Brrrrr...

Oh yey. We're finally here in the States and we've finally got internet. Woopee.

We've been here four days and it's been lots of fun - even if it's been really cold. Our first two days here weren't too interesting (except for when U. Kel and A. Kathy visited). We spent most of the day just cleaning the house. That's not really fun - especially when its last occupants left it a complete mess. But I think we did a pretty good job. The house is actually livable again and we freed up A LOT of space (haha.. grandma, I hope you're not reading this).

We met up with dad's relatives for lunch last Saturday. That was lots of fun. We even went ice-skating with U. David and A. Darlene afterwards. And to think we were already freezing to start with. But all the shivering and the rudolph-like noses were worth it. It was so much fun! But nothing beats Red Robin's hot chocolate after freezing your ass off in the skating rink. Oh yum. (Yes Father, I have sinned. But I really needed that hot chocolate. I am only human after all.)

We've only been here a few days but all the stuff we've been doing all seem so.. normal. It's like we've been doing it forever. The drives to Safeway, shopping at Costco, walking around Hillsdale, it's all so normal. It's normal but still fun.

Tomorrow's day 5 and we're finally going to get the chance to go to the library. Yipee! Haha.. We get to use those cool check-out things again. I just hope library cards here don't expire.   

Congrats to the new cadette officers of ICA!!! Haha.. (congrats micca dear.) GOODLUCK to you guys!  

Go Corps Kasikhayan! (micca!! demerit.. tsk tsk..)

But Corps Kalinangan still rules! haha..

Oh dear God help me.

Last Wednesday was the start of this year's Lenten season. I've never strictly followed the fasting and abstinence guidelines. This year, I've decided to change all that. Lord knows I'm in great need of some form of penance. So... I've decided to abstain from sweets all season long.  All chocolates, cakes, cookies, milkshakes, softdrinks, cupcakes and crinkles are off limits until Easter Sunday. For a sweet tooth like me, this is a death sentence. It may not be as painful as being nailed onto a cross but it still is quite unbearable. It doesn't help that our ref is still stuffed with the chocolates and sweets my mom and sisters got for Valentines. Nor does it help that we'll be in the States 16 out of the 40 days of Lent. Dear Lord, I hope I live through this.

It's been 5 days since the Ash Wednesday and here I am, sitting in front of the laptop peeling off all the white fiber thingies from the orange/ponkan I'm eating. I don't even eat oranges. I'm beginning to experience withrawal symptoms. My body is having a really hard time adjusting to this sugar-free diet. And we just ran out of pineapples and mangoes. Phooey.

I want to cry. J, this is for you.

35 more days til Easter Sunday.

10 more school days til the Finals.

19 more days til the M04 block outing.        

My sentiments exactly.

(This is an email forward my mom sent me entitled Why we are not out in the streets.)

*Dear Tita Cory, Senators, Congressmen, Businessmen, Media people, Leftists,and all Bleeding Hearts Out There:*

I am angry. And I know that there are many out there who are angrier than I am for the same reason. And that reason is simple. I am sick and tired of all you guys claiming to speak for me and many Filipinos. I feel like screaming every time you mouth words about fighting for my freedom and my rights, when you obviously are just thinking about yours. You tell me that the essence of democracy is providing every citizen the right to speak his or her mind and make his or her own informed judgments, but you yourselves do not respect my silence and the choices I and many others have made.
In other words, your con cept of democracy is limited to having our
rights and your freedoms respected, at the expense of ours.

I am utterly flabbergasted that you still do not get it: we already
responded to your calls, and our response has been very clear - we
chose not to heed your calls to go to EDSA or to Fort Bonifacio not because we do not love our country or our freedoms or our rights, but precisely because we love our country even more. Because quite frankly, we are prepared to lose our freedoms and our rights just to move this country forward. You may counter with your ideological propaganda and give me all the dire warnings about the evils of Martial Law, authoritarian rule, suppression of freedom, etc., but quite frankly all we see is your pathetic efforts to defend your right to continue fulminating, filibustering, and sabotaging
this country until you wrestle power for yourselves. You tell me that you are simply protecting my freedoms and my rights, but who told you to do that? I assure you that when I feel that my rights and my freedoms are at a peril, I will stand up and fight for them myself. I have done in the past, and I will do it again when I SEE THE NEED FOR IT, not when you tell me to do it.

You tell us that GMA is not the right person to lead this country
because she has done immoral acts. As someone who sees immorality being committed wantonly in many ways every day and by everyone (yes, including the ones you do), I may have become jaded. I may have lowered my standards about what a
leader should be. Guess what, Tita Cory, you lowered it yourself. When I accepted your incompetence and fought for you during the many attempts against your government, I already lowered the standards to ridiculous levels. Guess what, Senators and Congressmen, you lowered it yourselves when you ran for office and won and now make fools of yourselves in the august
halls of congress.

But the simple truth that you try to obfuscate is this: you have not
been able to offer me any viable alternative! On the other hand, GMA has bent over backwards many times to accommodate you while continuing to work hard despite all the obstacles and the brickbats you have thrown her way. From where I sit, she is the one who has been working really hard to move this country forward while all of you have been so busy with one and only one thing: to make sure she does not succeed. So forgive me if I do not want to
join you in your moral pissing contest. Forgive me if I have chosen to see things from another perspective. You say she is the problem. I say, we are - all of us is the problem; more to the point, I think you are a bigger problem than she is. Taking her out may solve part of the problem, but that leaves us with a bigger problem: you. That is right, YOU!

While I felt outraged that she called a Comelec official during the
elections and that she may have rigged the elections, I have since then taken the higher moral ground and forgiven her. Yes my dear bishops, I have done what you have told me to do since I was a child, which you say is the Christian and moral thing to do: forgive. Especially since she has asked for forgiveness and has tried to make amends for it. Erap certainly has not apologized and continues to be defiant, continuing to insult us everyday with his protestations - and he is part of your cause now! Cory has not apologized for her incompetence but we have forgiven her just the same because like GMA, she has worked hard after all.

I know you do not think that GMA's apology was not enough, or that she was insincere, or that that apology should not be the end of it, but please spare me the hypocrisy of telling me that you do so for the sake of protecting the moral fibre of society. The real reason is because you smell blood and wants to go for the kill.

Well, I have news for you. I do not like her too. I did not even vote
for her. I voted for Raul Roco. But as much as I do not like her, I do not like you even more. I may not trust her, but you know what, I do not trust you even more.

You know why I do not trust you? Because all you do is whine and
sabotage this country. You belittle every little progress we make, conveniently forgetting that it is not just GMA who has been working so hard to achieve them. Every single day, we keep the faith burning in our hearts that this country will finally pull itself out of the mess and we work so hard to do that. Every little progress is the result of our collective effort, we
who toil hard everyday in our jobs. Yet, you persist in one and only thing: making GMA look bad in the eyes of the world and making sure that this country continues to suffer to prove your sorry point. In the process, you continue to destroy what we painstakinly try to build. So please do not be surprised that I do not share your cause. Do not be surprised that we have become contemptuous of your antics. You have moved heaven and earth to destroy her credibility, you have convened all kinds of fora and hearings and all you have done is test our patience to the core. For all your efforts, you have only succeeded in dragging us further down. I say enough.

Don't get me wrong. I am not asking that we take immorality lying down, or that we let the President get away with anything illegal. But you have tried to prove your accusations all these time and you have not succeeded, so it is time to let things be. Besides, you are doing something immoral as well if not utterly unforgivable. The Magdalo soldiers are consorting with the communists - the same people who have been trying to kill democracy for years. Cory has been consorting with Erap and the Marcoses.

So please wake up and take a reality check. In the absence of true and genuine moral leadership, many of us have decided to cast our lot with the President, even if we do not like her. A flawed leader is better than scheming power hungry fools who can not even stand up for their convictions in the face of an impending arrest.

Your coup attempts and the denials that you have consequently made only underscore what we think is true: you are spineless and unreliable people who only want power but not the consequences and the sacrifices that go with the quest. Your one and only defense is to cry suppression when your ruse does not work. You are nothing but BULLIES who taunt and provoke, but cry oppression when taken to task for your cruelty. You call for the rule of law
and respect for authority, but so brazenly display your defiance and
disrespect for the same things you claim to be fighting for.

I would have respected you if you took the consequences of your actions like real heroes: calmly and responsibly instead of kicking and screaming and making all kinds of lame excuses. You say you are willing to die for us, that you do all these things for the country and the Filipino, but you are not even willing to go to jail for us.

Come on, you really think we believe that you did not want to bring
down the government when THAT IS THE ONE AND ONLY ONE THING THAT YOU HAVE BEEN DESPERATELY TRYING TO DO in the last many months?

We love this country and we want peace and progress. Many among us do not give a f*&k who sits at Malacanang because we will work hard and do our share to make things work. We the people will and can make it work, if only you get out of the way and let us do it. If you only do your jobs, the ones you are supposed to be doing, things would be a lot simpler and easier for all of us.

The events during the weekend only proved one thing. You are more
dangerous and a serious threat to this country than GMA is. We have seen what you are capable of doing - you are ready to burn this country and reduce everything to ashes just to prove your point. If there is something that we need protection from, IT IS PROTECTION FROM YOU.

Papers Papers Papers Papers Papers Papers Papers.

Too many papers. 

That's all I have to say for the moment.

I heard from Nix the other day that Sr. Dina (ICA directress) is not allowing the GC moderator to come back and teach next year. She doesn't have a teaching license daw. Nix said Ms. Cabel was willing to earn her license during her free time but Sr. Dina still wouldn't allow it??? [Glee Club!! Is this true?!?!]

Sr. Dina, if you're serious, I swear, you're freakin' insane. In my opinion, Ms. Cabel is the best thing that ever happened to the Glee Club. She's just so hands on and passionate about what she does. Her enthusiasm is infectious. Ms. Cabel attended practically every meeting. No offense to Pegs (our previous moderator) but she was rarely ever present. Sure, she didn't allow me to eat cookies in the music room during practice, cram my math/filipino/chinese homework between songs or chat with Jam and Val during practice anymore but, well, I really wasn't supposed to be doing that anyway. She taught us every song herself and really made sure we polished it - every single note of it. And she's a really really good teacher too. Teaching license or no teaching license, she's the best music teacher I've ever come across in my 13 years of ICA education. She actually made Music interesting. That in itself really is something. (Sr. Dina should probably learn from Ms. Cabel. I pity the current ICAns who have to sit through any of her extremely boring and extremely pointless lectures every semester. I remember almost falling asleep one time. Mind you, the only reason I didn't fall asleep was because it would have earned me 15 demerits.) She's got passion for what she does and has the uncanny ability to make something boring like the baroque period or the Earl King sound interesting. No teaching license can give you that. There are some teachers that do have teaching licenses but are TERRIBLE. As in English teachers with horrid grammar, Math teachers who don't know what the hell they're talking about and a Physical Ed teacher who scolded us because we got into an accident during one of our activities despite her 'STRICTLY NO ACCIDENTS' rule. Ms. Cabel just has to come back. For the sake of the current and future GC members and the rest of the student body. *sigh* ICA needs a new directress. Sr. Dina needs to retire.

Belated Happy Birthday to Rey and Mica (March 3)!!