Manila, August 2010.

I can make decisions at the snap of a finger...OR at the end of 5 days.
---------
I recently took a trip, and did some career-related things that I've been planning to do for quite some time now. It was something I've looked forward to, and since it was pretty important, and was all-business, I didn't really announce it with much fanfare. 


(I have this thing about not announcing works (or major decisions) in progress...I want to downplay things until I'm really sure. It would surely be a blow if i had had high expectations and then crashed miserably. I'm a bit selfish about my ego.:-p)


I had booked my tickets in advance ('cause it was cheaper that way) and besides, one of the hospitals I applied for really put their application schedules down. That was pretty helpful in planning everything.


The airport was packed (in Dumaguete terms, of course), and it seems many people were also making the trip to Manila that morning. I was travelling alone, which was more economical of course, since I was paying for my trip and every other expense. As much as I would've liked to bring a veritable entourage of cousins along for a fun ride, it simply wasn't going to work out. (Perhaps, when I'm a bigger name, and millions richer.)


I saw Manny Pacquiao getting off the plane from Manila that morning. His presence created quite a ruckus among the ground crew who had pictures taken with him while he was on his way to the arrivals area with his wife Jinky. I remembered that he was scheduled to speak at Silliman University's College of Law as part of the Founder's week celebration. (I didn't get the full-on view of him, but had to settle for what the zoom lens of my camera could handle.)

Manny Pacquiao being led by his entourage to the Arrivals area of the Dumaguete Airport.

Airport terminal entertainment included these three visually differently abled (they were blind) gentlemen who cranked out a variety of old-time tunes from Matt Monro (my favorite in their repertoire, actually), and even jukebox oldies from the likes of Eddie Peregrina and April Boy Regino. Which of course, were never my favorites, but I still had to hand it to him, the guy could really sing. 

The three blind musicians who rocked the airport music scene. August 26, 2010. (lol)

I seem to be getting into situations where kids abound. I sat next to a mom who had triplets...and I even got to bottle feed one of them when one of the others was acting up probably due to the pressure. I couldn't help myself and after introducing myself (and telling her I was a doctor), I asked her about her prenatal history, and all that. She was kind enough, and the kids were fun. 

The quirky little triplets. August 26th, 2010.

My uncle (and aunt and cousin) picked me up at the airport when I got to Manila...and dropped  me off at where I was staying (it was closer to the hospital than their place in Paranaque). My cousin Gerard and I had lunch 
at the mall, and for a little while, I had to be accustomed again to being in the big city, with the mill of busy people (talking in rapid fire Tagalog,mind) and the neverending traffic. (Yet, I had fallen in love with this City a long time ago, with its promise of adventure, so i figured traffic would only be a minor detail in the grand scheme of things.But we'll see about that, 'cause almost everyone I knew who's ever been in Manila has never liked being there, if it weren't for the studying or the work that they did.)

A degree in foreign services. Now why didn't I think of going into that? natch. :-) August 29th, 2010.

First off, I went to the hospital where I was going to be taking my exams the next day. I went alone, of course, I usually am lately. It's not that i didn't need anyone to go with me, it was just that i needed to get a feel of things without having to bother anybody. And besides, I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of anyone should anything go wrong. Like I said, I was terribly self-conscious about having to show anyone a work in progress. 


The secretary who handled the scheduling was friendly enough, and after getting the details (and doing some additional payments for exam fees and stuff), I walked around a bit. We wouldn't know our room assignments until the next day. Since it was my first day back, I was still self-conscious about my Tagalog-speaking skills. Argh. Nothing makes me more anxious that speaking Tagalog. (I have to translate things in my head first, and that takes practice.)


Anyway, the next day, I found out that the room assignments were by group/specializations. Mine was to be held in a conference room on the second floor of the hospital and when I got there, there were a handful of students already in (which I adjudged to be from UST, because most of them knew each other). Well, the exam was 40% general medicine, and 60% Neuropsych, and when we handed our exam papers in, the chief resident (who looked like she was going to be a tough cookie, er, senior) told us to "make ourselves available" on so and so date for the interview. 

Sto. Domingo Church. August 28th, 2010.
So it looks like I'm going to be back in Manila again pretty soon. :-D

I wolfed down lots of rice and beef stroganoff afterwards, 'cause I got so hungry. Comfort food that my roommates and I had last year when we were living near UST.
----- 

The Picture Show Room. National Museum. August 29, 2010.

I got a second-hand book on digital photography, which I totally love! :-) 


It's still pretty new, and has got great text and lots  and lots of pictures. 


The previous owner had written something in illegible scribbles which totally bummed me out, and if that were originally for me, I'd have wished, they were written like this, "Dear Stephanie, here's to a lifetime of great pictures. Love, (insert name of significant person)" 


LOL. Kidding. But of course, beggars (of good bargains) can't be choosers, and i was terribly lucky to have found that book. It smells great, and i started reading it the minute I got it. My cousin Chris doesn't like second-hand books, but I do. I always thought of them as extensions of their previous owners, and they came with attached memories, highlighted notes...and essences. They were lived/breathed/pored over and loved. I believe that makes them more special.


(And so,with dramatic flourish, I therefore say to the heavenly love that has made it possible to get that book to me, thank you very much. I love it. It's absolutely perfect!)


------ 

Overfeeding time, with JoeJoe. A Veneto, Mall of Asia. August 27, 2010.

Oh, and I got to see my dear friend JoeJoe, an old schoolmate and fellow staff member of the school paper. Like any true friend would, he took me out to the Mall of Asia and fed me A Veneto pasta until I could no longer take in anymore and threatened to lose my cookies. Initially, I had asked him to take me out to a Japanese restaurant instead 'cause I was so hungry and was dreaming of a plateful of sashimi all to myself. He laughed and then said, " Just wait til you try this pasta place I'm taking you to, THEN we'll see if you'll still want Japanese after."


The darned dude was right, after all that pizza and pasta...I didn't think I could look at another plate of food again for that night. And after we walked around the grounds of the Mall of Asia, he got me a long tall glass of Caramel coffee at Seattle's Best and challenged me to down the whole thing down. I couldn't, of course. The next things I want to try when I get there would be the bungee jump thing, and take pictures of the sunset on Manila Bay. <-- I'm looking forward to it.


------ 
Joejoe did his internship year at the Philippine General Hospital, and since I was going there to visit a family member who was admitted, I asked JoeJoe to give me a tour after. Haha, Joe was great. He talks to me mostly in English, in that off-the-cuff comfortable way that I'm used to have him talk in ever since we were in school. He showed me around the hospital and gave me useful info and "side notes" (although not all of these were terribly useful to me, they were just pretty hilarious, that's all.)


One time, we passed by this guy (an intern, i suppose, judging from his clothes) and I had to stop walking for a bit. :-) I elbowed Joe, "Joe, check that out, remember my crush back in med school... the tall guy, XXX? I thought I saw someone who looked like him, eek!!!" Joe didn't see the guy, of course...because among the two of us, I was probably the one who was more likely to have her attention caught by a guy.  Oh but the resemblance was uncanny... *sigh*. I got giddy. Joejoe just pretty much laughed at me in amusement.


------ 

A painting of the Philippine flags in the Picture Show Room. National Museum. August 29, 2010.

I applied to two hospitals, and they're both interviewing next week. I'm nervous about it, actually, I mean, I love doing interviews...but I feel that this one is no joke. Joe said that I might have to prepare a script or something, haha. :-) I downloaded something from the internet, and well, the resource person who wrote it said that there was a need to get things down for some questions that were routinely asked, so I might have to work on that too.


Oh, if only interviews were as easy to do as honestly telling someone you like what you felt. (I got the idea from watching Sharon last night on tv with Hershey, over delicious hotdogs).


Bituin Escalante and Sharon Cuneta were doing a duet, and they were doing this great song that went something like, "Kung ako na lang sana ang 'yong minahal, di ka na muling mag-iisa... Kung ako na lang sana ang 'yong minahal, di ka muling luluha pa... Narito ang puso ko, naghihintay lamang sa yo..." (Anyway, the song's down this paragraph.)





LOL. it's corny, I know, but the principle is still the same. You're basically letting these people know that you're a good person, and you're willing to work hard at making [training] work, and that, deep in your heart, that is all you ever really wanted.


Right?


:-) 


(I hope I didn't embarrass myself with that CORNY spiel. haha)


----- 

Hershey Miaco at the National Museum. August 29, 2010.

I checked out the National Museum with my little cousin Hershey. I loved it...even if we didn't get to finish looking at everything. AND my camera's batteries went flat when we got to the Spoliarium. LOL. I'm definitely going back.


I love Art and History...although I wouldn't say my feelings as academic, because, the closest description I can come up with is this, "Seeing great works of art makes me overwhelmed enough to feel like peeing in my pants." That's how I love looking at art. lol.

"Those who have eyes hear, and those who have eyes see." By Camille Dela Rosa. National Museum. August 29, 2010. (I liked the Salvador Dali flair and feel of this one. Edit: even if it is kind of disgusting.)

----- 
Anyway, I've got work tomorrow. Be seeing you. This was a pretty long entry...and I hope it made up for the week I was away.
------ 
Oh, and in reference to my opening sentence, my decision was that...i am decidedly scared. afraid. anxious. of what the next few months will bring. That, despite my best efforts, and despite giving myself away...I wouldn't get picked anyway. and that would totally break my heart.


Which is why I haven't made contingency plans in case I don't get in. :-) I so want to.


(And that goes for other things in life, too.)


------ 


Love, 


S.

The affair

"Peter Pauper."

What a funny name for a press…but that's what it says right there. "Peter Pauper Press, Fine gifts since 1928."

Peter Pauper press designed my new journal, with a design called "Sparkly Garden Journal", with its "fun, fresh, floral design and softly lined pages invite you to pen your wishes, whimsies, dreams and plans"… Aside from the cutesy floral cover with the gold and sparkles, I liked that it had "160 lined pages, an elastic band place holder, acid-free/archival paper, a binding that lies flat for ease of use and an inside back cover pocket"…which was my favorite shade of pink.

Je t'adore! J

I wanted to get a Moleskine, but it's price was a little steep for now, and I wanted to be "whimsy", and not at all like Poppa Hemingway (who, according to the jacket cover used Moleskines for his work). Anyway, I'm happy with what I bought…including the Psychiatry book which I read on the boat ride home (it was an overnight trip), for some parts of the ride anyway.

The other day, my cousin Chris told me that they'd be leaving for Cebu, to see a boat launch at my cousin Lemuel's shipyard in Cebu, as well as to visit my little cousin Nate, and see the Cascades and the Lettermen. I only had a day free before I was going on duty at the hospital, I figured, after a couple of minutes of thinking, that I need to go, 'cause I never seen a boat launch before.

So I went. And now, I'm here, riding a boat home, all by myself because I still had work tomorrow. J

Writing in my journal in the "tourist" cabin of the boat made me feel like blogging. I was sitting on the top bunk, sipping coffee from out of a paper cup, writing into the new journal. I had paused intermittently to get instant noodles ('cause I didn't get to buy any dinner), to make a few phone calls, read from the Psychiatry book, and just plain think. Also, I didn't want to seem too dorky, AND my leg kept falling asleep from being folded and put under my backpack so I could use it as a makeshift table.

Anyhow… it wasn't too full. Just a few families, some couples, some mommies with kids, and not many traveling singles.

There was a family of five, three siblings and their mother and father. They each had their own thing going. When they got settled, the dad took out papers and started checking them. The mom made sure everyone had their thing together and the siblings (they were my age) lined up along the walls (near the portholes, which probably had some cell signal) and promptly did their own thing.

The eldest girl took out her blackberry and was typing into it…(blogging, perhaps? :-p), the other girl took out a Max Lucado and started reading, and the older boy looked at the pictures in his SLR. They were nice, joked with each other occasionally. One of the girls asked me at the ticket place if this was where people bought tickets for the Dumaguete boat. I nodded my head, smiled, as if I was an old pro with the Cebu crossing. (It was my first time, of course, but it wasn't a big deal.) And the other girl watched my bag while I went upstairs to get noodles.

There was a guy (with his wife/girlfriend) who looked an awful lot like my ex, but taller-ish, skinnier, darker, chubby-ish with a half-baked goatee even. :-p Honestly speaking, had this happened a year ago, I would've turned my head to get a second look, but now, it really doesn't bother me anymore (and I say this without a trace of hurt or bitterness. Lol).

Anyway, after I bought the chicken noodle dinner, which cost about 3 times the amount it would usually cost on dry land, I had to look around for a place to eat it. The boat didn't have any tables or chairs, just bunk beds. I had to settle for a bunk bed near the window…where there was a bit of a sea breeze going. There was a crew member who was texting away, the only other soul I had for company. I had to eat the noodles standing up, with a flimsy little fork.

Never mind that it was a high-salt, high-calorie, preservative-laden meal, it was better than nothing… maybe better than eating piaya with water.

--------

Trip Pictures

Basilica Minore del Sto. Nino. Usually, a lot of people would be lining up to get to the image of the Sto. Nino of Cebu, but since we went to mass early in the morning, there wasn't that many people yet, and it was still pretty empty.

The Sto. Nino del Cebu. Many people make a pilgrimage, and this is a must-visit place, when you're in Cebu. Especially if you're Catholic.

The Intentional Tourist. Ok, even though I've been here many times before, this was the first time I've ever had my picture taken at the Basilica entrance. After-church pic, at the façade. :-p

The funny story in the morning paper. The taxi driver had a tabloid lying around, which I borrowed. Check this out….sometimes, I think they run out of things to talk about that they don't bother checking the info. Eclemsia. Bring it on. Lol.

Fog-driving. To get to the Tsuneishi shipyard where my cousin worked, we had to cross over a mountain to get to Balamban (the site of the boat launch). At some points, we passed through foggy areas…which were cold and chilly, and pretty cool. Our ears popped too, because of the high altitude.

View from the Bus taking us to the site. They normally didn't let outsiders into the shipyard, it was just on certain occasions that they let people into the grounds. There was a hodge-podge of people there…construction workers, engineers, Japanese bigwigs…and families all milling around to see the boat off.

Trust me, it was a huge boat.

I totally liked how everyone was all watching in seeming awe at the ship. The construction worker I asked said that this was one of the rare times they got to see the fruit of 2-3 month labor.

That's my littlest cousin Nate, with my cousin Lemuel. Engineers wear these orange hats, he said.

Tugboats ease it out, at first…

It was actually quite massive. The little tugboat looks so…little next to it.

It was quite cool actually. Three cheers for the dudes who built it!

A Strictly "invites only" affair...

HOME.

The other night, my best friend and her classmate invited me to the French film festival at the Shang in EDSA. Apparently, it was an exclusive invites-only affair for the Allianz des Francaise, with everyone all dressed up in formal and semi-formal finery.
We didn’t know anyone (well, I did, I saw one of my old college schoolmate who was there, but I doubt if she were part of the organizers), so we decided to cook up some excuse as to why we should be there. One storyline was that we were film students from UP… another was that we were there as connoisseurs…

(laughs) In the end, we didn’t need to do any of that…we just managed to sneak in anyway, but following a couple of dignitaries who were followed by the press. We pretended to be part of the press people and snapped our way in too (of course, I had my camera with me.).

We of course didn’t mean any disrespect to the organizers, but since we admission was free, we decided to give it a go. We just about had enough seats for 3, and no one complained, so all in all, it was one adventure that we were glad to have undertaken.

Great visuals, great narration…the only environmental movie that I’ve seen so far that’s not too overbearingly pessimistic. An Inconvenient Truth was abruptly frank, and scary, but this one was refreshing in that, not only did it have the best visuals I’ve seen so far, it was vividly clear and very representative of our Earth and the environment today. Unlike the other film, they showed things to be positive about, such as advances in Carbon processing in Denmark, work done by non-government agencies,wind farms, the use of solar energy... I could go on and on.

The Shang

Some celebs we saw at the opening ceremonies.

Alex De Rossi is pretty and photographs well.

I was star-struck...he was the Best Director at Cannes! :-p

The dignitaries in their finery...well,some of them, anyway.:-p

French films at the Shang.

I like foreign films., and films in general. So this was a perfect way to cap a day.

The movie was made by a French photographer who made aerial shots of different places all over the world. I read before that this was one of the most expensive projects ever undertaken. I didn’t know that they would be showing this particular film, so I feel extremely lucky for having seen it that night.

My friend was optimistic that they wouldn’t throw us out once we were seated.:-p

-----------------

I had this revelation earlier this morning after church… an epiphany of sorts. Nowadays, when I have a problem, or if something is troubling me…I usually think now that whatever problem I’m facing is usually just temporary and if anything, quite trivial.

Growing up gives you a better vantage point on things…and lately, I’ve realized that disappointments will always be there, and whatever stupid things you do can be chalked off as a learning experience.

I honestly don’t know how to articulate this, but coming to this realization has made it easier for me to deal with the nuances of daily living.