25 random things

i was already tagged a few weeks back on my facebook account and published there already my list, but since i got tagged again here by mksurf8, here's another 25 things about me.

1. people keep asking me why i call myself a polar bear. it's simple really, i love the cold. i thrive in it. the colder the better. i was once in shanghai during winter. it was 3 degrees then and i was just wearing a wind breaker. my guide had 4 layers of clothing on and could not believe i was still alive and actually enjoying myself. hehehe, i guess i was too distracted playing with the mist my breath would make and how my piss would steam in the frigid weather.

2. considering how much i love the cold, i also believe i bring with me, together with my kuya, freaky weather. it snowed in shanghai when we were there, considering it rarely snows in shanghai. when i was in dubai, it rained so hard, it flooded. according to my arab boss, it hasn't rained that hard in more than a decade. when kuya went to texas, he brought with him snow as well.

3. i know how to use the abacus. my parents made me learn it over one summer since they could not stand me wasting 3 precious months of my vacation not doing anything at home but get fat. i learned, but i never applied it. what for i thought when calculators are far more superior. i should have argued with my folks since i was having trigonometry the coming school year. try getting the functions of the triangle using an abacus... i DARE YOU!

4. like most chinese immigrants in manila, i can speak 3 languages fluently, depending on who i speak to. tagalog with friends, english with my younger relatives, chinese with the older ones. though now that i am older, it seems i am finding that i get to speak chinese more often. i actually wish i practiced it more since i feel embarrassed whenever people speak to me in chinese and i can't understand most of what they say.

5. i am a gourmand. i will try to eat practically anything just to find out what it tastes like, never mind if it's totally gross for some people. the weirdest food i have had, locust (a delicacy in pampanga) and lamb brain sandwich ( a lebanese delight). i however will not choose to eat balut, simply for the fact that i dislike my food looking back at me before i bite into it.

6. i am a keen observer, i would think. i can take in a lot of information from a quick glance, so much that i would be surprised how some people don't even see the things i see since i didn't even take that much time looking. then again, i also miss a lot of details, especially if the subject is of no interest to me.

7. i hate math. i loved geometry and trigo tho, especially when it came to proving. that was the only exercise in logic that i excelled in as far as math was concerned. but as far as the sciences go, biology was my ultimate love. i loved it so much, i wanted to be a doctor.

8. i also loved history and the arts. high school for me was the best, especially when we were studying asian and world history. i can still recall a lot of the info we learned from back then now actually. i loved it THAT much.

9. people say i'm like a walking encyclopedia. i store things in my brain in bits and pieces and just go through my mental Rolodex when needed. i would actually get emails and phone calls from friends here and abroad to ask for me to prove their queries or ask for info about subjects that they sometimes are too lazy to research for themselves. i wouldn't be surprised if one of these days, someone would use me as a life line for who wants to be a millionaire.

10. i don't have any vice. none whatsoever. i don't smoke because i think it's super unhealthy. i don't drink because i'm allergic. i don't gamble because i don't want to burn in hell. i never did drugs, not even steroids, even if everyone in the gym thinks i had "help" getting fit.

11. i am addicted however to working out. gym has served as my sanctuary and had helped me through many issues i have had in my life. call me cheesy but if it weren't for working out, i would probably be dead by now. i started working out because my sedentary lifestyle was taking a toll on my health. i was also depressed. gym did so much for me, for my health, for my mental well being. lately, it has also been a place for me to escape and just be.

12. speaking of working out, since i started, i have now lost a total of 56 pounds. i used to wear size 42 pants and XXL shirts. i can now fit into a size 32 and wear medium shirts. i can now run without pain. i can wash dishes without my back hurting. my liver is super healthy. my kidneys are no longer leaking protein. my goiter is now under control. i also now rarely get sick.

13. i only came out to my folks last year. my mom knows, my kuya knows. my dad, though i still have to muster the courage of telling him, believe that he's not blind to see that i'm more flamboyant that your typical guy. my family handled my coming out rather well, though they still express their concerns whenever i meet up with fellow gays. my mom in particular still struggle sometimes with the fact that i may never give her any grandchildren. it saddens me as well that in this respect, i can never succeed and honor their wishes.

14. i am a christian. my family is christian as well. my lolo was a missionary who fled china as they were being persecuted there, his contemporaries imprisoned, some even executed. our faith in God runs deep. my lola said one time that this is our true heritage, my inheritance. she got mad at me once when i told her i didn't want to go to church since my friends were inviting me out to watch a movie. i have never seen her so serious in my life and have tried to value my "inheritance" as much as i could since then.

15. in truth, i am a quiet person. you could leave me at a corner and i would sit there alone and be totally content.

16. my greatest love was that of my sunshine. it was the best feeling i had. it was the worst heart break as well. but as of today, another had taken his place, and i had to endure another heart ache.

17. i am extremely fickle. it takes me forever to make a choice, more so, a purchase. it drives my folks crazy sometimes the amount of consideration i would do for a simple item. i recall once, in the hunt for the perfect pair of leather shoes, i had to search for it in 4 different countries in the span of two years. i eventually found it at albertos in glorietta and wore them till they DIED!

18. i once told my cousin, if i were only to eat one type of food forever, that that food would be pork and beans. i still stand by that decision, even if i hadn't had pork and beans in almost a decade now.

19. i am a geek. i loved school and loved studying. i enjoyed the controlled environment and thrived in tasks being handed out to me. i loved the competition. i have two degrees under my belt, both of which i excelled in. i graduated cum laude when i finished physiotherapy, and summa cum laude when i finished interior design. i originally was supposed to go to med school but decided to take a gamble and follow my heart and go to design. i'm loving what i do now though the money ain't that great.

20. though i cannot say my english is the best, i think it's not that bad. i get a reflex tic whenever i hear wrong grammar or a very stiff accent. i learned how to speak english through listening and watching countless episodes of cartoons and sesame street, so i guess, i value how it sounds more than how it reads. i don't really know where i got it from but my tic has steadily gotten worse over the years. hence, i cannot bear to read some blogs, more so, talk to some people. when i do find myself in situations and the person i am with is obviously struggling with english, i speak in tagalog nalang.... at least, paraho kaming masaya. i however don't think i as severe as a friend of mine who refuses to befriend anyone who can't speak english well.

21. i hate driving. partly because of laziness, partly because i easily get anxious, party because i hate the drivers in my side of town. despite that, i don't drive cautiously though, but instead, i drive like a crazed pakistani cab driver desperately in need of a pee! if my mom, who rides with me sometimes, had a choice to wear built in airbags, she would. she doesn't know that i know, but whenever she rides with me in the car, i know even in her silence, she is praying for safety!

22. i have a very active imagination, even now that i'm older. i would find myself role playing at home, having dialogues with myself like i'm playing some character in a movie. i would find myself suddenly burst into a brief dance or even start humming a tune of my creation, just like that without any particular reason. vestiges i guess of learning to cope with my loneliness as a child, not having playmates at home except my dolls and action figures. o yes... i had dolls to play with as a child.

23. i am very limber. due to my long torso and my hyper-mobile thorax, i can fold myself to greater extents than your normal non-contortionist person. it's an optical illusion really since i just have a long torso. my hamstrings are tight and my low back is rigid actually. despite this though, i can still reach my toes with my knees straight easily, and on a dare, even go as low as "there" :) and no, i will NOT do that again even if you pay me.... well, depends how much you pay me! hehehehe.

24. i just found out that i am allergic to stress. i kid you not. my doctor told me so! i was surprised myself! my skin breaks out in hives and would start bleeding. it's rather gross since my skin looks like i got scalded. it gets worse over summer, for very obvious reasons. now you know why i love the cold so much.

25. i can drink a quadruple espresso cafe americano ( to the surprise of the barista who attended to me) and still fall soundly asleep. caffeine has no effect on me apparently.

there you go. 25 random things about me.

who to tag? hmmm, can i request misterhubs, dats of datswhy, architect reena, dabo, jaybeecc and gentle to tell us something about themselves :)