My friends, bear with me. There are just a few things that make me happy (not true of course, just my theatrics!) in my dreary life, and this is one of them. I, G.L.E.A, finally got the coveted 5/5 rating! Heheheh... Mighty SHE finally gave in, and silently agreed that my first written works were not those written with beginner's luck and maybe there is pattern of ahem......... brilliance innate in them and the mind that made them up! Bwhahahahahah

Mighty She gave me 5/5. SHE also scribbled at the bottom: "A wonderful piece of work! Excellent!"   And my Serbian Master's holder Speech Pathologist and girl pal Iranian Master's holder Microbiologist insisted that they read my work. Again Speech Pathologist said, "why are you still here? Why don't you take TOEFL right now?"

To that I answered, I actually like seeing you here, I like seeing adults around me, and all from different countries and cultures too. I am very fascinated by the peoples in my class. I see professionals who are very frustrated because they can't 100% efficiently communicate in English. I am compelled to write about each of my classmates but perhaps in another time.

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What are the important qualities of a son or a daughter?  Have these qualities changed or remained the same over time in your culture? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.


Parents generally want the best for their children, and in turn the children also want the same for their parents. There are many qualities that are important for the children to have, and these of course probably differ from culture to culture. In the Filipino culture, obedience, generosity and respect for elders are probably three of the more important qualities that parents expect from their children.

Obedience. The Filipino culture dictates that until their children are living under their roof, they are bound to the rules of the parents. It is quite common to see parents  guide their children (sometimes rather strongly) thru major crossroads in life.  Parental influences have strong impact on what course and university their children attend, who they should be friends with and sometimes whom to marry.

Generosity. There is an expectation of support the parents have upon their children especially in their golden years.  Parents usually expect a little subsidy from each child who could afford to. When parents get sick or need drugs for their health maintenance, children with means are expected to shoulder a huge chunk of the expense. Some children do this without prompting, some needed to be reminded of this "obligation."

Respect for elders.  This is  almost a sacred tradition for most Filipinos. We  have  system of names  we got from the  Chinese  that affects and reflects this important quality. We say "ate" meaning older sister before saying her real name.  Say, for example, if we are to refer to an elder sister whose name is Loma, we are to say "Ate Loma."  For elder brothers, the pre-name would be Kuya, and there are a host of other pre-names for middle sister, brother, youngest brother and the like. We also show respect to our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles by putting the back of their right hand to our forehead, we call this tradition, "amin." We "amin" when we are heading out the door for the whole day or for longer periods of time, and when we come back from wherever we came from into our homes.

These qualities, obedience, generosity and respect for elders, are still very much evident in the Filipino culture. At some point though, some people take it to the extreme to the detriment of family members. But mostly these dear qualities are still kept and endured by most families and I don't see any of these fading away in the near future. And I kind of like it that way.

TOEFL Classes are proving to be worth every cent I spent on it. I look forward to going to classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Why I enjoy it? I am enjoying it because I am lording over everybody! Bwhahahah J Kidding! It has occurred to me that though I NEED not be here, I am still getting lots out of it. I may know enough to pass the exams without the benefit of preparation classes, but I am quite sure that I might get higher marks in the end. I am like groundwater waiting to be tapped to the surface, and TOEFL prep class is the valuable pipe. Bottomline, the clinchers could be the techniques and strategies on answering the questions that are given in trickles while in classes.

I have 2 teachers, one for the writing part, and another for the speaking part. Tuesdays are for writing and Thursdays are for speaking. I love doing both. Yesterday, my teacher gave us back our 2 essays with matching comments on them. I was ecstatic to get my papers, each with huge red check marks and the word "excellent" written at the bottom. Hmmm.. not bad! At the end of the class, she told the class that when they/we write next time, they/we should make it more interesting, and then she looked at me and asked if she could read my essays in class. I of course nodded, inwardly beaming in delight! J Bwhahahahahah.

She then asked the class if they want to hear them. A resounding yes. All eyes are now looking at me, that I wished I straightened my hair and put on lots of make-up instead of a bare face and just lipgloss smeared on my lips. While my teacher hurriedly read my works, the Serbian speech therapist commented, "why are you here? You do not need to be here!"  Another East European girl whom I frequently exchanged smiles with was largely grinning at me and her thumbs signing "thumbs up!" It was hilarious! And fun.

I am having a blast. The grades my teacher marked me were 4.5/5 each. Hmm I wonder what is that 0.5 that she did not give me. I wonder what she wants more out of my essays! Bwhahahahha! A girl is never, ever content! J

One of the essays read was my previous entry, and the other follows:

Many students choose to attend schools or universities outside their home countries.  Why do some students study abroad? Use specific reasons and details to explain your answer.

Many students choose to attend educational institutions outside their home countries. They may have been able to do so because of parental support or they may have been granted scholarships. Either way, going abroad to pursue further studies can be costly.

Students of today go to institutions that have strong positive reputation of the program they are interested in. If they can afford it, they will go to the best school that offers their program. And yes, these schools may not be located in their native countries, hence the need for relocation to foreign soils.

There is of course this smart breed of people who are able to snag scholarships to study abroad. They will jump into the opportunity to study abroad and receive study grants, thesis allowance and monthly stipends, that is on top of free tuition. Sometimes, there maybe enough money to send back home to the poor parents in their native countries.

Another reason why some students relocate abroad is pure practicality.  If for example one is learning English, the students will probably want to go to an English-speaking country and be physically and mentally present (in that country) and learn through cultural absorption and actually functioning in the English-speaking society. In his daily dealings, he will soon become more skilled in speaking and writing English or whatever language he is learning.

A few well-to-do students relocate to other countries just because they can. They like being mobile. They are able to see the world as they study. They can combine the work involved in studying with the pleasure of being in new places away from home, and the cost involved is not a concern.

To end, the choice of whether to stay in one's native country or to go abroad for further studies may not even be an actual preference at all. The location where students go to for higher learning may depend largely on economics, above all other considerations. 

Vacations, I find are expensive, but if you ask me now if I would stop taking them, I would say, NO. In the near future, YES, but in the months to come, heck, I will again go back to them. And I suspect, I shall do that again and again and again. My line of credit has to recover a bit I think, until I feel more comfortable and the numbers are nearing a black, positive balance.

My 20 days home were great. Not that I saw lots of my friends and neighbors and former officemates and got to hang out with them. Of the people I was lucky enough to see, I almost never saw them again, I felt the time I spent away from home to see friends and neighbors was time  ahmmm…NOT spent with my parents and brother and sister and their daughters. Given that little time necessitates time priority management. And seriously I just want to hang around my not-so-young parents and my very young nieces.

I would have wanted to go to Camiguin and crash my mom's tiny town of Hubangon's fiesta, but was unwilling to spend time apart from my parents. I wanted to jump off that bridge and go whitewater rafting soon thereafter, but again some things just took priority over that frivolous activity. And I really wanted to just lay in the white sandbar of perfection (aka White Island) just minutes off Camiguin and lay in the sun in communion with mother nature's pristine creations. Did not happen.

What happened? Ceiling planks gutted out and replaced. Same went with a number of plywood that made the walls. A nice, coral-brickish theme of a kitchen was erected. The kitchen got a new refrigerator and matching metallic airpot and rice cooker and garbage can. It also got a couple of glass sliding windows which I think is pretty.. well.. pretty!

I am quite excited with the kitchen. My sister is quite the master executor of my, her's and our mother's wishes! Well, not totally my mother's as she wanted flowers on the back splash, a decision my sis and I vetoed against! A beautiful brick style tile is now vertically installed as back splash perpendicular the huge 24-inch coral tiles. I think the twin sinks are both functional and beautiful. We finally got to use the sturdy-looking, handsome 3-burner cooktop sometime before New Year's cook off!

The carpenter working on the kitchen has started on November and my sister calls him, "Forever Raul!" He seems to like to stay working with us (forever!), much to my sister's frustration. But the kitchen basically up but I think it still needs a bit more of a polishing. But whatever, I saw a kitchen albeit not perfect, it is our kitchen. A far cry from its predecessor that was composed of the basic 4" white tile counter top and a sink. Raul is still at my parents' home doing stuff. My sister stopped camping over at my parent's house after I left, a fact that surely made Raul's days easier! J

My sister and I also picked colors for walls and ceilings. We decided to go bold! We got basic white for the ceilings, Irvine Peach (translation: beige) for the living room, True Orange for the new living/sitting area and Bittersweet (translation : soft coral) for the adjoining eating area and the kitchen. I kinda like it! Major decisions for big girls! True Orange does not even have a touch of orange in it, more like hmm a stronger, perhaps strongest hue of coral. And it provided the background for newly framed and reframed treasure pictures! For those who want matching frames and non-glare versions of glass pieces, prepared to part with a couple of thousands or more. Kimshoppe is quite happy with me last Christmas as I probably was their biggest customer. We now have 15 happy pictures and frames on the wall of our new favorite space to hang out, and I am quite satisfied.

As I looked into the dining area, I saw our old chandelier of sorts and I met my sister's glance, yes, it also has to go. After we went to the store and bought gazillions of meters of curtain material, we hopped off to go to the nearby lighting store. She wanted something understated. I wanted something obnoxious!  She wanted the very simple Japanese lamp, I wanted the ornate-looking brassy lights. Bwhahahah.. we settled on something in between, I love our new chandelier!

And ah yes the curtains! When it seemed quite clear to me and my sister that Raul couldn't possibly finish the kitchen by himself let alone the other stuff we wanted done, we found 2 young guns willing to earn some bucks. We had them demolition the wall, and painting! Well, they weren't really so meticulous with the jobs, but at that point, we weren't exactly looking for quality anymore. We just wanted stuff done… and boy did they ever made us happy. And they sang too, which made me happier! April Boys anyone?

When we begged the boys to render extra hours, they did without complaining. My brother drove them home at 8 PM on Christmas Eve! They were awesome! Which brings me back to the curtains. My sister and I bounced this thought between ourselves, maybe they could also sew the curtains! Bwhahahaaha! J  By the time I left, the chocolate curtains, well the supposed chocolate curtains were still panels of jagged edges in a corner somewhere waiting to be sewed. We did manage to sew the 3 huge panels of beige-ish curtains to cover the new wall opening…. Well our dearest male working student did! J My sister worked and I shopped… nobody had time. J And Eper enjoyed the sewing machine, as much as my sister and I do when we have time. 

Life throws a lot of curve balls and at times it really feels like the “firing squad” game, aka Dodge Ball. The balls sometimes are thrown with just enough force that tickle and startle.  Sometimes they are thrown with such speeds that just whirl my head into spins. Sometimes the throws merit my jumping and skipping. Sometimes, to dodge the balls, slight, quick realignment of the shoulders would do the trick. Bottomline, the throws necessitate reaction and movement, which to my lounging mind, are always good.

Last Saturday, coming from the fancy schmanzy affair found me and the car I was driving kissing another car unnecessarily. I lost control of my car and watched in horror as I slid into the taxi legally stopped at the intersection. It was one of the longest 2 seconds of my life. If I did not consider the money I was sure I would spend on repairs of the other car, I would have called out, “here we go!” as I very slowly but (alas!) slid into the other car.  I used to be scornful of overtly dramatic slow motioning of movie scenes, but after this ordeal, I know that slow motions can happen.

My car made a small dent to the other car. The estimated cost, nearly a thousand dollars. I was so frustrated when I heard of the damage. I am going home to the Philippines, darn it! I have an ongoing project that badly needs precious funding. I am going to school in January, I needed that thousand for tuition.  And taxi driver, this probably isn’t the greatest time to ask me out for coffee sometime. J

I am meeting the man tomorrow to hand over my payment. Darn.

Yet I am still thankful. Most important, nobody got hurt. I am still going home in 6 days. My employers graciously offered to pay half of the damages.  I am not hurt. I am alive. 

“Everything I Know I Learned in Kindergarten”… well.. not exactly. But the things I hear my ward Cam (5) spews out are certainly ahhmmmm interesting. He is in French Kindergarten, and  when bored after playing Xbox for a couple of hours, he calls out to me and insists that I be audience to his playing the video games.  I have been trying, more successfully each time, to show the boys that they don’t have to scream out loud to be heard. And that being rude and crude would not get them what they want. I can see huge changes in Cam these days, and so I reward such behavior with more attention. I used to cringe (well I still do) when he wants some company in the basement. It would mean that the clothes would have to wait to be folded, and food prep would be delayed indefinitely. But if that is what is gonna take to make this boy less abrasive, then be his audience I will be.

And the entire playroom has been rearranged in such a way that I could still see the TV while checking my email. And I do welcome the chance to sit down and relax. … and relish Cam’s comments. He’d say, “Ginee, tell me to stop when it reads Jabba’s Palace (Star Wars Game).” At 5, he doesn’t read huge words yet. Yet his vocabulary is so expansive, it’s amazing. Mediocre is a word I learned when I was 13 and I had to look up in the dictionary many times so I could remember it. It is one of Cam’s insulting words. The other words escape me now, and there are many other words he uses that I think are beyond the vocabulary of 5 year olds.

If it wouldn’t be so ridiculous to keep handy a pen and piece of paper every time when around C, I would. I should have just for laughs. I remember laughing out loud about his comment but I forgot now why I found it so funny. I should have logged it down.  The first time he admitted he lied so he could get his older brother in trouble, his announcement was so pure and unnerving, it was so honest, I had trouble keeping my face straight.

Now he doesn’t command, he requests. Now he doesn’t scream his head off, just his neck. Now he doesn’t jolt Kyle, he chastises him gently.  He now knows he can get his way me sometimes. He also knows that when I say something I expect him to get moving and I mean what I say. Now if only I could convince him that going to school without underwear is unacceptable, that time spent putting undergarments on is not a  complete waste of time.  The gregarious kid think it's funny to go “commando!”

I hurried out of the house, grabbed K and got into the car in a scurry. I got to the bus stop a minute before the scheduled stop. And I was supposed to be there 5 mins before pick-up time, that is the regulation. K and I waited for 3 mins and the bus came. I got out into the –35C weather in my full winter regalia and dashed to get him, away from the bus driver’s responsibility. He was crying. The bus driver told me, he is a bit “injured”. When I asked what happened, Cam stuck his bleeding tongue out. He licked the bus’ window and his tongue wouldn’t budged. If it weren’t for Cam in pain and in lamentations, I would have peed myself laughing out loud!

Note to tropical residents who will find themselves relocated into Canada and other similar places, do not hold any wet body part in freezing surfaces. Especially, do not stick tongue out into a flagpole. If you do, in the flagpole you shall be attached! Equally, advise your children to keep their tongues in the warm recesses of their mouths when inside school bus.

This has been the coldest Nov 27^th in 10 years. –35C with wind chill. –25C without wind. To visualize how cold –25C, tap water doused into a car’s window would turn into ice in less than 5 secs. You could scratch a message into that film of ice over the window.  Exposed skin would catch frostbite in 10 mins. Wind blowing more than 10 km/h adds to the coldness, factor another 10C dip into the already bitter cold temp. 

We all sleep in the second floor of the house. My room oversees the garage roof. The snow that has accumulated outside my window has piled 2 feet above the roof. If not for the extension the roof accommodated into my window, my window would have been buried in 2 feet deep snow. I saw our neighbor’s version of my room. Somebody cleared out the pile of snow from the roof. Maybe I should do the same. Now if I could only pry my window open! Tried that in vain, the snow and ice have welded my window shut!

comment lang. I am spending the night with a bottle of cheap fruit wine, playing free cell, and watching yahoo music videos when Jessica SImpson appears with her rendition of my most beloved secret indulgence fave of a song, Tom Cruise's top Gun theme song, Take my Breath Away. Man, did she ever ruin it for me! The sultriness is overlapped with shrilliness. The passion is undermined with shallowness. The richness is gone, replaced by something runny and thin. JS should just stick to the likes of ...Boots for Walking.  She near invented that character and it fits her. And I actually like her in that video. Purposely challenging and provocative and saba! And please not destroy for me my pristine (!) childhood memory of my first glimpse of a real kiss on the silver screen! That song is perfect for the dusky thick air as Tom Cruise and Mimi Rogers rode into the sunset. Strong and deep and passionate. Top Gun's version of that song was/still is hot!

I am not usually weird on other people's versions of songs, until this one.

Unbelievable. I wrote a reply to my friend dearest Dincs regarding acquisition of serious documents and just when I was ready to hit “enter”, I somehow lifted the entire keyboard and pressed something and the whole window disappeared. Darn. So admitting defeat, I composed another version and sent it again. And Lycos informed me of some system failure. Twice in a row. Holy cow. It is mighty annoying!

I wonder is something else devious is going on. The entire system of Western Canada’s debit/credit purchasing was down yesterday. Everybody had to pay cash.... and I bet a lot of people were left with cartfuls of grocery inside supermarkets and nothing in their trunks. Cashless society, this one.  Hmmm.... conspiracy! :-)

I am going home in less than 4 weeks. I have loosely packed my 2 suitcases and they are getting very full, and I haven’t even got everybody presents yet.  I am only getting gifts for immediate family, no wawarts for everybody else! Papa, nice shoes. Sister, shoes and office clothes and EVERYTHING else I will be bringing home. She said that when I return to Canada, the clothes I will be bringing back with me will be the ones I will be wearing, everything else (that I brought FROM Canada) will be hers. :-) Brother, surprise. Sis-in-law, very nice perfume (I hope she isn’t reading this). Bro-in-law.... I am still stumped. Probably something computer or bike related. My nieces, the books I will get back home. Mama....her entire kitchen. Eldest bro and family are now in Australia so they are off my list! Hehehhe

And I am hoarding chocolates like crazy. I gather, because of their small size, they could be fillers in my suitcases. My dearest younger brother entered a city-wide graphic design contest months back and won 3^rd prize! So proud of him! I got that blown-up and the girl who had it developed mentioned she found the work impressive. And of course, I had to tell her that it was actually a winning piece of work! Heheheh.. .. I will have it framed and grace the wall of fame back home! Anyways, when I came to pick up the photos, I also thrown in the chocolates and the girl commented on my hoarding. I said, these are not for me I am going home, girl!  I found that I do not like chocolates as much as I did years back. Law of Diminishing Returns. What I have in excess, I do not necessarily want.

My list of to-dos when I get home is long. I want the kitchen done. I want to frame pics on the wall. I want to get my parents matching bed sets. I wonder if my sister is up for some painting! :-) I want my nieces to have cabinets made for their books and other stuff so they can have their own space. I want to shop for new curtains! Because of my incessant nagging, my mother has put off picking up detailed materials for the kitchen. I can be a tyrant, when need be. Like mother, like daughter. :-)

I have been volunteering at the old peoples' home for 3 SUndays now and I dont think I enjoy it too much. I mean, I do not look forward going to "work on Sundays. And since this is pro-bono work. I think the least I should feel is enthusiasm to be in that place at that time.  Yehey. I don't. Can I be human and say, I near hate it?

I thought it would be a place of wisdom, a place of contentment. It is that, and more. I do not have anything bad to say about them, and maybe this stint is making me realize that much as I imagined myself to be happy and enthusiastic, I am just not.  Maybe I am just not the elderly-type kinda gal. Canada is letting me stay because I looked/looking after her very young constituents. I have paid my dues and I can do whatever I want soon when the permanent residence becomes final.  And I now know, I might not enjoy being around with older adults in their waning years.  I mean, not as much as I enjoy working with the younger members of society.

And breaking up with the commitment.  It is not something I am looking forward of doing. Hahay. It is so hard to be so upright and do the right thing when there is a very easy way out..... the vanishing act.  When someone vanished on me once, I promised not to do that same thing to another human.  I want to do the right thing, but  is it ever a hard thing to do! I feel like such a bad person. What do I say?  SHould I write it down? Do I ask for a  leave and promise to come back at a later time... when I don't really mean it? WHat?