One more to go...

I'm taking a break from typing my teaching module for MuP 120 (requirement in MuEd 100). Gaaaaa! After I finish these darn lesson plans, I'll be freeeeee!!

Am currently listening to one of the most exquisite movie soundtracks ever, that of Pride and Prejudice. You can hear it online here:
http://www.prideandprejudicemovie.net/musicPlayer.html

Fave tracks: Dawn, Postcard to Henry Purcell, Liz On Top of the World, Leaving Netherfield, Your Hands Are Cold. :) Simply gorgeous!!!

Sir Eudy assigned me my German song cycle for next sem... Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben. Am so excited to learn the songs!! Haha recital sem here we come.

Okay back to work now.

Piano Finals and Sixteen Lesson Plans to go...

Til freedom!!!

The past two weeks have been h*ll... am so exhausted but it STILL ain't over. 

Congratulations to my brother who is a DOST Scholar!!!! :) Am such a proud ate.

Am turning into a Jane Austen fan... read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE in between my voice, opera lit, opera workshop, diction and ensemble finals. Am currently reading NORTHANGER ABBEY. Funny how I can only appreciate J.A.'s wit and humor now... I remember I tried reading P&P back in grade six and I got bored with her flowery language. Tried again in 2nd year high school but still found her prose too purple. I guess it takes a certain degree of maturity to appreciate Austen's work. (Oooooh... maybe I'm of age to get through WAR AND PEACE now)

Okay, break time over. Still have an entire sem's worth of lesson plans to make for MuEd 100.

Soooooo..... Tired...... ZZzzzzzZzZZZZ

I've never felt so downright exhausted in my life... even TYPING is exhausting. My fingers, normally so lithe... feel as if they're weighed down by lead....

I have so many "engagements" for the following two weeks, I'm losing track of what needs to be done for my acads. Darn it!!!

Congrats to Glenda and to Bianca and MY SISTER!!! :)

To quote Bob from our opera, "Ah... the sweet taste of freedom..." though it will be a good three weeks before I'll be truly free...

The end is near

Shout out to the best dad in the world: Happy Birthday Papa!! :) He celebrated his 5_th birthday this week.

Recently met a truly inspirational person in UP... grabe, her life story's so tragic, it could be made the storyline of a soap opera. She's had such a hard life, and is STILL having a tough time of it. But she manages to get grades of 1.25-1.75, and bears her cross with a smile on her face. 

Hearing her story (from others, mind you... not from herself) made me realize how lucky I am ...to have parents who are paying for my tuition, to be able to have some fun even amidst all the hustle and bustle of busy college life. When I think of certain people I know who cut class just like THAT (snaps fingers)... OOooooOOOh! It's too obscene for words. On the other end of the spectrum you have people like the Ex Libris UP Scholar, Miss J.B. Ang hirap na nga ng buhay niya, bigay ng bigay pa rin. Her story both shames and inspires me.

Today I attended the JPIA org's MARK-UP seminar: How to Seal the Deal, and I've learned so much about Marketing! Managed to win a L'Oreal UV Whitening Essence bottle (Tata says it's worth 895 bucks, hehe), for coming up with an innovative marketing strategy for L'Oreal sunblock and skin whitening products in ten minutes. Woohoo! It was fun. :) Never thought that my ideas would actually sell, they were actually quite crazy and risky. But the L'Oreal marketing representative obviously liked them. Hehe. I feel ridiculously happy, because the L'Oreal rep. actually brought home with him the two best marketing strategies written on cartolina: Mine's and Tata's. O diba? Twin power! The Powerhouse twins!

Note: If L'Oreal comes up with an aggressive advertising/educational campaign with slogans like 'Rays today, raisins tomorrow' and 'Sunblock: A Necessity, Not A Luxury,' and if they get Japoy Lizardo to endorse their products ("Why not increase the target market to include men as well as women?" quoth moi)... well, those ideas were OURS!!!! :)

We also played a simulated marketing game, where we came up with a project proposal for a fund raising event for potential sponsors in under one hour, and we had to "sell" our projects to various company  "representatives," such as ABS-CBN, San Miguel, Toyota, Unilever, P& G, etc. Sayang, our group lost to the first placer (who secured 100,000 pesos in cash/ Xdeals) by a margin of 1,400 pesos (we were able to come up with 98,600). SAYANG TALAGA! Hehe but it's alright, you can't win 'em all. Grabe, kumakal ang mukha ko after this most interesting exercise.

Ooooh, I have a funny anecdote to share about Tata, whose charisma and passion was such that she was practically SELLING L'Oreal products to everyone at the seminar during her turn to share her marketing strategy. The L'Oreal representatives were so impressed by her performance, they made several hints about hiring her. Haha! It was really funny. At one point, Tata was having an intensive one-on-one talk with the main sales rep., and the funny thing was, she REALLY DID KNOW what she was talking about. Talk about knowing the product you're marketing. Tata knew EVERYTHING about L'Oreal and even knew things about their competitors like Neutrogena. She was practically lecturing the sales rep. of L'Oreal on how to package their products to make them more sellable to price-conscious students as well as the richie-richie ones.

You don't have to take up a course in Marketing to go into Marketing... it just takes hard work and perseverance. O Tata? Let's go into Marketing and make our fortunes! :)

Scary, Confusing Times

We live quite near Fort Bonifacio... and quite frankly, I'm scared to go out of the house. Late this afternoon we went out to buy supplies at the grocery, but a trip that was only supposed to take half an hour took two instead, thanks to re-routing due to blockades. We had to go through two checkpoints, NOT a pleasant experience. It's different seeing it on the news and seeing the crowd gathering in Fort Bonifacio firsthand. I'm so worried sick about all the goings on, and especially because there are so many fellow UP students who will be gathering in front of Oble tonight, preparing to rally tomorrow. I just pray that they will be safe.

Am I a coward for wanting to play it safe, for staying at home instead of fighting for freedom in the streets? I think not. I am a patriot, and I love my country dearly. But I do not believe that marching in the streets and going against the government is the way to save the country.

Busy busy (palagi naman e!)

Things I Did Within the Week:

1) Attended a master class with THE Evelyn Mandac (aaaaak!!)
2) Attended a lesson with THE Evelyn Mandac (aaaaaak again!!)
3) Attended a most interesting conference (The Art of Work) with scholars and student leaders from UP, DLSU, ADMU, PUP, UST, San Beda, basically all over
4) Had a lively debate on the topic: "Pinoy Big Brother is a social pathogen."
5) scrambled as usual to fulfill all academic requirements for my subjects for the week
6) managed to find time to read books 2 and 3 of the DUNE series
7) watched in horror as EDSA-Revolution-ish scenes were played on t.v.

Oh my, only three weeks left of classes. Oh no oh no. Am nowhere near ready for any of our voice lit class recitals.

Another ANAWIM outreach performance is scheduled for our Theater class next week Saturday, woohoo! Kaya namin ito.

Kababawan : Got a copy of the old DUNE movie today, what happiness! :)

Hmm...

A peaceful Sunday.

If you've got time, click on http://kevan.org/johari?name=gabitwin .

Last night, Tata and I watched my college's 90th anniversary concert at the CCP. It started at exactly 8 pm, and by 10 pm, it was only the intermission. Sad to say, I hadn't anticipated the length of the program (I estimate it would have ended at 11:30 or midnight), and we had to leave during the intermission because I had only asked permission to stay out until 10. Yup, Ms. Goody two shoes... that's me.

I can't post a review of the concert because I wasn't able to watch all of it. Sadness. Oh well. There's always next year.

Still... hearing Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus sung live, with a live orchestra, is really quite something.

Saw Before Sunset today, on t.v. What a fantastic movie!!? Made me rush to get a blank notebook and start scribbling my thoughts, longhand. Blogging is still not quite as fulfilling as writing in a REAL diary. I've missed scribbling. Will do it more often.