Dilis (Anchovy)
I watched them jumping out of the deep wavy waters as they try to maneuver their escape from their much bigger predator. Because of their natural shiny silver, they gleam like tiny mirrors against the sun while their number makes them appear like hundreds of glimmering droplets of water—a wonderful contrast against the deep blue ocean.
I'm back from the remote island far far away
We got back here is Shanghai on 25th and from then on until late this morning, we packed some more moving boxes and worked on the shipping documents. Our stuff were collected this lunch by the shipping company and oh God, I am so relieved that the whole packing thing is over. That’s off the things I have to think about.
I tried to post entries during my holiday but unfortunately, I am not well equipped. I brought my laptop but the small hut we stayed in doesn’t have a WIFI. There’s a strong cellular network and a good GPRS connection but the phone I brought with me is crappy. I left my iPhone in Shanghai in the fear that it will be stolen or lost. You see, this holiday is special because unlike our other holidays, this one is done backpacking style. Except for our flights, nothing else is booked. No hotels booked in advance, no day trips planned, no boat rides reservations, etc. So there are no fancy hotels with tight security. I’d rather not use the iPhone for a few weeks than not use it forever.
In short, the only entry I was able to publish was the short poem below.
I still have some unpublished blog entries so the next few posts I will be publishing will be from these.
Waves
Rolling waters to my feet
Oh please stop! Don’t be a tease.
Romance the sand, woo the land
But don’t seduce me, d’you understand?
I know you are so clear so blue
A real treasure to anyone’s view.
But though you are all these and more,
The sun is not, he gives me sore.
He only not darkens my skin,
He also burns it and make it sting.
So alluring Waves, now you know
Why I can only watch you come and go.
Vienna Lopez
18.03.09
Banana Island
Flying with Cebu Pacific Equals Horror
When I learned that Cebu pacific is offering cheap flights from Shanghai to Manila, I booked our flights with them and I also booked Jaya’s flight with them. Jaya is a friend and colleague of mine whom I met while I was working as an ESL teacher in Changchun. She had visited me in Shanghai a few days before she finally went back home to the Philippines.
Her flight to the Philippines was two days earlier than our flight so my husband and I took her to the airport. That’s how we learned how Cebu Pacific operates in Shanghai.
With Cebu Pacific, the maximum allowed luggage weight is 15 kilos which is already 5 kilos less than the average check-in luggage weight of 20 kilos. That’s completely fine because we learned that when we booked the tickets but Cebu Pacific doesn’t have mercy at all, you can’t go another 500 grams or so… you have to pay for that weight over 15 kilos no matter how insignificant it is. So imagine all those OFWs going home thinking that they were able to save by taking that cheap plane tickets to Manila. They have to pay incredible overweight charges! And there’s more, hand luggage were weighed too! There are these people with bathroom weighing scales standing right before you enter the immigration area. They single out people going to Manila with Cebu Pacific tickets and weigh their hand luggage one by one and if the luggage is over 7kilos, they demand it to be returned to the check in area for payment of excess weight no matter how negligible the excess weight is. Does Cebu Pacific know how their Chinese airport agents are treating their passengers? If the money goes to Cebu Pacific….I’d say it’s a filthy manner by which they do business. Better sell your tickets with higher prices! If the money goes to the Chinese Government (airport)…I’d say why why why is Cebu Pacific letting this happen. They are squeezing these poor OFWs off their hard earned money by making them choose whether to leave their luggage at the airport or pay incredible amounts!
With their cheap flights you can expect to get their even cheaper service!
Read MoreI'll Miss You Guys
My friend Jaya had enough of China so she recently left the country for good but not without coming down to Shanghai to come meet me for the last time. I really appreciate that she actually came to visit me because I don’t think that we have plenty of chances to meet each other in the future.
Jaya is one of the three close friends I met during my difficult year of working as an ESL teachers in Jilin province. After three years of working in China, she finally decided to go back home, get married to her long time boyfriend, and start a family in the Philippines. My other two friends are Angel and Janice. Angel plans to relocate in Shanghai this coming school year in the hope that she’ll get better paying teaching job and Janice will stay in Changchun for the meantime but she will probably move to Shanghai too.
I am happy for them because they are managing to somehow put things in perspective but at some point, I feel sad because it seems to me that all the things that are happening to us lead us to be farther from each other. Yes, Janice and Angel plan to move here in Shanghai but that’s long after I left this city. I won’t be here anymore. I wish they decided to move here earlier.
Read More6 Things Most People Don't Know About Me
This may come in late but I have a very good excuse. I swore not to blog in my Holidays and that’s what I did. You may check all my blogs to see that there isn’t a single post from 18th December to 7th January. Now, I don’t normally reply to tags but before you judge me of being a snob, please let me explain. I get tags every now and then but for me, most of them just seem pointless. Tags and memes make our blogs look the same. They make us talk about the same thing, they make us pass the same awards and so on that for me that is just so lame. But when Kate of Live of of the Box tagged me, I promised myself that it would be one of the first things I’d write about after my Holiday hibernation from the blogospheres because her tag is different, it didn’t ask me to pass an award or something like that instead, it made me think hard…i’d even say, it made me search my soul…about these six things that most people don’t know about me.
I hate having to stand up in between sleeps (who doesn’t?!?) to pee or because I am hungry or simply because I cannot sleep. So for me “jetlag” equals to “hell”. It is just so bad that I have to go through it like twice in every three months.
I hate the taste and smell of almost all kinds of alcohol. I can take a gulp of beer, a few sips of wine, and I actually like the smell of malt wine and ice wine. I also like liquors because most of them are to fruity and too sweet to taste the alcohol in them. I also do drink cocktails but they must be also heavily flavored otherwise I just wouldn’t drink them.
I warm up to people easily but I lose interest in them just as fast the moment they said or did something that directly or indirectly offences or hurts me. I know how unfair I could be… you don’t have to tell me.
I see shopping as a very stressful activity. I don’t do it just for the heck of doing it. I do shop when I think I need something but it is not like shopping is some sort of therapy that brings me relief. Not all girls are alike when it comes to shopping… I am a living proof.
I used to join beauty pageants. (iwwwww!!!! how rural!) With the height of 164cm, I am considered tall in the country where the average male height is 164cm and female, 155cm. it didn’t matter that I am not that beautiful… my height and some make up were enough. People said that it also helped that I am thin. (Yeah right!) I was too thin and curveless that I had to wear inch think pads to create an illusion of full breasts on my flat chest. Oh, the pain I had endured! Imagine your boobies pulled to each other and taped together to create a cleavage!?! Yeah… I know. I still have nightmares about it. Now that I think of this whole beauty pageant thing, I wish I hadn’t joined any of it just for the very simple reason that it is so not me and those series of beauty pageants didn’t really contribute to anything I am today.
I can write in cursive backwards so that you need a mirror to read it. I don’t use this kind of writing often, only when I am super bored. I started practicing when I was in my teens because I thought it is kind of cool but later realized that it is such a useless skill.
So those are six things about me that only a few people I know know. Now, allow me to pass this tag to these lucky bloggers….
1. Ruthi of Carpenter’s Wife Toolbox because you know you’d be the first one I’d tag and that is simply because “close tau eh.”
2. Angel of Pages after Pages because we’re thirsty for your post. It’s been a looooong time…..
3. Evelyn of Sterndal because you’re such an easy-to-like blogger.
4. Abby of the Journal Logger because I honestly would like to know more about you.
5. Francine of La Place de Cherie because I really appreciate it that you pop every now and then to my blogs.
6. Liza of Moms…Check Nyo.. because I do read your blogs even if you probably never heard of me. 
And of course, here are the rules of the meme and I just copied these from Kate’s who copied it from Sal’s (Kate and Sal, hope you don’t mind).
1. LINK TO THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU
2. POST THE RULES ON YOUR BLOG
3. WRITE SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF
4. TAG SIX PEOPLE AT THE END OF YOUR POST AND LINK TO THEM
5. LET EACH PERSON KNOW THEY ARE TAGGED AND LEAVE A COMMENT ON THEIR BLOG
6. LET THE TAGGER KNOW WHEN YOUR ENTRY IS UP
Goodluck!
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