Er... It's 2006...

How's my new year? I don't know, it just started.

Seriously, I don't even know where to start.

Last night was weird. Very weird. First, the nice part: My American friend and I went to this newly opened club called the Bee House Club. I heard that there were good pinoy performers and I really wanted to check them out. The place was fancy, food and drinks were overpriced. And yes, the pinoys were very good. And very nice. They were mixed with a Chinese band so they only get to sing one song each per set. They looked like they were really having fun onstage, in sharp contrast to the other band members who looked like they were about to fall asleep any minute. Anyway, we would chat in between their sets. They've been in TieLing for only a month. Everyone's being so nice to them except that nobody can understand them and they can't understand anyone. And why does every single song have to have tambourines in it?

Although they've been in China for a long time (Rey has been in China for nine years and Bernadette, eight), they mostly stayed in the south. They'll probably stay for two more months here in TieLing. He's originally from GenSan and she's from Baguio. Oh, and in China, Bernadette's temporary name is May. Oh yeah, Bernadette is a little too long for the Chinese people. I also learned that she has a 16-year-old daughter who's with her now (She definitely does not look like someone who has a 16-year-old daughter). She had her when she was seventeen. See, we learned a lot about each other. That's what you get when pinoys meet in a foreign country.

Another funny part of the night was this group of Chinese friends at the other table. One of them, I don't know which one and I'm sorry, invited me to dance. Of course you all know I can't dance but he didn't know that. So I tried telling him. I said, "Bu huei!" He said, "Huei!" There were several repetitions of this exact conversation but I will not bore you with that. Then out of nowhere, all of his friends appeared and dragged me to the dancefloor. Insert more of the "Bu huei!" "Huei!" here. So I figured, fine, whatever. I dragged May and the American guy (the friend that I came with who will remain nameless for reasons you will know later. But can we just call him NA for Nameless American so I won't have to keep on typing that later? Ok, so NA it is.) with me. No way was I going to go through this alone. This happened around three more times during the night. I did not even bother to protest during the second, third and fourth times, knowing the futility of it all. I just let myself be pulled and dragged and pushed. It was kinda fun too, in a way. While dancing with one of the guys, again don't ask me which (I wasn't even able to count how many there were), he asked if "lao gong sheng ci ma?" gesturing to NA. Roughly translated, "will your husband get angry?" Of course it was a ploy to find out if he were my husband/boyfriend/whatever. I said, "Ta bu shi wo de lao gong." All the while, NA was asking, "What? What's that?" which we both ignored because I really didn't want to explain. And especially after what had just happened, I still couldn't look at him.

So, what had just happened was... Countdown to the new year... countdowns are fine, I like countdowns, but... NA leaned over, said "Aren't you supposed to kiss during the new year?" Oh. God. This is not happening... I laughed weakly, in a tiny voice, "Yes." This was not supposed to happen. NO! He leaned even closer, lips puckered. Oh my gulay, help me!!! I gave a quick peck. Yes, the lips! What could I do? As if I had any choice! I knew he was expecting a long kiss but I quickly pulled away and turned somewhere else. The chair to my left (he was on my right) suddenly looked so interesting! Look away! Away! Wherever! He's 54 years old! I don't care what you say about breaking stereotypes or whatever! He's still 54 years old! Waaaa! And I'm sorry if I sound ageist! I have nothing against old people! I like them! I just don't go around kissing them! Aaaargh!

It still keeps on replaying in my mind. And I'm still cringing as I write this. So that's my new year, so far. Now stop asking!!! I made the telling as fast and painless as possible. No, I am never going to talk about this again.

Movie: Me and You and Everyone We Know

Start:	Dec 29, '05 10:00a
End:	Dec 29, '05 12:00p
Location:	home

Me and You and Everyone We Know

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Drama

There is nothing impressive about the DVD cover. Looking at it, I was not really expecting too much. It looked like something from the early 90s, low budget, and just a tad melodramatic. I decided to gamble on it though because of the blurb at the back which says, "'Me and You and Everyone We Know' is a poetic and penetrating observation of how people struggle to connect with one another in an isolating and contemporary world." I figured, sure I would like to watch a poetic and penetrating observation of how people like myself try to connect with "everyone I know" and some whom I don't.

Let's just say that I am pleasantly surprised. Everything I like in a movie is here. It's intelligent and funny and sensitive and moving, and no it's not melodramatic. I can almost hear my Creative Writing profs lecturing on how it is very much possible to not be sentimental but still convey sentiments. This movie has certainly achieved that. Sure it's not full of beautiful people which I must admit are pleasant to watch, but for this movie, it works. It makes it even more endearing. They could be your next-door neighbors! And you actually start to care for these people! I know, I know, I'm gushing. One other thing, it was actually released in June 2005. That's as contemporary as it can get.

I think I must mention that this movie is written and directed by Miranda July, who also plays Christine, a multimedia artist, one of those doing the struggling to connect thingies. I'll be on the look out for more of her works. Check out this site too: http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=8623

Dinner with friends

Start:	Dec 28, '05 7:00p
Location:	Big City Bbq

Hair Maintenance

Start:	Dec 21, '05 9:30a
End:	Dec 21, '05 10:30a
Location:	salon

Movie: Sixth Sense

Start:	Dec 27, '05 8:00p
End:	Dec 27, '05 10:00p
Location:	home

Christmas Lunch

I cooked it myself!!! Got the recipe from Rain.

Conversation with a Taxi Driver

Taxi drivers are one of the groups of people whom I consider both my teachers and a gauge for my mastery of the Chinese language. One: Most of them do not speak a word of English. Two: It is mighty important that they understand me. Three: They can be very entertaining. Especially when I understand what they're saying. What's good is that I seem to understand more of what's being said with each ride.

Today marks the fifth month of my stay in China, and here is my first conversation of the day:

JC: ShiZhuan.

TD: (repeated) ShiZhuan.

JC: The college.

TD: The one near LingDong?

JC: (visibly relieved) Right! Right!

TD: (looks at me strangely) You're not from TieLing?

JC: No.

TD: (looked more closely) Are you Chinese?

JC: (burst out laughing) No.

TD: Where are you from?

JC: I'm a Filipino.

TD: (muttered to himself) Oh, the Philippines. (To me) You speak Chinese very clearly.

JC: (tickled pink) Thank you!

TD: Do you study at ShiZhuan?

JC: No, I teach.

TD: Teach what?

JC: English.

TD: A foreign teacher. I didn't know TieLing has a foreign teacher.

JC: (thought of asking him how long he's been driving his taxi. How could he not know? There are other foreign teachers who look foreign. Decided against it.)

TD: How long have you been here?

JC: Five months.

TD: Where were you before? (But he said it in such a way that I wasn't sure if I got it right.)

JC: (making sure) Before coming to TieLing, where else in China?

TD: Right.

JC: Just TieLing.

TD: From the Philippines, you came straight to TieLing?

JC: Right.

TD: Your Chinese is really good.

JC: Thanks! I studied PuTongHua in the Philippines. Since I was really young.

TD: But your PuTongHua doesn't sound like PuTongHua. It sounds like (didn't understand this part. Sounds like "FangYian").

JC: Whats "FangYian"?

TD: It's the local language of a place here.

JC: My parents' parents were from the Fujian Province. (I didn't know how to say grandparents. I asked my students and it turned out there's no word for grandparents, just grandfather and grandmother. I knew how to say those! :p)

TD: (delighted) Oh! So that's why! Your PuTongHua sounds similar to the way people there speak.

JC: They speak MinNanHua.

TD: Right!

JC: But you're saying that my PuTongHua sounds similar to the way they would speak PuTongHua?

TD: Right.

JC: I wouldn't know. Maybe.

Sigh. You win some, you lose some. My students found this story really funny. :p

Lunch with Ruth

Start:	Dec 26, '05 12:00p
End:	Dec 26, '05 12:30p

WaiYan Christmas Party 24 Dec 2005

ShiZhuan and LongShou Mountain 22 Nov 2005

I went hiking with some of my ShiZhuan students

My First Chinese Christmas Party

Tuesday night. I attended a Christmas party sponsored by TieLing City's Foreign Affairs Office. In attendance were four foreign teachers from two private schools, the people from the Foreign Affairs Office and three overseas Chinese students (home for the holidays, I'm guessing).

I immediately noticed that one of the overseas students was cute. Very smooth skin. Nice smile. Moves with confidence. Funny. Hmm, too good to be true. He looked kinda young. I wondered if he was still in college. So I kept observing. He made perfect dumplings. I know, I watched him. We made dumplings as part of the Chinese way of celebrating Christmas (this is what they do during Spring Festival which is the Chinese version of Christmas, I was told) and I swear, he made them with such ease. It almost looked like watching a sculptor at work.

You have to understand that since coming here five months ago, I have only seen two cute Chinese guys. The first was a vendor selling sweets near AiKeMa, the supermarket I patronize. I ended up buying 32 rmb worth of the stupid sweets that I didn't even finish a quarter of (no, the sweets weren't stupid, I was). He was the second.

He was introduced as the son of the FAO boss. Oh-kay. He studied abroad! That means he could speak English! That means we could talk! Not to worry, the night was young.

One of the other students, a nice-looking-tall-thin girl, sat next to Era, another Filipino teaching at New Hope (a rival school). I don't know how exactly I got to that part of the room but I found myself talking to nice-looking-tall-thin girl. I found out that she was studying in the UK, so I asked if this was for college.

Nancy (American, also teaching at New Hope): No, she's taking her Masters.

Me: Oh ok. What's it on?

Nice-looking-tall-thin girl: Ph.D.

Me: Oh wow. On what?

She started to explain that it had something to do with the heart and the valves of the heart but I was probably too dumb to understand. Anyhow, at that point I was just staring at her with my mouth agape. When she finished talking...

Me: Oh. My. God. Wow.

Fastforward to me talking to Wendy...

Me to Wendy (Chinese friend): How old do you think he is?

Wendy: 21?

Me: Aaaaaargh. He's really cute.

Wendy: Yeah, he is.

Me (sighed): He's only the second cute guy I've seen in China. You remember the first one? The vendor?

Wendy (laughed): Oh yeah!

Wendy (in Chinese to Gao Shan, our headmaster): How old is the boss's son?

Gao Shan (in Chinese): 22.

Me (in English): NOOO!

Me (more in control): He can't be that young. You see this girl? She's already taking her Ph.D. They're friends so they might be around the same age.

Wendy: Hmm. Maybe. I'll ask him later.

Me (smiling): Great!

Later on, cute guy stood up to sing a song. Before singing, he said a little something about himself in Chinese. "I've been studying in England for three years now." Yeah, got that. "I'm here with (didn't understand)" gestured towards Ms. Ph.D. Wendy stared at me and said "He just said they're lovers." "What?" from me. "They're married. Because he said they're lovers. If she's just his girlfriend he would have said they're very good friends." Wait, too much information. Girlfriend? MARRIED? One more time. No, I changed my mind, don't say it again. 

I am cursed.

Did I mention his incredibly smooth skin? Did I mention his smile? Did I mention... Aaaargh! STOP! 

Ph.D on what? Shoot me now. And why do I have to have a damaged brain? (Oops, that's a different story. Ok, let me digress for awhile. It turned out that Gao Shan, my headmaster, knows palmistry. So one time, he read my palms and I must admit he was quite good. He was able to tell me things nobody in China could have known. One of which was that I'm healthy but I had a really serious illness when I was very young. I did! Everyone thought I wasn't going to survive. Well, I'm here :p. Anyway, this damaged a part of my brain. He said I would've been smarter. What? I could've been a genius? Aww, shit. So, anyway (again), every time I feel stupid, I blame it on the damaged part of my brain.)

Despite this (cute guy being married, not having a damaged brain although yeah, you could also add that if you want), I did have a good time at the party. And oh, have you seen the skipping rope I got? Maybe it's the universe's way of saying that if I work out... Nah!

And I did get to talk to him.

Him (going to our side of the room, smiling at me): Bye! Merry Christmas!

Me (smiling): Merry Christmas!

And this is me now rolling my eyes.

In fairness, Ms. Ph.D seemed really nice. She should be. People who have everything have no right to not be nice.

Christmas gifts for...

very expensive. but i've been drooling over them for years!

...myself!!! Okay, I might have overdone it. These are my Christmas, New Year's and birthday gifts to myself then.

gifts galore!

not really. these are just some of my early Christmas gifts :)

Signs of Christmas

These are random shots of shops with Christmas decors.

Christmas Party 20 Dec 2005

TieLing City's Foreign Affairs Bureau threw a Christmas Party for the foreign teachers in the city

Christmas Party

Start:	Dec 20, '05 4:00p
Location:	Hui Feng Hotel

sponsored by TieLing's Foreign Affairs Bureau

Missing Christmas in Pinas (a nostalgic entry)

In another part of the world, the night air is disturbed by occasional "Sa may bahay ang aming bati..." followed by "We wish you a merry Christmas..." and might even go on to finish the whole repertoire depending on how long the maybahay hands over a few coins to the carollers. In which case, the kids would immediately launch into "Thank you, thank you, ang babait ninyo. Tenk u!" Houses, churches, even trees are all lit up with festive multi-colored lights, with parols thrown in for the extra holiday-look. Traffic is at a standstill (would have steadily become heavier once the -ber months kick in until one wonders if she has accidentally entered a huge parking lot by December) and shopping malls are jampacked full of human bodies all rushing to buy last-minute presents for the myriads of relatives, friends and inaanaks; and all kinds of food imaginable for the traditional noche buena (where the last-minute presents will be distributed while getting stuffed so full with food).

Another one of the many firsts that I've had since coming to China is celebrating Christmas in a country whose poeple may not even be aware of the Judeo-Christian story of a poor baby being born in a manger. Coming from the Philippines where about 80% of the population are Catholics, one would not have been able to help it but be caught up in the festivities just by breathing the densely polluted Manila air. But instead, I'm breathing the moderately polluted TieLing air, which doesn't smell of Christmas at all. Oh, the sweet smell of freshly cooked bibingka and puto bumbong! Now that's a definite must-experience Pinoy Christmas staple. And yes, it is an experience. Yummy!

I know how I had always complained about the crass commercialism often attached to Christmas but I must admit I miss even that. I can almost feel the excitement of playing monito monita and trying to guess who my "mommy" is. And then there's the gift-giving and gift-recycling. Trying to figure out who'll have much better use of the mugs from last Christmas can be challenging and fun. And even the wrapping of the gifts! It's almost a traditional event. Nuna and I would always reserve a whole day just for the Christmas gift-wrapping. I remember one Christmas when we decided to go environmentally friendly and wrapped the gifts using old newspapers and magazines. Of course people just thought we were cheapskates, which we also were. (And I still am, actually.) Sigh...

And to think that this is the first Christmas when there'll be real snow when I look outside my window... I have yet to make a snowman, by the way. I avoid going out as much as possible due to the extreme cold weather. I cannot even imagine how cold it would be to actually play in the snow. I just might turn into a human popsicle. Can't risk that. No wonder Rudolph's nose is red. Any exposed flesh turns red in a matter of minutes and my own nose is permanently red outdoors. Good thing the Chinese don't know Rudolph so they can't tease me about that.

Needless to say, there's no place like home. Especially during Christmas.

Waiyan Christmas Party

Start:	Dec 24, '05 7:00p
End:	Dec 24, '05 9:00p
Location:	South School

Lunch with Ruth and Emily

Start:	Dec 19, '05 12:00p
End:	Dec 19, '05 12:30p
Location:	TieLing Normal College

Dinner with friends

Start:	Dec 18, '05 8:00p
Location:	Big City Bbq

Shopping

Start:	Dec 15, '05 9:00a
Location:	LongShou Market, AKM, Converse

peaches and strawberries

For four straight days now, I've been trying to open a bottle of preserved strawberries. I've tried every trick in the book. I've used all my strength (which I admit is not very much) to turn the lid to where the arrow says "open" that my hand has actually been hurting for days (four days, specifically). I've heated the edges of the lid, supposedly to make the metal expand (at least that would be my explanation if someone asks me what the hell I'm doing). I've tapped the edges of the lid with the dull end of the knife a thousand times (for this I don't really have a scientific explanation but I just remember someone doing it back home). And still, the bottle sits in front of me, unopened. Those luscious red strawberries mock me as I see them yummily squeezed together in sweet syrup. I am droooooooling.

Stubborn Strawberries actually had a companion. Together with Pretty Peaches (I don't know, I just want an alliteration here), I bought SS from my friendly neighbors who own the grocery store on the ground floor. Yes, the same store where I bought my still, after all this time, unidentified flavored milk from months back. Anyway, PP (oops, that definitely doesn't sound nice) also gave me a hard time at the start. It took me two days to get her to surrender her... wait a minute, do I dare write it? ...her pure plump goodness for my pleasure. (Hahaha! I have to laugh. Sorry about that.) It was the knife-tapping (ooh, phallic symbol!) that eventually did it. (Well, well, there must be a scientific explanation then.) Which is why in between sentences, I would have to pause and tap tap tap the hell out of SS's lid.

It is moments like this that I almost wish there is a man in the house. (Not so he could tap tap tap the strawberries nor the peaches, godforbid!) Or at least that I don't live alone. That way there'll be someone to share the problem with. Or, even better, I can conveniently pass the problem to someone else as the someone else in question finds a solution for it. Not like now when I could only helplessly stare at them damn berries through the glass (drooling by myself) as my hand gets as red as these horribly sumptious seductively sweet strawberries just barely out of my tongue's reach.

Seriously, I would really want this friggin bottle opened. The only other solution I can think of is to run downstairs and have my neighbors open it for me. By tomorrow, I just might do that. I think they're closed for the night. 

*Because I am aware that you, Nuna, would want revenge. I generously supplied the Freudian reading rather than have you do it for me. :p

**I promise to post a worthier entry next time. For now, it was either this or my friendster horoscope. You know what I chose. Yawn. Off to bed.

Movie: Wayne's World 2

Start:	Dec 13, '05 6:45p
End:	Dec 13, '05 8:30p
Location:	home

Lunch with Mary's family

Start:	Dec 4, '05 12:00p
End:	Dec 4, '05 12:45p
Location:	Mary's home

Hang Out

Start:	Dec 5, '05 2:00p
End:	Dec 5, '05 4:00p
Location:	Karen Coffee

Movies: Dorm Daze, Closer

Start:	Dec 12, '05 7:00p
End:	Dec 12, '05 9:45p
Location:	home

Lunch with students

Start:	Dec 12, '05 12:00p
Location:	TieLing City

Movies: Little Black Book, 9/11, Bowling for Columbine, Graves for Fireflies

Start:	Dec 7, '05 10:00a
Location:	home

Movies: Punch-Drunk Love; Dude, Where's My Car?

Start:	Dec 11, '05 7:30p
End:	Dec 11, '05 11:00p
Location:	home

Pingpong and dinner with John

Start:	Dec 10, '05 5:00p
Location:	gym, CBC

Ultimate Narcissism

One lazy Sunday afternoon, I locked myself up in the bathroom and tried taking my own pictures. These are the results...

Dinner with friends

Start:	Dec 6, '05 7:00p
Location:	TieLing City

Shopping with Wendy

Start:	Dec 8, '05 10:00a
End:	Dec 8, '05 11:30a
Location:	Adidas Shop

Dinner with friends

Start:	Dec 2, '05 7:00p
Location:	Big City Bbq

Rest day!

Start:	Dec 1, '05
Location:	home