MY CELL PHONE IS OUT! i dropped it into the water. i'm sorry. please contact me at 800 8 HOSTEL or e-mail me at ulanmaya@gmail.com or leave a message here. maraming salamat!   ¶ 6/26/2006 01:54:00 PM 5 comments

  bunk'd i am sitting in shorts and a 5-year-old san francisco souvenir shirt whose yin and yang design has bled into the back part = my pjs. my brown rubber slippers - flip flops - were new when i bought them a couple of weeks ago, but now i can imagine what it feels like to walk barefoot in the sleepy sloping streets of this island.

nothing here opens before noon. i tried looking for a nearby place to eat sunday, but i had walked to the corner of market and main and there were only the gas stations that provide the usual sodium and sugar in cakes, chips, coffee, drinks and booze. i did find one that sold spam and rice wrapped in a strip of seaweed for $7.95 or so. (i took the one that offered a strip of fish because i had the spam the other day. mmmm.)

since arriving in hawaii i had eaten only two restaurant meals, the type that bursts your tummy and makes it hard, the type where you eat every grain of rice and every strip of sauce, but i had never been hungry. yesterday morning i went looking for food because i wanted something to keep in my cramped hostel room in case, as in chicago, my stomach announces emptiness and it is time to eat.

it's only been six (out of 15) days, but i had never yet been hungry. yay! i'm guessing the hills, streets, roads and activites have kept my body busy enough so that it feasts on body fat instead. hehehehe.

two hostel guests are giving me their frozen pizza, which might last me for a couple of days. they are leaving with the 9:40 a.m. shuttle today and had overpacked food. they live on oahu, the island of honolulu and tall buildings. i took their number because i want them to find us another local place to eat one of these days.

we met at the beach tour yesterday, little beach in makena, i think the beach is called. it is a small enough private beach where people go naked to celebrate... the sun. (you don't have to strip if you don't want to.) there is a circle of percussionists and a guitarist that pound out a relaxed rhythm that travelled across the island. a slim woman comfortable in her nakedness danced facing the surf, her crown of brown and blond swaying in the breeze.

you had to climb a sharp stoned, jagged rock jutting from the sea floor to join little beach. the rock towered three stories high, dividing the beaches and forming a natural barrier from the rest of the island. i met one of these rocks during my last visit with family to the island of guimaras - we secured a beach cove with the large rocks, leaving before the tide rolled in. i hated the kind of scraped this kind of rock gave. in little beach, the cliffs are decorated with trees, or at least their branches, that snake rooted from the cliffs into the beach. natural benches for all.

i met oahu locals ann, holly and the brit jay when holly decided she was hungry. i heard they were going to get food, and stood - no introductions because we were too busy navigating nudists, the surf, the soft brown sand with stone, wood chips and leaves, and the large, jagged rock. we had one of the longest dinners i have had the opportunity to have at fred's mexican restaurant, because the waitress misplaced our ticket. she bought a round of free drinks for us, but i thought we deserved more than just one round.

last night a man with a bloody face joined us at the corner a couple of houses from the hostel, he said someone threw him a bottle because he owed them money for drugs - ice, or crystal meth, or methamphetamine, is staple in these parts. two hours later or so, maybe because i was willing it because i had on these stupidly short shorts i bought at a local mall and one of my favorite tank tops; exposing too much skin; the cops came. they rode with two blue dots on the squad's roof. "you live in the hostel? time to go home," he said.  ¶ 6/26/2006 01:51:00 PM 4 comments

  hawaii all is well.
panicking.
will update soon...  ¶ 6/24/2006 04:48:00 PM 0 comments

 

Omigosh omigosh omigosh i'm in hawaii!!!

  ¶ 6/20/2006 07:49:00 PM 1 comments

  crunch time ambigat-bigat ng maleta ko. three weeks lang naman ako dun. sana maayos na yung laptop kong isa. natapos ko nang magpack para sa summer gimik ko this year, pero parang babaguhin ko pa. sabi ng doctor ko, superdry daw yung eyes ko. yung isa, may ngiti sa dulo ng mga mata niya. sabi niya, ok lang daw ako gumala. gusto ng mom ko, uwi ako agad. ako naman, ayaw pa. syempre, malayo yata yun. kumakain akong mint cookies and cream chocolate malt balls na kulay green speckled with brown. crunchy.  ¶ 6/19/2006 04:53:00 AM 1 comments

  starstruck mama (yo ulanmaya),

Sorry we will be in __________ that weekend for our cd release party on June 24th at Pipeline Cafe to celebrate the release of our brand new album "__________" and to celebrate our win for the Reggae Album of the Year 2006. Those days you will be here will be our resting days (hahahaha) so we'll just be chillin. Maybe you can catch us in __________ on the 24th, if not no worrys... we'll catch you another time. Have a safe trip when you come to __________ ok. Much love always from __________!!!

__________ ,
Lukela

---
AH! AH! AH! THEY WROTE ME BACK! THEY WROTE ME BACK! SUMULAT SILA!!! ahahahaha!

blanks (__________) for added suspense.

but i am so in __________ on the 24th...  ¶ 6/18/2006 05:12:00 AM 1 comments

  look! up in the sky! it's a bird!

it's a plane!

fighting evil and injustice in the land of lincoln!

KAPOW! WOOOF! BAM! THWAKKKK!

dredging muckrake under the silver speakers of the taxpayer-owned millennium park!

WOOSH! ZOP! BOFFF! SPLAT!

who could it be?



it's the signature spectacles! come to save the day! hooray!

---
i got new glasses and i achieved the superhero look. hehehe -  ¶ 6/16/2006 04:08:00 AM 1 comments

  ipagpaliban sa sama at hamak last week a friend of mine was asked to recite this petition for mass. here is a photofinish translation of what she said:

ORIGINAL: for those in our military, who risk their lives, in the service of our nation, and all those affected by the war, may they be protected from evil and harm.

TRANSLATED: para sa ating militar, na nagpapaibang-bayan sa serbisyo ng bayan, at sa lahat ng biktima ng digmaan, nawa'y ipagpaliban sila sa sama at... at...

ulanmaya: ano'ng filipino ng harm?
aiko: hindi mo alam?! oh, no... (begins to look distracted)
ulanmaya: hamak kaya yun?
aiko: i don't know!
ulanmaya: hmm... hamak?
aiko: ate...
ulanmaya: sige, ito na lang yung sabihin mo. tama na yan.

TRANSLATED: para sa ating militar, na nagpapaibang-bayan sa serbisyo ng bayan, at sa lahat ng biktima ng digmaan, nawa'y ipagpaliban sila sa sama at pahamak.

ahahaha... sana tama...  ¶ 6/13/2006 11:02:00 PM 7 comments

  happy neoindependence day! at happy anniversary kina je and d! isang taon na! gling naman. ahahahaha  ¶ 6/12/2006 10:50:00 PM 0 comments

  welcome to manila

the plane landed and seemed to bounce like five times. ahahahaha!

first time i went home, i was shocked about everything. my thought was, after only four years in the u.s., DON'T CALL ME BALIKBAYAN!!! i wasn't yet too hot, but i rounded a corner and there was this photographer who took photos of people who had just arrived. lucky me, he swerved my way and walked backwards to suffer my eyes with this HUGE flash - i haven't showered or fixed my hair in 23 hours, you freaky photog of tired people! nearing baggage claim i saw this booth and a photo of my surprised, confused, UGLY face cried in front of me!!! yuck!!!! i was sweaty, my hair was standing, my clothes wrinkled. i looked like i ate something bad. I WAS SO FAT I LOOKED LIKE A WHALE!

handlers teased me because i had written my first name all over the balikbayan box for my relatives in iloilo. i penned that name onto the box the night before without thinking. it helped me calm down that i'm returning to the homeland by myself. but now everyone in the airport knew my name!

i was apprehensive going outdoors because my name was all over the balikbayan box and i was hot and i had to watch my suitcase and box and there's NO PEOPLE at the waiting shed where relatives send off their wives abroad, and i hadn't arranged for a ride to any of my cousins' houses!!!

all i know's that they know i'm coming. and i had their number but i had no clue how to use those big silver pay phones anymore. i noticed the sun really gold but the sky kinda gray, and a festive vibe to the air. i was just getting used to the vibe when my uncle walked from my right and laughed at what i had just done:

i flew from chicago to manila on my own! yay!!!

before i can't even go to shoppersville on my own.

at the end of my trip my cousins bought me our favorite greenwich pizza - delivery! i think they wanted me to feel safe and comfortable in my now unfamiliar surroundings. at first i thought the pizza was extremely small and the crust too hard, but when i had finished my fourth slice with coke, it was time for storytelling and laughing, just like what our parents had done.

---
salamat, eugene!  ¶ 6/11/2006 04:59:00 PM 0 comments

  sexual violence town hall meeting there was a town hall meeting saturday about an incident that three women can't talk about without crying. i can't talk about it because i'm still too shocked.

i've heard about this issue a couple months ago, but my magnificent magic memory for missing refused to work this time. it stuck in my head and i totally didn't know how to respond to what i've just heard. i wanted to ask people, but i've been taught not to ever rock the boat with unnecessary issues.

but this isn't an unnecessary issue.

i went to the meeting late because my wonderful body loves to tell me to wait, i can't move as fast as you yet. i should have asked for a ride.

the room was split in two big groups and everyone was allowed to speak freely. i was told to join the smaller, quieter group. one counselor said that people who choose to do that have already lost any sense of morality for the moment and they become offenders. that the act cannot be called otherwise but a crime. the circle seemed to be wholly in support of the survivor.

i was confused because i knew the so-called offender, not closely, but near enough to notice he's changed a bit last december, and near enough to notice that he had been struggling with some issues. another close friend of his that i knew wasn't at the meeting.

i hope neither of them will think the organizers are being optimistic. i think everyone's already heard some form of gossip regarding this issue, and the leaders want to admit their ignorance as well, so they sought counselors and a time to meet to understand an issue that's unfortunately runawayly common among asians in the u.s. or elsewhere.

there are some suggestions that filipinos should have their own forum because we supposedly have a totally different history from the rest of asia. (i think they forgot about indonesia, china, korea, vietnam, laos, cambodia and india, some countries also invaded and taken for the west.)

later, the groups broke into a big circle with some young girls totally for the survivors and almost neglecting the offender, as if he's worthy of being beaten to a pulp and left for dead on kimball avenue. we're meeting again sometime in july to think again.

what i liked best about the ideas mentioned was that asia, particularly the philippines, have a colonial past. this might contribute to the taking power and hurting and silence among filipinos.

the issue has evolved to why did the man do this, to what are we going to do about it. the subjects have seemed to vanish into the thin ozone summer chicago air. i'm just glad there's this forum to address concerns.

a couple of months ago the man blast texted a gig he was having at a wine bar that saturday. i always love getting texts from people about anything, options for the weekend included (i try to go to all of them, and woohoo, i wonder why my body gave up on me).

i had changed phones and lost everyone's number except for a few, and i'm assuming that number was his. i've already forgotten what i said to him in reply. but i remember him not ever texting me back.

i've been taught to stay out of things, but the community is doing something different now. they wouldn't have the open town hall meeting if people wanted things to stay the same. back home, i remember silence would be the rule, that the issue would be relegated to the few concerned, to keep it clean and focused. but perhaps this is why evil deeds, actions and issues perpetuate. prize gossip morphs into incredible, unmanageable monsters. but in this case, ideally, with an open invite for everyone for everyone to learn, things will be different.

so, bergamot wine bar, i hope you had chanced to read us online. i hope you are doing well. if you really did it, you had escaped the justice you had to pay. we are thinking and praying for you. ingat.

---

i've been asked to look if there were places and sites that help out offenders in case they actually realized what they've done. i hadn't had a chance to copy these, so here they are, i'll also email these out.

organizations:

Adler school of professional psychology
312-201-5900
has offender counseling
65 e. wcker place on 22th floor
www.adler.edu

human effective living program
HELP
417 S DEARBORN
ste 1100
312-939-6633

ulich
midwest family resources
217 n. jefferson
second floor
312-575-1280
after hours: 773-353-1369
http://www.ucanchicago.org/programs/community/

web sites:
http://www.takebackthenight.org/resources.html
http://www.nycagainstrape.org/
voicesandfaces.org
http://www.911rape.org/

law:
VAWA 2005 (Public Law No: 109-162), the Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP)
http://www.rainn.org/policy/sexual-assault-services-program-2006.html  ¶ 6/10/2006 04:38:00 PM 0 comments

  whe-e-e-e y -- ? "whe-e-e-e y?" is how it sounds when koreans ask each other "what?" in suprise. ahahahaha. because i had to stay put in the house for almost a week - three last week and two this week - i found something else to occupy my time: k drama. heee.

it's so wrong.

there's a new drama out, "hotelier," but i still like "rooftop room cat," the one previous to that because i haven't started it. my tummy twisted when my mother practically predicted "hotelier,"'s end: "ah, this girl will end up with her old nobyo. nobyo nya sin-a sang una pa. korean drama, kasi, always end up with the one they grew up with."

bo?!  ¶ 6/09/2006 02:53:00 PM 0 comments

  e"L"evated verse the CTA is featuring the poems of 25 CHS students on posters on 50 rail stations in the city, all the way to suburban skokie and evanston.

sweet.

(dem li'l grayde school kids get tuh shayne 'afor der tayme. lard haf mercy. dem antichrist closer'n we think!)

par example:

HOMEWORK
by Jonathan R.
Moos Elementary
Locations: Central, Purple Line; Armitage, Brown and Purple Line

My work has been done
to experience the city.
The big city sits in
land. Far away from Chicago
sits Texas. To day
dream far away in a
land of big. Bigger than an
ocean. My eyes fold to
see a suprise so big.
I start to think I own
that place. I feel like I've
even been there.

*hay.* but you know that it's bad when instead of BIGGER you read BLOGGER. ...  ¶ 6/05/2006 02:00:00 AM 0 comments

  back i had staggered back to the housestead happy and all in one piece. thank you all for eating, desserting, talking, laughing and clubbing with me. sorry i can't drink yet, but i still had fun, ehehehehe -  ¶ 6/04/2006 04:05:00 AM 0 comments

  a woman has the age she deserves. - coco chanel so, one of my friends asked me how old i'm turning today. i wanted to laugh, "i'm 21 because it's my first time at the sound bar."

Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to a man. - Trotsky

in third grade - i think it's in third grade - our english teacher made us gather a list of quotes and bind them together into a little book the shape and size of our choosing.

One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them. - Virginia Woolf

i forgot what exactly quotes i gathered, but of course one of them was "a rolling stone gathers no moss." i think we also had a section of filipino quotes, but my memory seems to be playing tricks on me. i don't know how unlikely filipino quotes would be considered in my elementary school lessons.

I am long on ideas, but short on time. I expect to live to be only about a hundred. - Thomas Alva Edison

i wrote my quotes in brown mimeograph paper in blue ink. to save paper, i would fold them in four crosswise, cut and then write on them. and then i would paste the rectangle pieces, one inch from the left, on top of each other, creating sturdy binding and a book about a centimeter thick. i took some scratch manila folders and cut them to fit a cover. i had created a 3 by 8 book one centimeter thick.

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age. - Robert Frost

i was so proud of it because i was so sure no other classmate would have the same quotes. we owned this huge, harbound, two-volume dictionary that seemed to have everything - including a thesaurus and the entire pantheon of greek gods - that my mother ordered from an american publisher.

In the American metaphysic, reality is always material reality, hard, resistant, unformed, impenetrable, and unpleasant. - Lionel Trilling

that summer, i stacked my qoute book in my parent's book case because i didn't know what to do with it anymore. oh, the innocence of a 9-year-old.

Age does not protect you from love, but love to some extent protects you from age. - Jeanne Moreau

working at a media company, quotes are everywhere. the good ones are elegant, timeless, make sense, offer insights, often funny, true, repeated and hella cheesy. ahahahaha.

Live your life and forget your age. - Norman Vincent Peale  ¶ 6/03/2006 04:59:00 PM 0 comments

  it's my birthday!!! hi, all -

it's my birthday, it's my birthday, happy birthday on saturday, june 3, tomorrow.

i'm just celebrating with a couple friends tomorrow, so please feel free to come:

8p to 10p~ _ great seas chinese and korean restaurant, 3254 W. Lawrence Ave., lawrence and kimball. park at the plaza on the corner.

10p to 12 mn~ _ zephyr cafe, 1777 W. Wilson Ave, hermitage and montrose. park at the lot across the cafe.

12mn to ~ _ sound bar. finally. goodness. 226 W. Ontario St., franklin and ontario. i dunno parking here coz i've never been there before. hehehehe.

yes, i am sick (i was hospitalized last week), but i think i can do this and still stagger back to the homestead in one piece.

if you can't make it, it's all good, like all hortillomama events where birthday celebrations are claimed for at least one whole month, there's always next weekend.

dinner and dessert are on me! ;-)  ¶ 6/02/2006 10:37:00 PM 0 comments

  i wish i knew korean rooftop room cat spoofs. i'm sorry. ahahahahahaha!!!

  ¶ 6/01/2006 02:37:00 AM 0 comments