I wrote in my diary a year ago – “Growing old is everyone’s business. There will always be someone younger than you, and always someone older than you. The point is not in comparing your age to someone else’s, but in comparing yourself now to yourself as you were years ago. How much you have changed in the years that passed is what matters.”

Today I feel nostalgic of sorts, because today marks the 10th year since I last spent my birthday together with my family in the Philippines. Fortunately, I’ve got my own family here in Japan – Baggy, Aya, and with Mommy as a “bonus,” heheh. Plus the friends and other acquaintances I’ve made – Japanese, Filipinos, and other foreign friends. They’re as much as my family now.

I’m not much into gifts, but well, I’ve just received my early gifts on this day. One is a humongous card from Mom and my sisters. The other is another flower “shower” from Baggy! Sobrang daming roses, hay – I have to use three flower vases to contain them all! A word of advice to all single women out there – if you’re looking for a lifetime partner, look for someone who will give you flowers not when he is wooing you, but someone who will still give you flowers way after you’re married. Di ba?

So much to be thankful for, so much to look forward to. I know this year will be GREAT.

See how big it is???

Don’t expect any gifts. Right. Thanks for the reminder! haha

I’m a sucker for red roses. Kung puede lang kainin tong rose na to, kakainin ko eh.

Petit pink roses!

Well, I do want one gift for my birthday – a digital SLR camera! Heheh! I’m tired of using point-and-shoot cameras and would really, really love to experiment with a “real” camera.

Aya, together with her classmates, has only two more days to go in her current class, the Momo (Japanese word for peach) class. Starting next month, the start of the fiscal year in Japan, she will be moving to the 3-year old class. Unlike her current class where they had three adult teachers looking after the children, the 3-year old class will be looked after by only one teacher. Wow, they’re not babies anymore!

Aya chan with the rest of the Momo class. She’s the one wearing a maroon sweater at the center. I find it rather amusing that some of the kids are already flashing the “V” sign!

Starting next month, Aya will be moving to the other wing of the building, where the “big kids” rooms are located. And starting next month, she will be bringing a lunchbox filled with gohan (rice). Good thing we didn’t have to prepare a complete lunch meal. The rest will still be provided by the daycare. Money-wise, we will be paying much less than what we are paying now. And here’s a big plus for me – I won’t have to make entries in her journal everyday, and instead of private communications from the respective teachers, announcements and other notices will only be posted at the door or at the entrance to the room. Well, that’s goodbye to my forced Japanese writing everyday! Yay! Now, if only I could do speed reading…sigh. My only recourse right now is to take pictures of announcements and read them at home, where I can plough through the unknown kanji characters in the comfort of my online and handheld dictionaries.

Anyways, every year the whole class is photographed together with their senseis and copies are given to each one as keepsake. Tanong ng Mom ko, may bayad ba yun? Actually wala. Sa Pinas kasi di ba kailangang bayaran mo pa ang kopya ng picture mo. Racket kasi nila, hehe. 😛

In our group, a postdoc is packing up and leaving us for another institute, but next month another one will be joining us. Every year we face the same cycle of students leaving at the end of March, and new faces greeting us at the start of April. Many of our friends are hauling their stuffs and cleaning out their rooms before the end of the month in preparation for moving into their new niches by April 1. I think it’s no coincidence that the start of the fiscal year here in Japan is about the same time when the sakuras bloom and the spring season has officially arrived. It’s an appropriate symbolism for the start of new things, the rebirth and reawakening of life.

Time to move on, indeed.