Monday, July 31, 2006

My very first meme...

I got tagged by my friend Toe in Cambodia with my very first meme. This is a nice way for my newfound friends in the blogosphere to get to know me better. Anyway, so here goes…

SIX WEIRD THINGS/HABITS ABOUT MYSELF:

1. Whenever I walk on the streets/pavements/sidewalks, I try to avoid stepping on the lines. This is pretty normal behavior for kids, but kinda weird when you see a thirtysomething still doing it.

2. I love to dip bananas either in bagoong (alamang) or in adobo sauce. The sweetness of the bananas combined with the saltiness of either the bagoong or adobo sauce is just to die for.

3. I have an obsession about my hair. I was born with very wavy hair. As a kid, I would would put all kinds of pins on it to make it presentable. When I was in college, I discovered the magic of the salon and I started having my hair chemically straightened. Then, I started having “relaxing” treatments during the time I was in law school. I was so obsessed with having the “straight hair” look that I would spend an hour and a half blow drying my hair straight even though I hadn’t finished reading all the assigned cases. Hahaha…I was really obsessed with my hair. Nowadays, I still have my yearly “rebonding” or “relaxing” treatments. But I’m not as obsessed now as I was before. What brought on this attitude change? Simple. I got married. Now, my hubby is stuck with me no matter how wavy my hair becomes, especially with this rainy season in Manila which just exacerbates the curls.

4. I am not an insomniac but I go to sleep at around 2 to 3 in the morning. I do not have a perfectly good explanation for this kind of behavior. We do not have kids yet and as much as possible I do not bring home my work. It’s just that life is short and I want to read as many books as I can and watch as many interesting television shows and movies as I can. Of course I can only do this at night when we get home from work. Unfortunately, my husband is a light sleeper. He really gets annoyed because he is already in deep sleep and probably in dreamland already at this time and he would wake up because I could not go to sleep without hugging or embracing him.

5. I have trouble learning new/additional languages. I don’t know what chemicals are in my brain which makes me an idiot when it comes to learning another language. I can only speak Filipino and English. That’s it. I grew up studying in a Chinese school and my father is Chinese but I can only speak a grand total of 4 sentences (more or less) in Chinese Mandarin. I really have trouble understanding Chinese even when I was surrounded with a whole class of Chinese-speaking students. When I started working, I had the bright idea of learning another language…Spanish this time. So I enrolled in Instituto Cervantes which was then located in Leon Guinto St. in Manila. I took Saturday classes for more than 2 years. In fact I think I reached Level 9. But aside from the occasional Spanish words which just happens to be the same in the Filipino language, my know-how in Spanish is the same as that of someone who just reached Level 1. Pathetic! All those years of studying Chinese and Spanish down the drain.

6. I have an adopted half-brother in China which I probably will neither see and nor hear from again. Most of my friends don’t know this about me. My father and his wife (not my mom, by the way) decided to adopt a boy (actually, when he was adopted, he was probably around 23 years old already, so I could hardly categorize him as a boy) because they do not have a son. We all know how important it is in the Chinese culture to have a son who will carry on the family name and take care of the family business. Anyway, I got to see him a grand total of 2 times, first when we visited him in China and the second time was when he visited us in the Philippines. We never heard from him since my father passed away almost five years ago. And since you all know my trouble with speaking Chinese and my adopted brother doesn’t speak a single word of English, I do not foresee any possibility of us establishing contact in the future because of the language barrier. Besides, none of us knows his address in China. Hmmm…but all hope is not lost. Remember The Joy Luck Club?

Ok. That’s it. I decided not to tag anyone since I do not have a lot of friends yet in the blogosphere.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, thanks for doing this meme. I didn't know about your half-brother. I'm also obsessed with my hair. In fact, I badly badly badly need a rebond. My hair is all over the place. :)

ladybug said...

Hi Toe! Of course, you're welcome anytime. See, even my closest friends don't know about my adopted half brother. Maybe what's weird is that I haven't told you guys about him. Don't worry about your hair. Dinno loves you very much no matter how your hair looks. :-)

Anonymous said...

Oh, the hair! We're quite the opposite. I have straight hair and when I was younger, I would always get a perm. But after having a bad one, at around the time of my wedding pa naman, and my husband hating it and me almost walking out on him bec. of that, I've never had a perm after that. :)

I've seen the Joyluck Club and that ending scene made me cry. :(

Yes, please, you can link me up. I've also added you to my blogroll. :)

ladybug said...

niceheart> thanks! This reminds me, I think it's time to have my hair rebonded/relaxed once more. It's turning wavy again. The hazards of being a girl...