Posts Tagged "people"

all you need is laugh

Posted by vienna on Oct 27, 2009 in People and Places | 5 comments

vienna in circus roncalli

The title,  “all you need is laugh”, says it all. Those two and a half splendid hours spent in Roncalli Circus were time well spent. Not once, while I was in the circus’ colorful tent, did I stop to think and worry about anything because I was so busy laughing at the jokes and being amazed by the artists.

marcus in circus roncalli

Every act was well thought of and obviously showered with a great deal of effort. I admire these people and their love for their art because, clearly, they worked hard to perfect their skills.

balloon artist in circus roncalli

After the show, I thought of the artists who just performed one helluva entertainment. I imagine them spending most part of their lives traveling to different cities and living in their train trailers. I wonder if they have much contact to other people outside their circus circle. I wonder how their lives are. I wonder how they are behind the make-up and the fabulous costumes.

acrobatics in circus roncalli

I wonder if they are happy.

some people from the audience got included in the show

They must be.

some funny act in circus roncalli

Because obviously they love what they do and they’re very successful in it.

China and Austria

Posted by vienna on May 15, 2009 in People and Places, This and That | 4 comments

I don’t know if it was just because most Chinese people think I am one of them that they sort of expect me to speak in Chinese when talking to them. I am not talking about my previous students, I am talking about the countless taxi drivers, waiters and waitresses, bank clerks, etc who have continued to speak in Chinese to me even after I explicitly mentioned/demonstrated that I can’t speak Chinese and I can’t understand them.

All the times that I was put in such situation, I felt under the pressure of being expected to be able to talk in their language simply because I was living there.

It is really too bad that I didn’t learn how to speak Chinese in my three years of living in China because I could have learn a lot from people who stopped by to have a chit chat with me. I always felt that these are the people who are genuinely friendly. In China if somebody approaches me and start to talk to me in English, I usually get suspicious because I know from experience that these people more likely want to sell me something.

In Austria it is pretty much the same except that people here don’t come to you and speak to you in English just to sell you something. I am glad they don’t do that. But I say it is the same because I still have this feeling—the irritating feeling that I am expected to speak in German just for the simple reason that I am here.

I can say that I can understand German fairly well (and when I say “German”, I mean “high German”) but I still have the trouble of speaking in German. After taking two German language courses, my confidence in speaking the language goes as far as greeting people. So if I enter a store or any kind of establishment, that’s what I do because that’s what they do (hell, Austrian people greet so much!). I greet them in their language just to be polite but my greetings always come with a prayer—a prayer that I only receive a greeting back…NOTHING MORE. But Austria seems to be a place of very polite and friendly people so after exchanging civil greetings, you can expect a small chit chat—it’s completely normal here to exchange a few kind words to strangers. If you greet them, you can expect a greeting back, an offer to help you, then probably question about your well being or a slight remark about the weather. If you don’t greet them, it doesn’t matter… they will still greet you. I actually think it is lovely that they are like that but the problem is that I can’t understand them because although I can understand German, they don’t speak German. They speak an Austrian dialect that sounds so funny to me.

So what happens is, I get stunned or I appear to get stunned. I just sort of stop there and try to process as fast as I can what was said. In most cases, I get nervous and so I just reply to them in English. It’s really difficult for me. You see, I need time to process what was said then I also need time to think of what to reply in German. Imagine the stress! Then there’s the pressure of wanting to reply quickly because you don’t want the other person to wait hours for what you’ll have to say.

If I am lucky, I am able to reply in German and in time but if my nervousness gets ahead of me, I am sure to awkwardly reply in English. If I am luckier, the person will simply smile and start to talk to me in English. If is not my day, I can only expect an awkward silence.

I'll Miss You Guys

Posted by vienna on Feb 16, 2009 in People and Places | 0 comments

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.

6 Things Most People Don't Know About Me

Posted by vienna on Jan 9, 2009 in People and Places | 9 comments

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!

I'm Getting Paranoid

Posted by vienna on Nov 26, 2008 in People and Places | 5 comments

I was just talking to my mom on Yahoo the other day and I told her about the ex-friend I so hate. She said that I should try to stay away from this kind of people. Then she went on and on about how she knows how difficult it is for me to finds real friends in a foreign land. She said I should not be so desperate because real friendship develops by itself. She also told me one important thing and that is; try to be friends with people who don’t need anything from you and whom you don’t need anything from. It’s the only way you can be sure that the two parties are not using each other.

After the thing with “the ex-friend”, my interest in people lessened. I didn’t know that I would be affected that much but I noticed myself losing interest in meeting new people, Filipinas particularly. Before this whole thing happened, I was really friendly and open to people especially to those who I think are from my country. I normally smile  and greet them, wave to them from afar, start small talks with them, and listen to them but I don’t do those anymore. That is sad but I can’t help but be wary. I can’t help but fear that I might be meeting somebody like Anne again.

I still keep my old friends (the ones in the picture above) and I am somehow still open to having new friends but it won’t be that easy to be friends with me now. I just don’t have to like a person but that person also should earn my friendship. I still hang out with people, go out with my classmates, spend time with colleagues and friends of my husband, and meet people but it would surely take more for someone to be my friend.