Fresh from my first ever trip to EU, I got the “low” side of the equation. I think when good things happen, not sogood things happen to even out things and to remind you to keep your focus and in my case, so I will keep in mind that I am not the captain of my ship nor the master planner. The COTS and the Master Planner is the one who is in charge.

Quick notes to edit later….

Munster, Germany Trip

Left Tsukuba at 7AM
Went to USA parking, took the shuttle bus to Narita Airport, realized that I forgot to bring my calling card….check in, while waiting, ate onigiri and had coffee, went to Duty Free shop, bought an eyebrow pencil Estee Lauder, sprayed Dior

Went to the 21C aisle seat, beside me is a Korean, happy to know that in front of me is my own TV with movies!!! Watched The Proposal, Mrs. Doubtfire…CSI but the episode was boring and I’ve seen it already…went to Ep. 5 of Sex and the City, the episode when Samatha and his bf were just starting their replationship, which we saw that they ended in the SATC movie.

Lunch was Fish with Shiitake mushroom with rice, Salmon macaroni salad…dessert was cheese cake. Had coffee…then watched The Hangover. I had fun watching the movie…not for kids….

Prepared for takeoff…I’m in Paris!!! Then waited at Terminal 2G of Charles de Gaulle International Airport…hoping to catch a glance at the Eifel Tower…nah….maybe later…..quite surprised to see that the plane to Munster is a chibi-chan plane. I sat beside a girl from Lyon…friendly but not too friendly….took slept for a few mins…finally!

Then landing…took the huuuge bus to main Osnabruck airport…took a taxi…more like a van…paid EUR 46.70 …then the driver took us to the Agora Aasee but looked like we were in the dorm…good thing I realized immediately and asked a friendly bear german….gave the driver instructions and we were brought to the hotel which we thought was the cheap guesthouse…then it was areally good one! With CNN!!! BBC!!! And a mini-bar that I hope I will not touch because the drinks are chotto expensive….

Slept from 10.30PM to 3.36AM….watched TV, took a bath….the shampoo and body soap smells leafy good. We plan to rent a bike and go around the city….Otanoshiimi.

Most parents name their children after celebrities, holy people or merge their names’ first or last syllables to give you unique names (“Rommelyn” from Rommel and Annalyn, etc). When I was young (i.e. 27 yrs ago..sigh) I asked my mother about the meaning of my name and she said it means “wonderful” or did she say “wonder full..?” or anyway, a website that specializes in meanings of names gave me something to think about.

The name “Myra” is of Latin and English origin, and it means “Uncertain, perhaps myrrh, unguent”.

Other info, and I quote, are as follows
“The name was invented in the 17th century by the poet Fulke Greville for use in his love poems.
He perhaps based it on Latin ‘myron’ from the Greek (myrrh, onguent – a sweet smelling oil), creating a feminine form of Myron. It has also been suggested that he simply rearranged the letters of Mary.
He could also, like Shakespeare with the name Miranda, have been thinking of a name which would mean ‘admirable’, based on the Latin.

Other suggestions relate it to Irish Moyra, or make it a borrowing of the name of a seaport in ancient Lycia. It came into general use only in the 1830s, frequently as Mira, occasionally as Mirah.”

So, I know now why I am so confused, hehe. The name to start with is so unsure…..hmmn……

Lately, the SuBo madness got us into watching BGT shows on Youtube and prompted us to predict who will most likely be included in the finals this coming May 30… Above is my daughter’s prediction. Mine doesn’t include Julian Smith and instead featured Jamie Pugh, the cry baby…or drama king? I don’t know. One thing for sure is that last night, SuBo and Diversity made it in the list and we will not see Natalie in the finals. She can always comeback next year I hope, with a better performance.

Good luck Susan.

I always believe that every song is written to express someone’s thoughts, beliefs and feelings. In the light of the recent events in my life, there is no song more apt than that of the Prayer of St. Francis interpreted by Andrew Johnston. The prayer itself speaks of how much I want to understand the people around me (outside of home) and to love them even when they are really so unlovable. The lines “O Master grant that I may never seek, so much to be consoled as to console…To be understood as to understand….To be loved as to love with all my soul”….are my prayer to God for help.

Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me bring your love,
Where there is injury your pardon Lord,
And where there’s doubt true faith in you.

Make me a channel of your peace,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving to all men that we receive
And in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Here is something that my daughter loves to sing..

During the last few days of 2008, I was in a “reminiscing mode” and I remembered that years ago, I used to make “NY resolutions”..resolutions that found their way into the next year’s list of NY resolutions and the cycle goes on and on…anyway, so as not to stop the cycle, here I am again…I made the following resolutions for the year 2009:

1.  Maintain my regular prayer time – lunch time (10-15 mins)

2.  As much as possible, walk…take the stairs instead of using the elevator (except when going home…we’re in the 8th flr dude!).

3.  Maintain the regular Math/Sci/English grammar lessons for anak (every Sat from Jan to March and everyday starting April 2009)

4.  Learn one Japanese recipe  per month

5.  Lose 3 kgs before May 2009!!!

Good luck!!!

The search for knowledge in the field of science is so advance that everyone wants the ‘real thing’ and what used to be just ‘PCR’ now (actually years ago) has evolved to have a variation called “real-time PCR”. Now I am writing this not brag about my skills in PCR which is something not to brag about considering that I have done it less than 10x.  To be considered an “expert” you have to be able to do hundreds of it or at least be able to explain all your results for the 10x or more that you have done it. 

Being in Japan can give a twist to this otherwise easy procedure as most available materials realted to this topic (beyond the wonderful internet) are in Nihonggo and my reading skills is not that good…so that gives you an idea on how difficult my situation is.  Knowing and doing the technique/principle is one thing…trouble-shooting is another thing. 

I guess the internet will still be my last resort…amazon.com will of course be there to the rescue…for $139.  Waaah!!!

It’s two deg C outside and the wind is howling.  I feel like the top of my head is about to fall off and with it, my teeth.  I immediately visualized how I would look like and how I will explain my absence to my sensei (…Sumimasen..kyouha isha-san ni ikutsumori nandesukedo….), of course in English.  I left my lab to meet my family at our favorite stop, the takoyaki shop in Q’t Mall, only to cancel our restaurant plans because it would entail a 10-minute walk from the bus stop.  At first we were somewhat undecided but the 7-minute wait at the bus stop made us decide against the “brave act” of going to RanRan.  To make the long wait bearable, we went down the train station to grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks where we chanced upon Nishimura-sensei.  At first she didn’t hear me calling her name so I pretended not to see her (sigh!), and just when I was in the middle of pouring honey to my honey’s coffee, she said “konnichiwa”. Of course I cannot ignore her,  she’s one of my favorite senseis in the university because she made life bearable, and why is that? That would be another entry to this blog.

So to continue my bus story, we missed the supposed 6:10PM bus by a  mere minute,  so we had to wait for the next bus which means standing there for another 9 minutes. The wind was really freezing so I asked my better half to stand against the wind “penguin in the north pole” style, you know,  Penguins survive the extreme weather by huddling together and taking turns in bracing against the wind.  I guess I will never volunteer to take my husband’s place.  Our daughter sat on my husband’s feet and I pressed my face to his chest, for once I never cared about what people  around us would think: I just want to be warm.

Finally the bus arrived!  I have never been so happy to be inside the bus.  All of a sudden the bus is the most wonderful place to be in! God bless the bus driver for being on time.

Biking, for me, is something that I always associate with my childhood. My neighbors, then, Lalaine and her sister Jenny, a chubby friend, Lala, and I would go biking around Bry. Liboton towards then the newly constructed Penafrancia Basilica and take our turns riding the bike, since we only had two (Lalaine’s and Lala’s). That was when I was not using Nanie’s bike. I never really had a bike of my own, until now of course.

The summer of ‘83 saw me struggling to learn how to ride a bike, just right before I turned 9 years old. I still remember the cemented area in front of Lola Nena’s house where palay was dried after each harvest, and where I learned how to ride a bike by first pushing with my left and then with the right foot on the pedal. It was the “BMX” that Nanie’s father got after collecting all the tanzans (bottle caps) – they got all the bike parts from a Pepsi promo at that time (probably after consuming two cases of Pepsi.) Anyway, after trying the whole morning that one fateful day, I finally got the hang of riding a bike.

That summer was probably the last one I enjoyed as a kid, for after that all I can remember was being almost always sick. I rarely went out to play and I did not have the energy or the appetite for the outdoors, because of my frail body. That cemented area is now a basketball court (half court) and the kids play there now, oblivious of the memories that that place gave us – not forgetting the numerous baile-han. Right beside that area, a poso once stood and used to be the center of the community’s daily life. It is also where countless putahe including our favorite lechon were prepared during Penafrancia fiesta . The well has since dried up, and with it, our childhood memories of baths in banyera with my best-friend Nanie…our playful games of sulpak with Butch, Bimbo, Nick-nick, Jude, Jojo, Joy, Ging-ging (whenever she came to visit from their place in Igualdad). Not far from that cemented palay drying area, bamboo used to grow abundantly for it was said that a creek used to flow in that area before it was converted into what is now known to be the Villafrancia Subdivision.

Biking used to be the ‘in thing’ back then, as not so many kids have bikes of their own and not everybody was lucky enough to have a friend with one. How I wish I have captured those memories in photos… or letters.

Biking brings back memories of old that are dear. Lola Nena (and her aunt Lola Doday) have since passed away and their apos have each gone to so many different places. Oh, and another fond memory is that of Uncle Mar riding the bike with about five kids in tow and how confident we were that he would not let one of us fall. Those times were really fun! (These dear ones  were not my ‘real lola or uncle’ but they were really specially nice and good to me..sigh).

Here in Japan where biking seems to be as common as breathing, I cannot escape riding a bike (again) and it makes me wonder why. Writing this post made me realize why… biking brings back good old childhood memories- of childhood friends, dear ones we’ve lost, places we have almost forgotten and most of all, the wonderful feeling that biking gave me, and my friends a long long time ago.