Earlier today, I woke up to see the same set of pants, shirts, shoes, socks, and every detail of clothing I get to see in my room. The daily grind for some, but for me has always been a "Thank you!" to see the sameness every day.
I actually perceive spatial intelligence as something culturally relevant (thanks to Leon van Schaik). Being able to see the similarity of my daily's and to actually love the idea of home and observing that I am home is actually very humane (or rather intelligent?) and with that, I am awake and happy. I continue the morning traverse with the usual breakfast, a gust to the van, and the slowdown of my braincells as I try to relax in a bombardment of apps, sudoku puzzles, and words from the same man, Leon (who Has brought my vocabulary to its ultimate challenge this week). Travel for work is not a challenge but a tweet escapade for me. I call it an unboxed moment, where I get to go out of the house and actually observe (and tweet) the PEST environment (PEST= Physical, ecological, social, technological). Do we even immerse ourselves in the observation of things that matter everyday without even thinking of what will happen for work? My travel for work has always been the most precious time to sleep again or to observe the outdoors, while inside the van. Today i saw a cute family of cats walking peacefully on the sidewalk, perhaps a relaxing moment after that one great hunt? A few meters after, we saw a neighbor that we had to offer our ride with. This travel actually made me see him as a neighbor, instead of someone I do not care about. I guess traveling for work has its social relevance. While on the major avenue, I slept. Woke up and saw the zigzag path of this community that goes "live" as early as 6:30am. The zigzag made us slow down, and the slow down made me look outside the van. Saw a lot of people talking, sweeping the road, buying "pan de sal", and actually engaging into one great conversation with perhaps, a friend? Do we even do that at our village? Go out of our homes to do the random chitchat with our neighbors at this time of the day? I guess even though we perceive this as a community of poor stature, they actually are the richer set when it comes to social experience. I arrive at work with a list of things to write about, but I start of with how traveling for work is a great experience. Even though we may say it is hell thanks to traffic, I believe it actually immerses us into this one great escapade. Ciao! Time to work! I walked towards the open lawn hoping to rest my tired feet. I saw that spot I was eyeing since earlier that night, hoping I'd get my quiet space in that very busy commercial establishment popularly known as the mall. I saw her. I heard her chuckle and I noticed how lively she is. Here in the flesh is my blogger crush.
Seldom do I read blogs that actually matter. I look, not read. I muster the possibility of bringing my blog back to what it really was, but can't. And here she is, that one person in the world who continued writing the genre that I loved since 10 years ago? So I bring back my blog to what it really is. A travel. Not around the world, but a travel through space, through time, and through that pages of my story. I remember things, and this is one worth writing for. Amherst last May was probably the climax of my United States trip. Not LA. Not the Liberty. Not the Central Park. Weighed if it was New Jersey since it felt like home (at my Uncle's home), but Amherst caught me offguard with its quaint University town and the streets that had me floored. I love the town. On our trip to present our paper on cultural landscapes, we were able to spend a few walks around the University of Massachusetts (UMass), Amherst Campus. Institutional landscapes like that of UMass are a sight to behold and every jaw dropping moment are well accounted for in photos. Being able to walk around the campus to savor each space is already a plus for our conference trip, but being able to spend longer time (since there were no dinner plans for this conference) outside without feeling any security issues with walking at night AT ALL is already a blessing. Opportunities were grabbed and we took photos of good viewpoints and mementos. I've thought often it will be a spectacle to change the content of my whole blog into a thematic institutional walkathon just because I've been doing a lot of it lately, thanks to our constant trips to bring our papers abroad, but then I may not be able to expound on certain things I love, so let's just scrap the thought. Now this is me and my journey to explore a part of Amherst - the University of Massachusetts Campus. In the funny plan to show you what I loved, I shall be posting photos with the caption doing the needed talk. Ta-dah! Enjoy! Let's start of with what I love doing every trip... Joyfully sharing the partial walk and views of what you should have seen if you are around the campus. Great building designs, cohesive symbolism brought by brick masonry, cool weather, local food (not fast food!), and Friendly's (haha!) and friendly students. Hope you can visit this campus town when you are at Massachusetts!
So a year passed and I continuously suffer the wrath of writing stagnation. 2015, I thank thee.
You probably guessed right. Why am I currently writing my 2015 "thank you's" when I specifically recall typing a few minutes ago that this is otherwise? Yadah , yadah. And then you know the drill. The usual lists of things to recall-- 12 things. 12 months. So I stop myself from writing down the 12 and continue with my random bombardment of things I remember and treasure for the year that was. It has been a truly, amazing, 2015. I love 2015 because it is a bittersweet mix of everything I need right now. From learning how to travel with different people, working on large scale projects, managing bigger communities, meeting teams, losing friends, gaining new ones in this fast-paced millenial world, understanding why I need to give up some treasured memories, realizing who love(s) me most, giving up and living life to the fullest, saying Yes and No (to a lot of things!)... The rest are just a speck in that big universe that each of us are in. I cannot forget several travels I went to, some with my most treasured, all definitely for the books. I remembered being too engrossed with my love for swimming and losing certain fats AND "strings" right after. It was a game changer of all things planned, refocusing my life away from other people into my own life that needed that much time as theirs. I started climbing again, and stopped right after making that one wrong move up the wall. I did remember a busy month right after and a downfall to my health and wellness goal by doing the daily overtime and stress-induced weekly's. It was a bummer. I recall big dreams for that year. I recall the spontaneity of the season, the rough edges that almost sent me weeping inside the chapel, but recall a good set of hugs whenever I needed that boost of confidence and vigor. My 2015 had been a good recollection of myself broken into pieces but definitely still the same. I can also recall the best parts of 2015. Climbing mountains to see the Aetas. Tree planting on quick-sand-like soil for the mangroves of Cavite. Luntiang Pook everyday in my head. Spending QT time with people who care about their field and organization almost every month (#adikPALABoardandfriends. My phone bill reeked of our lovely planning sessions and my FB woke me up in the middle of the night. Wait, I wasn't even asleep then...). Travel breaks. Spending time daily with a person who cannot seem to get past the boredom of having breakfast with me everyday or dinner once a week, or a movie with me every other week (I do wish he does not.); and having breakfast, dinner, Sunday mass and mall [after-party-and-shopping] or just anytime chitchat with my family (who now has a viber and FB thread with the hashtag #nadalsofinsertourstreethere. I started it anyway). Spending adoration chapel time when I needed my quiet space (UP Chapel, thank you for making it A/C-ed!!! The long walks to that place is worth it all... I am a fan). 2015 is about getting me to work and getting my ass off from work by giving social media a chance to connect me to the world. That alone is a refreshing take on my 2015. Say hello to the influence of the millenial lifestyle. 2015 is amazing. |
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Lifeisatravelogue by CDSNadal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. |