soloproject

My roommates: Gustavo (Brazil), me (Philippines, in case you didn't know), Gordan (Croatia), Angelica (Columbia), Ana (Romania)...and when our powers combine, we call Captain Planet.


I owe you guys some stories...but let me warn you: India is always like, 100% ON all the time. So much happening all at once and constantly and I'm trying my darnedest to keep up with everything that is going on. However, I am proud to tell everyone that right now I am anxiety-free! This is because I have finally completed the last hurdle of living here, which is the Foreigner Registration. Anyone who is living or working here for more than 180 days has to wait in agony at this office to register their existence. You don't need to do it if you are staying for a short time or if you have a tourist visa but otherwise, there you go.

Before that, Ana, my roommate and I had a harrowing Monday where we went to register our flat (something you need as part of the papers you present to the FRRO) at the police station. You'd think we'd go to one but we ended up going to SIX. Now, our broker is supposed to help us with this but he is so useless and he didn't help us at all. The landlady was even less help and in the end, after hours of circling in the course of two days, we had our paper stamped.

Done? Yes. Legally? Hell no. At the sixth station, Ana and I didn't even show our faces. Martin the broker basically showed up, faked our papers and paid the police to get it done. I went to work and then I went home in a fit of worry because of casually this was accomplished. But in the end, I held my breath for six hours at the FRRO on Tuesday and it was done in the end. Now I can move on with actual things!

Thursday night, last week was end of Ramadan, so Happy Eid! A bunch of co-workers and I went to an area called Mohd Ali Rd to eat the most incredible street food. To get in as much of it as we could, we stopped at every place and had a little bit. The highlight was for me, this:


Braiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiins. Mutton brains. DELICIOUS.

The Friday before that, we had a flat party that was open house. Tons of people came, which was great. Our flat, two weeks old, wasn't furnished but there were plenty of drinks and we went to a club after so it was all good. I met a lot of great people to hang out with. It was the actual day of end of Ramadan (Eid) and the night before the start of Ganapati, so everyone was at the flat partying, outside, the locals were setting off fireworks and playing music and drumming.




Saturday, we went to Colaba which is the old Mumbai and we had a market and street dancing and eating--unfortunately, I didn't get to shop as much as I wanted to! Next day off (I have odd days off, Saturday and Monday) on Monday, I'm going to town to get some shopping and bring things to the post office. I want to get some scarves and some clothing for myself because I brought a lot less clothing then I thought I did...but it doesn't matter because the textile here in India is beautiful and so cheap. I plan to walk around to orient myself, as it is one of my goals here in India.




Later that Saturday night, we met with even more people to go look at more Ganeshas in the Bandra area and then have some dinner before going home. This is the story of the ill-fated beef burger. Let me tell you something incredibly ironic...I come to India. I spend two weeks just stuffing myself with parathas, chapatis, biryani, paneers, butter chicken, koftas, curries, dosas, everything imaginable from side restaurants to street hawkers and I feel fantastic. And then I go to this place called "Steakhouse", have a beef burger and spend the entire night vomiting. It was horrible old beef, I think and beef is very hard to find for obvious reasons but that was my 200 rupee vomit burger story.


Happily eating shawarma! Not a beef burger in sight!

Sunday, we were supposed to get on a ferry to go to Elephanta Island but I was way too sick to get up in the morning. But we welcomed a new roommate just hours before that at like 3 AM, sometime between me running to the bathroom to throw up and then giving up with a bucket next to my bed. I felt bad because I usually have to work on Sundays (such BS, the only office policy I really dislike) and in the end it was totally wasted on me being sick, us going to a MALL and then trudging for hours looking for the landlady's place in a futile attempt to meet her, somewhere in the boondocks of Goregaon.

And with story, I have circled back to the beginning of this entry! Go me! Happy things now: last night, I was invited to come and see Ganesh altar at the homes of some of my co-workers. And the feeling that came with it was so good...there is a lot of life in India that is so fundamentally close to life in Manila. While I bore to death sometimes listening to my European roommates complain to death about the heat, the smell, the mosquitos...I always feel like they are missing the goddamn point of being here. Work opportunity, sure. Cultural exposure, yes. While some are handling it better than others, I understand that it's not the same. But for me, personally, I was happy to go to their homes and be in a place that is so so obviously lived in and warm with family. There is more happening this week, especially on the weekend but don't forget, my India tumblr is always updated with (mostly just) pictures.

Tomorrow is my first day off from work. I've only started working this week, since last Wednesday and it's been half busy but also fun. I don't think people quite understand how interesting Implementation Service is...It sounds boring from that viewpoint but to originate a project out of nothing is not for the faint of heart. And while you may think I just said that as a compliment to myself, it's not that easy either! There's research involved, planning, curriculum design to begin with and then onwards to demonstration, presentation, promotion, scheduling, delivery. I was surprised at the actual work people expect me to do here but at the same time, I'm thrilled to be on my own, to meet interesting people and be in an interesting city.

Okay, so lots of people back home have expressed shock at my moving to Mumbai but trust me, it's not a decision made lightly. Impulsively, sure, but lightly? Not at all. People have this preconcieved notion that India is a dangerous, savage land and it's not. Take Manila, multiply it a ten times in density and then coat it in spice and mystery and there you have it.

Two years ago, I wrote an article in the paper called "Same, Same" for the Philippine Daily Inquirer and addressed sameness among Asians based on a trek my sister and I took through Thailand-Cambodia-Vietnam. Sometime soon, I'd like to think about it again after having visited Spain and write that down but since my trip to India kind of interrupted that and my thoughts these days are full of this subcontinent, let's just skip ahead to sameness here.

I thought I would be overwhelmed by people, food, general cultural insanity but everywhere I go, I am only surrounded by opportunity and beauty. Some people are tough but so long as they are fair, it's not problem. Some people are less-fortunate but they are alive. Filipinos and Indians are the same in the sense that many of them are hard-working, relentlessly cheerful, grudgingly polite, spiritual and respectful of their elders and adore their young. Same zest for life, same spontaneity, same refusal to accept ugliness. Same affinity for rolling with uncontrollable situations!

Filipinos should learn to be as proud of their own culture as Indians are. Everywhere you look here, it is Indian without a doubt. It doesn't matter what era or colonizer has set upon this land, Indians have not allowed it to distill their culture as much as I think Filipinos sometimes have. On the other hand, Indian people could learn a little bit from Filipino sense of cleanliness and efficiency. Sometimes to get things done here, you have to lean and lean hard and sometimes, taking care of official things is bureaucratic madness.

With that in mind, adjusting to India was not as hard as I thought it would be. It's a matter of keeping an open mind, accepting differences and just keeping a cool head. The best advice I'd gotten before I left was "don't let it get to you" but I gotta say, India's gotten to me and I'm glad I have a year to explore here. Who knows what else I'll learn?

Sorry for the radio silence!!! I've been busy all week preparing for my move to India. I'm actually in the Singapore Changi airport awaiting my boarding time. I arrived in SG sometime after midnight only to find awesome and mushrooms waiting for me at the gate.

They fed me and kept me company all night until check in and they gave me Eleven's sonic screwdriver FOR LUCK!!!

Thank you so much guys and I will be on more regularly by next week. :D

Pictures to come. My family gave me a badass new camera so there is that to look forward too.

LOVE YOU ALL

So many awesome tumblr pictures of Arthur and Eames (or JGL and my man T-Hard) -- I love this idea of shooping scaps from their movies together. It gave me tons of AU ideas so I compiled a whole bunch of them and made a kind of "reversebang" thinking up plots based on the pictures. Everyone's free to give their ideas too--maybe when I'm done with my current projects, I'll take a crack at some of these.

I take none of the credit for these pictures!

LINKED TO MY LJ! ALL SFW.

Stupidly, I was too lazy to figure out how all the coding for DW was gonna be so I'll just link back to LJ anyway.

HEY GUYS GUESS WHAT??

So, my India visa has been approved.

I've handed in my resignation.

I'm ready to start my training internship in Mumbai!!!

I'm so excited!!!

And scared.

And nervous.

:D

It's sister sunday and Abbi and I are at a spa. If you don't have a book or whatever they lend you a iPad!!! That's how i am updating right now. I won't lie...it's pretty fucking cool.

We also have donuts!

Watch it. You won't regret it.

Nickelodeon has greenlit a continuation of its wildly popular animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender from creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. This would be the “Untitled Avatar the Last Airbender Project” that cropped up in early May.

Tentatively titled The Legend of Korra, the new series takes place 70 years after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and follows the adventures of Aang’s successor — “a passionate, rebellious and fearless teenaged girl from the Southern Water Tribe named Korra”:

With three of the four elements under her belt (Earth, Water, and Fire), Korra seeks to master the final element, Air. Her quest leads her to the epicenter of the modern “Avatar” world, Republic City — a metropolis that is fueled by steampunk technology. It is a virtual melting pot where benders and non-benders from all nations live and thrive. However, Korra discovers that Republic City is plagued by crime as well as a growing anti-bending revolution that threatens to rip it apart. Under the tutelage of Aang’s son, Tenzin, Korra begins her airbending training while dealing with the dangers at large.

The Legend of Korra will premiere sometime in 2011.

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STEAMPUNK AVATAR??? YES!!!