Recognising Culture Shock

The infamous Hunter building of Victoria University of Wellington, where I am doing postgraduate studies.

From the New Zealand Scholarships Student Handbook, there is a trend for how a student’s culture shock looks like. It is similar to that of a roller coaster, where you’ll start at the top and then it goes down in curves and turns. Culture shock’s depressed times are sometime between 3-4 months. And marking from my experience, it is exceptionally true.

I started this journey with a fair amount of hope. I left my family back in the Philippines in an unfortunate place: a hospital. It was a bad farewell. My mind wasn’t set for travelling when I had to. I have always looked forward for this travel, but it was a lot more difficult than expected. And having lived at home for the past year and having got used to the comfort of family and home, travelling away will not become an easy feat. With three plane rides and two international flights, I can see from in-flight monitors the plane’s geographical position. As if this plane’s job is only to take me away from my family. Before I boarded my plane to Sydney, I had a quick video chat with my parents. And that’s when I can’t prevent my tears from falling down. It was an excruciating emotion.

I arrived Wellington greeted by the people here already in contact with me, and seeing them was a great sigh of relief. I am happy to have finally arrived here. But in the next few days, which turned to weeks and months, that I am slowly and consistently suffering from culture shock. I complained about a lot of things, didn’t understand some local practices, and doubted people around me, even myself. I have not enough time to waste, and I must recognise the problem: the symptoms of culture shock.

At first, I thought I can prevent culture shock rather than cure it. That sort of denial had made me suffer its subtle yet persistent consequences. I am never sure of a lot of things. I don’t wake up early, I have no picture of what my day will look like, nothing to look forward to. And it is affecting my productivity towards my research, my lifestyle, and the new people around me.

The season is changing, and from now on it will just get colder. I toppled me for the first few days, added also by stress from my research. I have no time to waste, so things must change, and it should start with me. Watching culture shock videos online, one thing I got was to enact change as if everything is in your hands. Every decision to wake up, to get up, to be happy and be excited for the day, and to choose being positive despite downfalls and stress. From now on, everything is an active conscious decision. 

Everyday is a chance to grow as a person, and a chance to explore new things. But it requires getting out of your comfort zone. In order to achieve this, I cannot remain in the same person that I am. I need to be different, and I need to change. 

Getgo Peso+ Prepaid Card

(Photo taken from www.getgo.com.ph)

Today, I got my Getgo Peso+ Prepaid Card. In fact, this is my first emv-embedded card, which by far is more secured than ordinary cards.

The Getgo Peso+ Prepaid Card works like a Debit Card, but does not require you to open a bank account. You can do usual monetary transactions like online purchases and payment, top-up, and real-time fund transfers on visa-enabled establishments. You can also withdraw from ATMs at a certain charge same as fund transfers (Php 20.00 fixed rate for domestic) and balance inquiry (Php 5.00 fixed rate for domestic). This card is powered by Cebu Pacific and is issued by Robinson's Outlets and certain Unionbank Branches. 

What's exciting about this card is that it has an embedded Getgo Account, which works good for you if you don't have one yet. But if you have an existing Getgo Account, you can link this card for shared points. It has an automatic accrual of Getgo Points. You can earn 1 Getgo Point for every Php 88.00 spent on your Getgo Peso+ Card. This is the same with Getgo Debit, but without the Annual Fee to be collected by Unionbank. 

You can accumulate points on your spending transactions, and you can use your earned points for free flights by Cebu Pacific Air.

You can purchase the Getgo Peso+ Prepaid Card at selected Robinson's Outlets and Unionbank Branches, which is listed at the official website of Getgo.

One important reminder: you can apply online in order to get this card. The full steps and methods are also found on their official website. For more information, please visit www.getgo.com.ph.

Hope you had a head start about Getgo Peso+ Prepaid Card! Get yours now !

New Cafe in Davao

Over the years, Davao has become busy and populated. Along is the growth of small businesses and enterprises. Cafes located at dense places in the metro such as along Torres and Bajada tend to be more expensive. But there are other cafes located just a few steps away from busy areas that are worth visiting. One of them is the Sea Green Cafe.



Sea Green Café and Boutique Rooms is located along 15 Jacinto Extension, Dona Vicenta Subdivision. It is a rather yet to be explored strip of good cafes and restaurants. 



The place boasts for a wonderfully landscaped garden and outside area. Good architectural design is evident from first look. It was once a family owned house, which turned into a rental area. And it was a good conversion ever since.



Chairs and tables. But the interior design makes it very inviting. It has ample space for private talks and studying. It welcomes peace and tranquility. The decorative plants are legit. 



A family home that is well taken care of. Majestic door, high ceiling, and open windows. 

The food here is surprisingly cheaper than what you usually expect on central areas. They have appetizers, soup, main course, pastas, salads and sandwiches. Here is a closer look on the menu: 



We took a modest Cucumber Slush and a Chocolate Pudding.



It was served fast, not much customers that time though. And it was good. The flavours never came cheap.

The place has wifi access and is open until 10pm. So its not for all-nighters.

If you are interested, you can come by and visit them. Enjoy!

New Year 2018

2017 is a year with multitude of stories, success and failures. I almost got lost sense of time, everything happened very fast. I graduated, passed the boards, and took several months of break, just not doing anything. It was a year of experiences, and I want to learn from these. 

But 2018 may be different. Last year, I promised to myself that I would redeem victories for my career, for my family, and for personal growth. 

I will make sure that my 2018 will be victorious, because now more than ever, I am willing to stand up from my mistakes, willing to search for new experiences and never stop brewing excellence. 

Cheers to a new year 2018! 

Living as a Senior

My grueling five years at college is about to over, and a lot more surprises to pop up on the next few months 'till June.

Hey, I'm back!
It's been years since I've last written an update of me in this blog.

Spending college at the University of Southeastern Philippines, in not less than the College of Engineering, is like walking on broken glass. I have never seen Engineering to be this hard, since no one in my family is in the profession and practice of Engineering. The State University is a good chance for a degree for not so rich students like me. Yes, I am on a scholarship (which I introduced on my previous article).

Education might be free, but it never came cheap. In order to survive, you have to work hard, and harder as semesters go by.My early years are spent on domestication. I love spending time at home, doing chores, read books, having pets, and occasionally go outside. I never feared the sun, but my skin's not that dark.  In my freshmen year, I had an exposure to scenarios closest to what we so call as real life. The convenience of home slowly swept away before my eyes. Hey Rapha, It's college !. I've never felt so alone in my life during that time. I came and I wasn't really prepared. Reality struck me like a ton of bricks. I have to take care of my own. I didn't exactly know what to do. I cannot define myself as a total nerd, always knowing what to do in a day. But I also don't want to end up sucked up. I've tried some things, testing one from the other, sleeping over to my High School classmates' house, roam around places in the city, and little adventures with my newfound friends. But my academic record isn't depicting a responsible student at work. While my grades aren't failed, they are mostly barely breathing. I was never proud of my transcript. I made unwise decisions, leaving one person for another, because I was ignorant. To sum it up, my freshmen year isn't celebratory for me. But I still thank God that I made it.

Sophomore year: I tried, and did, improve myself. it was on this year that I dragged back to my EE classmates, my concentration and focus was restored. This was the year when I got my scholarship from DOST and also became a Tuition Privilege Scholar (equivalent to Dean's Lister back in the times). Still, my academics need some serious work in order to survive and proceed to the next year.

They say, Third Year is the start of the real Engineering life, and they are right. Bye minors, hello majors. Academics is on its full swing, and I felt like riding on a wrecking ball. Assignments, projects, exams, quizzes, and everything in between: you name it, and we have it at almost astounding proportions. Hey, you're halfway there. The worst part of this year was deciding whether to continue pursuing Engineering or flew away and go to other school to look for greener pastures. Truly, this school isn't the greenest on the horizon.

Year four, and the show must go on. While your friends are on their senior year, behold, I'm still not. The quest for being a better person continues, after the first leg of our internship. But this year's different. It's never anymore about independence, it's more on interdependence. You need to know which people are on your side, and handle interpersonal interactions more carefully. Team work is one ingredient that can overcome difficulties in college. It is when you realize you're not a monopoly of everything good. Also, there's no time for emotional stress, and I get it several times. IQ is important, as well as EQ. But hey, academics' still hard. And so I learned to move on in life regardless of any physical, mental and emotional stress.

After several years, ta da! I'm not a senior, but minus the seniority (I've never been a fan of seniority ever since). Level five of life vs lemons. Aside from lemonades, I've also made lots of fruit juices. It was on this year that I was able to experience unique opportunities. I was able to travel to Japan via the Jenesys Program, and also experienced being a Grand Winner in a National Research Contest. Before the year ended, I clinched the Outstanding Student Award of USeP 2016. You did it !.

College is five years of my life. Five years of ups and downs. Five years of pure learning. And I can't even make any single of it if it wasn't because of God. I owe to Him all the pieces of experience, whether good or bad. #

I'm back!

You know what, it's been almost 3 years since I made a post in my page. back then I was in my freshmen year in Electrical Engineering at University of Southeastern Philippines. Now that I am on my 4th year, a lot of things had already happened. 3 years is long enough for material experiences, acquaintances and all forms of hardships as a teenager and a college student. I had my equal share of being tested and failed on some occasions. Most of my time I delved into studying in order to retain my scholarship at DOST, which is a very big thing for me. My scholarship was one of the reasons why I remained in the program, even though I had my doubts and thoughts of giving up. The bigger portion of it was because of my parents whom I love so much. And the One Who holds it all is God, the very reason of my existence in this not-so-homey world.

Infamous and a no-brainer, I know my picture juxtaposed to societal standards. I am not one of those cool kids having cool life. I am self-vindicated. I know I'm not perfect, not even close. The very reason why I am in this unique set up of my life is yet to be known, Nevertheless, I continue to pursue this life with whatever I am given with. I don't have much,

My story is not about being poor or whatever, I just want to show that even though life is not fair (not fair because we tend to pin our life in superficial norms), we can still continue to coexist with the spices and praxis of this world. It is not required of us to make even with unevenness. And that is just one of many ways we can count on our lives, not on anything else.

An effective studying

This is what I think would contribute to studying effectively :

1. Study ahead of time - there are subjects which needs some more time to learn, like studying social sciences, literature and language subjects. The time allotted should be maximum enough to realize all the terms, instead of memorizing them all without knowing really what it was. Subjects involved with mathematical principles, application and formula derivations should be studied and practiced in problem solving attempts for a sufficient span of time. The essence of studying ahead of time is to avoid straining-out your mind with heavy concepts, that is why you have to learn one thing at a time, smoothly along with time.

2. Clear your mind before studying - most students have this problem (like procrastination) they suffer from unconsciously when attempting to study : preoccupied mind. Whenever we start studying, our mind attempts to think of other things irrelevant to our topic to be studied upon. Studying is a process of giving input to our mind. If our mind has a lot in it, feeding it may become a problem. Clear your mind by unloading all things which are not related to our studying, before we start.

3. Do not exchange your study time with leisure time - a procrastinator really finds studying a burden. He will be tempted to do something else, or do nothing at all to escape from studying. Most students are like that. We are always tempted by satan by distracting us with other nice things which would leave us to bite his bait. studying takes a lot of discipline to do. A responsible and organized student does and follows his schedule, no matter what. There is a time to have fun and wind up, and there is also a time solely intended for studying. Regrets after the exam or quiz will always remind us over and over again.

4. Surround yourself with some good inspiration for studying - even though we do not lack the reason why we study, if we really don't want to study, we will always be decisive enough not to study. Creative persons find a way by tolerating himself to create an aesthetic value to avoid laziness: an inspiration will be a necessity when you have to do something you do not like or you do not usually do. Some people are tolerated with music when studying, some with the paper or ball pen they are working with, or simply devoting their work to someone they adore (e.g., God). Be careful not to turn this benefit into a luring distraction. In our quest to fight procrastination, too much of being inspired might drag you away from your aimed focus. Balance everything, because you are the only person capable of doing so.

5. Move on and do not condemn yourself of the past - this is somewhat similar on number two. There will always be a time when we are devastated, disappointed, or dismayed somewhere in our studies. Fear of studying will enter our minds uncontrollably (just like the story of Jonah in the old testament). You have to release yourself from all the fear of disappointments of the past, in order to have a heart on studying again. Always remember that disappointments will always be a part of our learning, and the normal thing in there is to learn from those disappointments.

6. When studying, focus on the conceptual aspect first- This tip is usually beneficial when you are more on studying math-dependent subjects. The reason why we don't get the concept when solving mathematical problems is because we do not anchor our minds on the concept itself first. While the teacher is conducting a lecture, lend all your senses to him. Listen very carefully to him for he is teaching the concept together with numbers. This is also to avoid confusion.

7. Do your assignments personally - assignments, especially when due the next day it was given, is really hard to personally do, for most students. For a solution, they will lend from their classmates and copy theirs instead. They miss the most beneficial way of learning the concept and the reason why assignments are being given.

8. Start and end with a prayer - most intelligent people I've met have this transgression mostly omitted: praying. While studying is made to understand the lesson, praying is meant to understand God. You have to hook to Him because He has placed you in such situation at the very first place. He is the reason for everything; He allows the problem sometimes, He also provide the full solution to those problems. For the knowledge is lesser than wisdom; knowledge is obtained by man, wisdom is given only by God. It is only Through him that you can find what you are looking for: the right mind and heart to study.


Whatever we do, wherever we are, we need God's wisdom at all times. Ask God to give you His wisdom, and He will give you the wisdom you need.