Nhemskie's Haven

Some days before the one-day program we had at the Busan Filipino School, I thought of teaching Chloe some starter lines from our Philippine Anthem. Me: (Singing) "Bayang Magiliw, Perlas ng Silanganan..." Chloe had tried to follow however she was struggling how to pronounce "bayang magiliw" since there's no one word-syllable sounding "ng" and "liw" in Korean... Chloe: "Mayang magiliw..." Me: No baby, it should have the B sound... "bayang"... Chloe: Okay, I'll try it again... (Rhythm fine... one deep breath) "Bayang Bagiliw"... ...hearing herself out loud we both have a good laugh. That's the spirit my baby!

Six years ago, I followed my heart. The events from that day seem from a distant planet. Six years ago, I worked as an English teacher in a Korean Language school in the Philippines when I met my husband, Tommy. He looked so strange when I first saw him at the school’s lobby because of his weird eye glasses (white-framed plastic eye glasses where he claimed he got the style from a famous Korean actor, 배용준). I think his strangeness and good looks had led me ponder some thoughts that night before I slept. The next day, to my surprise, he became my student (I was really glad that he enrolled to my class). I found his English very poor and horrible. I remember an instance that he mentioned his forehead as his “ground” and when he said something like "he is at my beside" thing. I burst into laughter when he metioned those lines. But after a few months of studying, his English had really improved a lot. Time passed and I found myself interested with him. I knew somehow that he sec...

I grieve today because we lost our precious niece. Her name is Kurt Nicole, the daughter of my youngest sis. She suffered too much pain at a very young age. Little that we knew she would go away that early... But we were very proud of her because she kept on fighting 'til the end. We'll be missing you.... mommy and daddy will surely do a lot. You'll be at peace now... no more pain. We love you... and we're truly sorry that you have suffered much. Goodbye.