The Gambler

"You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em

Know when to walk away and know when to run

You never count your money when you're sitting at the table

There'll be time enough for counting when the dealing's done. 

Now every gambler knows that the secret to surviving

Is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep

Cause every hand's a winner and every hand's a loser

And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep"

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Of Life and Travel

"Travel is awesome in that it shows you that *waiting* is the reward. Magic is in the transformation that accommodates each step. Every upset or obstacle unfolds a richer, more interesting story, where you've had to go deeper into yourself to sculpt the diamond resources in you.

When I return from a trip, I often find myself saying, "I need a vacation from my vacation". I hear other travelers saying it also. It's because when we travel, we know that time is precious, limited and so we try to live those moments to their fullest potential. We live intentionally.

Why then in our normal everyday lives, do we waste so many moments? Why are we rushing, continually looking for short cuts to hurdle all the steps in-between? Rather than experiencing the joy in the journey, we treat them like uncomfortable "accidents" that got in the way of our plans. Why do we live intentionally when we travel, but accidentally when we're home?"

-Grrrl Traveler

Hello from Korea!

First post from the Land of the Morning Calm!

It’s been a week since I arrived in Korea and as far as first impressions can say, all is well in Korea.

1) Weather – It is now the start of spring so the weather ranges from 0 to 8 degrees every day. Pretty warm in Korea's stanard. Sometimes, the wind from the north gets pretty bad so it feels like friggin negative especially when I am out of the apartment at night.

2) Transportation – Anything better than Philippines’ transportation is good enough for me. But seriously Incheon International Airport is one of the world’s best. Bus system / Train / Subway system in the city is also impressive. And most importantly, no traffic.

3) Security – Generally, Korea is a safe country when mugging is the concern. At the airport, people just leave their luggage to go to the restroom, buy food, etc. People don’t normally lock their apartments. My lab mates leave their bag and other personal effects at the lab. No trust issues.

4) People - HUGE language barrier, goddamit. It’s like ME vs KOREA when it comes to communication. There is less barrier at school since most students can communicate in English (though not much), but it’s like a war when I get out. Ahjummas and ahjushis don’t know how to speak English. Honestly, if not for the language barrier, Korea is a good place to live in. My labmates are thoughtful and hospitable enough. Just don't know until when. Hehehe.

5) Support group - is GREAT. There are about more than twenty Filipino scholars around Cheonan area, nine of us are in one school together. All of the graduate students in KNU are from UST, and they are really supportive. They take care of our initial needs, accompanies us to groceries, church, and points us to cheap places for shopping. It's no joke to move in another country with higher cost of living and different language that's why I am so grateful for the support that I got here from my fellow Thomasian / KNU friends.

I know it's too early to say if I made the right decision or not. Along the way, I expect a lot of hard times with my colleagues and professors, loads of struggles when it comes to living away and alone, emotional stress, physical stress especially with the cold weather and what not. But all of these struggles will be charged to experience -- experience that I can never have had I not moved away. So yes, all is well.

Of dreams and foolish preparations.

Sometimes, we spend most of our lives preparing for something.. We put-off a lot of life risks because we think we're still not prepared enough; thinking that we will be more ready next time.. next month.. next year.. 

Some say that it's not necessary to get all your bases covered before making a move on your life because it will just give you a false feeling of preparation. You think you got it all prepared for all possible turnouts but when you actually move, it's still different than what you are expecting then boom you get disappointed. No matter how much you read and ask about it, you won't know something unless you actually try it. Just prepare as much as you can up to a certain extent and let your courage follow through. 

The Hard-Won Lessons of the Solitary Years

"Most important, I’ve realized I never needed a long boyfriend résumé for the experience. In the 20 years before I met Him, I learned a lot of hard lessons: how to be a self-respecting adult in a world that often treats single people like feckless teenagers; how to stand at cocktail parties while my friends’ in-laws asked me if I had a boyfriend; how to have warm, friendly dinners with strangers I had met online as we delicately tried to determine whether we could possibly share our lives together; and how to come home to an empty apartment after a rotten day at work. I realize these less-than-giddy examples may conjure up those deadly words: “desperate” and “pathetic.” But I wasn’t desperate. If I had been desperate, I would have settled for a relationship I felt ambivalent about because I was afraid to be alone. Instead, I learned to relax into the open space of my quiet home and unknown future. I also learned there is a difference between feeling something unpleasant (loneliness, longing) and being something shameful. 

 Being a single person searching for love teaches you that not everything is under your control. You can’t control whether the person you’ve fallen for will call. You can’t force yourself to have feelings for the nice guy your best friend fixed you up with. You have no way to know whether attending this or that event — a co-worker’s art opening, a neighbor’s housewarming — will lead to the chance encounter that will forever alter your life. You simply learn to do your best, and leave it at that. 

Relationships are work, but so is being single, and I became pretty good at it."

-The New York Times