Sem break!

Finals are over! For a few days now. I've only been really lazy lately.. mostly watching shows on YouTube and on TV. Thank heavens to all the nice people who upload full movies on YouTube! I've watched a bunch of Disney movies, Amazing Race episodes, and some Filipino shows. Watching Filipino shows made me miss the Philippines even more!

My sleep schedule is off again. I went to bed at around 5:30 this morning and woke up at 2 pm! hahahaha. School starts again tomorrow (booooo). I hope to be able to wake up early for my 10 am class. It's going to be a crazy semester. I have organic chemistry and molecular biology, which sound like death to me, and modern and Irish dance. I can't give up dance just yet! :p

I've also been trying to get myself to work out but it's soooo hard...

Finals are here

Finals are here! I have spent a good time of studying during the reading days, although I must admit I could have spent less time doing pointless things. Yes, Facebook is one of them. My goal is to take four finals by Saturday. I feel pretty good about three of those first four finals. Philosophy is very confusing, so hopefully I will have wrapped my mind around the stuff by the time I take it (which is on Saturday). The exam really is straightforward once you understand the material. Unfortunately, that's something I have yet to achieve.

I signed up for the molecular biology class for the spring term, so it's within my professor's power to send us an e-mail even before school starts. Finals haven't even started yet, and he already sent out THREE STUDY GUIDES. Not just one, but THREE. Unbelievable. Way to relieve the stress of finals week, Professor... never mind.

I have realized that Hungarian gypsy music could be quite relaxing. And distracting.

Of Length, Philosophy, and World Music

To anyone who actually bothers to read my blog: Thank you and sorry if my posts are too long. I'll try to keep it short next time. Or maybe right now.

I am in the middle of writing a paper for my philosophy class. It's a critical summary of a book about Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis. Not the funnest paper, if you ask me. As always, I put off writing this paper until tonight and it's actually due tomorrow. Yay!

I am also listening to "Punjabi Wedding Song" from the Bride and Prejudice soundtrack. One of my favorite Bollywood songs!

My basketball fate

Pretty much every boy that I grew up with was obsessed with basketball. And I mean obsessed. It's soccer in Brazil or football in the US. I wasn't one of them. Basketball never looked like something would enjoy. My dad, however, tried to instill in me a love for basketball. He played with little me, but he said I kept avoiding the ball. Signs showed early, huh? He even took me once to a professional basketball game. I tried to enjoy the live game, but I just could not get myself to do it. I hope my dad didn't notice that, but it's more likely that he probably did.

The first time I took basketball a little more seriously was in high school when it was included in our curriculum for physical education. It was in high school that I actually got the ball in the basket, and I told my dad about it as soon as possible. He was, of course, pleased about it. At the same time, I also started playing basketball with the kids in church who were my age. I even played an actual game against another group a few times. I'm sure my dad was very happy about that. I was pretty proud of myself too. At least I get to say that I have a played a game of basketball.

Come next year, we had an Youth Olympics in church. But it wasn't just the ward (or unit...for non-member readers) that I was in, but the entire stake (a bunch of units) that put this on. It was going pretty well until the second to the last day when I was supposed to play darts for my ward. I was never good at darts, but then again, nobody in my ward really was good at it. We weren't expecting to win, so I volunteered to do it just for fun. When I went to the event, my youth leaders told that they had someone take my spot to play the game. It would have been okay if they had given me a notice before or if they didn't have me expecting to do it in the first place. The guy wasn't even in the ward. I got mad, although I didn't show it. I later found out that they would need guys for basketball. Discouraged, I of course made sure I wouldn't play basketball for them. I took off to a nearby mall to cool off. See ya suckas! I sure hope you lose the game, I thought as I walked away.

I didn't show up the next day of the Youth Olympics, although my dad told me that I should. My dad was out of town on that day, so I got away with it. Although it started with darts, I never played basketball ever again since then. I still enjoyed other sports though, like badminton and volleyball, but I felt like my slight disliking for basketball elevated to an actual dislike.

Eventually, I wasn't really mad about that anymore, but I decided once and for all that basketball isn't for me. I just don't like it. Maybe I'm not supposedly as manly as most guys. But then again, that's more of cultural norm in the Philippines.

My dad tried to get me to like basketball again when we moved to the US. Every morning, my family would wake up to play at the basketball court across the street from our house. We didn't play a game, but he taught me how to shoot a ball in the basket, using proper form and technique. Apathetic and obviously unskilled, it took me maybe three weeks before I could get 30% of my balls in the goal. It was so hard for me to learn, which confirmed further that I wouldn't even come close to genuinely liking basketball. Although I did do it on my own eventually, I still sucked. As winter came in, the days got colder and we couldn't play at the basketball court anymore. My "gained skills" receded, and when I started playing again, it was as if my dad never taught how to shoot the ball properly.

Last night, while playing basketball with my friends, I realized why I didn't like basketball. I don't like that there's too physicality, and too much going around, and too much chaos, at least for me. As I practiced some shots, which turned out to be mostly awful, it was as if I could hear my dad in my head coaching me as I take every shot. I felt that I had to do it for him.

Sorry dad, I could never be the basketball player I know you want me to become. It's not like I didn't try. *shrug*

I wish all Saturdays were like this

Can I just say that I've been having a series of good Saturdays lately?

Last week was General Conference, and I got to go to three sessions in the Conference Center, plus I saw one in the Tabernacle! It was so amazing! I was spiritually fed after the entire Conference! I did sleep a little too much though during the sessions, but it was still great!

And yesterday (which was also a Saturday) was actually a fun day!

I woke up at 10:00 am, said my prayer which put me back to sleep (that happens quite a lot to me...) and actually got out of bed at around 10:23 am. That's actually an accomplishment! To wake up before 11:00 am on a Saturday! I haven't done that for a while. It sure felt good!

I sat around the apartment for a while, while contemplating about going to the gym. It's reallyyyyy hard for me to get myself to go to the gym, so I turned the TV on and laid on the couch (can you say couch potato?) and watched what turned out to be an amazing show. It's a series called "The Universe", and the first episode that I watched was about the important liquids in the universe and the next one was about what could happen if the moon was gone. The one about the moon was so amazing, I never knew that the moon has such a very important role in our survival. To sum it up, the earth would be entirely unrecognizable because it will go through drastic changes once the moon is gone. Pretty cool stuff!

Then I finally went to the gym. Since I didn't really feel like going today, I only stayed for 30 minutes. You can say I did a mini-workout. The reason that I had to go to the gym was because I also went to a buffet today. Does that make sense? I'm really trying to get a toned body for dance, so at least I have to do something when I eat at a buffet. Cuz when I eat at a buffet, let's just say that... uhhh.. I make sure I get more food for the price that I paid for that if I didn't eat at a buffet. FOUR PLATES OF FOOD!

After that, I went to Walmart with my good friend Kyle to do some necessary grocery shopping. It took me a while before I got all that I need. In addition to being a pretty slow shopper (what? I like to look at the scenery..), I put back some of the items that I got (I changed my mind just as I was almost done...I do this pretty much everytime I go to the store by the way) AND some items took FOREVER to find. I didn't even find everything that I wanted. I couldn't find shampoo for some reason and--*sniff*--Nutella.

I also went to play volleyball and basketball with my folk dance friends! It was so much fun! We played about three games of volleyball, and some random people just joined in. I think my team only won one game hahahaha. It was fun nonetheless. Then a few of us decided that we wanted to stay but we opted to play basketball instead. I wasn't all too excited about this but I joined them anyway! I suck at basketball. Every time the ball gets to me, I just pass it as quickly as possible to a teammate. Then one of the guys in or group hurt his ankle so he sat down and we all stopped playing. Some people came up to ask us if we wanted to play a game with them. They looked like they were pretty serious about playing a real game, so I declined. I was left with my friend who hurt his ankle, so instead of just sitting around pretending it would help his situation, I just practiced some shots. You know what's funny? I could hear in my mind my dad telling me how to get the ball in the basket, cuz he taught me how to do that. I think I'll write a post about me and basketball after this.

Overall, it was great day! Very relaxed that I didn't even get any homework done (I almost did, though) hahaha. Well, I practiced my super hard Hungarian stick dance which is a final for my advanced world dance class..that's technically school work. Right?

When life took a different direction

I wonder sometimes what life could have been like had I stayed in the Philippines instead of living in the United States with my family. My college classmates have already graduated, and my original plan was that I would graduate them. When things took a different turn, I decided to go with it, and I can't help but look back sometimes and think to myself where life would have taken me had I chosen not to leave the Philippines.

I can only leave to my thinking what would have happened to me if I didn't go. We could say that I could have finished college there, but would I really have done it without my parents nearby? The ages 0f 16-19 were tender ages, and those were the years that led up to the most important years of my life. Would I have made the wise decisions? I don't know. Maybe I would have, maybe not. I guess my mom was right in saying that it would have been better for me to go with them to the US, because who knows what influences would have affected while my entire family was gone.

In the back of my mind, I somewhat regret going to the US, but as I come to think of the many amazing experiences I have had in the US, I tell myself that I made the right decision.

For one, I became closer to my family. When you move to a new place with your family, they are really all that you've got until you make friends. When I was adapting to a change of lifestyle, my family was my refuge from the unfamiliar place we just moved into. It made me realize how important my family is and how much I love them, and I will never in a million years trade my wonderful relationship with my family for anything.

I feel as if I have gained a better perspective on life while living in America. I could not bring myself to explain it well, but let's just say that while I was in the Philippines, it was as if I felt limited and that as if a lot of things are way too impossible, but in the US, I felt so free and that as if there are a million way to do things I didn't imagine were possible. I guess the American individualism is getting to me. Whatever it is, I still could not fully comprehend the reason behind the new perspective that I had gained while living in the US.

There would have been a lot of experiences that I would never have had if I stayed in the Philippines. America just teems with the "fun things" and with a hectic college life in the Philippines, I would never have had time to do any of them. I remember vividly the first time that I went fishing, rifle shooting, canoeing, doing archery, etc. I may have not had any beginner's luck, but these are experiences that certainly made my life more exciting.

Speaking of exciting things, the most exciting thing that happened to me so far was going to BYU. I enjoy kind of living on my own, you know, doing the laundry, grocery shopping, cooking your meals, by yourself! It's definitely a great learning experience for me. There's also a lot of righteous influence around me that I just to keep getting better. Thinking back to my first semester of college in the Philippines, I realized that I would never have had that much good influence around me. My college friends were great, but everything else around was not my ideal environment. I also love how I was close to the Conference Center I am now so that I could just come every time there's a General Conference!! Like this weekend!!! :D

And of course, it was at BYU that I discovered how much I love dance, particularly folk dance :p Dance boosted my self-esteem and gave me something to look forward to. I also gained great friends in folk dance, and had other AWESOME experiences. Now I know how to clog and do the dances from other cultures, and have performed on stage many times now! I don't think I would trade that for anything else!

I'm glad that I wrote this because it made me realize how much better my life is than if I didn't live here. Sure, I would have graduated from college by now and some things could've been easier for me as well. But the other path that I took led me to so many amazing experiences, and it far outweighs the very little regret that I have!

I'm actually excited to write an 8-page paper

I just hate the fact that I can't post a blog entry as much as I want to. I just get so busy from time to time, and when I'm not busy I would not feel like blogging. Things are less crazy right now because I have finished my chemistry exam on Thursday and a Doctrine and Covenants paper that was due on the same day. What's left for me right now is my dance paper. I'm writing on the folk dances of the Philippines. It's an eight-page paper, but I'm really excited about this!! Not kidding. In fact, I think 8-pages might not be enough for me to include everything that I want to write!! I have 3 1/2 pages written so far about the geography and history of the Philippines. I just thought it would be great to include that background to help the reader better understand my paper. Then I would go through the different folk dance styles. There's five of them, and with the page limit, I am not sure that I can go in-depth! We'll have to see about that. Also, I'm going to try to get it published in the BYU Dance Journal or at least speak at a Writer's Symposium (sponosored by the BYU Dance Department) about my paper. That would be fun! And if I would get to do that, I could include that in my resume. Which is a good thing because that could show that I can professionally! Yeeeehaaawww. Oh and I finally have my Saturdays back. I could finally get to sleep in!!! :D

Mongolian dance

Today in my Advanced World Dance class, we had visitors from China. They are a dance group that specializes in Mongolian dance. To be honest, I was not excited about it, but I ended up enjoying being with them!

I was late for class, so I missed their performance at the beginning of class (dang it!). When I got there, we were paired up with a dancer who would teach us a dance. I thought they were going to teach the class as a whole, but as it turned out, it was a one-on-one instruction with a dancer! Even better!

I was paired up with a girl named Ashley. That's her English name. Her Chinese name was long.. something like "Qing-something". She was really nice and friendly! It was amazing how she barely spoke English and yet she managed to teach me Mongolian dance. This shows that the language of dance is universal. She would show me the steps, and I would imitate her. She did not let me get away with incorrect styling! She was particular about how my body moved and how I placed my arms. What stood out to me is that the movements were very graceful.

She taught me how to do what I would call the "Mongolian shimmy". It's basically a shimmy, but you it's only your shoulders that move. It's not as easy as it sounds! She also showed me that the movements mean something, like drinking of the soup. She showed me videos and pictures of her group performing, and it was way awesome. Mongolian dance is very calm and refreshing, although it is precise and particular. She also taught me a ram dance! The name pretty much says what it's like: it depicts a ram. The dance was funny, but it actually ended up being my favorite dance. We didn't have a lot of time to work on it though!

For a while, I thought that the dance that she was teaching me was also done by men (you know, I was eliminating my ethnocentrism). Then, I looked over to the guys in my class who were paired up with male dancers. They were doing.. uh.. manly dances. That's when I realized that I was learning the girls' dance. Which makes sense, because the dances that Ashley taught me were very feminine. I initially thought that in Mongolia, graceful movement was not associated with femininity. Oh well, I still had a great time being graceful. I just hoped that I could remember everything!

The graceful movements of Mongolian dance actually reminded me of Muslim dances found in Southern Philippines. They have the same flowing movements of the arms and much symbolism attached to it. I was a little surprised to find this out, thinking that there would be some similarity between our dance and theirs. Yes, I know, Mongolia and the Philippines are both in Asia and are not too far from each other. I just thought that it was too far to have similarities between our dances. Well, I learned something new!

I don't have pictures to prove it! Maybe I'll ask some people from my class if they have pictures. In the meantime, I have a midterm tomorrow. So goodbye for now!

Not busy...yet

Something about being busy again. Only this time, I am not busy.

My last post was from three months ago, when I was busy like heck it wasn't even funny. Now, with the new semester just starting and things are barely picking up (so far), I'm not quite as busy. I'm a bit stressed, though. I'm still deciding what classes to take. I'm looking into taking either Evolutionary Biology and Molecular Biology. I might end up taking both. Molecular Biology's a hard class to fit in my schedule (and it's a hard class overall as well). Evolutionary Biology is interesting and not as hard. I'm also trying to get into the History of Creativity 2 class. I'm only taking it to fulfill a GE requirement, and I heard it's a fun class. I originally signed up for a Humanities class, but I fell asleep on the first day I was there. Not a good sign. And the teacher was boring too. I'm also thinking of taking a Flexibility class. I, for one, have little or no flexibility.

My room is a mess. I've been putting off cleaning it all week. My suitcase is unpacked. Pretty much everything around me is messy, even my mind. Which is why I am sure I have homework that I am sure I have to be doing, but am not.

I'm excited to take some fun classes this semester. I'm taking an Advanced World Dance class. On the third day, our teacher had us do barrel rolls. Scary. I kinda wished he was older so he wouldn't be able to teach barrel rolls. Heh, when I perfect my barrel rolls I would be so proud of me. I'm tempted to bring protective pads to class.

Cheers to a happy and no-broken-bones semester!

P.S. This semester I get to room with a guy from Japan. He doesn't speak English very well, but he is way cool!