On Katy Perry Songs

Are you sick of my blogposts about songs yet? this is the last one for now, i promise..

in my previous post about Rihanna songs, i talked about an old flame, something that i never did before., but i felt like finally talking about the relationship is symbolic of me finally letting it go. of me finally moving on.

i realized i never really talked about how i moved on. for the first 3 months after it fizzled out and ended, i moped around like a sad little puppy missing its master. i was kinda hoping that we would get back together. it was pathetic, really, looking back. after that three months, i had to accept that that particular love story has come to an end. that there will never be a new chapter again. and i unwillingly went back to the dating scene, with the constant prodding of my girl friends here.

for a while, it seems to me all my nights were like this one:

until i met someone.

Spring is Finally Here

So it’s still cold here in Sweden, but not as cold as it used to be.

Today the sun was out and it was just too beautiful not to take pictures.

plus, i have deadlines to meet and what better way to procrastinate than take beautiful pictures and upload them on your blog?

plus, i wanna try out this slideshow thing that my friend Maria, from mariadzurik.wordpress.com taught me how to do (well, sort of).

so here goes.

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and it works!

On Speaking English

As an Asian and Filipino living as a foreign student in Sweden, i get asked quite often why my english is so good. This always surprises me because I’d like to believe that Filipinos are well known all over the world to be pretty good english speakers. While admittedly they are not very good in their grammars and most of them speak in broken english, still, i believe that it is fairly good compared to our asian neighbors. In the Philippines, if you are a foreigner, you can talk to anyone you meet in the streets to ask for directions, where the loo is, or simply have a conversation about the weather and they can convey their message and answers pretty well in english as well.

Personally, I know I speak fairly good english because I have been trained that way all my life. My mother and my family spoke to me in english when i was very little and my mom would even tell me to “please speak in english because i cannot understand you” when I would try to speak to her in Filipino. Of course it backfired on her sometimes when i get naughty and she would get really mad and try to apprehend and curse at me in filipino, i would simply reply “Nanay (mommy), please speak in english because I cannot understand you.” that would either egg her to be more mad at me or laugh uncontrollably, forgetting her anger. My kindergarten and formative years were spent in an American-run school where we were required to speak english all the time and we’d get punished or demerits if we speak in Filipino even during break times. The school was an exclusively english speaking zone and the teachers do not tolerate any foreign language to be spoken in there. Even the parents were instructed to speak to their children in english when at home. When i was about nine or ten years old, i moved to Hong Kong for a while and even then I had a british tutor. When I moved back to the Philippines, I went to english speaking schools as well. that was important to my parents.

With my education, add the fact that i loved to read even at an early age and there was always an abundance of english books for me to read, provided by a mother and aunts who encouraged reading, even when the reading materials are a little bit age-inappropriate, and you get a child who is very proficient with the english language.

But I’d like to believe that my case is not an exception to the rule. The filipino people are fairly proficient in the english language because we have been trained that way. The Philippines was colonized by the Americans for 50 years, and they brought along their school system with them. Education in the Philippines have been highly patterned after the American system and we were taught english from then on. This is why even the Filipinos with the most basic of education can express themselves fairly well in english. Add that to the fact that ever since the american colonization 90% of the filipinos have been angling to be Americans, we’re practically the brown Americans of Asia! With that you basically get a population of fairly good english speakers!

And i have always been proud of the fact that most filipinos are proficient with the english language. especially when some foreign director goes to the Philippines and just film a reality show or a documentary practically anyone from the streets can be interviewed and they can express themselves in english unlike most of our neighboring country. We are also one of the best sources of call centers and BPOs simply because filipinos are fairly sufficient with the language.

And with this, I urge you to come to the Philippines, experience the Filipino Hospitality that we’re most famous for, and converse with a local in English, while i stay stuck here trying to beat deadlines after deadlines. Enjoy!

 

*Posted via Blogsy for iPad

On 20-Minute Blogs

And an update.

I feel as if I have been neglecting this blog already, and have only been posting sporadically.

Before coming here to Sweden to study, I have envisioned myself posting so many blogs about life as an international student, and all tha, but i guess life simply has a way of screwing things for you.

don’t get me wrong. life as an international student is the best experience i’ve had so far and i would recommend it to everyone! it’s everything it’s cracked up to be! not only do you learn through the course, you learn so much more, especially about the different cultures of your fellow international students. and then there’s the parties and the socializing (and the dating!) and the travelling! oh, don’t get me started on the travelling! The thing is, i have been so busy with all the studying and the partying and the travelling that i simply do not have the time to sit down and write, which sucks!

but i’m hoping all that will change soon! (i hope!) i am forcing myself to post something at least once a week, or at least once every two weeks until the rest of my stay here in Sweden and i plan to do quick blogs that takes about 20 minutes or less to post.

my plan is to start playing a re-run of one episode from my favorite sitcoms which runs about 22 minutes or less and complete a blog post within that time.

i have bought myself a new bluetooth keyboard for iPad, which snaps seamlessly into my iPad2, and that makes it soo much easier for me to blog via Blogsy for iPad and i love it!

I have several blog topics in mind that i have yet to write and i’m kinda hoping i will get around to writing it within the coming weeks.

also, my Beats Solo headphones snapped in half about a month ago and i’m kinda bummed about that one. i need to get myself a replacement soon as i decide on a good one but it’s been hard for me to find one as the selection is very limited in the town i live in, not to mention everything is so much more expensive here than back home. luckily, my Beats Studio Pro is still intact and i’m using that until i find a good compact headphones. the Studio Pro is fantastic, but it’s just too bulky and it’s not practical to lug it all around town!

another update i’m kinda bummed about is that the security checks in European airports (at least the ones in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Paris) requires that you take out your iPads from your bag during X-ray, which sucks big time. in most airports i’ve been at before, they never ask me to take out my iPad! that’s even one of the main selling points of travelling with an iPad versus a full laptop. boo.

okay. my HIMYM episode is almost done and so i must end this seemingly endless tirade!

til next week. ciao guys!

 

On Visas and Embassies.

For the past year now, I have bean steadily busying myself with my plans to study abroad.

My aunt and her Swedish husband generously invited me to stay with them in Sweden so that I can take up a master’s course in entrepreneurship. it was pretty generous, since the course would span a whole year for 2 semesters, and the university I had applied for is a little spendy, it being #5 best university in the world, #2 in Europe.