Mar 5, 2016

Muni Munis of the Day


1. Maulan ngayong hapon. Masarap mag muni muni. Andito ako sa cafe. Chill lang. Kanina nag bus ride ako. First time. Sinubukan ko iyong isang one-way route papuntang Yongsan area. Mga 20 minute-ride din iyon bago bumalik. At least nagkaroon ako ng view of the city! Tumawid din kami ng Han River. Minsan kase na bobore ako dahil puro subway ako papuntang office. But for one thing, subway is faster. Anyhow, isa na ito sa mga upcoming 'cultural immersion' activities! haha. Complex ang bus system kase dito. Meron silang four to six digit combination number at pag maling bus number nasakyan mo. Medyo maliligaw. But most of the bus stops are near subway stations din. Kaya pag naligaw, best pa rin ang subway station as reference point. Kaya practice practice lang. 

2. So how has it been? It has been a month. 'I sometimes feel alone', I said to my friend over chat. 'Alone but not lonely!', he said. In the office, I feel my tasks are building up. Transition (the works) is ok. It is still 'learning by doing' approach for me. Supportive naman ang boss ko. But if there is one 'shift' I am focusing now, it is learning to have a 'global viewpoint'. I have never been really a 'fan' of being too much global. I have grown learning a lot of about local issues, getting things done at the local level, talking with local leaders, and getting fulfilment when you see what you do affects local communities. My work still does local. But the platform can be quite far reaching. I have to locate myself in all of these global currents. I have made Skype calls with persons in Canada, Brazil, Bangkok, and Philippines. And we were talking about South-South cooperation, international city metrics. Parang I am detaching myself from my usual grounding to developing a lot of conceptual abstractions. If there is one thing I cringe, it is talking about frieking 'framework ' all the time. Yeah, all this for World Peace! I can spend time for a while. The challenge is there. Is it exciting? Of course. Let me see how I synthesize all of these things. 

3.  I do not know about Facebook. But I so feel it has been so 'tabloid-ish' these days. Why do I get to be exposed in those advertisements and sometimes irrelevant posts. Some are spam. And why the hell this FB account pretends to be Matteo Guidicelli. And Matteo posting some flowery quotes! And A friend is sharing this post. Come on. Ang dami namang oras. If not for easy contact with my mom, siblings and friends, I would have dumped my account. They say you can control your settings blah blah blah. And isn't it funny that you have many Facebook friends yet most of them have become fence sitters, lurking. They have grown to be strangers.  Even I feel I am lurking. Probably because I have not done anything yet in my downtime. I need detox. I cannot expect from Facebook anymore. I mean it is like a marketplace. 

4. Money. It makes things both inspiring and a monster. I have never been comfortable in discussing money. But I have always believed if you are generous with it or you have worked hard it in the most decent way possible na wala kang linolokong tao, the Universe will find a way for you to have it and will never take it away from you. 

Before I came here, I worried about money. Because the rent deposit can be huge and it was huge. Even if it means you will get it at the end. And of course all the expenses of relocation. And yes, I would have borrowed from my friends, just to make me feel 'secure' pero dala na rin ng pride at hiya siguro. Kaya pa naman, sabi ko. What does this mean. I literally had all my 4/5 of my entire life savings when I went here just to offset the costs. So there went my first few weeks. Hindi naman ubos but of course I am in another country, I did not want to end up in the streets. 

Then I received my first pay three weeks ago at nabawi ko na lahat ng ginastos ko. This is not really to brag but I felt guilty of 'feeling worried' about it. Siguro hindi lang talaga ako marunong magbudget. Nag overestimate ako. Siguro kahit anong budget app ang iupload ko, mood ko mismo ang gatekeeper pagdating sa pera.  Or hindi ko lang talaga gusto maging dominant ang pera sa buhay ko. Huge turn off for me lalo na when we discuss it with strangers ( i mean personal money)

I remember when I was college I was praying in our university chapel. I prayed hard to God to take good care of me because ayoko namang yumaman (materially kahit isang big library lang at modest retirement house na may sari sari store, tapos mag tuturo sa community college ng sociology haha- yun lang naman) given the kind of career track I wanted. Hayaan mo na mga friends ko maging mayaman, makikisakay na lang ako. haha. Rather I need a fulfilling career, that is the trade off and good health! Lord, just make me the best talent there is in my field. Because I know  everything follows din naman kase when you like what you do - the comfort, the experience. You'll be surprised money has never been in the equation. I know there are a lot of perspectives on money. And that's what I like about Money! It is amoral. Its value is always based on the user. Enough about it. 

Anyhows, I still like that Kate Spade blue paandar bag I saw. haha.