Goodbye London... Welcome Atlanta...

Leaving London was not that easy. I learned to love the place despite the not so happy moments there. So I took my one last walk along London Waterloo to London Eye, The House of Parliament, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, Oxford Circus, New Bond Street and Knightsbridge. Leicester Square is one of the places I so love to visit not because the Chinese resto where we would usually have dinner is located there but the theatres are just around the corners and I love watching plays. It's so hard really to say goodbye this place. I just psyched myself that I'll be happier in the US and beside I'll be back there by November 1. So off I go to my friend's apartment and started packing. My flight is around 3 in the afternoon but have to leave for the airport around 10.

While waiting at the airport, I was thinking if it was the right choice to go to the US. But I kept motivating myseld that i'll be able to see my US colleagues from my previous team and catch-up with my Pinoy colleagues who are also here. The sad thing however though was I was not able to get a weekend flight so I miss Ever's and Grace's party. I was hoping to at least see them both before they went back to Manila. Maybe it was not meant to be...

So now, here I am. Back in the US - saw my friends and so far enjoying my stay here.

On Going Home...

In three weeks time, I will be back in Manila. Yey! I'm looking forward to seeing my friends and family after four long months. I still can't believe it. I am going home. But there's always a part of me that will miss London. This trip has given a chance to discover myself more and experience things that made me stronger and proud of being Pinoy.

I learned that...
1. FAMILY will always be my priority
2. True friends are hard to find and if you found them, they really are precious gems
3. Believe in yourself.
4. You can't please a lot of people especially if they are already subjective to you
5. In Philippines you will survive by being compassionate...

Just wanted to Post this... For our Little Angel - MJ

Hi Precious MJ! When I heard of your conception, i was already ecstatic! I even have a cutie dress that I bought just for you and told my officemate that I have an excuse to buy baby clothes. And now… it’s just here in my closet I can’t see you wearing this. But I know that you are in God’s good hands. You really gave your mom and dad happiness and your ninangs too Sleep now little angel. Even if we have not really seen you, you will always be in our hearts. We love you!!! You will never be forgotten ~ Ninang Darlene

P.S. I’ll give your pretty dress to your future sister!

Salute to the Aquino Family...
From Senator Ninoy Aquino...
To President Cory Aquino...
And now... Senator Noynoy Aquino...

The Aquino Family has always been our pillars of strengths whenever our country is beset by political crisis. We always turn to these great leaders to lead us in our battle. During the Martial Law days, Senator Ninoy was most vocal against the Marcos dictatorship and Filipinos look up to him. He was so brave to make a statement of what he believes was right. After his exile, he came back to the Philippines and took the bullet that would awaken the Filipinos to stand up and fight for what is right -- just heard these stories from my Mom, I was not born during these times :-)

And then we elected Cory Aquino to be our President. Yes, she is our saviour, our hope. But come to think of it, there were still politicians who say bad things on how she runs her office. I guess people are like that. There are those who enjoy watching the downfall of the other and they get defensive if they're the ones put on the spot. =(

Now at the present... all eyes are now on Senator Noynoy. Will he continue the legacy of his parents? Everyone is hopeful that he will say Yes. If it's his calling to serve the Filipino people, so be it. Although we should at the beginning set the expectations with the Filipinos that Sen. Noynoy will be the President (now I'm just so optimistic here:-)) who will lead us to a brighter future. But we all have to do our share. We cannot leave the restoration of Philippines to only one person. We should give our 100% support to Sen. Noynoy, he deserved it. Our future is in our hands. Our duty as a Filipino does not end after we have elected our President. It goes all the way down to supporting his platforms. Let's pray for Senator Noynoy, let's pray for ourselves, let's pray for our nation. It's going to be a ONE BIG FIGHT next year!!!

And the Boy Named Justin...

My friends and I went to Alnwick Castle last weekend to see Hogwarts. Being a Filipino, it has been our passion to take pictures of our trips. We were in the middle of our so-called "pictorial" when we noticed a Filipina who's with her son Justine. It was so funny that the mom would ask her 4-year old son to take a picture of her. We chatted for a couple of minutes and we learned that she's a nurse. She also introduced us to her son -- "Say hi to Titas o." :-)

We bumped into them again when we were in the garden. We were waiting for the "grand showcase" of the fountain. We were just standing in the middle ready to pose when we noticed that she has asked Nong Glen to take their picture. We thought Justine was so shy because he doesn't want to be photographed. But it turned out that his mom would just like to have her solo picture taken and Justin doesn't want to leave her side. Hahaha!

We stroll again and went to the tree house before heading home. For the third time, we saw them again in the shuttle. Justin said "I'm here... I'm here... I know you. You were in the castle". It's so sweet for him to recall us. He was so chatty all the way home and even asked why I was sleeping. Lol!

Writing this blog is not really about the trip I had at the castle but knowing Justin - the little Filipino boy growing up in a foreign land. Yes, he is fortunate not to witness the struggles of our countrymen back home but I just realized that it is so really hard to raise a kid abroad. There's no one you can turn to when your kid is sick. You just leave them in the daycare so you could work. With my travels, I learn to appreciate more of being a Filipino. Yes we always have our family whom we could turn to if we have problems. Being a Filipino means FAMILY. In Philippines, you survive being compassionate... In a foreign land, you survive being insensitive :-(

I'm just so proud to be a Filipino. I hope, really hope and pray that we will elect a good leader next year and give our support to the deserving one. Please, tama na ung mga TRAPOs...

What you conceive, you can achieve...

God has been so good to me. I've just dreamed to go to Europe when I was a kid and the opportunity just knocked on my door and voila, here I am in London. I was sent here for a project by the company I'm working for back in Manila. I've been here for more than two months now. I'm missing home but I have friends here with whom I would spend every weekends. I'm just so thankful for all the blessings that God has bestowed on me. I know I have a lot more to learn and I'm just praying that HE will guide me to the right direction and give me the patience and courage to do what is right. I've never been a perfect child but I'm trying and trying so hard to be a good person.

"Lord... that I may think what you what me to think... that I may love what you want me to love... that I may speak what you want me to speak... that I may act the way you want me to act... this is my only ambition... Lord" - Saint Pedro Poveda

6 and a half years and counting...

Whew... How time flies... I'm already working for 6 and a half year on my second job. There are only 5 of us left on the original Batch5 - Badong, Mariel, Gbert and Edsel. Others went to find their own destiny...

Pia Satimbre - Last I saw her was in Glorietta. I have her number naman but I promised her that we'll have dinner with the rest of the gang once Kaye is back from Canada. She's the first to resign from our group.

Kaye Cayas - I have so much memories with this gurl. We were on the same group when we had the job offer but we never get to work on the same project. She's back in Manila right now.

Carlos Cruz - Partner ni Badong sa asaran. Pero sobrang kakatuwa dn kasama sa mga walang kwentang kwentuhan. Hahaha. He's working in shipping industry na. But glad to found him in FB again.

Joenard Ubias - Super genius and whiz kid sa group. He's so helpful especially if we have questions about our code. :-) He's in Singapore now.

Cacay Espinoza - Miss this gurl dn. She left the company last Feb 2009 and I was really saddened. We never even had the chance to talk. She's also in Singapore :-)

Hay, I really miss my Batch. Miss our Friday lunch outs. Our gimik, movie times... There's FB, YM and AIM which will help us get connected. But it's really different now. Guess I'm being sentimental again... Is it because I'm getting homesick na?

Six Flags Great Adventure

My colleagues and I went to Six Flags in Jackson, New Jersey last weekend. The experience was really good. I had fun there. The child in me suddenly went nuts seeing Porky Pig and Tweety Bird. Hahaha. I really had a blast. I never thought I could ride those monstrous roller coasters but I did. And it was worth it.

I also had my face painted with butterfly which is my fave creature ever. And even met another kid who’s got the same design as mine. Hahaha.

The cost of the face painting is quite affordable… $6 plus the glitters I even went home with my butterfly "make up". Hehehe. I would never trade the six flags experience ever.

something in my mind…

I was browsing my old files and found this quotation… "there are moments when i wish i could roll back the clock and take all the sadness away, but i have a feeling that if i did, the joy would be gone as well…" I think I was really down at this time. Yeah I remember the incident and some close friends knew about it. I was onshore at that time in New York and I just received the saddest news ever in my life. I shed buckets of tears that time and frankly I’m still not over it. I have to move on though if I want to happen something in my life…

Mauritius… Home away from home…

I only heard about this place way back in 1994 because of the Miss Universe event held in my country. It’s a very small country and actually, just a dot on the map. But my oh my, they have good beaches… Although I’m still partial with our very own Boracay :-) Nevertheless, the sceneries are rather picturesque.

I was sent by my company to this really cool place for four months. I was so excited. Wow… the place is one of the tourist spots in the world where most people wanted to go and I am quite fortunate to be in this place for months. Well, the trip is not for leisure but really for business but going there would be like living in paradise. I imagined working in an office overlooking the beaches and I can go down and swim after office hours. Well, unfortunately this is not the case. My office is located way way way way far of the sea. In fact, you will pass by sugarcane fields and mountains on our way to the office. Hahaha. Now you think, is it really Mau.

My colleagues and I would laugh and kid each other that maybe we were just in big a dome with these sceneries and it was all fake.

I was really dead tired during the flight that I just want to check in to the hotel right away and sleep. The scenery… well I wasn’t paying attention to it as I am more bothered with my visa because my name indicated is I am a Mrs (for the record I’m still single) although they have assured me that it wouldn’t be a problem. Luckily there was no difficulty getting through immigration (I just charm them with my smile :-) Lol!)

We were met by Mr Niazi Mhuly who was very friendly to us. He even told us stories of his country – told us where to go and not to. We check-in to the hotel around 11am. Ever and I decided to rest for a while before going for lunch. I was so tired that I slept until 3 pm. By the time I woke up, I was really hungry that we just went out to look for the nearest resto or fastfood chain. And the nearest one is…. Tannanan tan nann…. Mc Donalds… We were looking for it to get a decent meal and we were asking for directions on how to get there. The security guard told us to just go straight and there’s a subway that we need to cross to get to the Mc Donald’s. I was looking for a train station but I couldn’t find one. And we asked again where the heck is the subway. Well, it was just in front of us and it was not a train station. It was our typical “underpass”. Maybe they think we’re weird not to know a subway! Well so much for communications barrier. Lessons learned - Don’t take what they say literally. And that’s just Day 1.

Mau is a French colony before and their official language is Creole (a broken French) but generally most of them understand English. Learning their language is quite difficult because the way you say it is different when they spell the word but I have tried learning some basic stuffs. My fave words… Samoosa and Alooda! The former is actually a street food that is really mouth watering and the latter is a drink. Obviously these are the words that stuck in my head. Well if you don’t want to get hungry next thing that you should learn aside from the typical greetings are these words. Where I learned them…from the Filipino parties that we have been going to…

Speaking of Filipino parties … we were really excited to learn that there are Filipinos in the island. It’s a really far away place that you wouldn’t imagine that you’ll find some Kababayans in the area. And there were a lot of them there. We met Sabrina Hanomanjee who happens to be in James training. Her mom is a Filipino and we call her the Ambassador as she organizes all the Filipino gatherings. We also met Sabrina’s sister Tina and her dad. Tita Lita Raymond and Katherine – her family moved to Mau a year and a half ago. Tita Lita makes good spring rolls Tita Vicky and kids (Omar, Jamila and sorry forgot the other name) who hails from Cagayan de Oro. Tita Evelyn and her kids (Vanessa and ahhgg.. another one I forgot). Tita Esme, Kelly and Pao – they’re our Thursday and Saturday companions. Thanks Tita Esme for the souvenirs. Miss you Kel. Be good to your mom. And see you next year. Pao, he’s Tita Esme’s husband and a good businessman. Hmnnn.. want to be like him… He talks business all the time. Hahaha. Tita Filca and Laurence… Laurence is such a sweet. He’s just 5 years old by the way. I’ll always remember this little guy because he is so makulit. There’s this Patrick’s party that we went to and he really wants to go swimming but he’s dad said no because it was too cold. But he said, “If you’re in the water its not cold… it’s warm” Hahaha. I like his logic. Tita Lita and her family – they invited us to lunch one time and they’re really nice. We also met Tita Rita and her husband who are residing in UK. I like her because she’s like my mom. She’s really beautiful too. Tita Benny and her family – she’s from Bulacan. Her place is the first Filipino home that we’ve been to. The Easter Party was held in her place and she invited us over again to meet her husband who is a French guy. Tita Cora Soobrah and her husband Tito Dan who is a doctor invited us for lunch as well. He’s got a really good memory of Edsa and Marcos. And of course… the Ayops (Tita Mayet, Tito Cesar, Patrick and Paula), they have been our second family in Mau. Tito Cesar is a pilot based in Mau and his family was visiting him that time. I really enjoyed their company and we have missed them so much when they went back home. I’m really glad to have known them. They have put another meaning to the words – friendship and family. I miss y’all

Of course my stay wouldn’t be memorable if not for my Accenture friends from SAP who were also assigned there – Amy, Dario and Jason. Amy is my mommy there. I really appreciate her friendship… Sobra. Thankful ako with my Mau stint kasi I have known her J Miss u … Dario – the chickboy! Pwde sa chick, pwde sa boy… Makulit dn to… I remember the time that we will be going to Souillac and he slept late. Amy knocked really hard on his door. Fave line – “Daaarrriiooooo, he’s so younnnngggggg” J Hey, pics ni Fahde ha. J Jason - he’s my talent. Ibang klase ang boses. Pang recording J O ano, I’ll sign up the deal na ba with EMI or BMG? J

These people made my stay in Mau fun and meaningful. Who would have thought that I could find such sweet and caring family there. I am missing the place really not because of the fine beaches but because of the people I met there. See y’all pretty soon. J J J