This is one of my most favorite pictures from the hundreds I took when I was in the Netherlands. It reminds me of the cold weather that I love to hate. The novelty of landscape calling me take a walk despite the cold. And I did! Yes I did! I love those paths which I followed while staring at the moat. That is a true blue moat just like the ones you hear from fairytale. My time there was short but sweet and in hindsight bittersweet.

weekend warrioring in Europe

Overwhelmed is an understatement. It was a dream come true indeed.

I am still here in Wageningen Netherlands. I will write more about my trip to Paris and Milan in future post. I just want to share that it was a fantastic weekend.

Cheese

One of the things that get better with age. I love cheese. I was so excited to see them at the open market last Saturday here at Wageningen, Netherlands.

Some things do get better after allowing the process to take place. Letting things age. Learning, contemplating and ponder. I also discovered that indeed this is my learning style. I need space and time to reflect.

journey

The past two months of the year was one of the many turning points in my journey. Events went by too fast that I can hardly reflect on what has taken shape. The other day when we were assigned to be the critical thinking group doing reflection in a sense propelled me to ponder on my own realizations as well.

"An unexamined life is not worth living" as Socrates and many others before me have valued the exercise of learning from lifes lessons. Traveling and being away from family and routine has in a way made my spirit restless but I believe this is meant to be in a good way. An awareness that seeks to be acknowledged.

Everyday we evolve into a new person albeit in the outside everything seems to be the same. Being away from the people closest to your heart is a challenge. The beauty in this is that one is reminded that they are your treasures in life.

Thank you for all the blessings indeed.

love love love love!

missing Isay and tatay Amats...

Unity in Diversity

This is the class getting ready for the group picture. Actually there are 3 groups of 22 people each doing simultaneous PPME. I only remember my group's name Pomona the others I cannot hard spell or even pronounce. Almost all of the developing countries are there but more than half of the class are from Africa.

The Philippine Delegation

There are only four of us from the Philippines. There are only 3 women representing the 3 sectors. The three women are from the government, NGO and the private sector. The lone male is a representative of Mindanao also from an NGO.

Batsheba in green terno, Ian in barong and Laarni in modernized barong. I love the Ifugao traditional tribal dress. Thank you Maye!

the old and the new

a traditional house. the photo was taken during dusk that is why it was a bit dark but I still like this picture
These are cafes I think because I saw some people dining inside there. Initially I thought is was something like a modern gallery or something. There are a mix of the old and the new in this university town.

There are students cycling up and down to get to their classes very similar to the set up of UPLB. This last photo is the main shopping area which is about 2 blocks away from where we are staying.

Guided Tour

Gon Van Laar is our guide-- you cant miss her she is the one in red

bicycle in the Netherlands

It is the most interesting site. I've never seen so many bikes parked outside a train station. Around town, you can see the diversity of bikes. The most interesting ones are the ones with provision for the babies and kids. Hopefully I can catch those in the coming weeks.

Also saw the smallest car ever.

Hof van Wageningen

This is where we are having our fellowship training on Participatory Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation.

This is the very first time that I was able to see a "moat" as in a really moat like the ones you have in the fairytale castles. Amazing! I can see that moat everytime I look out my window from my very small room (I am guessing because we need to conserve the heat--save energy). It was 7 degrees the other day when I went out for a quick walk to the store to buy a adaptor plug.

The town is like a fortress or a walled city like Intramuros in Manila. The walls have come down but the beautiful moats are still here.

Wageningen pronounced as with matching wahhk of the throat. It is a University town here in NL. It reminded me of my days in UPLB.

10degrees

This is the view from the 7th floor here at Hof van Wageningen hotel where we are having our training on Participatory Planning Monitoring and Evaluation.

It is cold outside about ~10degrees celcius. I watched BBC weather ang it is snowing in the UK about 5cm of snow expected. But there is no snow here. We are warm here inside. But it is cold outside. We have a walking schedule late today at 5pm. Grrrrr

Ok time for tea

Breakfast Day 2

I ate a huge breakfast of scrambled eggs and lots of kiwi!

more later

Amsterdam Train System

We arrived at around 7 pm at the Schipol Aiport in Amsterdam. I am with Batshe from Dept of Agri,, Laarni from a consultancy firm then Ian from MinCode in Mindanao.

We got out train tickets direct to Wageningen for 8 pm just in time. The photo above is at platform 3 ( not 3/4 like Harry) I was half expecting to run trhough walls but nahh.

Good thing it was a direct trip we were still going to catch bus 88 at Ede-Wageningen.

The Netherlands

I am here at Wagenngen Netherlands. Arrived here yesterday evening after a 14 hour direct flight to Amsterdam. Then an hour train ride via Utrech to Ede Wageningen worth 14.50 euros and then bus to here for 2.40 euros.

There are 4 Pinoys here attending this 3 week fellowship. Mostly African, other countries include Brazil, Nepal, India, etc. will tell you all more about it later.

Yehey!!! finally in Europe for free!!! :)

Many many things happened this past two months that I was not able to share to all of you. Many great beginings!

I will try to give daily updates here.

I am back to blogging!

wish list

While on the train yesterday going back from my tiangge shopping for Christmas, my thoughts once again revolved around what I should get for my inaanak, my family, my nephew etc etc. And while I was also on checking out the stalls looking something I cant find anything that I want. At the end of the day, I had a huge bag of gifts.

Then I thought maybe I should be really clear of what I want. It would be really easy to shop if I have a clear idea in mind what I need and want for Christmas.

Well here goes my list. I am just putting this out there for the Universe.

1. Nikon D300 digital SLR camera- for the longest time I've been wanting to have a digital slr camera and been putting off buying one. Depending on our budget I might look into the Nikon D60 in Quiapo.

2. A compact digicam-- I want something that I can put in my small purse kind of camera aside from the dslr. This is truly indulging in my photography geekyness hehehe but want to catch those special moments wherever I find myself be it be in the palengke or a playdate in UP eating fish balls. This digicam is preferably water resist to 30meters as well so I can bring it with me to the beach and diving expeditions.

3. A pelican for all these gears of course when I am outdoors :)

4. Round trip tickets to Europe for Tatay, Baby and I to visit Ate Rose and Kuya Per in Sweden. Visit Vincent and Joy and the new baby in London.

5. Aerosole shoes both flat and heels (but not too high)even though I am always in my TNF shoes I love the idea that once in a while I can wear a real nice pair of heels. Maybe thow in a pair of dancing shoes as well since I'll be having my dance class regularly.

6. TNF jacket

7. to be continued

I will be making up a list for Baby soon :)

Sarap din mangarap :) libre naman di vah? kaya dadagdagan ko pa yan.

blessing received today

Today is a great day. I received a present from the Universe something that I've been wishing will soon be manifested in a couple of months. I will tell you more about it next year when it happens. I realized that it happened because I was able to receive the help of special people. I want to truly from the bottom of my heart thank you all today. You know who you are. I will be writing about this particular blessing next year.

Just wanted to say thank you to the Universe. And always be reminded in the future that life is good.

Salamat kay God :)

early sunday morning

Lately, I haven't shared my thoughts in this blog. But I've been wanting to write most of them. So many things happening at the same time. Because the memories seem to fade with time and we always tend to forget the little details that is why I've been meaning to have them written down. Only a journal can help me remember the simple, ordinary and mundane things that gives me so much joy. When I come back to read them, each detail is like a morsel which I can enjoy like small nuggets of my favorite chocolate mints.

Last Sunday morning, I got up really early to make it to my 7am Pilates and dance class date with Rolyn my dentist friend. Thanks to her, I discovered the Pilates and the Belly Dancing Class.

I snuck out of the house while Tatay and Baby are still asleep. Well, Tatay Amats was still half- asleep when I mentioned that I will be out for the most part of the morning. So there I was out of the house a few minutes before 7am on a Sunday morning. I thought it would be hard to get up since we love to sleep in specially during the weekends. But I was really happy to be up and about wearing my quick dry shirt I only put on during climbs and comfortable old pair of jogging pants on my way to my dance class. I can't remember when was the last time I had dance class. It was a happy thought that I am indeed going to one this morning.

There was a light morning breeze and the air was cool. The sun was just up in the horizon with a nice warm glow over the trees. I remembered the time when I was always out on hiking trips every weekend. I actually miss my weekend warrioring days. My wanderlust still is in my bones.

I arrived early but there was the earlier dance class so I took some time to do some brisk walking around the park for warm up. I was amazed at the number of people awake and enjoying the early Sunday morning. I thought, we are missing this wonderful hour to spend time outdoors. People from all ages were there: joggers, martial arts and arnis students, families with the grand parents, old and young running, walking their dog, teens playing ball and even small babies sleeping under trees. I smiled at the sight of all these people doing their own thing as I walk around enjoying the cool morning air. I felt alive and awakened in a familiar kind of way.

Then later I found Rolyn, Hannah and Rodney's mom already at hall. While waiting for the Belly dancing class, I joined the Pilates class for a short while but did not go through the whole routine. It was hard it reminded me of my lost Pilates workout dvd.

I was really happy to be dancing with women double my age but there were also a few much younger than me. It was a mixed group of women who seem to really love dancing. Everyone has their dance gear for belly dancing: that wrap around skirt with the coin-like tassels which is the signature piece of belly dancers. It was really fun to be with this group even though I don't have my dance gear yet they welcome me into the group.

The dance routine was as fun and happy as I expected it to be. But what surprised me is that it was indeed a great workout. I found myself with stitches on the side during the session. It was about an hour of classic belly dancing.

Next hour, we had some Polynesian dance routines (where the dance steps were very familiar because I had classes when I was in kindergarten) and the last hour was devoted to what they called Brazilian dance. But I felt it looked very much like Capoeira moves. I was really exhausted at the end. I was very much impressed with the older women twice my age who just danced away without a blink literally. This goes to show how I really need the exercise.

Dance class ended with people still smiling and sweating. I came up to ask the instructor about the dance gear. Really enjoyed myself and even entertained the idea of the recital next year :)

I got myself the full gear for belly dancing! Now I am hooked!

Pasko na naman

I've been pondering about how we collectively and individually celebrate Christmas. I chanced upon a blog that inspired me to write some thoughts about the season.

Usually it is a time of giving and receiving. Only birthday I know that even people who are not believers still celebrate. Our manner of celebration varies depending on our beliefs and upbringing. But for the majority there seems to be a constant: "gift" as tokens of love.

I realized the truth of the saying: to be able to give love, you have to have love in your heart. Your love tank at least should be refilled when we continuously do the business of being human. Christmas is a great opportunity to give love and receive love as well.

Recently, I observed that most people busy shopping have a list of people that they need to buy gifts. Some people even made it to a science on how to shop, wrap and deliver gifts to the long list of family, inaanak, workmates and friends.

But what struck me with this routine was that rarely do we see people have a clear list of what they want for themselves. A blog of young lady that I regularly read because of her levelheadedness, quirky and well written thoughts gave me some perspective. She is one of those people that seem to have it all but in a well adjusted kind of way. I've seen her list for this year which is more of need than wants. But what was inspiring is for her to share these with a note of "not-expecting-anyone-to-buy-me-these-note". But there she published it. She just put it there for the Universe to bring to her.

A balanced perspective I thought.

My Anak, My Teacher

I have resisted talking about being a mom. I guess the resistance comes from the fact that it is too close to the heart. And to write about it in this blog lets say that it's in a manner of speaking to make oneself vulnerable.

Raising a child is indeed a great responsibility. Now I am being taught the lessons of life by my child.

She teaches me patience 24/7. Potty training is still a struggle. Its 1:25am in the wee hours of the morning and we are awake trying to clean up her nappy half asleep.

She teaches me how to be selfless, truly thinking of another before thinking of myself. Buying clothes and shoes for her is a joy not a task. It is a joy to see her eat well specially when she tries to get that morsel about to enter my mouth.

She opens my eyes to the wonder of very ordinary things. The joy of discovery and learning the most basic things. It was pure joy to hear her count, identify shapes and colors, connecting that the letter W is the symbol of Wonder Pets saying Hi to Mingming whenever she sees the letter.

She teaches me to be respectful. Saying "sorry" even if it was my mistake. I am truly humbled.

She teaches me to face the challenge of being a good parent. Her tantrums are a reflection of my own actions. I am ashamed of some of the things that she saw. But sometimes my guard is down but still it is not an excuse to not be vigilant always.

There are many many more daily challenges that we try to overcome. There are also many small victories.

I thought I would be an excellent parent, that "I will be that" and "I will not be that" because I've seen it done. But life will just surprise you. I thought being an aunt will prepare me for parenthood. But I was wrong.

Still I look forward to the many years that my anak will teach me. I look forward to the many memories that we will make together.

I love you anak!

expedition

When I got back from my trip to the US, I had back to back workshops one at UP then right after that a video coral monitoring, diving expedition.

At that time I haven't recovered yet from jet lag I think. But it was worth it to see the ocean again. I love diving. I love my work. I just wish that I can spend more time in the field than indoors.

Here are some pictures of the expedition. The divers are from all over the country from many different project sites. We were there to learn more about video monitoring. There were lots of work-- manual labor because we need to deploy transect blocks plus monitor the fish and corals. There were 3 teams of 5 people each.

It was a very tight schedule with 3 sites to be monitored with at least 6 transect readings of 50meters each. We were exhausted (is an understatement) because we need to review the videos at night.

On top of all of these, we had some defective equipment (very risky when diving as you life depends on your equipment). Then on top of that there was a brewing storm "Igme" at that time. Emotions and exhaustion got the best of me when I returned to Manila.

But I still love what I do. I still miss the ocean.