Eat, eat, eat: food like monsoon rain

Mange Readers,

How appropriate that the 1st week of my last month of internship coincided with Ramadan.  I'm not Muslim, but according to Student F this holy month involves fasting, which is something I can attempt to do since my personal food budget is also getting smaller ( meaning that my Starbucks et. al. milk tea splurges would be curtailed significantly ).  Luckily this week, there was a deluge of delicious and FREE food.

The week started with Aunt G's weekend b-day bash.  When we were little, my aunts would organize our parties; on this day, they only did half of the cooking, and the rest were "covered"/prepared by us, the kids; we ate spaghetti, Palabok, pizza, giant multilayered cake ( mangoes, cream, cashews, in between vanilla, mocha, and chocolate spongcake ) Red Ribbon's Tiramisu, Casava pops, Jackfruit ice cream, and more; there are my younger cousins, whom I used to babysit when they were 4/3/2; they sang karaoke and outdrank me ( they're not alcoholics, I just have a poor tolerance dahil I'd rather 'pig out' on tons of Starbucks Frappuccinos and cakes instead ).

Then Cousin P ( same batch with me ) with girlfriend and 4 months old son ( marriage is a different story ); nakakaiba when I saw him carry his son, appease his crying, share stories about tricks to stop his crying, call him an endearing nickname Totoy ( nakaka = in the process, makes one, in the making; iba = different, change, gives perspective, taken aback but not surprised? ).

Even though I had to cancel my meeting with Tutee B, he still treated me to rice, Spanish Omelette ( onions, tomatoes, and bell pepper ), and a mango juice.  Runner J's thesis is becoming more concrete/complete.  One day he got free tickets to a University basketball game, so we went and then ate Razon's Sizzling Sisig and its prized Halo-Halo before working on his thesis.  During our last session of the week, we ate at The Old Spaghetti House, where we ordered: chicken tenders with honey mustard, Thai Bagoong Pasta ( fermented shrimp paste with green mangoes ), California Maki thin-crust pizza ( crab meat, wasabi, cucumber, and yellow mango ), with Matcha Green Tea Blended drink, and a funnel cake with caramelized bananas.

The week ended with Director N's bonga b-day bash.  We had pizza for merienda.  During the editorial meeting, we had Pancit Malabon, Coca Cola Light, and Cookies and Cream cake.  She also invited me to join her family and her former Japanese students for dinner at Causeway Seafood Restaurant.  We ate egg-drop soup, Century Egg, jelly fish, crabs ( that you had to crack open still ), shrimp, lemon chicken, fried rice, Pacific clams with vegetables, roasted nuts, sweet bean paste filled gelatinous rice balls, mango sago ( mango puree, fresh mango slices, and tapioca/pearls ), and a whipped cream cheesecake with fresh strawberries. Yummy! What good memories to have if I were to fast [ kahit hindi ako Muslim ], diba?

Freelance Tutoring: almost there

Bonjour Readers,

For the past couple of days, Runner J and I focused on surface-level editing.  I went over Chapters 4-6 checking for redundant ideas and sentence structure.  For most of the thesis, I checked for consistency of verb tense ( in the past ), list of references, and most importantly, clear ideas that could also be understood by non-specialists.  We also started to address recent comments from the panel and the 2 chair advisers ( 5 total ).

At the Master and above level, most of the times, the personal is difficult to "extract" from the academic, thus personal stories are inevitable.  For Runner J, he saw a job ad ( for his current position ) and didn't think much of it.  He rationalized that the University would just hire from the inside ( common practice ), but he still applied believing that a higher power was involved in such serendipity. Not expecting much, he got the job, and everything that came with it was just "extra bonus."

Personal and professional growth were benefits Runner J reflected most about.  In managing people, he learned to be more flexible.  University policy aimed for retention of employers, thus he couldn't just fire for simple incompetence.  The firing of employers should be the last resort after every option had been exhausted.  So he focused instead in changing himself: leading by example to influence his subordinates to change themselves ( self-initiated more than external factors ).

I continued reading his thesis and one of his primary sources.  The information about a water shortage in 2025, and the outdated and dilapidated ( or even non-existent ) sewage system in the Philippines sounded scary.  With all this information, how do you stop yourself from growing crazy? Especially when there's a paucity of action? Is the government doing something about it? What are the people doing about this? Do they know?

Paraphrasing his approach of managing people through examples, he said, Start in one's home, then community, then town, and so forth.  ( I was thinking that with this "slow" method, world destruction would come sooner, BUT then again, if people were to keep their destructive ways, forcing them to change would only delay the apocalypse.  Changing and saving the world required changing people's hearts and outlook: thinking globally, while acting locally. )

In spite of the looming apocalypse, Runner J believes life can still be good.  One can drink coffee and tea, go fishing, or watch snow falling while clothes can dry faster in an air-conditioned room.  Reality of nano waves and quantum physics can give a different perspective on the ever expanding universe (infinity) as illustrated by our constantly updated technology ( smaller and faster devices with bigger spaces for memory ).  He's registered to complete his dissertation by the end of August (2011), and he's in the process of renewing his electrical engineering license.  As long as there's light, then there's life, even enough for the smallest bacteria to thrive, he says.

Random? Roomies from Taiwan

Namaste Readers,

Just as quickly as Roomies L and J left, Roomies C and S moved in from Taiwan.  They're here in the Philippines for a month to study English.

So far, they're chatty; I hear them speak Taiwanese? ( sometimes a little too loud for such a small space ) [ I think about decorum: how they define it.  I think about how it's easier to keep to one's self.  They can speak their language; I can speak Tagalog with Roomie K; if we want to talk with each other, we can use English. ]

One day, Roomie C wanted to borrow an adapter that would electrically convert his hair dryer.  He used minimal English mixed with miming.  To ease the linguistic transaction, I paraphrased his idea into basic English so he could easily answer "yes" or "no."

Afterwards, I realized that I shouldn't make it that easy for him.  I should be more patient in listening to him express his translated idea.  He's so comfortable speaking his language that a little discomfort in speaking a foreign language (English) may be good ( this struggle may be an opportunity for him to practice speaking English in a natural context ).

GRE Review: tips from Princeton

Whats up Readers?

So far, I'm satisfied with the GRE Lit Review Book I bought.  The authors are very humorous and upfront about the nature of such a standardized test that focuses more on superficial identification rather than profound content ( showing that even a Ph.D. person barely scratches the surface, barely unmasking the tip of an iceberg ).

Some big ideas that give me perspective.  The GRE Lit test isn't designed to test obscure works.  A committee of English Ph.D. convened to make a test with topics that most English majors would at least have been exposed to.  230 questions aren't enough to test at least 2000 years of literary works from the Bible to the present in 3 hours; so for coverage purposes, question topics will rarely repeat, and thus other questions/answers will eliminate themselves.

Most likely, success in this test will be about using the right test-taking strategy: managing time, guestimating aggressively, grabbing the easy points, etc.  It'll be an uber difficult identification test, BUT at least I'll be equipped with some useful tactics ( mentally, psychologically, physically, spiritually, et. al. ).

Manila Internship: washed out? (w9)

Hi Readers,

This week Director N was in South Korea for the Asia TEFL Conference planning meeting, while Prof. C was in Japan moderating a conference.  I observed Substitute I's teaching technique as much as I could before Bagyo Juaning/Kabayan/Lando interrupted.  The week ended with Aunt G's birthday bash ( cakes, spaghetti, and pizza galore ).

Substitute I's theatricality infused with humor was commendable and good to emulate; she had timing, delivery, and Confidence.  Her acronyms, such as PNP (positive, needs to improve, positive), and PREP (point, reason, examples, and point ) equipped students with a script for critiquing their peers constructively.  We discussed Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), and on Friday, 9:30-11:00am classes were postponed in order to encourage students to attend Mass in honor of St. Ignatius ( founder of the the Jesuit order ).

In the office, I finished the physical aspect of shelving; the next step would be to start updating the library catalog in the computer so call number matched the stickers.  Outside the office, I resumed reviewing for the GRE ( the review book I bought is uber helpful thus making the task not so daunting ).  I made marginalia on the 15+ Writing Center articles, which I had been reading since forever.  I worked with Tutee B and Runner J, and said goodbye to Roomie L and Roomie J ( who moved in their new condo nearer to their university ).