the shenanigans of eenamorata

it was a wonderful year after all...

        Ever since my grandfather passed, my lola started to live alone in their house at Bohol. She’s already 79 last October and the toll of years passing is undeniable. The strong back that once held her profound body is now crooked to an unimaginable angle; the healthy frame that she once had, had been long replaced by an undernourished one—one that could barely walk a mile and the glowing eyes that I used to know are now clouded with tears. I’ve been going to the pristine island of Bohol more or less every year since I was 2 years old. Friends from Luzon would always envy me when they hear that I’d be going there and they’d usually snob at my apathetic reaction towards it. Little do they know that the Bohol that I have been going to and the Bohol that I grew up knowing is a house surrounded with coconut trees and rice fields; it is a one hundred fifty meter walk away from the national highway and there’s cow poop everywhere. Due to the wanderlust that I already had as a

Eena the explorer strikes again. After the whirlwind Christmas activity week, I went on a journey of literally giving love on Christmas. And because I am travelling alone (which is most of the time anyway) additional perks are as follows: You are not required to talk. You can do whatever you want, whenever you want and wherever you want to do it You can pretend to be someone else! nyahaha. (Ex. Hi I'm Eena! I'm a singer and I can dance) You get to meet a lot of interesting people because you know no one and meeting new people is the only option. Example: the hotel officer who assisted me (and is sort of trying to be a little too friendly) a while ago was from the same town... small world shared a dinner table with an officer on deck. She is a she, and she commands a part of the ship when the captain is asleep (which is most of the time) ate breakfast with a human rights lawyer who only talks about the the cases he filed against Pag-ibig... You get to learn to do a l

These are my almost-year-end reflections about teaching at UPLB-- again. It is almost six-months since I started teaching--AGAIN; enough has been said on the unplanned comeback and the emotional hitches that came with it. So far, life has been good, better even, since the blitzkrieg return from the industry. The being better of most of it is mainly because of changed perspectives and realizations that have only been realized after the emotional roller coaster of being back (hehe). The year long journey at my X-company was life-changing; in good and bad ways. Good ways because I did learn a lot from the experience, and I was surprised that I already have a lot to say about what I was teaching. It definitely made me more confident about my subjects and the applications of it. I gained this conviction (if that is the appropriate term) that what I am talking about is true, most of it... I hope. Furthermore, its nice to be able to contribute something to the betterment of the education

Here goes the 12.12.12 craze; a once every millennium kind of thing and according to the Mayan Calendar or whoever they are, today's supposed to be the end of the world. But, I don't give a crap to any of that. I still have English lessons for later, classes to prepare for tomorrow, several parties to attend to, a big-ish party to host, and a Christmas travel gift to look forward to. I am also looking forward to reconnecting with friends and family this season. Looking forward to a time of  reflection during the two week vacation. I also WANT gifts ( a very ironic post from my last one. hehe ). I'm gonna be honest to myself; these are the more feasible things that I can ask people for. Nyahahaha. Kasi I know na if I ask for a boyfriend or a scholarship grant in a snap it will not happen agad agad. Hehe. Kidding aside, here they are na nga. a desk calendar pad . (for keeping track of exams, schedules and deadlines in the grown up world office) something that i

Magpapasko na naman. Kung iisipin objectively, without any religious biases, isang routine lang naman talaga ito. Paulit-ulit na nangyayari at paulit ulit na ginagawa; panahon ito ng mga bonuses at isang avenue para sa media at businesses para kumita ng malaking pera dahil soceity calls for everyone to give--peer pressure kumbaga. Nakakahiya naman kasing hindi magbigay kapag binigyan ka ng isang over zealous  Christmas filled officemate or friend ng regalo.  Give LOVE daw on Christmas day, pero most of the time hindi naman LOVE ang inaanticipate natin, mas inaanticipate pa usually ang gifts. Kaya nga maraming perang umiikot sa panahong ito. In my case, isa lamang akong consumer, nagaantay ng bonus at nagiisip ng mga bagay na pagkakagastusan. Routine. Ganito ako palagi. Kasama din sa routine ko tuwing pasko ang iba ibang reaksyon ko towards it. May mga kapaskuhan na apathetic lang ako, yung tipong "ok pasko na naman, ano na nga ulit ang iluluto ko, sinu sino na nga ulit ang

The last five months have been a healing process of sorts. Returning from the industry was definitely an unexpected turn of events; it being so was a humbling and frustrating experience. As mentioned from my previous entries, I should have still been working my butt off the industry, trying to get on with my masters application and suffering from loneliness and bankruptcy (no boyfriend and no money). THIS WAS NOT MY ORIGINAL PLAN. I am back into teaching because the project that I was supposed to work with got delayed and the only job I know that I can get into easily is teaching.  At that time, I was angry at God for letting things happen the way that they did. It was depressing and frustrating to have to see all your beautiful plans get jumbled and mixed up. The feeling is like seeing my lego castle get ruined because some naughty kid destroyed it. It took me a long time to accept and finally get a good hold of myself to fight back and pick myself back up together.  After a much

All the basic stuff one needs on a field trip.. (crossing fingers that I didn't forget anything) teachers can be excited on field trips too...  took too much time to pack my stuff. might've over analyzed things. 1. a carry on bag with a camera, wallet, umbrella, chocolate (in case of emergencies chocolates are good to satisfy hunger and supply the needed energy), phones, tissue,and mints 2. Medicine. anti cough tablets, visine, vitamin C, antihistamines and seretide (anti asthma thing) 2. Toiletries/ maintenance: soap, deo lotion, conditioner, shampoo, alcohol, cotton buds, facial wash, feminine wash etc. etc. etc 3. clothes for 3 days and two nights 4. chargers 5. again. the point and shoot camera (important) 6. a book. one hundred years of solitude  just in case i get lonely and OP because i'm already a teacher and i'm supposed to be mature (SUCKS BIG TIME) and part of my job is to take care of the students or something like that lalala

Ingredients: Elbow Macaroni around 300grams Water 1 cup of fresh milk 1 bar quickmelt cheddar cheese (Coarsely grated) 1 pack of Del Monte Cheese Magic (cheese Sauce) butter (around 140 grams yata. Basta the half of a regular butter bar) Procedure: 1. Boil The Elbow Macaroni, until its almost done. Make sure its a bit hard-ish but leaning more towards the soft-ish texture... Note that it should not be too soft because you are going to subject the pasta to a second stage of cooking. Kaya if you let the pasta become too soft at this stage, the end product will become soggy. We want the pasta to be al Dente... 2. Drain the water, but DO NOT rinse the pasta. 3. Dump everything in while the pasta is still hot. Grated Cheese, butter, cheese sauce and fresh milk. Turn the temperature dial to LOW, or else your Mac and Cheese will end up burned... 4. Mix, mix and mix until the mixture is smooth and thick and yummy. 5. EAT. I've discovered

I am now teaching about the different majors of our degree program to my Introduction to Electrical Engineering class. One of the main objectives of the course is to teach these freshmen kids the differences between the three majors to eventually help them choose their course majors when they reach their junior year. Apart from the usual lecture of definitions and examples, I was also trying to teach them to visualize and look forward to themselves after four years by writing it in paper, sharing it in groups and sharing the collective answers in class. An elderly boss once told me about Stephen Covey’s teaching. He said that I should always begin with the end in mind. So, that is what I was trying to do to my class; in the hopes that the activity that I was requiring would eventually inspire them to endure the challenges and struggles that they would encounter along the way. I was very honest, in terms of the current mortality statistics of our course; I even told them that if

                    We had family guests today. There were three toddlers, a high school student and five adults, all of whom (except for the yaya) are family.. the only ones we've got (or the only ones i know of) here in Laguna. It was nice to have kids (noisy kids) inside the house, it felt like the quiet house became alive when they came over. So I cooked for our lunch, this time I did chicken curry. Ingredients: Chicken Breast garlic onion turmeric coco milk evaporated milk potatoes carrots red bell peppers salt and pepper curry powder Procedure: Prepare the chicken, potatoes, carrots and bell pepper by cutting them into big cubes; around 1 inch per side. Dice your garlic onion and turmeric. Fry the potatoes and carrots until its half done. Set aside. (You can actually skip this step, but its nice to do this because the potatoes and carrots does not become mushy after boiling the whole concoction for cooking) On about a tablespoon of olive oil, saute your g

Its been a month of teacher-ing, letting go and moving on and as always, the Lord has been very good and faithful despite of my stubbornness, iniquities and whatevers, He never fails to show me how wrong I was and how right He is. And as always, He knows his way around me. I am amazed at how He's able to adjust with His strategies in dealing with me. If His way before was tears, this time it is the subtle humor of everyday surprises that leaves me in awe of Him. (should be writing something more about it soon or in multiply maybe). SO! I am in full teacher-ing mode for the past month. After trying to get a glimpse of how the fidgety minds of my students work, lulling up from school because the waters flooded the sun for awhile... I am now up for some serious teacher-ing business. These days, I busy myself with a lot of doodling and writing around. There's been a lot of X-es, circles, negatives and red marks. I also try to look serious by making my work station look

from John Piper's desiring God website ( see here ) or read on: Four years ago a teenager in our church wrote to me for advice about life in general, and identity in particular. Here is what I wrote, with a big dose of autobiography for illustration. Dear ________, My experience of coming out of an introverted, insecure, guilty, lustful, self-absorbed adolescent life was more like the emergence of a frog from a tadpole than a butterfly from a larva. Larvae disappear into their cocoons and privately experience some inexplicable transformation with no one watching (it is probably quite messy in there) and then the cocoon comes off and everyone says oooo, ahhh, beautiful. It did not happen like that for me. Frogs are born teeny-weeny, fish-like, slimy, back-water-dwellers. They are not on display at Sea World. They might be in some ritzy hotel's swimming pool if the place has been abandoned for 20 years and there's only a foot of green water in the deep end. But

It's almost two weeks since I officially started this new shenanigan called teaching... I am more or less re-adjusting alright to it... I am actually having fun so far. For the first meetings of each class, I went back to my original routine of getting their personal information (for emergencies and contacting purposes), their expectations with the subject and a random question for me. The following are some of the questions that caught my attention... some of which I wasn't even able to answer... I'll try to answer them here. To be honest... I do not know. Kasi I'm still NBIL (bago kong version ng NBSB... Never Been In Love.. Oha!!!), so I guess when you have butterflies in your stomach? :) Dear student, I hope you asked the erased question instead, it'll be so much easier to answer. First question. Easy to answer. WALA. Second question. Hard. Why? (sighs) Why? (sighs) Why? (sighs) hahahahaha!!! Creative question.. in fairness.. I like Pizza