Interesting...

This is my 100th post! And with this post is a survey or an analysis of me that is surprisingly acurate:

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion |||||||||||||||||| 80% Stability |||||||||||||||| 66% Orderliness |||| 20% Accommodation |||||||||||| 50% Interdependence |||||||||||||||||| 76% Intellectual |||||| 30% Mystical || 10% Artistic |||||||||||||||| 70% Religious |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Hedonism || 10% Materialism |||||||||||||||| 63% Narcissism |||||||||||||||| 63% Adventurousness |||||||||||| 50% Work ethic |||||||||| 36% Self absorbed |||||||||||||| 56% Conflict seeking |||||| 23% Need to dominate |||||||||||| 50% Romantic |||||||||||||| 56% Avoidant |||| 16% Anti-authority |||||||||||| 43% Wealth |||||||||||| 50% Dependency |||||||||||||| 56% Change averse |||||||||||| 50% Cautiousness |||||||||||| 50% Individuality |||||||||||| 43% Sexuality |||||||||||||||| 63% Peter pan complex |||||| 30% Physical security |||||||||||||||||| 76% Physical Fitness |||||||||||||||| 64% Histrionic |||||||||||||| 56% Paranoia |||||| 23% Vanity |||||||||||| 50% Hypersensitivity |||||||||||| 43% Female cliche |||||| 30%

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Stability results were moderately high which suggests you are relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.

Orderliness results were low which suggests you are overly flexible, improvised, and fun seeking at the expense too often of reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment.

Extraversion results were high which suggests you are overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense too often of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

trait snapshot:
messy, disorganized, social, tough, outgoing, rarely worries, self revealing, open, risk taker, likes the unknown, likes large parties, makes friends easily, likes to stand out, likes to make fun of people, reckless, optimistic, positive, strong, does not like to be alone, ambivalent about chaos, abstract, impractical, not good at saving money, fearless, trusting, thrill seeker, not rule conscious, enjoys leadership, strange, loves food, abstract, rarely irritated, anti-authority, attracted to the counter culture

hmmm...

This be them pick-chos.

So here it is... I haven't updated in over a week, but that's ok, because what I'm giving you guys is worth all that! Anyway, it all starts with School...


This is Rey, one of my classmates in Philippine History. He is seriously one of the funniest kids I've ever met. He's pretty much your typical class clown. And I love it.


This was the boy I wrote about in my blog titled "Circumstance".


This is a street corner right by my school. You can see how different it is from the United States. Check out the vehicles. They're called Jeepneys... the major public transportation system in the Philippines.


Our church threw a Christmas party with a retro 60's and 70's theme of "Staying Alive". The Campus ministry decided to go "Grease" style... and well that's me dancing. LOL.

I spent my Christmas week in Kiamba (my mom's hometown). On the way there, we stopped at a mall and I picked up a book at a used book store entitled Intesnsity written by Dean Koontz. It was one of the best books I've ever read. And I don't like reading... since this book, I've read another book by Koontz called The Taking and am now reading another one by him called Fear Nothing. I'm pretty much a devoted Koontz fan now.


Dean Koontz's Intensity. I read this novel in three days. And I don't even like literature that much.

My cousins and I in Kiamba love to play this game called "1, 2, 3, Pass" where you pretty much try to get 4 of a kind by passing cards around in a circle. The first one to get 4 of a kind, slaps his/her hand on the table. Everyone else is supposed to slap their hand down too. The last person to slap gets a penalty... our favorite penalty is lipstick.


Playing "1, 2, 3, Pass"

I came in 2nd place pretty much... (that's good)... but this is what I looked like sitting well in second place:



The "1, 2, 3, Pass Gang"

Kiamba is a beautiful town set right on the southern coast line of the Philippines. Thus, there are beautiful beaches.


Woodbridge Beach in Kiamba.

Christmas Eve we had a family party and some good eats...


Most of the fam gathered around for dinner.

You might be wondering... "is that a pig on the table?"
...well, Indeed it is. "Lechon Baboy" is a delicacy in the Philippines. It's pretty much roasted pig. It's delicious.


This pig was the victim in the latest slasher movie "Porked".

Kiamba was great because it was just a nice time to spend with cousins, aunts and uncles.


Some of my cousins at the plaza in Kiamba.

Did I say Kiamba's a beautiful place?


Kiamba just before dawn.


My closest cousins and I on the dock.


More family.

There's a lot of dogs in the Philippines... and no, Tom. I did not eat any. I've seen some unfortunate dogs in my life, but none so much as this one...


The dog from Hell.

My cousin Giselle in New York came up with a slogan to put on a t-shirt for us... "Got Adobo?" parodied off the "Got Milk?" ad slogans. Adobo is a very popular Filipino dish.


Cousins, nieces, nephews and "Got Adobo?"

I returned to Davao City (my dad's hometown) where I spent New Year's.


This is portion of the entire Serrano clan gathered in front of our house.

Most of my cousins on my dad's side are all older than me... Most in their 30s. The majority of them already have children.


Me, nieces, nephews, and someone's head.

It's a Filipino tradition that in the coming of the New Year or a major event, money is rolled up in little balls and thrown to the family to symbolize good luck and fortune and coming wealth and hapiness in the coming year... It was pretty fun to watch and everyone had a good time.


Catching the money.

I also have some photos that I've added to my deviantArt.com. Check em out...
"Ocean Sunset" - an incredible capture I got at dawn in Kiamba.
"Mother and Child" - a shot of my cousin's wife and their child.
"Pikoy" - a close up shot of my uncle's really rad parrot.
"Pikoy Dos" - another close up shot of my uncle's really rad parrot.

Yep, that's all I've got for now. I have taken more pictures, but I haven't uploaded them to my computer. So that's pretty much all the pictures from before 2006. Hope you enjoyed em!

Pictures...

...are coming tomorrow. Hold on to your hats.

So today is my father's 50th birthday. Wow. 50 years old. Congrats, man. That's half a century. Amazingness. And you dont look much older than 42 or something.

Happy birthday, pops.

Hey HOBY, HOBY, Are you ready?

so... every summer, hundreds of people from all over the world gather together in Washington D.C. for a week and a half of motivation, learning, enlightenment, and fun. This huge event is called the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership World Leadership Congress. of the HOBY WLC.

I now officially have the distinct pleasure and honor to be the assistant to the Director of Ambassadors (DA). The DA is pretty much the chairperson for the whole event so she has a lot of work to do. My responsibility is to help her with all that work.

Anyway. I'm pumped.

Click here to read more.

More info about HOBY at HOBY.org

HOBY always gets me excited. I can't wait for this summer!

/sigh

So being back in school isn't all that fun. Christmas break was awesome. Got to hang out with family and that was great.

Now, I'm back at school and I'm disliking it more and more each day. I'm finding it increasingly frustrating to interact with people here and with me being the extrovert that I am, is very difficult for me. I'm normally talkative. I'm normally outgoing. Yet here, it feels impossible to be my 'normal' self. I want my friends. I want my 'normal' way of life back in the U.S.A..

Granted, I have learned so much in my stay here, but I am so ready to come home. And I have THREE months left! I guess I must be being ungrateful or something, but really... I'm not being myself here and I hate that.

I've tried. I try to talk or joke around with some of my classmates, even some of my family, but they don't get it. Needless to say, I just feel so left out here. It's like everybody's in on some kind of joke that I'm totally oblivious of.

It sucks that my parents didn't raise me to learn tagalog, but that's just the way the dice landed.

Eh, so with my frustration, I've secluded myself and stayed in my room most of the time either on the computer or reading a book. This culture shock is starting to get to me. I've really never been here this long... and it seems to me right now that three more months is going to be torture.

Luckily, my mom and one of my best friends is coming for three weeks on the 25th of January. My 19th birthday is on the 29th, so they'll be here for that, which I'm very excited for.

Honestly, I'm just so worn out from being here. I don't have many real friends, if any. So emails and occasional phone calls and voice chats online is all I have. My friends back home are what sustain me through tough times, and I don't have that here. I'm not getting constant refreshment, so I just feel so freakin tired every day.

I miss home.

Oh man, i'm sick.

Sick like allergy sick. It's mega annoying.

Well happy passed holidays to everyone! I know it's been almost a month since I've posted, but i've been out of the city for a while and when I came back it was all work and no play. I don't have the energy to really type out a huge blog right now, but just wanted to tell you all... that i'm alive and kickin, even if the kickin is more like a little punt. I'm so tired and sick.

Meh.