Industry Audit Course, Cebu 2010

This course took almost two years to develop. We did the pilot conduct in Cebu and spent 12 days in the city. Got sick too, so did not really take a lot of pictures. First time, I felt like going back home after 3 days of being away. I think, I'm starting to burn .... OUT.

Sungkyunkwan Scandal

Every year there's one or two drama that really gets into me.  Everything revolves around it - work, recreation and life.  This drama keeps me awake until the wee hours of the morning.  It will also get a big chunk of my internet surfing time.  Last and most important, it gives me that light feeling - I look forward to the airing date, when the English subbed version will come out and somehow, I see and hear myself discussing or interjecting just simply anything about the drama - plot, characters and even small details during conversations with friends.  

This year, it's Sungkyunkwan Scandal (SKKS).  I really wished that my drama for the year is Japanese (lesser episodes); romantic comedy (for the light feeling) and with veteran actors (assurance of decent acting).  Well, SKKS is not all these.  It's a saeguk kdrama that stars a TVXQ idol turned actor and all those 20 something stars.  A complete opposite of what I want my drama of the year to be.  I can't remember what made me watch this as I only know Super Junior as Kpop idols.  But somehow, I got to watch the first episode and was drawn towards the characters (university students in Korea's Joseon period), the setting (Sungkyunkwan is Korea's oldest university established in 1398) and the plot (poor girl forced to cross dress and fell in love with the son of a political heavy weight, whew!).  More than these and in the course of its 20 episode run, the drama raised some issues that made me think and re-think some issues:

1.  State run universities are funded through the blood and sweat of its citizens and when the country is made up mostly of people living in poverty - that gives these students not just the privilege of getting a degree from such prestigious university but the obligation to SERVE this people that put them through school.  There was one scene when a professor told one of the main character to finish a meal as each student meal in the university can provide for a week of a family of 4 in Joseon.  As a state university student, I heard two or three professor give a lecture within the same lines.

2.  What a university education entails - not so much as getting good grades and job prospects but really learning from the different people that makes up a university.  It's a microcosm of the world.  More importantly, you get to learn things when you start to question the establishment.  Never be complacent - universities thrive on new ideas and theories.

3.  Get to know yourself.  This is the time when you start to question your beliefs, even your sexual preference!  Be open and embrace who you may become.  

4.  Excel, excel, excel.  Here, we have Lee Sun Jun, the brightest and most promising Confucian Student at SKSS.  He entered SKKS at the King's command but is constantly toiling and reading at the library.  Surpassing yourself means work, work, work. 

5.  Do things that are outside your comfort zones.  Being young means trying crazy things like drinking till you pass out, being late for curfews and  getting to know women (as SKK is an all male establishment).   

6.  Look for mentors and coaches.  All the characters look up to their fathers or siblings.  It's continuing the family heritage of being civil servants and maintaining the prestige.   But along the way, they get to meet the King and their professors.  

7.  Don't forget the people who helped you become where you are - for Lee Sun Jun, it's his manservant Sondool, for Kim Yoon Shik, it's the bookshop owner.  They were there when you started, chances are they're helping you now and you'll also see them at the end.  

I can probably think of a lot of issues.  There's the class issues between Norons, Sorons and Namins.  There's gender - Kim Yoon Shik has to cross dress to enter SKK as women are forbidden to learn and be educated in Joseon.  There's the family issue - of fathers constantly struggling to make this world a better place for their sons.  But more than anything, SKKS is really about four young people falling in and out of love and losing and finding themselves. Totally cliches but enough to keep me wanting for more.  

This comforted me ....

October 19th

DO NOT WORRY ABOUT MY SILENCE 

Already you are with Me. I have revealed Myself to you and you have followed Me. I have granted you access to My Kingdom. I will no more allow you to leave Me.

But there are still many that are far, that have closed the door of their heart to My Voice, that do not know Me, do not love Me.  I go to search for them. I will speak to them, I will introduce them to (indicates a dwelling, a place) Me, I will let them know My Love so that they too, become My friends.

Thus, don’t worry if I seem to forsake you for while.

Postcards from Melissa

She spent Summer 2010 roaming around Europe.  She has with her Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love book to read since she's in one of those I's - Italy.  During those times she sent me these postcards - pretty cool,     I wonder if Ading and Ate2 also got some too?

Coffee date with Mary, Pearl and Tita Cora

Sunday, August 22 at Shangrila Mall - Got this e-mail message from Mary three weeks prior to this date that she's in Manila for a month-long visit.  The last time I met up with Mary was two years ago also in the same mall.  She was with Rodri, her Argentinian boyfriend, at that time.  They got married last spring; hence, her visit is a welcome surprise for everyone.  

Well, Mary is my senpai (senior) who read and did preliminary reviews of my thesis; gave countless advice on how to survive Katayama sensei and Kobe University's GSICS and sat through our weekly zemi class for two years listening patiently to my presentation opening, "The BIR is the country's premiere tax collection agency...."    In short, Mary is somebody who makes me think of Kobe, Japan with fondness and nostalgia.  

The date was arranged so that Mary can finally give us the answers to such questions as - how was the proposal and the wedding; who attended the ceremony and was Katayama sensei there to stand as Ninong.  Stuff that are really important and requires a trip to Manila to give us all the juicy details.  Mary provided us with the answers and shared anecdotes on her married life with Rodri in Tokyo.  Plus, I got some updates from Pearl on her Pol Sci students in Diliman, her married life with Jay-jay and the challenges of caring for her sick father.  Bonus is that I got to meet Tita Cora and learned about her advocacies on the environment and healthy lifestyle among others.  I listened as she narrated with candor her family's daily struggles and adventures in surviving Manila after more than 10 years of living and working in Japan.    

More than the conversations with these three beautiful women, I also enjoyed the dango (Japanese sweets) that Mary shared with us as well as the Mary Grace lemon squares that she gave as our takeaway pasalubong.  

Then Monday morning on August 22, the hostage taking happened.  I look back and think that back then, less than 24 hours ago, things were much easier to analyze.  That somehow, with our graduate degrees from Japan, we can help solve the Philippine problems.  

Maybe, we were given such snatches of mundane conversations with our friends to realize how lucky we all are and that we really have to savor every thing that life offers.  For after such brief moments, we go back to facing more difficult tasks.  Forging ahead or just battling the "everyday-ness" of things.  

Michael Voltaggio is Top Chef Las Vegas!

I watched all the episodes in 2nd Avenue and has been rooting for him from the start.  I mean, I could have "googled"  who won the season but didn't.  

Really glad that he is Top Chef, 

Queen Seon Deok

I usually stay away from sageuk (historical) dramas.  Haven't seen Jewel in the Palace, Jumong and Hwang Jini (I have DVD copies of these kdramas but still haven't seen a single episode of any of them).  Besides, jdorama has sort of spoiled me - imagine 11 episodes and everything wraps up.  Most sageuk dramas have 20 plus, even 50 plus episodes.  Queen Seon Deok has 62 episodes, so just thinking of starting this drama is an enormous decision to make.  It means investing on time, committing emotionally and preparing to fall in love or in hate. Well, I kinda cheated and skipped some episodes but I was able to finish the drama and here are the five characters that made me invest, commit and fall - in LOVE:

5.  Wolya (Joo Sang Wook):  It has to be the stance.  As the leader of the Gaya restoration movement, he's the head of a proud belligerent group but tends to stand behind Kim Yushin.  He plays the second fiddle to Yushin's character but there's something with his stance that somehow makes him stands out.  It's also the character's capacity to weed everything out and make a decision that affects his roots, race and reason.  

4.  Kim Chun Chu (Yoo Seung Ho):  He'll make a very good political scientist.  Among his traits - displaying shrewd political analysis of the events; cultivating an innocent image; and knowing the buttons to push to make the winds of history favor his desired directions.  It also helps that as a drama watcher - we know he'll end up as the successor.

3.  Alcheon (Lee Seung Hyo):   Knowing one's duty, giving everything to achieve that and still being ready to give some more.  Like Wolya, he tends to be Yushin's second fiddle but you get the feeling that he can be the main dish if the writers want to.  

2.  Kim Yoo Shin (Uhm Tae Woong): If you're a ruler, you have to have this general to win wars for you, colonize other countries and be your rock.  He's your chief of staff, the executive secretary, the CEO.  This character does everything - even love you.  But you can be comfortable in knowing that even if you don't return that love, he'll be able to move on because his love and loyalty for his country is greater than his love and loyalty for his queen.

1.  Bi Dam (Kim Nam Gil):  This one can annihilate a whole army - possessing fighting skills that can protect and destroy.  He's childish but also a murderer; calculating but can be very obtuse and simple but quite complicated.  He's the main reason why I watched the whole thing, cried buckets at the last episode and wished that I can have tons of patience in re-watching the whole thing.  Simply put,  I  Bidam!

Actually there's more - most of the Hwarang leaders, Bidam's master, Seol won, Jukbang, Santak and even Godo.  The costumes and production values are spectacular.  I still don't know why I was never fascinated with the female characters - Mishil,Princess Chun Myung and Duk Man, the Queen.  Must be because most of these characters love them.