Just one more month

...and I'm off! It's official. I'm flying on the 9th of May. I rescheduled my flight at Emirates from April 17 to May 9. My German course at Interface ends on the 8th and I'm flying the next day. Now, how cool is that, huh? As usual, I'm having mixed emotions. That's just so like me, anxious as always. But because I've met a lot of good people, had some fun, and unexpectedly crossed barriers, I think it'd be a little hard to leave. But not that hard that I can't leave. Definitely, I would most likely leave. Although I'm still uncertain as to what's in store for me back home. What a dilemma! But what can I do? It can be helped. This is life, just go with the flow. With barely a month left, I'm hoping for days well spent! Happy days are yet to come...

So near, yet so far

To think that Chris Tiu is merely about 8 hours (by car) away from where I am now is almost unbelievable. He's currently on training in Serbia with the Philippine National Basketball Team. Now I'm thinking of flying (or even driving) to Serbia. Haha, wishful thinking. On second thought, back in Manila, he's just a walk away (U.P. to Ateneo) and yet I've only seen him once. But I was just really amazed that he's really in Serbia!!

Breaking barriers

Something that's so unlike me happened today. Well, not exactly. Problem is, it's hard for me to say "no" to someone. When I'm in a situation where I need to decide immediately, I just can't say no! I hate it. I'm really skeptic about new acquaintances, but unexpectedly, everything went smoothly. I went to a new friend's place, ate some snacks and had a good chat.


I'm still working on breaking language barriers. Wish me luck!

Am I in my grade school years?!

Really feels like in grade school, yes, my German class, especially today. I can't take it that I had to write on our textbook, "Ang pointless ng tinuturo, pang-kinder". Who wants to be complimented when you're actually being praised for answering a question like Euro 4.69 + 0.(something)? Oh c'mon, give the kids a break. I just have to endure it til the end. Nevertheless, learning German is still interesting. It's what I'm there for anyway. So why bother with the grade school stuff. Treat it as part of the fun!

My bro's high on FrancisM

May I just say that. It has been a week already since FrancisM died. Before he died, me and my brother were already following his blog, seeing his pictures while he was still doing his chemotherapy sessions. We were even planning of collaborating with his "3 stars and a sun" business. In fact, my brother sent him a message (weeks before he died) via his multiply account, but we never got a reply. Turned out, he was really having a tough time already.


And so when he died, we were somehow affected, especially when you hear it all over the news on TFC. My brother was really into it that his overnight playlist consists of FrancisM songs that he's been playing out loud all throughout the night. C'mon. Thank God I still manage to sleep well.

Deutschkurs

For a month now, I have been studying German at Interface in Schaumburgergasse. I'm glad to have met new people of different nationalities. Our teacher, Margarita, is from BULGARIA. The rest of the class include Antigona of KOSOVO, Jalena, Maria, Vladan and Anita of SERBIA, Kiranjit of INDA, Nick of AFGHANISTAN, Emere, Abdulasis, and Elias of TURKEY, Ashkan of IRAN, and John of PINAS. I'm somehow getting used to the language that I can actually communicate with them a bit. It's quite a relief though that I have a Pinoy classmate and there's Nick who speaks English.

And for two weeks now, I have been going to another German class at AMS in Myrthengasse. This class is likewise a "United Nations" group, but a smaller one. We're seven in class and we have two teachers in this class: Mag. Munteanu and Herr Nikola. Four of my classmates are from TURKEY -- Özlem Chatoglu, Havva Aydin, Rahime Avci, and Hanifi Gökçen -- and one is from MACEDONIA, Arben Jasari. The other one skips class a lot and so I didn't had the chance to remember his name and where he's from. Rahime and I are the oldest in the group. Yesterday we had our second exam and I got a 30/30. I also got a 30 in our first exam. The youngsters were amazed.Haha. Although I think that the exams were relatively easy, I'll admit that I'm not as good as the rest, except for Rahime, in speaking German. Way to go for me.

So there, Deutshckurs is the only thing that's keeping me busy. I'm still waiting for some things, hopefully more interesting things, to come along the way.

Snow, snow, (delete: go away), come again another day

We're off to Tante Silvia Mondel, my parents' employer. My new pair of boots...ready to run! Didn't really expect that it'd snow today. You can really see the "drops" of snow smack into our car's glass windows. When a drop reaches a surface, it looks like a pinch of crashed ice. And when these drops accumulate, now that's snow time! Too bad, I left my cam at home. Technically, this is not my first time to experience snowfall. The first one, we had to go up to the mountains during spring time.

Tante Silvia gave me a necklace she got from Peru. It's made of seeds -- all "natur". I've got something for keeps. :)


Hope to see the snow again in the next few days!


.Raph.