After a long hiatus

I saved up some stuff to type.

Anyways, grats to Skyler for having the "biggest beard" in the family. I am not exactly sure what entails the grand prize, but it should really be something. That thing is way, way large, and quite in charge.

Since November, I guess a few interesting things have gone on with us. The bad news, one of our good Iranian friends left, and decided to stay home, rather than return to school. Then one of our Kuwaiti friends. Sad. We really loved those guys and their company. But, we did manage to have a great time during our holidays. We took two of our friends to Sagada, went caving, and had a nice time. We went to Burgos, and really, really, really, quiet and deserted beach. We had the whole place to ourselves, with our friends Grace and Mao.

Our hospital dutues have been fairly exhaustive this semester. Learning a lot during them, thank goodness. Having some issues with the administration, and teachers. That will not go away in my or my grandchildren's lifetimes I guess. There is just a lot of "poop" here in certain areas that seems a little too ground in.

I really wanted an eee pc. I got this crazy idea to get one, then backed out. I will wait for the 9 inch screens and Wimax. Speaking of computers, I am living the Linux life now. Totally gave up Windows, and never looking back. I recommend "Puppy Linux" to anyone. It is 100 MB only, and runs off of your ram. Everything is easy enough to learn, and it won't overwrite your old OS should you need to go back. I put it on a friends ancient computer, and it runs like a scalded cat. Don't toss out that old computer yet!

Karen and I had the same American patient (she had the 7-3, me, the 3-11 shift).. It was great, because everybody including the Doctors were afraid of the guy, and we just charged in a saved the day for the guy. It felt great to be working for what will likely be a more typical patient for us, and he really tested our abilities. We did great, and so did he. (He was discharged the day after our last duty day after nearly two weeks, and I got to congratulate him on his way out ) It felt real good to see the product of our hard work "walk out the door" towards his health and future.


Another two months, and we are done for the year, and a break that we will be sharing with... MY MOM AND GRANDMOTHER!!!! We are so excited to have them. I can't wait to show them around.

Sagada 2

Just felt like sharing a recent experience with coffee, and my favorite place in the Philippines. The Philippines has many areas that grow coffee. I just happen to live near the epicenter. As a result, I get all kinds of pretty damn good coffee at laughable pricing. My most recent "find" is the coffee grown and picked from Sagada. Sagada is a twisty curvy half paved, half dirt road, meandering through rice terraces, and a 6.5 hour bus ride away. This sleepy but lovely little town has some amazing caves, waterfalls and many other natural wonders. What makes Sagada, "Sagada" (and keeps me coming back) to me though is the coffee, and my morning ritual.

So here was my daily routine while on my vacation there last week.

It's 5:30AM. Crack of dawn is about half way done, and the sun is just hinting at poking it's head over the green mountain peaks that are fighting a beautiful and silent war with the thick morning clouds that roll in. Everything is in high contrast, Mountain ridges, switch backs and trails easily seen. Pine trees jutting above rock formations covered in thick nearly malachite colored moss... Crystal clear and the only noise is the rooster, starting his morning ritual as well.

I put a pot of the "literally right from a natural spring" water on the stove, and when it starts to rumble, I keep about 2 cups of it in a bowl, then fill the percolator bin about half way with Sagada's characteristic ground coffee bean. A smallish light/medium roasted bean, ground coarsely. Then, back on the stove to bubble for a few minutes, then off. After a minute to allow the settling of the grains, my leather covered stainless thermal mug is filled to 3/4 full. In this coffee, you can absolutely taste the earth, the ground, the mountains, the trees, everything. Cream or sugar is completely forbidden. After a greedy sip, full of air so as not to scald, I place it down on the bathroom sink, and take a short and hot shower.

Out of the shower, that bowl of boiling hot water is ready to do it's part. My travel kit, a Gillette Rubie loaded with a fresh Derby, a QED grapefruit and peppermint shave stick. The shave is gloriously smooth, crisp high pitched notes of that blade leaving a glass smooth face looking back at me.

Mug in hand, 10 steps out onto the balcony at the corner, I sat on small stool placed so that I could see 270 degrees of peace, nature and profound tranquility. Just me, my coffee and the glory of mother earth.

US claims success in war on drugs

I almost laughed out loud when I saw this headline http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7025308.stm

The government officials are patting themselves on the back for increasing the cost of cocaine. Economics 101… Its almost comical to think that the war on drugs is practically a government subsidized commodity, like corn or pork bellies. We are footing the bill of a war against our own people, leading to increased riches for violent drug dealers (low transportation costs for “less” product and increased price per unit), more of our citizens incarcerated or killed for victimless crimes, and more people will begin to turn to cheaply made and REAL dangerous drugs as alternatives. If I was a drug dealer, I would forget pot, (acreages of land, or intense electric bills) and just make a methlab in my spare bathroom. Simple economics…..

Interesting undergrad classes

I read an interesting post from a friend's blog about what he considered to be his favorite and most interesting classes in his undergraduate degree....

I'll put mine here.

Anatomy and Physiology –the body is amazing, beautiful, and the most perfect thing in the universe..

Pharmacology–painful, time consuming, boring and absolutely essential..

Ethics– Why you “should”, or “should not”, because too often “we do” only because “we can”..

Pathophysiology– The body is amazing, beautiful, and the most perfect thing in the universe, except when it isn’t..

Organic Chemistry– The blue collar science, that explains enough information to be relevant to nearly every situation encountered.. (as compared to say, Physics, IMHO, YMMV!)

Blogs

We met up with our friend Alvin at Camp John Hay's country club last night. We met his lovely family who are in town as part of their annual trips that they make here twice a year, once for his Lola's birthday, and again for X-Mas. Anyways, we caught up on new stuff, laughed about old times, and had some nice food and coffee in the establishment. Alvin is nice enough to read and comment on my blog regularly, giving me the inspiration and motivation to continue with it. He asked me for advice on how to start his own, and upon further reflection, I will post the response here, as a blog of my own. So without further ado, here is my response.

1. Do you really want to blog? - I ask this question because blogging takes more time (once set up, you can knock out a post in 5 minutes) and is a little less user friendly than some social bookmarking sites that may be more useful to the average user. I find I split my time here and at facebook. the nice thing about a blog is that everyone can go to my blog and read, whereas access to my facebook account requires your own setting up of an account. A big question that needs answering, if "no" go to question #4.
2. Where do I sign up for a blog? - www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com . If I am not mistaken, wordpress may have the edge these days for ease of use and flexibility if you want it, but I imagine the differences are not profound. Just pick one, and go for the free blog account (back in my day, I hadn't heard of wordpress, so I went with blogger. Either will allow you to create an overall look and theme, profile, and format for posting.
   
3. Follow the directions, they are pretty straight forward. You will be up and running in about an hour with your layout and style complete, title and profile done, and maybe a pic or two and your first post.
   
4. Social Networking (or facebook). This has taken over a lot of what I see people who use blogs and emails use them for. You can upload photos, send out quick notes, and keep "up to date" with people in your network. It is a cleaner interface than it's predecessor "friendster", more secure, and easier to manage. You are confined within the parameters of facebook, so if you are more creative and require more freedom, a blog might be a better fit. But if you want to be up and running in about 30 minutes with friends, family and a messaging type interface, go for facebook. I will keep my blog for now, but it's relevance has been challenged recently with facebook. Facebook does require a log in, but once you break down your facebook-less friends, they will quickly come over to your way of thinking, and soon you will be spending your time there.
   
5. Another option for the type who hate typing, or want a much simpler communication tool is www.flickr.com . This is a photo sharing site where you just upload pics and share. Its an online photo album where the pictures speak a thousand words for you. A small caption, and off you go.
   

So, there is the sum of my knowlege of Blogging/Social Bookmarking, et al. I hope it helped.

Osama bin Laden Movie Review

So, I signed up on facebook last week after almost a year of continuous bombardment from friends and relations. Glad I did. Nice little site, and a nice way to keep in touch. Anyways, I stumbled upon the movie review application, so I quickly reviewed a bunch of films in my typical sarcastic way, when looking through the news, noticed that our good buddy Osama has released his own cinematographic epic.

I figure that I'll give my take on his latest offering. Tentatively entitled, "Convert ye masses, lest ye be killed, and oh yeah, capitalism sucks" that hit the theaters world wide this week.With a team of the finest make-up crews, Osama appears youthful and swarthy, his 0.4m long usually "salt and peppered" beard dyed a deep, rich black. He sits calmly and confidently in this feature film, wearing a white shirt and yellow shawl, that costume designer Alijjiba Majinniiyad made from Osama's wardrobe further conveyed the upbeat message of mandatory religious conversion and rejoicing in the failure of the Western World possible. The set director, Hafaad Hunnaji, bravely chose a "brownish" background to complement the overall message and tone of the film. Almost in spite of these memorizing special effects, the words of Osama really hit a powerful note, mostly underlining the evils of capitalism. Problematic in the plot, is the fact that his entire fortune was derived from capitalism, implicating himself. Nevertheless, Osama recovers from this oversight expertly by simply not mentioning that aspect. A true mature actor's ability to overcome the obvious hurdle showed a near Academy Awards performance. Special mention must be made to the lighting crew, who chose a "minimalist" subject in the lens obscura, dismissing past "film noir" qualities of Osama's last offering, "the October 2004 tape". From the position of the viewer, the well diffused lighting came from a series of incandescent and florescent bulbs, (25 watt former, and the 17 watt super saver types of the latter type), bringing out the rich olive, tan beige, yellow, white and the previously mentioned "brownish" hues evident in this film.

The Soundtrack of this film, a disjointed "voice-over", seemed to be the weakest part of this already earmarked classic. Several moments of voice did not coincide with the movement of Osama's mouth, indicating further need for improvement. During the advanced screening "post interview", Osama simply made an off camera gesture of a finger dragged across his neck when asked if he planned on using the same sound crew for his next eagerly anticipated film. His current crew could not be reached for comment, their feet being held to furnace heated irons.

To summarize, Osama has once again proven that he is more entertaining than ever, at the top of his game and relevant to his cause, to beat both Big and Little Satan. His offer for the world, and especially American's to "convert to Islam" proves his realistic short term objectives, and the aforementioned diatribe against the evils of capitalism come at a timely moment in history, when everyone is looking for communism and despotism to answer the needs of the workers of the world. 4.5/5 stars.

Food!

Well, crack the champagne, I think I have finally solved a near 3 year quest that has caused me great pain and discomfort. Yep, I finally figured out how to make “Adobo”…. This seemingly simple dish requires a steady hand, and attention to detail that I have found out through a number of poor examples can easily put this dish on an “Expert only” basis….

So, I will demystify the experience for all here on how I did it.

First, and most obviously, the 1 kilogram of adobo cut chicken. Yes, there is a cut named after the national dish of the Philippines, (though this probably only exists in the Philippines, anyway)

You take this chicken, and first rinse it well. And then start to notice something. This poor wretch of a bird has not undergone hormone therapy and been pumped full of “broth” to increase it’s bulk. Translation? The meat is almost “dry” for better lack of terminology. What this means to you and I is that a good quality Philippine chicken is delightfully susceptible to marination, because all the little porous tissues are empty, rather than full of “filler”… See more info on this here. That is why all the marinating in the world does little good to birds from the US or Canada (my experience with both, not knowing what goes on with Euro-Poultry)... However, I digress.....

SO, you take this wonderful "dry sponge" of a chicken, cut into approximately 20 pieces or so for the average 2lb bird, "adobo cut" (essentially, the whole chicken is cut up, leaving the bones in) and after the wash, put in 1/2 cup of cane vinegar and 1/4 cup of soy sauce, then about a dozen calamansi (or key limes) and put in the "ref" (refrigerator) for at least and hour. Then you take your caldereta (big pot) and add about 2-3 TBSP of oil, and go back to your chicken, and look at how it has absorbed most of the marinade. That is a good thing. Dump the excess out, and then put it into the pot, and get things going, hot and loud. Add 4-5 medium sized potatoes (patatas), two onions (sibuyas) and about 6 cloves of garlic (bawang). Get all that frying up nicely, stirring every couple of minutes. Some "juice" from the vegetables, marinade and cooking process should be starting to come out. After 15 minutes or so, it is time for the serious part, and seemingly benign. Add about an ounce more of soy, and an ounce of vinegar, a TBSP of brown sugar, and a half TSP of coarse ground/cracked black pepper, bay leaf and cup and a half of water. Bring this to a rapid boil, then turn it down to simmer for 45 minutes. When you come back to it, it should be darker in color than when you left. This is good. The sugar, and onions and process made it dark, and the taste should be a little tart, a little sweet, and kinda gravy-ish from the breakdown of the potatoes. You can add a bit more of whatever to balance, and it should be balanced. Serve with rice (duh), and fresh cut bananas, (as learned by "Aunty Lisa") ...

The dish, as far as I know, is known to be rich, if not a bit oily. A good accompanying dish would be the other bane, and as yet unconquered, sinagang. A tamarind based soup that would cut away any excess "grease" from the adobo. Enjoy!

Herps and Cat5 twisters

So, after a week of a shy, quiet, kinda grumpy looking turtle, he has gone through a metamorphosis, so to speak. He is finally eating, I bought him some turtle food, but he is eating the apples and other stuff, as long as it is "in the water". (a la Jesse's 6th grade report of the majestic sperm whale)

I was in the hardware store buying him a basking light, I came across some plastic paint roller containers. they are ramped on one end, and go to a depth of a 6" deep pool at the other end. I bought two, and put food in one, and keep the other clean. He went right in and started eating. He walks around in his "habitat" now like a king, "long neck" looking around at everything. I was real worried he wasn't gonna make it. It looks like he is fine now.

I talked with a pet store owner. They had about 30 of these for sale. They are endemic to this region, and are 50% aquatic. They have semi-webbed toes and like moderate to cooler climates. This one seems to be a potential sub-species of the one that YAVON, not Jesse, linked in the comment page from my last post. The elevation here is 1500 meters and a cool 75 degrees average temperature, whereas the one classified in the website is a lowland turtle, requiring tropical temperatures. Good for a pet owner, keeping anything above 75 degrees here is hard. It's getting cold, even for an adipose and "keratinized protein" covered person such as myself.

Oh yeah, there is another "super typhoon" headed towards the Philippines again. Looks like the bulk may go over top of us.

http://www.typhoon2000.ph/activeflash/stormloop
look about 2 inches to the left of the "Eye".. That's Baguio!

We have found a great way to save time and money here. We pay our friend's mother to do our food shopping for us. Here is our latest list of goods. total cost $20 a week, including her cut.

Shopping list

Product Quantity

Tokwa	¼ kilo
Cooked sausage (red)	¼ kilo
chicken (adobo cut)	1 kilo
Pork chops	½ kilo
Milk	1 x 250 ml tetra box
Eggs (red)	2 piece
Eggs (white)	6 piece
Bangus (in vinegar)	3 pieces
Yakult	2 pack of 6
Gardenia whole wheat bread	½ loaf size
Century tuna in brine (or oil)	4 cans
Red/green tomatoes mixed	1 kilo
Large peppers (red/green)	1 kilo
Cilantro	1/8 kilo
Parsley	1/8 kilo
Onion (red)	½ kilo
Onion (yellow)	½ kilo
Garlic	¼ kilo
Seasonal fruit #1	e.g (apples or oranges)
Seasonal fruit #2	e.g. (longsones or chico or mango)
Seasonal fruit #3	bananas
Potatoes	1 kilo
Celery	1 bunch
Baguio Beans	¼ kilo
Eggplant	6 pieces
Coconut cream or powder	2 cans (or 2 packages)
Calamansi	½ kilo
Tang or Hi-C grape (dry)	Large size (500g)?
Peanut butter (dark color, from wet market) in plastic container	1 jar (large)
Cucumbers	1 kilo
Rice (jasmine long grain)	1 kilo
Vegetable oil	500ml
Benguet blend coffee	¼ kilo fine grind
Coffee mate	1 box
Black pepper	One packet
Curry spices	One packet
Cumin seed	One packet

Saw the movie

Well, we saw Harry Potter 4, 5 or 6.... Can't remember how many of these they are churning out, but from what I hear, the books are better than the movies. I can believe it. Not that it was terrible, just ho-hum. Maybe not my style. The actors are starting to get long in the tooth, IMO.

The CON activities and our full load at school are clipping away as usual. I am trying to come up with an online solution for the office. I might just go for a googlegroup page and call it good. Webpage design is way over my pay scale for now. I have some incredibly bland looking offerings from about 4 hours of hard work... It's good to know when to quit and admit you don't know what the heck you are doing, right?

Along, the way, I did find several "new to me" things that are working out WONDERFULLY. The first, is the google toolbar. The second, is the google desktop. Both can be found by.... googling them, of course. Really, It is amazing what this company is doing. It is hard to realize just how much that I do depends directly on google. By now, many know that google is trying to press the government to open up portions of wireless networks for general public consumption and free market, rather than the telecommunication "cartels". Good luck google, once you give it to them, they have a hard time giving it back. Still, a noble effort. I wish I could thank them personally in their private jets with cigars and single malt whiskey. (their treat, of course)

We might be going somewhere for a "team building" experience with my co-conspirators in the college of nursing student government. I am surprised at how well the group is conducting themselves. A nicer bunch of young people would be hard to find. All fairly dedicated and working well together, for the common good.

Our first tall order at the college student government was to pull off the annual juggernaut A.K.A., "Nursing Day"... It went off without a hitch. My "food voucher" scheme was a hit, and we managed to feed 3,000 nursing students whatever they wanted to a degree, for half the cost of last year's "Burger Fiasco". The much anticipated "Nursing Pageant Night" also went off well(without any input from yours truly of course), with the usual "controversy" of whomever's favorite candidates not doing as well as some other persons' favorite. I think the upcoming competition for Mr. and Miss UB will be a lock, considering the depth of our college's contestants.

Well, another round of skills labs under our belts just passed. We focused on two major groups of nursing care, namely OBGYN stuff like delivery room procedures, delivery, newborn care, and the REAL fun stuff of catheterizing, suctioning and oxygenation. We will be going to the hospitals next week for surgical rotations. We have our "1st grading" periodic exams starting tomorrow to close out the week.

Anyways, back to the grind...

yowch!

So, I am not sure if I just got made it all worse, but the position with the college of nursing is going to be quite a job. Anyway, it would seem there are a number of dedicated people there, so I think we can get productive things done, and actually feel good about it. It is quite refreshing to see a group of enthusiastic people, putting aside their pride, working together.

Anyways, I have a bunch of things to do now, and we are through with the preliminary exams. Karen is talking me into seeing Harry Potter sometime soon. I will go along. I am becoming a real fuddy-duddy. I hope it is not too late to turn back! Really, there are no interesting movies being played in the Philippines. Just huge blockbuster extravaganzas like Spiderman (ugh!) and the Fantastic Four (UGH!!).... We saw the Transformers, and actually I liked it, (a wonderful flashback from my youth in the 80s) but in all honesty, I just don't need to be blown out of my seat every 7.2 seconds anymore. Can I just have a quiet thought provoking drama? Please? Luckily for us, going to the movies is super cheap, so at least when we are disappointed, the "hit" is minimal.

My friends downstairs are having some kind of immigration problems. Al has been in Manila for almost a week, visiting his embassy. I think this problem is actually about their own embassy's requirements, not the Philippine's.

We have joined the school gym. I am not making any more embarrassing promises, just hoping to get back into that good old habit of working out everyday and eating right. SO hard to break bad habits, they feel/taste so good!

I spoke with my brother for a while last night. My "little" brother turned 30 years old. We were laughing about how close our ages are, how old we are now, etc. He and Yavon are having some challenges real estate wise these days, and we are really pulling for them to get some good luck, though they are real troopers about it. We always laugh real hard when we talk. Everyone needs more of that.

I am still pullin' for Ron Paul. I really believe that Dr. "No" is the only chance for America. We are on the verge of all kinds of problems, not just Health Care, Foreign wars, etc. But a slow systemic meltdown if we don't change everything soon. We have given away all of our freedoms, the greatest asset we have as Americans, and we do so willingly for some reason. The problem is that both sides of the political spectrum are really on the same team. And it is us (the people) versus them (the government) They don't realize that they are working on our behalf. It is real disgusting what we have squandered away to be "safe"... "The Patriot Act", "The War on Drugs", The CIA, FBI, EPA, UN, FED, BATF, BLM, IRS, DEA, DTRA, FEMA, FTC, FDA, DHS, IRS (ok I mentioned IRS twice, but come on!)..... I could keep going, but think, have these institutions really helped, or are they just there to create power and wealth for themselves and to get in between you and your rights? The 2008 ticket is going to have Guiliani, the only American to go through 9/11 apparently, and Hilary, perhaps the most obscenely political person to ever take up the "profession".

To the 3-5 people reading my blog may I present the following links.

http://mises.org/ (the goods)
http://www.isil.org/resources/introduction.swf (a very simple, but great 4 minute video)
http://www.lewrockwell.com (a great source of libertarian essays)
http://www.isil.org/resources/libertydocs/pizzacracy.html (a great article)
http://www.ruwart.com/Healing/ (a great free eBook)
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/ABC_Stephanopoulos_interviews_Paul_Gravel_on_0709.html (two great men, Mike Gravel who got us out of Vietnam, and Ron Paul being interviewed by GS ... watch the end of each interview, GS belittles everything that these men have worked to achieve, and undermines the value of our political process. These are the only two candidates who want us out of Iraq TODAY, and don't want us in any more wars period. Well, at least GS gave them airtime)

Anyways, gotta get back to the work. And yes, I noticed that I used the term "great" to describe all of the websites....

I am so excited!

Well, you heard it here first....

I will not be seeking the re-election for Foreign student president. I need to focus on two major factors, first, Karen, who has stood by my commitments to the college and everything else. She has missed a lot of her own free time due to my commitments and I need to balance that out.

Also, my own sense of satisfaction. The group that I was running was apathetic at best Here is an experiment for you, go ahead and just try to make people interested in something.... Are you back yet? It doesn't work. Most of my accomplishments went completely unannounced, back deals keeping our room foreign student only, having to convince the school administration not to shut us down on a nearly weekly basis, apologize for inexcusable behaviors on the part of some foreign students, pleading for budgetary funding, intervention on behalf of students with their problems with teachers, faculty, each other, etc.. I am worn out. To top it off, the very students that I have defended are now the most vocal dissenters, and quite frankly, my patience is gone. I slept soundly last night after I made my decision. I will quickly thank the outgoing members, and hopefully endorse an appropriate sucke--I mean "candidate" for the position this year going forward. It is a big relief.

I figured out that I am not really like most of the other foreign students anyways. Most of them are locked into their ethnic groups and/or are really just looking for an "extended family" of sorts. I have to remember that they are still young. Here I am, trying to get them to think that they should try to understand the Filipino culture as I do (or think I do anyway). I feel that they must go through a process to understand it themselves. I always wondered why if you come to a foreign country would you not even want to participate and integrate yourself into the new culture. I know why now. Its not that they don't want to, its that they can't.

I regret misleading our new adviser with my "vision" because I actually don't think that my vision is a reflection in any way of the average foreign student here. Most of our population of 200 is either Korean or Fil-Am. I think that they have nice close ties with one another, and they are generally satisfied with the arrangement. They likely enjoyed the role of FOSA for the semi-private office space that we provided and that is about it. The Fil-Ams play another low profile role. As Americans, they more or less integrate with the local population of Filipinos. It is the nature of Americans to do this, as we generally require it of incoming immigrants. So, they generally don't wish their differences to be showcased. The rest of the population of students have various needs and wants, but desire to gather in their ethnic groups rather than a 'international one", most obviously the Africans and Iranians.

Yet let's remember that the majority are in their late teens or early twenties, have full course loads at school, and busy social lives. Result? There were a handful of us who actually felt obligated to act. This was obvious as during several general meetings held, that myself and our secretary where the only two participants.

The "new face" (this "new face" is none other than my EX-vice pres) of FOSA looks keen to create foreign student IDs, hold parties with other foreign students from other schools, and create a distinct status for themselves. I am not interested in that at all. And though I see that there will be a very small group controlling a proportionately larger one, making decisions for them that they do not understand or endorse, I will not intervene to help. They need to learn lessons about themselves and their relationships with others.

I will be able to focus my efforts into my course of study and my life with Karen as a result of this. Another step in the right direction for me.

Well........

We have been super busy with school lately. 6 days a week, 10:30AM-5:30 pm.... Sundays are little breaks that we stop and catch our breath.

I was cajoled into becoming the College of Nursing's 3rd year Representative, to help my friend Ray run as Governor. After a bunch of weird red tape, we had to water down our party and since he was only eligible for vice-gov, we took on an indy running gov for our top spot. With very little time to campaign properly, we were generally defeated in the top two spots, Ray could not overcome the sweeping popularity of his competition, a guy who's father is a popular professor at the school and clinical head who spoke up during the campaigning debate, much to our dismay. As well, he was allowed to run with "larger than allowed" campaign posters. In spite of all if this, my man lost by only 13 votes, and the clincher votes were the 4th year votes that we had nearly no contact with. Most of the 4th year students are out of the college 75% of the time and just voted on name recognition, or a candidates' openly "gay-ness", yes, there was a "Gay party" that took a large percent of the vote. Their platform? They want to have a "Gay "Miss Nursing Pageant". I am friendly with everyone at the school, gay and otherwise. I generally think that running on being "gay" is simply not valid, but my views on homosexuality are probably more "refined" than the average conservatively raised yet newly expressive Filipino student. I just don't see them as different in terms of ability or accomplishment, whereas they are something of a force in todays Filipino culture because of their "newness" and popularity in mass media, etc. If I were gay, I would hate to run as a "Gay guy". That doesn't seem to be enough to formulate ideas or programs or communicate effectively between the administration and student population. As predicted by many, I swept the 3rd year rep position, and will now have something of an "opposition" role, keeping checks and balances between Super popular kids of teachers / openly gay candidates and every other student in the school who just wants to graduate from college and get their degree in nursing. I get to complain on behalf of my classmates, write nasty letters and make recommendations. In short, heaven. Philippine politics is amazingly more confusing than American politics..

Anyways, Ill try to get things done as I have done in the Foreign Student President position that is coming up. We had a nice presentation from the guidance office for the foreigners followed by a "quick meeting" that quickly turned ugly as my VP from last year degraded all of the hard work we all accomplished to further his own hopeful presidential aspirations. He was met by a lot of opposition and though I really admire his enthusiasm as always, his ideas seem too far reaching for an organization in its infancy. We have accomplished a lot of good, and I was upset to lose momentum, arguing about a discontented 5%. In the end, our team triumphed and we are set to promote interesting programs and tap into the underutilized 95% of our school facilities. Cultural exhibits, fun fairs, English and Tagalog lessons, peer/academic counseling.. that's what we started, and that's what we are going to build upon. I really look forward to working with our new adviser from the Office of Student Affairs. He is a really nice guy, quick thinking and can solve problems and create programs for us.

School work has been kinda weird. The pace is slow, but awkward. We are having our preliminary exams next week, I have about 1001 things to get done before I can crack a book open, and I guess I'll get to that.

I am on vacation now, we had a long trip getting here, but it's been worth it! We are having lots of fun!! This is mostly just a practice post for Grandma to learn how to blog!!

Urine, blood, stool, BP, IVF computations

We were formed into groups at the beginning of the semester. Our groups "core" consists of myself, Karen and our ever trusty pals Grace and Raymund. This semester, we have made a couple more pretty good friends as well, including Sara, Miles, and Julienne.

They quickly increased their friend status with me by inviting me to a wedding of a friend of theirs during an extended lunch break...... We got to class with a huge food hangover. Pretty cool.

It has been a bit grueling so far, as usual. Karen has luckily completed her Nutrition from MAMC last year (and is enjoying a bit of nah, nah, nah nah-nah at my expense), so her summer semester experience is enviable form my perspective. I have classes Mon, Tue, Wed, from 7:30AM until 6:30pm.... one, two hour break in the middle...

Our first shift of duty fell on a Wednesday evening, so we were up for 27 hours before we went home that morning. That was rugged....

We have duty this week at "Baguio General Hospital", a tertiary medical facility here in Baguio that covers the majority of all medical cases in the region. I am in a group with Grace and Sarah, Karen is in a group with Julienne. We are doing the graveyard shift 11-7 in the Obstetrical ward. It has been my best experience as far as schooling here is concerned. What we are learning each day is equal to an entire semester worth of lecture, I would guess. The women are pretty amazing, and I of course have a new respect for what nearly every woman goes through. If I was a woman and it was up to me, the human race might become extinct in one generation..Haha.. Anyways, we are learning the techniques of IV therapy and calculations, charting, and of course, therapeutic communication and the ins and out of a medical facility. Our CI (clinical instructor) is a young guy, about my age *wink* and though he keeps 'Filipino time", he knows his stuff and has been very good in showing us the "hows and whys" of our trade. I have developed a "working relationship" with the charge nurse as well, and when I started last night, she was quick to take me around and show me some things that I had questioned her about.... She is pretty good at what she does, being the only nurse at times in the entire ward, often having 45+ clients at one time. Amazing amounts of stamina there.

Anyways, I am looking forward to the rest of our practical experience here. So far, so good.

Good stuff!

So, we wrapped up our semester last week. I don't know if it is getting harder or easier, but this semester went by PDQ....

We are planning a short trip to Boracay next week for a few days to R&R before we start our summer semester. Really looking forward to coconut oil massages and laying around, listening to the waves lap up on the shore. Hope the weather holds out for us there, unlike last time!! :)

I am starting a 'USMC" style work out program. Having some trouble sleeping/restlessness and figure it is lack of good old exercise. (Constant studying and computer vegetative states will do that to you).. We get our share mind you, there are more hills and stairways here than anywhere I have seen. And our food is fresh, homemade and relatively healthy. The program is from a rather boring looking book that emphasizes calisthenic type workouts that you can do w/o any equipment. Push ups, sit ups, and lots of "road work", as we like to call it in the corp!! I rather like that because I hate the idea of collecting more "stuff" than we have already. Anyways, I will be going through a 13 week 'boot camp" process. Actually, the way it is explained is simply routine overload of strength and stamina to better complete objectives. There is a bit of a "legend" of it being some kind of grueling accomplishment, but most are probably confusing it with some specialized Navy S.E.A.L. training, etc. Anyways, this new recruit is gonna get fit! "Ooh-Rah!!"

well,,,,

Sorry about the huge time lapse in between blogs. We were without broadband for a while, and though I am sure it helped me focus on studies, I am glad to be connected again.

We have made a lot of good friends here, and have hosted a few parties and whatnot to mix up the constant school work.

We moved to a new apartment and are very pleased thus far. The location is a 10 minute jeepney or 5 minute taxi to school. We were happy with our other place, it was big, quiet, good security and real nice landlords, but we couldn't overcome the long commute and lack of high speed internet. So, here we are.

School is almost over for the semester, we are in finals week now. We have a lot to get ready before our trip home on Oct 16th for semester break, including immigration issues, early enrollment for next sem, unpacking into our new home and repacking for our trip.

I believe I have sent out an email about the breakneck pace of school here, 6 days a week, minimum 6-10 hours in class per day. We have been busy as president and first lady of "F.O.S.A" (foreign office of student affairs), and we just purchased a nice big sofa from our budget for this semester. Everyone hangs out and has a good time. I wish the rest of the world could do this rather than what they are doing. We have Phil-Ams (Filipino Americans), Koreans, Persians, Sudanese, and a handful of 20 other nationalities composing of 186 foreign passport holding students at University of Baguio. We have some big plans next semester, we concentrated on making our "lounge" area comfortable and accessible this semester.

Anyways, we are doing fine in school, we are comfortable and happy in our home and looking forward to seeing many of you (the ones we cant get to will be missed, but maybe summer, ok?)

Anyways, we are back on skype and here, too. I promise this time...

Sweet deals in Baguio

come one, come all. its nice and cool here, in the 70s, for the past couple of days . we have lots of room, and are almost all mosved in. Still waiting on DSL hook up. We are visiting our school today to hopefully get a few credits creditedbefore starting for a couple of weeks... Everything here is pretty cheap by Manila standards, which is to say, real cheap by US/Canada standards.

Great News!!

We found a great apartment. Around twice as big as our current one and a third of the price!! We also enrolled in our classes and are pretty well all set for the coming year. We move in next week.

I promised not to harp on it any more, but to those who are STILL holding out on getting Skype, I don't see how you could possibly avoid it now that they have a new promotion. All outbound calls are free within the US or to Canada until the end of the year. You just need a $5 headset with a microphone and a DSL connection (you will need to subscribe to a number IF you want to receive calls from landlines, but as always, Skype to Skype is free) I don't see how anyone who has a computer is not using the heck out of this. Download this and start calling for free.


http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windows/

Almost home

Well, we are all packed up and cleaned up, and ready to hit the road. Just in time, too. It's getting much, much hotter with each week. Last night it was rather inescapable... It will be great to get some fresh air and see everyone. Karen Is REAL excited about coming home. She misses everyone a lot, and I am happy for her to be going back for summer. We have things in order for our school in Baguio next year, so all we have to do when we come back is to find an apartment.. (shouldn't be too hard)

I finally got my cr-- stuff together for my immigration "situation". That was yet another lesson that I am forced to learn the hard way. But they say it builds character. .......

Some pics of Dinner!

Lola can whip up some serious grub. (That's Filipino for Grandma)