music therapy

when eating your heart out just makes you feel bloated,

when you ran out of dvds to save your life,

and when everybody else is asleep...

there's always that song in your playlist that does its job.

(currently listening to southborder)

on partying and alcohol

"will you drink alcohol? what do you want to drink, dawn?"
"anything but not beer... kahlua and milk, then."
"milk? how old are you?"

there's an unwritten rule when attending a party: drink. everybody's doing it, anyway. i'm trying hard to fit in, you know. but please don't take it against me that i don't have the gastrointestinal tracts for alcohol. i won't take it against those who do have them, too. cool na kung cool. but i just came to be with friends.

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i just got home from a friend's party (all with alcohol and loud music) and i realized(for the nth time around), i'm no party person, at all. yep, i tried talking to people who come up to me and introduce themselves. but the conversation ended there. i can't make it any more longer than the 30 second "yoroshiku. my name's dawn," drill. i ended up sitting on the couch for as long as i can remember, watching MTV VMA's, eating chips and drinking my kahlua and milk drink made an hour ago, while watching other people pour second or perhaps their third helpings of beer and chatting with themselves. bored, while everybody else had something to do.

i remember one crazy time when we dressed up for a night of partying supposedly with MTV in shibuya. but since we were below 20, we weren't allowed to get in. so we headed for another club instead. when the door opened, there goes the small room, with dim yet flashing lights, crammed with sweaty and drunk people, dancing (dirty dancing?) to the loudest music i've ever heard. our ticket came with a cup of vodka, or so i thought. i got it anyway just to look like i belong. haha we had our little spot in the middle of the dancefloor, me and my friends forming a little circle. for a while i enjoyed the dancing but things changed so fast. here goes a guy or two, slowly dancing their way nearer to our circle. maygawd. why do they have to dance so close to you? worse, why behind you? total panic. it didn't do me good. i was wishing i had my boyfriend there, i'd feel safer that way. but he was not there and i'm freaking out. haha good thing, the club had a separate room for the girls only. a big, muscled guy was guarding the entrance to the room to ensure it remains for girls only. it was my last resort to escape the horrors of the dancefloor. so, i stayed there, sat down, gave my high-heeled feet a break and watched tv for the rest of the night. (or should i say, dawn?).

don't get me wrong, i have nothing against partyphiles. it's their way of having fun. and i've got dozens of friends who looove to party. it's just that i can't get the hang of the mixture of alcohol+deafening music+super close range dancing+strangers (read: drunk strangers) in one room. i enjoy a lot things and i enjoy them with friends; sports, shopping, traveling, eating, etc.

but definitely, partying is not for me.

4 days of happiness

i've been off for the past weeks. acads here and there, people here and there. blah blah. i can go on ranting for as long as i want. i tried eating my way out of it, finishing 1 chocolate cake roll in 10 minutes, 2 in 30, 15 pieces of mandarins, pringles, bento and peach tea on the sides. All, while watching 24 from sundown until sundown. Oh, hibernation lifestyle in the confines of my humble cave. But it didn't work for me when i thought it would. crazy. crazy.

but the past 4 days have been happy days, thank God. the Lord's rainbow after the rain.

sunday: papa called from home and woke me up at around noon just to let me hear Jay Durias singing the OST of a new teleserye in ASAP. "langit sa 'yong tabi.. la la la la la..." Oh, i love my family. They know how to make me squeal and smile like a fool. good thing, i'll see them real soon and i'm looking forward to it.

monday: the last day of class. i still have a nihongo exam next week though, but it's officially over. yeba!

tuesday: i was an hour late but it didn't matter anyway. we went ice sakting in aka renga, a first time for me. woohoo. 'di ako natumba, infairness. after that, we had ice cream in a store called cold stone,where they sing while they make the ice cream. cute. then, we had purikura and pictorials in MM21. laughtrip and child-like fun. talking about flushing away all the negativity in and around me. it worked.

wednesday: still awake and already 6:30 am, sitting by the sliding doors of my room while watching my last 2 episodes of 24, my eyes caught sight of drops outside. OMG! i've been waiting for this for 19 years! SNOW!!!! i stood there, outside my veranda in my PJ's, a jacket and my camera in one hand, letting the snow fall on my hair which looked liked big flakes of dandruff. haha i stood there, shivering and teary eyed, watching the rooftops change its color from brown and blue to white, watching everything turn to white and wishing it would never stop.

Thank you, Lord.

PS: I placed a bowl outside while it snowed. I have snow water! haha

greetings from SAORI... :)

My day started out wrong. Walang tulog kasi gumawa ng outline for my ever long report about Mr. Darcy. I had to go to school early to finish it. There goes Dawn, 8 in the morning, walking towards the bus stop. I met Yama there, naghihintay din ng bus. Hi dito, hello dun. Turns out, maaga din siya kasi she still has an unfinished report to do. We were not ourselves that moment, stress just overpowered our usually enthusiastic conversations. Fast forward, we arrived at the station, got into the train, still dull and silent and falling halfway asleep. We reached futamatagawa station and changed trains.

"Dawn! Dawn! Dawn! I have something to show you!"

"Nani ga? Bikkurishita, Yama-chan!" ("unsa man? nakuratan ba ya ko!")

Yama just got lost in the rush hour exodus of people. Next few moments...
She opens her folder and looks for something. She finds it and hands it over to me. I got excited. What could that small paper be?

"My friend got this for me. I'll give it to you. pu re zen to desu."

The moment I saw the word TORAY, I knew what Yama just gave me. An autograph from no less than

木村　沙織　(Saori Kimura)

(FYI: Saori plays as wing spiker of the Japan National Team. She also plays with Toray Arrows in the Japan V-League.)

With a Dawn smile (the smile nung una ko na meet face to face ang Southborder... haha You can imagine.. :) ), I managed to mutter:

"Really?? 本当　に　嬉しい!!!!!! ありがとう!!!

(happy ako masyado!!! SALAMAT!!!)

"Don't smile that big during your classes, ok? hehe"

"*Laughs* arigatou!!!! arigatou!!!! arigatou!!!!"

That made my day start all over again. *wink!

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Thanks to Yama, i'm craving for volleyball again.. haha Here's a clip of Japan's game versus Poland during the World Cup 2007; 5 sets cramped in 11 minutes.. Japan's most exciting game in 2007, I should say. :) Enjoy!

what shall i call you?

I'm doing my last and most difficult paper for my Pride and Prejudice class and by way of closing our books, here's a script of the alternate US ending of the 2005 movie Pride and Prejudice. Goodbye Darcy. Certainly, vanity, not pride had been your folly.

darcy: and what shall i call you when i'm crossed? mrs. darcy?

elizabeth: no. you may only call me mrs. darcy when you are completely, perfectly and incandescently happy.

darcy: and how are you this evening, MRS. DARCY?

mrs. darcy... mrs. darcy... mrs. darcy...

* Pride and Prejudice. DVD. Universal Studios, 2005

静か な

what is with the silence, Nelly C.?
no, i'm not mad nor scared.
i'm not asking why, not judging how
but i am hoping you'd answer anyway.

random. oh so random.

i just had to write something. bear with me.

i was reading the january 2008 US edition of the marie claire magazine, with a pregnant and a still sexy christina aguilera on the cover. it reminded me of my very first magazine 7 or 8 years ago, with a younger aguilera riding a motorcycle on the cover. how nostalgic. i miss my mags.

i'm a confessed late-bloomer fanatic of 24 and of tony and michelle's twists and turns. sleepless nights are so fun. but too bad my chase edmunds is nowhere to be found after the 3rd season. :(

hi chase! :)

so, they're working hard to make yokohama a creative city. artists and creators who decide to live here get a subsidy based on criteria. that's good. i'd like another walk of yokohama before i leave.

marianne, cris and nami went out for mister donuts after class. i regret i didn't go with them. i realized, i'm craving for a ポン　デ　ドボル　ショコラー. yum.

4 more reports to go and i'm done with my so-called japanese academic life. but still, i don't want to start making them. not yet. lazy dawn. i'd rather play.

and speaking of that, seiko and me are the unbeaten champs in our badminton class. haha. new career. but volleyball will always be my いちばん and numero uno.

i'm still thinking about our high school batch reunion. i really missed a lot of fun. and my bestfriends are planning to get together again soon in manila. i'm dying of envy. again. humanda kayo pag balik ko dyan!

the other day, i had the strong urge to look up for probable med schools in the UK. it somewhat changed my plans. Master course in Medical Microbiology first before of getting an MD. University of Birmingham and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, here I come! :)

i have to go. it's getting late and it's super cold outside. i forgot my jacket. haha good luck scoliotic back. may you not kill me with pain. i've had enough of the it's-a-girls-thing-kind-of-pain yesterday.

room matters

i feel so good and beaming with pride that i can now show off my room to anyone who knocks at my door...


it had cost me two tablets of mefenamic acid and a day...


hooray. :)

New Year, New Goals

Yokoso 2008!

Goals to keep me busy with. :)

1) have my lazy tooth extracted.
-it sounds painful but I have to. Dentist's advice.

2) learn how to drive.
-and get a driver's license. I'm way over 18 anyway. haha

3) dance again.
-i regret that i gave up my love for dance when i entered college but
i want to do it again and lose weight on the sides. haha

4) fight for my scholarship key.
-i need a 3.7 this first sem of 2008 to get a key. I don't how I will do it
with 4 majors and a physics class but I will. I should.

5) quality time with family.
-i've been away for a year and i miss them. I've got a lot of catching
up to do. Hear, hear about the Manila trip, ma! hehe

6) take NMAT on december.
-this is the first step to enter medical school. And to get into the best
medical schools, at least an NMAT score of 90 percentile is required.

7) formulate a sensible and feasible thesis proposal.
-the horror of all horrors of college life, secondary to finding a job
atleast. I hope I'll make a good one 'coz a BPI-DOST award is waiting.

8) visit QC.
-It will be my 20th birthday present for myself: to visit QC on my own. And
be with jun and my closest friends for a few days. Hello, Puerto!

*May we all have a blessed 2008! :)