Thursday, February 22, 2007
kung hei fat choi!
It's the year of the pig- my year! And according to my yearly forecast, this year is a very unfortunate time for me to change career, move out, start a new business or a new relationship, get a new job, or travel- in short almost everything I plan to do! Thank God I am not Chinese (I have never bothered to trace my supposed Chinese ancestry), and am therefore not susceptible to the ill effects of Chinese superstition.
I celebrated the New Year by hitting pig-themed art exhibits, hanging around China Town, and spending an afternoon dressed as Chinese royalty in the Chinese Garden of Friendship with a half-Chinese person. That is about as Chinese as I have ever gotten all in one day.
Pig in high-heels!
Wala, feel lang namin.I also went on a mission to find tikoy around China Town. Finally found some but it's not the same kind we get back home. It doesn't come in the bright, red box. Also, they call it "New Year Cake" which doesn't sound as yummy.jobs i have had since i arrived here
Since I arrived here almost a year ago, I've had a steady stream of odd jobs, some more long-term than others:1) Illustrator for "Australian Filipina" magazine
2) Editor for someone's written memoirs
3) Script -writer for an SBS radio show
4) News reporter for "Balitang Australia"
5) Camera button-presser for coverage of media launch of "Windows Vista" (the most boring day of my life)
6) Data input/ invoice filer for "Pag-asa Express"
7) Data input/ office administrator/ promo material designer for "Gus Cerro Football Academy"
8) Concept artist
9) Seller of subscriptions for "The Australian" (my most recent one to date)
I'm listing them down to make myself feel better over being a useless, rich girl who never actually had to look for a job, suddenly plopped into a working-class society and expected to fend for herself. I once made a living smiling for a camera. Now the only skills I can show are the ones people don't need. I can draw and sing. Big whoop. I can write, but I don't have a degree to show for it, only a blog, which doesn't account for anything. I'm good at all the things that inspire people, and feed the soul, but don't make money.
Why was I not born predisposed to maintaining data bases, or wanting to be an accountant, and the like? Life would be so much easier. I'd be happily corporate right now, happily proficient in MYOB, Excel, Outlook Express, and the like. Or why couldn't I have been born with bigger muscles and stronger bones so I could be a manual laborer?
Yesterday, I was asked to leave work early because I had only sold two subscriptions of "The Australian" while my group mates had all sold at least 4. So I'm not much good as a saleslady. It was only my first time. I'm not completely demoralized, but I do feel pretty useless.
What use is being Jesuit-schooled in one of the best universities in the Philippines, and forced to take so-and-so units of theology and philosophy, if I cannot sell a newspaper subscription?! Who cares about Plato, or man's metaphysical role in the universe, or whether or not God exists, or kung ano ang meron, if I cannot get myself employed in Starbucks?! So what if I'm supposedly "cultured", and "learned", and worldly if I cannot get employed?! In this place, you are better off being skilled than intellectual. Meaning, I would have been better off going to plumbing school than going to Ateneo.
Paano ako mabubuhay dito? Pweh, gusto kong umuwi at magshowbiz! :-p
Shush, quiet, quiet, QUIET, advice is not welcome, and neither is pity. I don't want to hear what I already know. I don't even want encouragement (or discouragement for that matter). As for those people who are just itching to cut me down/ call me a brat as you have enjoyed doing to me AND my siblings in the past, either because we couldn't find jobs or were never forced by our parents to take management in college, keep it to yourselves because it won't even make it past the comment screening. Find some other way to feel good about yourselves.
Again, no advice or pity, PLEASE! That is not what I'm writing this for. However, you are welcome to share your own humorous stories of struggle and salesmanship.
If you've been reading my blog (or my "secret" LJ which isn't really all that secret anymore), you'll know that I like to bitch for bitching's sake, that I like being dramatic for drama's sake, and that if I wasn't like this, I'd have nothing to write about, and you wouldn't be here enjoying my blog.my only answer
... to a number of questions I got on my comment box about my personal life:
Why would I write about it here? And why would I tell a stranger?
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Monday, February 12, 2007
how to make Ala Paredes fall in love with you
1) Feed me well. Take me to really good places to eat. Give me unforgettable gastronomic experiences. Overeat with me. I will love you to pieces.
2) Indulge my geekiness. Ask me about my Mac. Engage in heated debates with me over the advantages of OS X versus Windows. Gift me with flashdrives instead of flowers. Be able to understand the humor behind 'Dilbert'. Compose a love letter in binary... you have to be able to tell when I'm kidding, ok?
3) Like cheesy love songs. Be unafraid to sing them, even if you don't know how. Do it with feeling. "Glory of Love" is always a winner.
4) Talk to me. Give me one conversation I will never forget, and raise questions that I will ponder over even after we've said goodbye. That way, I'll want to see you again.
5) Be able to speak passionately about at least 5 books you've read in your lifetime, or 5 films you've seen that don't fall under the genre of "Dumb and Dumber", "Terminator" etc.
6) Love music. Love it with me. Be adventurous.
7) Respect my pace, and my space.
8) Be able to make me laugh. You have no license to kiss me until you've proven that you can.
9) Smell really, really good, always. I have a finely tuned nose, and I never forget how a person smells (I can still recall how every single one of my boyfriends smelled).
10) If you are Australian, spell "Filipino" right, godammit! Philippines is spelled P-H-I-L-I-P-P-I-N-E-S. If you really want to win my heart say "Pinoy" instead of "Filo" to refer to a person from the Philippines. Of course, not everyone will understand you, but I will, and I'm all that matters, riiiiight? ;-)
11) Be sincere, always.
12) And now that you know all the rules, surprise me totally.
Happy shmalentine's day! Wishing you all everlasting love.Couple still hugging 5,000 years on.
Love fades, but your fossilized remains last forever (well, ok, 5000 years).
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Friday, February 02, 2007
here we go!!!
It's official, I'm a student again, mates!Look at me, all bright-eyed and brimming with youthful idealism. Just look at that eager smile, saying, 'Teach me! Mold me!"
Despite the monetary drawbacks I encountered the other day, I decided to push through with school this year. Now or never. If I wait another year I will lose my drive, begin to doubt myself, lose direction, stagnate altogether, and end up staying in the suburbs forever, married to some redneck, and raising six kids in outback. (Well, okay, I'm exaggerating, which I always do.)
After I completed my enrollment today, I walked out of the building with this huge sort of grin on my face. I felt that buzz I always feel when I know something big is coming my way. It's actually happening! Step one of my plans is actually pushing through! Life is going to change again in a major way! AAIYEEEEEEE!!!!
I miss the hustle and bustle of university. Even just the energy in the campus is different, so many things happening, so many things going on, so many things you'll miss if you're not awake. I'm ready to stretch my mind again.
I was talking to a friend yesterday and she was telling me how afraid she was of change. It made me realize that my fears are the exact opposite of hers. Since my life has been in constant change since last year, I'm afraid of permanence. Once things start getting too comfortable and normal, I get anxious, and antsy, and want to start rolling again. Sound crazy? When will I ever live a normal life again? Maybe I don't really want to yet.
So... Master of Development Studies, here I come! I swore I'd never touch economics again after I nearly flunked it in Ateneo, but you better watch out economics because I am back with a vengeance!
Step one of The Plan is pushing through. Now I'm setting my sights on step 2.
And now, introducing, the campus which I know I will be loving a month from now.It reminds me of Oxford University in the UK, another uni that I studied in and loved. I only studied there for a month, for a summer; but I remember coming back home from England when I was 16, knowing I had changed forever, that the world was much, much bigger than everything I had ever known, and that anything was possible.
I think we all have an experience that awakens us one point in our youth, one that splits our narrow minds wide open, reveals our desires very clearly to us, and gives us the courage and drive to make big changes in our lives.
So here's to another new, chaotic, possibly difficult but exciting period in my life. Ole!drawing people on trains
I have a new past-time: drawing people on trains.
It makes me happy.
Iyon lang.Labels: university of sydney
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