back to reality…

What a sad day it is. I’m back in cold and rainy Denmark. This is the worst part about vacations, when it ends and you have to face reality again. Bills have to be paid, school, and being alone. I miss Philippines already and I can’t wait to go back. The month I spent there was awesome. It has been a good start for 2009 so far. New memories made, issues resolved, and stronger relationships is what I bring back with me here today.

I miss Palawan soo much, especially the dummy that keeps up with all my crap. I miss you!

See you in six months.

Denmark.. oh Denmark…

For the past week I’ve been trying to blog, but lately I’ve been feeling errr.. not soo articulate. I dunno why but I have this idea of what I want to write, but while I’m witting it I realize I’m not making sense. I have tons of saved draft blogs that I was suppose to post but never really got to it again. Anyway, this is my errr.. 12th attempt on writing something and I hope it makes sense.

I realized I haven’t really said a lot of nice things about Denmark, with the whole ”this isn’t the right place for me”, but the truth is, there are a lot of things I like about the country. For example:

Free health care: everything is pretty much free from check ups to operations but medicine is something you have to pay for yourself.

Free dental care until the age of 18: I somehow abused this while I’ve been here, I’ve had a lot of dental problems and they fixed it all. But once you reach 18 and you have a cavities, go else where, dental care here is EXPENSIVE!
Free education: from kindergarten to university it’s free for people in the EU except of course for private schools.
Government allowance: see this is one of those things I believed was too good to be true when I first came here. This is how it works, when you’re 18 and above and still go to school/university the government PAYS you a certain amount of money a month depending on your living arrangements/parents income for high school, whether or not you live with your parents etc… and if that isn’t enough you can take a loan from the government that you won’t have to pay back until a year after you graduate (I think?).

There’s also this unwritten rule called ”Jante Lov” which basically states that we’re all equal, you can’t make yourself to be better than anyone else in any way, I mean, you can, but they’ll think that your an asshole. Students call their teachers by their first name and where Mr. and Mrs. doesn’t exist. I have to say, it is less stressful? I dunno, maybe this is just my half-half way of thinking, but whenever I’m in the Philippines I feel ”stressed” when around older people, it’s like, do I call her ”ate” or ”tita”?? Do I do the ”mano po” or just the kiss on the cheek?? I do try to show as much respect as I can. But at the same time, would you consider the Danish culture being disrespectful for not doing so? I’ve heard many Filipina mothers talk about how disrespectful kids are here with calling their parents by their first name or talking back. Anyway, my point is, different countries have different ways of showing respect, it may be different, equality is their way of showing respect, sure there may be kids who talk back to their parents, but I’m pretty sure that’s not only a Danish thing, it happens everywhere else. My main point is, equality is a good thing. [this is me being not so articulate]

Anyway, I do like Denmark a lot, there’s a lot of good things about it but it doesn’t mean there’s no bad things *cough* 25%VAT!! *cough* but yeah, I just thought of witting about Denmark because I was reading some past entries and I realized I wasn’t really that nice about it.

To end this long post, here are random facts about Denmark:

• LEGO comes from Denmark.
• It is legal to have sex with animals (as long as they don’t suffer-they said).
• It’s a very flat country, our highest point is just 171m Prostitution is legal in Denmark.
• Denmark became the first country to recognize same-sex unions (1989).
• Drinking age: none, but to buy alcohol in shops is 16 and in bars: 18.
• Smoking: 18 for buying cigarettes.
• Driving: 18
• Age of consent: 15
• Drinking is a big thing here, there’s no party where alcohol is not present. Even in school parties there’s ALWAYS beer.
• Speaking of beer, Tuborg and Carlsberg is the biggest Danish beer company!

OK I can’t think of anymore facts.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

University

So, I’m back to school again.. back to books, waking up early, breaks, classmates, and teachers. Judging from the past 3 days I’ve been going to school, so far so good. I’m taking up International Communication and Multimedia. I’ve always wanted to take Multimedia but also marketing so I was lucky to find this with the International Communication part since marketing is part of our syllabus. But yeah, thing is, since I missed the first two weeks of class, I’m  a little behind, academically and socially. I have to catch up on some reading and in my Media Production class I have to make a website, from scratch, as in wrting it by hand, but with the help of Dreamweaver.. hehe.. Anyways, socially, everyone else is in their own little groups, I had some casual conversations with some but that’s how far it got. But hey, I’m not giving up just yet.

Even though education here in Denmark is free, we have to pay for books, which is really fucking expencive. Just for this semseter I had to pay for 2992kr ($578) worth of books and this is only for this 1st semester. Haiiii…

I have also moved into my apartment. It’s weird having a place of your own, unlike the boarding school where you have your friends next door, food is served, and things are cleaned for you. Here, my friends aren’t next door, I have to cook my own food (buy them too!) and clean up after myself. This kind of independece didn’t hit me until I felt this weird feeling in my stomach, like this big hole getting bigger and bigger.. I think some people call it hunger? But yeah, it hit me even harder when I was buying a toilet brush. I am now totally alone, in this new apartment, in this new city, and new school.

Wish me luck.

busy bee

I’ve been travelling alone for years now, big and small airports, having less than 30 mins to catch my next plane, hardcore security checks, fucked up tickets, etc.. you get the point. BUT I have NEVER missed a flight…. until last week. I read the time wrong on my ticket from Hong Kong to Denmark, so yeah, I missed my flight. Ironic thing about this whole situation though was that I was totally sober, because for the past 4 times I left Palawan I was drunk and nothing happen, but this time I was totally sober, not even a drop of alcohol has been in my mouth within the last 24 hours then I miss a flight.

I really don’t know how I could have read the time wrong. So yeah, I was stranded in Manila, luckily I realized this in Manila, if I still flew to Hong Kong and realized that I missed my flight I would have been a lot more screwed.

So, I spent two nights in Manila with my moms friend, trying to figure out how to go back to Denmark, my dads solution was I fly to Oman and then from there fly to Denmark. So I flew to Oman and spent 11 days there. It was nice, Muscat (capital city) was like a city in the middle of the dessert, with temperatures no lower than 40′C. They had nice beaches, thing is it was Ramadan while I was there, so all shops were closed in the afternoon and there were no restaurants open until 7pm. But yeah, I got to see my parents again, especially my dad coz I didn’t get to spend much time with him while he was in Denmark for my graduation.

The bad thing about this whole situation, apart from wasting money, was that I was missing the first weeks of university. I missed Introduction week and the first week and a half of classes. So on Monday I have to go to some classes and then buy books, meet people.. etc… then I have to run to the other side of town to hand in my contract for my new apartment, get the keys, go to my apartment and check it out then take the train to my friends place (where I’m staying now) and get my stuff, then take the train back to my apartment and settle down. It will be a busy Monday for me.. I just hope I don’t look like a dumbass.

SO yeah, wish me luck!

Goodbye Livejournal, Hello WordPress!!

Goodbye Livejournal, Hello WordPress!

I have officially moved to WordPress. This is it. No more turning back. I’ve decided to move to WordPress for several reasons, which I’d rather keep to myself. So yeah. For the past month or so I’ve been thinking about moving, but then letting go of my LiveJournal was hard. Not only has it given me 230 hours of CAS but it pretty much got me through my life so far here in Denmark.

So let my first blog be something about Denmark.

Even though I am Danish, my dad is Danish, I have a Danish passport.. I don’t feel Danish at all. The move to Denmark was big. First of all, I can’t speak the language, I don’t know much about their culture, plus I will have full on independence.. I HAVE NO ONE TO WATCH OVER ME. This I abused for the first couple of months, it took a while for me to learn how to live by myself. Have boundaries, do my own laundry, voluntarily do my homework, study, manage money, in other words be responsible. It never really hit me until I found myself in the police station trying to get a new passport. It was weird because usually I’d never have to do this. My parents are always there to help me, all I have to do was sign the paper and viola! Passport.

It started to sink in even more when I went to the dentist by myself, the doctor, the pharmacy, calibrating my birthday without my parents. The worst was when I got sick. It was really lonely. No one was there to take care of me or pat my head, rub my tummy. I had to deal with it myself. Even when I threw up, no one was there to pull my hair back (so you could just imagine the mess).

However there are good thing. Other than learning to become more responsible, after trial and error with the laundry (black, white, or colored), living with no money for weeks. I have to honestly say that my relationship to my family became better. Back at home I’ve never really appreciated my parents or my brother than much. My mom and I got into fights, especially about the whole curfew issue. But now, since I only get to see them twice a year, it’s gotten better. I’ve learn to tell them “I love you” and there are less fights going on. and yeah, as much as I want to go back home, I know that this is what is best for me and them.

I don’t really know where I’m going with this post. There is no moral or anything. Just saying, life here in Denmark has changed me (not just my alcohol tolerance) but there are things I’ve learn about myself and stuff that I’ve been curious about and of course met some awesome people. However, I don’t see myself living here for the rest of my life. After almost half my life moving around, I have this itch. I want to move! I want to see another country and experience a whole new culture. But yeah, the issue: money, money, money…

oh well. that’s all for now, I think I already wrote too much.