the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

I sit on the expanse of grass, feeling each soft blade under my legs. The sun is lower on the horizon now. Late afternoon light filters through some trees on top of a hill in the distance. I close my eyes and deeply breathe in the fresh air. Two more hours of work left in my day. I cross two traffic lights and walk the three minutes back to my house. You could say I’ve been a wanderer since I was 16. Venturing to Manila for college from my hometown of Davao City, I’ve since moved from city to city and country to country, sometimes not staying longer than a few months in one place. Work finally got me to stay put in Washington DC the last 10 years. Still I fly out several times a year, not just for adventure but also for my job in international development. In 2019, I was away at some other state or country almost every other weekend. Google Maps says I traveled enough miles to go around the world two times. That was to seven countries—starting in Uruguay in March, then Belize, Hondu...

13 June 2008 Friday   Ask and ye shall receive.   Right after I realized that in the past two years since i quit my job I’ve been moving to a different city every five months or less, and just when I’d already told everyone in Dumaguete that finally, I would be staying put for at least a year, I got an email saying I would be going to Europe and moving to a different country every five months (or less) for 18 months starting in September.   Right now I am on the topmost deck of a ship on a 7-hour trip bound for Cagayan de Oro, where I will take a 7-hour bus ride with all my belongings from Dumaguete to Davao via Bukidnon. I promised myself that I would use this time exclusively for writing updates (for my own journals and for this one), because once I step on land, it’s back to being constantly on my toes. How is it even possible to be a bum for two years now and be constantly, impossibly busy?? You tell me what’s wrong with me after reading this.   It’...

lost and found by Jeneen R. Garcia to be published (or maybe not) on 26 April 2008     I don’t have a mole on either foot to prove it, but I’ve been called gypsy, nomad, and other tribes of similar occupation too often to deny it. Instead of a caravan, I have my backpack with essential clothing, toiletries, and electronic gadgets to keep me covered wherever night may catch me. If I’m moving house, I tow along my suitcase of books and diving gear as well.   I’m in the middle of yet another move to another city. In the last two years, I’ve lived no longer than five consecutive months in any single place--something I didn’t realize until THIS transit. I’ve shipped my stuff from one city to another so many times that packing up has become second nature; my suitcase is always on standby for quick departures.   Relocating? It’s easy: post an ad in Friendster and other social networking sites saying you’re looking for a place to live in whatever city you’re headed ...

i've been floating, floating it seems these past few days, weeks of craziness having to make my presentations and papers. as if in rebellion (or is it total surrender?), my spirit has been dreaming, dreaming, dreaming. days no longer exist. dreaming and working weaving in and out of my hours, so that i no longer notice when it's dawn, or when it's time for a meal. and my body, frighteningly, seems to have adjusted to it so well that it doesn't even feel sleepy or hungry anymore unless my mind remembers to look at the clock.... at midnight two nights ago, having spent the whole night dreaming awake, i found myself reading poetry with tears running down my cheeks. and i didn't even know why. only after that was i able to work on my presentation. the next night, a poem sprang out of me, so suddenly, i was taken aback. good thing i knew well enough to just listen and write down everything it said. in spite of my better judgment and a final exam i hadn't studied for...

Returning to Dumaguete in June was like returning to a new city with new hangouts that (joy, joy!) have free wi-fi--McDonald's, Jollibee, plus some others that charge per hour--and a National Bookstore at the corner of Silliman (joy, joy!) with walls made entirely of glass. As of last sem, there was wi-fi only at two internet cafes. Imagine that. Civilization, as most cities know it, has finally set in in Dumaguete.   But the best news--wi-fi-wise--is that we also have free wi-fi in school (for a limited period) and at the marine lab =D And I hope to hitch on my neighbor's (yes, I have a neighbor now on the second floor) DSL once I get my own wireless router. So work, school, house--I'll have everything covered hopefully by the end of this month. I HAVE been working on controlling the addiction, too. I no longer stay so late in school surfing. Only till 10:30 pm at the latest =D   In fact, for this semester, I have resolved to put on the habits of a new lifestlye altog...

though i'm no longer catholic, this is one thing thing i've carried over from all my years of jesuit education, st. ignatius' personal credo. since grade school, i've been writing it at the top of all my test papers and all other important documents i submit, almost like a good-luck charm. and so i am happy to say that, ad majorem Dei gloriam , when my +AMDG-marked prelim exams came back last week, i got the highest scores in class for both exams :D it's really a big thing for me, because this gives me some affirmation that 1) i'm not dumb after all, even though i've been out of school for so long, and 2) the extra effort that naturally comes out of a passion --almost a desperation-- to learn really does make a difference in the results. and so now, even though last sem's highest scorer is still the teacher's favorite, i sense an increased respect from my teacher (the notoriously difficult professor) because i scored consistently in her two classes...

   yep, folks, as i type i am on flight KE623 from seoul to manila. my personal touch screen says we are at exactly 38998 ft over taiwan, crusing at 552 mph, with 1 hour, 21 mniutes and 687 more miles to go. and i have free wi-fi. woohoo! korean air rocks! on the 15-hour flight from new york to seoul, i watched four movies and ate two meals. could've seen more, of course (To Kill A Mockingbird, especially), but i thought i was being crazy tiring myself out like that. i didn't discover till the end of the flight that they've made the internet free since october because i don't think they're earning from it. they're phasing it out, supposedly, and making it free is their way of doing it =D the trade-off is, i haven't been able to write anything =( ah, the wonders and temptations of technology. so i'm almost home. i can't wait. (oops. please turn your heads counterclockwise to view the photo)

so we finally arrived in new york last night, at about 8pm. while waiting for conching to come out from being interviewed about her finacee visa, i sat on the baggage carousel checking for a signal. there were two, but neither was good for surfing. my mother's place has a good connection in one room, so i checked and answered my mail early this morning before we left for connecticut because i was afraid i'd be offline the whole time i'd be here. but wonder of wonders! got home at around midnight tonight after playing progressive rummy with my aunts and cousin and brother, and when i turned my laptop on---11 Mbps from an unknown source! here, in the middle of nowhere! really need to be working, though. the silence here is deafening (the house is right beside the thames river), so i had planned on finishing up some articles i owe before going back to busy new york and going on my other trips. but with ths connection here...uh oh. PS imagine my glee upon discovering that ...

before anyone accuses me of being an internet addict, i'm admitting it now, for everyone to know. i'm at the incheon airport now in seoul waiting for our flight to new york and i found SIX wi-fi networks at this particular hallway post alone! before i left davao, i had taken to driving around with my father searching for wi-fi connections late at night. it gives me pure joy to discover wireless networks practically everywhere now in the city, even on the highways! i once spent 14 hours (with just an hour's break in between to change venues), starting at 4pm, just surfing. some people, drink, smoke or do drugs. i wi-fi. and here is a picture of me that conching took just now =P

it's just been a week and a half since i found ashley, and wow, her teeth have really grown. and claws, too. the scars on my hands are proof of that, especially when she's really hungry. but we've adjusted to each other better, especially after our trip south for my birthday. surprisingly, she wasn't afraid of the waves, which were quite high last week because of a typhoon somewhere in surigao. she didn't mind the bus ride as much as i did, either. a summary of my birthday weekend: 17-18: took a leave from work to rent a cottage by the sea in south cebu. went snorkelling only three times because of the bad visibility the first two days.  and with a portable tripod and a digital camera with a self-timer, you can just imagine how i spent my time   moon was full, though cloudy. took some long exposures of it with my trusty manual camera and tripod. 19: woke up to catch the orange (this time) sunrise on my birthday  was supposed to go diving on the day itself, but so...

UPDATE just got back from a week-long trip to iloilo-roxas- panay-kalibo - boracay - tangalan for work. that's three provinces in eight days. went to the old buswang magrove eco park in kalibo. walked from station 2 to station 1 and back at least four times in boracay, by myself. visited the tangalan marine sanctuary and falls. sang unlimited videoke on my last night, danced in a bar, and drank the most alcohol i've probably had in my whole life (a jar of margarita and 3 shots of tequila in boracay and i don't know how many glasses of gold eagle beer in tangalan--but i STILL didn't get drunk or get a hangover. wonder when that will happen). woke up early every day to sit by the beach and look for good photos, on the last day even catching the sun just as it rose. but just in case you get any glamorous ideas about my life, the rest of the time i was working--even on a sunday =P will be posting photos and articles from the trip when i get the time. picked up at least th...

well, it's almost 4 a.m. and i'm still here online. of course, when i'm home i'm usually online only after 1 a.m., when prepaid internet's cheaper. so sorry, my brain's a little slow at this hour of the night (or day, depending on whether you're a night owl or a moring person) and you won't be getting much out of me about kadayawan. i'll let the pictures tell the story. unfortunately, i haven't had them developed yet. i used up 5 rolls of film in my 5 hours of walking on the streets under the afternoon sun just to get good shots of the Indak-Indak sa Kadalanan or tribal streetdancing. you have to understand, it's the first time i have a camera in my possession during kadayawan. all those other years after high school i was away at college or at work. *TRIVIA* believe it or not, i was actually part of our high school contingent once for the streetdancing, dancing all around downtown in the heat in full costume. i don't think our school pa...