i got tagged!

I got tagged by many Facebook friends about the 25 random things about me. For the sake of updating my blogspot, I reckon it's not bad to post my 25 random things here. And so here we go...

1. I’m waiting for the right kind of pilot to come, you know what I mean.

2. Daniel-Day Lewis, one of the most selective actors in the movie industry, is my favorite actor. I become a fan when he was featured in nytimes.com last year, wise and eloquent, he got me googling about him; amazed at how serious he is at method acting and fancied at being able to blurt out well-chosen words like him.

3. Search through my bag and you would not miss these two things – a pen and notebook.

4. I wore fringe hairstyle in my whole four years in HS. Those were my “Jolina years.” I finally let go of it in my first semester in college, you have no idea how freeing it was to let go of those mirthful bangs.

5. There’s a big difference between a tourist and a traveler. I’d like to believe that I am a traveler, wary about tourist traps and instead decide on places where the locals go and spend their daily lives. Many of the interesting people I know are those I’ve met on my travels, and they probably have no idea how much they moved me.

6. Ketchup and brown sugar sandwich - I have never met anyone who smiled at the idea. I had it when I was like 7, or 8, out of curiosity (and surprisingly, I liked it!). I should try that again and see if I have the same palate.

7. I don’t believe in love at first sight. I am blind-friendly.

8. My sister said that Philip Yancey looks like Albert Einstein. Guess that’s why I love him. His book, Reaching for the Invisible God, changed my life. And that was the reason why I’m a collector of his books to date.

9. The last guy who said “I love you” to me was a student who announced it in the middle of the class. I don’t know if he read the “You-are-out-of-your-mind!” sign written all over my face.

10. John 10:10 – “I came so that they might have life, and have it to the full,” is my all-time favorite Bible verse.

11. When asked to choose: pork, chicken or beef? I’d choose beef in a heartbeat.

12. All the books I own have highlights on its pages.

13. Yes, my Chinese is poor. Now what?!

14. The idea was mine all along, but the humorist Jan Marshall, being obviously popular, got this in quotable quote, “Not a shred of evidence exists that life is serious.” Simply put: if you can’t laugh at yourself I’ll be glad to do it for you.

15. La Isla Bonita is my favorite videoke song simply because I scored 100 when I sung it in my neighbor’s videoke. Kaluoy sa naminaw. Ha!

16. Thank God for ice cream and pizza.

17. These past few years, the most powerful truth I’ve learned is that --- LOVE is a VERB.

18. I memorized the lyrics of Full House’s Three Bears song, complete with its dance steps. I can do it right now if you want me to, at your own risk.

19. I used to have this “falling in love montage” hanging in my imagination. Blame it on all the chick flicks and Julia Roberts’ movies I grew up with.

20. I think I’ve managed to create a sort of banishment in some areas of my life. I don’t care if one calls me a hermit, or declares how long it’s been since he/she last saw me.

21. Bad boys are actually bad…and thank you Lord, I steered clear of them. To the left, to the left.

22. Nothing else sent me off the other direction than that guy in KL International Airport who told me that he heard God say my name to him – loud and clear. I forgot to ask him if God included my family name as well.

23. Signed in as “invisible to everyone,” is my constant status in yahoo messenger.

24. I keep a journal from HS till now. On them are my thoughts, quotes I like, writings, poetry, and what have you, I have in there letters for my future husband! Oh my, it’s embarrassing to even mention this, but well, you are a close friend so please keep this as a secret, will you?

25. I have fallen in love with Jesus on Feb. 9, 2002…and now I still am, all because of His grace bringing me back to Him once I fall out. He is THE perfect gentleman, and the greatest evidence that God is not a religion.

Back to the cold weather

Pearl River College, Tianjin, China

Nothing is more overwhelming than being welcomed by this great amount of snow in my first week of class for this term. I'm not sure if this is a bad or good thing. In the meantime, I gotta be positive and enjoy this fresh air.

Macau, and beyond

Wynn's Fountain Show

Senado Square

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." (Leonardo da Vinci)

After my travel to Macau, I realized that I'm thirsty for more. More of culture besides what I know, more places to tread on, more interesting people to meet, more experiences to take on my backpack and bring with me as I journey towards life.

So I agree with Leonardo da Vinci, when you experience something that blew your mind away, you wanted to search for more of it. And what I have seen are, in my opinion, just the tip of the iceberg.

Yesterday, on my way to the school via the school bus, I was listening to this talk by Paul Manwaring of Bethel Church in California and he said something that made me say, "Yes, you are soooo true!

He said, "See what's happened is that we've been raised in a culture that somehow says, this is the way you do the Christian life, it's full of these disciplines but it's not about enjoying the planet on which we live. And yet this planet on which we live, is this expression of the beauty of God. And He's expressed himself because why? He wants us to step in and to go closer into Him, to understand Him and move into intimacy."

I don't know about you, but the more I travel, the more I revere God. It's like He made all these places - whether modern or ancient, preserved wholely or just the remains - because He knew that one day I will gaze at them. And my gaze would move from what's naked in the eyes to what's beyond them.

Thus, seating in the park near Macau's Ruins of St. Paul one evening, enjoying my dinner - three pieces of egg tarts and iced tea, I thought about how gracious it is to find solitude amidst traversing in a foreign land, to stop after a long day of movement, or to have a heart-to-heart talk to Someone who saw, and is part of all the days of history and have known from the beginning that as I step on this land, I would think of Him.

KL's breathtaking twins

The thing about beauty is that, when you see one, you could not take your eyes off it. In case of taking pictures, when you see beauty you could not stop taking pics of it. That's exactly what happened to me when I gazed upon Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Twin Towers.

It's beautiful, astounding, breath-taking. I can't remember how many pics I took of Petronas (I took pics of it during the day and at night), still fresh from my memory, though, was when I convinced my sister to find the Petronas Towers after several failed attempts at finding a KL Map. I told my sister we will find Petronas even without a map.

And so, we walked, rather aimlessly, at one of Bukit Bintang's alleyways. And then I saw, out of its light and gigantic presence, the Petronas from afar. It was a smile that passed through my face, my eyes lit up as I said, "We found what we've been looking for," pointing at the lovely twins that captured the eyes in a heartbeat.

found a treasure in Singapore's National Library

Singapore, Feb.4, 2009 - So we (me, my sister and her boyfriend Aloke) went to the National Library in Bugis and I was in awe at how amazing the place is with its huge collection of books and how the whole place is well-maintained. What's more, I read something that really struck a cord, such well-written words of wisdom and inspiration. Read with me...

" To sum it all up, if you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God turned out and sent rambling.

You must write every single day of your life.

You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes, and wear books like hats upon your crazy head.

I wish for you a wrestling match with your creative muse that will last a lifetime.

I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you.

May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories - science fiction or otherwise.

Which finally means, may you be in love everyday for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world." - Ray Bradburry (from John Winukor's book Advice To Writers)

see you later, Cebu

So, I'll see you later, Cebu.

You've been more than wonderful, and you will always be that. From the fresh vegetable soup straight from my mother's kitchen, the beat and hit of January festivals, friends' usual jokes and laughter to the pet dogs' tricks and play - no place like home, indeed!

But then the vacation has to end and I need to get myself out of here. For those who wants more of home, you wish time would move slow, but time is relentless to those who are having fun, or those who are busy.

Until then, Cebu. You saw me got confused with a story that begun with a goodbye and develops with another goodbye, you know how I so wanted to defy gravity, or trick it from happening, or of how I sometimes step into my little fantasy where boundaries are overcome by the fantastical creativity of my imagination.

There are things I wish I have more grasp into, like knowing what's really in the heart of another, or of changing some things that didn't come out right from peoples' judgments, or of not being forgetful when with someone whose words have the power to melt all the phrases practiced in mind.

Yet, could the distance be a blessing in disguise? Sometimes, distance defies gravity and that which is beyond your grasp would settle itself perfectly. I'm leaving with "what-if's" and questions but I so believe that the future has the perfect answer to the present questions hanging in my head.

I loosen my grip and grasp, I abandon myself to destiny, to His will. So, I'm not even gonna ask what's next to this. My next visit will come one day, and it will have it's own story to tell - whether to continue what was left hanging, or to begin a new one, I absolutely have no idea, and I don't wanna know.

All I can say for now is --- see you later, Cebu!


(FYI, I arrived here in Cebu, Philippines last January 1 after my travel to Shanghai and Hangzhou, China. From here, I will be accompanied by my sister and 2 friends Jillian and Ellen to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. My sister and friends will fly back to the Phils. after KL while I fly straight to Macau and will roam there for probably 2 days. From Macau, back to Tianjin for the next term of teaching, baby! Whew, graces, Lord!)

P.S. Photo from the wires taken during the famous January festival here in Cebu, Philippines - the Sinulog.