TGIS: Thank God, it's Spring!

Cadigal Greens, University of Sydney (Camperdown Campus)

I just got out from our intensive class in Indoor Environmental Quality class, one of our core (/major) subjects in the Architectural Science program I am currently enrolled in. It's rightly called "intensive" because it's a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. class with an hour lunch break, and 2 or 3 10-minute coffee breaks in between. Luckily today, our prof and two guest lecturers finished early! So here I am, lounging on one of the bench/outdoor chair things at Cadigal Greens, enjoying the breezy, fresh Spring air, on a beautiful, laid back Friday afternoon, with earphones in place and a heart bursting with emotions at the seams.

I don't think i have ever written a feel-good post. Well, this is one... Today was just simply a good day. I did not feel sleepy during class, perhaps because my hibernation mode during winter has finally come to a close... Or it must be the two cups of Kopiko Brown I brought to class with me as my arsenal. Either way, I am happy that I survived it.

So many things have happened for the past three months since we started our #AASJourney: meeting and forming friendships with other students from other parts of the world, being overly attached (Read: "clingy") with fellow Filipino scholars, touring around Sydney, visiting musems (making the most out of the free Opal trips during weekends), attending free workshops (or paying for relatively cheap ones), shopping (!!!), getting through first round of gruelling assessments, family visiting me for 5 days -to name a few. The most unforgettable moment, not only for me and I'm sure with other AAS scholars as well, was when one of our Indonesian classmate, Tyo, suffered a heart attack during our Orientation Class. Yes, during class. And that memory will forever be etched in our hearts.

Yet, I cannot be more thankful for having given this opportunity to experience all this. My heart is overflowing with gratitude, and I know that academic life will only get tougher as time goes by. Homesickness will come knocking on our doors soon, as our 3-month honeymoon phase concludes. I pray that we will be able to surpass this. I pray that we can make through this, just like we survived our first winter.

The wind is getting chilly now, I think I better get inside the library or something.

Until next post....

Thank God for Spring. 😊😊😊

Hello from the Other Side

Sydney from the airplane!

G'day, Mate!

It's 12:04 a.m. Sydney time (GMT +10) and it has been 2 months and 9 days since I arrived in the land down under, Australia. I realize that I haven't posted anything since we set foot here on June 8, 2016. Needless to say that so many things (good and bad to terrible) things have happened, and to think that it's only the beginning of our Australia Awards Journey. I am surprised at how resilient we are despite everything, and I am thankful that we have each other (but let's not get too mushy just yet.)

Perhaps I can still catch up with my blog- in between tantamount readings and assessments. Besides, blogging has always been my best form of my, er, procrastination (hihihi.) This is somewhat putting oil on the gears, to somehow prepare myself in writing lengthy, "academic-sounding" essays and texts. Although, I also found a new fondness of cleaning- which is also a "productive" means of being "unproductive" (if you know what I mean.)

This post shall attempt to summarise all the events that transpired for the past months (notice the use of "s" instead of "z" in spellings, that's being Aussie right there, mayt! =P) Hopefully, I could write according to the timeline in the coming weeks.

But first, let's start from the beginning....

My First Six Months in the Construction World

I can't believe it's already Christmas in 3 days! THREE DAYS!!!

Saying that I have been busy for the past months could be the understatement of the year. Since the construction of our house started last June, it has been one heck of crazy, stomach churning, hair raising ride of emotions since then.

I feel like a newbie soldier that just has come out of a battlefield...bruised, filthy, bloodied to the very core... limping, yet walking slowly away from the crazy inferno. I guess construction life does this to people (at least to me.)

I have learned a great deal more about architecture, engineering, construction, and surprisingly, about business (among others) in the past six months in the construction world. It definitely trumps all those years of slaving around in a 9 to 5 job in front of a computer, with the occasional yells and burns from the boss and annoying co-workers. Although I have been an architect for 4 years now, I can say that I still have so much to learn.

Everyday is a learning process for me. Every client, every laborer or worker I work with, every peso I lost due to my own negligence, every lapse of judgement, every problem I encountered- they are all instruments that could make me better at what I do someday. Who knows, five, ten years from now, I could look back to this moment in my career and still be thankful for all the challenges I was able to surpass, with God's grace.

There were number of times that I wanted to give up, to not go on living. To runaway and leave is the easier route. But in my mind, and in my heart, this is what I wanted to do. I want to build and design people's dreams. I want to give to them their hard earned money's worth (though I learned this the hard way.) I need to fail in order for me to succeed. The lessons I took away are more important than the monetary gains.

There's this quote I have read somewhere that's quite fitting for my first six months of my solo career:

"If you fail, fail fast."

PMS-ing

Depression.

It comes in all forms and sizes. Just browse your facebook wall. Some will keep ranting about whatever crap they are going through - cursing, complaining, fussing about the inequalities of whatever.

For others, well, some just like to sleep all day long, wishing that everything will be alright when they finally wake up. But they never do.

For many others still, they keep buried in work. Tons and tons of work. Until their life is literally sucked out from their veins (Caffeine replaced their red blood cells, perhaps?) Exhausting every bit of energy their already tired bodies could endure, so that they would be too tired to think of their problems. Or to even feel anything.

My Stock Market Journey Starts Now

Today marks the day I finally took a giant leap towards my financial freedom... the most sensible thing I did with P 5,000 cash I earned from one of my projects. No, I did not purchase another gadget, or update my wardrobe (which terribly needs to), or buy tickets for my long-overdue vacation... Rather, I used the hard-earned-literally-sweat-and-tears-and-all-those-sleepless-nights money to buy my first stocks.

Yes, I finally joined the crazy, confusing, scary world of the STOCK MARKET!

3-month Hiatus

Sooooooo..... have I been THAT busy that I have not posted anything for three whole months?!?! Nor have I even had the time to visit my own blog! Whoah! I guess it's time for me to slow down a bit before I go berserk with all these busy-ness!

To keep things up to date, these are the stuff that have kept me busy (and sleepless!) for the past months...
(writing this blog while waiting for my sketchup render to finish-- that kind of busy- busy)