I Was Once A Mountaineer

Take nothing but pictures

Kill nothing but time

Leave nothing but footprints

I'm not the athletic type but I love adventure. The days that I took the challenge to trek and hike mountains are the days that I will always treasure.

When I was a freshman in the University of Santo Tomas I got interested in joining the UST Mountaineering Club (USTMC). What started to be an out-of-curiosity activity ended up to be an involvement and dedication to become a full-pledge mountaineer. It was not that easy. You have to train, attend courses, develop new skills and do a lot of running which I never thought I could ever do.

Many people asked me what do I get out of it. It's dangerous, You get tired, push yourself to the limits, get scratched and bruised, and what do you get once you reach the summit??? SENSE OF FULFILLMENT! This is when I was able to test my patience and found out that I have lots of it. It is when I found myself, that I CAN BE WHO I AM. The best part of being a mountaineer is being with real people. No matter how hard you try to pretend to be a different person than who you really are, the real "YOU" will come out as soon as the first climb.

I may not have stayed long with the club (not because I did not want to climb anymore of course) but it made a very important mark in my life. I may have been once a mountaineer physically but I will be forever a mountaineer by heart. 

My World

C/S Origin

Oh I am so excited!!! C/S (Crime/Suspense) will have its own channel on TV again and it's called C/S Origin. When C/S was moved to free TV RPN-9 I was quite disappointed. Episodes of most of the TV programs they merged with RPN-9 went back to the previous season. 

C/S Origin is now on test broadcast and will be launched on September 14, 2008. For sure there would be new episodes of my must-watch tv shows: Without A Trace, Bones, Law and Order, Cold Case, etc... I wish they would include CSI among their programs.

Old Friends, New Stories, Same Bond

I'm so happy to have met up with friends I have not been with for quite some time now. Though we have not seen each other for years, the "connection" is still there. Old stories reminisced and new ones shared over coffee. Nothing was planned, everything just started with an e-mail between two then one invited another and another until there were five (well, six including my friend's little one) of us meeting up in Starbucks. It was only recently that these closest friends of mine got together online through Yahoo Messenger. Sadly one of us gals were not able to join this afternoon as she is in Canada.

Many things have changed throughout the years but still the bond of friendship is there. We had to meet at around 2:00 PM which we found funny. We had to meet in the afternoon now since almost all of us have kids and it wouldn't be that easy if we set a night out like we used to do when were younger. Stories are different now... we talked more on family - children and parenting - instead of the usual "gimmick" chitchat. Then we had to bid goodbyes around 5:00 PM... wow! 2 hours (only)? coffee instead of beer? is this a sign of growing "old"??? :-)

We're all hoping that we can meet up again some time together with our other friends and with our families too.

Filipino Jobs Overseas

Here's a very useful link to all Filipinos out there who would like to work overseas.

http://www.workabroad.ph/register_applicant.php?ref=xxyyszz

Just click on the link, register for free and find a job abroad. You get to search over a thousand job opportunities abroad for Filipinos.

Word of caution though... please be careful when dealing with agencies or people who are offering employment overseas. Make sure that you check them out with the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA). Many Filipinos have already been victimized by illegal recruiters. So far opportunities posted in workabroad.ph are mostly, if not all, legit but still we can never be too careful.