October 3rd, 2007

You know, I have sat here and been on the internet since the days before America Online (AOL). Yes people there were days before AOL existed and helped the non-helpable ones of us that can not seem to type in a URL (www.somesite.com). But yes, I have put off for years now the opportunity to type my very own BLOG. My friends and even some of my family have written their own Blogs and I have procrastinated for awhile now on doing it. Not as much as I am lazy but the fact that I think of all the things that have passed by that I would not be able to add as this is suppose to be chronological. Well I finally figured out if I do not start now there will be so much more useless information I have to tell you all about that I will not be able to. Besides I am not one for always following the rules so, screw chronological… I will follow it to a point but I will also refer back to the crap I did not add before.

I am interested to meet the person that feels they invented the notion of “Bloging”. Does anyone realize because I still have not had anyone say it yet, all this is, is a more high tech diary but now everyone can read it and there is not lock and key. Also you’re not hiding it under your bed or behind your smelly shoes where you think no one else would look, next to your weed. I wonder, have we as humans become so to the point that we do not care who knows our lives and secrets or are we so ignorant that we assume that only people so far from us that do not know who we are will read these Blogs? Well wake up, your friend next door, your teacher, boss or even your best friends and parents may be reading your dirty little secrets right now.

Well now that I got this crap out of the way let me tell you a small bit about me and then I’ll tell you about my day. I will keep the “Auto Biography” short; after all you will learn it all as time goes on and read more.

My real name is not important for now, but feels free to call me Di, that is pronounced like the letter “D”. It is the English way to type a Chinese character. DiDi put together means little brother. Just one Di doesn’t mean shit, but it is better then having someone refer to me as “that guy”. So there you have it you know something else now, I am a guy. I am 28 from Western New York. I was brought up for the most part as it was a Middle Class Jew. My mother passed away last year and as it happens it will be a year on the 13^th. My father still lives in New York. I have 4 sisters all living in Florida, 3 kids living in the Philippines and a wife in New York. So there it is, a very short Bio. Now as the old saying went,… On with the show!!

So, here I am in the Philippines. Why I am here will be apparent as this Blog or others go on, but for now just try to keep up. I got here on the 29^th of September, just 5 days ago. I flew down from Hong Kong. I had not seen my kids for almost a year and to be completely frank it was FUCKING KILLING ME!!! Now many will say, “well that is your problem”, or “your fault”, or “well why did you let it go for so long”, or any other shit like that. Well to all of you… you will have to read to find out.

So today was a pretty simple day here in the Philippines. It was the first day in almost a week that it did not rain from the typhoons that have been pounding this island country for the last week. Skies for the most part were clear and only about 102 degrees today. I woke up late today at about 9:30am. My daughter was already out to school which made me a bit sad as I wish I could have seen her off. I am only here for a short time and I want to spend as much time with my kids as I can. By the way my daughter is the oldest she is 6 and her name is Maria, my next in line is Philip he is 4 and last but in no way least is Gabriel and he is going to be 2 soon. All three of them live here with my wife’s family for now.

I got up did the whole shower thing, which by the way being in a country where it is considered cold when it is below three digits taking a COLD shower is amazingly wonderful. The longest showers I ever take are when I am here. After the nearly 45 minute showers from heaven I got dressed and had some breakfast. Now usually I cook especially here but they already cooked for me so I took it with a smile. Good old, Corn beef from a can with rice. Who cold ask for anything more? (ME!!!). Anyways by the time I finished it was nearly 11 and my daughter comes home from school at 12 for a one and a half hour lunch brake. My sons went with my mother in-law to the city to go shopping. My house here in the Philippines is about 45 minutes from the closest city. We are in the Northern Luzon Province in the Cagayan Valley area.

So while I waited for my daughter I sat down and began working on my new book. I forgot to tell you I like to write and I am working on a new novel. I do not want to write to be rich or famous but to have something that will live on past me, my children and even my grate grand children. Something that maybe 5-10 generations down the line one of my decedents can look at and say, “dam I am related to this really intelligent guy.” So much for me tooting my own horn.

So my daughter got home a little after noon and we sat down and started right on working on her Phoenix. I love to do that with her. Not to sound conceded but she comes from a family of academically brilliant people. I want to make sure she and my sons are at the peek of their abilities. She loves reading and that just makes me so dam happy. When I was her age I hated it. I am not exactly sure as to why but the idea of reading made me feel like a moron. Do not get me wrong I could do it and I did it when I had to but it was nothing like Math or Science which was as easy for me as drinking water. It was reading that was the one I always had to work hard at. My father on the other hand and my mother I believe it was something they loved to do and did a lot. I remember when my mother was passing and she asked us (my sisters and I) to choose what we wanted to remember her by, we were at her house and I was amazed by the collection of books she had and read. My mother and older sister together also wrote several books and curriculums. I try to do two pages from the Phoenix book with my daughter during lunch and two before she goes to sleep. Today she made me happy when she did not want to stop but continue, which we did.

She brought home her report card today too, she has nice marks but I know she can do better and I am trying to help her in every way I can. She is number 7 in her class out of over 40 students and that makes me so proud. So, after lunch I went back with her to her school for the first time and wanted to hand the report card to her teacher signed. I talked to her for a bit about Maria and wanted to know what we could work on together if anything. The teacher told me that she has a hard time being quiet in class she loves to talk while the teacher is talking. The teacher also invited me back tomorrow to sit in on the class and watch for awhile.

Now as I said the area my house in the Philippines is located, is in the country. Most of the people have never seen a foreigner or a white guy short of TV. So everywhere I go I have people looking, pointing and talking. It used to bother me but after traveling for so many years it doesn’t too much anymore. Besides sometimes when it gets to me I just turn it around and point at them and say “WOW A FOREIGNER!!” Usually I get some laughs because obviously I am the foreigner. I say all this because all the students at the school came around Maria and me looking at me, asking Maria in Tagalog (the native tong of the Philippines) “Is this your father?” It made me smile from ear to ear to see her so proudly hug me and say “YES!!” If you’re a father you know exactly what I am talking about, how proud you are to be a dad at that very moment. But do not fret I know the teen years are only around the corner and it will not last forever.

After I got out of the school I got on my motorcycle and headed to the local internet café. I had some work I had to hand in via the net.

I had recently gone back to school at Axia’s University of Phoenix. It is an online school where I am going to get my Masters in Teaching. Considering my situation and my current point in life I see no other option of being able to get my education. I mostly am doing it so my kids do not have me as an excuse of why they do not want to go to college. I must admit I put down the idea of working for someone a lot, and school has not changed my mind at all about it, but it is the smartest thing to have a degree so you have something to fall back on if all else fails, like those dreams we so hard try to achieve.

So what I was getting to is today I had to hand in my final project for the first set of classes. It was a power point presentation and I worked hard on it. The way the online school works is you take 2 classes at a time for 9 weeks each class. It is not bad. My first class I already handed in my assignment and got a passing grade of the class of 96.4, which made me pretty dam happy. However with an argument with my teacher in the other class and some bull shit grades she gave me on some earlier projects my grade has been low. I can pull off a 93.7 if I get a 100 on this finale project but considering how much this teacher does not seem to like me I would not count on it. I will let you know what happens tomorrow as I should have the grade by then. (I am sure your waiting on the edge of your seat to hear about it.)

From the café I headed to the local airport which is nothing more then a long runway and what might as well be a hut for all the building is worth. I had to get a plane ticket from my city to Manila for Friday. I am leaving to fly back to my home in Northern China. I have a ticket from Manila to Hong Kong already because I was there last week to renew my working visa for China. From there I am heading to Beijing then taking a car, bus or train home. So the airports tickets as we all know are usually high so I went to the city to fight an agent to make it cheaper and that I did. I went to two agencies, it took about an hour or so and I saved a whopping 3 pesos, roughly that translates to less the 10 cents. So my itinerary is this:

• Friday 2:00pm fly from My city to Manila get there at 2:50pm
• 6:00pm fly from Manila to Hong Kong get in at 8:30pm
• 8:30am on Saturday I leave Hong Kong to Beijing and get in at about 12:00pm
• Then take a taxi to my house there in Beijing drop off some stuff that I do not need in my house in the north.
• Then at about 3:30pm I get a bus, train or Black car to my city in the north and at anywhere from 5pm-10pm I will be back in my house.

By the way if you’re wondering I will not be going to any hotels along my way I will be sleeping at the airport even for that long stay in Hong Kong of 12 hours.

After I got my ticket which was almost double the price it was only two years ago I went to get some late lunch. I went to the only McDonald’s in the city. Now this is something we would never have happen in The States (United States of America is referred to as “The States” in many international countries). McDonald’s was out of hamburgers. That is right you did not read wrong they had no more hamburgers, they had plenty of fried chicken, spaghetti and rice but no beef. It is like Pizza Hut having no more Pizza. If you never travel outside of the USA, not including Canada things are different. In India McDonald’s offers an entire veggie burger line. So I wound up getting this crappy egg burger called “The Mc Do”.

I spent about 15 minutes eating that while everyone there stared at me even the security guard was concentrating on what I ate and how I ate instead of watching the other people or the door.

I went for a ride around the city after that on my Yamaha and ended up stopping at a “Mr. Doughnuts”. I got some for desert after dinner for the whole family. Living in China for so long it had been awhile since I had one so I must admit I was happy to try them out.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I went back to the house downed about a half gallon of water because of how hot it was and took a nap. My daughter woke me up to tell me she was going over one of her cousins houses and my sons came in to simple jump on me a few times then run out to find their grandmother.

I got up and had dinner awhile ago, sat down and started working on my book. Then I decided to just type out this Blog and see where it goes. I intended it to be about a half a page or so but here I am in word and I just entered my fifth page.

Well if you come back we will see if the rest will be shorter. I hope you enjoyed this first entry of many for years possible to come. You’re more then welcome to come back and read the next one and the ones to follow.

Take care and be well. Dream of dreams that you strive to accomplish even if they never get done.

P.S.

- This Blog was over but as I was writing the last bit of this entree my daughter came into the room. She had just got back from her Auntie’s house and wanted to hive me a hug and lay down. She asked me to sing her “You are my Sunshine” and hold her till she fell asleep. I wanted to end on a high note and that is the best high note I could think of.

Good night all