Next Stop: Europe

First off, I'm home!  I must say that I've never been happier to be home. As our plane landed at Ninoy Aquino International Airport last Sunday, I almost shrieked with glee. Well truth is, I did shriek with glee. As I said, I am very, very happy to be back.

Before we left Santa Barbara, California, we went to the annual I Madonnari Festival. It's held during Memorial Day weekend at the Mission Church. The grounds in front of the church were covered with chalk drawings, mostly Italian paintings. The drawings, although most were unfinished, were excellent nonetheless. Italian food (my favorite! ) like pizza, pasta, and gelato were sold at the grounds. We bought our lunch and ate while listening to Spanish music played by the band. My cousin, Amanda, put I Madonnari in a nutshell: "A festival with Italian chalk drawings and Italian food with Spanish guitars playing in the background at a Spanish mission Church."

I'd like to go to Europe some time --- it's always been my dream vacation. But I have to save up first. So now I'm back to job hunting. It's such a pain to be left alone in the house, especially now that my sisters are back in school. I always try to go out whenever there's nothing to do (i.e., no job interviews). When I'm stuck at home, the bookworm in me emerges. I missed reading so much while I was still in school, now my eyes hurt by having too much of it. I finished The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares and its sequel in roughly five days. The movie is out in the US, starring Alexis Bledel of Gilmore Girls. It's a girly-good book about friendship and the love that comes with it (reminds me of my friends... miss you, pips!). The author has done a great job in developing the diversity of the four girls' characters and at the same time sewing them all together into one story of friendship and the Pants.

This is a funny quote from the many epigraphs in the book:

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.

-Frieda Norris