Althea Writes Here

Student: "Pantry is underwear?" He was referring to this sentence from an article on scent I sent him: "So an odor similar to that of your grandmother's pantry might be more quickly associated with your memories of that place than a similar sight, which might be more generalized." I ended up laughing, and he said, "Stop laughing!" so I explained the mistake for him, and it was his turn to laugh.

Dear God, You know who I always pray for, and you know how I always ask you to hold everyone I love and loved in the palm of your hand. Tonight, hold us a little bit tighter. Me, especially. I want to move forward without looking back, but it seems like something is always pulling me backwards. I don't want to be mean anymore; I don't want to keep protecting myself. I want to be obedient. But I don't see what I have to do. Every time I talk to him, it takes me one day to pull myself back together. Show me what to do. Amen.

Me: So, how did you find this lesson? Him: Perfect. Me: Oh, good, good. Him: You're perfect. He's not very fluent yet, but I'll take my ego boost where I can find it!

Beginning September 16 and up until November 30, I'll be working two extra hours per work day. I signed up for it for two reasons. First, the extra cash would be good for Christmas. Second, I really have nothing better to do past midnight and I can't sleep until around 2 or 3am anyway, so might as well make money. I'm trying to imagine what my schedule would be like for most of the -ber months in the light of these changes. I still have some side jobs writing and editing, and while I've sort of gotten the groove of balancing those with my current schedule, I think I'm going to have to schedule things a little tighter. Two hours, after all, are two hours. Before I started teaching English, I'd never thought of time in parcels. In fact, I'd never wanted to. In my first job (six months at a dotcom, handling talk show websites), I only thought of time in terms of when the shows would start. In my second job as a newspaper supplements writer for The Philippine

The challenge in acquiring a new habit--or, more precisely, stripping away a bad one--is that sometimes making the necessary adjustments takes a lesser priority than making someone happy and comfortable. I spent the weekend with Keona, a.k.a. The Baby My Sister Had For Me. On Saturday, we went to see C3PO and the Storm Troopers in Southmall (I was Auntie mode all the way). Before that, we had lunch with Tita Emily. Now, Southmall doesn't have a lot of kid-friendly restaurants (read: a restaurant a kid could roam around in that's not so traumatic for the Auntie), so we ended up in Shakey's, as usual. And because we were in Shakey's, of course I ate fried chicken, thereby breaking my barely a week-old resolution. At least I didn't give in to the pepperoni pizza; I ordered my own Friday's Special. The good news is that I had to run around Southmall, chasing after Keona, or carry her while shopping, so I had plenty of exercise. The bad news is, for dinner, my sist

I haven't posted any of these lately. It's not like I haven't been getting any funny, cute, memorable moments; I just got addicted to Plurking , so I sort of neglected blogging for a while. But I had some funny exchanges today, courtesy of my most quotable learner. Act 1: Saved by the bell I'd been having trouble with the phone, and I wasn't sure my call was getting through. Me: Did the you hear the phone ring? Learner: Yes, it belled for only one second. Me: Belled? Do you say "belled" for a phone? Learner: Yes. No. Yes... (He'd figured out the correct answer by now.) Me: Yes? Learner: In France, we have giant bells on our phones ... Me: Sure, maybe in the sixties? Learner: You are calling the sixties ... Act 2: Take that! Me: So, using discourse markers for "logical consequence," tell me how you got into IT. Learner: I was so passionate about computers, so I really wanted to take in IT. Me: Um, that's a lit

Beginning this year, I said I would start one habit a month. I tried, sometimes succeeded, and mostly failed. All in all, though, I'm still pretty much ahead because compared to the other years I made a gazillion resolutions and kept none, I've got three habits that feel like second nature now, and I'm seriously working on a fourth and a fifth. And it's a new month again, so it's time I start a new habit. I purposely skipped August because I knew I was going to Cebu and I'll be damned if I don't have my share of lechon. I've got pictures of my lovely vacation here and here and here . I'm pretty proud of myself, because it's my second long vacation this year. :) I did say this year's theme was love. So I've gone and come back, and what do I have to show for it? Happy, happy memories. A new love for snorkeling. A glowing tan that ceased to glow after three days (apparently, my natural skin color is really a little bit on the fair side).