I’ve been teaching children for almost 5 years already. I know it doesn’t seem that long. But I was just reminded of how long that really is when I realized how different things are now from before when I was still a student.

You see, this Saturday, as part of the requirement for the extra education units I’m currently taking, I’m scheduled to take an exam (as in actually answer one instead of proctoring one), but it’s been excruciatingly difficult to prepare for it. I’ve been reading and reading these past few days (after UP called to inform me about the test schedule) but I can’t seem to perfectly recall everything I read. It’s like my brain is refusing to remember too many details (or more correctly, trivial information).

It’s so different from when I was back in college. I mean coming from a BS. course that heavily relies on memorization (Biology), my battering average lately in retention is squat. That’s how different things are right now for me. That’s why I realized it’s been quite a while… a real long while since I knew how it felt to cram for an exam, since I last panicked for a test, since I last forced myself to concentrate this much, since I last felt what it feels like to be a student. Five years!

In these past five years my brain has switched preference to memorizing other details such as car specifications, laptop configurations, best vacation spots, Caribbean villa rentals, infant apparels, infant milk formula brands, etc. Jogging it to remember how to remember the way it used to is frustratingly very difficult. And with only a day more to go before the test, the pressure mounts even more. Huhu! I hope my brain remembers how to think like a student again before Saturday or I’m really screwed.

One of the things that made me stay and fall in love with teaching is the feeling I get (a mixture of pride, wonder, appreciation and accomplishment) whenever I see my students appreciate a topic that I just taught them.

It’s a very uplifting and addicting feeling – one that I actually depended on for the past 5 years. But it’s not something that is easy to come by. Continue reading »

I’ve never had any problems with the house we’ve been renting for the past year even though it’s more than 12 years old already. So far, there have been no leaks, no tears, no cracks whatsoever. At least for the past 12 months…

Recently, however, I’ve been having some trouble but I can’t exactly pinpoint if the cause is connected to the house or to something else. You see, I’ve been experiencing these localized rashes on my skin, mostly on my arm. The funny thing is, since I’m sure I haven’t ingested anything I’m remotely allergic to, I reckon it has something to do with the air inside the house. Funny, isn’t it?

Even though the house remains intact, it can’t keep out some of the things that shouldn’t go in. I guess it’s a pretty fair tradeoff considering it’s an old house already. At least we’re still dry and safe no matter what the weather is. We just need to get ourselves some Austin Air air purifiers to keep the allergens in the air in control.

Even before getting married, andrea and i have often imagined ourselves owning a business of our own - more specifically a small coffee shop of our own. You see, even though we’re quite content with our work now, we’ve always seen ourselves spending the lazy afternoons of our grey years talking to each other over coffee from our own coffee shop.

Why? Why the heck not?

We both love coffee and we both dream of becoming our own bosses someday. Actually, if we had the money right now, this dream coffee shop would cease to be a dream already. The only reason it remains to be so is because the whole thing costs a bit. I mean, aside from the structure (shop) itself, we’d have to buy a capresso, an assortment of flavorings, coffee beans, and, on top of all that, hire a legitimate barista.

I don’t aim on competing against Starbucks or Figarro. Heck, I don’t want to compete with anyone at all. I just wanna spend my lazy afternoons with my wife in conversations over coffee - our coffee.

Since we’re now basically home buddies, andrea and i are now focusing our attention on the little details that we could improve at home. We’re thinking about re-arranging everything, changing the curtains, replacing the sheets, heck even buying a modern furniture (a cheap little one) just to add a little touch of “new” at home.

You see, it’s going to be a while before we could go out again - malling or on any excursion. Going to Avilon Zoo last month cost us a bit and we’re back to saving mode this month. Haha! Especially since andrea’s birthday is just around the corner and Christmas is just a little over 3 months away, we’re going to need all the reserves that we can get!

But we don’t plan to take staying home laying down. Heck, if we can’t go out this month then we’ll at least make the most of what’s inside! Right?!

For my freshmen students who are asking for additional exercises to keep them busy on the weekend, you can download the files by clicking on some of the links. For example, these trigo function exercises can keep you occupied for some time and will help you prepare for the exams on Wednesday.

As for my graduating students in elementary, you can check out some websites for additional review materials on astronomy, the atmosphere, properties of water, hydrosphere and weather disturbances and on aquatic biomes. If you have limited access to the internet, you can give me a CD and I can burn you a copy of the presentations.

For my junior students however, since most if not all of you have immediate access to the internet, check out these sites on electricity and electric batteries. They’re good reading and review materials for the exam. Also, I urge you to look up the way Meralco bills us so you have an idea of how practical our lessons are.

Good luck!

With this unplanned surgery, we’re down again by a few more thousands. huhu! It feels like the going just keeps on getting tougher. And I’m almost out of ideas on how to get back on track to saving.

For now, the only option I could think of is selling something - like my laptop, to earn back some of what we’ve lost. The problem is what am I supposed to use in school once I dispose of it? I mean, I can’t sell it for large bucks simply because it’s almost 4-5 years old already. The highest I could go with it is probably 15-18k, which is really not enough to earn back some of the dough and provide me with enough to buy a (this time cheaper) laptop substitute at the same time. I mean, I hate to sell it like a discount furniture but that’s as high as it would sell. Especially with all the newer and cheaper units available now, it would be moronic to compete with them in terms of price.

I just wish I could think of a better solution…

After the operation this morning, my left cheek now feels like it’s twice as heavy as the right one. I can’t open my mouth as widely as before, and I still feel hungry because I’m not used to eating just porridge during meals. According to the dentist, it’s all quite normal. The swelling will persist for upto 4 days. Until then, I’m supposed to stay on a soft diet to minimize chewing and the risk of undoing the suture to my gums. After that, the inflammation will subside on its own. And once the wound has healed well enough to remove the sutures, that’s the only time I could get back to eating the way I used to.

Until then, I’m on a forced diet - a diet of porridge and other soft stuff. I guess one good thing about it is that I might be able to finally trim down a little without resulting to diet pills. Hehehe! Talk about forcing the silver lining!

Who ever said wisdom just comes with age forgot to mention one other thing - wisdom also comes with pain - a great deal of pain, especially if it’s a wisdom tooth.

You see, when I was younger, my dad used to joke around about the idea of wisdom tooth. He said it’s a physical manifestation of how much wisdom you’ve actually gained. Haha! Very funny! But even back then I knew he was just kidding. As I learned from my lessons in Developmental Biology, the tooth actually erupts and shows itself at a certain age (17 to 21), hence the term “wisdom” was coined to refer to age.

All the while I thought that the tooth erupts like any other tooth - gradual, normal-looking and painless. Both my mom and dad had no problems when they had theirs so I thought I wouldn’t have to worry about mine. Oh boy was I wrong. You see, slightly after I turned 24, my lower left wisdom tooth started to erupt. It was so painful that I had to take painkillers just to relieve the throbbing in my head. For several months, I would feel the pain occasionally. It seemed like the tooth was going to come out less gradually than I thought. Good thing I eventually got used to it.

Now 3 years after, the pain went back. This time a hundred times more painful than what I could remember. In fact, just a week ago, I couldn’t even get out of bed because of it, so I decided it’s time to finally take the tooth out. I went to the doctor and had it checked. Bad news turned worse. The pain wasn’t just because the tooth was moving. It’s because it’s moving in the wrong direction. According to the X-ray, my wisdom tooth was oriented diagonally. Its crown was now pushing against the side of my second molar. Its movement, combined with the accumulation of food in the space between it and the 2nd molar, was causing the intense pain that I was feeling. The worse thing about it was that it cannot be removed through normal extraction. It has to be surgically removed. (huhuhu!)

So now, a week later, here I am - with a swollen left cheek, a stitched-up gum, and loaded with antibiotics and painkillers. I just came from the clinic and I’m still a bit in denial of what happened. This so-called wisdom tooth just cost me a lot of pain, a surgical procedure, several absences from work already, and abstinence from basketball and all strenuous activities. Whoever said wisdom just comes with age?

I can’t remember exactly at what age I stopped eating corn or the very first reason that gave me my aversion of the popular finger food. All I know is that I don’t like it. Have I eaten it before? Well yeah, during those few occasions when there was absolutely nothing else on the table nor in the food cabinet. I did, but as much as possible I stay away from it.

Why? I guess at the top of my head, it’s just that it’s still corn when it comes out! Get it? I know it’s gross that’s why I don’t indulge - not while on the cub, not even when in butter or in loose kernels already. If there’s anything else, then anything else would be better than corn.

Andrea knows about this. Some of my workmates also know about this. That’s why I don’t get any offers when it comes to corn. That’s also why I thought Mateo would get the same aversion of corn as me, but I was wrong - so wrong!

Here he is greedily gnawing at a cub from the canteen.