Migration

I was thinking I'd like to do my thesis on Migration.
Something about the German film Solino, and how the experiences of the Italian Gastarbeiter families in  70s and 80s Deutschland mirror the current situations of OFWs in other countries.
I actually like that topic, even considered applying for an MA re: it at Miriam.

Anyway
I'm migrating to Wordpress.

Bad Joke, I know.
Curse my nonexistent sense of humor and far-too-long-unsharpened wit.

I'll copy my blog roll over to my new blog, by the way.
See everyone around.

Pakisabi Na Lang [Could You Please Tell Him]

Could You Please Tell Him

English Translation

I wish for him to know

That I am in love

That is my only dream

Though I may wish to say it

I cannot even start

If you should ever meet

Could you please tell him

Could you please tell him I love him

Even though there is someone else he loves

Could you please tell him not to worry

I am not expecting anything

I know it is doubtful

I cannot change it

Still, could you please tell him

Ikaw [You]

You

English Translation

You are the one the Almighty has given me

The answer to my prayer

So that for always

Every moment

The one I will love is you

You are the light of my world

The other half of this heart of mine

There will not even be a fraction of an instant

When there shall be someone to replace you

Today and for eternity it is you

Muntik Na Kitang Minahal [I Almost Loved You]

I Almost Loved You

English Translation

There is a secret that I will tell you

Something you don't know is happening

It is a secret hidden for so long

I almost loved you

I could not make you feel it then -

How my heart felt

And until now I still remember

I almost loved you

Refrain

Now I will admit it

That I wish we were together

Each question of yours I avoided

I believed your love was not real

I do not know what happened

I never managed to express my feelings for you

Until your heart became exhausted

From waiting for so long

It was then I thought

I almost loved you

Tulog Na [Sleep Now]

Sleep Now

English Translation

Sleep now, my love

Let’s leave this world for now

Come now, let’s sleep

Sleep now, my love

Cease your weeping

Your bed is soft

Think of worries some other time

Sleep now

Let’s leave them be for now

Later

They won’t be able to hurt you anymore

So sleep

Sleep now

Sleep now, my love

I’m here to watch over you

Go on, sleep for now

Puso [Heart]

Heart

Spongecola

You’re only out of breath

There’s still time left

Though it seems distant still

Pursue

Though you may be hindered

Though guards may attack

We’ll all be waiting

Pursue

Pursue

If we’re disadvantaged, then we’re disadvantaged

What are your wounds for

If you’re only going to fold

Only going to fold

If we lose, then we lose

Don’t make the mistake

Of just giving up

Nakapagtataka [Curious]

Curious

English Translation

The chaos in my mind hasn’t stopped

Since we decided to separate

Said goodbye over our differences

Curious

How my destiny has unraveled into this

Haven’t you said farewell too many times?

Each time marked with crying

Curious

Aren’t you ever exhausted,

Or don’t you ever get tired

Of our quarrels-

Never ending

Streaked with tears

Emotions and heart parched

There’s nothing more I can give

There’s nothing more I can feel

Dahil Ikaw [Because You]

Because You

True Faith

When you’re beside him

Do you feel any loneliness

Do you understand your emotions fully

And when I am

In your mind

Do you feel a different kind of happiness

I’m just here

Waiting for you

To notice my feelings

Meant only for you

Because you are whom my heart calls for

It’s you who is in my mind

All I want you to know

Is that you are my only dream in this life

My love I’ll give to you

All I want you to know

Is that I love you

Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin [Only Once Will I Adore You]

Only Once Will I Adore You

English Translation

My love, I promise you

I will not change

You will be the only one I will love

Even if you should leave

And I should get hurt

Believe that nothing will fade

Refrain

I give my love only to you

That is why, darling, you must know

Chorus

Only once will I adore you

Only once will I love you

This love for you is never-ending

Because once is for eternity

Mula Sa Puso [From the Heart]

From the Heart

English Translation

Why is it that the heart

Upon falling in love

Becomes a thing of wonder

Every moment

Is filled with a smile

Because heaven is felt

As if everything is never-ending

Because of the sweetness that is experienced

If it’s from the heart, it is truly like so

I yearn for it to be you, the one I will always hold

An embrace I wish will have no end

I wish it were me you would always think of

Through the day and through the night

Let us share the heat of love

Should anyone interfere

I would not allow it

If it’s from the heart, it is truly like so

Let us share the heat of love

Should anyone interfere

I would not allow it

If it’s from the heart, it is truly like so

Pusong Bato [Heart of Stone]

Doing this for a friend. Amusing exercise.

Heart of Stone
English Translation

When I loved you
My world suddenly changed
I thought you were heaven
But in reality you were a headache
You told me before
Never would it change
And I believed you
Why did you leave me now?

Chorus
You don’t know that because of you
I’m unable to eat
I’m unable to sleep either
Since you tricked me
If I should love again
I wish she wouldn’t become like you
Like you, who have a heart of stone

From This Day Forward

“When a couple gets married, it isn’t just their lives that are thrown into chaos. 

For Nicholas and Nala’s wedding, there’s the mother of the bride who is forced to face her failed marriage; the mother of the groom, who revisits the past – and an old love; the bride’s best friend who has lost the only boy she thinks she will ever love and with him, all her happiness; the bride’s cousin who fooled around with her boyfriend’s best friend (who inconveniently turns out to be the groom); and the groom’s sister who cannot understand her brother’s choice of a future wife. 

 Surrounding the bride and the groom’s happiness are the heartache, joys, hopes, dreams, and realizations of the people who care about them. It makes you think: does everybody get a chance at happily ever after?”

I’ve read only one other book – in full – by Ms Marla Miniano before, Table for Two. I had enjoyed that immensely, especially because of its interesting narrative and the premise of a single place being a silent witness to so many broken and mended hearts. So, I decided to get myself a copy of From This Day Forward. I had intended to read the book in two days, to give myself ample time to sleep the way I know I’m supposed to. I broke my body clock again though, as I knew I would.

On Ordinariness

A few months ago, my roommate L and I had a memorable conversation about someone she knew. This acquaintance apparently referred to herself as someone very ordinary, someone very normal, and L simply couldn’t understand how someone with potential enough to earn a spot in the country’s top university could ever be so unambitious. At the time, I agreed with my roommate fully. What was, after all, the point of working hard, studying hard, if our only goal was to be? There had been, back then, only obvious goal for me: becoming extraordinary, immortal.

As I was wrapping the new books I bought earlier though, I came to accept something I had always known, something I’d perhaps always considered for a very long time. All the books I had bought, all the books I had read as of late, were chick lit. The kind of reading the me of four years ago would scoff at for being so unabashedly cliché and mainstream. These were the books I was willing to go hungry for, the stories on which my sanity depended on. The semi-adult in me conceded: I was just an ordinary person. There was not much that singled me out from the average single young woman on the street – except maybe, I had messier hair.

The thought doesn’t even bother me that much anymore.

Recent Events, February 2013

Am blogging for the sake of blogging - go, me! It's been a month since the last time I wrote for this space of virtual pseudo-property, and while much has happened, there's not much that can be put into words. Chos.

Here are some pictures that I hope are capable of summarizing what I've been distracting myself with lately:

 

This was taken just earlier, 12. Feb, when the UP Deutscher Verein or the UP German Club, of which I'm a member, hosted a literacy program in New Era HS. Auf Deutsch. I must have had a virtual nosebleed - teaching high school students is so challenging! The batch salutatorian - who, with a little push in the right direction - might turn out to be an interesting specimen for Blair Waldorfs in the Philippines, was in my study group. She was not impressed that I did not know what the German word for Hamster is. (It is, by the way, (das) Meerschweinchen.)

Reading Revived

2013, huh? Congratulations to us for still being around after the supposed Armageddon.

This week I managed to do get more reading done than I ever did last year. Which is not to say that I didn't pick up even one book last year - I just mean that the things I read in 2013 felt for me like a vacation, an escape from all sorts of things, while my reading this week is reminiscent of the time I minored in Pol Sci. I am actually doing serious advanced reading again, more defined than the Wikipedia skimming kind I often prefer.

It feels nice. Even if I am reading about Nazideutschland and Hitler for a German grammar class, and I understand only half the jargon. I feel useful.

What I read in 2012

May Superfreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner,
The Third Lady by Shizuko Natsuki, and That Kind of Guy by Mina V. Esguerra

June The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

August Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James,
Fifty Shades Darker by EL James, and My Imaginary Ex by Mina V. Esguerra

September Fifty Shades Freed by EL James

October Solanin by Asano Inio,
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, and Out by Natsuo Kirino

November Love Your Frenemies by Mina V. Esguerra,
Kiko Machine 6 by Manix Abrera, Kiko Machine 8 by Manix Abrera,
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

December Fairy Tale Fail by Mina V. Esguerra,
Ikaklit sa Aming Hardin by Bernadette Villanueva Neri and CJ de Silva,
Trese 5: Midnight Tribunal by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo