MANILA Oct. 26, 2005 - The University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) Chorale, conducted by Arwin Tan, won the Regional Competition of the National Music Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA) for the College Choir Category, besting eight other schools from Metro Manila. Second prize went to Technological Institute of the Philippines Choral Society, and third prize to UST Liturgikon. The other participating choirs were Bagong Himig (PUP), FEU Symphony Chorus, Lyceum Philippines Chorale, Mapua Concert Singers, University of Makati Chorale, and UST College of Science Glee Club. The competition was held on October 26, Wednesday, at the Philippine Cultural High School in Tondo, Manila.The UA&P Chorale will represent the National Capital Region (NCR) in the NAMCYA National Finals to be held between November 22-26 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, where they will be up against 15 other regional champions from all over the Philippines.
Last July, the UA&P Chorale bagged the three highest-ranking gold medals (first prizes) for the three categories they joined (Mixed Choirs, Chamber Choirs, and Mixed Youth Choirs), at the 23rd International Choral Festival of Preveza in Preveza, Greece. The International Jury Committee also awarded them a special prize for best performance of a folkloric song. The group, established in 1995, is the resident choral ensemble of the University of Asia and the Pacific (Pasig City, Philippines).
For the past 31 years, NAMCYA has been principally instrumental in discovering major music talents from all over the country. This project involves annually some 1 million young musicians, trainors, and administrators, in a long and tedious process of selecting the best among them from all sixteen regions of the Philippines. Competitions are held from the divisional up to the regional levels, from which the First Prize winners come to Manila to vie for national honors in the main categories of Choral Performance, Solo Voice and Instruments, Family Ensemble, and Chamber Music in both western art music and Philippine indigenous and folk music traditions. More info at http://www.namcya.org.ph.
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Wednesday, October 26, 20057:47 PM
There are many reasons why I should quit my job (and only two are legit):
1. with all the projects sprouting here and there, i totally forgot to come up with a newsletter for this morning's roundtable discussion. I still can't comprehend how this can happen...
2. this is the first full week after college that i woke up everyday before the sun got a chance to rise. ugh.
3. I got in UP's MA Comparative Literature program. THANK YOU GOD!!!
4. Chorale is going places... Naga, Taiwan, Beijing, Spain...
5. A huge family reunion is set next July and I'm supposed to arrange the historical tours.
6. I have to clean my house.
7. I am running out of clothes to wear. Suits are very expensive.
There is only ONE reason why I shouldn't:
1. MONEY. Need I say more?
Of course, there are other half-reasons that should not be disregarded:
1. I love my bosses. All of them. Even if they're such asses sometimes. Except Mr. Eizmendi. He's my pet.
2. I love my work. Especially since now I am coordinating everything. My bosses are leaving for the States and have entrusted me all the things that have to be done in the November conference... much to the disappointment of the admin officer. I was actually given clearance to hire contractuals.
3. I am addicted to the pressure. I just can't get enough. There are days where I hate it... but my masochism from college is coming back...
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Tuesday, October 18, 20054:50 PM i need divine intervention
Please pray for me. UP just told me today that I have an entrance examination tomorrow at 2PM in the College of Arts and Letters. It's for my application for a master's degree in Comparative Literature.
I hope I make it.
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12:24 PM this is the long-term effect of imposing martial law
Cellphone rings.
me: "Hello?" Dad: "You start stocking up on food okay? Go to the grocery store and buy food. There might be another people power revolution." me: "Huh? Why? What's happening?" Dad: "GMA is getting provocative already, she's daring people to go to the streets if she keeps up her stupidity. Basta get canned foods. And if everything starts to go rancid, go to tita cora's and stay there in the meantime." me: "Um ok."
I don't think he meant if the food started tasting rancid, I should go to my aunt's.
update
I placed a new expanding thingie (CURRENT READS) on the task bar side of my blog that should refer to my current endeavors to growing a brain.
And possibly, hopefully, growing the long-missing female intuit for housework and organization.
stalker!
I arrived at the office fairly early today. The young lawyer whom I've had a slight crush on was waiting outside his office, apparently locked out. I decided on impulse to talk to him. me: "You're Marvin, right?" him: "Yeah." me: "I'm a friend of (son-of-guy-who-owns-the-law-firm-where-he's-practicing-law-in)." him: "Ahh... you work there?" (pointing towards my office). me: "Yeah I work at ICD."
And I walked off.
Crap.
I didn't even introduce myself. I should have just placed the word, STALKER, on my forehead. What the heck was I thinking letting him know that I know him and forgetting to introduce myself which was the whole point of the impulse in the first place?
I am hopeless.
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Monday, October 17, 20056:38 PM
I woke up this morning with my brain talking in Mandarin. It was a premonition that later at 9:30, I would arrive at a chaotic office lobby with the opening of the new consular office of Chinese Taipei of the People's Republic of China and throngs of people would push each other through the security doors to get a number.
Randy, the guard, told me that there's a new Taiwanese Embassy in the building. That means four embassies are now in RCBC Plaza aside from the EU Commission and the United Nations. Nice. More security, but its usefulness is still in question. The number of Marines assigned will be doubled tomorrow. More men in uniform. Mmmmm.
Then I realized, how can we have a Taiwanese Embassy when China will bash our heads if we decide to recognize Taiwan as an independent state through diplomatic relations?
Once again, I am reminded of International Relations and Political Economy and why ignorance is bliss.
I long to be blissful one day.
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Friday, October 14, 20054:23 PM my screws finally became loose
Conscience, is that you?
If you say so.
Remember our conversation the other day? About me and getting into something I'm not really prepared for? I think it came back and bit me in the ass.
I told you so.
Yeah. I know. You were right. Now I am going to feel trapped, and guilty. And inadequate. And remorseful.
You really should have laid off the carbs like I was telling you to.
Eh? I'm talking about the guy. The cute captain that rode with us on the bus. The cute captain, who's single (and of marrying age), who helped me with all the laptops and projectors that was draped around me aside from my luggage.
The guy who said I handle myself pretty well. The guy who takes my side when my boss is teasing me to embarassment hell. The guy who tells me to keep score over breakfast as he and JJ banter over their PMA days and which is better: the Navy or the Army?
Oh I thought you're talking about all that rice you ate over breakfast and lunch. I was concerned about the starch content especially when you mentioned your ass. Dr. Agatston is not going to be happy.
*Sigh*
Well, his last name does have a nice sound when hyphenated next to yours...
Brings tears to my eyes.
And he does have those brilliant sparkling eyes. And a good brain to boot. Ateneo School of Government is going to suit well with your father's Ateneo Law heritage.
Yes... yes... the man of my dreams indeed... *double sigh*
And that uniform!
Yes. I remember. Makes you want to tear it off him. He should look beyond the fact that you're 22 years old.
Age shouldn't matter. My dad is eighteen years older than my mom.
*Sigh.
What to do... what to do...
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Thursday, October 13, 20057:53 PM the show must go on
I've realized how difficult I am to live with.
The independence probably has something to do with it.
I take the colorgenics thingamajig and I end up agreeing with it. Inner loneliness? Need for affection? Putting up a facade?
I am actually a master of "of demonstrating considerable charm" despite what's really going? Hmmm... Maybe, that's true. Two flashbacks are burning through my brain.
when i started working full time
My boss was driving and he was talking about back in the days when he was still single when he suddenly asked, "you don't seem to have a problem with life... you're happy all the time. Is it really you or marunong ka lang magdala?"
It was actually the first time someone asked me that question. And maybe the first time someone actually hit home. "Hahaha. JJ, I think it's the latter. There are still things out there that I need to finish."
Maslow was right. It's all about the hierarchy of needs.
the other day
Visiting the PMA gave me a series of anxiety attacks. I couldn't sleep and I had to force food down my throat. I recited the Our Father when we were visiting the barracks because I was afraid I was going to meet someone I've been avoiding the whole time I was there.
One of the captains talked to me, "You were not impressed?"
I just stared at him, concentrating on the prayer... My boss finally joked, "Bok, she's thinking kase, ay walang bathtub?"
They laughed. I just smiled even if my heart was pounding through my chest. And then the captain said, "No I think she's handling herself pretty well."
lost
I am not quite sure how to handle the present situation. I took the damn test again. And the result is actually worse. I feel "inadequate and in a constant state of anxiety"?
Tell me about it.
but this is what's really happening
This is what I imagined my conversation with my guardian angel would be:
me: "Is this it? Am I actually starting the *gulp* quarter life crisis?"
nameless angel: "No. Not really. You're just having your period."
In the Philippine Military Academy, some traditions could kill. Literally. Yet from a broader view, there are some traditions that are worth keeping. I fell in love with the latter becaus of the promise of structure and stability. I am a vine, you see, a wild one. I need something to hold on to so I could grow to the sky. The Academy is the "something" I'd like to hold on to.
Unfortunately, the fourth-class system is simply too stupidly barbaric for me. First years or plebes (or fourth-classmen, if you want to call them that) are considered lower life-forms and are often beaten up by avenging second years and the rest of the sadistic upperclass. Their posture is exaggerated even during mealtimes to the point that they have to learn how to eat with their chins pointed to the sky. I tried drinking water like that once. I almost choked on the water and my own saliva. How they've gotten this far, I do not know, but I am glad they will be recognized as persons this Saturday.
At some point, that tradition has to change. Even with the good intentions of plebes learning humility, loyalty, and all that other crap, it's just too ridiculous. I do believe still that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. If it doesn't change, the PMA is surely on its way there.
rehabilitation
I love my job because we get to rehabilitate institutions (the government ones are especially fulfilling). If the PMA commits itself to the strategic changes that it decided to make over the past few days, it will gradually reach its vision as the premiere leadership school in the country.
I really really really pray that the PMA will change for the better.
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Wednesday, October 05, 20056:04 PM
World, I have a confession. I am pikon sometimes. There are just days that I am not in the mood. I just don't like it when people make jokes about certain things that I have no immunity for. Like lovelife and boyfriends and suitors. I just don't like discussing that aspect of my personal life.
Especially when my boss is the one teasing me about it.
I can readily point the reason why this is so. It's taboo when it comes to my parents and me. It's never a nice dinner topic. And from what I've seen from my sister, if you bring up something like that to the table, you might as well announce that you're getting married.
I just don't think my parents know how to handle these things. In their eyes, I am completely androgynous and incapable of acquiring a love interest not because I have undesirable qualities but because I will always be their little girl. And little girls do not have boyfriends, they have boy friends and kababatas and boy acquaintances, but the latter might as well be castrated monks, void of emotions and hormones.
What funny, secret lives we lead sometimes! And who knew that the very people we trust are the same ones we're scared to death of?
Not exactly, blonde-blonde, but let's just say the highlights I wanted are too damn many to be called just highlights. That hairdresser must have been high on something, probably the smell of peroxide. Now I wonder if I can pull this off.
So far, I've gotten all compliments. Today might just be a good day.
not quite ready for paradise yet
When I went to my mecca a few months ago at the Navy Headquarters, I was elated. Now I am less than a week away from going to the Philippine Military Academy for a project with the Superintendent. I should be more than elated for this.
Unfortunately, I am not.
Call me crazy, but I am not ready for Paradise. I am not ready for Fulfillment just yet.
I am NOT worthy.
on a sidenote
Once upon a ym chat: me: i am going to the pma next week. i don't want to go. me: i am NOT worthy to see paradise just yet :(( benette: ummm ok ... shoudn't you be excited? me: i know. but i am not yet in my "total babe" look to go there. benette: ahhh ... baket di ka pa mukhang diyosa? :p
mah bebe
My dad, thanks to a very helpful supplementary card, treated Bembol to an undercoat and engine wash. It just goes to show that I am not as independent as I would like to be. With my salary, I don't think I can afford these things anyway so I'd rather sacrifice independence than let Bembol rot. That's how much I love him. My trusty steed did bring me to all my graduations.
He looks so clean now, it just brings tears to my eyes.
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"There are things out there that I want to discover, that one day this will all make sense... I am searching for the meaning of this cosmic existence that we're in. And
probably when I find the answer, I'll go and look for the anti-thesis."
5 THINGS
1. I sing in the University Chorale of the University of Asia & the Pacific, and we swept four gold medals in Greece for our very first International Competition. I got to do my two absolute favorite things: singing and traveling.
2. Although I am an Alto Two, my range widens up to Soprano One when I am drunk. Think Charlotte Church's Flower Duet. (I think it has something to do with swallowing the diaper pin when I was a baby). Dancing barefoot in debut parties may also be expected.
3. I work in an non-government organization focused on private sector development. It involves sleepless nights in the office and the constant worry of displeasing a former Secretary of Finance. My other two bosses are harmless.
4. I like my men in uniform. The Military has always been a fascination of mine even before when I was finishing a BA degree in Political Economy.
5. I no longer watch The Bold and the Beautiful much to the joy of friends and family.
