2011 wrap up!

2010 wrap up
Removed some parts of the wrap up (friends and enemies part, confessions part, etc.)

Bold answers means that they’re different from those of last year’s!

Where did you begin 2011?
- At my aunt’s house, with my family and some relatives! :)

What was your status by Valentine’s day of 2011?
- Still single. Hahaha!

Did you have to go to the hospital?
- Nope, thank goodness!

Did you have any encounters with the police?
- Yup! I think so. I was in the car when my friend got caught!

Where did you go on vacation?
- I was able to go to Spain and Taiwan! Now that I think about it, I wasn’t able to go to any province/island in the Philippines! :\

What did you purchase over $500?
- Hmm.. Plane tickets to Spain?

Did you know anybody who got married?
- I don’t think so.

What sporting events did you attend?
- None that I can remember.

What concerts/shows did you go to?
- Hmm.. I can’t think of them right now!

Where do you live now?
- We moved to Sta. Mesa! Wee, we finally have a house to call our own. But now now, I’m living in Taiwan!

Describe your birthday.
- It was the first time for me celebrating my birthday in another country, away from my family and friends. It was the first time I had to go to school on my birthday. My Dominican Republic friend Uriel surprised me with a cake, Latin American friends gave me a hug, I had Mexican food (burrito bowl, nachos, quesadillas) with cousins Richelle and Polina, we shopped around Shida night market (where I bought 4 tops and 3 scarves – not all for me though!), I had an Italian-themed dinner (pizza, pasta, chicken, salad, tiramisu cake) with my relatives, and one of my friends even came over! :)

What’s the one thing you thought you would never do but did?
- Sorry, I can’t really limit this to one! I never thought I’d go to Spain immediately after graduation.. I never thought I’d take a day trip to Granada, Córdoba, Barcelona… Our classmates said we were crazy! LOL. I never thought I would splurge on stuff! I never thought I’d get scholarships to Spain and Taiwan! Etc, etc, etc!

Any new additions to your family?
- Immediate family, nope! Relatives, yup! I got a ‘nephew’ and ‘niece’!

What was your best month?
- A lot of things happened each month! :) they may not all be good but I’m thankful for each and every experience I had this 2011… but if I REALLY had to choose, I guess I’d choose August because that was the month when I went to Spain! It’s not everyday that someone (like me) can go to Europe (and on a scholarship at that), so.. yeah!

Who was your best drinking buddy?
- Hmm.. I don’t really drink but I’d have to say.. EURO friends?

Made new friends?
- Yup, of course!

Any regrets?
- Some, I guess. That’s normal.

What do you want to change in 2012?
- I want to keep trying new things and keep seizing new opportunities!

Overall, how would you rate this year?
- Awesome year!!!

Have any life changes in 2011?
- Yes! It’s a fact of life.

Get a new job?
- Yup, I got my first job in Ortigas! I was there with some of my close friends so it totally didn’t feel like we were working. Most of the time, we’d just have fun and we’d keep laughing!

How old did you turn this year?
- 22!

Did anything embarrassing?
- Lemme think.. I often get embarrassed, soooo.. Yeah?

Get married or divorced?
- Nope!

Be honest – did you watch American Idol?
- Nope!

Start a new hobby?
- Yeah?

Are you happy to see 2011 go?
- I loved 2011, because it was truly an awesome year for me! I wouldn’t mind not seeing it go, but because life goes on.. I just really hope that 2012 is even greater than 2011! :)

Drank Starbucks in 2011?
- Yup!

Been naughty or nice?
- Both?

What are you wishing for in 2012?
- For it to be even greater than 2011! For my hopes and dreams to come true! For life to be even more awesome!

Lost someone?
- Hmm.. I don’t think so.

Cut class?
- Hmm… I can’t remember. Probably not? HAHA!

Was involved in something you’ll never forget?
- A lot actually! From the last few months of university, to working, to all the adventures in Spain and in Taiwan…

Visited a different country?
- YES!! SPAIN AND TAIWAN!

Cooked a gross meal?
- Nope!

Lost something important to you?
- Can’t remember. Don’t think so?

Got a gift you adore?
- Yup!

Tripped over a coffee table?
- Nope.

Dyed your hair?
- Dark auburn!

Came close to losing your life?
- Almost got into an accident, but it probably wouldn’t be that bad as for me to lose my life. Hee.

Went to a party?
- Yup, lots!

Read a great book?
- Yup! I was able to read a lot of books this year.

Saw one of your favorite bands/artists live?
- Nope. There was a time when WongFu Productions came to Taiwan and I was supposed to attend the meet-and-greet but shitty things happened so I didn’t see them. Boo!

2011: YOUR BIRTHDAY

Did you have a cake?
- YES!!! 2 actually!

Did you get any presents?
- Yup! Not a lot, but still.

2011: ALL ABOUT YOU

Did you change at all this year?
- We all change! Haha. That’s a yes.

Did you change your style?
- A little.

Were you in school?
- Yup!

Did you have a job?
- Yup! Worked for 3 months and it was memorable because I met a lot of great people

Did you drive?
- No :c

Did anyone close to you give birth?
- Yup!

Did you go on any vacations?
- Yup!

Would you change anything about yourself now?
- A couple of things maybe.

2011: WRAP UP

Was 2011 a good year?
- Such an awesome year!

Do you think 2012 will top 2011?
- DEFINITELY!

2011: OTHER STUFF

I read 17 books. (7 more than last year)
I watched 48 movies. (25 less than last year)

One of my best birthdays ever!

I was able to do all the things I had planned for my birthday – and more.

Uriel (my Dominican Republic friend) surprised me with a cake. He went to our classroom during our break time and handed me the cake. Aww, thank you sooo much!!!

After class, I met up with Richelle and Polina by Shida night market and we went to Macho Tacos, this Mexican restaurant nearby. Yummy! Since we were so full from eating, we decided to walk around the night market. We shopped a bit – I bought 4 tops (1 to give to my sister) and 3 round scarves (1 to give to my sister, and the other for my cousin).

We got home and had an Italian themed dinner. Pizza, pasta, apple and shrimp salad, baked veggies, and Tiramisu birthday cake to end the night! WEEEE!!!! ♥ My friend also came over to wish me a happy birthday!

Happy day!

Cake

Burrito bowl

Nachos

Quesadillas

With cousins Richelle and Polina

Italian themed dinner

Creative junkfood

Blowing out my candles

My family in Taiwan (minus Richelle)

Ton of greetings, part 1

Ton of greetings, part 2

Ooh, I’m 22!

Well, the title says it all. I’m 22! Time really does fly by so fast! It seems just like yesterday that I was celebrating my 21st birthday and turning legal. I remember during my last birthday, my sister wasn’t in the Philippines, and I just went to the mall with my parents. My mom and I had Häagen-Dazs ice cream, and then I had my hair cut really short!

This year is the first time that I’m celebrating my birthday in another country – without my family and friends! It’s also the first time that I’m going to school on my birthday! We’re always on Christmas/holiday break during my birthday so we wouldn’t have classes. Also, it’s Rizal day (José Rizal is our national hero) so it’s usually a holiday. Growing up, indeed.

I don’t really have anything special planned out for tomorrow (later) except to go to school, go to this Mexican restaurant with my cousin for lunch, and then have pizza and chicken for dinner. Just some quality time with the relatives whom I’m currently living with! :)

My birthday wish last year was for 2011 to be a greater year than 2010… and it truly was! Therefore, I’m wishing for 2012 to be even greater than 2011 and 2010 combined! I don’t exactly know how that will happen though, seeing as how 2011 was truly a great year for me, but it doesn’t hurt to wish, right?

Good vibes again! :)

72

Duele mucho descubrir lo que realmente uno quiere para su vida, cuando ésta se acaba. (
It hurts so much to discover what one really wants in life only when life itself is about to end.) – Dora, film script that we worked on

71

How to be sure we find happiness in our careers — is from Frederick Herzberg, who asserts that the powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements. – I forgot where I got this.

Books 2011

Here’s last year’s list: Books 2010

El Filibusterismo (José Rizal) – January 15

Life of Pi (Yann Martel) – January 17

Sampaguitas en la cordillera (Elizabeth Medina) – March 11

Black Mirror (Nancy Werlin) – April 18

Rich Dad, Poor Dad (Robert Kiyosaki) – June 25

At First Sight (Nicholas Sparks) – July 27

The Dim Sum Of All Things (Kim Wong Keltner) – October 22

The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan) – October 25

Blindness (José Saramago, translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero) – October 31

小王子 (The Little Prince) – November 1

Cuentos de la Alhambra (Washington Irving, adaptación de Elisa Criado) – November 6

La muerte y otras sorpresas (Mario Benedetti) – November 11

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth (Jeff Kinney) – November 17

True Grit (Charles Portis) – November 21

The Penelopiad (Margaret Atwood) – November 22

The Price of Everything (Russell Roberts) – December 19

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (Amy Chua) – December 25

Most of the books I’ve read this year are all related to my thesis (because I did my thesis for the first few months of this year) so I didn’t include them here. I’m slowly starting to read again though, so this post is going to be continuously updated for the remainder of this year!

Some of the pictures have been taken from the Internet. Credits to those who own them!

The thought just hit me (yeah, just now!) – why didn’t I just take photos of the covers once I’ve read the book, so that I wouldn’t have to use other people’s photos? Oops, my bad! I was lazy. Okay, I’ll do that from now on.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

As the title suggests, I just finished reading Amy Chua’s book entitled “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.” Finally. It’s been a while since I wanted to read it but I was never able to find a copy until now. I started reading it last night, but because I had my hair dyed and I kept playing Tetris, I decided to postpone reading it until today. Finished it after a couple of hours. It’s true what other people have said – once you start reading it, you can’t put it down.

Like with Russell Robert’s “The Price of Everything,” I’ve decided to compile all the quotes I liked into one post. Here they are:

West­ern par­ents try to re­spect their chil­dren’s in­di­vid­ual­ity, en­cour­ag­ing them to pur­sue their true pas­sions, sup­port­ing their choic­es, and pro­vid­ing pos­itive re­in­force­ment and a nur­tur­ing en­vi­ron­ment. By con­trast, the Chi­nese be­lieve that the best way to pro­tect their chil­dren is by prepar­ing them for the fu­ture, let­ting them see what they’re ca­pa­ble of, and arm­ing them with skills, work habits, and in­ner con­fi­dence that no one can ev­er take away.

It’s amazing how many older Western parents I’ve met who’ve said, shaking their heads sadly, “As a parent you just can’t win. No matter what you do, your kids will grow up resenting you.” By contrast, I can’t tell you how many Asian kids I’ve met who, while acknowledging how oppressively strict and brutally demanding their parents were, happily describe themselves as devoted to their parents and unbelievably grateful to them, seemingly without a trace of bitterness or resentment.

But just because you love something, I added to myself, doesn’t mean you’ll ever be great. Not if you don’t work. Most people stink at the things they love.

Ever since I found out about Amy Chua and her family, I’ve just been so fascinated with them because they’re all so pretty and they’re all so smart! I’ve also been reading Sophia’s blog (although she hasn’t updated in over a month) and I’m following them on Twitter. LOL!

I’m also interested to read Amy Chua’s 2 other books – “World On Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability” and “Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance – and Why They Fall” because they’re international affairs related (they might inspire my future thesis topic!) and just because I feel like I’m gonna learn a lot from them. I know our library has copies of these books, but they’ve been loaned out. Pfft.

I was also surprised to find out that Amy Chua’s dad was born in the Philippines! According to Wikipedia, her first book actually talks about/mentions the Philippines (in relation to the economic disparities). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother actually mentions their Philippine roots as well. Cool!

There was also a time when I Tweeted her asking if it was really her who added me up on Facebook (I was skeptical), and she replied saying, “hi! And sadly no, it’s not me. Arggh! Thanks for asking!” Hihi. Talk about being starstruck!

It’s Christmas after all!

What is the meaning of Christmas? I put that out as a rhetorical question. As we grow older, this is the question we’d most likely hear during the holidays. When we were younger, we always looked forward to Christmas because aside from all the celebrations (parties left and right), we would get a ton of gifts!

Starting a couple of years ago until now, the gifts have become less, and Christmas has become more about the children – the next generation. My Christmas albums over the past few years have all been saying things like, “It’s a children’s Christmas once again.” Not that I’m complaining though.

This year is my first time celebrating Christmas (yes, I’m overusing the word!) away from my family and friends, and away from the Philippines. Since I’m in Taiwan (a country that’s really not so big on the celebrations), I didn’t expect a whole lot. Last Friday though, our Korean classmates surprised the class with some chips, cookies, and drinks. We ate and drank while discussing, and I was happy. My Dominican Republic friend even came to our class and gave out Christmas bookmarks/cards and pineapple cake. Aww! Indeed, the small things count.

After class, I went to Danshui to meet up with some of the scholars from the Philippines. We went to this hotpot place to eat dinner, and then to Gerick’s house for dessert, karaoke, and exchanging of gifts! Fun fun night.

Yesterday, Richelle and I were supposed to go to Longshan Temple, but we woke up at around 2:30PM (LOL!) so we weren’t able to go. We just waited for Roxane to come back home from school, and then we went to Ximen to have our bangs cut. We also bought some stuff, and then headed to Minquan W. Road (Filipino community) for dinner. The Filipinos there always give out free food on the 24th, so we were able to eat bihon (rice vermicelli), sotanghon (cellophane noodles/Chinese vermicelli), bread, and hot chocolate.

We continued walking around the area, and then we headed to the church to hear mass. After a couple of hours after arriving home, Richelle started dyeing my hair. Hee. We chose this dark auburn color. I don’t know if it’s visible though. I think it sort of is – especially under the light (as usual). And… I don’t know what happened but my bangs have decided to have a life of their own. Oh well!

Today, we had a yummy Christmas lunch of salad (vegetable salad and apple and shrimp salad), roast chicken, pork, squid balls, and soup.

I still have to write this essay for class, and I also have to study for our chapter test tomorrow, but since I’m in the holidays mood (cause we would always be on holiday break around this time), I’m too lazy to start doing them! I’ll also be meeting a classmate later, so yeah, I’ll just rush through the homework. Hee.

The first picture is that of 湯圓, which is this Chinese food traditionally eaten here in Taiwan during 冬至, or the winter solstice.

Merry Christmas everyone! :)

冬至 (Winter solstice) ＝ 湯圓 (Chinese food made from glutinous rice flour)

Food from our Korean classmates

From my Dominican Republic friend :)

Hotpot dinner

With some of the scholars from the Philippines!

So cute! Under the costume is a thin girl though… Can’t imagine how heavy this must be for her.

On our way to Minquan W. Road

Serving ‘noche buena’

They’ve sort of become full bangs (only messier, weirder?)

Dark Auburn dye!

Christmas lunch :)

 

Anything we have known…

Random stuff (yet again) that’s been happening this past week:

It’s flattering to know that my teacher thinks my English skills are good. She approached me and asked me to help her look for some easy-to-read books, because she wants to refresh her knowledge of the language. She even went as far as telling me that I could teach her the language. Awwww! :”>

Cebu Pacific finally brought back their direct flights to Xiamen! They had a seat sale, and luckily, I was able to book tickets for my mom and dad! Too bad they don’t have TW-XMN (and there’s no TW-MNL seat sale, plus other factors, so it’s not feasible for me to fly first to MNL and then fly with my parents to XMN) so I still don’t have a ticket to go to Xiamen. Boohoo!

Since I’ve been worrying about not being able to buy tickets, I’ve asked my uncle again about the TW-XMN flight (technically plane + bus + boat) they always book. He reassured me that it’s still too early to buy and that the prices won’t go up. I hope he’s right!

I signed up for a couple of free cultural classes. I wasn’t able to sign up for Business Chinese 商業華語 and Humorous Chinese 幽默華語 because they ran out of slots (boo hoo!) so I only got Chinese Knotting 中國結 (鈕釦手鍊), Wax Dough 蠟陶土, and Chinese Carving 篆刻.

I think everyone has his/her own spot – somewhere where he/she can relax, feel comfortable in, unwind, etc. The trick is to keep your spot a secret – you have to have a spot you can call your own. You have to keep it a secret otherwise people can invade it and it won’t be wholly yours anymore.

Remember when I said that your questions are getting dumber and dumber? Yup. They are. You’ve probably gotten used to being spoon-fed. You always have to ask EVERY SINGLE THING. Can’t you read the explanation yourself? Can’t you do a bit of research? Can’t you use your brain? Ugh. Yes, I’m being mean.

On another note, I don’t know how to say this without sounding mean (because it will come off as being mean), but whenever I meet socially awkward people, I really wonder how they make friends and how they live their everyday lives.

The 3C Christmas party happened and I wasn’t able to go. Sigh… Truth be told, I felt sad not being able to go because I haven’t missed our yearly Christmas gathering for the past 6 years and this year.. poof! I wasn’t there. They were supposed to Skype with me but things happened so that didn’t push through. Siiigh. Oh well! I’ll be seeing some of them in February when we go to Hong Kong! Wee, first trip abroad with friends!

Wulai 烏來 and Neidong 內洞

Some of my classmates from last term and I went to Wulai 烏來 last Sunday (December 18). We met up at the MRT Xindian station and rode bus 849 bound for Wulai. There were actually a lot of cab drivers in the area asking us if we wanted to hire them instead. Of course, we refused. The cab from the MRT station to Wulai costs 600NT (seeing as how there were 4 of us, we would each have to pay 150NT), and the bus ride only costs 12NT! Look at the difference.

Since Eric likes hiking, we walked from Wulai to Neidong 內洞. According to him, it was around 10km in total? Oooh! We must have walked for almost 2 hours (we were going at a leisurely pace and taking pictures along the way) before reaching the forest recreation area. We went inside (ticket costs 40NT for students) and continued walking around. We even walked up to the 3rd level of the waterfalls. I found the sound of the water falling down to be soothing. Hee!

We walked back to the main road and called for a cab because we were very tired by then. The cab ride didn’t even take 20 minutes! The driver drove reaaaal fast. Upon arriving back at Wulai, we looked for a place to eat. We tried some of the local cuisines and they were yummy! After lunch, we went to the free hot springs area and stayed there for a while. Since we didn’t bring an extra set of clothes (and we were lazy?), we basically just rolled up our pants and dipped our feet in the hot water. Hee.