I’m doing a lot of ruminating lately. As you could probably tell, from the kind of posts that you are reading in my blog lately. Maybe I’m psyching myself. Maybe I’m having a midlife crisis of sorts.
Or maybe, after such a long time of procrastinating, I am finally beginning to ask serious questions.
We face many battles in life. Sometimes we win; sometimes we lose. It’s a fact of life. Winning always brings a feeling of euphoria. Losing, which in reality is more than just an antithesis of winning, can be like an open wound that takes a long time to heal – if it heals at all.
But, as someone said, life goes on. Reluctantly we trudge on, and grin and bear it like everyone else.
I have always been curious as to what content attracts the most visitors to this site. For site statistics, I use the free service offered by Google Analytics.
So I decided to find out what has been driving traffic to my blog for the past ten months. Within the period of January 2007 up to October 2007, here are the top ten most visited posts in this blog:
1,099 pageviews
I just want to share video clips of Aya playing the piano while practicing for her performance in their class concert. It’s still a good two weeks away, but she has already memorized the notes by heart. I took her video so we can watch it together and see her mistakes. It’s also a pretty good way to evaluate her performance so we can correct errors and see how else we can improve it. Well, I’m not a piano expert, so I just try to give suggestions based on what they learned in class so far. Maybe the piano experts among you could give suggestions and comments? 😉
Without further ado, here are the videos I’ve uploaded to YouTube:
Do you fear change in your life, habits, attitude, even the people you live or work with? Or do you embrace change with enthusiasm, eager and hopeful for what’s going to happen next?
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| I will never be the same when I take this path |
Change is inevitable. The world around us changes all the time. We change, too, even if we sometimes do not discern it ourselves. Just take a look at your photo taken a year or two ago. You just don’t look the same as before. Not just in terms of the extra wrinkly spots or newly sprouted white hairs, but in the way you think, feel, or react to situations. Although the previous year may seem too short, so many of life’s events that transpired during that year has changed you into the person you are now.
I see my daughter growing right before my eyes – all five years of her – and I just marvel at how fast she has changed from a helpless infant to a zestful preschooler. How much more different would she be in another five years’ time?
When I was in college, I commuted everyday from our house in Tondo to the UP Diliman campus. It usually took me two hours on the road, one way. So that’s a total of four hours wasted everyday while waiting for jeepney rides, running after buses, and inhaling the carbon monoxide exhaust from the smoke belchers. Needless to say, even if I had left the house smelling fresh and cool from the morning shower, I would usually arrive in school two hours later all sweaty, smelling of smoke and virtually coated in soot and dust from head to toe. That was my daily routine. I happily endured it, all in the name of education.
During a particularly crowded day, together with several people I rushed towards a jeepney and squeezed myself into an available seat, unmindful of the people around me. I was intent on getting a seat, and that was all that mattered.
As soon as I sat down, to my horror I found that my bag had been unzipped and my wallet was missing. That was the first time that something like that happened to me, and I almost cried out in frustration. I couldn’t believe that someone would actually steal from a college student who only wanted to study hard and change the direction of her life for the better.
If you like doing science and you love travelling, then you would be happy to know that one of the perks of being a researcher means being able to visit different places and countries while attending various conferences and organized meetings. Indeed, in my case, most of my travelling have been conference-related (except when I go home to the Philippines, which is strictly for personal vacation). It’s not all work, you know, because usually there is always an extra day or two (if you’re lucky) that we normally have “free” to roam about so we can check out the place and see what it has to offer. Of course, my most favorite of all is when I tag along with Baggy during his conferences – that means that I don’t have to work and can spend the whole time for sightseeing. 🙂
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| Maison du Roi (King’s House) at the Grand Place |
As the title suggests, my latest trip was in Brussels. When I first heard about the conference venue, I couldn’t help but ask, what is there to see in Brussels anyway? Nestled between Amsterdam and Paris, it happens to be one of those places you would probably see on a day-trip while touring the more touristy and trendy European cities (like Amsterdam and Paris, for example). It almost felt like the time when I visited Italy for the first time, and I headed to Sorrento (southern area of Italy) instead of going to the more popular Rome or Florence. Not that I had a choice, anyway, mind you. Anyway, having never visited Rome, I wondered if I was “wasting” my trip to Italy by not being able to go outside of Sorrento. I consoled myself with the thought that a visit to Rome merits an extended trip, not just one or two short days.
What I have learned from my travelling so far, is to try and appreciate the place for itself and what it has to offer. Each place will always have something unique to offer that cannot be found elsewhere. Each experience should be relished for its own sake.
I’m not here to try and convince you that Brussels should be on your list of must-see places, but if you do find yourself somewhere near Belgium, you might want to consider visiting it, if some of the things I will list down below would be enough to tickle your fancy.
Having said that, let me list down below, in no particular order, the top six things I loved about Brussels:
My mind’s not working.
Or rather, it’s working so hard nowadays, I couldn’t slow down to blog. I’ve an upcoming conference next week (nooooo!!!), and I’m up to my neck in preparations. So bear with me and my sporadic blog posts for now.
Last Saturday found us visiting for the nth time the one and only place where kids and adults could have fun (read: we’re suckers for Disneyland). Well, actually, I got lucky again this year. Every year the recreation department offers super-duper discounted tickets for Disney Resort (Disneyland and Disneysea) to employees and their families. I applied as usual. And as usual, there were more applicants than available slots, so they decided by lottery. Lucky us, we got chosen!
The first time I heard of the word “nebuta,” it was while watching a TV program featuring the famous floats that the “Nebuta Festival” of Aomori is known for. Although I lived in the Tohoku region for more than three years, not once did I have the opportunity to visit Aomori (I got as far as Akita, though).
Fortunately, right here in Tsukuba we can still enjoy a smaller version of the “nebuta.”
If there’s one thing that I absolutely LOVE about festivals, it will be the ubiquitous yatai, or food stalls. Yatai are set up temporarily for Japanese festivals, selling foods for spectators, such as yakisoba, kakigori, takoyaki, and okonomiyaki. You can also buy barbecue and other grilled food, french fries, frankfurters, and fried chicken (chikin karaage). Mmm…love that grease!
How does a typical yatai at a Japanese festival look like? Well, let me show you! Here are some images taken at the recently held Matsuri Tsukuba. 🙂
Takoyaki
My sister told me that in the Philippines, “Takoyaki” is known as “Samurai balls.” Yummy. lol