fast-paced. tiring. they expect you to pick up ideas quickly and get it right the first time. that is very frustrating.

they spoonfeed you here so that you don’t have any excuse to fail.

you can’t blame technology for assignments not submitted on time. in this day and age EVERYONE has a laptop so the ‘i dont have a computer’ excuse is complete bull. AND the internet is possibly 5x faster than the fastest one in the philippines so you can’t give the ‘oh my internet connection is slow’ blah blah excuse.

they want you to back up your data at least 10 trillion times.

lectures start on time AND end on time. no concept of filipino time over here.

if they say your work must not exceed 5MB, it MUSN’T. otherwise you get zero marks.

if in college you LEARNED the art of cramming, in grad school you will MASTER it. maybe that’s why it’s called a MASTERS DEGREE.

it’s no problem if you’re an international student. however if you’re a FILIPINO international student then you have reason to worry — there’s no other filipino out there besides you. (i’m still bitter coz i’ve only met one filipina so far)

one week semester breaks are NOT breaks. they just give you a free pass to catch up on your readings and start on your final assessment because they know you’re already falling behind… so that when school resumes, everyone’s back on track and they start throwing more difficult and time-consuming stuff on you.

THAT SAID… i wonder how the other grad students can come to class prepared AND still have time to work full time AND party on weekends? it’s either they’re superman, on drugs, or do not sleep.

1. avoid browsing through family photos (immediate and extended) on facebook.

2. don’t look for your house on google maps.

3. stop browsing through your foursquare check-ins in manila.

4. do your assignments. rinse and repeat.

one month. that’s how long i’ve been here! ang bilis lang!

got a bit homesick yesterday while attending the filipino mass at st francis. lesson learned: be emotionally prepared before coming to filipino mass to avoid tearful singing hehehe. most of the people were filipinos, although there were some other nationals scattered around the church. there was one couple who i thought was chinese, and they proved my assumption wrong when they spoke in tagalog. lesson learned 2: not all filipinos look like filipinos. this sucks because it just means i can’t come up to anyone and ask ‘are you filipino?’ that would be really embarrassing.

i’m way behind in my written assignments. guess i’m getting burned out… lesson learned 3: take a break from time to time. even benjamin franklin flew kites on occasion (so i’m not comparing myself to mr franklin but you get the idea…)

so i’m also beginning to learn how to cook for myself… because i realize that i can’t buy takeaway all the damn time. whether it’s healthy or not, i want to know what’s in my food. i’ve cooked pasta, pasta and more pasta. and also some tuna in scrambled egg (like the way we do at home), spam, sausages, and schnitzel (which btw isn’t very delicious so i’m crossing that one off my grocery list). lesson learned 4: cooking is an acquired talent… for me anyway.

i’m pretty much within my budget, never having spent on anything that i don’t need. it just takes a bit more self control not to buy that ipod touch or upgrade my system to OSX Lion when i know i’m at that capacity to. guess it’s also because it’s not my own money, and if i wanted to buy the things that i want, i’ll have to do part-time to get it. lesson learned 4: get a part-time job soon!

so… i do my own laundry, cook (or buy) my own food, clean my own room, study at a given schedule, attend my classes and church punctually, making new friends here, trying to keep in touch with old ones back home. i guess i’m doing pretty well.

one month down, seventeen more to go!

today i did something really out of character — i cooked! i cooked pasta! it’s basil pesto on spaghetti noodles. the noodles were okay, a bit salty for my taste. the basil pesto i bought from the market earlier today was so good… yeah so that was my lunch today 🙂

basil pesto sauce on spaghetti noodles

honestly i don’t see the fun in cooking. i do love watching other people cook, though – on masterchef and iron chef and all those cooking shows on the asian food channel – and i always wish their passion for cooking would rub off on me everytime i watch their shows.

i realized that i can cook whatever food i like, if i’m already on the brink of desperation. i’ve been craving for pasta since week 2 and i haven’t had the chance to go to lygon street (the “italy of melbourne” or something). so today i just got out of bed, bought the sauce from the market and grabbed a pack of noodles from the grocery and made that dish in 15 minutes 😀

hmm so maybe if i miss eating adobo i’ll have to learn how to cook that dish 🙂 soon…

i’m leaving for australia on thursday TONIGHT! going there for study and a bit of work 🙂

i didn’t post any details on facebook because… wala lang haha

anyway so i applied for a masteral degree in RMIT, got accepted (himala!!!), applied for and was granted a student visa (isa pang himala!!!) and now i’m a few hours away from my next new adventure.

its been a really hectic week! i mean, i only found out about the visa last Thursday lang din, so imagine all the cramming that we did. it’s so hard to pack my stuff knowing that i won’t see my closet, my bed, my HOUSE for the next 18 months, so i probably loaded everything i could in one suitcase. i hope it all fits within the 50-pound limit.

i’m so thankful to God for giving me this opportunity, to my parents (especially my mom) who have been VERY SUPPORTIVE about everything (i owe them so much and it’s not just money), to my siblings who were able to tolerate my mood swings and the mess i made while packing, to my grandparents who gave assistance (gulat ako ha, thanks lolo! malaking bagay yun!), to my friends whom i surprised with my leaving (sorry na…), to the very supportive and encouraging boyfriend who knew everything and kept real quiet about it… sige lahat na supportive :)) if not for them i might’ve chickened out and changed my mind about pursuing what i’ve been wanting to do for a long time.

it’s sooo sad that i wasn’t able to say goodbye to most of my relatives and friends in the running community. i’m really sorry about that, but we were so pressed for time… good thing i was able to squeeze in time with some of the people important to me — my family, epm blockmates, my college barkada, and J 🙂

“18 month is a long time!” — so i keep hearing. I’m definitely going to miss home, but it’s just for a few months. i’ll be back before you know it!

visa: check.

plane ticket: check.

hotel: check.

documents: not yet

things to bring: not really

am i ready? i hope so. i have 6 days left! gah!

…to my dream of doing a sub-5 on july 31.

i mean, what was i thinking? me, sub-5? i can even barely do the trainings well. i hate doing core workouts. my longest run is probably less than 10km. i whine a lot. i lack serious sleep.

last month i learned that you do have to be careful with what you wish for. this time i’m not making the same mistake again…

this year i just want to have fun on my third marathon. no pressure from anyone 🙂

dear lord,

1. sana po wag nang magtapon ang mga tao ng basura sa mga ilog para maiwasan ang pagbaha.

2. sana po ma-grant na ang visa ko para makabili na ng ticket. ang mahal na po kasi ng pamasahe.

3. sana po hindi ako tumaba doon.

4. gusto ko po ng blackberry bold 9700 samsung galaxy s.

5. gusto ko po bumalik sa 115 pounds.

6. sana po ipagkaloob mo ako ng shrink ray para lahat ng gamit na gusto kong i-impake pwede kong i-shrink para madala ko doon. 26 50 pounds lang po kasi yung pwede kong bitbitin sa checked luggage.

7. sana po bagay sa akin ang semikal hairstyle.

8. sana po may asawa na ako bago ako mawala sa letrang I ng BINGO.

9. bakit po may mga taong pasaway?

10. kung lahat po ng tao ay ginawa mo according to your image and likeness, bakit madami din na pinanganak na may kapansanan? image and likeness mo din po ba na putol ang paa or may down syndrome?

11. di po ba pwedeng ibulong mo na lang samin kung ano ang tunay na relihiyon, kung meron man? ang dami na kasi nagkalat eh.

12. pasensya na po sa mga mababaw na kahilingan at walang sense na tanong.

13. kailan po kaya ako makakabalik sa Canada at Japan?

14. sana po hindi ako murahin ng mga tao sa depressed areas pag tinuruan ko silang mag segregate ng basura.

15. sana po magkaroon ang metro manila na magandang incineration facility at equipment para hindi na kailangang maghanap ng lupa para sa disposal ng residual waste.

16. sana po ma-realize ng mga tao na ang pagbaha ay hindi kayang agapan ng gobyerno lang. kasalanan po naming lahat kung bakit bumabaha at nag-iiba ang panahon.

17. bakit nyo po sinabi kina adam and eve na ‘go forth and multiply’? ngayon po dumadami na ang tao sa pilipinas kasi nag-enjoy silang mag-‘multiply’.

18. dadalaw po ako sa depressed area sa lunes. sana buhay pa ako pagkatapos ng orientation.

19. sana po ma-realize ng mga tao na LIFESTYLE ang kailangang baguhin kung gusto naming ma-save si mother earth.

20. sana po makabawi ako sa tulog.

amen. 🙂

it’s 1:02 am and i’m still restless. i can’t sleep —

this morning i went to mass, and normally i would get bored with the whole ceremony so much that i’d always wish it was time to go (sorry i’m not a model catholic). but today i listened to the homily, and it was really good – it was about chapters. about closing old chapters and writing new ones. about how saying goodbye doesn’t necessarily mean cutting all connections with people from your past… blah blah blah. about how one should experience pain in order to become a better person. i found it very apt for today’s events, since firstly, my cousin jenna got married to her boyfriend jayson (congrats and best wishes, you two!) and secondly, i got two emails that brought really great news…

okay so it’s still surreal. none of my close friends are married yet, and here’s my cousin (one of my closest) who just got hitched. i wonder how that’s gonna be like for them… and secondly, those two emails that i got tonight rocked not only my world, but my whole family’s too. i guess i’m just really lucky to have shared that moment with them, and seeing how supportive they are – especially my mom – gives me strength to actually DO what i need to do.

be careful what you wish for coz you just might get it. well i think i got it, all right…

so i gotta force myself to sleep now because i still have to go to work in the morning and APEX in the evening…