Yep, you read that right. I took this picture in Binondo during the Chinese New Year. I couldn’t get a better picture, though. For the uninformed: this is quite a common sight in marketplaces and town plazas here in my country. Children buy them (or get their parents to), and these colorful little chicks presumably grow… Continue reading Some colored chicks
We Should Talk about This Problem Hafiz There is a Beautiful Creature Living in a hole you have dug. So at night I set fruit and grains And little pots of wine and milk Beside your soft earthen mounds, And I often sing. But still, my dear, You do not come out. I have fallen… Continue reading Poetry Wednesdays: Hafiz, “We Should Talk About This Problem”
This post is for my good friend Nonoy, with whom I frequently have protracted discussions on Facebook and who recently linked to an article entitled “Jessica Sanchez Rocks, Pinoy Pride Sucks“. I echo the general sentiment, but I just wish I didn’t have to perceive the article and the rest of the site as hateful.… Continue reading On American Idol and Pinoy Pride
I’m actually reading some books and articles on literary theory at the moment, but I don’t want to get into that. 🙂 I want to talk about this book — The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Seventeen-year-old Hazel is a cancer patient. She falls in love with a survivor, Augustus Waters. It’s a… Continue reading Friday Reading: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The following is something like my official summer poem. It evokes to me those images of sea waves and lovers, in a background of the sunset or of moonlight reflected on water. But unlike in the typical summer romance, the lovers in this poem seem to have already had their life behind them. For are… Continue reading Poetry Wednesdays: Pablo Neruda, “Sonnet IX”
This is Part Three of my Vietnam-Cambodia trip. See the other parts here: Part One: The breathtaking Angkor and the laid-back Siem Reap Part Two: Tonle Sap and the Angkor’s great circuit We left Siem Reap at 7 PM; we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1 at 9:30 AM. Our flight back to… Continue reading Travel Tales: A Ho Chi Minh City Walking Tour (plus some travel tips)
This is Part Two of my Vietnam-Cambodia trip blog entries. You can find other entries here: Part One: The breathtaking Angkor and the laid-back Siem Reap Part Three: A Ho Chi Minh City Walking Tour Also, while I studiously fact-check all my entries, I’m the only one to blame should there be any wrong information in… Continue reading Travel Tales: Tonle Sap and the Angkor’s great circuit
I think I’m a Margaret Atwood fan. I never get tired of her Variations poems, and her novels The Blind Assassin and Alias Grace are contemporary favorites of mine. I started reading The Handmaid’s Tale ages ago until I lost the book in the middle of reading it — so here I am, starting again.… Continue reading Friday Reading: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
This trip was months in the making following a frantic scrounging for money when Cebu Pacific announced its summer seat sale. Andy, my friend and co-teacher, had planted the idea of going to Cambodia via Vietnam. I think this trip has effectively stirred my wanderlust again. Upon arriving at Ho Chi Minh City way past… Continue reading Travel Tales: The breathtaking Angkor and the laid-back Siem Reap
I can still barely believe that just yesterday, I was in Vietnam, staring and getting goosebumps at the pictures exhibited in the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City. The most powerful people might consider war a necessary tactic or even precaution, whereas the rest of us would just want a peaceful existence. I… Continue reading Poetry Wednesdays: Phan Nhiên Hạo, “Meeting a Cab Driver in New York”
Ang Lakwatserang Guro 