The other UAAP Finals

Yesterday, the town was painted Blue and Green. The Ateneo Blue Eagles bagged the UAAP Men’s Basketball Championship in Game 2 of their Best-of-Three series. The Eagles dethroned their arch-rival the De La Salle Green Archers. Dugong Bughaw dominated in the end. Kudos to the ballers from Katipunan for wrapping up the series with a sweep.

I love watching basketball, may it be NBA, PBA or UAAP. Last night, I was surprised to find out that there was another ongoing UAAP basketball finals, the Women’s division. The UP Lady Fighting Maroons are battling the FEU Lady Tamaraws for this year’s crown.

I remember those dorm days where my female dorm mates would make a basketball game appear like agawang buko. It was fun to watch but the action is really in men’s basketball. Overshadowed by their male counterparts, the lady ballers may not share the bright spotlight, their counterparts bask in but I think they deserve more media attention. Basketball is basketball. Whether the ball is dribbled by estrogen-filled fingers or testosterone-filled ones, the women’s finals should at least have a live telecast. I guess it’s really a question of viewership. (Scalping won’t be even an issue here because there’ll be probably none).

James Naismith probably designed basketball with only men in mind because women can’t jump (with apologies to white men). Still, those women athletes probably trained as hard as their male counterparts, if not twice as hard.

I hope I’ll be able to watch the other UAAP basketball finals.

Yankee Doodle

I was surprised to learn that the New York Yankees might not make it to the playoffs this year. I was even more surprised to discover that they're leaving the Yankee stadium, a place they've called home for 85 years. Those seemingly trivial facts (for some) bother me. Some things that you expect to be constant, in a blink of an eye, may change. That's why I think it is important to value each day and be thankful of the things I have now. Coz as they say, you CAN never CAN tell.......

"Learn as if always you're going to live forever; live as if tomorrow you're going to die."

PG in pictures

my favorite subject

from a different angle

gloomy day

wala lang

They say Puerto Galera is a haven for a lot of boats

look at those waves (behind the coconut trees)

our next door neighbor's place

our next door neighbor's place again

Mozart in China

It was Grace’s birthday last Tuesday. We decided to watch one of the films in Cine Europa, Mozart in China. It was a story of two boys, Austrian and Chinese, who went on vacation in Hainan with a Mozart marionette in tow. Salzburg and Hainan, two very different places were connected by the friendship of the two boys.
The first scene in the movie showed the Hohensalzburg castle. And Grace not knowing that the movie is set in Austria shrieked, hey that’s Salzburg. (Grace just arrived from a one year study grant in Berlin. I guess she still has Europe in her mind and heart.)

Salzburg as seen by Grace

The movie was in German (with subtitles of course). The plot (just google it) was simple but engaging. It was a breather from the usual movie formula that I always subject myself to. And since it involves China, its appeal to me is further enhanced.

Kaya ngayon, nakikinig ako sa pampitong simponiya.

orange flowers

I haven’t been out of Manila for quite a while. And seeing vast fields of green instead of buildings and traffic jams, is a welcome sight. It’s Jerry’s birthday on September 14 and together with Noemi’s family, we went to Puerto Galera last weekend (another entry). So we, eight adults and two kids, set out for Mindoro on a cloudy Saturday morning.

I rode at the back of the pick-up. The feeling of the wind against my face in a cold morning made me feel alive. Feeling the cold wind reminded me of my childhood. We used to travel really early in the morning to go to the city (so that we can get back home in time for dinner).

For long stretches, I would just see rice fields and rows of houses. Once in a while, I would see orange flowers that stand out by the roadside. That sight made me think of our own journey. We might be doing the same thing day in and day out. For several miles in our journey, we might see endless verdant fields that we get tired of them… But along the way, life surprises us with bright orange flowers. But in our state of jadedness, we lose our ability to appreciate those bright orange flowers along the way. Or worse we fail to see them altogether.

feels like home

I lived in the Diliman campus for 6 years. Thinking about it, I would’ve survived for six years without going out of the campus without feeling deprived of life’s essentials and simple luxuries. The Diliman Campus Bible Church is of course inside the campus.
The UP shopping center has everything I need, Turon, reading glasses (I have no use for them, just want to emphasize the variety), Tapsilog, paperbacks, major dailies, maasim na mangga, gold fish. Name it, the shopping center has everything.
If I want to watch movies, the Film Center is there (although you would have to wait for several months after the latest movie would be shown). The film center also shows art films (whatever that means). Hospital? There is the UP Health Service, although some say it’s not reliable, still….there are hospital beds and available medical staff. A bleeding hand can’t complain.

The campus has been my home away from home for six years. That’s why every now and then, I find myself longing to visit my second home. That’s why last Saturday, I visited the campus again. My first stop was the shopping center, most of the shops have been converted to internet shops. Before, the center is dominated by photocopiers and “binders”. Now, with the advent of cyber age, the shopping center also evolved with the changing times. But some of the original shops are still there, Rodic’s of course and Miranda Bookstore. And the Coop (UP Cooperative)! It’s still the same even the Ate and Kuya, They’re still there. And they’re still selling the dormer’s essentials, timba, tabo, soap dish, walis, and of course the student’s blue book in the 2nd floor. And the arrangement of their SKU’s is almost unchanged. But I notice that the Coop building is getting old. Somehow I felt like I was visiting my grandmother since I felt very comfortable with the aging look of the Coop.

I didn’t get to go around the campus but a day wouldn’t have been enough to cover all the places that I want to visit.

I didn’t see any familiar face save for the vendors this time. Usually I bump into a former classmate or dorm mate. Maybe I’m really getting old. Like light years older….physically ……and also emotionally I hope.

The first few times I would visit after graduation, a wave of nostalgia would sweep over me. As time went by, a different feeling persisted, although the nostalgia is still there, I felt very comfortable with my surroundings. I felt at home.

Minsan

I have my own share of interesting roommates from Kalayaan to Yakal (and a brief stint in scary Kamias). But what’s most baffling (and sad) to me is I forgot who my last roommate was. And when I asked a friend who stayed in the next room, she can’t remember either. It’s like that memory of my last year was removed from my brain.
Anyway, I had dinner with some old friends from Yakal last night. Friends whom I haven’t seen for quite a while. We used to live across each other in West Wing II. (The ladies’ section of Yakal was divided into four sections, West Wing 1 & 2 and East Wing 1 & 2.)
And I recalled how we were before. We usually eat dinner in Lutong Bahay (a house cum dining place) where a full meal is ony P30 and we room-hopped every night. During study sessions, the favorite chow is instant Pancit Canton (although I’m not a big fan). Ang sarap kumain pag konti lang ang pinaghahati-hatian. We jokingly called ourselves Sorot, there were about eight core members or maybe more (iba probationary ata). The master of the Sorot just left to live the American Dream with only a tourist visa in tow, while another one has just left for France to study Physics, while another one has already settled in San Jose. My roommate (one of them) has already settled down in the province. One is studying nursing and another just came back from Berlin where she studied for a year (but toured Europe most of the time rather than study). Basta, iba iba na ang mga landas na tinatahak namin ngayon at bihira na kami magkita. But it’s good to reconnect sometimes and laugh about the past and look forward to the future.

That Eraserheads (sorry can't get enough of 'em) song, Minsan says it all. Whether Kalayaan or Yakal. …..

ngunit ngayon kay bilis maglaho ng kahapon

sana'y huwag kalimutan ang ating mga pinagsamahan

minsan ay hindi ko na alam ang nangyayari

kahit na anong gawin

lahat ng bagay ay merong hangganan

dahil ngayon tayo ay nilimot ng kahapon

di na mapipilitang buhayin ang ating pinagsamahan

ngunit kung sakaling mapadaan

baka ikaw ay aking tawagan

dahil minsan tayo ay naging tunay na magkaibigan

point and shoot

May mga bagay talaga na sadyang di mo mapaliwanag lalo na kung samu’t saring emosyon ang nararamdaman mo. When words fail you then blogs become irrelevant. Putting into words my hodge-podge of emotions is going to come up short in describing what’s going through my head. But I just have to take a snapshot of this phenomenon (kahit point and shoot lang hindi SLR).
For the past few days, there has been a resurgence of Eraserheads fever. After the aborted concert last Saturday and after the shock wears off, and you are left with a sentimentality that goes beyond the band’s music and the lyrics. As Tata told me, you get transported to a time when you were young and carefree. And the vehicle? The band’s easy to sing along with tunes and simple yet profound lyrics that were able to capture the joys and frustrations of a generation. The Eraserheads did that. And our generation, wherever our paths have led us, should relish the thought that we can look back and reminisce how we were then. Thanks to the musical genius of Ely, Raimund, Buddy and Marcus.

This is moi with the stage as the background