Emoterang Frog

As 2010 comes to a close, the cliche is we take a look at what happened within the year and make an emo post about it all. I love cliches, you know? So here it goes...

Well, I really don't have any reason to whine for 2010, and that's quite a feat considering I whine for a past-time. Easily 2010 is one of the best years of recent memory, in all fronts in fact.

Work, while completely hectic, had been fulfilling. The office entrusted me with a couple of projects that I poured blood, sweat, and terms on. Ok, just a few sleepless nights. I like the challenge and tension of it all though; I like being busy and useful. Both projects ended this month and I'm quite proud of the accomplishments, although I wish they were nothing less than perfect.

In relation to work, I was also able to travel a bit this year. My first trip outside Southeast Asia was in Yunnan in September, followed by a meeting in Seoul in October, and then another official trip to Orissa, India this month. Despite being work trips of just a few days, I still managed to get a feel of the places I visited... and well someone else paid for those trips.

Speaking of holidays, my family visited me last May. It was the height of the crackdown of the "red shirt" protesters in Bangkok, my family did not see many parts of the city. Just having them here was good enough for me. They really liked Thai food and my mom was impressed with the canal tour - the most touristy of activities out there. I'm happy my mom made it for the trip despite her health. And I finally introduced my BF to my her.

Which brings me to the most significant aspect of my year... *blush blush*. It is the right time, and he is the right person, and I am in the right frame of mind, hence, things fell into place. We are close to celebrating one year together. The past twelve months had been a joy because of him. With how things worked so well during that period, I'm definitely looking forward to a more romantic future for him and me.

By the time this post finds its way on the blog I'd be in Vientiane for a workshop, which ends on Thursday. I'm staying a bit longer there to spend the new year, throwing toasts for 2011 with Beer Lao in my hand.

A Sad Truth

I will not talk about weight in 2011. That's one of my resolutions for next year.

I'm going to seal my mouth whenever I see an obese person even if deep inside I wanna tell them that they look like trucks with legs. I will never again berate my close friends about how their waistline is expanding three inches every time we meet, even if I know those are exactly the words they need to hear and they should be thanking me for telling them the sad truth. I will stop counting my friends' chins, or reminding them that their clavicles are suffocating.

I know that through the years I have been mean to people with a body mass index of more than 16. I'm not going to apologize for my behavior. Uhu, no way. But for next year I'd be kinder and embrace people even if I my hands don't meet at their back when I literally hug them.

You see, karma is a bitch. I've been gaining weight my self this year. I don't know how it happened, but twice I had to exchange trousers at the department store because I bought them TWO sizes smaller. It's tragic, I know.

It must be me hitting 30 this year. I've been developing a paunch that just does not want to go away no matter what I do. I've been following a strict diet of peanuts for dinner to no avail. I hardly eat these days, in fact.

I had to give away half of last season's trousers to charity. The baby tees don't fit me anymore, so I sent them to the orphanage as well.

I miss the good old days of me shopping in the teen's section because everything else is way too large for me then. I miss shopping at the women's rack in Zara where hefty women throw me envious looks whenever I grabbed size 26 jeans. Sigh.

As I said, karma is a bitch. A fierce, fierce bitch. It must be the universe getting back at me for my cruelty to fat people. It's a message I'm listening to, hence, the resolution not to talk about weight next year. This will be my last weight-related post. (Well, I'd try.)

And if it makes everyone happy, I'm confessing: I'm officially obese.

Indescribable India

India is everything that I expected it to be... and more. It is vibrant, colorful, and exciting, I don't know where to start! There's just heaps of things I want to share, but I'm afraid I can't do justice to the experience. Perhaps that's what India is all about; it's beyond incredible, it's in fact indescribable.

I expected India to be not easy to travel in so I was pretty much prepared for inconveniences and many surprises, which I adored every bit of. One night we stayed in a hotel without hot water, and evening temperature was about eight Celsius.

Or the food at the restaurant did not come on time; and in general time was always under-estimated and flexible, hence, the schedule of the trip was all over the place. For three days in a row, for example, we had lunch at 5 pm and dinner at 8:30 pm. Nonetheless, there are so many things to love about India that made me let these inconveniences pass.

I have never seen so much color on the streets, thanks to the resplendent saris - in bright fuchsia, orange, green, blue - Indian women wear all the time, whether they are on the rice fields, carrying baskets of rocks on their heads, or tending their goats.

I was completely arrested by the way they elegantly fold the sari around their bodies and still function under such intricate drapery.

We also had the opportunity to experience warm Indian hospitality wherever we went. Because we were sort of an official delegation, we were greeted with dances by the indigenous communities we visited. Often there are men beating big drums and women dancing to the thumping.

School-children gave us flowers in all the schools we visited and then they'd sing us some songs or show us how they study in school using their local, ethnic languages. They are a bit coy in interacting with us, otherwise, they are very participative in class wherein they use indigenous materials in learning.

Also, we had the opportunity to meet local education authorities and district administrators, the latter were all women. It's indeed impressive to see very intelligent women occupying these positions. They were all so articulate about the issues of their districts and definitely dedicated to improving the lot of the school-children.

The commitment of the local education officials in making basic education accessible to indigenous children was very laudable. The people implementing the projects are very knowledgeable about their work, it was an honor to be in their company.

Other than work, we also had some opportunity to visit the Sun Temple in Konark, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. India, after all, is the source of most of Southeast Asia's culture, therefore, Konark in particular reminded me of the many temples I have seen across Thailand and Cambodia.

We also drove a lot around the Orissa countryside on our way to the schools. We saw newly-harvested rice fields and villages composed of mud houses. The highways of Orissa (and also the state of West Bengal) are an experience altogether.

Driving was definitely free for all, and we had to contend with humongous trucks that could not care less for us in small vehicles. The travel down those highways was such a scary affair: brazen motorcycle drivers going against the flow, horns blaring like mad all the time, trucks inches away from crashing into each other, and the occasional bull and goat making a slow highway crossing.

Our last two days in India were spent in the West Bengal capital of Kolkata. I instantly fell in love with the charm of the city, with old, crumbling buildings whose walls are covered with moss and grit, yellow cabs that must be at least fifty years old, narrow streets lined with spindly trees, and large fields in the middle of the city that are full of cricket players.

We, of course, visited the Victoria Monument, Kolkata's landmark, and then the National Museum of Kolkata, as well as a bit of shopping on our final hours in the city.

Needless to say, India was such a mesmerizing experience for me. Again, traveling in it is far from easy, but I think all our minor sacrifices in comfort were amply rewarded because we went to parts of the country that many outsiders may not have the chance to see.

Nonetheless, we only saw a tiny speck of the massive country that is India. There are more things to see, undoubtedly. The best gauge for saying that you enjoyed your trip is whether or not you want to go back to that place the moment you left it. As mentioned in the previous post, it had always been my dream to go to India, and now that I've finally made it there, I cannot wait to go back soon.

In India

By the time I've posted this I'm already in Orissa Province, east of India. I remember last year wishing to Santa for a trip to India, although I specified I wanted to see Rajasthan. Well, my destination is not exactly Rajasthan but it's still India nonetheless.

I've been wanting to see India since... forever. It's one of those countries that never ceases to amaze me, and I've always admired Indians for their eruditeness.

I'm completely stoked for this trip. It's actually a work trip; we're visiting schools in remote tribal villages (quite similar to my trip to Yunnan in September). We're also seeing the temples of Orissa and a couple of days in the pulsating city of Kolkata.

So expect stories when I come back this weekend.

Must-watch: Undertow

All the elements of a good film and more: stunning scenery, flawless acting, sensitive writing, with a touch of folk tradition, good old macho culture, and a poignant - and amusing - twist. Directed by Javier Fuentes-Leon, this Peruvian film is a memorable gem.

Go catch Undertow (Contracorriente, 2009).

(And it's available on torrents now.)

Resurrection

A week ago, I deleted some of the links on my side bar for blogs that have not been updated for six months or so. It's quite disheartening that some people start a blog that somehow captures your attention and then the writer suddenly stops; I mean not even a hiatus but completely discontinuing the blog, like some relationships that end without closure. The Filipino term for it is bitin, and I don't know how to translate that.

Well, to write a blog is work. I would not say it's hard work, but still you put some effort and time in it, especially if you want to keep a certain quality to it. So I don't blame bloggers who find it quite taxing to maintain a blog over a certain period. One loses interest, or you have better things to do, or sometimes you simply run out of material. I respect that.

So it does take a certain level of commitment and consistency to maintain a blog, and I have very high regard for people to continue to churn out entries regularly. These people are really there because they enjoy writing and sharing their output. That's a lot of dedication right there.

And it's also a feat to maintain readers' interest. There are gazillion blogs competing for a fickle-minded audience. It's difficult to figure out what makes them want to go back to your blog regularly. If you know the content that piques readers' interest, you have to keep on writing about it, organize a storyline, and be consistent in posting.

So when I was "editing" my blog links, I wondered how many people have stopped reading my blog mainly because I've been completely erratic in posting over the last half of this year. An average of four posts a month is clearly a big departure from the dozen or so I used to produce. Yes, I do care about maintaining readership, otherwise I'd just close down this blog and write a journal instead. Blogging is always tinged with a certain level of narcissism, you know.

Over the past few months I've mentioned how my work load has increased considerably, hence, the lack of time for blogging. I'm very excited with the new responsibilities I've been handling lately. I like the challenge a lot; I like concentrating on accomplishing tasks, even if, say, I have to kill someone to achieve a certain level of quality in my work. No, I haven't done that... yet. :-) So, definitely I have no extra time for blogging, given my work responsibilities lately.

Also, this year I've been quite busy meeting my domestic duties as a full-pledged housewife. Ehem. Definitely there's a lot of things to write about on this subject but I want to keep things private. *Sabay hawi ng bangs* Being a housewife took much of my free time then, including cooking useless tofu adobo, among other things. My weekends in particular were entirely spent with Lara Stone.

You might ask why I'm talking in the past tense now. While I'm still very much a wife, I just don't have a "house" to speak of since Lara was shipped to a faraway land. Thus, I suddenly found my self facing a huge gap in my weekends; I don't know what to do with them.

What better way to spend uneventful weekends but reviving this blog? Yes, I'm back, that's what I've been wanting to say all along.

Don't delete me from your blog links yet because you'd be hearing more regularly from me. I have many stories to tell, including my upcoming trip to India... Incredible India as well as a beach holiday in Koh Samet, and New Year celebration in Laos. I will also share more of my recent reads and movies watched, and a bit of kabaklaan and binayot here and there; basically more of the same shit I've been spewing through these years! So stay tuned...