A Day After the Elections

I should probably give the ex-president’s son the benefit of the doubt. Besides, as I have said, he’s never really been a bad guy to me-- just not much of a doer (so far) to fit the role of a president, when you got other candidates who have done more. Especially if it’s an economically lagging and impoverished country like the Philippines, competent economic management is vital. I mean, investors have long fled and no one would currently want to even think of the Philippines as a good buy. I may then need to bank on this man's supposed clean character and hope that this would eventually push the Philippines to its full potential.

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Election Day: The Lesser Evil Prevails

I suppose the “voting-for-the-lesser-evil” logic has prevailed. The Philippines has moved forward in automating this year’s elections, yet its ways of voting are still way too backward. Oligarchy and political dynasties still rule. Oh well.

For the record, I have nothing ill to speak about Ninoy Aquino who is currently leading the polls. I just don’t like the kind of emotion that the people poured onto the guy. It makes him the type who can be easily swayed. But hey, I may be too harsh.

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Why I Am Putting My Stakes on Gordon

My dear blog, please allow me to highlight my Philippines this time around. Thanks.

Tomorrow, the Filipinos will partake in what I feel is a very important right and obligation for them— voting in the presidential elections. I have already done my share of the “absentee voting” at the Philippine embassy in South Korea a week before. That marked just my second time to cast my vote, yet I feel the need to express my more independent stance on life-changing political decisions like these at this time around. I guess this is what getting out from under your parents’ skirts do to you, much so if life has recently allowed you to physically leave a country you desperately want to go back to in the hope of reliving it with more realizable hopes and dreams.

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My Back-to-Pinas Christmas

How does it really feel like going home for the holidays in the Philippines? Okay, it’s not like I have been in and out of the country for ten or twenty years to fully capture this whole “homecoming” and “balikbayan” feeling, but I sure have my personal regard for this sappy home-country longings and returns…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

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I Miss Good Ole Jollibee!

Cheers to my ever-jolly orange bumble bee! Amid the global slump, Jollibee as an enterprise has definitely proven that it can whether the economic storm. I guess when a business has more importantly become part of a culture, there is no way that it cannot stand even the most adverse of situations. Filipinos will never have second thoughts of shelling out their hard-earned money for a hearty, quality time with the family at their favorite fast food chain.

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Weekend Playtime With Kids

I love kids. I mean, I really enjoy being with children. I don’t exactly know what it is called, but there’s just this special fondness that I have of them and it makes me go high. It’s like I can be my most comfortable self to unconsciously pick my nose in front of them, and I won’t even be any kind of embarrassed in doing it. It must be the rawness of their minds, the innocence that people mistake as being less intelligent, when most of us know that they can even be way smarter than us sometimes— that draws me to them. Here I am stuck at getting older, technically acquiring more knowledge and experience, yet making things more complicated. I then talk to any kid licking on his ice cream, and I am again reminded of how life can just be anyone’s coned vanilla. Plain and smart-ass simple.

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Travel to the Philippines!

I left the office early on a Friday night today (which should actually be a regular habit for me, don’t you think?) and craved for some leisurely walk in Myeong-dong. Myeong-dong as a fashion district, houses top Korean and international brand names alike, so it really won’t be surprising to see foreigners here as well. They really have big, beautiful stores, and international brands like Nike and Zara shout their names in the crowded streets like these:

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Why Hot Chick?

No, I am not expecting anything from this. I did it for the plain favor that it is.

Not that I feel confident with how I translated the song, I am posting my translation anyway for anyone who can come up with better suggestions. Go ahead and drop me a comment. Especially the "Bebot" song. Haha. Translating a rap song where even the words used seem to be just taken from the great pot of "anything-filipino" for the heck of branding the song by a Fil-Am as patriotic is plain hard. I just can't figure out the nipa hut line. Explain it to me, anyone.

I added music videos from You Tube, in case you're not familiar with the songs. I don't know if it's a bit of an embarrassment to admit that I really do not know Rachelle Ann Go's song until I google-d it, and a Korean likes it so much. Hehe.

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The Future BPO Hotspot

Interesting article that I read from Wall Street this morning. In the wake of what seems to be a global slowdown, the Philippines’ economy is redeemed, aside of course from the ever-reliable remittances of overseas Filipino workers, by the growth of BPO companies that greatly addresses major labor issues (employment) in our country. And it’s good to know that it’s the FILIPINO SKILL that they are actually banking on, and not solely the cheaper labor that we are currently priced at, as compared to India.

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The Stock Trading Game

I have long been meaning to try this game that the Philippine Stock Exchange’s official website offers to stock aficionados. It’s called the Stock Trading Game. It’s a pretty easy procedure to follow since all it takes is an online registration. After filling up basic information which includes one’s user id and password, it will already prompt any investor-wanna-be’s to the world of securities and trading.

With the basic trading guidelines posted on the web page, one can always take that first dip into choosing the stocks to gamble on.

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POEA Card turned Receipt

I was even excited to get a new ID I can now keep in my wallet. All I got was paper receipt in two duplicates.

I have finally completed my requirements for the POEA today, after getting my medical results yesterday. I would’ve finished everything the same day I went out to pick up those results, I just wasn’t able to make to the 3.30pm cut-off in the processing of payments for the overseas employment certificate (it’s a certificate after all, not an e-card! Isa lang ang sagot nilang lahat sa akin kung bakit wala nang card: nagtitipid ang gobyerno!).

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Early Day at the POEA

At 6pm through FedEx yesterday, the employment contracts finally arrived-- the long, missing requirement that we have been waiting for since we got our visa back in May. And look where we have just been today-- to the POEA office. The most dreaded time has passed.

Anyway, I think we survived the day. Thank heavens.

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The Koreanovela Remake

I caught on the Filipino version of the Kim SamSoon Korean comedy series with Regine Velasquez sporting the plump-lady look tonight, and though I feel I should give credit to the very good advertising done by the host station GMA even weeks before it actually showed, I am just afraid I'm not going to love watching it. I was a fan of the original Korean series though ;-)

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Visiting the Manila Cathedral

It was a rather full spiritual experience that really proved to be meaningful this day. I spent the afternoon with Mari, an Opus Dei friend, who invited me to attend Cardinal Rosales’ special celebration of the Eucharist at the Manila Cathedral for the feast of Saint JoseMaria Escriva (June 26), founder of the Opus Dei in Spain. I know that some of you may have heard of it at least once. Opus Dei is a Catholic institution whose mission is to spread the message that work and the circumstances of daily life are occasions for growing closer to God, for serving others, and for improving the society.

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A Night of Stocks Stuck in Mind

The Stock Market Seminar that I took interest into was promptly attended by Angeline and me last night, along with mostly students (surprisingly), therefore not making it too intimidating. Prior to the event, I have personally been thinking whether only the ‘wealthy’ would come, or those who have already been monitoring the daily financial charts because of the stocks they currently own. I can’t even afford a job to buy me a single share at the moment, so that immediately grew the apprehension in me. Our main objective in coming really was to provide ourselves with whatever handy information there is on stock investing and trading, which may prove to be a good primer and backgrounder on the kind of work that we are to venture in Seoul. Being able to add the said event to our list of “Seminars Attended” in our resume was a second goal. We weren’t doing anything anyway, being the jobless dudettes that we are, so we might as well shell out a reasonable 500php for this seminar. Off we then went to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) headquarters in Ortigas.

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Stock Market Seminar

I got this post from Entrepreneur.com.ph's Forum. I'll just think of one person whom I can practically drag into this, and I'm off. These stuff are currently my "I-dig"s. Given the day and time of the seminar, I could actually just think of one person who can benefit from this. Head on, fellow Seoul conqueror! ;-p

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On Government Calls

Attempting a call to a Philippine government office can be the most stressful call that you’d ever have to do in your entire life. Oh yes.

You call a trunk line so you’d be sent to the right desk in the sure cluster of cubicles that exist in that office, and at times, they would forward you to the wrong table.

Then there are the government offices that would provide a particular number to call for information. You go ahead and inquire, and they would tell you to check on their website instead! But hell no, you’ve been smart enough to check on it beforehand but did not find the information that you need (hence, the reason for calling), and you explain them that. But on to their work-averse tongue and they’d say, “I’m sorry Ma’am, but the information that you're asking for is posted on the wall at the second floor of the building. I am at the lobby.” Potek.

But hey, this is my government. I have to abide by their “being the government”.

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The Camiguin Island Getaway

I have always pictured Camiguin to be such a sensual place for I don’t know what reason-- some remote island that lets you enjoy the place without ever wondering what exists outside its circle. Luckily, my unemployed status allowed for a mother-paid expense trip to Mindanao, and it finally let me see what the island has in store.

The trip to Mindanao was more importantly for a reunion that I and my younger sister had the chance to attend to, after a decade, in the maternal side of the family. Personally, the last time that I have been to the province was way back in 1998. My mother is specifically from Zamboanga del Norte. It was after this family event that we then went to visit the island province.

Going back to the Island of Fire, this was how our long trail went:

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The Pagudpud Escapade

Since I have been debarred from the working arena in February of this year to keep my fingers crossed with this out-of-the-country work experience, which by the way, is currently putting the biggest stress on my round-eyed face, it’s amazing how I am so much feeling the itch now to go to more places in the Philippines. I sometimes think if this is actually close to speculating, “Probably because you won’t be seeing your country in quite a while, and you won’t have this breeze of a time anymore when you get to serious, far-away work. So you would like to take advantage of the time remaining.”

That’s what’s good when you don’t have a job and you’re finished with school, you suddenly have all the time in the world to do what you want. What’s bad about it though is you won’t forever have enough dough to spend on everything, with all the available time that you’re boasting. Well, what I just said may be relative, because some people may still have parents who are willing to shoulder expenses while they are bumming around, or probably a big amount of savings from their previous jobs for them to squander and be merry. I neither have both.

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