So how should I do this? It would be impossible to write about my 2010 without sounding emotional yet an overanalyzed tirade of "award shows"-like appreciation. It was just a rollercoaster of extreme events that happened one after another.
WINTER (JANUARY - FEBRUARY)
This year started with me flying to Vancouver to have a 10-day review and write the PEBC Evaluating Exam. This time also served as the trial that would have us warm up to each other for our future living situation. After writing the exam, the waitea group decided to ditch the usual shopping in the downtown experience (sorry ate kel) and decided to take our adventure to the next level by exploring the roads, lakes and mountains to see the wonderful Capilano bridge. Later that day, we flew back to Manila to start the grueling waiting period.
SUMMER (FEBRUARY- APRIL)
Finally the results came out and everything suddenly became a blur. A whirlwind of events from acquiring documents to saying goodbye to people who I will surely miss later that year to shopping for a new wardrobe, this months were pretty hectic. It started with 896** being <3 and continued to getting our medical exam and documents done. I went to Tarlac to spend a little quality time with my grandfather and aunt, capture the sweet moments I can have left with them and took them to their doctors. Weeks later, I went back only to vista verde only to find out my mom turned into a whole shopaholic monster when she got too happy swiping her cards buying me TOO MANY STUFF. I ended up leaving half of them. I then got sick because of the weather and had to stay home for a couple of weeks while maximizing my days left serving the media ministry in church. I actually had fun doing presentations for Holy Week events, going to mass everyday and just plain catching up with my faith. Of course kpop was not totally out of the story, Dimples had hooked me up with suju presscon passes and a backstage sneak peak. Lucky for me, the sneak peak happened because i couldn't go due to my grandfather being rushed to the ICU on Good Friday. We spent the night in the hospital going back on Black Saturday and doing the whole Easter Sunday/Salubong run while waiting for my titos and titas to drive my ever so strong lolo back to vista verde. One my highlights this season was my cousin and lolo Cito being flown from Surigao/Cagayan de Oro to bid goodbye to me. Yup first time to ever meet Valdex and considered ourselves tour guides for 2 weeks. Oh did I mention that my dad came to see me too? Yup, after a good 2 and a half weeks we had to send him off to the airport again. Coincidentally, Tita Ruby's flight to the Philippines (had to rush back to Mla just in case my gramps didn't make it) was on the same date. Finally, I had to say goodbye to my other gramps and Valdex and got my departure date a little later that week. And after 3 days I hopped on to a plane to Canada. But before that an impromptu despedida parties separate for the friends who were practically family, college/high school friends, family and catechetical/media ministries.
SPRING (APRIL- JUNE)
And it was time to explore new grounds! Toronto baby!! CPS I started. PJ, mickey and I flew together with the Zellers group (Liezel, Gail, Michella, Mai, Zsa-zsa) to find ourselves cutting it close to the start of classes. Extremely jet lagged, we dragged ourselves to class the next day. A week later, Master J, Sheng and Russ followed and days apart, Raema, Irish and Jaira arrived. And batch 17 was finally complete. So we stroll in on the first day and who do i find? It's ste and joy(!) with their new friend, ken. So for the next few months, we bonded over NI's, ME's and the scarcity of EE's on our role plays, bundles and bundles of slides to read with what became our best friends our TC! oh yes therapeutic choices when did you ever leave our side? =)) Despite the load, we were able to squeeze in a little fun in our lives, discovering our love for the diversity of our palate preference. oh yes, FOOD! Who wouldn't have taken advantage of what seemed to be the melting pot of cultures in Spadina. So korean restaurant after korean restaurant, our hearts fell in love for Ka Chi.
SUMMER AGAIN (JUNE- JULY)
The terror of role playing ended in a breezy, summer day where we (+our new found friend, Jo) played with water and what seemed to be the promise of a good summer run. Then started the full blown, self tour of Ontario. I went from city to city, hopped on every bus, train, boat we could get our paws on, thinned the soles of our sneakers and burned a whole lot of calories strolling around town with my constant walking buddy, ken. Tugging along people who were game at joining the lengthy walks, it started with Wonderland celebrating canada day in harbourfront with jaira, joy, ste and mickey to center island the monday after, then crashed at raema's aunt's couch i proclaimed was my spot to the endless eat all you can's to visiting high park and strawberry picking in Niagara, to unionville the place for the elderly to the sunset in woodbine beach to ontario science center and back to center island to ontario's place, esplanade and the flatiron building in st lawrence market to that impromptu GO train trip to Hamilton, Vaughn mills to the barbeque at ate Glo's house to the Toronto pass tour seeing Royal Ontario Museum to CN tower to Casa Loma to four seasons theatre to watch Ms Saigon to Toronto Zoo and finally to Wonderland again this time with the people who were in hiatus in the states (Joy) or busy packing her things to move (Ste)! Oh yes, if that sounded like fun, you should have been there to experience THE fun.
FALL (JULY- OCTOBER)
It was the start of a new season indeed and new season means new set of emotions. I was starting to miss home as my birthday was nearing but this season started with CPS II that seemed to be going thrice as fast as CPS I went. Role playing became twice as intense as there were already real actors to deal with and a whole new concept of self care. August came and the fear of celebrating my first birthday away from home was creeping toward me. But it was all good as the eve of my birthday was celebrated with my family skyping/dancing/showing me my cake and ended with lighting sparklers, celebrating my love for planes by flying the paper ones and goofing around balloons with raema, mickey, irish, PJ, sheng and Ken at our backyard. The real birthday started with me going to church in one of the most peaceful cathedral's I've ever been to in my whole life (St. Michael's), eating a greek breakfast, running to school to finish my "wrong medication" role plays, ended with blowing the candles of my big mac and having possession of my FIRST EVER HAPPY MEAL. oh what a day which ended with sheng surprising mickey and I with an ice cream cake. As CPS II rolled, I got even more stressed and bored with my life so with my the little extra time I got from my school work, we either walked our feet off with the view of the skyline of toronto or mini-inukshuks or threw our frustrations off with pebbles. Of course exploring new cuisine never left our premises as joy, ste, ken and our new eating buddy, Kasin paraded through the streets looking for new dishes that would entice our taste buds. October meant it was time to say goodbye. As the waitea group was juggling between studying and packing, after a month of stress, we had enough of it and partied at Tita's house for our despedida/Raema's birthday party. It ended in a bittersweet note as we were glad to have had the Zellers people as our friends it was really hard to bid goodbye to them including the people we have met in our CPS class like Liang, Naoya and of course my "dad" in class Yaser. So after 5 hours in a plane with Chi, we were finally in Vancouver.
WINTER AGAIN (OCTOBER-DECEMBER)
After a whole week of adapting to new environment and dealing with the little knowledge we have of interior design. November started which just meant one thing, MCQ's were days away. On the third and fourth of this month we sat through 8 hours for the written part of the "boards exam" of pharmacy in canada. Then we were suddenly free. And the overanalyzing, workaholic little freak that I am who can't deal with the nothingness to do, I got panic attacks. Thanks to the people here in surrey gardens, my family, and the people who have checked in on me through the internet whether it was skyping, yming or twittering (warning: name dropping as token of my appreciation) Thanks to Irish, Sheng, PJ, Clae, Cathe, Dimples, Monik, Kel, Doc Beegee, Anna May, Raema, Mickey and Ken, I survived this whole panic episode until finally good news (for me) came about starting our volunteer work. So Save on Foods Willoughby #992 had no choice but to open their arms to me and feed my clueless brain and train me for i guess what you can call my future full time job. Days before christmas, we received bittersweet news about our results where it was just the most heartbreaking thing to wish for everyone else to have been in the same place as me. Celebrating christmas away from home has proved to be the most unconventional way to spend it. Of course for firsts, Tita Ruby sent me a package all the way from the states just to make sure I get something to open this yuletide season and I sent a package whose shipping was a whole lot more expensive than whatever was in it to the my parents and sister just so they could feel my presence for christmas. It was my first time to spend christmas in bed but for a good reason. After work, I went to the Tagalog Christmas Eve mass which was a total tearjerker especially after singing my favorite song "Ito ang araw". Then, I pulled an all nighter on christmas eve to talk to nacpil-ordona clan. All in all, both ends tried their best to bridge the gap through a skype-christmas party (thank God for technology!) [pwede na ba akong endorser ng skype]
And so this year was a year of ties. Nope not neckties it just proved that friendship can go a long way if you ARE actually a long way from home. So the new found friends, need i still mention them? (Liezel, Gail, Michella, Mai, Zsa-zsa, Jaira, Master J, Russ and Donna, Ate Glo and Ate Jo, Joy and Ste waitea people (paulit ulit!) you guys just enumerate yourselves here haha. oh fine fine Raema, Mickey, Sheng, Irish and PJ; to the friends who have missed me dearly (HAHA.) and to the friends who I have missed dearly too; to the friends who have been miles away from me and yet turned into family Nik, Dimples, Ikai, Bernice, Cathe, Ken and Clae; to my family (extended or immediate) especially to sam who i know misses me because of the lack of patron tequila nights and of course my sister who ALSO keeps missing me and projects it by typing tear-jerking statuses over her facebook account and of course to God, I have all to thank for this blissful yet one heck of a year it was. And here's to 2011 where I hopefully get licensed and finish this calvary of getting pseudo-salaries, to having a way way better year and to more whacked adventures than 2010. cheers!
