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Originally posted on my Friendster blog on 09 October 2006.

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just got back from some much-needed r&r, and also, a bit of research. i'm not exactly glad to be back to the daily grind, but i guess, i can't really complain, as i've had my break--and i've to say it was just perfect. here's why:

1. i got to visit some new places, one a garden, the other a cafe, and tried, well, flowers for food. i don't think i'll make a habit of it, but, i realized flowers aren't so bad--when they're mixed in with other kinds of things, that is. hehe. whatever. the flowers were good.

2. i got treated to a kundiman serenade over dinner, and simply loved it. the man singing was old and didn't look like a professional singer, which, to me, made his singing somehow more real and heartfelt. he was singing as if he really knew how it was to love and lose and love again.

3. i got to sleep in starched linen that felt and smelled so good i never wanted to get out of bed. i don't know if it was the linen, or maybe it was just the fact that my 1st comprehensive exam was over, or a combination of both perhaps, but i was finally able to sleep without waking up every 15 minutes or so. for the first time in a long time, i woke up refreshed and cheerful--and ready for more flowers. hehe.

4. i also got to taste the best hot chocolate and peanut butter cookies ever. the hot chocolate was just the right bittersweet; it also had chocolate bits that would make you stop whatever you were saying or doing, so you could just smile silly and savor the drink (or, in one friend's case, so she could order another pot, hehe). the peanut butter cookies were actually an afterthought--or was it the chocolate muffins, which were, ahm, good, but not remarkable? anyway, the cookies were huge and moist and so peanut-y we immediately regretted not buying more than the one bag that we did and made a promise to come back if only for the cookies.

5. i was given a classic didion, an artemis fowl, and 2 books written by bob ong. this means i got some new books that are not at all school-related. yay!

but i guess, more than all these, it was the quiet and peace and slowness of the whole thing that made this break truly remarkable for me. now, as for the research bit, i finally got the stuff i needed, and nothing and nobody could stop me now. hahaha. seriously, i was able to do some work in between the sleeping and eating and lazing around. i was actually surprised i got a few things done. nothing major, but enough to keep this week, and perhaps, a bit of the next, less hectic. at least, that's what i'm hoping for.

oh, and some good news: i managed to pass my 1st comprehensive exam, despite failing to resolve structural ambiguities through a common enough exercise in syntax: tree diagramming (i know, i know, ma'am flores won't be too happy to know about this), and despite explaining the notion of minimal pairs in terms of presence and absence (whatever, it's still a binary, and i like presences and absences!). so congratulations to me! but it's not over yet; i'm on to the 2nd, which is scheduled on 1 nov. when i told my brother, he jokingly said they'd include me in their prayers back home. (my family usually says a litany of all saints' day prayers. ) i have a little over three weeks to prepare for the exam, and the reading list is more than i can possibly read in half a year, that is, if i really keep at it, so i say, whatever helps.