transposable element

we just returned from the philippines and singapore. next month, it’ll be venice and in june, it’ll be berlin.

so where is it gonna be for july and august? personally, i would have loved to see prague or budapest, but i recognize it might not be the place for a 3 year old. rome, barcelona and lissabon are already better, but perhaps in a year more or two.

hm, me thinks we’ll end up with a compromise and choose vienna.
or maybe a week in tuscany.
or one in a “farm hotel“.

sheesh, we’re surrounded by european cities dripping with culture and heritage, and we’re considering going on a farm for vacation.

jan, maybe someday you will read this, and if, by then, i still haven’t set foot on prague or budapest, i hope you at least show gratitude… or remorse.

once, while we were strolling one of the malls in manila, two women approached us. although they looked friendly, i was wary because just a few minutes before, we were also, er i guess, accosted is the word, by salesmen pushing credit card applications in front of our noses. so i was suspicious, and was ready to say “no” even before the woman uttered a word.

“ma’am, nasaan po ang nanay nya?”, pointing to jan beside me.

eyebrows raised to its limits, i said, “ako, baket?”and refrained from adding, “ano akala mo sa akin, yaya nya?”

they said they were agents looking for print ad models. unfortunately, we were on our last week, so i didn’t even take her calling card. pity, maybe jan could earn his keep on our next visit. heh!

who has never heard of the blonde jokes? and why do beauty pageants have a question-and-answer portion? isn’t it to prove that these beautiful women indeed have something between their beautiful ears? are beauty and brains really mutually exclusive? (i’d write that i am a living proof that it isn’t, but i’d like to finish this entry before thunder and lightning stikes me!)

beautiful women have been the common victims of such typecasting. the other way around is less common: how often are brainy people being ridiculed for not being pretty? as if it’s permissible– or expected?– that intelligent people are physically uninteresting. maybe it’s an indication that intelligence is a more redeemable value than beauty, and if so, then hallelujah, there must still be something going right in this world, then.

nevertheless, sterotyping still happens. let’s take a simple test.

think of a scientist and tell me first five words that come to mind to describe the image of the scientists you’ve conjured. most probably, the words “geek”, “nerd”, “einstein”, “eyeglasses” and “boring” belong to the top of the list to describe the unkempt, uninteresting dork-with-the-sex-appeal-of-cold-spaghetti that comes to mind, eh?

introducing: the sexy scientists (and no, i am not the author, dotruth). no, the phrase is not an oxymoron. scroll and browse at the photos (my eyes glazed as i tried reading their research topics) and see living proofs that some scientists are gifted not just with brains.

i should know, i married one. (i just felt i had to make that clear, hehe)

via: Coturnix

that men think with body parts other than their brains is already a cliche. now, a scientific study backs it up: the sight of a woman, or even handling a bra, affects a man’s judgement.

High-testosterone men fight hardest for a large cut, the researchers found. But the most testosterone-driven men were also the most likely to slacken their cash demands after viewing sexy women. Perhaps they relaxed and began to care less about money. Or perhaps, the researchers suggest, with a ‘mate’ to impress the men were driven to have some wealth, however modest.

ah, so those ads using women to sell cigarettes, alcohol and just about anything do make sense.

and what does this study holds for us, mortal women? that new pair of shoes that’s just perfectly right for spring? ahem, you know what to do!

of course, this strategy may only apply to men with high testorone levels. how do you know? according to the article: “a relatively long ring finger is a sign of a high-testosterone man.”

finally, spring has sprung!

i thought we’d miss the twigs and branches burst with color and sprout new leaves. but nope, mother nature decided to wait for our return to germs’ land. as if to remind us how it feels to be cold, the temperatures on our first week back here were not even making past the 10 degree mark. but it was worth it (well, i hope that was the end of it, though), to see the forsythia and cherry trees all abloom. bee-yu-ti-foool!

but it ain’t just the foliage that springs to life. there are things to be done, now that the weather is more cooperative. that must be the sense behind the phrase “spring into action”. it’s time to pull up the sleeves and get to work:

get stamp sized garden, er…windowsill flowerbox planted
de-clutter! sort, keep, throw, give-away, ebay (?) stuff
clean windows (read: get hubby to clean windows)
set career moves into action… hubby’s career, at least, haha
file income tax (read: sign tax declaration hubby prepared)
re-connect with people (gimmick-time na naman!)
plan spring activities for jan
plan/make reservations for summer holiday

and the list goes on and on… what have you got on your to-do list for the next few months?

me: jan, can you count how many eggs there are in the box?

jan: in deutsch, english, tagalog, or spanish?

thank you, dora, for adding to the confusion.

so there. it took 5 weeks for jan to quit resisting and switch languages. he now talks almost completely in english. perfect. except that we’re now back in germany.

my views on problogging. pardon the grammatical errors. i was cringing as i read it, but i didn’t realize yuga was going to publish it in his blog.

my views on living abroad is on page 84 of the april issue of good housekeeping philippines: uprooted yet undaunted, pinoy families tell us what life is really like in another country. pity, there was no mention of pinoyexpats. it would have been apropos.