1. December passed by in a blur, half of it spent in debate tournaments. Left for the World Universities Peace Invitational Debates in Malaysia with Sharms, Leloy, Miko, Ely, Shivs, Vinny and Dani on the 4th and returned on the 10th. Ateneo-GeoPower (Sharms and Leloy) broke 4th and made quarters, Ateneo A (Miko and Ely) broke 5th and made finals and Ateneo B (Shivs and me) broke 6th and made quarters. Sharms was 3rd in the Top Ten and Leloy was 2nd. Left for the World Universities Debate Championship in Ireland with Sharms, Berna, Dani, Miko, Gica, Steph, Ely and Shivs on the 26th and returned two days ago. No Asian team broke for the second year in a row. Berna adjed octos and Sharms adjed until the semifinals.

Roomed with Shivs in Malaysia. I think Shivs might have saved me from going insane then. We were doing pretty well in the rounds but I was grappling with so many concerns outside debate that I dreaded having to go back to the hotel at night and mulling over those concerns without anything to distract me. Talking to Shivs at night about the craziest things saved me from having to deal with them--or at least bought me the time I needed to compose myself and figure out what to do first. I remember one night when I didn't feel like going out to eat dinner and I decided I needed a loooong bath so I locked myself up in the bathroom and bathed for two whole hours, after which I packed all my belongings even if we weren't due to leave yet. Wondered about why I did that half an hour after then decided to walk around Pavilion aimlessly when Shivs and Sharms returned. Yup, I was going crazy. :)) 

For some odd reason,  Shivs and I would always end up being the first from the contingent to get to the venue because we wouldn't eat breakfast and refused to take the train because taking the train required walking and we decided we didn't want to have to carry our matter around. The venue was really,really cold (People were thinking that maybe the organizers were training us for Worlds. Haha.) so Shivs and I would have to wait outside the convening room and scarf down chocolates and packs of Tiger (my favorite biscuit! Shivs introduced me to Tiger during AUDC and I've been addicted since). They'd always serve burgers for lunch and since Shivs doesn't eat bread and beef, we ended up being super dependent on UniKL's first-floor convenience store. We'd have Mars bars, cupcakes, Skittles and Tiger for lunch. :D I'd eat my burger most of the time but I'd still scarf down chocolate after. :D Discovered they sell lemon-flavored, sugar-free Fisherman's Friend in Malaysia! WUPID's the first tournament I didn't prepare for, wardrobe-wise. I just dumped random clothes into my bag and thought I'd figure out what to wear when we get there. Super random,I swear--I saw one of my ratty old high school PE shirts in my bag when I unpacked. Not a good practice but we had absolutely no time to go shopping before the tournament. Chars was there for the first day of prelims to surprise Leloy! Sweet. :)

Enjoyed shopping with Shivs and Sharms. Our shoe-shopping session was especially productive. VNC's really cheap in Malaysia so we could hoard on shoes and not feel that bad about spending so much.

The Ateneo-WUPID contingent



Ateneo B <3



Roomed with Shivs and Sharms for Worlds. I had a blast! This is my favorite Worlds, if only because of that. :)) They have the most interesting conversations. It's really fun just listening to them. :)) It was super cold, though--there were times when we'd decide not to go to the socials just because the weather's too much to put up with. Shivs and I went around Cork during the first day, trying to find a convenience store where we could purchase shampoo. Found two convenience stores that sold no shampoo (They sell them at the pharmacy pala. Haha.) and because it was getting too cold, we decided to head back and gorge on cookies. When we got a message from Sharms that she was doing the test debate, we decided to head to UCC. There weren't any cabs in sight so we were adviced to walk all the way to the campus (You'd have to cross about half the town. Haha. ) I normally don't mind walking but I wasn't sure I could bear walking that far when it was cold. But (because we love Sharms that much xD) we decided to brave the cold anyway. We didn't get far , though. Spotted the sale in Penney's and ended up shopping. We were supposed to head to UCC after about half an hour but got a message from Cabrera saying they weren't allowing non-adjes to watch the test debate. So we just went around the entire afternoon. Only attended three social events--Break Night, Championship Dinner and Women's Night. Discovered Sharms is allergic to anti-inflammatory Strepsils. She became Chindian for two days. :D She's actually a very pretty Chindian. :D

Gorged on Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream for most of the tournament. Developed quite an obsession for it with Steph and Berna. XD We were endangering our throats, yeah--but who cares? XD I spent the last day in Cork with Steph, Berna and Miko. We left Cork to go to Cobh and, basically, acted all tourist-y there. XD The four of us had a steak dinner to celebrate the end of Worlds then trooped to Centra to grab ice cream. XD

Championship Night was...amusing. x)) The Singaporeans were a lot of fun. :D I was answering really weird, very disturbing questions at one point during the night and listening to the Singaporeans + Sharms come up with a list of 'the hottest Asian debaters outside present company' at another. XD Ely was fun too. XD

Spent most of the plane ride back home reading Essays in Love by Allain de Botton, thanks to Jonathan who asked me to find it because it's unavailable in the Philippines and recommended that I read it. For a book with such a cheesy title, it was a terrific read. I swear. It made me think a lot, in a good way. I doubted the book at first, but came to love it after the first two chapters. The book had me laughing and teary at some points. And I'm usually not like that when I read. XD

The Ateneo contingent with the Singaporeans


Me and tipsy Ely at Championship Dinner


Ateneo C <3


The break before Worlds and Worlds itself did me good. It was roughly ten days of realizations, related and not related to debate. The fact that we welcomed 2009 in the middle of a  tournament probably had something to do with that. I realized the changes I've been through the past few months and thought about the things I should embrace and the things I should do away with in the coming year. I realized I've been holding on to some things that I've already outgrown but keep clinging to just out of habit and not because I still want them. I realized that , even if I think I'm generally a strong person, fear of so many things has kept me from exploring possibilities in a lot of areas. I realized I want change--and I'm ready for it. I thought I was a few months back and I tried to, slowly--but my motivations were, perhaps, misguided. Now, though, I know that changes have to be made not for other people but for myself. In some ways, it might be too late--but , well, this is a new year. We all deserve new beginnings. A month and a half ago, someone told me that I wasn't 'in my happy place' . I knew it all along but I was scared to say it, as if saying it made it final. So I tried to find it--and  I thought I did, only it was somewhere I couldn't go to. Worlds made me realize, though, that I was looking too far out. I am my happy place. :) But that's another post. :P

Haha, cheesy. XD I think spending half the day puking my guts out and heaving has made me crazy. X)

I've been really, really stressed the past week. I've been snippier and snobbier too, apparently. It's a combination of so many things, I guess. Debate (almost-daily training, last-minute worries--much thanks to Miko and Shivs for re-chilling me and being so assuring. Haha), schoolwork (cramming papers and taking tests ahead--the price I have to pay for taking my "break" a week earlier), family concerns--I'm not sure I'll make it through the  next three weeks alive. Haha. Needless to say, I've been ignoring invitations to hang out/text messages/IMs. And I've been spacing out a lot--sometimes, I realize someone's trying to talk to me a full minute late.

I had fun tonight. I didn't think i'd enjoy Under The Stars. I only agreed to go coz I was done packing and I wanted to keep Ces company because she'd get picked up late. At the start, the hosts annoyed me. They weren't funny at all, but were trying too damned hard to be. It was too cold and my upper lip was bleeding. I tried watching the movie but I couldn't read the subtitles and we could barely hear anything from where we were. The fun part was when I decided to abandon my attempt to understand the film, grabbed three sheets of paper and started writing about the past two weeks, all the while keeping to myself. I just stared into space and wrote without stopping. I could hear Job and the girl he was with conversing but I tuned them out. I resisted glancing at my phone every ten minutes. i just wrote and wrote and wrote. Writing everything down cleared a lot of my thoughts. I must rememebr to do that again the next time I go crazy.

Full PIDC update later. Just a few snippets for now. 

Shivs and Kip, thank you for being such great teammates. You know you're in a good team when, even if you know you're going to have to speak in front of lots of people, you still feel confident because you know the team will pull through.To Shivs: COOOOPPPPCAKKKEEE! :D See, sugar works? :p Cupcakes to us (add a mani-pedi session for Kip) for winning PIDC. :D

Congratulations to Ateneo A for the great run. Finals was fun, although it's still weird having to go up against Steph in a tournament, after being her NDC teammate for two straight years. :)) 

Congratulations to Ateneo B for doing wonderfully as well. I enjoyed the semifinals. :)) Daming quotables eh. XD Zosa, sige na kasi, kiss Jonathan na!

Congratulations to Ateneo D for doing well. Quarters was interesting. It's sad that, for three of our four prelim rounds, we had to go up against Ateneo teams. :)

Congratulations to Ateneo E for a fab run. Considering how you've only been debating for about a month in ADS, the team did really well. :) We're proud to have you on board. I'm looking forward to your AUDC performance. :) 

Congratulations to UPDS for wonderfully running the tournament. :) I'm sure everyone will be looking forward to an equally fun tourney next year. 

Thanks to Sharms, Shivs, Bobby, Leloy, Ely, Pat, Vinny, Gica and Steph for the fun gathering last night. I really got to wind down after the stressful tournament. :)

I make it a point to always write an entry after every tournament. Like my mom used to say, you've got to say thank you even for the little things. WARNING: This will be super mushy and cliche-y. I can't help it--I'm really a giant mushball, I realized--and I'm proud of it. x))