Chicken Little!

One wave of "Peter Pan attack" coming right up in....3...2...1...

From the creators of that llama named Cuzco, who threw off my groove and sent me rolling down on my belly in hysterical laughter in The Emperor's New Groove, comes another full-length Disney animation film that will surely make me roll over once more. I felt this coming the moment I saw Boknoy (as what Vincent and I first baptized the chick) dancing in Disney channel's ad one TV evening. I was like, "First, the llama. Now, the chick!" Ha-ha-ha!!!

The film tells a story about a chick's claim of the apocalypse when he mistakes an acorn for a piece of falling sky. Though this is really just another "broken record" fable foretold (a reprise of Henny Penny), I admit it still gets the better of me (what's there to be ashamed of, anyway?). Having said that, I have this vision that this flick will soon become a member of my Disney CD collection ;-)

Chicken Little is set to hit Philippine cinema in November. Hey, that's just 2 weeks from now!

Now, watch Boknoy dance! Ha-ha-ha!!!

STIMULATE 4*

In the words of Neruda, "Dies slowly he who does not relive his memories..."

At around this time last year, I had the humble opportunity of seeing the world from the other side (literally and figuratively) and was so blessed to have met incredible people that brought out the drama queen in me, just when I thought that all along, I was a rock-solid species of the bleed-dry kind (translation: shedding tears - negative). Thanks to these guys, I've had a tough time battling it all out with my Belgian withdrawal syndrome for quite a long while. Maybe for that I should blame them every now and then whenever I've got the chance...like now. How lucky can they get?!?! ;)

And so today, allow me to wind back grandfather's trusted clock a little and travel down the memory lane one more time. To make the recollection job less of a burden for me (not that it's burdensome, it's just that there's so much to amass!), I've matched up anything and everything I could fondly remember about each one of them. Formally stating his/her name and country of origin, here goes the roll...


Daisy from the Philippines. Overbaggaged; Kabayan (ask Orlando); the pasta diet; Trading off Milsa cheese tips with Irvine; Supermarket hopping with Mama Tess; Checking out Prof. Nyssen in his office and then activating the "invisible mode" button so as not to be seen, just when he's about to run into us; Picture-taking at the airports.

Happy from Swaziland. Her usual, "Hey, Christine!" greeting; Her encouraging smile; Her happiness! :)

Henock from Ethiopia. Jupiler; TV at the 2/F kitchen; Shakira's nightly unwitting victim; Bowling tips; Luz Quiroga class.

Irvine from Zimbabwe. Daily prescription of Jupiler; His favorite blue sweater he submitted to me for mending; Saving Christine's burnt rice.

Julie from Uganda. Her room that didn't exactly had the Erasmus look; Her blissful family pictures; The deep talks.

Kabyema from Zambia. His casual favor of having his picture taken in Antwerpen granted (using my camera); His videocam with my face scattered all over the clips; Splitting the 2€ salt shaker.

Mahassin, Aisha and Samira from Sudan. That day I walked with you ladies, from station Petillon to school (in Etterbeek), without ever feeling anxious about being late in class; The cheek-to-cheek greetings; Molenbeek.

Manuel from Chile. My tormentor in a doting kind of way; Coffee sessions with Orlando; His scenic photographs; WINISIS; Belgian maps; Casio scientific calculator; The free gym lessons; Roxette; Bowling at Sportopolis; Pablo Neruda; F&D Chicken (at the Grand Place) and the Friterie (in Jette)...While Orlando is the daddy, he's the uncle.

Masele from Tanzania. His HP notebook computer; Cab ride from the airport to Erasmus; His sideview pictures, his justification being, "It's realistic!". He has a point there.

Neetha from Sri Lanka. Shakira's neighbor; Her scissors I used for my milestone haircutting client; Oh, and the pink ribbons!!!

Orlando from Cuba. Mi idolo en todo!; Curse of the broken coffee machines; Coffee sessions with Manuel; Nightly Cuban 7:30 dinners; "Not yet in Jette."; "You are lost."; the orange Spanish-English-Spanish dictionary; Weekend shopping at Clemenceau and Midi; Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Our trip to the dentist; Alanis Morrisette...Oh, I have so much to tell. He's my daddy!

Rahma from Uganda. The puzzled look on her face when I asked her to pick blindly from among the souvenir pens I gave out as going-away tokens.

Sainul from India. Yahoogroup; His sweet going-away delicacy for everyone; That maroon coat-and-tie combination.

Terry from Jamaica. Cool cataloger; Her head dropping away in answer to sleep's call in class, never mind putting herself at risk of being caught by the professor. That was awesome! Ha-ha-ha!!!

Tess from the Philippines. Her confirmatory one-liners (e.g., It's getting cold, isn't it?); Super GB, Colruyt, Aldi, Del Haize, Clemenceau and Midi. I think by now you get the picture ;)

Virginia from Zambia. Her bewildered eyes whenever I broadcast the "WC" word (look at her now!); One time trip up the 3/F kitchen; Her hair-makeover after a minor surgery.

I think I did this roll calling before. Talk about deja vu.


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*Scientific and Technological Information Management in Universities and Libraries: an Active Training Environment (Edition 4). Brussels, Belgium. 2004.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

People around the world may think that Filipinos are kind of outlandish and are laying it on thick when it comes to playing Christmas songs over the radio once the "-ber" months kick in, but for me, this characteristic is genuinely a thing of the Philippine culture. I mean, where else in this blue planet can you find a spot wherein Christmas starts in September (sometimes even in late August!) and ends towards the first seven days of January the following year??!!! I may not have explored all continents inside and out, but from where I stood and what I've experienced a year ago, yes, it's only in the Philippines where one gets to feel the longest Christmas celebration ever. REALLY. You wouldn't even feel the passing of All Saints' and Souls' Days (i.e., in the west, it's called 'Halloween'; in the Philippines, it means Magandang Gabi Bayan's creepy ghost episodes) being another red-lettered event in our calendars, which comes before Christmas.

However, anticipating for this season is what actually gets me high and jumpy, and not specifically the day itself. I'd wish for clocks to stop at midnight of December 25th, or a minute before the 25th to be exact, and then inhale all the Christmas spirit I could snuffle for as much as I can, and wish for that moment to linger on. I also enjoy people-watching people caught up in the holiday hustle and bustle. Nakakatuwa!

Have you been to the malls lately? Last Saturday, I went malling around SM City (one popular chain of super malls in the country) with Vincent and Sharon (his officemate). Not surprisingly, besides finding an estimated 75% of the city's population trooping the halls of this department store, another thing that stood out were the Christmas ornaments being sold and showcased at the mall's home world department:



12-ft Christmas trees, plus things you hang up and around them. Okay, so who cares if these are plastic trees?! Real conifers don't come in red, white and yellow colors, do they? Not much excitement there.

What really fascinated me were the sets of miniature village collections (see below)! I was smiling ear-to-ear as I stood mesmerized in front of these collectibles (They pretty much don't fall under the toys category. They're more like mobile decorative stuffs) the first time I saw them two weeks ago. I'm a sucker for miniature model pieces! And so last Saturday, I elbowed aside a group of 3-year-olds enjoying the "village show" ('Parang awa mo na sa mga bata, Christine!', Vincent would plead) and took pictures of these. Much as I'd love to have them all, I'm not that cracked to purchase such expensive items (a piece costs P1,500 = around $30), thank you very much.



The Halloween village. I swear, I'd love to shrink into an inch and be able to walk around here. I liked this one more than the Christmas villages.




One of the Christmas villages. There's a cottage somewhere in there, which is supposed to be a toy factory. Ang cute-cute!!!



The other Christmas village. The carousel plus ice rink go well with the theme. Okay, forgive the nativity scene (which is kind of out of place), but what in the name of snow angel are those two cars on a dedicated "pavement" doing there?!?! Ha-ha-ha!!! Anyhow, it's clever.


Christmas in the Philippines is unparalleled!

Out of boredom

Though wasted and with eyes heavily demanding sleep, still I wanted to see what's on TV last night, in the hopes of snagging a good movie that would qualify as a well-founded ground for me to stay up late. I may sound nuts but I felt like I needed to take it upon myself to sleep late because the next day would be a Thursday, my off-duty from work. And this Thursday was extra special since it also happens to be my last weekday off for this semester. Next week, I'll be shifting back to the conventional Saturday-Sunday off-duty sched.

[sidebar: We negotiate shifts and change work schedules every semester.]

Anyway, I was a bit disappointed because I ended up channel-surfing, bored to death and yet so stubborn to go to bed. With no sensible programs to watch, I ventured up into the higher channels (57, 58, 59...99) until I stopped over at channel 73: Televisión Español. Compared to the Chinese and Arabic channels, at least I could grasp and make out what I can see on the screen, I considered. I found tuning into this channel amusing; although I could only distinguish fleeting Spanish words and phrases from time to time (they speak so fast!). Thanks to this source of amusement, I did sleep late.

This morning, I switched onto TVE again. They had on a cooking show. I guess I'll be hooking up more on this station in the coming days.

Re-learning Filipino

For the longest time, I've had this dilemma of writing down my compositions in STRAIGHT Filipino. Not that I'm a fluent English speaker or writer (because really, I'm not). I'm just your average next-door writer-wannabe who still advocates the use of reference tools such as thesauri and dictionaries whenever I attempt at coming up with an – quote-unquote – "article" (yes, even my thoughts in this blog!) for correct word usage and/or subject-verb agreements...But the thing is, when it comes to penning my thoughts down, I really come to grips for terminologies in Filipino. And it's not even Tagalog at that.


Lesson #1: See, Read and Listen Filipino.

When one of them asked me why it is so, I believe my answer was, "It's about time we identify ourselves as Filipinos by having a language of our own."

I began to feel the urgency to re-instate my mother tongue at the beginning of the year. I figured that the best probable way to make this all happen was to immerse myself into Philippine culture through film, literature and music. And so apart from going to the gym (though short-lived, yes, I still managed to accomplish this) and finishing my masters program (still working on it) all throughout the new year, reading and watching anything and everything Filipino became my goal. Whereas before, I find watching Tagalog movies sleazy, nowadays I'd make it a point to catch at least one film per week on cable TV, no matter what genre, NO EXCEPTIONS whatsoever. I'd force myself to digest those belonging to the elite ranks of classic masterpieces down to the distasteful, "concept less", what-a-waste-of-time-and-electricity, and-they-call-it-a-work-of-art movies; if only to face the realities of Philippine culture and society. I lost count as to how many Claudine Barretto (a local actress) films I've seen just last month alone.

Simultaneously, I also started reading selected literary pieces written by Filipino authors. Harry Potter 6 may have been an irresistible must-read, but no, I've put my foot down and didn't trade my Filipino thrillers (those being sold for 80 pesos at Powerbooks) for that. I'm almost done reading this thick book on Philippine short stories anthology. Next in my readings list are those local novels, which were once my college texts, but from now on, will be treated as if they've never been required readings in school once upon a time.

I’ve been likewise tuning into original Pilipino music (OPM) a lot lately. My MP3 player carries a mixture of Filipino songs – orchestral, ballads, alternative, pop jazz and dance music. Cool. Music has this enchanting way of touching the heart of the Filipino.


Lesson #2: Speak, and Write Filipino.

When my Latin American friends and I met for the first time, they thought that I could speak Spanish articulately. Apparently, they had this conclusion that since the Philippines had been under Spanish rule for 333 years, Filipinos still speak Spanish to this day. I corrected them and said that learning Spanish is not anymore compulsory among universities in the country (unless of course one's a student of Linguistics and/or European languages). When one of them asked me why it is so, I believe my answer was, "It's about time we identify ourselves as Filipinos by having a language of our own."

At first, I had one second of hesitation after telling them that, thinking how Filipinos nowadays (myself included) couldn't even express their thoughts in one, straight Filipino sentence. But looking back now, I know I gave them the right answer. All I need to do now, at least at my own right, is to stand by what I said. Identify myself as Filipino by using the Filipino language.

I was burning with patriotism on my coming home from a foreign land almost a year ago. With just three hours away from home, I was excited to speak my language after being inevitably constrained from doing so for almost three months. At that time, Filipino passengers predominantly inhabited my last connecting flight (Bangkok-Manila) and so somehow, that provided me with that motherland feel...or so I thought it was. I ended up feeling dismayed and bothered, hearing Filipinos speaking English (some trying hard with all their guts) left and right, front and back. It was as if these people came from America, when in fact, they were just alighting from a neighboring Asian country!

From these personal experiences, I cornered and trained myself to speak and write in straight Filipino to the best that I can.

I fondly remember this classmate I had in one of my anthropology classes (I took anthro electives in college and graduate school) three semesters ago. He was a Philippine studies major (and a college professor at the same time) who speaks excellent Filipino. I was just awestricken, as he would recite in pure Filipino and even translate his reports for class discussions (his was on Ruth Benedict, a proponent in cultural anthropology) from the original English texts into Filipino! Astig! It was like music to my ears every time he speaks in class. I became his avid fan from afar. I secretly wished that he would leak out even a puny drop of his Filipino prowess and infect me with it.

From these personal experiences, I cornered and trained myself to speak and write in straight Filipino to the best that I can. I kicked off by writing my thesis correspondences in Filipino. It proved to be backbreaking, having to translate English thoughts into Tagalog (I discovered that I've been thinking in English most of the time, more than in Filipino. Imagine that! It's the other way around. Baliktad na utak 'ko). I found that even more difficult than translating Filipino words/phrases into English.

Yesterday, I drafted an official communication I was meaning to send out to government offices around town, and I wrote it in Filipino. It took me an hour to finish that concise, 3-paragraph letter and was not even confident at that, so I had my boss proofread/edit it for me. That one letter costed me a pail of perspiration, but it's okay. I'll get used to it in time.

I may be re-learning my Filipino, but don't you put me to the emotional extremes. That's when I speak (spoken, not written) fluent English the most ;)

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Note: Most of my posts (including this one, though my subject is about
Filipino, et al.) were written in English to foster wider readership, as I
assume there are non-Filipino readers of this blog.

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