4/04/2005
.:. work and luxury...i cant tell the difference. .:.
work and luxury...i cant tell the difference.
lol...i swear. atlast, finally...lumabas na ako sa bansa. haay, not that i was looking forward to leave the country, its just that recently, phillippines was experiencing spells of extreme heat! it was just 4 days ago when temperatures went up to 37 degrees celcius. grabeh.
oh well,, i never expected the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC) campus to be what it is. its a small campus really, the main buildings - the admin, the dormitory, and the laboratories- are all centered around a rotonda, the green houses and the experimental fields just around the perimeter while the staff housing occupied most of the campus - maybe around 20 or so houses. But considering the facilities, recreational facilities that is...theres a pool at the far end of the campus, 2 tennis courts, a basketball court, a volleyball court,and game room - 4 Table tennis tables, 2 pool tables and a table soccer set. The dormitories has a big TV room with really cozy coaches. Our rooms - our very own rooms with individual CRs, our own internet line (sadly, i didnt bring a laptop), and airconditioned - had me sleeping soundly on the first night especailly after the long nice hot shower. It was the first time i left the CR open, dried only inside the CR and walked around naked in my room...of course i doubled check the doors to make sure they lock tight...eventually noticing, after i changed, that i forgot to pull down the curtains. lol. The canteen, found in between the two wings of the dormitory, is so generous. Haay, for once in my life did i meet people who are so service oriented instead of typical filipinos who are undenyingly profit-oriented. Servings of rice depended on how much you nod your head or shook it. Of course with occasional baroque and hard "ok, ok..."..oh did i mention it? the place is in taiwan. specifically Shan Hua, Tainan- alittle bit north of Kaoshiung, w/c is an hour and 25minutes away from manila by air....the consessionares were chinese, or taiwanese as most of them believe they are. Much to my previous dislike of chineses food especially ones served in chow king, has my taste change lest of course the cook is really chinese or, as according to rumors, has a tastebud for MSGs.
The administration building which houses the game room, the training center, the bank, post office, operator and, my favorite place to hang out as of the moment, the computer room is open 24-7. ALl you have to do is leave the dormitory, walk down the rotonda, bracing yourself coz its really cold at night, push the door, climb to the 3rd floor and wla...unlimted access to friendster, chat...etc...surfing galore.
Anyways, the laboratories and green house facilities were commendable, well, as much as i expect them to be considering this is an international research organization. Today was our first day. Office hours is unusual here at AVRDC. in the morning, office starts at 7.45am and closes for lunch at 11.45am. After a one hour lunch break, office resumes at 12.45pm and goes on for another 4 hours. Well, we - me and other fellow trainees, all from UPLB, namely mia, abriel, izza, katrina and ian - had our orientation first thing in the morning. Then we had our phitos taken form another service oriented photographer, had bikes assigned to us, biking btw is the main form of transportation especially within the campus and going downtown, and lastly was introduced to our respectively adivsers.
My adviser is Dr. Tien Chen Wang, the head of the mycology unit in AVRDC. He seems to be in his mid 40s and is extremely straight forward. His hard english brought about by his heavy chinese is extremly hard to comprehend. And i had to, well hesitating at first until i couldnt uderstand time and again, ask him to repeat everything he said. silly filipino. But he was nice. So he showed me around the office, the greenhouse which was 5 minutes walk from the laboratory, after which he showed me an empty room - mind you, an office room - complete with a big table, a computer and a big comfty office chair, like those executive ones - "you can stay here". Wow, well he handed me a simple research outline along with my skedule for the next 2 months and 6 reference journals to read. SO thats whst i did for 6 hours...trust me it was tiring. well, it was a good thing i made a research outline for my adviser at UPLB and was able to come across most of the journals Dr. Wang assigned for me to read. Sadly, the monitor power cord was missing...so i wasnt able to have the computer keep me company especially when i was trying not to fall asleep. Finally, when i was done with the journals, i asked my boss to excuse me or rather i found the perfect excuse to leave - "Dr Wang , would it be ok if i went to the computer room to read more references"...duh, read more ref my ass. hehehe.
Ah un...first thing i did in the computer room was to download chikka, enhance the YM and sent text messages to special people, coaxing them to come online to chat. One of those specially special people did...hehehe. love ko un.
dinner at the canteen is served at 5.30pm since they close at 6.30. And as i said there generosity had my stomach filled ultimately.lol. after dinner, my fellow trainees went biking around the campus and at around 7.30pm we parked at the front of the admin building. And abuse the use of the game room. We had a kick out of the table soccer - well since there are 4 lanes of players to control per team what we did is that we fought two vs two.
After playing to we just got bored with too much fun, we decided to go upstairs to the computer room. lol, its 11pm now. And im tired...i think ill ask my friends to go to sleep na.
zzzz...
bye guys...
i love you....so much.
losing my grip. [8:40 PM]
_____________
