bottles of San Migs in size. And I've just about quit quitting smoking. Aaaargh, the premature wrinkles! I hope the moisturizers are making up for that. I know, I'm so vain. Sue me.
So far, I've had one marriage proposal. A lot of "are you married" and "do u have a boyfriend" questions. Several offers to introduce me to Chinese men. I've probably been mistaken as a hooker more times than I'm aware of, but let's not even go into that. Just tonight, the taxi driver was asking me for my phone number. Duh!
All in all, I'm loving it. Things can get really weird at times but that's where the excitement comes in. I never really know what to expect next. But somehow, things do always turn out to be fine.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Monday, August 22, 2005
Friday, August 19, 2005
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Shopping with Alice, Candy, Candy's mom and cuz
| Start: | Aug 20, '05 3:00p |
| Location: | Yu Lu Fa Supermarket |
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
friendster
http://www.friendster.com/profiles/joni
This is my friendster public profile. Do add me if you have an account there too.
This is my friendster public profile. Do add me if you have an account there too.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
waiyan's website
http://www.mytl.cn/school/index.htm
Warning: everything's in Chinese. But if you scroll down a little, you'll see a moving set of pictures, and I'm there. Which is why I'm linking it to my site. Hehe. But they spelled my name wrong. Sigh, you can't have everything.
Warning: everything's in Chinese. But if you scroll down a little, you'll see a moving set of pictures, and I'm there. Which is why I'm linking it to my site. Hehe. But they spelled my name wrong. Sigh, you can't have everything.
Monday, August 15, 2005
my chinese horoscope
http://www.tuvy.com/entertainment/horoscope/earth_lamb.htm
This one sounds like me. Except for the rich part. I wish that were true. But it does say I'll be rewarded with financial fortune at some later point in life. I'm waiting...
This one sounds like me. Except for the rich part. I wish that were true. But it does say I'll be rewarded with financial fortune at some later point in life. I'm waiting...
identity theory
http://www.identitytheory.com/
"a literary website, sort of" is its way of describing itself. I love it for the stories and nonfiction articles in it. I love one of the stories I read titled "The Certainty of Things." I'm going right back to explore it more now.
"a literary website, sort of" is its way of describing itself. I love it for the stories and nonfiction articles in it. I love one of the stories I read titled "The Certainty of Things." I'm going right back to explore it more now.
identity theory
| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Movie: Spanglish
| Start: | Aug 10, '05 7:00p |
| Location: | Rain's apartment |
Dinner with friends
| Start: | Aug 11, '05 7:00p |
| Location: | resto across the park, KTV |
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Music Park, TieLing City
I basically just shot anything that I found interesting while walking around the city one afternoon.
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
Of Cookies and Milk
As I write this, I'm eating cookies and drinking milk. Both of these, bought in very funny circumstances. Yesterday, I arrived half an hour early for my class, which is at 5pm. A little hungry and worried that I might not have the energy to face around twenty little people of 7 and 8 year olds, I decided to brave the non-English speaking world and get something to eat from the corner bakery. I looked around and chose something familiar, ergo harmless: cookies. There was a price tag that says 6RMB but I wanted to know how many pieces for 6RMB. Naturally, nobody could understand me, so I figured, fine just give me an order so I can start eating and get to my class. I gestured with my index finger, which I'm quite sure is the universal symbol for "one". The lady started putting cookies in a plastic bag, and putting, and putting, and putting. While my eyes grew larger and larger and larger. She weighed the bag and put some more. She gave me, I am guessing, a kilo of the blasted cookies.
After class, I remembered that I was almost out of milk. I went to a little grocery just below my apartment building. I'd been wanting to check it out but I was never brave enough. So finally, I went in. I know enough of Chinese to understand that the young woman was asking me what I was looking for, so I said "milk" knowing she wouldn't understand but hoping she would. She didn't. So I pointed at the display of bottled milk and I gestured with a rectangle to tell her I wanted the small packet sized ones. I swear I saw a lightbulb somewhere above her head. She led me to a shelf with so many different kinds of milk and she was telling me about each one. Of course I couldn't understand a thing. Some were pretty obvious, like the brown one would be chocolate, and then there was a pink one with drawings of strawberries. I wanted to tell her that I want a regular pure cow's milk please. But what's the use, right? After much gesturing from both parties, I chose the most ordinary looking pack.
So now I'm drinking it, and it's not pure cow's milk, thank you very much. I can't tell yet exactly what it is. Some fruit. Really, I'm trying to decide if it's mango or orange. I know that sounds really stupid but I realize now how my tastebuds can be very gullible. If it's written, or even mildly suggested through a drawing or the color, that it's orange, my tastebuds won't even think. They would just take in everything. They'd go, yeah it tastes like orange. Even if it probably doesn't. But now, they have to think. And that may be asking for too much.
So now I have too much cookies and a pack of still unidentified flavored milk.
Monday, August 8, 2005
*burp* My Life in China, so far
I just finished eating and yes, I think I just might gain some weight here. For some of you who still don't know, I am now in China teaching little kids how to use our colonial language. It's a little ironic, if you think of it that way. There we are, trying to find a Filipino identity, and here they are, learning to be Western. Sometimes, I just don't get it.
I've been here almost two weeks. So far, I like living alone. Of course there is much to be said about it. There are times when I miss waking up and there would be food on the table. And after eating I could just go to bed and the dishes had been washed by the time I get up again. Or that I don't have to worry about running out of some little thing like salt or pepper or something truly mundane. But for the most part, I love the silence. I love waking up and deciding what to do during the day. Of course I don't really do much of anything, just read and walk around the house or surf the net. I don't know but there's something about living alone and being in complete control of everything around the house that I really can get used to.
So far, classes have been exhausting but fine. What I find hard about teaching kids is that I have to always be animated, otherwise we all fall asleep. It definitely presents a different kind of challenge as teaching college kids back home. I must admit I thought it was going to be really easy teaching English. Duh. How hard could it be, right? You just talk to them. I thought it was going to be very similar to Speech classes back in high school. But um, nope. They don't understand you. At all.
I remember telling Artie before I left home that I'm sure I'm going to miss talking about Sappho or Rumi or Frost or even theories like feminism and deconstruction or writing techniques like metaphors and stream of consciousness. They can be hard to explain but they're always exciting. And yeah, I can be quite passionately animated talking about those things to my students. I could be really tired after class too, but there's always the feeling that I was able to relate something of importance. I guess we'll have to define what importance is in this case.
But yeah, I'm here for my novel. I need the solitude. I need time and space to think and write and weep, if I must. More than longing for home, I long to be able to write again. Furiously. Madly. Passionately.
Friday, August 5, 2005
Thursday, August 4, 2005
Another Practice Class
| Start: | Aug 3, '05 5:00p |
| Location: | North School |
Cici
Welcome Dinner
| Start: | Aug 4, '05 7:00p |
| Location: | KTV |
Meeting/Study Session
| Start: | Aug 4, '05 3:00p |
| Location: | South School |
Practice Class
| Start: | Aug 2, '05 6:00p |
| Location: | South School |
AKM
| Start: | Aug 1, '05 9:00a |
Jesse's class
| Start: | Jul 27, '05 5:00p |
| Location: | South School |
Hair Disaster
| Start: | Jul 28, '05 4:00p |
| Location: | salon |
Demo class
| Start: | Jul 29, '05 5:00p |
| Location: | South School |
Jasmine
Peaches Day
| Start: | Jul 31, '05 8:00a |
| Location: | market, TieLing City |
Independence Day
| Start: | Jul 30, '05 10:00a |
| Location: | TieLing City |
Dinner with friends
| Start: | Jul 28, '05 8:00p |
| Location: | TieLing City |
My apartment at Chang Qing Yuan
| Start: | Jul 29, '05 8:00p |
| Location: | TieLing City |
Residence Permit and Medical Check-up
| Start: | Jul 28, '05 9:00a |
| Location: | TieLing City |
Rest day!
| Start: | Jul 27, '05 6:00a |
| Location: | Wendy's house, TieLing City |
From Manila to China!
| Start: | Jul 26, '05 9:00a |
| End: | Jul 26, '05 8:30p |
| Location: | Manila to TieLing City |
old china (at least for me)
This is along po wu guan. I was expecting China to be a lot more like this. Imagine my delight when I stumbled upon this street.
waiyan's welcome dinner for me (4 Aug 2005)
the foreign teachers: rain, me and jesse
geez, thanks guys!
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
despedida party 2 (home, july 2005)
my best high school buds threw me a "party" a few days before i left for china. i'm sorry nels couldn't be there.
despedida party (greenbelt, july 2005)
bevz organized this little get-together with people i went to college, grad school and work with. thanks bevz! i cannot remember the name of the resto. sorry.
garage sale (july 2005)
Our first ever garage sale. Jona, Artie, Jing and I share the same booth while Maklet and Thom have their own.
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