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WHAT TREE DID YOU FALL FROM?
Find your birthday and then find your tree. This is really cool and somewhat accurate. Then send it to your friends, including the one that sent it to you, so they can find out what tree they fell from, but don't forget to change the subject line to your tree. Find your tree below and see what you are like...
TREES (in alphabetical order)
Apple Tree (Love)
quiet and shy at times, lots of charm, appeal, and attraction, pleasant attitude, flirtatious smile, adventurous, sensitive, loyal in love, wants to love and be loved, faithful and tender partner, very generous, many talents, loves children, needs affectionate partner.
Ash Tree (Ambition)
extremely attractive, vivacious, impulsive, demanding, does not care for criticism, ambitious, intelligent, talented, likes to play with fate, can be very egotistic, reliable, restless lover, sometimes money rules over the heart, demands attention, needs love and much emotional support.
Beech Tree (Creative)
has good taste, concerned about its looks, materialistic, good organization of life and career, economical, good leader, takes no unnecessary risks, reasonable, splendid lifetime companion, keen on keeping fit (diets, sports, etc.).
Birch Tree (Inspiration)
vivacious, attractive, elegant, friendly, unpretentious, modest, does not like anything in excess, abhors the vulgar, loves life in nature and in calm, not very passionate, full of imagination, little ambition, creates a calm and content atmosphere.
Cedar Tree (Confidence)
of rare strength, knows how to adapt, likes unexpected presents, of good health, not in the least shy, tends to look down on others, self-confident, a great speaker, determined, often impatient, likes to impress others, has many talents, industrious, healthy optimism, waits for the one true love, able to make quick decisions.
Chestnut Tree (Honesty)
of unusual stature, impressive, well-developed sense of justice, fun to be around, a planner, born diplomat, can be irritated easily, sensitive of others feelings, hard worker, sometimes acts superior, feels not understood at times, fiercely family oriented, very loyal in love, physically fit.
Cypress Tree (Faithfulness)
strong, muscular, adaptable, takes what life has to give but doesn't necessarily like it, strives to be content, optimistic, wants to be financially independent, wants love and affection, hates loneliness, passionate lover which cannot be satisfied, faithful, quick-tempered at times, can be unruly and careless, loves to gain knowledge, needs to be needed.
Elm Tree (Noble-mindedness)
pleasant shape, tasteful clothes, modest demands, tends not to forgive mistakes, cheerful, likes to lead but not to obey, honest and faithful partner, likes making decisions for others, noble-minded, generous, good sense of humor, practical.
Fig Tree (Sensibility)
very strong minded, a bit self-willed, honest, loyal, independent, hates contradiction or arguments, hard worker when wants to be, loves life and friends, enjoys children and animals, sexually oriented, great sense of humor, has artistic talent and great intelligence.
Fir tree (Mysterious)
extraordinary taste, handles stress well, loves anything beautiful, stubborn, tends to care for those close to them, hard to trust others, yet a social butterfly, likes idleness and laziness after long demanding hours at work, rather modest, talented, unselfish, many friends, very reliable.
Hazelnut Tree (Extraordinary) charming, sense of humor, very demanding but can also be very understanding, knows how to make a lasting impression, active fighter for social causes and politics, popular, quite moody, sexually oriented, honest, a
perfectionist, has a precise sense of judgment and expects complete
fairness.
Hornbeam Tree (Good Taste)
of cool beauty, cares for its looks and condition, good taste, is not egoistic, makes life as comfortable as possible, leads a reasonable and disciplined life, looks for kindness and acknowledgment in an emotional partner, dreams of unusual lovers, is seldom happy with its feelings, mistrusts most people, is never sure of its decisions, very conscientious.
Lime Tree (Doubt)
intelligent, hard working, accepts what life dishes out, but not before trying to change bad circumstances into good ones, hates fighting and stress, enjoys getaway vacations, may appear tough, but is actually soft and relenting, always
willing to make sacrifices for family and friends, has many talents but not always enough time to use them, great leadership qualities, is jealous at times but extremely loyal.
Maple Tree (Independence of Mind)
no ordinary person, full of imagination and originality, shy and reserved, ambitious, proud, self-confident, hungers for new experiences, sometimes nervous, has many complexities, good memory, learns easily, complicated love life, wants to impress.
Oak Tree (Brave)
robust nature, courageous, strong, unrelenting, independent, sensible, does not like change, keeps its feet on the ground, person of action.
Olive Tree (Wisdom)
loves sun, warmth and kind feelings, reasonable, balanced, avoids aggression and violence, tolerant, cheerful, calm, well-developed sense of justice, sensitive, empathetic, free of jealousy, loves to read and the company of sophisticated people.
Pine Tree (Peacemaker)
loves agreeable company, craves peace and harmony, loves to help others, active imagination, likes to write poetry, not fashion conscious, great compassion, friendly to all, falls strongly in love but will leave if betrayed or lied to, emotionally soft, low self esteem, needs affection and reassurance.
Poplar Tree (Uncertainty)
looks very decorative, talented, not very self-confident, extremely courageous if necessary, needs goodwill and pleasant surroundings, very choosy, often lonely, great animosity, great artistic nature, good organizer, tends to lean toward philosophy, reliable in any situation, takes partnership seriously.
Rowan Tree (Sensitivity)
full of charm, cheerful, gifted without egoism, likes to draw attention, loves life, motion, unrest, and even complications, is both dependent and independent, good taste, artistic, passionate, emotional, good company, does not forgive.
Walnut Tree (Passion)
unrelenting, strange and full of contrasts, often egotistic, aggressive, noble, broad horizon, unexpected reactions, spontaneous, unlimited ambition, no flexibility, difficult and uncommon partner, not always liked but often admired, ingenious strategist, very jealous and passionate, no compromise.
Weeping Willow (Melancholy)
likes to be stress free, loves family life, full of hopes and dreams, attractive, very empathetic, loves anything beautiful, musically inclined, loves to travel to exotic places, restless, capricious, honest, can be influenced but is not easy to live with when pressured, sometimes demanding, good intuition, suffers in love until they find that one loyal, steadfast partner; loves to make others laugh.
I love Wednesday nights. It used to be before that during weeknights, we’d just be in the apartment, watching DVDs, but now, we have something to look forward to and those are our Wednesday nights. It started after the Backstreet Boys concert which was on a Wednesday night (see BSB blog). As I mentioned in that blog, we took advantage of our night out and decided to head over to Zapata’s which was having a ladies night. It turned out to be fun and back then, I thought Elaine would be leaving mid-February so I decided to go with her every Wednesday and enjoy the night coz for sure I’ll be back to being a homebody after she leaves. Things started to heat up a few weeks ago when we decided to visit another ladies night across town before we head to Zapatas, which turned to an every Wednesday night after BSB concert, because we were curious about a certain something that caught our eye while reading their ad. Turns out they didn’t have the certain something we were hoping for but instead something more fun! While we were a bit disappointed coz they didn’t have it, seeing the free tattoos corner soon had us excited and forgetting about the reason we came. It’s only washable paint and only last a night but it’s still cool! 
Then next week after that, we planned on going to Mint (the No Man’s Land) first to get tattoos and afterwards Zapatas when something came up. I edit a few websites aside from Shanghaiexpat and one of them is MTO123 which sells gears and you can put any designs on hoodies or shirts (they have great stuff!). That day, they gave me, along with a few others, a Shanghaiexpat hoodie which is really cool, in exchange for our help in their website as long as we wear it during our event that Wednesday night! So instead of going to 2 places that night, we ended up going to 3 places instead!
Yup, that’s right! We first went to Malone’s (where our event is held) and had dinner there with me wearing the hoodie (I was a walking advertisement!). Mingled with my colleagues and some others (they actually have great free finger foods during the event!) Afterwards, we went to Mint which was just walking distance from Malones where we got our cool tattoos and even waited in line for a free manicure 
(which I had trouble taking off last night, reminding me once again why I don't like having manicures!!) After that, we went to Zapatas to dance.... well I was more like just standing and moving a bit!
I even met one of my co-worker there (who also got a hoodie and showed up at Malone's but had an after party at Zapata's with her friend!) Interesting night noh? By the way, that's me in the picture along with Ed and Michelle, my collegues, wearing our hoodies at Malone's. Oh, guess who has which tatoos! So every wednesday night, we have 3 places that we can go to that offers freebies!!
Anyways, some good news.... Elaine has renewed her visa which means she'll be staying for a few more months..I'm not sure how much longer I'm gonna enjoy every moment of it coz China sure won't be the same without her.
On a totally unrelated subject, I've been learning a lot of things here in China and before learning usually comes the bloopers. One of them is how to do laundry! I've learned that I should separate the colors from the whites coz sometimes the whites would stain which happened one day to Elaine's white-now-kinda-pink-shirt while I was doing laundry. Of course we always learn from our mistakes. I learned not to mix the colors and Elaine learned to separate the colors from the whites before she'd let me do laundry.
I've also learned how to differentiate the onion, garlic, and ginger. That's an embarrassing story and I'm sure David (our roomate in Beijing) would be retelling that story to everyone I know until he grows old, so I'll keep mum on it. Really embarrassing...
The greatest achievement I think is in learning how to cook. Now I know that I won't starve if left alone coz I can cook something to eat, might not be very good, but at least it would be edible. Some of the things I recently learned how to cook are breakfast foods (in cans, mind you, I'm not that good!), one of them are pancakes! Not pancakes from scratch, but those easy-to-cook pancake mix. The instructions seemed easy enough but turns out that I should've cooked them bit by bit instead of pouring all the pancake mix in the pot. It was hard to flip over because it was so thick, that's why one side is burned while the other side was good. It was still edible though as the picture shows and Elaine and I didn't get food poisoning which was a good sign. All in all, I find cooking can sometimes be fun...
Well, I've learned a few more but its late so I'll blog about it next time. One last thing I've learned is how many people it takes to change a light bulb... It seems, it actually takes two to change it. One to hold the new/old light bulb and the other to actually change it. (See picture)
You Know You're Filipino When...
I can't help it... I just have to blog about my niece and show you pictures. I can't wait to go home and play with her! Spoil her a bit and afterwards give her back to my sister! Every time she does something, my sister usually emails me the pictures and she's just so cute! On the left side is a picture of her a few weeks ago. She's now crawling and as you may have noticed, she still has hair!! Then one day last week, my aunt went to Manila and 'lo and behold, the new Mikah with no hair!! My aunt used to shave my sister's hair back when she was a baby, now; she's shaving my sister's daughter's hair! Cute ain't she?
Just an update... last January 28-February 4 we didn't have work coz it was chinese new year or better known as the spring festival. We celebrated the first two days of no work by going out with Elaine's uncle and his family, taking them to tourist areas. After that two days, we had a three day DVD marathon watching the show 24 until we (Elaine and I) got so sick of it that we never did finish the 4 seasons. Only got to watch til season 3 episode 12 (I think or somewhere around that episode). We'd wake up around lunch time, go out to eat and would come back after to continue watching until late in the evening. I think it would take me another few months to be able to continue watching that show.
The last two days of vacation, was spent walking around Shanghai (outside our apartment!). On the right side is a picture taken around Yu Garden where they were having a lantern festival. Spring festival was really interesting with lesser people making it more fun to roam around the city! It seems that most of the people left the city, those who did come to the city mostly visited tourist spots, and the rest are celebrating with their families. So the street was usually empty. Not only that, it was easier to get a taxi and there were seats available while riding the bus, if no seats, at least the bus was not "shoulder to shoulder" crowded.
Anyways, it was a fun vacation... too bad we had to work Sunday (Feb 5) to make up for the vacation... Made me miss Philippine holidays where they would actually move the holiday to a Friday or a Monday so that people can take the weekend off straight!
P.S. It's official! Feb 16 was the day I left Philippines last year... I've been in China for a year without going home! Wow!
I haven’t had the time to blog for a while now and when I do have time I usually am not in the mood. I’m just gonna write something about what I did on my birthday before it’s too late and I forget. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit forgetful nowadays hence the blog so that someday I can look back and read about what havoc I wreak whilst in . That and to occupy my time when I’m bored. Don’t worry; I’ll make this short... or as short as I can make it without boring anyone patient enough to read this.
I woke up feeling excited that day, not because it was my birthday, mind you, but because it was the last day before our one week holiday! It didn’t even feel like my birthday except that once in a while a text message would come from friends back home greeting me, reminding me I’m a year older. I thought it would just be any normal day except I’ll be going out to dinner with a few friends instead of the usual just Elaine and me. But the unexpected happen. It turned out to be a very nice day, definitely memorable. I’ll run it down for you. First, there were less people on the street coz most have left early to celebrate Chinese New Year with their families which meant I didn’t have to wait so long to get a taxi!! Then came lunch time, our ayi had another day off which meant no Chinese food (I’m a bit sick and tired of them… there's always veggies in the foods!)!! They ordered pizzas instead
yummy! Then afterwards, Michael came in around . Then we went out to dinner at Malone's along with a few friends. It was fun and the food was great! Oh, I almost forgot! Elaine also got me a cool gift... a digital clock with a stand that you can clip on table corners or headboards and movable head... kinda hard to explain... you have to see it.
There's a story behind why she got me a clock, not just any clock but a digital one and that's another story for another time. For now, have to get back to work! 
To Elaine, thanks, ur d best gid!... INDI ANAY MAG PULI!!!!
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Me and my birthday cake surrounded by balloons, Elaine and David after the surprise, dinner at Malones, Elaine finishing up the should have been surprise at 11pm. |
