Hey guys! I will be transferring my archives from my old Blogspot account here in WordPress. I will also be transferring memes from Facebook and Multiply, as I will be making this account my main and official one. I want to make use of this site, since I got hooked up ever since we did our CS 30 blog in WordPress. So, expect for more posts soon!
Trafalgar Square
4:56 PM, Trafalgar Square.
The sun’s gone. Ever since DST ended last Sunday, I can see the sun setting earlier each passing day. Good thing there’s still the Indian autumn, but things are about to change soon.
I arrived early… Work doesn’t start until 6…. I have a lot of time to kill, I thought.
I suddenly found myself making my way to the National Portrait Gallery, sliding through from the sea of commuters as they entered Charing Cross.
Suddenly, I saw myself in the middle of a majestic plaza, with people from all over the world taking pictures, walking with their loved ones, and studying the lions made of black marble.
With the Evening Standard in my hand, I quickly found a place to sit. Another day has passed.
With another day, comes another question. Three months after the adventure, what have I done? What things have I accomplished? With my source of inspiration and hope tucked away in the corners of my pocket, I can’t do anything but to sigh.
Sigh at the world. Sigh at the group of American teenagers taking their pictures by the fountain. Sigh at the man evading the splash of the fountain water. Sigh at the couple kissing a few metres away. Sigh at the girl who’s waiting for someone. Sigh at the businessmen passing by on their way home. Sigh at my hopelessness.
I thought of the good things… and the bad. Finally, after all the naivety, I finally experienced my first dissatisfaction.
Tick tock. Tick tock. 5 blocks away, the Big Ben tells me that I still have a few minutes to think about my plans. And I have thought of them actually.
One. Know London as if it’s at the back of my hand. I frown at the people who don’t know where Lewisham is, but I can point out where they live, take Putney or Swiss Cottage for example. I’ll also visit places where sources of inspiration sucked the normal life out of me.
Two. It might seem choosy of me, but getting a new job seems the best option. I like to meet and chat with new people, not with new containers or plates. Damn, why didn’t I practice to be a barista before. 
Three. Spending Review. Actually, it’s already finished, and I will be cutting costs of up to 40%, with implementation on the 24th. Hopefully, this would entail that greater things are yet to come.
5:45PM. Big Ben was screaming. Off you go to work. And off I was, having a fresh perspective in life.
Term break, I will kill you.
I have noticed two parallelisms during JTA 2008 and London 2010.
1) Bonfires. Ateneo won its first of its three-peats in 2008 while I was in Austria. Now, going to its third consecutive win, I am here in one of the most diverse cities in the world. Good thing I didn’t miss Bonfire 2009. Who knows in the upcoming years? This is really a big thing that mustn’t be missed!
2) David Archuleta. David Archuleta released his first ever album on Nov. 2008… I quickly downloaded it and was listening to it until Weinachten. Come 2010, and he releases his sophomore album “The Other Side of Down”… and I can’t stop myself from listening to it during my commute.
The importance of these parallelisms? Nothin’… Just a way of sayin’ I can’t let go of 2008. Lol
Mom just texted a while ago. “Do not collect na the 5 pounds from Uncle Rizal.”
WHAT. Are you freaking kidding me? 5 pounds?!? Letting it go? Are you kidding me? I mean, seriously, are you KIDDING ME? Like, didn’t you guys remember that wretched Elizabeth Lasquite, who ran off with about 1000 dollars, since both of you lent her the money needed to help her get to the UK just about a year ago?
And with recession still knocking on everyone’s front doors, how can you throw 5 quid on the streets? This is menace. After I got tricked last week in paying an extra fiver as “tip”, I can’t take it anymore. I am making ultimate sacrifices just to breakeven. I take my 3 hour commute to work 4 days a week… I don’t eat out, I take bentos with me. I just deal with the garments that I brought from Manila. I don’t want to buy new ones because that would just mean -£. I really can’t believe how some people can manage to deplete their weekly salary, and they aren’t even renting. Oh God Mon, try to live here.
I mean, if people are soooo keen on just throwing away banknotes, then so be it. Make sure to pay my rent and my monthly transport fare worth 448 pounds. That way, I can save up just to buy trench coats and an iPhone 4. Thanks guys 
This is insane. I am earning a measly sum of money, and yet, people are doing everything they can just to take something from my hard-earned pay. I was told off n times already by my supervisors. It seems that I can’t do anything right. I am tired and demotivated by the end of the week, knowing that a new hectic week will await, with more classes and shifts. Yet, I stick to my job, knowing that millions of people are still unemployed and thousands with their sleeping bags outside the cold harsh weather.
But then again, how can I pay my bills in peace, knowing that after covering all my fixed costs, and totally minimizing variable cost by as much as 80%, I would just be left with a change so small that I can literally throw it all on the Fontana di Trevi. But no, even with inflation pegged by the government at 3.1% it’s best to put it in a savings account.
So there. Life is unfair, and I am sick and tired of complaining, and I would just like to keep my mouth and money shut, to a place where even I wouldn’t have access to it.
It’s hard to get sick, especially if you are in a foreign land. With sudden weather change from warm summer to rainy and windy autumn, things will only get worse. *cough* As the days get colder and the nights longer, I need some warmth, and where can I get that? Through the central heating system?
And since winter is coming up, I can’t wait for my first pay. How does it feel to get paid and to spend it all to whichever way you want? I don’t know. To all of my friends, how did you spend your first salary? I need some feedback.
And note to self, I need to be more direct and assertive. That’s all. I have to say what I want, in a good and constructive way, I guess. Or else, I will never prosper here. Ever.
It’s haunting me every single day. I cannot imagine that this would take its toll on me.
The day that I declined the offer by not replying to the email by Macquarie keeps on playing in my head every single day. I’m still not sure how much I might possibly earn, but I knew that it will be big… really big. I was being offered a job a few weeks BEFORE graduation. In essence, I won’t be going through the process of roaming around Makati just to secure an interview.
I can’t believe that it will be this hard and painful. It didn’t even sink in the first time on how hard it was to refuse and decline a spoonful of opportunities right in front of your mouth. Wow. I’m now starting to doubt my intelligence at this point. Did I just decline something that will make most people die just to take that position? Gawd this is awful.
On a lighter mode, I really want to thank Glee for putting a smile on my face at this arduous moment. Charice is starting to grow on me. Gawd, that ‘Listen’ and ‘Telephone’ performance was just epic. Sam Evan’s ‘Billionaire’ just gave me the goosebumps. ‘Empire State of Mind’ made me yearn for next week’s Britney showdown. Thanks 
I know that the title just sounds so wrong, but I do have a reason in choosing that word, ‘coz it just encompasses that point I want to make.
Despedidas, and lots of ‘em. I’ve been seeing my friends being tagged in farewell parties for the past weeks in FB. They’ll be off to somewhere, I guess. After a quick chat with my friend Maica, I know that it’s not only me who will brave new foreign lands. I thought for a while that it was only me daring (or stupid) enough to leave everything behind to start a new life. Stability, friendships, bachelor’s degree of high caliber, all I left behind to go back to square one. I know a lot of friends who are already in the Czech Republic, France, and China taking up internships or further studies. Maica’s interesting report pointed out Batch 2010 peeps who are currently in Italy, Singapore, Canada, America, and Switzerland also starting out anew. Wow. It seems that globalization is the main viewpoint of people these days.
So, what makes people today venture out to new lands, even though they are fully aware of the consequences that might arise, such as un/underemployment, total independence, or culture shock? This will bring me back to my title: nakatikim kasi e. It meant that people (especially Junior Term Abroad participants) already tried and tasted life abroad. It was totally an eye-opener for us JTA-ers to have this totally new experience. I remember the chats I had with fellow participants, and we basically said more or less the same thing: “We don’t want to go back home.” or “I promise, I will definitely be back after graduation.”
Of course, I do have a perfect comparison to test my hypothesis. I have friends who haven’t made tikim at all. For the past 21 or so years, they either haven’t left the country or only visited places like HK or Thailand for just 4 days. When I laid out my plans for them hoping that one or two might hop in with me, I was met with apprehension.
“Why leave, I am very stable here right now!” “I don’t need it… my parents wouldn’t approve of it.” “It’s sooo damn scary.” Duh, wasn’t I scared? Of course! I constantly threatened the lot that I would tear up my visa just to end the palpitation! But of course, after 7 weeks and counting, my passport is well hidden at the back of my wardrobe, letting it sit there hopefully until 2012.
It can be looked the other way around. I’ve known foreigners wanting to live in Asia in due course. At first, my mind can’t seem to comprehend their logic of moving from a developed country to a developing country plagued with limited benefits and chaotic political environments. They all had the same reasons… They’re tired of the European cultures they grew up in, and when they managed to travel to these new countries and be immersed in the Eastern cultures, their eyes lighted up with excitement. It was a new life, and trying out something new would be nice.
Yes, there’s the main difference. Nakatikim vs. hindi pa nakatikim. It all makes sense. With the youth more immersed in the concept of globalization than the Generation X, we can see more of these world integrations in a few years’ time. I just hope that the world will be a better place, since I have this very bad feeling that World War 3 is not that far ahead… Fingers crossed.
ravenik45