How can you write Travel?

 

I suck at describing places. If I get the chance to visit the Great Wall of China and I have to put the feeling into words, expect this:

 

“The Great Wall of China is a beautiful place. Before, I visited places inside gates but now, I’m visiting the gates itself.”

It doesn’t give justice to the people who died building the great wall.

 

All I can do now is resort to showing photos that might bring interest. I have no time to upload all my photos to the internet and I did not go international to test upload speeds, I went here to enjoy (and I don’t enjoy speed testing and uploading).

 

 

 

Can you see the three scrape marks on this white whale’s skin? This MUST alert the curators at Ancol.

 

Oh. I wonder what monument they are trying to recreate this time.

 

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas!

 

If you are kind enough, you can comment below to help me with writing about travels. :-)

Lost In Jakarta

After some tears in the immigration which could be until now doubtful over their approval of me leaving the country, I arrived in Jakarta December 19 12:15 AM with no flesh lost.

Indonesia (the country that capitalizes? Jakarta) is full of Indonesians. Indonesians look like us, diverse. But they only speak one language in contrast to our capability to speak numerous languages, depending on the waves of international tourism.

I’m having major problems with communication because almost all of them can’t speak English. They are limited to verbs which ironically, are rarely used. But who really cares? I’m the one who entered their nation so I have the responsibility to mold myself to be comfortable to the newer environment I have submitted myself into. And to those people who say learning English is key to national prosperity, visit Jakarta and let their gazillionaire investors kick your smart ass.

For the interest of a longer blog post in repayment for the several days of rest, let me share one encounter with my limited Indonesian vocabulary:

My sister always takes us to the mall. And they have approximately 12 malls here that when exaggerated, can cover up the whole Panay. All of their malls here make me wonder why the Mall of Asia even came close to being the biggest mall in the region which includes Indonesia. So I get to visit shops that contains sales ladies.

It happens that part of the job description of sales ladies here is approaching and speaking with the potential costumers. The sales lady or men would talk to me in fast, 25 words per second Indonesian. Of course I can’t understand them so I tell them I only speak English. Scared I might carry a disease from wherever I come from or worst, bad luck, they run away. Moral lesson? If you don’t want being ran away from, run away first.

I'm Sixteen Tomorrow

Guess who's birthday it is tomorrow!!

Obviously, its mine. But I had no other ideas on how to start a day-before-blogger's-birthday post so I had stick with the obvious, almost rhetorical question I always see from other authors. Authors that have great careers and amazing writing experiences in contrast with my dwindling one.

The Fame Monster

For the past month, I have been crazy for Lady Gaga. The addiction started when I was reading the lyrics of her songs (because listening to them was not just good enough). Her songs are quite deep and they have meaning relative to the listener. The messages are not constant.The song "Lovegame" can change its point with your mood. That's why I bought her new album, The Fame Monster.

If you trust me enough with your money, I strongly suggest you get your own copy. Its all worth it. The songs were quite boring for the first two times I heard them but after playing the CD again and again, I never again touched the "next track" button.

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Eyecandy: Central Philippine University

A mother tries to take a photo of her hyped daughter
in front of the tree

I had my Kinder 2 to Grade 6 in the Central Philippine University. And by the 7 school years I have inhabited the school, I came to notice all the traditions like the Teatro Enhinyero (which is a comic stage delight), University Day Celebrations and several more.

(all photos are copyrighted and can be only displayed here or in any site I give permission to)

Every Christmas time, CPU has the tradition to put up extravagant lights for everyone to see. It was their way of preparing for the birthday of our Saviour. Unfortunately though, because of the faltering economy, every display was less extravagant than the last. But its not the finished product that really counts, its the effort the people put into it. An still, its a beauty.

The New Chatbox

I added a new blog widget! For those of you who haven't heard about it, its called the ChatBox or CBox for short. Its like a messenger where you get to choose your nick and you can send your messages to their servers for display here. You don't need to sign up or anything so be free to do anything you want (except that I delete derogatory messages from stupid people who are near worthless).

BTW: To the girl who asked for writing tips via IM on my previous Plugoo widget, could you please re-post your query on the new (drumroll), updated (drumroll again) and more advanced (and again) Cbox. Don't forget to give me your email. I tell you, I am very willing to help.

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