Pictures!

Here's the link to my Yahoo! photos album of the pictures of our departure from NAIA to our arrival in Pleasanton, California. You'll get to see (and meet) the my travelling companions and the cute chinese kid I spent most of my Tokyo-San Francisco flight playing with.

Click here.

or here.

What a Journey It Has Been....

4:00AM (Philippine Time) - We arrive at NAIA and discover a mile long line for baggage check-in. Good thing we're travelling with Inang who recieves special assistance. We get pulled to the front of the line and in less than thirty minutes, we're done with check-in, immigration and boarding security measure. We settle in the boarding area for the long wait. When the sun peeked over the horizon, me and Mikhael competed for the best dawn photo. I won. As of this time, none of us except Inang has had any sleep in 24 hours.


8:00AM (Philippine Time) - Northwest Airlines Flight No. 20 takes off for Tokyo-Narita International Airport. We're served breakfast onboard. I'm eat trade my beef for my brothers' scrambled eggs because they're allergic to the stuff. For the most part, airplane egg concoction isn't something that excites me but the NWA scrambled eggs were actually delicious. After breakfast we all succumbed to sleep.


1:30PM (Tokyo Time) - Arrival at Tokyo-Narita International Airport. We get off the plane and I get to be astounded by the incredible warmth and hospitality of the Japanese (or at least the Japanese airport personnel). Talo pa nila ang Thais, who have dominated the ranks of most warm and hospitable people in my opinion. It's another 2.5 hours wait for our connecting flight. I convinced my Mom to give me the US$100 so I can buy postcards and this japanese fan. For some weird reason, she didn't want to use it at first because she didn't want smaller bills. I won her over by telling her she'd spend sooner or later and smaller bills were a certainty in our future.


4:00PM (Tokyo Time) - Northwest Airlines Flight No. 28 departs for San Francisco. Mom, Inang, Mik and Omar and seated close to each other but I'm separated from the pack for some weird reason. A ticketing problem says my Mom. I got a little bummed by the fact that I didn't get a window or aisle seat but this soon became a non-issue when my seatmate turned out to be the cute Chinese guy I was eyeing in the baording area. We connected despite the fact that I spoke no Mandarin (I assume it was Mandarin hehe) and he spoke no English. By the end of an hour, he was kissing me. The "guy" was around two feet tall and communication with him consisted mostly of baby talk and hand signals. Picture below. When the little tyke had to go to sleep, I turned to my personal entertainment center. I'll say this of Northwest: way more leg room, a personal entertainment center, at least twenty movies you can choose from, great service and way cheaper ticket rates - all these puts NW ahead of PAL on my preferred carriers. Sorry, it's not a nationalism issue. It's a service issue.


7:05AM (San Francisco Time) - Arrival at the San Francisco International Airport. Slight hitch at immigration but we got over it. Mom was too stunned to speak when the immigration officer asked us about the issue so I'm glad thank you God for the presence of mind to answer in her place. Thank you din Lord for smoothing out that particular wrinkle, for keeping us safe, for early arrival times, for no lost baggage, no food spoilage and for keeping us all sane and able to bear with each other during the journey. It got tough at times and there were raw nerves but thanks for helping us put that aside to work as a team and enjoy the journey. Since I'm the official photographer, I'm not included in the picture of the family upon arrival in Gravina Place, Pleasanton.



Right now - We're just a couple of 2 cousins short of a full house of the 2nd generation but we're having fun already. Tomorrow we're off to San Francisco and I'm guessing I need to wear at least three shirts under the jacket. My goodness, it is freezing here: 7 degrees Celsius! My brothers are hardier than me. They're used to Baguio climate so that ups their cold tolerance a bit. Sunday, we "kids" are going unsupervised by any parent to Los Angeles. Haha, can anyone say uninhibited?



Okay time to hit the sheets.


More pictures to follow. I tried to get them on now but there seems to be a problem with the system.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

Nice things have been happening these past days and I am thankful for two things. One, that these events happen and continue to happen. They are answered prayers. I had resigned myself to believing that God’s answers to those cries was NO but now I find that His answer then was WAIT. It is a grand performance of His love and I watch joyfully as I would watch snowflakes fall in summer.**

The second thing I am thankful for is that I have yet to be distracted from the true Light by the falling blessings. I pray that this continues. It’s grace. It’s all because He’s holding me firmly, rooting me as if I were a tree that didn’t have enough sense to bury its roots in the soil. While I am often caught up in whirlwinds of doubt and fear and my eye daily wanders towards the other side, He turns me time and time again to the task at hand. I can’t build my life around the pleasantries that have been happening. Tomorrow, a fierce storm can wipe them off the face of my path and they will be cherished memories but not bread on which I can continue this journey.

I take back my initial count. I am thankful for three things, the third being the constancy and light of the Truth. (grammar?) In churning waves of emotion, the Word of God anchors me safely.

There. I was just thankful and had to write that.

** Yes, I have seen snowflakes fall in summer. =) Okay, it was early summer or late spring at Lake Tahoe. Still.

My Sentiments Exactly

Where is the blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul-refreshing view
Of Jesus and his word?

What peaceful hours I once enjoyed!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void,
The world can never fill.

William Crowper, songwriter and one given to swings of emotion (so writes Ravi Zacharias), penned that one yet it captures my turmoil.

I bought Ravi's Cries of the Heart yesterday. Actually bought is seems inadequate to describe the two hour journey to finally approaching the cashier and shelling out money for the book. I walked around Fullybooked juggling it. I sat in the children's books section and stared at the book in my lap. I moved to the architecture section and wished the book wasn't wrapped in plastic. It was a battle of "No Kristina, it's got nothing new to say to you, you won't find anwsers!" against "Yes Kristina, buy it. It might just be the stern word you crave." Hope won out over pessimism.

Ravi's words in the chapter entitled "The Cry to Feel My Faith" were not new but the tone and delivery both validated my struggle and urged me on with the process of learning to hold my emotions by the Truth of God's Word. "Listen as God speaks. Out of the depths of truth He will tame your passions," writes Ravi. It is wholly tiring for me to feel like I have to beat my body into submission almost every moment. Yet I am reassured by His presence that the ground upon which I beat myself to stay on is to be preferred to the rollercoaster ride of emotions. His love beckons like no other and His shelter offers rest like no other. Dying to me in His gentle hands seems better than dying alone in the dark for things that shall pass. I am frustrated and disappointed by my inability to move along at times and so I pray that I would indeed find His grace sufficient for me.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits!
...who forgives all your iniquity
...who heals all your diseases
...who redeems your life from the pit
...who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy
...who satisfies you with good
...who is merciful and gracious
...who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
...who knows our frame and remembers that we are dust
Bless the Lord, O my soul! ~ Ps 103

DCBC Cantata 2006

For Dancers and Wannabe Dancers like Me :)

Pagiilaw ng UP 2006

Despite unrelenting showers, the show went on. And what a show it was! It seemed like the College of Music emptied itself onto the makeshift stage in front of Quezon Hall last night. UP Seraphim, Up Madrigal Singers, UP Concert Chorus, the Symphonic Orchestra... Name it, they were there offering the best in a free concert to celebrate Christmas. I'm so glad me and Yam decided to go despite the hectic schedule on my part. We found ourselves stalking the cure flutist, laughing like kids at the fireworks, and tearing up at the rendition of "Payapang Daigdig". It looks like the Christmas season has started for me.

Ang gabi'y payapa

Lahat ay tahimik

Pati mga tala

Sa bughaw na langit

Kay hinhin ng hangin

Waring umiibig

Sa kapayapaan

Ng buong daigdig

Payapang panahon

Ay diwa ng buhay

Biyaya ng Diyos

Sa sangkatauhan

Needed: Knitting Needles ASAP

The boredom got to me. That's the short version of why I'm suddenly so intent on knitting despite comments that its something only lolas can enjoy. I'm convinced that it'll help me get through my insomnia with less irritation. =)

The search for knitting needles has been fruitless so if anyone has some old knitting needles to spare, can I please borrow them? =) Or give them to me. Hehe. Malapit na ang pasko.

This Chasm in Me

I wake in the morning dreading the moment, hoping that it won't come. Without fail it does. I feel empty and so alone. The day's moments of "un-busyness" are doomed to hurt as a palpable loneliness seeps into my consciousness.

It is not a loneliness for family, friend or lover. How I wish it were for solutions to that seem to be more or less within my reach. Every moment is a struggle to not turn it into such a thing. Every minute, I feel the gap and hate it but fight to keep it empty. I often fail to do so and with each failure is the reinforced lesson that nothing I would seek to cover the hole in me will ever fill it.

In quiet times, a cry of anguish escapes me. Lord, help my unbelief! Help me know that You are near indeed. That those who seek forgiveness and turn back on their ways are indeed forgiven and loved with no less a love than before they fell. That in Your presence, there is FULLNESS of joy.

Stupid, stupid!

Okay, I know that this probably old news for you guys but I just found out about it and I really had to rant.

Ryan Philippe and Reese Witherspoon!!! Ugh! Come on people! You can't be serious?! Stupid guy! Ugh!





Haaaaa.... Well now. That felt good.

Go Figure

Sorry, this post is going to be extremely vague and weird to most of you. But it's the one thing I feel like writing about and I'll take what I can get.

I was invited to this certain something and I wanted to go for all the wrong reasons. Make that reason. Well, I've never been to a certain something like this before, boring life that I lead and all. So I could lie and say I was going for that reason. But if I went, I'd break this new dorm rule and that's just not right. But the thought of screwing it crossed my mind you know. Not because I'd finally get to go to that certain something but because there was this Certain Someone there. And that hit me as pathetic and a bit overdone. I mean, I'd break the rule for my family or my bestfriends. But to want to break it for Certain Someone freaked me out. Certain Someone cannot, and I mean CANNOT, mean that much. So just to prove to myself that Certain Someone did not mean that much, I didn't go.

So much for logic.

Nellie, do you have a new blog up or something?

Frozen Pen

I don't feel like writing. I haven't had a decent "writing frenzy" moment in ages. Agh.

Last Semester

...as an undergraduate that is. Oh yeah, I'm claiming that!

Here's the menu for the next four/five months:

Stat 143: Survey Operations
Stat 148: Experimantal Design
Stat 149: Categorical Data Analysis
Stat 191: Survival Analysis
Natural Science II

I approach this semester with much fear, doubt, and insecurity. But above all, I approach it with much looking to God... from out under the ton of bricks that I feel I'm under.

Tralala...

Yeah, about the title... I can't think of another title. =)

I'm in Pangasinan right now and the only reason I can post is because I've finally hauled my butt out of the house. I'm not really busy at home. Konting review lang para sa GRE. Not enough to get me out of BUM Alert zone though. But I've been doing plenty of thinking and babbling to myself and God.

Square One was great! God is awesome! Most of the time, I'm just sighing all over the place because God is just so beautiful. And the Gospel is mind-blowing! truly, you think that one graduates from the Gospel as you mature. Or that's the way it was with me. I was on the "If you wanna grow in faith, read your Bible...then fast...then give sacrficially...then serve in church...lalala etc" track that I forgot the Gospel. I'm not saying the Bible reading and all the other stuff isn't important. They are very important. But they have to be centered around the Gospel. They're not next levels beyond the Gospel. They're more of paths on which I can really live on the magnificent truth of the Gospel.

So I guess I have to tell myself the Gospel everyday. And that's the fact that I have never been more broken and sinful than today but I've never been more loved and accepted than today because Jesus lived and died for me to redeem me from death to the Kingdom life of fullness, wholeness, love and glory in the Father. Hallelujah! You know, I used to cringe at that word. Now it's the only word other than "Whoa!" that can capture a little of the awe I'm in.

My roommates can attest to the fact that despite living in these islands for a decade already, I still suck at Tagalog. I make grammar mistakes and mispronounce words. My first language is English. I can start talking to you in tagalog but in less than a minute my english will come stealing in and I won't even be aware of it. So I've never had the guts to share this Good News to anyone who'd need to hear it in Tagalog. It intensive enough for me to do it in English. And before it felt like I was trying to get people buy into this Christian product of Christ. I felt so fake. And sick sharing to most people before.

But perfect love casts out fear. And it's His love that transformed me into a daughter who is not afraid or ashamed of telling other people, no matter what language or what the outcome might be, about her Savior, Lord and Lover. We had fieldwork during the camp where we went out into a fishing village and witnessed to the people there. We had to do it in Tagalog so it was a faith walk for me but God is so great. Even if I was the one talking and hugging and listening, it was really me just watching God at work, Jesus hugging people and the Holy Spirit talking. And the rejoicing in the heavens that day... Oh my! God is awesome!

It's Time...

...to kick off my shoes and take a "Nestea ad" fall onto my bed for dreams that will no longer be haunted by cluster analysis, PPS estimations formulas and R Language programs.

It was a weird semester. But it was the best ever. I'm so thankful for all that has happened. And it's so great that I can look back on the past months with God and chuckle while tears of joys stream down my face. My Lord is so great, so loving and so patient with me. Baby steps...baby steps.

Before going home, I'm joining a camp. It's exciting and terrifying at the same time. I can't explain why but I'm not letting the fear keep me home. Hehe...I hope I can keep doing that until that bus actually pulls out of the center and is there's no turning back.

BOOK SALE!

I love my books but this is going to go to a good cause... Hehe. Contact me at 09158264137 or email me at coffeeformegan@yahoo.com if interested. Haggling is permitted. =) I'll be in Ilang until the 21st. =) All books in good condition.


P40 each:


Kitchen God's Wife - Amy Tan
Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
100 Successful College Application Essays
Little Alters Everywhere - Rebecca Wells
Curtain - Agatha Christie
Jewel - Bret Lott
Chasing Cezanne - Peter Mayle
The Jane Austen Book Club - Karen Joy Fowler
How to be Good - Nick Hornby


P80 each:


Artemis Fowl: Eternity Code - Eoin Colfer
Under the Tuscan Sun - Frances Mayes
Victory in the Wilderness - John Bevere
In the Eye of the Storm - Max Lucado



I also have lots of magazines (Seventeen, YM, Elle Girl) and I'd be more than happy to hand them over for free to anyone interested in them (for scrapbooking perhaps?).

The Next Best Way to Start the Day

...have a mug or two of coffee to shoo away any sleepiness

the best way to greet a new day?


Although, I have to say how it is such a battle to do so. Drinking the coffee is so much easier.

When I've had no several sleepless nights...

it comforts me immensely to know that my God never sleeps, His hand has never swayed from keeping me and that in these times of weakness, He comes through as my strength and wisdom.

You know you're probably ill

...when you find this funny:

Stat Seniors: How's the exponential smoothing and winter's method going down?

Mine's not doing too well...