Knowing your Roots

How cool it is that the net allows us to get in touch with old friends, classmates, and acquaintances. With the help of networking sites, we are once again in contact with people whom we thought won’t be crossing our paths again. But here is something cooler that networking communities.

Ancestry.com is a free genealogy that helps you learn about your roots. Just visit their site and type in your name in the search fields and once you hit the “Start Your Tree” button, Ancestry.com will start searching the world’s largest collection of historical passenger lists, census records, death certificates, turn of the century newspapers, and so on. You’ll see that as you go along with your family tree, you’ll learn interesting information about people that are related to you. Join us in Ancestry.com now to now your roots.

Having a Baby

baby.JPGI don’t know if you’ve heard the news about hundreds of babies in China dying because of consuming a certain milk formula. This news really shook me and made me think again about having a baby while we are here. Initially, we agreed to wait two years after our wedding for a baby and that was a year ago. It means, we only have another year to wait but the problem is… Marcus signed a two-year contract to work here in Shanghai. Technically, we can have a baby here. It will still go with our plan but hearing such news scares the hell out of me….maybe it is wiser to wait a little bit longer until we’re finally settled in Europe.

Why Did You Marry Me?

One Sunday morning while stuffing ourselves with Bretzel and Weißwurst dipped in sweet mustard, I asked Marcus a question just so there’s something to talk about other than how lucky we are to be able to get a Bretzel and Weißwurst in China.

    Vienna: Schatzi, Why did you marry me?
    Marcus: Because I thought you were rich?
    Vienna: What? What made you think that? Did I give you the impression that I am rich?
    Marcus: You told me several times that you have 7,107 islands but I learned after the wedding that you don’t even own one.
    Vienna: (LOL)

FYI: Philippines have 7,107 islands and we Filipinos normallly say: “We” have 7,107 islands when we mean Philippines has 7,107 islands.

Call me shallow but I really like our nonsense talks sometimes.

Home Alone

It’s utterly boring here. Marcus is away in a business trip for a week or two and it sucks. The longest time we haven´t seen each other since we were married was I think 10 days. That was when I went home to the Philippines earlier than him so I can spend longer time with my mom and sisters. It was already bad then even if I was with my family… now I am alone so it´s worse and it looks like we won´t see each other for more than 10 days. :(

When he told me there´s a business trip he should go to, my first reaction was… ok. I thought it shouldn´t be that bad. I can spend this time all to myself and I can stay longer in front of my computer. :D But now that he is not here, it doesn´t feel nice. I don´t know how to explain it but I am just so used to having him around even if he sometimes bothers me with what I am doing. He walks around the house and he talks to me about some random thing when he knows I am focused on something like blogging, reading, studying, etc.

He wanted to take me with him but I can´t miss two weeks of school and Shenyang does not particularly excite me. We´ve been there last spring and we didn´t like it. I pity him that he needed to go there. I hope he can come home earlier than two weeks because I really miss him already even if he just went there this morning.

Making a Home

It’s been almost two months since we moved in here in Shanghai and almost everything about this city is still new for us. It’s still a place far away from our families and friends and we still need a few more months until we can call this place “home” but we are working on it already. We try to go out and meet new people as much as we can and of course we already start working on our new flat to make it homier.

We started with the basics things and I think we have them all now. Meaning, it is now time to start giving our flat its character. I made a list of what else to buy and a couch bed made it to number one. We’ll put the couch bed in my office. That room will be converted to a guest room whenever we have guests. We also agreed to get some plants and some fancy rugs for the living room and for the office/guest room. Of course we didn’t forget about the clocks since we need one in each of the rooms. For the living room, we decided to get a simple mantel clock instead of the old time favorite grandfather clock and for the dining room, we will hang a modern wall clock. I have read somewhere that clocks are one of the pieces that we can use to spruce up a new place and make it something that is more familiar to us and I completely agree to that.

I think we are in a good way to making our new flat into a “home”.

Nice Moment with my In-laws

A year ago we made this video and I just saw it recently when Marcus and I went through our collection of video cassette tapes waiting to be edited. It’s a candid video of me singing while my in-laws play. My father-in-law got an accident and lost three fingers on his right hand a few months before we made this video. It was actually his idea that we make this together because he wanted to see how well he could still play.

The kid in the video is Marcus’ younger brother. He doesn’t have formal lesson on how to play the bass guitar but he did fine. And I… I don’t consider myself a good singer. I am just somebody who likes to sing. The outcome is of course nothing close to professional or practiced performance, we actually made a lot of mistakes but nonetheless; it’s shows a nice and cheerful moment.

Watch the video here cause wordpress doesn’t allow third party codes.

Call Time

PhotobucketJust like any other Pinoy, I owned a cell phone (CP) when I was still in the Philippines. But unlike any other Pinoy, I don’t like it that much. Actually, the first CP I bought was not for me but for my baby brother which I gave him as Christmas gift. The second CP I bought was for me. But I bought it because I need to get hold of him. Other than that, my CP was only good as my alarm and time-piece. That is why my friends stopped texting me because I never text back.

Now that I am here in the US, my hubby bought me a CP too. And since I can get hold of my brother online very often, there is no need of using my CP anymore. And since hubby calls me on the house phone, my CP serves as my alarm too just like in the old days.

M.E. Phone Home

I have been away from home for more than a year now. I left the Philippines [and my family] in 2007 to marry the “love of my life”. The adjustment period was tough for me but I am doing ok. So far I have survived the 4 seasons of Maine. But still I miss my family so much and that makes the adjustment period even tougher. Good thing I can get international calling cards anytime and anytime I can call my family back in the Philippines. With my Grand Asia card, I can call my family for only $4.99 for 400 minutes. Just imagine that. I can call home anytime I want to and anytime I feel like to.

Another good thing about this Grand Asia card is that I can get it online at GetMeCallingCards.com. Now, I don’t really need to miss home, because I can call home without worrying about spending too much on international call.