Our First Car: A 2009 Nissan Pathfinder SE

Today is a very special day for us, me and my family. Who would have guessed that it is only in Canada that we could get our first brand new car. Well we did have a car back in the Philippines, but we only had a Toyota Jeepey that was so old and worn-out that we don't even use it.

I used to be ashamed to be seen in our old jeepey but now I can be confident that other people won't look down at us. Many people have said that we won't be able to get this car because we don't have a credit history and we should go for a cheaper car or a used car instead but I guess that they will be blown away when they see us in our brand new 2009 Nissan Pathfinder. We may not have a credit history because we are still new here but we do have money from the Philippines that we brought here. All those years of having to ride the jeepney and having to live in a very small house in a small neighborhood in the Philippines finally paid off because we saved enough money to afford the lifestyle here. But even if we didn't have that much money a great lifestyle here is easily attained.

It's sad but here in Canada (as well back home in the Philippines), "If you don't have a car then you're nothing," as said by the Millwoods Welcome Center person and yes I have to agree with him because a car is not only a status symbol it is a NEED. Why? Well it snows here in Canada and waiting for the bus stop in the freezing cold is nothing to be happy about. Plus the places here are so far apart because the city here is very big.

Anyway we took our new baby home to our apartment and let me say that driving it home was a bit stressful. Since we're still new in Canada we really didn't know the way home other than the bus route so we had to ask the sales person to print some directions from Google Map so that we can get home.

My dad had some trouble getting used to the traffic signs here because the traffic rules and signs here in Canada are different from the Philippines. Plus the road names in Canada are a bit confusing. For example, there's a 50 street Northwest Bound, 50 street Southwest Bound, 50 street Westbound, and so on and the streets and avenue here are somehow confusing.

Well we did manage to bring home our SUV and park it in our apartment's underground parking safe and sound so it was really a night for celebration. Our family friends came at our house (the ones who adopted us in their home for one month before we moved in to our own place) so we went on a joyride, our SUV is a 7-seater so we had room for everyone. We went downtown to watch the Christmas lights and grabbed some pizza on our way home.

Today was really an amazing day. I can't wait for next year when I'll get to get my very own GDL Class 5 Driver's License (I only have a learner's Class 7 license)! I can take our car whenever I have a duty in the hospital or to get to school or I could buy my own car, yes by the time I get my license I could afford to buy my own car with my earnings and with my mom's help of course.

I'm glad that our lives here is getting better. Now we only have to wait a year or more then we could finally buy our own house. And perhaps I could finally go to school... my life is not over yet as I have thought. There are still great possibilities and getting a brand new car when everyone else said we couldn't proved to be a great motivation.

Missing The Philippines

I can't help but miss my old life in the Philippines. As an old saying goes, you'd never know what you have unless you lost it. Now that I live in Canada this saying is pretty much applicable to me.

There are times that I can't help but think that moving to Canada was a HUGE mistake. It feels like my life was a train going smoothly through a carefully laid track to success and happiness but all of the sudden, immigrating to Canada derailed my life and now it's a total mess and disaster... I don't know if I'd ever get my life back on track.

I never knew how happy I was being with my friends... they made me very happy and they made me feel that I was actually alive. They've played a role in helping me survive each and every single day. Studying was not easy but I just realized that I lived such a luxurious life. Back in the Philippines, I never worked a sweat and I was given money to spend. and now, I have to work to get what I want and to save up for my future. I was studying in one of the top universities in the Philippines and now I have a slim chance of getting into a good college next year (I can get into a University but I don't want to wait longer). I never did try my best in getting good grades and getting through every single day but now I have to give it my all just to prevent myself from going insane.

Back in the Philippines I had a life, but now I have nothing... well I do have my family but I feel that there is something missing in me...

I used to be happy and glad to be here leaving poverty and hardship behind but now I want to go back and be a middle class again because here we're just a low-earning family. We're not considered poor but we don't have a car and house that we can call our own yet so life can be pretty difficult.

But as usual... I am a Filipino, and I am a survivor...

Speech Recognition Is Cool

I can't believe that I had a speech recognition software in my computer. I was just looking around in my computer for a way to activate my microphone and I found out that Windows Vista actually had a voice recognition program, how cool is that?! This neat little software can transform my words into text and can understand my commands and going through Windows without the help of a mouse and keyboard was easy.

So now, all I have to do is sit back and relax and just tell the computer what to do. You may call me lazy and all but this is actually productive because I save time and effort. I can actually type more words by just saying them then actually typing them.

I actually typed this entry by just speaking. Well to be honest, typing this entry using speech recognition actually took more time because the computer needed to recognize my voice and is still learning my voice.

Well, the technology is still new so there's still more areas for improvement . I can't wait until we can speak to our computers normally like we are talking to another human being.

Notice

To Whom It May Concern:

The owner of this blog is having a temporary brain shut down. All topics, subject matter or whatever is related to life, love, money, school, work, family, etc is currently put on hold and will not be discussed until further notice.

We apologize for the inconvenience but this must be done to maintain the sanity of this blog owner.

Thank you.

From Fingers to Meteors

Ooh what a day today was. First I go out of the house with an ear-chilling -11 degrees Celsius wind and then go to work at my first job. I'm a bit down and frustrated at first because they haven't given me my paycheck for this week (hope they will give it tomorrow). My second job is better because they pay me promptly on the same day every two weeks. My only complain is that their pay is not proportional to all the hard work I'm doing for them.

Anyway, I'm hoping that tomorrow would be a better day. By better I mean getting my paycheck already so that I can deposit my checks by Saturday morning.

Today was a bad day because I cut my left thumb while I was mindlessly cutting bread. Doing repetitive stuff like pouring coffee and asking the same old questions every day like "Do you want this on white or brown bread?" makes one's sanity go *poof!*. It doesn't hurt that much but I hope it doesn't get infected because I can't afford to get sick.

So what new is happening here in Edmonton and in my life? In my life, everything is ok... boring but ok... well not really that ok. It so happened that my University from the Philippines will be late in sending my documents to my future University here in Canada. I had a gut feeling that this will happen even though I sent my request letter for my transcripts and course description way back last September. What can you expect from a school who is more money oriented than the welfare (not to mention the future) of it's students.

Anyway, one thing cool did happen today and it was the meteor shower here in Edmonton. I heard about it because a customer shared about it and here is a video about it:

http://canwest.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/canwest-globaledmonton-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=globaledmontonhomepage&maven_referralObject=3211525

Hope more interesting happens tomorrow, most especially the getting paid part bwahahaha!