quaint little rutted bucket



Thursday, January 27, 2005

A Gentleman's Perfect Courtship

Ok, I have to make a confession: I never really had 'Creative Writing' for my LEAP class, despite what I have been telling people. In reality, what I had was what this post's title states. Maybe I just told people I was taking up creative writing as I was afraid to let people know that this class was just a lame excuse for all the insecurities I still have with women. (Gee, I feel a lot better already, having gotten that out of my system. Bwahahah.)

I chose it out of curiosity. Honestly. :) Just a taking a quick look at the topic's description on My.LaSalle gives you an idea that this class would be something frank, practical and can be used in real life... and that's what drew me into it.

Boy, how wrong was I.

I wasn't at all prepared as to what the class would be having: a class on practical wisdom on relationships, combined with reasonable Christian morality. There was no trace whatsoever on how to court a woman; instead, we spent three hours discussing what courtship really is, its importance to both the male and the female in the relatioship, and its role in determining how the whole thing will ultimately turn out later on in life, even determining how a marriage will fare in the future.

Sounds interesting? Indeed. While it did not have any of the things the class anticipated, we were greeted with what love really is: sacrifice, and that a relationship was more of a growing experience above anything else. (Have I read this somewhere before? Oh yes: M. Scott Peck's "The Road Less Travelled." :o) Wisdom from an old-timer who seem to know everything there is to know about love and relationships. Pragmatic advice on almost every aspect of an intimate relationship: loyalty, trust and that three-letter word I've been seeing everywhere recently--sex. (Don't get me wrong here: It's all about Paulo Coelho's "Eleven Minutes", a novel about the struggles of a prostitute, along with all the
adult-themed discussion.)

While I did not learn anything practical about delivering the message of love, the lecture did gave us a nice insight into the realities and the ideals of the society we now live in.

If only I had somebody to practice these on.

Oh well. Maybe after I graduate. Maybe. :D

Sunday, January 16, 2005

For the Kids 2005



Alvin with his mum (left).


And it happened: the day I had much anxiety about. Dean and I finally got to spend a day with Alvin and his mum. We got to know Alvin better today than we ever did when we visited him back in his school at Barrio Obrero Elementary School. He was very lively and active--here I am, totally exhausted having spent more than half of the day with him, playing games and stuff.

Alvin, as I may have posted here before, is a special child: he has been diagnosed of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a condition that is characterized by excessive, almost endless physical activity, restlessness, rapid speech, prolific memory and the constant need for touch. Alvin exhibits all of them.



Dean and Alvin.


Alvin was surely a challenge to keep up with. I am very grateful that COSCA assigned Alvin to not only one Lasallian volunteer, but to two, as he likes pacing about. You could only imagine the distance he went after being set free on DLSU's football field. ;-)

Once you learn and pretty much figure out how to deal with Alvin, everything went quite well. (except for his tenacity for pinching people. bad. really bad. my arms suffered much from his repeated pinching.) He liked talking about the Clusivol ad (bawal magkasakit) and some weird and violent news stuff he often hears and sees on TV. Proof that children are indeed affected by the overly sensationalized crimes on primetime news on the local networks. :-D

The day ended with both and Dean and I tired, but much satisfied with how everything turned out. Yes, it was excessively tiring and challenging (I had to occasionally remind myself that Alvin is just a child, and a special one at that.) but it was worth it. The experience of sharing your time and effort with a child that is likely to be ostracized by society in the future is wonderful. I look forward to meeting another Alvin again in the future... :-)

Did I mention Alvin liked prancing about? See below.



Alvin dancing to 'Totoy Bibo.' :-))

Friday, January 14, 2005

First post

Ah. My first post for this term and this year. Wonderful, ain't it? 2005. Makes me feel older already. :)

Anyway, I'm sorry for the lack of posting recently. Holiday season just came and gone, so I had to have this so-called thing called "life" for sometime. (Hahah.)

Another term just started and I have a load of 18 units this term. Here, take a gander:

Subject/s
Day/s
Time
ACADWRI TH 0940 - 1110
ARTAPRE MWF 0920 - 1020
DEVGROW MWF 1140 - 1240
ENGLTRI TH 1120 - 1250
GRAMCO1 TH 0800 - 0930
MEASDEV MWF 1030 - 1130

Half-day classes galore. (Unfortunately, kung kailan ako half-day, ngayon naman sya hindi. :(

ACADWRI: After three THs, we haven't had a meeting in this one yet. I dunno about the DEAL people, but somebody ought to come next week or we're all screwed. :D

ARTAPRE: High school-ish pedagogy is the highlight of this class, but overall, its fine with me. I'm excited as hell to learn about art, but this high-and-mighty guy sitting next to me's pretty intimidating.

DEVGROW: Now this is a fun, if not a noisy, class. After taking genpsyc last term and having touched on growth and maturation, this was something I find much interest in. Keep 'em coming.

ENGLTRI: Scary, scary. If there was any class I ought to have fears about, this maybe it. I'm a bit of a klutz when it comes to oral delivery in English, and this class just forces me to do just that. Oh well. Last gen ed english course for me, so I should do good here. I'm looking into books that may be of help in this one, but sadly, most of them are quite expensive.

GRAMCO1: Under Ms. Calero, who, if she hadn't told me in class, was the anonymous person who left a comment in an entry of last month's. :) Grammar class. Can't say anything so far; we haven't had any serious discussions of things concerning it yet. But I think I'll like this class.

MEASDEV: Sir Jasper! (masaya na naman to!) David and I seem to love this guy. Measurement and evaluation class; in other words, all things concerned with grading and more particularly, testing. Woot. I get to learn how teachers make exams.

If there's anything I like about this sched, its the relative freedom it affords me after my classes. (And that, ehem, I get to see ******* after her classes. :) I also have the time to go home early, avoiding the rush, and just chill before working on any standing schoolwork. That way, burnout is minimized a lot.

That's all for now.