A place to breathe….

We all know this but do we really do this? Been hit by fever and colds these past 4 days. When you are alone in a foreign land being sick will be the last thing that you want to happen. It all started with not feeling well last Friday but because I already said yes to dinner so I went to and ignored the not so good feeling that I was already starting to have. Dinner with friends lasted until 11:00 pm.

The next day I already planned to have lunch and watch movies with friends from the office, this time I can already feel that something is going to hit me. I even stayed overnight with a friend in Coppet, I just reasoned out to myself that I will have a good rest on Sunday anyway.

From Saturday night to Sunday afternoon she took care of me, cooking, preparing tea and letting me sleep the whole time then I went home late Sunday. I thought I will be okay but I woke up Monday morning in a state that is not really fit to work. Then had bad fever on Monday night till Tuesday dawn and woke up on Tuesday more tired than I ever felt after aerobics.

Tuesday decided to see the doctor and was given strong medicine. Wednesday I was able to report for work but I’m trying to take it easy at work but the minute I stepped in the office they forgot that I just came from Sick Leave. Gosh deadlines are unbelievable but I left at 7, brought home a flash disk of work which i don’t think I will be able to do tonight anyway.

Work is work, I enjoy it, I love it but I will take it slow this time. So after this I will enjoy a nice warm bath and hit the bed early. Will try to wake up at 6 and start early at work. That’s good enough for now.

Take care of your health. No matter how persistent you are in what you are doing if the body decided it doesn’t want to function properly you are at it’s mercy so try to have a pleasant relationship with your body. Do not abuse it but take care of it.

Ciao!

Got tagged by lizeth. I actually did not understand the meaning of the blog until I read the piece written by seth. It made me think for a while coz do I have any secrets or at least things that are not very obvious? So I was challenged and I’m very much willing to give it a try:

1. Intergalactic look - I remember my brother vio used to call my make-up intergalactic look. Back in college these glossy eyeliners became popular. I had silver, shiny light blue and shiny light green. You put it on your eyelid and I also put some on top of my eyelashes. It just made me smile everytime I remember it.

2. Work addict - two of my officemates said that I’m two different person in the office. You will hear me laugh so hard during coffee breaks or lunch time but they said I totally transform to another person the minute I go to my work area. I love my work and if needed I don’t mind even working 24 hours.

3. Very good in handline money - hahhahaah everybody has a very wrong impression about me in terms of handling money. They think I’m a very wise spender, on the contrary I don’t even trust myself on money. I just see it come and go so if I want to save I give it to father.

4. Yucky looks - back in the Philippines I will settle for comfortable but not very fashionable clothes. I can’t even imagine wearing my old clothes before, they are so comfy but so ordinary as in there’s no style nor character. My friend here saw my passport and commented  "who is this?" I was also browsing my pictures a month before leaving the Philippines and I can’t even finish looking at it, grabe I can’t bear to look at myself. eeeww tlga! Thank God for Europe, everytime I go to the office I feel like I’m going to work for Runway.

5. I wanted to be a lawyer - I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer if tatay didn’t have stroke I might have pursued this dream. I’ve always wanted to study in Ateneo. One week ago I was contemplating what I want to do if I go home in the Philippines, I really thought of finishing my masters in IT for the heck of finishing it and maybe pursue my dream of being a lawyer. It will be nice to be a fulltime student again.

6. Dessert - I eat dessert before the meal. Weird noh?!

7. Action Fan - I love action movies maybe because of the influence of mother. I love movies with a lot of stunts, bloodshed and adventure… hehehhehe…

So I guess these are 7 things that not many people know about me.

I came to Geneva on May 2006 for a 3 months project to our HQ. Ang alam ko mas excited pa ako na mararanasan ko ang sumakay ng long haul trip kesa sa makarating sa Europe.

Ang sabi sa akin bago ako umalis ng pinas, wag ka ng bumalik. Do everything and anything para makakuha ka ng trabaho don. The 3 months project became 5.5 months and an opening came and viola I was hired.

Now it’s been a year since I became an IATA GVA employee. It changed my life and my family’s life. More importantly grabeng experience ang naranasan ko living alone away from home. It’s been a roller coaster ride at bawal ang mahina ang loob. Walang kamag-anak, walang kaibigan ni kakilala. Lakas ng loob at puro dasal.

I’ve met great people here, professionally and personally. Mingling with them make me feel great too and I will never stop learning from their ways.

When times get tougher I try to stop for a while and be thankful that I am here fulfilling my dream that I’m already living. Bawal ang malungkot, walang puwang sa mag-isa yun dahil matutukso kang gumawa ng mga bagay na pagsisisihan mo sa huli. Pag malungkot ka, alalahanin mong ginusto mo toh and be thankful for the chance so wala kang karapatang malungkot at magreklamo.

It has been a great roller coaster ride that I’m still enjoying.

I wanted to create an e-card for archie so I went to 123greetings.com and saw a category called Forget Me Not Day. So bhabie blog muna ako then I will write my card for you later.

One of my fears before leaving the Philippines is people might totally forget me. Being far away from the people that i love made me think that they will stop loving and caring for me or worse they might just forget me once in a while because of my nonexistence to their world.

Being away from home and from people that I love for more than a year now proved that it’s not possible. Home will always be where your heart is and people actually defines home. You will only feel home if the people you love are there. And did they forget me? Of course not.

But don’t take me wrong it’s not enough that you love and care for people for them not to forget you but what you have with them are relationships that needs to be taken care off if you want it to last. I keep in touch through letters, postcards, ym, sms, friendster and calls. It’s funny sometimes that I’m more updated to tsismis within my family and within my circle of friends compared to those that are just in PH.

Good bye my friends.
Sunae will leave today via SBB train, stop over in Bassel then Fribourgh.
Grace left today via Qatar airlines, stop over in Doha then Manila.

I usually complain to myself during weekends because I feel I never had enough time to sleep and to do nothing because most of my weekends are spent to meet with friends for lunch, for movie, for dinner, for coffee, for hair treatment and for everything. And for the first time how I wish I have the same scenario today. 

I woke up today quite early and I cannot go back to sleep so I decided to get up, take a bath and have breakfast. My flatmate was supposed to leave only tomorrow to go back to Germany and finish her masters. I promise her that I will bring her until Bassel coz I unfortunately my Schengen Visa just expired and it will be renewed only this coming week so I cannot cross Germany but this morning she told she’s leaving today. I miss you already Sunae, I will definitely visit you in Fribourgh and in South Korea. Too bad we didn’t spend enough time to get to know each other but I really enjoyed this last week with you.

After saying my goodbye to Sunae, I left the house and took bus 23 to Airport. I’ve met up with Grace, Jenny, ate Tess and kuya Freddie. Grace only had a 3 months visa to Switzerland and she’s going home after 3 years. We were all praying that she will not have any problem with immigration in Geneva and that she will be able to pass through without being questioned. We were so happy to see her pass the border line, no questions asked. And yet realization hit me that she’s finally going home.

I know we will always be friends but the only hard part of our temporary goodbye is I’m not sure if she will still be back in Geneva. Life here for me will be different now that she left. I have so many friends but the reason why Grace and I hit off so well is so because we are both alone here. No families and just friends.

If you are alone far away from home there will be times that you just needed to be with somebody. We both don’t have families here so really nobody to cling on to when times get a little hard.

I will miss you my friend, our Starbucks, Boky, shopping, Bao talk, Archie talk.. everything. Enjoy the Philippines. I will see you soon kahit saang parte pa ng mundo yun.