PAASCU Meeting

Start:	Jun 27, '07 2:30p
Location:	Xavier School

With the School and Community Committee

DXhibit

Start:	Jun 22, '07 6:30p
Location:	Rafael Cortina Sports Center, Xavier School

Dance Concert featuring Xavier's very own "Dance X."

IPP Seminar

Start:	Jun 23, '07 08:30a
Location:	Xavier School

with Fr. Johnny Go

In Your Face AnPin

I brought this really old tennis racket to our school in order to fulfill one lifelong dream: to learn how to play tennis. 

This particular racket has been with the Family since 1983.  My Dad bought it in Saudi Arabia the first time he was there in the mid-80s.  Although I was very young back then (10 yrs. old) I was already watching tennis on TV.  I saw black and white images of McEnroe, Borg, Lendl, Navratilova, Evert-Lloyd play their hearts out for the game.  And so with these as idols, I dreamt of playing tennis.  However, the dream became, just that, a dream.  I realized, even before I began to hold the racket that tennis was an expensive sports to go into. 

I let the dream pass me by... Graf, Sampras, Agassi, Rafter... I played tennis as video games...  Seles, Hingis, Roddick... I longed for tennis on cellphones... Williams, Henin, Nadal, Federer... until yesterday.

Andrew, Mark, and especially Aids were instrumental in my finally playing a real tennis match, albeit a mere one set game. Also, these three assisted me in winning my very first tennis battle; Aids as teammate and coach; the other two as opponents and therefore the losers.

My, my.  I think I drew first blood there and initiated a lifelong rivaly on our school's Tennis court. 

Well, as they say, let the game begin...

I am In

Wowow.  One of the perks that comes with being a 'cher is the fact that one keeps "up to date" with the latest in whatever is "in."  To know the world of my students means, in part, to learn the current trend in fashion, terms, gadgets, topics, and what nots. It implies that one has to be, somehow, forever young.  I do not wonder therefore when people express surprise when I reveal them my real age. I have gotten used to their "But you look as if you are in your late 20s!" (The latest is from a fellow newbie and one of my multiply contacts.)  I am not at all flattered because that is the truth! Hahaha!  Also, one as "old" as I has the joy of learning new things from my younger colleagues. 

Just like this new School Year,  I am feeling very excited as a teacher.  For one, I am learning how to use a Mac and all the gadgets that one needs in order to survive a classroom that is equipped with the relatively newest in teaching technology. (Long sentence, sorry.) 

In my previous school, I have learned to use the LCD projector. So I am not anymore overwhelmed at all by this thing. I know what "keystone" is for, for example.  But the Mac laptop still poses a wee bit of a problem. It looks so delicate. And it is not mine to destroy.

Also, there is this laser pointer than can transform into something that can remotely run one's powerpoint presentation.

Eventually, too, I will have to learn how to use an opaque projector. Not the ones that are as big as a stereo component and just as heavy but the newer, sleeker ones.

Multiply too is a new thing.  I am becoming addicted... Much more than friendster... As evidence, I am still in our workroom (7:20 pm) perfecting this darn blog.

Lastly, there is ELF.  This is a computer program that assists a 'cher in assessing the teaching-learning process.  My current DC was kind enough to demonstrate how to use it in an actual classroom setting.  After watching him, I said to myself, "well, I can do that."  So, tomorrow, I will be forced to be the one administering the test to my two other classes. 

Yeah, may the Force be with me...

Fil Dept at Los Banos and Tagaytay

Huling hirit sa tag-init. Nangitim, nagkaladyaan, nabundat, nagsisihan, nagkatakutan, at higit sa lahat nasiyahan. Salamat sa bago kong kagawaran sa isang karanasang di rin malilimutan. Salamat din kay Perps para sa mga larawang ito.

Xavier Christmas 2006 Party with the MRX top ten

Mi Familia

One of many pictures during the outings for Jason and Rhoda's vacation last January 07

Intramuros Under the Midday Sun Part 2

The adventure continues...

(3) Puerta Real.  This is the gate nearest Luneta Park.  Impressions: Wow.  Reason: I remembered the MTRCB sanctioning Lolit Solis for using that word before Real.  I don't want to be sanctioned either so I won't retype it.  Aside from Lolit Solis, I was amazed by the huge and massive walls of this Baluarte which was, if my memory (of the markers I read there, not of the actual events for I was but a potentia at that point of history) serves me right, destroyed during the 2nd World War and rebuilt in the 1980s.  The interior of this outer line of defense had been converted into a garden.  With the advent of the rainy season just a few days ago, the whole place look fresh and alive (pardon the diction).

(4) Western Walls.  Instead of going straight to Fort Santiago by way of the Antonio Luna St. I decided to turn left and traverse the street between the Muros and the back of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, which, by the way, was the original site of the Colegio de San Jose.  My goal was the San Ignacio Church ruins and the site of the first Ateneo de Manila.  I was, however, sidetracked by another garden.  I went into it and discovered the walls that form its western limits.  I was intrigued by this arc over what appeared and actually turned out to be stairs that led to another Baluarte.  This one was bigger than the first and was jutting out like a knife because of its pointed edge into what might have been, during the Spanish times the shores of Manila Bay.

I hesitated to climb the ramparts of the walls for doing so might burn me crisp for it was a bit past 11 o'clock. But, at this point the whole experience has, in my mind become an adventure.  I did not like to let go of the chance to ogle from out of the top edge of the walls at the rich folks playing golf and do another thing besides:  Let all my pretensions to fair skin go and allow my imagination to take me to when the British were bombing this side of the walls in 1762, breaching them and successfully conquering the city.

(5) It was the walls that I used in going to the San Ignacio Church ruins.  On my way there I saw a group PNP cadets in training. They were being driven to submissiveness by a loud mouthed pot bellied official. 

The Jesuit Church was described as unique in the Orient, a gem, a few historians stated.  As to what the uniqueness was ascribed to, I did not care to know.  Its ruins, however, do not reflect this at all.  They were unimpressive.  While there, I offered a silent wish that this gem, if ever it was a gem, be rebuilt someday if not by the Jesuits then by the Ateneans when less urgent things in society occupy them. 

The bells of the Manila Cathedral then started to ring.  I suddenly remembered the #1 item of my plan B.  I might catch a mass or something that resembles it and so off I go to the edifice which was the source of that head splitting noise.   It was 11:30 AM.

During the mass, my feet were so tired and my leg muscles so painful that I surreptitiously removed my shoes.

Intramuros Under the Midday Sun Part 1

I give a relatively narrow definition to the term "adventure";  it means trying out something new.  Using this meaning, I can describe my trip to Intramuros, yesterday, Sunday as an adventure.

I have been to Intramuros quite a number of times: for educational trips, for weddings, as a tourist, and even as a bum.  What is so different this time was my goal: the Noli Me Tangere based paintings of Leonardo Cruz(?), and the means I took in getting to that goal.  The second of the two formed the adventure part.

Preliminaries, the anxieties: The Noli Me Tangere paintings were being shown at the Fort Santiago.  Where exactly in that place, I don't know.  They might be in the dungeons or at the Rizal Shrine, a more logical possibility.  The main question, however, was "Is there an access to the paintings on a Sunday?" If the answer to the question is a "NO" then I wasted a @#!* lot sa time.  To stop this from happening, I decided on two things:

(1) fulfill my Sunday obligation as a Catholic in Intramuros,

(2) see the other parts of Intramuros, particularly the Muros part (walls, for all of you who are too young to undergo the required six units of Spanish in college) which I have not thoroughly explored in my previous visits.

Another thing that bothered me was how to get there.  There are two ways: One that I am used to: the Cubao jeepney way.  It will take me right to the street leading to Fort Santiago.  Problem: This will involve three rides and therefore, too expensive and because I will be so near my goal, I might feel too lazy to accomplish #2 of Plan B above.  The second is through a lone bus ride that will bring me to SM Manila. From there I can walk my way to Intramuros.  A favorable choice because it involved less money and I will be forced to exercise.

I decided to leave my place at 9:30 AM.  I wanted to be at SM Manila at 10 o'clock, in time to its opening so I can pay our electric bill.  This proved to be quite a wrong decision which repercussions hit me literally right on the head just 2 hours and 30 minutes later. 

I was in SM at around 10:15.  I paid the bill and had a quick wee wee in a c.r. my finding of which involved a mini adventure.  And the second part ensued:  Walk, walk, walk, walk, and more walk. 

(1) the Underpass.  Impressions: broken tiles, slimy floor and walls.  At least there is nary a smell of human waste. 

(2) Sidewalk of the road between golf course and the City Hall, and National Museum. Impressions: humid, very humid, dizzyingly humid.  I felt saddened by the state of the Gomburza statue.  I also felt some fear because for the first time in my life I saw adults sniffing rugby. Kids + Rugby = acceptable.  Adults + rugby = a BIG NO. A number of times, I was tempted to hail a jeepney that I reckon would take me inside Intramuros.  Fear vs. stinginess.  Stinginess won.

The adventure continues in just a few ...