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Just A Random Artsy Fartsy Day

If there is one thing I miss from being a preschool teacher, it’s the daily opportunity to get my hands dirty with all sorts of art projects. I loved getting my hands all sticky with glue and covered in glitters. I enjoyed spritzing colored water on walls and watching it make rainbows. It was a whole lot of fun trying to figure out creative ways of transforming the ordinary and mundane, from toilet paper rolls to fire hose fittings, into amazing little projects.

Yesterday I got the chance to tap into my artsy side again and did some glass painting experiments. Lookit…

Not bad for a first timer, yes?

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Wrap, Wrap, Wrap!!!

One of the things I didn’t really like doing when I was still a student was wrap my books. Let me rephrase that…I actually liked that A LOT but my mom was kind of a stickler for having the plastic strait and evenly measured and so it was a chore.

The other day I wrapped my YTT books and I had to laugh at myself…I was, unintentionally and unconsciously, exactly like my mother

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Teacher Goes Back to School!

Last year, I gave up my preschool teaching career. I didn’t know why or what would be out there for me. I didn’t know what I’d do next. All I knew was that it was the right thing for me.

I did think of a lot of things I wanted to do. I wanted to enroll in French lessons, I wanted to become a full-time blogger, I wanted to throw everything in the wind and take a new course, like maybe carpentry so I can experiment on power tools such as the festool kapex miter saw or perhaps creative writing which I have always loved. I really just did not know what I wanted.

In between, while trying to figure things out, I continued on with my yoga practice until I decided that I wanted to do a Yoga Teacher Training. And then I came across a kids yoga class and found what it is exactly I want to do. I will be a yoga teacher working with kids and adolescents with a leaning towards yoga as therapy. Woot.

I know I have found my place in the sun. Finally

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Kuya vs. Manong

Today I had an interesting conversation about the whole “kuya” and “manong” thing. Notice how we Filipinos tend to address vendors, the janitors, photocopy people, etcetera like this? I never gave it much thought before but today, I accompanied a visiting teacher from New York around Greenhills and I addressed many of the guards and sellers as kuya (or ate when applicable). She asked me what kuya meant and if it was a Filipino word for excuse me or something like that.

Over the course of our conversation I came to realize that I prefer using kuya/ate over manong/manang nowadays. In a way, I kinda feel like its a more respectful way of addressing people in the service industry. When I said that, my friend said that she resonated with that and asked what perhaps, would make someone a manong or a kuya versus a sir. She said something about how although there is no caste system here such as that in India, there still is that kind of a divide. Maybe not with regards to the mingling of people and whatnot, but there was still that separation. Eventually as we talked I realized that often times, it all boils down to the fact that when those in the service industry often have limited access to education. It kind of made me realize how much I take things for granted. For example, I would love more than anything to buy a new iMac but majority of Filipinos have to rely on internet cafes to really have access. I’m sure they’d be more than thrilled to receive even a very old used pc desktop and here I am complaining about my old laptop.

Random realizations today.

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Welcome to Music Class!

Last night over dinner, I told my friends the CD story again. I don’t know if I shared this here already, but just in case I haven’t, here it goes. When I was still teaching preschool, one day one of my students brought in a CD and presented it to me proudly. For you, Teacher, she said.  “Thank you!”I exclaimed upon receiving it. She then goes “Teacher, play it in class okay, because you sing ugly!”

MWAHAHAHA

So anyway, last night we were talking about the game Sing Something and I told them there was no way I could ever do well in that game.  Perhaps, however, if you send me to music class, I may learn an instrument or what not but I don’t think I can ever learn to sing!!! HAHA. If I were to explore instruments though, I think I’d like to try a harmonium. Or perhaps I can do one of those blues-y instruments…a sax, a guitar with glass slides, or something like that….

Then again…no amount of music class can cure me, I think!