glee points start here
i have not blogged lately that tonight i'll try to catch up...
i started this blog for myself so that when i go back to the philippines, i can remember with glee (or glum!) how it was for me living far from home.
here are some events to score points for glee:
the past two months have been spent hanging out almost every weekend with fellow filipinos here in brussels. they're a bunch of happy people who share the same zest that i have for life and living. cook rice and adobo, pour the red wine and throw in the guitar, and we're alive (alert, awake, enthusiastic!).
we even had the gall to sing in the easter sunday mass with me trying to conquer my stage fright!
before that easter (not-so disaster) choir, we visited seven churches (visita iglesia) to observe the holy week. the good catholic boys and girls in us were out all over brussels to pray the stations of the cross. despite our efforts to keep our mouths hush-hush throughout the day to follow our filipino tradition for the holy week, hell no, our laughter cracked as loud as ever! there goes our indulgences in heaven!
a french priest in one (empty) church was even glad to see us praying and smiling. he approached us and praising heavens (i guess!) in french! lucky a friend was there to translate for us. he said that it's always nice to see filipinos because we are always smiling despite the world. awww, how sweet...
for easter, we partied at the usual hang out place! nothing beats spending the day painting easter eggs and eating crumble cake, enjoying lunch of sinigang, broiled chicken with hot steaming rice and playing the guitar while singing our hearts out!
happy easter holidays!
this is marc's version of the truth, sometime at 8:57 PM
if you can't live with it, he can.
some people i know think highschool sucks.
well mine doesn't. not that my college life wasn't good. it was actually fun. but the fun i had in highschool was different, it was "sweet" and "naive" fun.
my closest highschool friends and i reminisced "the days of yore" last month to help me and another friend get by from the depressing winter that a temperate country life can bring. we are sun-soaked kids from the tropics who just can't live without our usual 10-hour sunshine!
and so, we shared our many funny and outrageous memories of highschool life over at our yahoogroup. since i'm a sucker for noting the many "firsts" in my life, as can be read from my previous blog on my brother, let me continue it in this entry.
i like highschool because...
i met my first love and my first heartbreak (funny that it was a girl, but it was indeed love!).
i lighted my first cigarette (and up to now i don't know when i'll light my last one).
i had my first alcohol and hangover (and probably started my life-long love for beers).
i directed my first school presentation (and actually hating public presentations! i now have a bad case of stage fright).
i wrote my first public essay (they called it "editorial" back then, and have since then started my passion for the written word).
i met my friends (and myself along the way).
and of course, i like highschool the most because I CAN GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING!
how was your highschool life?
this is marc's version of the truth, sometime at 8:02 PM
if you can't live with it, he can.
wedding bells!
it was sad that i wasn't able to be present during my brother's wedding yesterday in the philippines. the wonders of the the digital age, however, saved my ass again! i sent an audio message to the newly wed couple and it was played during the reception. while it was playing, they showed pictures of my adventures here in europe to everyone! whatda?!
anyway, i waited yesterday for people back home to go online so that i can get fresh accounts of the day's celebrations. lucky that my younger sister popped in YM and gave me blow-by-blow descriptions of the event! they even sent pictures of the wedding! oh, i love the internet!
i love my brother. i grew up close to him until college life drew us apart. writing this now, i realize that i shared with him many firsts in my life. like my first bike ride, my first taste of firecrackers exploding in our hands (he was the most hurt, though, silly), my first straight porn film, my first fist fight, my first (and futile effort) to drive the family pick-up truck, and a lot of other firsts.
like what i said in the audio message for the wedding, i look up to him in many ways than one. he's the most sensitive guy at home to my tatay and nanay (dad and mom ). he's closer to tatay than i am and they do get along with very well, even getting the pet name of "bogs" from tatay. my nanay may deny it, but she loves my brother so much she gets affected at every little mistake that he commits.
my brother is also the most laid-back guy i know ever! younger than him by a year, and i do admit that i look older, i was more into studying and was hurriedly marking my own niche in life. and there he was, taking his time with not a slight care of what tomorrow will be. he takes it cool. when he's around, there's no rush, no stress. the world will take care of itself. who else will buy the biggest TV in exchange for winning a cellphone for everyone in the family to enjoy? who else will ask me for a dvd player and dvds to match the TV? and who else will stay up late on the playstation with our nephew and nieces? what about school work? yeah, he butts, "indeed, what about them?" hehehe. and of course, he cracks the funniest jokes gathered from playing outside with sweaty kids.
part of the message i recorded was me reading kahlil's message on marriage
http://www.columbia.edu/~gm84/gibran3.htmli also sent him and his wife that wonderful message by email and asked them to read it together. i hope they find wisdom in those words. i welcome the bride to the family and to our mahjong games! all my best wishes are for them.
and as for me, oh well. today is his day. at least for once my blog entry is not about me.
this is marc's version of the truth, sometime at 7:25 PM
if you can't live with it, he can.
single blessedness
my bro's getting married tomorrow.
the eldest one just proposed to his girl this year.
and where does that leave me?
single blessedness, i suppose.
this is marc's version of the truth, sometime at 12:00 PM
if you can't live with it, he can.
love in time of the world wide web
a friend asked for my take on online love and it's intricacies. expertise? me? hehehe..
well, they're all ok online and until they (men, in my case) just turn into the most unbelievable wuz when it's time to go un-virtual. here's hoping, though, that real men are left all in the parallel universe of online earth! i can't say that at this time.
gerald (that f*ck from CDO) and i met online. it was good at first but he wasn't into the relationship as i was. or was it ever a relationship?! i had to fight over his girl for attention. i can't do that, so bye. if it's any consolation, i read an article on Time magazine a year ago about how online relationships seem to not work (concluded from a survey, significant at 0.5). so that means my case is well within the bounds of the normal distribution. which goes to say that the guys we meet online are wuzzes.
my conclusion: don't go online looking for love.
however, let us keep our hopes mid-high. at this point in our lives, we don't want to meet guys with issues up their sleeves. it's enough that we have our own hang-ups to deal with. let them be. we're better off to other prospects. so if one virtual guy doesn't work, what i do is to go and click another chat room and look for prince charming elsewhere.
i still believe that love can't be found in the world wide web, really now. it can only offer us the opportunity to find Neo (u know, the One) hiding somewhere, trapped within virtual wires of the internet. still, and ideally, nothing beats doing the up close and personal. that is when senses are more than what's tapping on the keyboard. or what lits up in the monitor screen. or that sound of the YM blinggg (how do you change it, by the way?).
and if the guy on the other side of the monitor screen is not into the up-close and personal, expect him not to do what real humans do in the real world: touch, hug, kiss, blow sweet nothings...
here's to love and whatever's left of it to us. for now, i'm back to the chatrooms (again!).
this is marc's version of the truth, sometime at 12:42 PM
if you can't live with it, he can.
it's all water under the bridge.
Y is a college friend from the philippines who came to brussels for a meeting. and since he's here, he thought it would be good to visit me on the side. although i thought otherwise, the filipino hospitality in me prevailed, so he stayed in my flat from friday until sunday afternoon before his flight.
i wasn't too keen to see him. although we shared good times in college, we ended it in a not-so-good note years back. nothing is clear to me now of what really happened and why, but up until the moment before we saw each other here in brussels, i really didn't know where and how start with him. thanks to the amareto that i ordered for myself, and a beer for him and A, another friend who accompanied us, the laughter we used to share was back and i knew then that all was well.
i planned a whole weekend for Y. a visit to the bookfair at leuven on saturday and a tour on sunday of the city with an itinerary prepared by my lovely belgian classmate, I. A and C accompanied us to leuven, and i could tell from Y's laughter that he was enjoying the company as well as the trip. we attended mass at night with fellow pinoys and ate with them at a dinner that followed after. sunday, Y and i went for lunch at L's after the city tour. L bought a cake for Y and gave him a parting gift. Y was touched by L's gesture. he even told me that although he has been here many times, this was his first memorable trip to europe.
if not for the flu that i was developing two days before Y arrived, we could have done more, but i really had to rest. then came the time for goodbyes. he said he's coming back, hopefully with the same scholarship that i have. i bid him luck and farewell.
i felt sorry for how i felt about him before he arrived. i underestimated him and his potential. note to self: it's all water under the bridge.
this is marc's version of the truth, sometime at 7:50 PM
if you can't live with it, he can.
