Christmas Party

I am quite excited for this year's Christmas Party. Well I am excited for Christmas each and every year but this Christmas is very different from other past Christmas celebrations because this is our first Christmas here in Canada. In my 20 years of existence it is only now that we will finally have our very own white Christmas.

But what better ways to celebrate Christmas but with other people right? All Kagay-anons or Filipinos from Cagayan de Oro are going to have a get together and enjoy Christmas with each other's presence. Being with other Filipinos makes the Christmas less lonesome especially for those who miss their families and friends back in the Philippines.

I'm not in charge with the planning and logistics of the party but I do have great ideas for a Christmas party! Well the ideas are not originally mine. If you really want great ideas and if you're looking for inspiration then you might want to visit celebrations.com.

It is there that I found out about different Christmas party games, decorations, and food like Christmas candy recipes! What would Christmas be with out good old candy right?

I'm sure that even if I'm not into parties that much, sharing this info would be a great contribution to a successful and fun Christmas party!

Hold On

It's now 1:40 pm and there's a snow shower right now. I have to get to work soon but I've decided to do some quick blogging. Gosh the wind is so strong, I better put on more clothing on as well as something to place on my head because I just had a nasty "brain freeze" yesterday.

I'm amazed that I'm able to hold on until this day. My deadline for my university documents was yesterday but it will be sent from the Philippines today (hopefully). I just wish I get into university pretty soon.

Oh yeah I was fired from Quizno's because they've finally found a full time employee. I'm quite glad with their decision because I don't think my sanity and body can keep up with the added pressure. I just am a bit sad that my earnings would drop. I get a $400 paycheck with them for my part-time there and it's still a loss for me.

Anyway just want to share David Archuleta's video of Hold On. This is my most favorite track from his album. Most favorite because I love every song in his album and this one just happens to stand out. I love the way he sings and how he brings life into the song with out any of those voice manipulation and sound effects.

With out further delay here is David Archuleta singing Hold On:

What A Day

Woah this day has been pretty exciting and I'm just glad that it's over. Well I woke up today at 10 om because I slept late last night (nothing exciting... yet...). So my parents wanted to go to South Common to go shopping since we already have a car we can just drive around to the far flung stores which we would never go to because they are inaccessible for people (like us before) who didn't have a car before.

Shopping was fun and all and I was somehow forced to buy another iPod Touch, this time a 16 GB one, beause my brother wanted one too and because I'm a great brother I gave him mine... well actually I sold my iPod to him since he liked it so much for $100. I was able to buy a game for the PS3, actually my brother was the one to buy it, and so I was quite happy with my day. The best part of my day today was when we dropped off at 7-Eleven since my mom wanted to buy bus tickets (yes, my parents won't use the car that much to save gas, weird huh?) so I was able to buy my mood uplifter, chocolates!

But my mood wasn't uplifted at all when my dad almost wrecked our brand new car. He's so proud that he's an experienced driver but he keeps forgetting one basic rule, always check your mirrors for any cars behind you and beside you. Plus don't occupy the middle of the road, stay at the left side if you want to continue forward and the left if you have plans of turning left. He disregarded this basic rules and so he wrecked a lady's bumper! Good thing our car just had a single small unnoticeable scratch which could easily be waxed off or something.

But we have to pay the lady $800 to $1000 to replace her bumper. We decided to have a private settlement rather than having our insurance company involved because if we did then we should expect our premiums to go way up. Geez! My dad is so stupid sometimes. How could he not see that car behind him when our car had a rear view camera?! And he's so good at passing the blame at us saying why we didn't tell him there was a car or why didn't we check. Uhm you're the driver not us so what would happen if you're driving on your own? My mom didn't allow him to bring the car tomorrow because if he had an accident after just a few days we brought the car home (an accident which was purely his fault) then there's a greater possibility that he'd have abother accident (this time a major one).

Imagine, he occupied the middle of the two-way road so when this car was going towards us there was no space anymore so my dad placed the car on reverse and drove back without checking the car behind him. And just a few minutes before that we almost had a collision with anbother car because he made a lane switch without even checking if there was a car behind and he forgot to use the signal light.

I may not have enough experience in driving but I could say that my dad could be a candidate for Canada's Worst Driver: He forgets to put his seat belt on, he has no sense of direction, he forgets to lock the car, he doesn't know how to follow some traffic signs, he doesn't even know how to use our car's features!

Thank god we have a big SUV because if we ever had an accident because of my dad's negligence then I'd know that we'd be safe but our car would be a wreck.

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.