okay, here's the deal. there's so much going on in my head the past few days yet everyone else is pretty busy with their lives at the moment so i never really get to talk these over in depth with actual people, which is why before my mind gets too saturated, i better get them out. otherwise, the dead zone would be terribly long. to be honest, all of these belong to the personal matters category because it's the hardest ones to decide on, contain, make sense of, or forget, thereby they're usually the ones that are kept the longest in short term memory. and they're emotionally draining, ugh! academic and technical matters are the "easiest" to solve (except getting the cisco vpn to work on windows 10) because..i dunno..they just are, and they don't take up much emotional ram. thank God for science. so, data dump..
carmelite
i met kuya joel one sunday mass about a month ago. he's from nueva ecija and doing a phd on food technology specializing in cocoa. from what i understand, he'd like to work on a technology to produce belgian-grade chocolates from philippine-produced cocoa, which is awesome!
anyway, he's also very active in church. he plays the organ, he goes to non-sunday church functions, he knows the priests personally..basically he knows a lot of people. oh, he actually did his masters here a few years ago too which could explain a lot. he told me about the holy hour on wednesday evenings at the carmelite church somewhere in the city center so i promised to drop by.
as a portal, i have captured and re-captured the church countless number of times but last night was the first time i've ever been inside - and it is beautiful!
after holy hour kuya joel introduced us (hyzel was also there) to a lot of people - regular holy hour-goers like genevie and family, the girl who sings in the choir, sara, and there's william who also heads the english eucharists' choir, and father lucas. and, believe it or not, it was only last night that i learned there's actually a carmelite order of priests! it's really not that big a deal, it's not life-changing or anything, it's just that my mom, if she had not decided to get married, would have joined the carmelite order of nuns. that in mind, i should have been aware about the carmelite order of priests too, haha.
anyway..
..they have priests!
hahaha. the technicalities of the catholic faith is not my expertise anyway. it's actually my mom who knows about these things and by mutual, unspoken consent, the rest of the family mostly leaves the technical, religious matters to her. she plans, we support, that's how it goes :P also, it's just how we're brought up - priests are priests, and knowing the who's who in the organization does not make you a better christian.
we chanced on a skype date with my parents when i got home and i told my mom about the carmelite order and she said, of course there is (haha). and that there are actually two types of carmelites, the saint therese of lisieux and the st. theresa of avila, and the lisieux one is semi-contemplative. that said, fr. lucas and the priests running this carmelite church in burgstraat must be from the avila group since we get to talk to them and everything.
we knew my mom would have joined the lisieux carmelite order and every one of us in the family was like, contemplative? mom? seriously?? :)) since we were on the topic of religious orders anyway, i figured out it was high time to know which order my grand uncle belongs to - so lolo father is with the sacred heart. okay. after all these talk my dad asked me last night, why, do you plan on becoming a nun too? to which my sister was very quick to say, nah, doesn't suit her hahaha. sorry, Lord :))
hey, it's never too late for a calling. but, Lord, i'd rather do a lot of engineering and maybe get on the ISS, please.
family photo
so i mentioned we had a skype date with my parents. they called my sister and ken at the same time who were on vacation in portugal at the moment, so that's three timezones in one call now :D i tried to call my brother in cebu and he actually woke up for the call, haha. ever since the "grand diaspora", my brothers have been more amiable to waking up early or sleeping late for conversations like these. waking them up usually takes a long time and a minor fight in between, hahaha.
so, tadaaa! we managed to get a complete family photo!
that would be four cities, in three time zones. it would have been more cool in a few weeks since my parents will be heading to jakarta for some awarding ceremony, then it would have been five cities in one screenshot! but, anyway, this is still okay :)
*major hilak na nanaman afterwards, huhu*
first reading
oh, and i read in church last sunday! i'm not generally fond of introducing myself so i have been the most passive church-goer you'd have ever seen the past year. i was finally invited to read and (not to brag..okay, i AM a BIT overjoyed haha) i must have done well because fr. charles said so. and the lector came up to me and said so too, and added that he'd like to make me a regular reader at church. yehey! i do miss church responsibilities ^^
internship
on a different topic, the traineeship contract is stressing me out BIG TIME. the way my department handles administrative issues is deeply frustrating, i'm more than ready to change factions T_T i love my vub! wooo! eat that, ugent :P
yes, i'm human, i need to vent too :P
ballet
i've also been looking at cultural shows in gent every now and again and they're usually quite expensive. but, hey, there's no price for experience, right? i was ready to spend on tickets to the ballet in the cinemas for december at kinepolis until i finally understood that it is only to be streamed live from the covent gardens opera. tsktsk, not good enough. good thing i looked at the vlaamse opera's website and they are producing the nutcracker this season too! and it'll be coming to gent on february! yey! who says the nutcracker is only for christmas? hehe.
i probably need a valentines date, but more importantly, i think i need binoculars :P
i also bought tickets to the ugent symphony orchestra concert for the 1st of december. i wasn't able to watch their winter concert last year because the tickets were already sold out by the time i decided haha tsk.
so i really don't like listing down "things i must experience before i die" because i feel it makes you discontented if you cannot cross everything out from that list, but, hey..this list doesn't look too bad:
| Ballet | |
| Broadway | |
| Choir | |
| Circus | |
| Concert | |
| Musical Theatre | |
| Opera | |
| Orchestra | |
| Theatre Play |
as of this writing i have already crossed out three and there's two in waiting. i think the only one that's hard to achieve is watching broadway because i need to be in the US for that. hmm, not too bad at all, lezzdodis! :D
love letter
also, i wrote myself a love letter. i have not read it until now.
mission/vision
this..probably requires a different article by itself, haha. the point is, i have goals like everyone else but i just don't talk or write about it as much because,
(1) they are so big they intimidate even me,
(2) they are so simple they make me reconsider what i'm currently doing with my life,
(3) talking about it gives other people unrealistic expectations of me,
(4) i don't like disappointing people,
(5) even more so, i don't like disappointing myself, and
(6) sometimes i like to surprise myself with what i can achieve.
but recently my thought process has concluded that, yeah, maybe i SHOULD write it down. so i'm probably going to do that soon on a clean page and who cares what other people think :P
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