The Coolest Animal Ever. EVAR.

...is King Kong. Hands down. The dude's got mad strength, can tear up t-rexes and still be a softie for the ladies. He is THE MAN.

So if you haven't guessed... if you're that thick... I just got back from seeing King Kong at SM Mall with my cousin Ken and King's (the guy who's lived in our house for the last two years) younger sister Tata (it's just a nickname). On a sidenote, King is here in Davao now! It's awesome. He's like a brother to me, so it's really cool to see him again.

This movie rocked my socks so hard I had to buy another pair. Let me just tell you guys that I haven't had this much fun in a movie since... well since I can remember. It's a great ride for 95% of the film. The beginning had my guessing whether or not the rest of the movie was going to be good... I wasn't digging the screenplay in the beginning and some of the camera tricks used later in the film were just kinda weird and distracting to me... eh. But don't get me wrong. The movie is freakin AWESOME. Hats off to Peter Jackson.

So everyone, sorry about the lack of blogs this week. I've been studying like a madman for my prelim exams. The semester here is divided into three grading periods: Prelims, Midterms, and Finals. This last week before Christmas break (merry jesusbirthday by the way) I had six planned exams. I say "planned" because yesterday I was happily surprised that our Algebra teacher decided not to give us one. She said that she was "tired of grading wrong papers". Don't misunderstand that. She's a great teacher, but she has crappy students. Me of course, not being one of them. They don't study, they don't show up for class, and they don't bother to make an effort. Well, they can have fun taking the same class next semester. This teacher is not going to pass them.

So exams this week were so surprisingly and ridiculously easy. I don't know why, but for some reason in EVERY class (I kid you not), I was the first person to finish the exam. And in every class mostly everyone looked at me in awe/surprise/disgust while I turned in my paper. I don't get it, but I think Filipinos were just taught differently on how to take tests. I have a feeling that they all read through all the questions first and then answer them... slowly. That's not how I do things. I like my time, thanks. But they were easy. I'm pretty sure I passed with flying colors. It's in the bag. I was most worried about my history exam today, because I had absolutely NO prior knowledge of Philippine History before coming here... but the test was shockingly easy. All mutliple choice and a lot of the questions had these kinds of options:

a) A blatantly wrong answer
b) The correct answer
c) Maybe
d) I guess

I was chuckling as I made my way through the test. About 6 of 50 questions were riddles or trick questions, such as "If a rooster lays 48 eggs in one day, how many eggs does he lay in 1 hour?"

a) 2
b) 3
c) 6
d) 0

If you answered (d) then you're a smart cookie. Roosters don't lay eggs, dummy. So yeah, questions like that. And the last question was (and this seems to be a popular question of EVERY teacher) "What is your teacher's full name?". I've gotten this question in most of my other classes (actually oddly enough only classes that are taught by women) in previous quizzes and in exams this week. Sadly though, I blanked on the answer more than once for those classes. Yeah, I don't know my teacher's names. Sad, I know. Here, we call them "Sir" and "Maam" so much that that becomes their name. "Did you talk to Sir yesterday?", "What assignment did maam give out last meeting?"... Different.

This week has been a lot of fun. I'm glad it's over though and that Christmas break is finally here. OH! Some really cool news today. Kaloi... you remember him owner of KIC (Kaloi's Internet Cafe) told me that he and Lea talked and they want me to be a groomsman in their wedding. WOW. What is it with me and being in people's weddings? I'm really honored, though. Now, I definitely have to learn a saxaphone piece for their wedding.

Tomorrow, I'm waking up early because we're doing a community service thing with the church. This week we did a used clothing and can goods drive, so tomorrow will be giving it out. It'll be really great.

On a related note, today I took a taxi to school because I was running late. As I got out of the cab, a homeless lady with a child in her arms approached me for a handout. Reflecting back on the time I denied a kid one peso (I actually saw him again, gave him money, then took some pictures of him... those later), I was convicted to be more compassionate. I gave the woman a 20 peso bill. Others saw this, and immediately, I was bum rushed by a mob of poor people. Seriously. There were hands... everywhere. Grabbing too. I reached into my pocket and grabbed a handful of change. I tried giving a peso out to each person, but that was a little difficult as everyone was swarming around me and pushing each other out of the way. Before it got too messy I said sternly, wala gyud. No more. And I walked swiftly to the gate. I was kinda frazzled by the whole thing. Man, poverty is powerful.

King Kong is set in the time of the depression era of the U.S. Compared to the current state of the Philippines, the homeless during the depression era is nothing compared to the homeless of the Philippines and other third-world countries today. Just an observation.

Well, I gotta get up early tomorrow, so that's all for tonight. And by all, I mean this is a freakin long blog. Good night.

Cy

Relax, It's Gonna Be Okay.

...seriously folks. This is the conclusion I have come to. No matter what happens, hey, it's gonna be fine. Life happens, you know? How can we have a say or choice in the things that happen externally? We can't. But what we can do, is learn to cope and adapt to those things.

Yep, so I've got joy again. I'm hopeful again. That's all I have to say. God is good. I'm affirmed of that everyday now.

It's so funny how he uses some pretty awkward or terrible (seeming) situations to really teach us and mold us for what's better. It's neat.

"If God will bring you to it, He'll bring you through it" - Thanks Sarah Grover for that one.

More on this later. I have exams to study for this week... then CHRISTMAS BREAK! WO0T!

Cy

Circumstance

Today after school, I sat on the steps in front of campus waiting for my dad to pick me up. As I sat, I contemplated my life. I thought about the person I am. The person I've become. I need to figure myself out.

As I was waiting, I saw a little boy. He had to be maybe 8 or 9 years old. His face and his shaggy hair was darkened from the dirt that covered him. He was homeless. He wore an old and tattered t-shirt. The shirt was also filthy and had several large holes in it. He wore a pair of raggedy shorts and flip-flops.

When I sat down, this boy came up to me and said, "Kuya, isang piso?". He was asking me for a peso to spare him. Kuya is a term used for respect. You say it to someone older than you, but not that much older than you. What shocked me was that I was so quick to say back to him "wala gyud"... meaning that I don't have any on me. This was a lie. Why was I so cold to his need? Thinking about it now makes me sick. He looked at me and walked off to ask others the same question.

This boy was so desperate, yet he didn't seem desperate. He was cracking jokes with some of the students coming out. He was throwing the coins he did receive around on the ground - tossing them just for fun. He was trying to get people to avail of the taxis parked in front of the campus. I observed him open the door for one student and she gave him a peso. From this, he learned something. I watched him as he tried to open and close any door of any car that pulled up to the sidewalk. This boy was in need.

My heart went out to him, but yet I was still so greedy. If I see him tomorrow, I'll have to give him some money.

While this boy was begging, another boy walked down the street holding his mom's hand. He looked to be about the same age as the homeless boy. He was dressed in his school uniform. Clean. Obviously took a shower that morning. His hair kept clean and cut. And he had someone - his mom. The homeless boy had no one.

It was an interesting thing to watch. One boy so affected by poverty and another boy so fortunate. What was the difference in these two lives? Could they possibly have had the same opportunities? Or are they victims of circumstance?

It's been occuring to me that some things are not in our control. Actually, quite a lot of things in life are not manageable or predictable. I wonder. If I had a different family, how much different would I be? If I had not gone through the experiences I have, would I know the things I know now? What other possibilities could there be?

God says he has a plan for our lives. That's it's not to harm us, but rather to prosper us. Was his plan for that homeless boy to beg for money to eat dinner that night? Was his plan for the fortunate boy to be well off enough to actually have an education? Why did he choose them? Why did God choose the path he did for these two boys?

Why has God chosen the path he has for my life? Why has he put this and that circumstance in my path? Why have I been elected to be faced with certain trials that others never have to even think about? Right now, I wish I struggled with different things. I wish I had a different set of trials. A different set of temptations. But I suppose that I need to grin and bear what I am going through. I've been through difficult situations before and thankfully I have been able to look back and see lessons learned from them. I know that that is also true for what I am going through right now.

Is my circumstance unique? I doubt it. I'm wondering what the outcome will be from this. God knows everything that has, will, and is happening. I trust in that. But I'm curious, is there really circumstances? Or do we shape our own problems and outcomes. I'm not sure, but our actions and our choices shape what happen to us in the future. So my question is... Will I make those right choices and take the right actions? What is right anyway? Isn't all things brought into our life, whether from good choices or bad, meant to teach us?

My thoughts are a mess right now. Thinking can get you into places you don't want to go... but I don't think we can be mindless sheep.

Hmm.
Cy

ARRGGHH

Why the heck am I like this? Why do I do the things I don't want to do?? I know I'm a sinful being. I know it's our nature to act like this, but why the heck cant i change!? Am I doomed to a life full of the same sickening routine? Up mountains, down in the pits and back up again?? I hate myself. I hate the person that I am. I hate how I can't simply say no. Why I'm not strong enough to stand firm. Why I can't just be a good Christian!!

My life feels like its crashing. People close to me are turning into betrayers and people I can't trust. I have no love in my heart. I have no sense of self-worth in my being.

Yeah I know, you might be thinking "Wow, this is not like Cy... or man, what's going on here."

Let me tell you guys something. I've got secrets. I've got some pretty sickening darkness within myself. Yeah, I've told people... yeah my desire is to change, but what the heck! I keep screwing it up. I screw up relationships. I'm screwing up my life! It's in times like this that I need God the most, but I am way too prideful to admit to that right away.

Guys, this is a really dark period in my life right now... It's not like it's been this way since I've been in the Philippines, but a recent confrontation has brought out the demons within me again. I need to rely on God's strength to get out of this. To ask for forgiveness, bask in his grace, and move on with being a loving disciple.

WHY IS THERE SO MUCH CONFLICT IN LIFE?? WHY DO WE HURT SO MUCH? WHY IS THERE SO MUCH PAIN! WHY DO THE PEOPLE WE TRUST DISAPPOINT US IN THE HARDEST WAYS!

It's because it helps us to see God more, right? That's the stock Christian answer. But dang. It's a lot easier said than done when you're in the heat of the battle. Have I given up? Definitely not. I haven't even begun to fight.

Sorry everyone for the unique tone of this post. It's what I'm feeling in my heart right now that NEEDS to be let out.

Last night, I cried in my room for 30 freakin minutes. Ashamed of myself. Ashamed of someone close to me. Ashamed of my situation. Ashamed of my weakness and my stupidity.

I need to make my body my slave. I need to get this thing under control. For God. For myself. For my family. For my friends. I'm hurting people I love and that is not my intention.

Thoughts are just coming off the top of my head right now. I'm anticipating in the near future some bad things. Bad things are happening, but I don't know if they'll turn out for the best or not. Things I'm used to. The life i knew is about to be turned upside down. It's going to be entirely different. And because of that, I am scared to death

I guess I have to trust in God. Have faith in him. But wow, it's hard. It is so hard.

I need to change. I need to repent... I want to. I have to. It's the right thing to do. How can I continue living in a life of lies and unhappiness? I can't. Not anymore. NOT ANYMORE! Something must be done.

The battle has begun.

Pray for me.
Cy

by the way. I'm a fake.

D8s

Have I mentioned that I'm learning A LOT here? It's crazy. Not only am I learning some interesting stuff in school, but I'm just learning a lot about myself, about people, about this country, about God's nature. Man. It's a crazy journey.

So last night I had a date with this really cool girl from my church named Aby. She's really nice and sweet and just cool to hang around. She's also 18... but she's in her second year of college.

Let me fill you guys in: Here in the Homeland, most kids graduate high school when they are 16. It's not because they all start really young, either. It's because they don't have Jr. High. Which I think is awesome. I hated Junior High. It was pretty much "Drama Fest Spectacular". Let me tell you something. Junior High kids are MEAN. And like an immature mean. They can tear you up and feed you to the dogs. They're bad.

I remember this one time last year when our Student Ministries class went over to the Middle School (Desert Christian has Preschool to 12th grade over three campuses) to just hang out with the kids, play games, beat them at football/basketball... and the like. Prior to this trip, I had already done worship a couple times for the Junior High chapels...

Ok so this particular day, we're hanging out with some of the little brats (i say with all lovingness in my heart) and one kid comes up... a 7th grader I think... and goes, "Oh yeah! I remember you! You sang in chapel a couple weeks ago."... "yeah, that's right" I respond... the kid replies sharply, "Oh man! You suck!".

I wanted to slap the little satan. Just kidding. But seriously, little kids can be cruel.

Ok, back to the date... yeah she's 18. Before our date at 6pm, It starts raining like OH-MY-GOSH-WHAT-THE-HECK-TROPICAL-STORM! No joke. From inside my room, the rain pounding on the roof sounds like we're being attacked by ze germans. When I leave my house at around 5:30pm to catch a jeep to downtown, I open the gate and immediately see that there's this huge flood rolling down the street. It didn't exactly look all that deep, but when I stepped in it, pretty much my whole feet plunged straight into water. Wet socks. Great.

Man, wet socks are the worst. There's only a couple things I hate more than wet socks... one being jr. highers. (kidding.)

Luckily, I have my umbrella. So I save myself from being totally drenched, but with the angle this rain is coming down at, it was darn near impossible to stay dry. I hailed a jeep got in as fast as I could and took my seat... My jeans were soaked. Ugh. Wet socks, wet jeans. This is the ills. (btw, i'm starting to say "the ills" for anything that's not all that cool... downers.)

During the commute to downtown, it was kinda funny to watch people scrambling across the streets using any single item to keep themselves partially dry... purses, books, backpacks, cardboard, plastic bags...

A couple cars got stuck in some heavily flooded areas. Man, it was crazy.

So I finally get to Kaloi's Internet Cafe (or KIC) and wait for everyone else to show up so we can get this double date rolling... Apparently, everyone had trouble getting to downtown because of the rain.

Originally for the date we were supposed to go to this restaurant on this large hill overlooking downtown called "Jack's Ridge", but we decided to forego that because of the rain. Instead we went to Picobello, this awesome itallian restaurant on the 5th floor of the mall right next to KIC. We had some great genuine italian pizza, talked for a little, then roamed the malls. Oh and I treated everyone to dinner. Seriously though, for 200 pesos a pizza (roughly $4 for a large size), how can I not treat everyone? I plan on eating lunch there tomorrow.

So Aby and I had a good time together. At least on my part I think so... Kaloi and Lea walked around the mall finding stuff to buy for their soon to be home (they're getting married February 5th, 2006 and want me to play the sax at their wedding... yikes), so Aby and I had some coffee, talked a little bit about the dramas of life and how God is awesome... then went to the arcade where she kicked my butt at pretty much all of the games... but I think I let her win... or did I. I dunno. She was good.

After that, we walked across the street to McDonalds or McDo (mick-doh) as it's referred to around here, and had some desert. I got an Oreo Mcflurry and she got just a regular sundae. We talked a lot about the language... I pretty much just got tutored in Tagalog... it was awesome. I'm really starting to learn a lot of the language.

Funny story. While we were chatting, there were these two girls outside... maybe 12 or 13 each and they were trying to get someone's attention who was eating inside... So this one girl, kinda chubby, starts dancing around... or more like flailing around in front of this window. I was trying my darned hardest to keep my attention focused on Aby, but I just had to point it out to her and we started laughing so hard. Great times.

So yeah the date was awesome possum... also, Lea and Kaloi really want the two of us to be close friends... I know they do. Jeez, those guys are so obvious...

Anyway, that was last night... Today I didn't really do much except go to church, have some discipling time with the campus guys, and play DotA... a Warcraft III mod... it's interesting I guess... it's like cocaine here for all the teenage guys though. Thousands of Filipino kids are wasting their life away playing DotA. Hey, I can't blame them though... I pretty much waste my life away on World of Warcraft.

So... I pretty much love the campus ministry here. These guys are so cool. They definitely rock my socks.

Here's a little thing I threw together on Photoshop:


Aby is the girl second from the right. Lea is second from the left. Kaloi is in the middle (on the guy's picture. duh)

The rest of em, I'll introduce another time. Anyway, I have some homework to finish up, so I'll let you guys go. For now. Yeah.

W00t!
Cy

I'm so pumped...

...because I have internet at the house now! This means that I can talk on AIM more... I can consistently post blogs, and I can start taking more pictures and get back to that hobby.

Man! I'm excited!

I also learned that I can upload videos taken with my camera phone... I think they're viewable with quicktime... so I'll have to try that out soon too.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Cy Responds to Your Comments!

I feel this is needed and fun (as well as needed fun). Maybe i'll do this once a week...

--
Abe said...

"What! They didn't invite you to the reception! You're the coolest kid there! Well they missed out. Hmm double date huh? Sounds like they are trying to set you up already. Unless you want to be setup - beware! YEAH for Jeepneys!"

Jeepneys be the ish fo sho. lol as for the reception i kinda didn't want to stay anyway... haha. I'm not exactly sure if I want to be set up either. Man. craziness

--
Tom said...

"Can I be your children's god-father?"

I would say yes, but I'm not catholic. You know that, Tom.

--
Mom said...

"Since the flu bug and the pertussis bug came upon [the Slater-Lunsford family], they are being quaratined for this season. But the after Thanksgiving day SALE will go on and that you will surely miss. I will let you know what's up and give you a chance to shop away from home. How's that for an advance x-mas / b-day present rolled into one?... You make me smile as I read thru [your blog]...reminds me of my college days."

It wasn't the bird flu was it? I think it's awesome I'm getting my presents in advanced. That rocks. I'm glad I can make you smile from thousands of miles away, mom.

--
Justin said...

"You, Cy Serrano, have the BEST tone I have ever heard! Dang it's rough around here without ya - Can't wait to see FD3 with ya when you get back."

That history-making comment from Jamie Baker will never leave me. You better wait off before seeing FD3, bud.

--
Justin said...

"Somehow I figure that we're gonna end up renting MISSING IN ACTION when you get back."

Oh most definitely. It's a trilogy, so we'll be sure to watch all three.

--
Justin also said...

"Me and Heather went out with Chary and Nate Dogg - No joke!"

I saw that stirring.

--
Tom said...

"Gahhh! My arm is twitching and won't stop! I'm serious, man this is sooo annoying."

I suggest the next time it happens, you use an axe. Take care of that problem permanently.

--
Tom also said...

"I will never take my dogs to visit The Homeland (that's how I'm going to refer to the Phillipines from now on)."

Dude, cmon. Dude and Prince would totally love it here. Let it also be known that the Philippines will now also be referred to as The Homeland.

--
Abe said...

""(for mom: I didn't sleep in class though. I just laid my head down.)" . . . right."

Man! I'm so serious! I didn't sleep! I'm doing really good. For real.

--
Alex said...

"And about Harry Potter, you should really read those books if you get the chance. They're really good!"

Um... I'm not so sure yet.

--
Mom said...

"Be good at your classes Cy. You're not in high school anymore. Not a very good example to the rest of the class. Should I say more???"

Seriously! I'm fine. In all honesty, the class isn't really paying much attention to me anyway. And it was only in that Algebra class. I wasn't feeling great.

--
Cory said...

"Although you never told me you have a different AOL name. I see how I rank. :~)

You might be tired but just think back to how much sleep you get at WLC and you will perk right up."

This is cake compared to WLC... which i'm super pumped about for 2006. Also you have my first AIM screen name (Liryc4ever)... believe it or not, I filled up the capacity for the buddy list and had to get another screen name. So... it means that I've known you longer. You should consider yourself ranked high. :)

--
Well, that's all for now kids! Today was fairly uneventful. School is becoming routine, which I'm actually welcoming with open arms.

Peace out for now,
Cy

the ills.

Oh man. I've been really careful with what I eat and drink here. You know there's always that fear when visiting another country that you might get terribly sick from eating bad fish, drinking bad water, or coming in contact with some bad germs... Right now, my stomach is feeling tore up. It's doing that rumbling thing and that tightening thing. Must've been something I ingested.

Today was a tough day for me. I was just so doggone tired. (sidetrip: I've never used the phrase "doggone" in my life until just now.) My first class of the day was at 11am. I woke up at about 7am, but I was barely able to lift my head off the pillow. I went back to sleep. Luckily for me, I woke up at 9:40am. this gave me an hour and 20 minutes to get to class on time. (sidetrip: being on time is pretty important at our school. Too many tardies and you might find yourself failing the class. They even have a bell system here (sidetrip within a sidetrip: their bell system is no ordinary bell system. The first bell is some classical song... i forget which. But the second bell is 20 seconds of the star wars theme).) I showered, downed a pb&j, some juice and headed out the door to catch a jeep. I got to school on time.

In class, I was dead tired. This is my fourth week of school now and today was the first time I laid my head on my desk. Now in High School I actually had a reputation for sleeping in class... most of that is because Dr. Roland pretty much told all his classes about me. I wasn't going to keep that reputation in college... but today was just so hard. The desk was calling. The room was so hot. I had to. Besides, it's only algebra. psh. that stuff is cake. We're doing synthetic division. Wow. It's pretty much a repeater class. 90% of the students in there have failed algebra at least once already. So it's going ssslllooowww. (for mom: I didn't sleep in class though. I just laid my head down.)

It pretty much continued like that for the rest of the day. My classes just seemed to breeze by. My marketing class was ok. The teacher got pretty mad because most of the students didn't have a copy of the next lesson. Me included. (sidetrip: It's not customary for students to buy textbooks. They can and it's preferred, but pretty much all of the textbooks are availible for copying) After class, some of my groupmates and I went around campus looking for a projector that we could reserve for our presentation that was supposed to be this Thursday. But by the grace of God, all the projectors were already reserved so we had to postpone our presentation to next Tuesday. Score.

After that class I took another jeep and headed to National Bookstore located in Gaisano Mall (one of many malls in Davao) to buy a book on Entrepreneurship (that is one of the most interestingly spelled words). Thinking that this place was called National Bookstore, I expected there to be a lot of books like Barnes and Noble. I was surprised to find that they sold more calculators, stationary, school supplies, and photo albums than they did books. They did have the newest edition of Harry Potter though. I'm not a big fan of the series, but while I was there I had the strangest desire to actually read one of the books. I asked if they had a copy of the first one Harry Potter and the Sorcerrer's Stone, but they did not. I don't know if that was an unfortunate or fortunate thing for me. I don't know if I want to be caught up in the Harry Potter hype.

I took a taxi back to school because I had no clue how to get back by jeep. I arrived just in time for my Entrepreneurship class... which is one of my favorite classes. My classmates are pretty darn hillarious. The teacher is also very interesting and also funny at times... We were coming up with some business ideas and some were pretty funny. Computers, drug trafficing, restaurants, day care centers, prostitution, and many more came up. We laugh alot in that class.

Now I'm back at Kaloi's internet cafe... which will here on out be referred to as KIC. It's raining pretty hardcore. Rain in tagalog is "Ulan". Remember. Think of spanish vowels. Ah Ey Ee Oh Oo. Phonetically, rain in tagalog is "oolahn".

Alrighty, well there's not much more to talk about today. This blog is already pretty darn long. As I sit here and sip my ice tea (which is pretty much the most popular drink here), I bid you all adieu.

That's French.
Cy

...Some Catholic Holiday.

That's what i've been referring to it as... I think it's St. Bonifacio or something...

...but anyway, I've been talking with a lot of people on different instant messenging programs, primarily AOL Instant Messenger. Becky, Becca, Tom, Alex, Leah, Candi... lots of people. So look me up sometime... my screen name is cyserrano. Original, eh? I'm pretty much on on the weekend sometimes.

Back to the title. It's "some Catholic Holiday" today. That's why I'm spending a lot of time online. That's why there's no school today.

I'm in downtown right now at Kaloi's internet cafe again. I would've just stayed home today, but I had to meet with my marketing class group today to discuss our presentation on Thursday. We made a lot of progress... It was weird... at some point, because there's 6 of us, the two Korean girls were talking in Korean, two of the Filipino guys were talking in Visaya (a dialect that's a version of Tagalog), and me and the other guy were talking in English. It was like language wars or something.

I've been trying to get my mom on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), but I don't think she knows what she's doing. I need one of my tech savvy friends to go over to my house and show her.

Well not much has been happening these days... actually there is something. Maybe you can pray for it if that's your thing...

My cousin Jong has been missing the last two days. He didn't go to his mom's house and he didn't come to our house. Last week he took a carpenter's bike and didn't return it. We think he lost it. So then, because of that, I think he didn't come back home because he was afraid. His brother found him and told him to come home... I'm not too sure what's going on right now... but I know the consensus at my house is that Jong isn't allowed in the house... This isn't the first time something like this has happened, so it's justifiable for the moment I suppose... I dunno. Just pray for the kid.

Alright enough of the family drama. I am now a master of the public transportation system. I can pretty much get to anywhere I want now. One of these days, I'm just going to grab my camera and a handful of pesos and just go around on the jeepneys shooting pics whereever I can. Sounds fun.

Sadly, this blog is ending on a sad note. Continuing with the topic of "not coming home"... Waggily the dog pictured on the right:


... hasn't been home in the last week. Unfortunately, he has probably become a tasty and satisfying meal of one of the neighbors. I know it's horrible to think about that, but it's the truth. That's the culture here. Dog is a meat. Trust me. I won't be eating any Dog while i'm here. ech.

Alrighty, I'm starving now, so I'm gonna get some grub (not dog).

Take it easy everyone.
Cy

My Voice Hurts.

Man... Videoke last night was crazy. It's funny. Because it's so popular here, they actually have Videoke bars... a lot of em actually. Last night, we went to this really upscale Videoke place. It has a main room/bar and several private rooms that each have Videoke units in it.

When I first walked in the door, I instantly thought of Rush Hour 2. You know, when Chris Tucker is singing Michael Jackson at that kareoke place. It was great.

So yeah... man I sung my heart out last night. My voice is sore right now. I think I actually sang too hard that I wore myself out too much... I slept through my alarm this morning and missed church. That bad. heh.

Also... it seems Kaloi and Lea (the campus ministry leaders) are intent on setting me up with this one girl Aby. She's actually pretty cool... so I guess we have a double date this Saturday... oh boy.

So there's not too much going on. I don't have school tomorrow because it's some Catholic holiday. If you didn't know, the major religion in the Philippines is Roman Catholicism.

Alrighty, that's all for now.
Cy

Is Dat Fish?

haha. This is one of the lamest jokes I've ever heard in my life, but for some reason it makes me laugh every time...

In my history class I have a friend named Rey. This guy is hillarious. He likes to jokingly brag about his super good looks. At an assembly we went to, he told me that he doesn't like going to big functions like that because he has to hide his head. Otherwise, too many girls will see him, try to get closer to him, and thus crowd around him. He said it's just too annoying. haha.

So anyway, he comes up with this stupid joke. He's telling me something interesting about the school and I respond with "Is that right?". You know... one of those acknowledgement blurts. He catches this and quickly responds with "Is that fish?".

In Tagalog, "isdat" literally means "fish". Because of the accent, saying "is that" really sounds like "isdat" or "fish". So it's pretty funny, but lame funny.

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School is starting to get a little difficult. I now have projects to complete, quizzes to study for, and ammounts of homework to do. It's actually starting to feel like school.

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I've been getting headaches the last couple days. I don't know why.

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Oh. My Myspace is totally pimp now. I love it.

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On Asian HBO the other day, I watched the most ridiculous movie ever. First of all, the star of the movie was Chuck Norris, star of Walker, Texas Ranger. For those of you who know who I'm talking about, you already know this is a bad movie. The name of the movie was Missing in Action, an action movie made in 1984. It was pretty bad. And the ending is terrible. This is an awesome movie to watch with friends when it's late at night and you're feeling really cynical.

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Tonight, the campus ministry is going out to have some fun. Meaning... VIDEOKE.

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Take care,
Cy

Worlds Apart...

...not only is this an incredibly awesome intensive song from Jars of Clay, but it's also the name of pretty neat TV show I watched the other night. One family from Alabama was selected to take a one week vacation in Africa. The catch was that they wouldn't be staying at some nice resort. They would be staying with a family living in a province in Western Africa. For nine days, they experienced African culture first hand. They ate the food, they *tried* to dance the ritualistic tribal dances, they farmed, they herded cattle, they cleaned, and they cooked. You could see the culture shock on their faces. After a couple of days, they were ready to go home... they definitely felt out of place. However, on the ninth day, even though they were still excited to be going home, they felt grateful for the experience they had. They said it was very humbling.

That's kinda how I'm feeling here. There is so much poverty around. It's very disheartening. With Christmas coming around, the need of people is definitely becoming more and more evident. Thanksgiving is in 2 days in the States. That holiday is obviously not celebrated in the Philippines (we didn't have pilgrims), so I'm missing out on some good grub. I've definitely become more grateful for the things I have.

Moving on... school's been pretty good. My history class is hands down my favorite class. It's the class I look forward to every week. It meets three times a week for one hour. If you've known me for a while, you probably know that history is not a subject I enjoy. I'm more of a math/science person. So... this class isn't my favorite because of the subject, but because of the people. My classmates are so rad and my teacher is pretty awesome too.

Yesterday we had to do skits on different aspects of the life of the pre-colonial philippine tribes. My group was assigned to portray the economic aspect. The teacher asked the group leaders to come forward and draw a number out of a hat. Our group leader picked the number 4. We were going last. As I watched the other groups perform their 10-15 minute skits on religion, government, and society, I was amazed at the fact that even though I couldn't understand really much of what they were saying, I pretty much picked up the gist of what their presentations were about. They were well acted out... and they were FUNNY. The whole class was laughing throughout the entire period it was so good.

Man... there's a lot to talk about, but I don't have a lot of time right now. I have a class in 10 minutes...

Oh yeah, so I'm riding the jeepneys quite frequently now. I used to take taxis mostly or have my dad drive me around, but now I know the routes to get to school and to get back home, so I'm doing that now. It's a lot cheaper, but it takes a lot longer. The other night, on the way home from school, I closed my eyes as I rode the jeep... it was interesting to hear so many different sounds... one thing I have to point out is that Filipinos love their kareoke. I think I said that in my last post... and they love "Just Once" by James Ingram (i think). I heard that song literally three times as I rode on the jeep with my eyes closed.

Ok. I gotta stop typing. Alrighty yall. For everyone in the states, have an awesome thanksgiving.

Latas.
Cy

PS: If you want to comment and you're not a member of blogger.com, it is possible. Just post as anonymous and make sure in your post you state your name so I know who you are!

A Busy Weekend

Man... it's been a crazy weekend...

So I've joined the Metro Davao Christian Church. It's affiliated with the church I go to in Lancaster. I'm officially part of the campus ministry. It's lead by this guy named Kaloi and his fiancee Leah. They pretty much rock my socks.

Ok so Friday, I took this really interesting personality test in my Organizational Behavior class. I'll post more about that later.

Friday night I pretty much spent a lot of time online, doing email, checking message boards, and etc... but no BLOG. I was at Kaloi's internet cafe and we were also working on deciding on specifications for a new computer that I'm building. I got home about 11pm or so. I was so wiped out.

Saturday morning I woke up at 6AM(!) for a quiet-time/prayer thing that was going on with the church. That was cool. We ate breakfast afterwards and I got back home around 9AM. I was so tired still, so I took a nap.

I woke up at 12PM, took a shower and got ready for a wedding I was invited to. Kaloi picked me up at 12:30PM, we picked up Leah soonafter, then we all had lunch at his parents' eatery. After that, we hung out at his internet cafe again.

at 3:15PM we left for the wedding. It was at a clubhouse in this really up-scale neighborhood called "Woodridge". A lot of wealthy people live here.

The wedding was really nice and fairly different from the traditional American wedding. Before the wedding even started I could tell it was different. At the front or the "stage" there were a bunch of chairs. Apparently the whole wedding party, the groom, bride, groomsmen, and bridesmaids all sit during the ceremony. The processional was pretty long... as each person was announced as they walked down the aisle. There were also different parts in the wedding that aren't in our American weddings... for instance... here they put a veil over the couple. It goes over the groom's shoulders and over the bride's head. This symbolizes that the woman is under the authority of the man. They also have a chord made of pearls or beads or something that they place around the couple. It symbolizes that they are bound together in marriage. They also give them a little purse filled with pesos. It represents God's future blessings in their lives.

Interesting eh?

We didn't stay for the reception after the wedding because it was an invitation only kinda thing. They didn't have a lot of space for extra people. So Kaloi, Leah, another woman in the church named Joy, and I went to go watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was OK I guess... I mean I'm not really into the Harry Potter series... but I guess that's because I haven't read any of the books nor have I seen any of the first three movies.

The movie was at 10pm and we got to the mall where the movies are at like 8pm. So we had two hours to pass. The girls went to the department store to browse while Kaloi and I hit up the arcade. We played a lot of Time Crisis 4. I am now convinced that I rock at that game. I died like only 2 times and got pretty far.

The movie theaters here are pretty nice... and different. haha. All their theaters are pretty large. The odd thing though is that they play the national anthem before the movie starts. Everyone has to stand during the anthem. Kaloi told me that someone was arrested one time for not standing. That's pretty extreme.

The movie finished about 12:30 or something and I got home around 1am. Man, we were tired.

The next morning I woke up for 9AM church at 8AM. My dad was at the gym so he couldn't give me and my cousin a ride, so we took a Jeepney (click the word jeepney to see a picture of a typical one). Jeepneys are the main mode of transportation in the Philippines as most people can't afford their own cars. It costs 7 pesos for most trips. The roads here are jam packed with jeepneys. All the jeepneys have different routes that will take you different places. Kinda like Metro Bus Lines.

So my cousin and I took a jeepney at about 8:50am and arrived at the church at 9:40. It was a looonnngg ride. Typically by taxi or by car, we can make the same trip in 15 minutes. But jeepneys stop quite frequently to pick up and drop off passengers. There's no "jeepney stop" so it's pretty much drop off/pick up anywhere.

After church we hung out at Kaloi's again. at 4pm I had a double date with some people in the church. My date was this sister named Maricel. I think she's 23 and she's a Certified Public Accountant (or a CPA as I've come to learn in my accounting class). The date was pretty chill. We were at the other girl's house. We had dinner, sang Videoke (Kareoke with Video.) and then shared a little bit of our spiritual walk, encouraged each other, then prayed with each other. It was pretty cool.

On the subject of Videoke... In the Philippines, Videoke is like gold to these people. They love it, they cherish it, it's the coolest thing to do. Almost all Filipinos LOVE to sing regardless of whether they have the ability to or not.

So our date ended around 7:15pm. We took a taxi back to Kaloi's cafe. I browsed around for a couple hours, then went home at 9:30pm. I promptly went to sleep. I was so exhausted.

So here I am now at school... well between classes. So I hope you enjoyed that update. There should be some pictures coming soon. I promise.

And that personality test too.

Peace out.
Cy

We Cause Scenes.

...that's the tagline for Improv Everywhere, a theater group based out in NYC that is focused on creating "scenes" in public to bring smiles to people.

Some of my favorite "missions":
- The Mp3 Experiment 2.0
- Look Up More
- The Moebius

That's just to name a couple. Their "missions" are so creative and outrageous, that they make me smile and laugh when I read about them. I'm already trying to think of ways to do some of them back in Lancaster.

Anyway, just a little tidbit on what I've browsing on the web.

Check it out: Improv Everywhere.

Cy.

There's fun to be had by all.

Hello world. Welcome to another exciting edition of my life.

I know you can't get enough of it, and that's ok. As long as you know you have a problem, that's the first step to recovery. However, I actually encourage this addiction.

Moving on...

School has been... well... eventful. It seems like everyone is having a grand time with an American classmate.

You ever get the feeling that people are talking about you, but you're not sure, cause you can't hear them? Well that's how I feel, except... I can hear them. I just can't understand them. And after someone says something that you're pretty sure is about you and the whole class gets a big laugh from that... you know.

But it's all good. I can handle that. And they say it's in good fun.

The truth is, thought, that a lot of Filipinos are ashamed of their english speaking skills. They become very self-conscious when they're required to talk in english... so I can feel for them.

It seems that the language barrier works both ways.

I decided to stick to my Marketing Management class. (The one where I can hardly understand the professor because of his very thick accent.) I figure if two Korean girls who don't understand Tagalog and have english as their second language can manage, I can too. Actually, the three of us and two others are in a group together for an assignment.

My History class has to be one of my favorite classes. Only because of the teacher and the students. They're really making an effort to reach out to me and make me feel comfortable and at the same time, have a good time. The teacher is cool. Even though I probably failed my quiz today, the class still rocks.

Funny story. The teacher is about 5'5'' or something. When she sits behind her desk, most of the time, she sits with her legs on the chair, probably sitting on her legs. From the our view, you can see the legs of the chair behind the desk, but you don't see the teacher's legs. So it looks like she's either floating or she's very short and is standing on the chair. I kinda chuckle everytime I think of it.

Here's an interesting fact: 85% of the Philippine population lives below the poverty line. I believe that.

Also an interesting fact: The new Harry Potter movie comes out on the 18th in the States. It came out today (the 16th) in the Philippines.

Being here in the "Homeland" has been great. Even for the four weeks that I've already been here, I've learned a lot of the language, I've been introduced to new concepts, and I've really gained an appreciation for what I have in the States (hot showers being one of those things). It's truly humbling, being out here.

Now... what you've all been waiting for...

PICTURES!

This is the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila:


This is me, bored during my 5 hour delay in Manila:


This is some family at my great grandpa's grave:


This is the cemetery:


My Grandmas:


Some of my cousins:


Me, bowling a 172. YESSS:


There are a lot of chicks at our house:


Also at our house, these dogs have learned the art of lazy fighting. Their names are Doggie (left) and Waggily (right):


At the mall, for their Halloween promotion, people would get inside these pumpkins and dance for 30 minutes:



Crazy eh?

Well that's it for now.

Cy

Quick Take.

Don't have a lot of time to write a blog right now.
The church I'm attending here is the Metro Davao Christian Church.
I am a member of the campus ministry.
The leader of the campus ministry is Kaloi.
Kaloi owns an internet cafe called "Watchamakulit"
It's 5 minutes away from my school.
I come here whenever I have free time like now.
I have 20 minutes before my next class.
I haven't eaten lunch yet.
It's 1:05pm here on Wednesday.
I installed World of Warcraft on one of his computers.
The patches are all up to date on the game.
That computer is being used right now.
I expect to play it after school today.
There will be another blog in 4 hours.
I'm hungry.
Class is ok.
It's hot.
Bye.
Cy.

Feeling better.

That's a good thing.

So the school week is over. It started out pretty rough, but looks like it's on the up and up. I've met some pretty cool classmates who seem like they're going to look out for me. That's a good thing.

I pretty much like all of my professors except for one. They all seem pretty chill and accommodating. That's also a good thing.

I finally got my uniform today for school. No longer will I have to be the odd one out (visually) at school. That's a good thing.

My cousin Maryann is taking me out tonight. That should be a good thing. If you read my blog maybe a year ago, this is the same cousin that took me clubbin' two years ago. Anyway... I'm going out on faith on this one.

I'm talking to friends online. That's a good thing.

I talked to mom on the phone this morning. That was a good thing. She's coming in January for my birthday. An even better thing.

DSL should be coming to the house this week. Also a good thing.


Things are good
Cy

Gah!

I'm sick. meh... sneezing, runny nose. blah!

It's a miserable feeling.

Ugh... also my Marketing Management teacher is SO hard to understand. Yeah... he can speak in English, but his accent is SO strong that it's even hard to understand him in English.

It's going to be a difficult class.

Anyway, I don't have a lot of time, so a short blog today.

ACHOO,
Cy

The New Kid: Part 2

So... today's been going a lot better than the last two days. I've pretty much made friends in both of my classes so far, which is nice... and in both of those classes, everyone knows that I can't understand/speak tagalog very fluently.

So the truth is out.

In my first class HBO (or Human Behavior in Organizations), the teacher seems really really cool. She's an alumna herself of the university. And she just seems really chill.. which is cool. Before class started, I found two girls who were kinda sitting by themselves, so I asked them "Excuse me, is this the Human Behavior in Organizations class?" You know.. to kinda open it up for discussion... and they replied that it was. Then I explained to them my whole situation... and they asked...

"So you don't have any friends yet!?"

I nodded my head in the negative.

"Sit by us!!!"

So... that's kinda cool.

My second class of the day was my Philippine History class... you remember, the one filled with all the young kids who are loud and obnoxious? yeah that one.

I sat alone again in the back. A couple minutes later this girl comes in and sits two chairs away from me. I see she has the same temporary ID that identifies new students... so I ask her "Are you new here too?" We talked for a little and it turns out she's from Manila (capital of the Philippines), she took a semester off, and is now studying here in Davao because it's peaceful.

The teacher came in 15 minutes late. And she's pretty cool too. She's really funny. She gave us a seating chart which kinda forced me into spilling the truth to everyone there...

I told her, "Maam, I'm from the States and don't understand or speak Tagalog very well. Conti lang (only a little)"... so from there it kinda went downhill or uphill or however you choose to look at it. She asked me if I had friends, I said no.

That's when the class went into an uproar. Shouts of "I'll be your friend!", "We're your friends!", "We have an american friend!", and the like arose from the class...

One particular girl (who actually seemed to be the class clown) kept making passes at me out loud, but not in a serious way really... more like she was trying to get laughs from the class.

The teacher told the students that if they have free time to show me around and stuff... the girl shouted out "I'M ALWAYS AVAILABLE!" Everyone laughed.

...so yeah... i'm kinda the talk of the town... or class i guess. After class, people came to me asking me questions about America... most of the questions were about the girls of America... haha... it was something like...

"Are the girls there everything we imagined them to be!? Everything we see on TV?!"

I had to laugh... I told em "Hey. There are beautiful people everywhere." Good answer right?

I have a two hour accounting class at 5:50pm... which i'm not looking forward to. It might be cool though. who knows.

Btw... a lot of the guys here have a very.. um... dirty mindset. And it seems that the girls tolerate it... I dont know. It's just kinda different from what i was used to at DCS.

So I got this book... it's one of the best books I've read.. or am reading. It's called Not Even a Hint : Guarding Your Heart Against Lust by Joshua Harris (You know... that guy who wrote the kissing dating goodbye book). The first part of the book is a great study on what lust really is, our incredible incapability of overcoming sin on our own, and God's grace and what exactly that is. The second part includes practicals on fighting lust (or any sin for that matter). The third part has more practicals on keeping strong and standing firm against sin. Good stuff.



I recommend it. It's really eye-opening too. Convicting... you know? Sometimes something comes along, beit a good book, a good sermon, maybe a couple words - something comes along every once in a while that completely convicts you and changes your heart... this book is that for me right now.

Anyway... I don't like reading really long blogs, so I won't put you through anymore. This blog is long enough. So good night and stuff.

I'll leave you with this quote from C.J. Mahaney which is used in the book:

"Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from God and acceptance by God through my obedience to God"

Cy

5 Readers!

Wow, last night I got 5 whole comments! That's a record or something!

Right now... it's 12:20pm on Tuesday... I'm at Netopia which is "the largest internet cafe chain in the country". I think they're actually afiliated with the Ateneo University system.

I'm in between classes and didn't feel like eating alone today, so I opted to browse online. My next class is at 1pm.

I'm listening to my iPod Nano right now too... if I didn't tell you guys, some people from church pitched some money together and got me it as a going away present. A couple blogs ago, I said how much I wanted one. Now I have one... and that's pretty cool. :)

Still no opportunity for me to upload pictures yet. I have to wait until we get internet at the house... which *hopefully* should be tomorrow!

I might go grab a quick snack right now, because I am pretty hungry... hmm...

So anyway, I just got out of my algebra class... which is being offered this semester for people from the first semester who failed. I talked to the teacher afterwards and told her how I'm from the States and that I can't speak/understand Tagalog very well, so she said she would remember to speak in English. Pretty much the majority of the class was her explaining to her students to be committed to coming to class every time it meets. While I was talking to her, she apologized in advance because the class is going to be going at a slower pace. Should be fine for me... passing my AP Calculus exam with a 4 my senior year... (which funny enough... doesn't get me out of college algebra at Azusa Pacific University. But it does get me out of calculus. Weird.)

I've still been watching Lost on DVD... I've already finished the season and the special features... now I'm watching the episodes that have commentaries on them. And Man. They are HILLARIOUS. It's really neat listening to the behind the scenes stuff and the inside jokes. It's cool like that. Very awesome DVD. There's also easter eggs on the discs! ('easter eggs' are hidden special features)...

Well... I better get outta here... do the email and myspace thing... then grab some quick grub.

Peace out yall.
Cy