The FINAL REQUIREMENT in LITFILI :) *livin la visa loca*

The characters that stand out in the story are Jess who is the main character and Mr.Sancho who is the main character’s father. The other characters in the story are Mara who is the ex-girlfriend but became Jess’s wife at the end of the story, Jason, the son of Mara and Jess, and an American man who look for the cristos and take videos of them.

The traits that were given to the characters are different from each other. The main character, Jess, his job was a driver for the tourists or he drives for the people who want to relax or sleep or whatever they want and he earns money from them. He helps his father as in almost everything because his father needs help from him. Also, he tried to make visa to go to America to meet his girlfriend and to earn money. However, it always denied and delayed but he never gave up. When he found that it’s hard to go to America, he met Mara who is his ex-girlfriend and he almost liked her again. It made me think that ‘Out of sight, out of mind’. Also, I remembered that he rubbed his nose. When I was watching the movie, I notice that Jess’s father, Mr.Sancho was a bit childish. I can’t say he’s really childish but he acts as a child because Jess had to help him with his eyes, ears, and heart. Also, if Jess isn’t around, he can’t do anything. He had to wait for him or call him to do something. It was a bit sad when Jess told to his father that he’s going to America to earn money and his father was sent to somewhere that looked like a sanatorium and the father looked like a child. But then when I watched the scene that Jess was telling to his father to do this and do this, etc. I was thinking that Mr.Sancho was listening to him but he pretended like he wasn’t because he felt sad and he didn’t want to let Jess to leave. Mr.Sancho also rubbed his nose. Mara, she was a mermaid. It was funny to watch that she pretended like she’s a mermaid but the Japanese thought that the mermaid and the tour guide are making fool of them. She’s a working mom and I think she tried to live with Jason with her money and not to borrow from others because of her pride. I understood Jason, the son of Jess and Mara when he had a class that he drew his mother and couldn’t say anything because his mother works as a mermaid unlike others’ parents. Rubbing his nose, it is the same as Jess and Mr.Sancho. it was fun to watch the three of them doing the same thing.

Symbolic and cultural references that were used in the story were critos, Filipino massage, places, language, and a maid. These cultural references are consistent. However, I’m not sure about the cristo because I don’t know if they still do it and I don’t know why they do it. Filipino massage, it’s consistent because I still can see people who have massage especially in the beach. The places in the movie are still in the Philippines, of course and language, they still use it; it’s the Filipino language for them. Lastly, the maid, the “helper” still exists. (? :P) There are many helpers who help in the other people’s house. People want to hire them because they need them to clean, cook, and see the kids when they’re not around.

The social issues or problems that were dealt with in the story were poverty, visa, and marriage. I can’t say that it’s really poverty but they’re lack of money. Jess’s family needed money for Mr.Sancho, Mara needed money for Jason because he was sick and to live with him, she needed more money. The visa, Jess couldn’t go easily to America because he’s a Filipino who doesn’t have any important purpose to go there. American asked so many questions and Jess couldn’t give the right or satisfactory answers to him and it was always denied and delayed. It was good thing that the American man who takes video of the Philippines helped him go to America but if he didn’t help Jess, I think it was hard to go there by himself. I could see the problem that was a marriage. I’m not sure if this can be a problem or social issues but Jess couldn’t get married with Annette because she was in America and Jess couldn’t follow her. However, Annette didn’t understand Jess that it is hard to make a visa and they broke up. Then he met Mara again and they loved each other again and get married at the end. So, it’s like, it is hard to get married if the couple is apart from each other because they need a lot of money and some more problems between them but it is easy when they’re near and together. It was clear to stand on in the movie but except for the marriage. It is because it might not a social issues but just a personal problem. Suggestions to these problems? I’m not sure about it. There are no solutions for poverty. It’s hard to solve the problem with the visa because people are going to other country and it’s not just place to place but country to country. Marriage, maybe they can solve it because they can find another lover or try to live near together.

The theme or central idea of the story is the main character’s effort on everything and be happy with your life whatever it is because it is the best life you have and don't change it. He doesn’t give up easily and he tried to figure the problems out. He tried to make a visa and go to America to see his girlfriend, he tried to help his father, he tried to earn money as being a driver, and the worse thing, he tried to be a cristo because the real cristo escaped. So for me, the central idea of the story is the main character’s effort on everything. He also worries about his work in the Philippines and US and his father but he decided to stay in the Philippines and with his father because I think he noticed that that is the best way to live in his life. (Also for the love life XD)

I liked the story or movie although it was Filipino movie and I had to read the subtitle and couldn’t focus on the scenes. It was funny and I like happy ending so I liked it. I also liked the story and the main charater, Jess and Jess’s father, Mr.Sancho. I also liked the American who takes video of the Philippines because he was the actor from the play what I watched with my classmates. I took picture with him. (XD) Anyway, it was executed by the actors, places, and the story of the movie. It was good to watch it.

HUMAN

Humans are animals. Animals kill each other or other kinds of animals to survive in their lives. Humans are the same as animals. When they already got into their lives as to survive, they won’t stop. For example, in the story, the woman tried to kill the guy who always hit her and her children many times to survive from the guy. She couldn’t do anything because that is the way she and her children can survive in her life. I think humans will do everything that will make them survive from the evil world.

Also, I think humans can’t maintain the society or morals. It’s hard to do it. If humans act or do something to make their lives better, they don’t maintain their orderly society but they change it to make it better or they can’t live orderly what they had did. They can’t maintain the morals all the time because once they want something to be changed, they will do it.

Peter Pan, what a perv man XD my first impression ★

Um…. Well, I had experience with someone I know. When I saw her, my first impression about her was like, ‘hmm.. She looks good and I think she will be nice person if I’ll be friend with her.’ Actually, when I greeted her, she was fine. She greeted me also. She talked with me for few minutes ONLY. So I thought she’s a good person and I thought like she would say ‘hi~’ and have some conversation. But, mostly, people are wrong with their first impression and yes, I was wrong. When I greeted her few days later, she just stared at me and didn’t say anything. I don’t know why. Maybe she wasn’t in the mood? Yeah, I understood that time. Few days later again, I saw her and I greeted her because she’s older than me so I have to greet her first. But then, guess what? She didn’t even look at me. What a good person, huh? So, yeah, nowadays, I don’t greet her also. Why do I have to greet her if she doesn’t greet me or even looking at me? Also, sometimes, I pretend like I didn’t see her. I just ignore. Well, now I hate her.

Well, I think the story ‘The tale of the Spinster and Peter Pan’ is modern life story. As I read in the story, there’s a band, where the man is, and there’s bar. If I compare with the two previous stories that we discussed, it is kind of different. It is because ‘Games’, was about phones, callings, and stuff like that. They couldn’t really figure out the point in the story. And the ‘Documents’, it is modern. However, I couldn’t find the real point in the story. They didn’t have any conversation which can help them to solve their problems. The guy was just looking for the documents that were written by the girl, and the girl was just trying to let the guy know how she feels. It is not clear and it’s more about documents, really. But as I read the Peter Pan something, the woman was well known about her mind, or feeling for peter pan. And I could easily know that it was really modern because there was bar, wine (kind of), and band. I’m not saying that I noticed it is modern just because of bar and band but I noticed because of my feelings. (ihihihi XD) how the band sing, how the woman live, something like that. So I guess, I like this story :)

the REAL POINT of the story 'Documents'

I can’t really get the point in the story. But as I read it, the guy realized a lot of things from the girl’s documents. The girl wrote stories and something more and the guy noticed something in those stories. And the guy, I think he wants to know something from her documents such her mind or what she’s thinking of their relationship. Maybe the girl wants to make sure about their relationship and wanted to show to the guy. Also, for me, the girl wanted to be separated from the guy as written in one of the stories. The story was about a woman disappearing fading away slowly. She wanted to disappear, maybe, as the guy thought that this story is somehow autobiographical. As he wrote the story, he mentioned that the girl is not his girlfriend and they’re not in love. So the guy thinks that they’re not sure about their relationship also. But I guess it’s not true that he doesn’t really want the relationship with her because I noticed that he doesn’t want the girl to be disappear. (for me) So, the real point for me in the story is that the guy likes the girl but the girl wants to have a rest from her work and the guy.

For "Magnificance"

1. what does "magnificence" pertain to in the story? How did you feel/ what were your thoughts after the discussion?

Actually, I can't really tell what is magnificence in the story, but magnificence for me in the story is the guy named Vincente and the mother of the two children. If you see Vincente's characteristic, he doesn't stop molesting the little girl and that means he doesn't care who will be the person that will be molested. He always tried to give the pencils and let the little girl to like him, I think. The mother, she is the best mother. She didn't shout, or call someone else to escape the place when she saw Vincente, but she was calm and quietly let the children go away from Vincente. She let Vincente not to do it to her little daughter again. I like how she handled the happening and slapped him.
I felt the same after the discussion. I thought about Vincente that he's a pervert, I liked how the mother handled the guy, and I tried to understand the little girl how she felt about him when I read the story. Then we talked about the story, and we discussed about Vincente, the mother, the children, and I didn't really felt so different from what I thought before we discuss.


2. Have you ever had similar instances of people displaying feats of character?

I don;t have any instances or experiences that are similar to the story. I only have a quite different thing, that when I was with my mom and her friend's friend who fixed our TV speakers. When he came to my house and tried to fix our speakers, mom was preparing lunch for him because he is the friend of her friend. Then after he fixed the speakers, he was watching a movie and at the same time, he was checking the sound. I was with mom and when she prepared lunch, she called the guy. He wasn't coming so my mom went to him to call him. Surprisingly, he was watching the movie and the part was having sex. My mom got surprised because I was there and he focued on watching it. Mom tried to let him not to watch and she said stop the DVD mvoie and called him many times to eat lunch. Then he stopped the DVD movie. It is a different experience but I think it's a bit similar. I got irritated and I wanted him to go home. And I don't like such those people who watch something and don't care.

Old picture

This picture was taken 1950/6/25 when North Korea and South Korea had a war and it was finished 1953. We had the war for 3 years. North Korea wanted to have a war with us and obviously in the picture, the war was ongoing. While we were fighting with NKorea, america helped us to fight against NKorea and to win.

The guy or a soldier in the picture was american and he's trying to save those two children. I guess people were excaping from the war and they left the place to be safe. Two children got lost in the war and the american is saving them. I felt so thankful to the soldier in the picture. He saved the children even the war was still ongoing.

I feel sad because NKorea and SKorea is one country but we can't be together. NKorea always want to have a war with SKorea. I hope there will be no war again between NKorea and SKorea. It's one country and we are all the same people.

Letter for Amado!!!

Dear. Amado

How are you doing? How’s your education? How’s your life going? If you ask me, I’m doing well and if you ask me who I am, I’m the friend of Tinay.

I want to say that I’m sorry about your mother. I heard that your mother died last year. I hope you can make yourself better because you might feel sad for your mother and do nothing. This is my offer words of encouragement.

Please, no offence. Your love, Tinay, got married with other guy. I’m telling you because you have to look for your partner for life now. Tinay still misses you but she can’t meet you anymore. What I mean is she can’t have time for love with you.

She didn’t know that you sent a letter for her and she got it after she got married. So don’t feel bad about Tinay.

-Tinay’s friend, Ashley.

I wrote a letter for Amado. :p  I feel pitiful for Amado. XD

Infographic-Men

LEGEND:

My father goes to court

How my brother Leon brought a wife

Divide by two

Bread of salt

Summer Solstice

The Mats

Let me think............HUH!! XD about GENDER??

Um... Discrimination because of my gender.. I don’t think that I really had. I like to be a woman. Woman can do many things such as make up ourselves beautiful and we can show our fashion with clothes and accessories. Yeah, but I know there are discrimination to girls. For me, I can’t think. Maybe because there were no discrimination or I really can’t remember. :p

My mom doesn’t let me go out driving to manila or even just far from our place. Also, she said don’t ride tricycle that has no light on it. She thinks it’s dangerous and it is dangerous. And I can’t drive to far place, I haven’t tried. I have brother and he’s still young but my mom doesn’t really worry about him because he’s a boy. He can react to people with power (?) if there’s any problem with them. However, since I’m a girl and I haven’t tried working in any place, my mom always worry about me. She thinks that I have to brave in any situation.

If I can recall something else, I remember that my mom is good in drawing, decorating, and making stuffs and I got those talents from mom. Still, mom is better. That is why whenever my brother has something to do with drawing or decorating for his assignment, he always asks me. It’s like, he thinks I should do it for him because I’m definitely better than him. (BETTER THAN HIM) sometimes I feel annoyed because he doesn’t even try to do it himself. He says that I should help him because I’m a girl and girls are better than boys.

So, yeah. I can’t think anymore. My brain can’t work (:p)

If I want to be someone, who do I like to be??

I was thinking that who I want to be. I’ve thought of two persons. One will be Bill Gates. Cool, right? The reason is he’s rich! I want to be a rich person! Haha and Bill Gates has his talents on computer and he can prove it by creating and working in the computer. He’s not earning money by just sitting on the chair and relax and waiting for money to come. There are plans that I want to do if I have a lot of money like Bill Gates. The first thing would be buy stuffs that I want. For example, clothes, earrings, accessories, gadgets, and etc. the most thing that I want to buy is DSLR camera with long lens. I’m saving money to buy it but it’s too far away. :( The second thing would be the house for my parents. I want to buy big house that has wild garden and there are swimming pool, swings, and small place where my parents can rest. All of these are in the garden, so the garden must be very big. The last one, I just want to save the rest of money. Then if I need it, I can use it anytime. I don’t know with Bill Gates, but I think if I have a lot of money, I won’t have sad and unlucky life.

The other person, I don’t know, but I think it’s just my hope. I really want to live with happy family, friends, and everything in my life. To make it easy, I hope my parents will love again because it’s been long time since they don’t love anymore. Maybe it is because they are already comfortable to live with. Also, I hope I won’t be sad and lonely anymore. I felt so many times that I’m lonely since I moved here. So, basically, I want to be happy. :)

That’s it. These are persons who I want to be.

What are "The Mats" for me?

If you ask me what the “Mats” are for me, I would say a ring and old cross stitch. First about the ring, it has black treasure. I don’t know what I have to call it. It looks old but it still looks beautiful and valuable. The black treasure is quite big and the ring around it is silver. The silver doesn’t shine anymore but I think because it doesn’t shine, it looks better. My grandmother gave it to my mom and she gave it to me. Actually, I wanted the ring. XD I’m wearing it sometimes but since it’s very valuable and pleasurable, I’m keeping it in a safe box. :) I think I will give the ring to my daughter in the future if I have a daughter. If not, I’ll give it to my son and I’ll tell him, “give the ring to your wife” :p

The second one like the “Mats” is cross stitch. I like doing cross stitch and I told that I like it to my grandmother. She said she also has one and it’s very old like 50 years ago. The first time that I heard that it is almost 50 years, I already liked to see it and liked it, actually. Then when I saw it, I loved it. Wow. I must keep it forever and I should not give it to my daughter in the future. Haha. It’s big and the cloth (?) when I do the stitch is already yellowish. If! If, I sell it, I should have more than 1,000,000,000,000 won in Korea. XP so I have those two valuable things like the “Mats”.

What if it's Leon's turn to visit Maria's parents?

Leon, who is the eldest child in his family, going with Maria, who will be his wife soon, to Maria's house to visit her parents. Leon grown up from the province since he was born and Maria grown up from Manila, capital city of the Philippines. They met in Leon’s province when Maria visited there to escape from complicated city and rest. Leon liked Maria when he saw her at first. Maria liked Leon’s purity that lived in a province without any corrupted by society day by day. Days that Maria stayed were enough to let them to love.

Leon wore neat and tidy suit, with smell of strong perfume. His suit didn’t look better than people who wear like a model from the city, but he tried himself to wear neatly. Leon stepped in to the bus going to Manila. Maria followed him and led Leon where to sit in the bus. They both sat on the seat; people were getting in the bus. The bus was full; Leon and Maria paid the fare while the bus started to move.

“How do I look?” Leon asked to Maria. Maria smiled, and said, “Great.” Leon then let out a deep sigh. Leon was nervous to see Maria’s parents. They are planning get married before Valentine’s Day. At least, Leon should gain Maria’s parents’ favor even with his appearance.

-ringing- Maria’s phone was ringing. It was her mom. Perhaps Maria’s mom wanted to know where they were. “Hello?” Maria answered. Leon couldn’t hear what Maria’s mom was saying on the phone, but he felt and knew what Maria and her mom were talking about. “Ok, mom.” Maria ended the call. Leon didn’t ask anything and leaned on the bus seat to rest.

The bus stopped. Leon and Maria got out from the bus and looking for other rides to take them to Maria’s house.

The weather was so fine to visit someone. However, the sound of cars, jeepneys, and tricycles and the smoke were mixed up in the air. Leon and Maria breathe in the murky smoke. They got in the jeepney. The sound of cramped jeepney was so loud. Leon and Maria were waiting for the time to get near to Maria’s house.

On their way to go to Maria’s house, holding each other’s hands. “Are we near?” Leon asked. “Almost. Are you okay?” Maria asked back. Leon nodded his head twice without saying anything. Maria seemed excited. She was keep on smiling and humming while walking. “Did you tell your parents about me?” Leon asked with curiousness. “Yes.” Leon thought that her parents might hate him. “Don’t worry.” Maria said to Leon like she knows what’s in Leon’s mind.

Maria pointed her finger to one of the wide houses. It was a white splendid house with blue roof on the top. Leon thought that he was middle of the several castles. When he was very near to the house, he rechecked his suit and face with the mirror of Maria. –ding dong- Maria pressed the door bell. The door opened by the helper in the house, Leon stepped his feet in the house carefully. Maria led Leon where to sit before they meet Maria’s parents. Maria went to 2^nd floor to call her parents. Leon sat on the sofa, and staring strange stuffs in the house. Then he found Maria’s baby picture on the table near to sofa. Maria was cute and cubby. She posed holding tree with reddish chick and lips. Smile appeared to Leon’s face.

Leon heard something that sounds like a foot step from the 2^nd floor. Leon stood up straight from the long sofa, Maria and her parents were walking down to Leon. Leon greeted Maria’s parents and they greeted back to Leon and said, “You must had hard time to come here. Welcome.”

My Father Goes To Court: Insights

Filipinos are poor but happy?

From what i know about the Philippines, it is poor country. Philippines is slower than other countries that can develop the country. However, there's no reason that people cannot laugh or smile because of poverty. Poverty can't be the reason that people's laughter may not appear to their faces. When I read the short story titled 'My Father Goes To Court', I felt it weird and I questioned myself. Why are they laughing all the time and bring out their neighbors to laugh with? This can't be the story in real life. But then I thought of Filipinos. Yes, Filipinos laugh. They seem to be happy always. I mean, when I see them, most people laugh. Also in the story, it was weird at first, but when I finished reading it, it was interesitng. They hang out or play with their family and siblings and they also make some jokes even though those jokes are too much to joke. Most people won't laugh with those jokes such as 'pregnant joke'. What I've seen some Filipinos, their laughter looks like it's real with their friends and family. As miss.D said that all the koreans don't laugh with their real feelings. Sometimes we smile not to show our feelings to the others. Others might feel bad if our faces look like we're not comfortable with someone. However, I haven't seen any of Filipinos laugh or smile with anger on their faces. So like, what I've written here, Filipinos are poor and half of Philippines has poverty, but they even laugh in it. There aren't such things that Filipinos should not laugh or be happy if they are poor. Happiness is the most important thing in the country.