When i grow up…

It’s the beginning of the line that I wanted to utter myself during my childhood,but didn’t have the chance to deliver it. I grew up in a remote place where kindergarten or even a day care center is not available. After several years (when I was already in high school),a day care center was finally up and running in our barangay. And I would always attend the graduation and kept quiet in a corner as toddlers recite their line individually starting with “when I grow up,I want to become……” with matching dress that fits the profession they wanted. The child in me is always envious for they have delivered their dreams on stage.

As they recite,I also uttered the line to myself in a whisper.When I grow up,I want to become a doctor. Yessss,becoming a doctor has always been my dream,my ambition.I hold on to it in the hope of making it a reality someday.I was getting closer to realizing my dream until an accident happen.An accident that has changed everything in my life. And just 3 years ago, I decided to completely let go of that dream even if it hurts so much.

Maybe being a doctor is not really for me,GOD has some other plans.On the positive side,if I took medicine proper after my college graduation then I’ll will not be in Europe today. I’ll still be in Pinas with 2 possible fate : 1) passed the board exam last August (just like my college batchmates) and already working in a remote area to realize my dream of being a “Doctor to the Barrio”, or 2) burning the midnigt candle once again in preparation to retake the board exam for this year, trying my best to pass the board the next time,:)

The Heart’s day that was

I havn’t blog here for days due to my hectic schedule,:) I was so busy with my rackets to earn some extra moolah,hehehe. Anyways, let me share to you my Vday last Feb. 14. It was just like any ordinary day for me and same with my hostfamily. Vday is not much of a celebration here in Norway. In fact, my female host was having an overtime at work.

It was a thursday, so I had my general cleaning in host’s place. Most of the time, I’m not in a hurry in cleaning, but last Vday, I did hurry up to finish at around 1pm here and 8pm Pinas time coz I had an online date scheduled that time,:) Yes, I had a date with my bf, M and we call each other “Baby”, hehehe. We dated online for almost 2 hours and despite our desire to stay for long, but we just can’t coz I have to go back to work and he has to go home coz it’s already 10pm Pinas time.

Maybe you’ll find it weird coz I settled for an online date, but there’s nothing I can do. I don’t want to date foreigners here and the Pinoys I knew here are already taken,hehehe. So excited to finally date someone in person coz I havn’t done that in my 26 years of existence. Poor me!:( But I’m not complaining though. I’ll just wait for that time to finally come my way. And when it comes, I’ll surely shout it to the world,:)

Wishing to be a writer…

really, as I wander from blog to blog, I silently wished to be a writer. A good and brilliant writer at that, just like the authors of the blogs I’ve been hopping to earlier. I used to write nicely in my high school days (atleast I thought I did,:)), but as years go by, I noticed that I can’t right anymore. I mean, I can’t write an organized piece anymore. Can no longer write the way I did way back my high school days.  But atleast, I’m not losing hope. I still hope that one day, I’ll wake up armed with a powerful writing skill, just like the bloggers I admire. I know it’s really a childish wish, but it can still come true though, if I only exert an effort to improve.

I know I can never be as good as those bloggers when it comes to writing (I’ll blog about their blogs in a separate post one day), but atleast, I still have the chance to improve my writing. I’ll increase my reading time and gather inspiration from the great writers around.

As I read different posts, I’m always amazed with the writing skills of the authors. The way they organized their thoughts and the words they’re using. A lot of words I havn’t heard or encountered before (the downside of not reading a lot lately and just concentrating on chatting and other stuffs). So, I have to open the dictionary every now and then to look for the meanings. But atleast, I learn something from my blog hopping. My huge notebook and a pen are in the bedside table and everytime I’ll encounter new words, I’m going to write them down and try to use them in my own composition one of these days.

Good luck to me then…

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent and I’m so happy coz I was able to attend the Ash Wednesday Mass at Saint Joseph Church in Oslo. There were actually a lot of Mass schedules in the Church today, but the one I attended together with my friends, was the 8pm English Mass.

The homily was very inspiring and informative. The Church calls all of us to make penance for our sins during the Lenten season. And we are also called to give up something like watching TV a lot, alcohol, entertainment,etc. and make a difference. The Church is encouraging all of us to devote more time for the Lord and try our best to be closer to Him. We are also called to fast for 40 days, just like what Jesus did in the dessert. Though if you will count the days starting today until the Holy Week, it’s more than 40 days. But it’s because Sundays are not included in the counting. The priest says that Sundays should not be a fasting day, but a feast day in honor of God’s resurrection. Hmmm, I learned something today. Though I’m sure that it has been explained by the priests in our place and in my religion classes before, but the information sounds new to me. For sure, I didn’t pay attention before, that’s why I missed this explanation.

I will really try my best to make this Lenten season a very meaningful one for God’s greater glory and for my own good. I hope that you’ll have a meaningful Lent too.:)

From WordPress to Blogger and to WordPress again

Just can’t make up my mind about the platform of my personal blog. I first created it here in WordPress and then as I continue blogging, I knew many who are using Blogger and so, I switched to Blogger too. I had a WordPress blog before that I joined in paid blogging and it was banned after few months.:( So, I decided to use Blogger as a platform in doing paid blogging. I transfered this blog to Blogger, but I was not able to update it. And now, I finally decided to carry back my luggages to where it originally belong, WordPress. I want my personal blog to be here, so as to make sure that I will not be tempted to join this into paid blogging later.

 This blog of mine will be all about my personal  and private life, nothing commercial here. See you around then!

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Note: The 2 posts below this post were written when I was still using Blogger.

A birthday greetings for the best Mama in the world!

Today (October 31) is the 47th birthday of my beloved Mother and I just want to greet her a happy, happy Birthday! The best Mama in the whole world for me. I just can’t imagine life with another mother or another parents for that matter. I always pray to GOD to shower Mama with good health and long life all the time.

Scrappy I made for mama months ago. I love my Mama soooooo much.
They’re going to have a family gathering today and I just wished that I’ll be there coz I know that it will be fun. I missed my Mama very much and I miss hearing her golden voice. For sure, she will sing Abba songs (her favorite) tonight. Bad thing and I didn’t inherit Mama’s golden voice. But it’s ok.

I’m really very proud to have Mama as my Mother. I love you very much MaderDear!

From WordPress to Blogspot

The contents of this blog was originally posted in my friendster blog. And then after more than a year or 2 years (no longer sure), I decided to stop blogging in friendster and transfer my personal blog in wordpress. After moving the contents there, I only posted one additional post telling the blogosphere that I’m back to blog about my personal life in wordpress. And no more posts after that,

And just lastnight, a thought came to mind. A voice was whispering to me to packed my wordpress bag and transfer it to blogspot. Just this morning, as I walked my employer’s eldest child to school, I was thinking about the idea. The urge was so strong that I heed to my apartment directly (after coming from school) to make the blog transfer. And glad that I made it without problems!

So, see you around guys and hopefully more posts to come. I have to go now coz I still have to clean my employer’s place. It’s general cleaning every friday and I’m finally free for the weekend.

back to blog

After months of abandoning this blog, I decided to go back for good. Yes! I already made up my mind, that I’ll be blogging here about my personal and private life. No paid blogging or business ventures will ever be mixed in this blog! And thanks goodness that wordpress is not allowing paid or sponsored blogs, so I won’t be tempt to enroll this blog into a paid blog later on, LOL!

 Ug tuguti ako sa pagtukib niining akong gibati sa pulongan nga akong gimat-an ug boot. Tuguti ako sa pagbatbat kaninyo sa akong gusto isulti sa pinulongang binisaya,hehehe.Maayo ni kay di ko mahadlok ug sajup ahong grammar. Bitaw oiii kini nga blog, dinhi ko i sulat ang tanan kung mga kaagi sa kinabuhi (kalipay,kasakit, ug uban pa) ug ang tanan nga maglangkob sa ahong kinabuhi.

Busa mga higala manghinaut ko nga kamo magpadayon ug bisita kanako dinhi niining ahong payag na natukod tungod sa akong kamingaw ug kalayo sa akong mga mahal sa kinabuhi sa Pinas. Hangtod sa sunod nga pakigpulong! Maajung adlaw!

Christmas 2004

First published on November 19,2005

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It’s my first Christmas in a foreign land (Denmark) and I was totally in a culture shock because their tradition is completely different from mine. About 3 weeks from my arrival, my employer asked me about my wish for Christmas. What?what do you mean is my answer to my employer and she explained to me about it. It’s their tradition to ask their family and friends their wishes for Christmas to make sure that the gifts they’ll be giving are the things that they really wanted. And I was really amazed because in my place where I grew up, it’s up for the giver what he/she wants to give to the person as a present. Infact, I’m not use to receiving gifts during Christmas because what’s important in our family is the togetherness on Christmas eve over a simple meal. I also told my employer about it and she said, well that’s our culture,so you better think of something you want to have.

In that instant, I already knew what I wanted, but it took me almost 3 weeks to say it tothem (kay mauwaw ko moingon kay abi palang ni demand ko,ahehehe). My employer asked me for the 3rd time about my wish, so I told her that I want to have a Camera so I can take pictures and send it to my family back home. But I’m not really expecting to receive one because in the back of my mind : why should they give me my wish when I’m just new to their place (barely one month) and camera sounds expensive.

Another shock that I experience was about the Christmas decorations. It was already 2 weeks before Christmas but I havn’t seen a single chritmas decoration around. So I asked my employer about it and told them that in the Philippines, the Christmas decorations were already set- up when the end of the month starts with “ber” and that is September. But it’s really different there because they only make their christmas trees one day or 2 days before christmas. So on the 23rd of December, my hostfamily invited me to go with them to buy a Christmas tree, a live pine tree and we went to the field to choose which tree and cut it ourselves. That was also different,hehehe. And so I helped then in decorating the christmas tree.

Christmas day finally arrived and despite the absence of my family and friends, I’m still happy because my employers and their parents were very nice to me. And so it’s time to give the gifts. And to my amazement, my name were called several times. I received gifts from my male employer’s parents, from my female employer’s parents and my employers and the most funny part : I also received a gift from “lille miss” (little cat in english), the sweet black cat of my hosfamily. And so I said my biggest thank you to all of them and said that I have to thank lille miss too, so I did,hehehe( as in nalingaw ko kay di jud sila mosugot na di ko pasalamat sa iring,though kahibawo ko na ang ahong employers ang nagpalit sa gift).

                                          

               My picture during Christmas 2004 in Denmark.

And true enough, I received the camera that I wished for. It was an olympus camera with zoom, it’s not digital though. But I’m really very happy about it. I took a lot of pictures, but unfortunately only few pictures were scanned,hehehhe.

On the 26th, my hosfamily went for vacation and they instructed me to remove the decorations from the christmas tree and then throw the three afterwards. What????and so I told them that In the Philippines, christmas trees are left standing until the mid of January. So I told them that i’m going to dismantle it and throw it. But I let it stayed for days in the sala and only threw the tree few days before their arrival.

All in all, I had a good christmas with my hostfamily. Even if I’m away from my family and friends, but I’m still happy because I really felt that I’m loved and very welcome in their home.

My first picture in Denmark

This is my 2nd entry on my friendster blog and I just want to share it with you too…

First published on October 08,2005.

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Just reminiscing my arrival in Denmark and my first picture ever taken on this beautiful country.

I arrived in Denmark on November 16, 2004 and the father of my female employer picked me up at the airport. My hostfamily was very upset that they were not able to pick me up because my female employer is travelling and my male employer is working  on my arrival, but my female employer went home in the afternoon to meet me and then flew again the following day. My cousin who was also working in Denmark as an Au pair was with my employer’s father at the airport. It was really very cold since I’m only wearing a “maong jacket”. We drove to the place of my cousin’s hostfamily (a friend of my hostfamily) and I stayed there for one week before going to my hostfamily’s place since my female employer was still on travel.

My cousin told me to take some rest but I’m not sleepy or tired at all because I kept on sleeping on the plane, hehehe. So we went for a tour outside with the bicycle. And I was very happy because it snowed and for the first time in my life, I was able to touch a real snow and I even ate it!Yesssss, I ate some snow because there were some that dropped on my mouth, so I chewed it to taste it,hehehe) and found out that it tastes just like an ordinary icecubes in the Philippines, only that it’s not hard,lol.My cousin was really laughing and told me that I’m really crazy,.

Then in the afternoon, my female employer picked me up with her daughter Veronica, who was very shy at first. She toured me to their beautiful house and we had coffee afterwards. I’m really comfortable talking to them and sensed that they are really very nice persons. I gave my “pasalubongs” to them. Chocolate biscuits from the Philippines for Veronica and a dozen of native placemats for my employer and I’m glad because they liked my presents. After our long conversation, my employer drove me to the nearest store and bought  pair of winter boots for me and then she drove me back to my cousin’s place. But I didn’t bring the boots with me because she will still ask her father to spray it with some chemicals to prevent it from absorbing water.

The following day, my employer’s father drove me to the Department of Foreign Affairs to get my Au pair visa. It only took us a short ime to get it fixed and then he drove me again to my cousin’s place and it was in the backyard of my cousin’s place that he took a picture of me, so I can send it to my family in the Philippines.

This was my first picture in Denmark with my new winter boots in the plastic bag, and looking very innocent, lol.