Godzilla's Bratinella goes Canadian Princess

Robyn's preschool held a "Fairytale Around the World" program which took place of the UN day & Holloween Party. Ma (the Directress) opted the change since the last time they had a Holloween party, almost all the kids ended up crying, scared to the bones.

We received a letter from the Directress about the program details and the assigned flag for Robyn. I told her:

"Ma, utang na loob, nagsayang ka pa ng papel, pwede naman sabihin sa kin mamayang hapunan."

Ma: "Ay, nakalimutan ko na di ka pala nagbabayad ng tuition no?" She tends to outwit me at rare moments....

Robyn was assigned to bring the Canadian flag. I wanted to make a flag from scratch, like how I used to do mine during my past UN day celebration. Oslo paper, art paper, scissors, paste and me--it was a reunion doomed from the start. I was never good in arts. Whoever said that dentistry is art in itself should be barred from meeting me. Scissors were my biggest enemy as I never got to cut a straight line--ask me to cut a gift wrapper exactly in half and it would end up as if it was hacked. Massacre as the Congressman described what I did on my gift wrapping attempt on our first Christmas together.

Back to UN day, I remember during my elementary days, I was once assigned the flag of Israel. Since I wasn't aware that there are ready-made flags that can be bought especially during the UN day season, I made my own flag. Thank goodness, no Israeli was able to see me that day or else I'd be accused of degrading their flag. The idea was this: Uniformly cut strips of blue art paper should be glued on the oslo paper to form the "Star of David." I ended up with something close to an asterisk!

With Robyn, I assumed that I can cut a red maple leaf and 2 big strips to make a Canadian flag. The Israeli flag naman kasi is what I can call "suntok sa buwan." But alas, my lack of artistic skills failed me. Good thing the bookstore downstairs to our clinic has a ready-made Canadian flag. Haaaay.....

Now for the fairytale costume: Single friends out there should let out a sigh of relief that they don't have kids yet. You have no idea how expensive costumes are these days. I scouted in SM for a princess costume for Robyn and almost all cost P600 up! Good thing Arwen (someone I used to babysit before during my brief US stint) still has some of her gowns and the Sleeping Beauty costume seems to fit my toddler.

Another problem--how to get Robyn to wear the costume. You see, my little girl has this "dalaginding" side already. Like she has preference on what to wear and which clips should go to her hair. (Well, aside from the fact that she gives a toothy smile everytime she sees the yogabbagabba man, John Lloyd Cruz and good grief---Dingdong Dantes, of all people!) She also prefers comfy clothes like tank tops, shorts and her favorite white skort (skirt + short). Looking at the gown full of lace & ruffles, I knew she'll give us a hard time making her wear that.

The party was schedule on a Tuesday, so Monday night we decided to have a dry-run. Gown on the left had and cupcake for suhol on the other hand, I sneaked towards her back and aimed the bottom of the gown above her head.

After the crying, shrieking ang ube cupcake

The crown princess ran outside to greet her subjects

Let's try it with a crown this time

The actual day with her classmates and teachers (Mamu's in the middle)

Robyn tugging on someone else's wings

Mommy put her on "time out" kasi makulit!

Godzilla and Bratinella (plus Mamu's shaky hands)

All that running and dancing made her hungry

Robyn checks her Trick or Treat loot

Last day in Dent (1st sem SY2008-2009)

That ho-hum afternoon in OM section:

T: Yakitiyak-yak (relays the entire story about this late night koreanovela shown on a local TV station)

Z: Kelan yan? Ba't di ko napapanuod?

T: E kasi sossy ka hehe. Kung ako yung asawa nun binugbog ko yun. (at may potensyal naman talaga akong mambugbog....) Yakitiyakyak....

I: (isang kaluluwang ligaw galing kabilang section) Sino pinag-uusapan niyo?!

Z: Wala koreanovela....

I: Baduy!

T: Grrrr.....

Kitchen Goddess Wife says, "Asarin mo na ang lahat, wag lang ang nagfefeeling na bida sa 'My Husband's Woman'"

Kitchen Goddess Wife says 

Booze!

I finally gave up looking for Smirnoff Mule, but found a nice alternative to it--Smirnoff Ice!

SARAP!!!!!

The delightful find was acquired from my favorite grocery, Cherry Foodarama!

And now, an early Holloween greeting...

ADVANCE HAPPY HOLLOWEEN!!!

UPCAT Blues

Saw this video from YouTube although trailer lang siya, I have yet to see the entire film.

I have a hazy memory of my UPCAT days, starting from filling up the application form up to seeing the results.

As it turned out to be a coincidence, last Saturday, as the Congressman & I jogged (well, 1/4 jogged and 3/4 walk hehe) around the UP oval, we reminisced on how we eventually got into our course.

I remember that I selected 3 courses for UP: BS Biology, Dentistry & Statistics. I know we were asked to select 4 course but I can't remember the last one. Anyway, you can play the game "alin ang naiba" and you can see that BS Statistics is the odd one out. Why in the world BS Statistics? Because my dad said it's supposed to be a kinder version of other Math-related courses. My dad's a math geek and would want any of his children to venture into the world of numbers. I'm good in memorizing cellphone numbers, but other than that--wag mo akong asahan, lalo na sa suklian! That's why I have my secretary & my calculator to do the math for me hehehe.

There are a few other things that remind me of UPCAT:
1. UP Diliman campus map


UPCAT is usually scheduled every first week of August. Around the exam date, avoid the Philcoa, Tandang Sora, Katipunan area due to heavy traffic associated in the UP campus vicinity and it's neighboring areas. I remember the "usad pagong" traffic and the copies of the UP Campus map carried by UPCAT takers, walking like zombies while following the map to a T. I took the exam in the College of Home Economics.

When my brother took the UPCAT, there were lots of UP campus maps lying around with a big "MSA Review Center" printed in front. Naks, how helpful!

2. Mongol # 2 pencil



Requirements of a good Mongol # 2 pencil for your entrance exams are as follows:

• Dapat genuine Mongol. Don't get the fake one unless you want to devote almoste half of your exam time re-sharpening your pencil because the lead gets broken all the time
• The tip should be not too sharp, it would take longer to fill the block (circle/bar/space...errr whatever!) with a very sharp pencil, it's like using a mechanical pencil! If you make the mistake of making your pencil needle sharp, give it a "war up" by scraping it against a scratch paper.
• Have it blessed by your priest or at the Sta Clara Monastery. If you don't know the answer, silently recite "eeeny meeny miny moe" and pray to God that the blessed pencil shades the correct answer.
  

In addition to the above requirements, there's the ceremonial "breaking of the pencil" after the exam, well, para hindi na daw maulit. I think this ceremony is more apt for taking the board exams. (Wag mag-deny, ginawa ko to hahaha!)

3. UP Sunken Garden


This was our designated meeting place for our sundo. I didn't realize back then that the Sunken Garden was THIS big! Really, I though parang garden lang sa bahay! Ayun, it took almost an hour for me to look for our driver, plus another hour to find my cousin who took the exam with me.

4. Chippy Red

During the UPCAT, we were allowed to bring in simple snacks which we can eat while taking the exam. To my horror, my seatmate munched bag after bag of red Chippy variant! She munched so loudly, oblivious to my need to concentrate for UPCAT questions such as this:

Totoy has 1 kaing containing 50 kamotes he intended to share with his friend Popoy.
If Totoy was able to eat 6 kamotes per minute, what was Popoy's kamote-eating rate
if both were able to finish the entire kaing in 5 hours?

Now back to the movie, there's a character there who claimed he only took the UPCAT exam and nothing else. I have a former neighbor who's like that. He bragged that he never intended to take the entrance exams from other schools, while I was trying to juggle 5 applications for college: UPCAT, ACET, UST entrance exam and UA&P's (Well, 5th was Miriam College's but that's just back up, sorry to the Miriamites. I need to have assurance that I'd be admitted to at least college at that time). Fast forward a year after and I learned that Mr. UPCAT-or-nothing enrolled in some unknown computer school in Marikina. Fast forward to 6.5 years after, I'm a proud holder of a UP degree!

The protagonist in the story says the only thing he dreams of is to pass the UPCAT. And for us who are fortunate to pass, the pain in the pw*t just starts there. I remember being asked by a professor if I really passed the UPCAT after giving a stupid answer to his question. He said I might have been a computer glitch--the encoder must have accidentally typed in my name among the UPCAT passers in his Wordstar document.

Well, glitch or not, I am happy to be UP Student # 98-11632! :)

Para Kay Kenneth Lim

Mr. Lim, eto yung sinasabi ko sa yo na UP Bluebook shirt last Friday. Yabang no? I just got mine this morning so I haven't taken a picture of it yet. But here's the design: