Tuesday, August 29, 2006


This was taken during kuya Norms wedding day. This group comprises the 'grooms friends kuno'...lolz...














This picture of me and Violy was taken just after the wedding of Kuya Norman.















Update

It was a long time since my last update of what has happened to me. The following includes details, items that I am thankful for as well as my ‘groanings’…lolz…So here it goes

Last May 2006, I came here in Quezon City to continue my studies and take my MA in Applied Linguistics. As I am writing this update, we had just culminated our 2nd phase of three phases for the first semester. So far these are the linguistics subjects that I had finished for the first two phases: Introduction to Linguistics, Phonetics and Language and Culture Acquisition (LACA). Other linguistics subjects offered were ‘Semantics’ and ‘Anthropology’ but I have had the privileged of taking in my diploma course. I have a subject that goes through out the whole semester; it is called ‘Doing Theology in Asia’. We are now in a week long break and after this we will start our 3rd and final phase for this semester with Grammar and Phonology (but I am also done with Grammar). So in the third phase, I will have ‘Doing Theology in Asia’ and ‘Phonology’ as my subjects.

A few highlights of the two phases that we just finished: Language learning – I had a great time with our Burmese friends who are very willing and helpful in any to us as we tried to understand and learn just a bit of their language. Friends ­– who celebrated their birthdays although the celebration was not that elaborate, the ice cream were just fine. Phase end activity ­– this is fun and double fun with the food…hehehe…Teachers – the privilege of having different teachers on each phase. Kudos to all of you!

(The paragraphs above were just a glimpse of what happened the following paragraphs would be a bit more detailed in some areas…)

During my first weeks here, I had a hard time (oh…alrigth not so hard I think) adjusting with some things such as the weather, with my housemates (we are seven in the house, 5 of us from the North, 1 from the South and 1 from the US of AJJJ) but eventually all became well after some rough and not so smooth timesJJJ. Although sometimes I make the lives of my housemates a little bit ‘miserable’…hehehe…I mean I make it more livelier by being ‘mean and nasty’ (as a friend of mine once described me…lolz), well that’s my opinion although my housemates would be soft on me…hehehe…they love me that’s why. Anyway, another adjustment was with my new set of classmates but of course I again won their hearts (that’s my opinion!) or the other way around. (Although some may not agree with my opinion, of course!JJJ). I also had a chance to go home last July in our place – to visit my family and attend a youth fellowship. During the youth fellowship, we had visitors from Canada for their mission trip. I had the opportunity of talking to some of them and learned that some of them knew my Hebrew teacher (he is teaching in their school and they came from the same place as well). I had a great time with them and as well with my friends. The following day (Sunday), I had a chance to meet my former youth pastor and two of my best friends for lunch. In the afternoon I went to attend a film showing…but before it started the pastor who is going to lead the film showing met an accident as they were coming to the place. He along with some of his cousins, my mom, two of my cousins and somebody else. Thank God that the car was stop by a tree before it fell into the ravine. Nobody was hurt and the equipments were all intact and eventually after they arrived the film showing pushed through with the people from that place attending. (Of course, there was a dramatic sharing of the accident.) I am personally thankful to God that He has not yet taken my mom that time. Anyway, I came back whole and safely here at Quezon City J. I was also very thankful for our Prayer Day in school that was held last August 25, 2006. It was a day just after our culmination of our second phase. I was still sleepy and tired but I made it a point to attend it. I was very much refreshed after that event and thankful that I did not miss it. It was really a very refreshing and wonderful time praying for the prayer items and spending time with God in a cozy ambience while a group of singers were singing as we are praying. I was also privileged to attend a wedding of a dear friend two weeks earlier (you can check my links for the pics).

Of all the these things that have happened in the past days of my life, I am thankful to God for His grace, strength, provisions and all the other things that He has given me and allowed me to experience. Looking forward to another challenging and wonderful time in the upcoming ‘phases’ of my life.

August 29, 2006