Christmas in China

I have never thought that I would experience such a wonderful Christmas in a non-Christian country. A Chinese friend, who is now a successful businessman in Las Vegas once told me that I should not expect too much in China and I should be prepared for worst things. He was not too positive about my plan to work here in China. He asked me that of all the countries I could work, why China? He even advised me that I should not trust people easily, but unfortunately I just didn't heed his friendly advice. I think it's a weakness and a strength to be able to trust people easily. He said that I would find many strange things and that I would not experience the holidays that we celebrate in the Philippines, specially Christmas, my favorite season of the year. So I didn't imagine that there would be Christmas celebration here in China. I thought that it would just be an ordinary day where I have to wake up at 7:00 take a hot shower and prepare for work. Yes, I have conditioned myself that it would just be fine. It was my first time to be at work at Christmas time. So I didn't expect any "Christmas" experience in China at all. I was surprised that some students, the English Club members had prepared a Christmas Party which I never thought would be too special for me. I was moved with their thoughtfulness because I understand that Chinese people don't believe in Christmas but they really had it like the Christmas Party we have at home. It was really fun with all the fruits, biscuits, candies ,balloons. and students' singing performances (including mine haha). I enjoyed it very much and they even surprised me with a huggable teddy bear (I just love it). The student who gave the bear was dressed as Santa Claus and he was so cute and funny. These students are really sweet. They just didn't know how homesick I was that time. It felt strange not to see some the bright Christmas spirit around specially the stars and all the Christmas decorations, but during that night I saw the entire room transformed into a place with a real Christmas spirit. After the party, when my friend and I were walking back to our dorm, I was hugging the teddy bear and I felt that there were some white glitters on the bear's red dress. My friend told me that it was snow! We stopped walking and just felt the snow falling from the dark sky. We just stood in the middle of the road and I tried to catch some snow. It was not really much but I was too happy to see a real snow in my entire life haha dream come true. Well, I'm still hoping to see more this coming Spring holiday when I'll be visiting in other cities of Jiangsu province.

"Installing the Love Program"

Author Unknown

INSTALLING LOVE Technician: Yes, Ma'am, how can I help you today?

User: Well, after much consideration, I've decided to install LOVE. Can you guide me through the process?

Technician: Yes, I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?

User: Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I'm ready to install now. What do I do first?

Technician: The first step is to open your HEART. Have you located your HEART ma'am?

User: Yes I have, but there are several other programs running right now. Is it okay to install while they are running?

Technician: What programs are running ma'am?

User: Let's see, I have PAST-HURT.EXE, LOW-ESTEEM.EXE, GRUDGE.EXE, and RESENTMENT.COM
running right now.

Technician: No problem. LOVE will gradually erase PAST HURT.EXE from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory, but it will no longer disrupt other programs. LOVE will eventually overwrite LOW-ESTEEM.EXE with a module of its own called HIGH-ESTEEM.EXE. However, you have to completely turn off GRUDGE.EXE and RESENTMENT.COM. Those programs prevent LOVE from being properly installed. Can you turn those off ma'am?

User: I don't know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?

Technician: My pleasure. Go to your Start menu and invoke FORGIVENESS.EXE. Do this as many times as necessary until GRUDGE.EXE and RESENTMENT.COM have been completely erased.

User: Okay, done. LOVE has started installing itself automatically. Is that normal?

Technician: Yes. You should receive a message that says it will reinstall for the life of your HEART. Do you see that message?

User: Yes I do. Is it completely installed?

Technician: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other HEART's in order to get the upgrades.

User: Oops. I have an error message already. What should I do?

Technician: What does the message say?

User: It says "ERROR 412 - PROGRAM NOT RUN ON INTERNAL COMPONENTS. What does that mean?"

Technician: Don't worry ma'am, that's a common problem. It means that the LOVE program is set up to run on external HEARTS but has not yet been run on your HEART. It is one of those complicated programming things, but in nontechnical terms it means you have to "LOVE" your own machine before it can "LOVE" others.

User: So what should I do?

Technician: Can you pull down the directory called "SELF-ACCEPTANCE"?

User: Yes, I have it.

Technician: Excellent. You're getting good at this.

User: Thank you.

Technician: You're welcome. Click on the following files and then copy them to the "MY HEART" directory: FORGIVE-SELF.DOC, REALIZE-WORTH.TXT, and ACKNOWLEDGE-LIMITATIONS.DOC. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching any faulty programming. Also, you need to delete VERBOSE-SELF-CRITIC.EXE from all directories, and then empty our recycle bin afterwards to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.

User: Got it. Hey! My HEART is filling up with new files. SMILE.MPG is playing on my monitor right now and it shows that PEACE.EXE, and CONTENTMENT.COM are copying themselves all over my HEART. Is this normal?

Technician: Sometimes. For others it takes a while, but eventually everything gets downloaded at the proper time. So, LOVE is installed and running. You should be able to handle it from here. One more thing before I go.

User: Yes?

Technician: LOVE is freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everybody you meet. They will in turn share it with other people and they will return some similarly cool modules back to you.

User: I will. Thanks for your help. By the way, what's your name?

Technician: You can call me the Divine Cardiologist, also known as The Great Physician, but most call me God. Most people feel all they need is an annual checkup to stay heart-healthy, but the manufacturer (Me) suggests a schedule of daily maintenance for maximum efficiency. Put another way, keep in touch.

What Happened A Year Ago?

December 2007, it was at this time when I truly understood the meaning of confusion. I was confused and made a big decision. It was a decision that I was torn between friendship and my job. Sometimes, I can't help but wonder what would my life be if I accepted my boss's offer? Would I be better off as a CEO than a college teacher? Yes being a CEO is such a big opportunity that would mean a bigger responsibility, new experience and a better pay. But I turned it down.

One night, when I was in the office doing the usual Marketing job, I got a call from my boss asking me to meet him at the coffee house. He even said that I must not inform anyone about our meeting. It was supposed to be between him and me. I didn't feel good about doing that, so I made a note for our CEO telling him that I was going out to meet our boss. When I arrived at the coffee house I saw two people, our boss and his lawyer. So I thought, this must be serious. I smiled and greeted the two men in front of me. They were both gentlemen and offered me a seat. They started talking about how I changed and pointed out my strengths, in short they were praising me. It was nice to hear a boss doing that, so I wondered what would be. They said that they saw a great leadership skill in me and they think that I got the potential to run the company. Finally, they asked me if I was ready to take the job as the company's CEO. Wow! I couldn't speak, I couldn't think straight! I was just not ready for that. So I said, "No, thanks, but I don't think you need another CEO when we have already a good one." The lawyer said that they didn't need two CEO they were planning to fire him and have me as the new CEO. I just couldn't accept it if it would mean the end of my friend's job. I just couldn't do that. So told him that it was not right and they should talk to our current CEO about their problem and settle it instead of trying to replace him.
I just couldn't do that. I didn't think that he did something wrong and I tried to persuade our boss that they should talk about the problem and firing a CEO wouldn't help solve it. They had a little misunderstanding and I thought they could settle it before Christmas. Then my boss said that if I wouldn't accept the offer then he had to close the company and declare bankruptcy. right after our conversation. Again,I was speechless for a few minutes. All I did was stare at the two men in front of me. I wanted some strength and I found it from the cup of coffee so I held it tightly as if it could give some help. I just sat there and drank the hot coffee and burned my lips. My brained couldn't think straight, it was like I was trapped. The lawyer broke the ice and said, "Well, gel we have to go back to the office now and break the news, No big deal." What? did I hear it right? They were about to go back to the office and informed more than a hundred people that they're going to lose their jobs? What about our Christmas preparation? I was part of organizing the event and it seemed that everyone was excited. I felt sorry for everyone and even to myself losing my job that night. So I changed my mind and told them that I accepted the offer. I accepted it on the condition that they should not fire our current CEO, they have to talk about it and wait for his decision if he would resign then I would take his place. My boss thought it was fair enough. We went back to the office and things were no longer the same as before I left the place. I saw people smiling, but it was so hard for me to smile back. I couldn't fake a smile. I couldn't concentrate on my job and I couldn't share my confusion to someone, not even to my friend who was seating beside me. I just kept quiet and tried to stare at the screen. The atmosphere has changed a lot. I felt that our CEO was hurt due to some false accusations. I couldn't take his place because I know that he's doing everything that he could for the company and I never doubt about his skills. I just felt it's not a good idea to remove him in the position. So few weeks after the meeting with my boss, I made another decision. I submitted my resignation and filed a leave for a week so when I submitted my resignation it appeared as immediate because I didn't have to report the next day. He was surprised and refused to sign it but I left it in the office. I was hired in another company, same nature of business but different clients. Things were back to normal after a few days and my ex-boss even tried to convince me to go back but when I went there things changed. The CEO which was my friend also resigned few days after I left. Someone was already hired as a new CEO and they wanted me to be the Operations Manager or whatever position was available. The new CEO was a lawyer and she seemed to be very confident about bringing more money into the company which was not bad. There was just something that was telling me that I should not go back. So for the second time, I said no and left the company with no second thoughts. Looking back at that time, I was confused yet I can say now that I made the right decision. It's really true that things happen for a reason. Sometimes it's really difficult to find them but sooner or later we would see them clear. One thing is certain, things happen for a reason and usually the reason is good.

Remote Control Please!!!

I need a remote control. I just can't find it. "Mommy Loids, i off ang airconditioner palihog". This is what I would say back in the office where we could control the room temperature. Yes, it was easy then. We would just look for mommy loids, our lady guard and poops the room would be warm again. Now, there's no mommy loids here and an airconditioner won't help much. Shivering seems to be the only option huhuhu. Back in the Philippines I always wished to see some snow and to experience the four seasons in other countries. I never thought that I wouldn't like winter. Imagine I'm already over dressed as I may put it, since I'm currently wearing 3 sweaters and a thick winter coat (dark feather) but I can still feel the coldness down to my spine and through my bones. I couldn't think of the right word to say. Below 0 degrees is just too much for me, I never thought this would be the case during winter season...wahhhhh someone please give me a remote control of the nature's airconditioner! The world is really funny, back home people are using airconditioner to make the rooms colder but here we have to use airconditioner to make the rooms warmer and it's only up to 30 degrees which I think is not enough. I think I would like 40 degrees since the temperature outside is really cold. Another funny thing about me is that I'm scared to sleep with an electric blanket on. I'm just too paranoid that I would get electricuted(is this the term). I don't know what else to say, I can't type well at the moment, I feel like I'm inside the refrigerator...wahhhhhhh

A Sad Goodbye

I never thought that I won't be able to see my uncle when I'll come home next year. It's a sad and painful truth which I refuse to accept. It seemed that I just saw him smiling and wishing that I'll have a good life here in China. I was shocked to read my cousin's message this morning that he already passed away last night. He even gave a pocket money since he knew that I didn't have much money when I left the Philippines. My uncle is a bit strict, yet I still feel that he is a kind-hearted man since he's the only uncle from my mother's side that I came to know closely. If only I could fly back to the Philippines and see him for the last time then I would. He was on a vacation with my mother and had stroke, unfortunately he didn't it make since their hometown was too far from the hospital. I feel so sad knowing that I won't be able to see him again and honestly I would miss his being a strict uncle because I didn't have any other uncle who really cared. Now, I just miss home so much, I miss my mother and I'm so worried because she also has a hypertension problem like her younger brother. I just wanted to say goodbye wish that he will be in peace wherever he may be and I want to thank him for everything.