RENT

I have a ton of work to finish before school ends next week, so logically, instead of doing my papers and finishing my requirements, i chose to procrastinate and watch "Rent" with fellow-procrastinator and Rent enthusiast Nikki (it was her second time to watch the movie in as many days). So I sniffled my way through the parts which never fail to make me cry, and sang along with my favorite songs; and as always, "No day but today!" rang through my head after the show. This time though, when I left the moviehouse, it unfortunately had an addendum: "No day but today! (...to finish your literature review...) The songs simply weren't enough today to fend off the terror of meeting my looming deadlines...

The Post-Vacation Crash

My week-long Thanksgiving break is over and it's back to school for me tomorrow. I spent the week in Chicago, and it was great to be back in a big city, with the sound of honking horns, traffic snarls, and lots and lots of people. As always though after a break I'm feeling the downside of any trip, which is, basically, its end. That's why I flew back to Columbia on Saturday, so I'd have the whole Sunday to psyche myself for my return to school. One thing I've learned, you always need a short vacation AFTER your vacation; to soften the inevitable crash when you return to the reality of school, or work, or whatever it is you're taking a break from.

Winter has come

Technically, winter is still a month away. I thought I had some time to prepare myself for the cold that I've dreaded ever since I found out I was going to live in Missouri. The other day though, I checked the temperature, (I do this every morning with great anxiety) and saw that it was 16 degrees Fahrenheit, which is nearly -9 degrees Celsius. So I went to school in my thickest coat, and other cold-weather paraphernalia that my friends had given me. As always, I started walking to class with my hair wet, since I never got into the habit of blowing it dry after taking a bath. After walking a few minutes, I felt my hair and thought that something had fallen on it, because I felt something hard on my head. I touched my hair some more and realized that the water had frozen on the strands, and what I was feeling was a hair popsicle. I guess there was no denying then, winter had definitely arrived.

A Weird Sign of Homesickness

When I arrived in the US to study, I tried to acculturate to the country by speaking in (shame, shame) slang. The dictionary definition of this word is not what I mean; in the Philippines, speaking in slang simply means speaking with an (affected) American twang. Of course, there were practical reasons for this; mainly, my classmates couldn't understand me if I spoke in my usual Philippine-style English. So there I was, trying to speak like them, with my intonation going up at the end of sentences like there was a question mark at the end of each statement(?). For the first three months, I thought I got the hang of it and congratulated myself on sounding just like a native.

A week ago, though, I noticed that I started stuttering when I'd talk to my classmates. I suddenly found myself starting sentences with "ano..." and ending them with "yata" or "kasi", even though I knew full well that no one had any idea what those words meant. I realized soon enough that these lapses into speaking in Filipino was a sign that I was homesick. I've generally adjusted to life alone so far from home, but I guess a part of me was rebelling against all the English-speaking I'd been doing. My tongue couldn't take it anymore, and it missed the the doubled vocabulary that speaking in Taglish afforded.

I may have acclimatized to the Missouri cold, and I may have weaned myself away from following Filipino time... but I've found that it will take a lot more effort not to miss speaking, joking, and cursing in Filipino.

Portable Karaoke

Among all the features of my Powerbook, two that I find very useful as a karaoke-loving Filipino are the dashboard widgets called Sing That Tune and Harmonic. These widgets are little boxes that appear on your desktop, and they display the lyrics of whatever song is playing on ITunes. Then you can synchronize these lyrics with your IPod, so you can sing along with your favorite songs on the go.

You don't have to look for the lyrics on Google to cut and paste anymore, these widgets do the job for you. Amazing how we can channel the immense powers of technology into really trivial albeit fun uses. This widget was tailor-made for Filipinos. Expect people wearing those white earbuds to belt out Madonna or Air Supply throughout ENTIRE songs now (not just during the memorized refrain).

Canoeing Down Missouri River


A couple of weeks ago, some American friends of mine, Bob and Carol, invited me and another Filipino Fulbrighter named Gil to join their family on a float trip down a portion of the Missouri River. Being the geographical moron that I am, I cannot remember exactly where this river was. All I can recall is that we drove some 4 hours to get there, with a stop-over for dinner at a town which boasted a total of two stoplights. We went there Friday evening, set up tents, and turned in early.

The next day was beautiful, with the sun shining and not a single cloud to break the blue overhead. We started canoeing, 2 to a boat, at 10 am, stopped at a shady area to have lunch, then continued paddling on. Floating along the river was very relaxing, though we had some problems paddling when the water became too shallow. We pulled our canoes to the banks to go inside a cave, which was an interesting experience. I had never gone quite so deep inside a cave before, and the stalactites and stalagmites were beautiful. At first I was stepping gingerly on the ground, avoiding the water, but after squishing my shoes into thick red mud, I decided it was easier to just submerge my shoes and wash the mud off right there instead of removing dry mud when I got back home. We got back to our campsite around 3, washed up and had a huge dinner round a bonfire. The highlight of the meal for me was s'mores (fire-roasted marshmallows and milk chocolate squeezed between graham crackers). Then again, dessert is the highlight of any meal, as far as I'm concerned.

We headed back to Columbia after a huge breakfast on Sunday. When I got home, I was so thankful to Bob and Carol for bringing me along on the trip. The break came at the perfect time, smack in the middle of the semester when I was on the verge of burning out from dealing with academic demands. The respite was brief, but seeing the natural treasures of Missouri up close recharged my spirit enough to make me a little more enthusiastic about school work... or so I thought. When I woke up for a brand new school week on Monday, I decided I needed time to get down from the high of my mini-vacation, so I slept in, and all my teachers missed me that day.