I had the bestest conversation with my cousin Nathan tonight. He's so grown up, so mature now! Obviously, I can't share everything we talked about, but this I can say: I'm super proud of him. I love how he's taken things in stride, how he sees what happened to him as a lesson God's teaching him. For a 16-year-old boy whose life revolves around music, his basketball career, and a girl, I think that's saying a lot. :) we shared a bit of our future plans, and his dreams to become a... well, you'll all know what he'll become in due time. ;)
I'm sorry though, that I've missed a lot the past few months--the new store took up a lot of my time, and took me away from the clan--and I'm gonna miss this guy even more when I'm in Beijing.
I love you, Nate. And when your heart breaks, mine does, too, and when your heart feels like singing, so does mine. But I cannot say this enough: I'm so proud of you. And I'm praying for you. Even when I'm freezing my nose off in wintery Beijing, I'll remember you, my previously-little-cousin-who-didn't-know-how-to-jump-but-now-has-a-basketball-career-partly-helped-by-your-now-spectacular-jumps. To pray for you, for whatever God's will is for you, for all your dreams and aspirations. After all, your dreams are mine, too. I love you, A-goo. :)
And remember, Winter Olympics 2010. :)
My sister's been bugging me to watch this video on Youtube since forever, so I finally got to it the other day. And no wonder Eu practically sat on me, just to make sure I'd watch it. It's so sweet. Super awww-inspiring (as opposed to awe-inspiring). It definitely makes you wanna wish for a love of that sort, too.
Yeah, yeah. I'm such a mushy girly-girl, I know. :)
Brief intro: It's a video a bunch of short filmmakers made for their friends Eddie and Sarah who recently got married. They have a great story. Eddie lived in LA, Sarah lived in Taipei. For 5 years they had to deal with this distance in their relationship, always having to fly back and forth. Finally, the two are Together At Last.
I find myself to be so emotional lately, like one of those hormonal pregnant women you see on TV. Maybe it's knowing that I'll be leaving all that is familiar and comfortable soon. I don't know. Last Sunday morning, at church, after the service, when my cousins Nathan and Neil were getting baptized, I teared up. I guess it's because I can't imagine how much time has passed since they were little babies, and how proud I was/am of them, that they've grown to become such God-fearing young gentlemen. I kept hugging them so much after they got changed, I think it started to bug them. ;)
I love my cousins all like crazy, and we're more like siblings than cousins really. But these two are especially like my own brothers. Maybe coz we're more alike. And the fact that they didn't have yayas growing up, thus no 'barriers' to bonding, since we would babysit them without fussing yayas looking over our shoulders. And now that they've become older, and seemingly closer to our age, we've become even closer. We look forward to weekends, coz that's when we get to hang with them most. Saturdays are never complete without them coming over for family dinner night. We sit by each other in church Sunday mornings, and Sunday afternoons are always started off with phone calls to or from them, asking where we'll be spending the evening. And we just super enjoy each other's company, even when doing nothing at home. Me and the boys, we love to lie on the beds and just talk about random stuff, and laughing about the stupidest things.
Oh, they're so grown-up now. Physically, at least. Neil's just barely 13 years old, and he's THAT tall already. I always go, "I wish I were taller," and Neil and Nathan will be like, "There, there," and pat me on the head. Sigh.
I'm gonna miss you boys. SO MUCH.
Sunday afternoon to evening. Half the clan went to the mall to cool off, and once more, Trinoma did not disappoint. Although it was filled to the brim with people (so many of them!), there's so much to see, buy, do, and eat there!
What's sad about Trinoma though, was, while walking around, we spotted these lounge chairs/seats/sofas lying around the mall. The first adjective that came to mind: ghastly. When I googled the definition, here's what I got: Horrifyingly shocking; Extremely bad. Ahh, someone out there thinks like me. Haha. And here's why.
They're ugly! I mean, I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and okay, maybe they'd look decently nice some place else, but look at those!
For a while, I kept seeing flashbacks of Beauty and the Beast, coz they seemed like the kind of enchanted furniture the movie had (i.e. Lumiere, Clocksworth, and Mrs. Potts!). Eu and I half-expected them to come to life, and start singing and dancing. But then it got a bit too weird. :|
Oh, I love Trinoma. It's one of my favorite places to shop and watch movies. But this is too much.
I'd still jump at any chance to go to Trinoma. I'll just turn and look the other way when I see those horrid eyesores (focus on Topshop! Aldo! Debenhams!). ;)
It's hard to believe that in less than a couple of weeks, I'll be passing through these gates to BLCU. And that my life, for five months, will be comprised mainly of this new, uncharted territory.
I've mentioned this before, but I still can't get over the fact that I feel pretty excited and very nervous simultaneously. It'll be awesome living and breathing the (polluted) air of a city I first fell in love with some 4 years ago, the first time I stepped foot into the Forbidden City. But then, it's also different having to pack my bags and live pretty much on my own for half a year.
What makes me excited though, is being able to experience a bit of university life abroad, away from home. Like my mom said, it's no biggie, coz if we stayed in Canada, we'd probably have to move away from home to go to uni anyway. In this case, it's a mere 5 months, and not 4 years, at least.
Oh, I can't wait to walk those tree-lined roads on campus, to explore all that is BLCU. The price I have to pay for this though, is having to do my own laundry, cook, and clean--which won't be too hard, since I help out at home anyway, and I'm not exactly a spoiled brat/princess--plus commuting (gasp, what's THAT??) and studying. And me, who wanted to never study again after university, unless it was culinary arts. Oh, joy.
But there's so much I'll miss. I miss my family already! My parents, my argue-mate brother, and huggable/bite-able sister, my aunts and uncles, and my amazingly bugger-but-adorable cousins. And my friends. And work; who'd have ever thought anyone would miss work, right? And Fro-yo. Driving, even in the dead of Manila traffic!
All these mixed emotions are driving me insane! One minute, I'm looking forward to September, and the next, I'm all sad. It's almost like I'm bipolar or something.
Bipolar, split-personality, or just plain psycho, September 4 is coming, and it's coming fast. I just have to get used to the idea, that's all.
Okay, I'm just trying this out, since I heard that you can't access Multiply in China? That sucks. In that case, I'm probably gonna need this blog to keep people back home updated on my 5-month stay in Beijing. And oh, everyone knows how I love to write.
And, if I end up liking this, then I'll probably keep this going til my post-Beijing life.
Thank God for Facebook and Blogspot, huh? ;)