You've Got Mail
In this age of emails and internet messaging, receiving a handwritten letter is quite a treat. So you can imagine my excitement when my mom called me while I was roasting in an internet cafe and told me that I received a postcard from Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
It was from Vryan, a friend from UP. He used to teach mathematics before he was awarded a scholarship there.
Aside from our regular exhange of text messages, I only have two distinct memories of Vryan and me together before he left for the Netherlands. The first was the day we met formally for the first time.
It was June 2005. My math instructor friends were "promoted" to the second floor faculty rooms and as we were hanging out in their "old" faculty room, Vryan walked in. So there we were, three math geniuses (Vry, Chris and Rich), three math dumbasses (Me, Leng and Rods), a deck of cards and a tube of correction fluid in an almost empty room. After games of tong-its and 1-2-3 pass, we dumbasses have sine and cosine curves on our foreheads as well as math equations we can't even decipher while the geniuses have smileys and flowers and kitchen utensils on their faces. It was like an episode of Beauty and the Geek. It was a shame I didn't have a digital cam then, it was one memory I wanted to freeze in my mind forever.
Since then, Vry and I have been in touch. When I was immersed in rural areas and huge hospitals and when I finally came home to Laguna for my break between college and 'the real world'. Even when my ties were severed from my other math friends, Vry and I kept in touch. Until one day in April this year, we agreed to meet at Starbucks, Katipunan. The one almost across the Blue Eagles Gym.
We were both taking up new passions then. He had tennis lessons while I took up belly dancing lessons and a Culinary course. We talked about people in his side of UP as well as mine. We talked about careers and failed romances. We sat down on that tiny table at around 8 pm and got up at around 11. That was our last 'personal' conversation. Though we have been texting and YM-ing since.
And then a few weeks ago, he texted and told me he will be leaving for Netherlands the next day. I just wished him a safe trip and enjoy his two-year stay there. I told him that if ever I could grab a chance to go backpacking in Europe, I'll drop by his place and he'll show me around. I really wish I could.
If I get to snag a chance to get a Masters degree, possibly in Nutrition or Hospitality Management, I'll be back in the University and when he finishes his stint in the Old World and come back to change college kids' perception and make them believe that math is actually fun (I can't believe I used math and fun in the same sentence without negative words attached into it or hints of sarcasm), then we'll definitely see each other again in two years.
But till then...YM and snail mail would keep us posted with each other's new adventures as adults outside of the home we call UP.
It was from Vryan, a friend from UP. He used to teach mathematics before he was awarded a scholarship there.
Aside from our regular exhange of text messages, I only have two distinct memories of Vryan and me together before he left for the Netherlands. The first was the day we met formally for the first time.
It was June 2005. My math instructor friends were "promoted" to the second floor faculty rooms and as we were hanging out in their "old" faculty room, Vryan walked in. So there we were, three math geniuses (Vry, Chris and Rich), three math dumbasses (Me, Leng and Rods), a deck of cards and a tube of correction fluid in an almost empty room. After games of tong-its and 1-2-3 pass, we dumbasses have sine and cosine curves on our foreheads as well as math equations we can't even decipher while the geniuses have smileys and flowers and kitchen utensils on their faces. It was like an episode of Beauty and the Geek. It was a shame I didn't have a digital cam then, it was one memory I wanted to freeze in my mind forever.
Since then, Vry and I have been in touch. When I was immersed in rural areas and huge hospitals and when I finally came home to Laguna for my break between college and 'the real world'. Even when my ties were severed from my other math friends, Vry and I kept in touch. Until one day in April this year, we agreed to meet at Starbucks, Katipunan. The one almost across the Blue Eagles Gym.
We were both taking up new passions then. He had tennis lessons while I took up belly dancing lessons and a Culinary course. We talked about people in his side of UP as well as mine. We talked about careers and failed romances. We sat down on that tiny table at around 8 pm and got up at around 11. That was our last 'personal' conversation. Though we have been texting and YM-ing since.
And then a few weeks ago, he texted and told me he will be leaving for Netherlands the next day. I just wished him a safe trip and enjoy his two-year stay there. I told him that if ever I could grab a chance to go backpacking in Europe, I'll drop by his place and he'll show me around. I really wish I could.
If I get to snag a chance to get a Masters degree, possibly in Nutrition or Hospitality Management, I'll be back in the University and when he finishes his stint in the Old World and come back to change college kids' perception and make them believe that math is actually fun (I can't believe I used math and fun in the same sentence without negative words attached into it or hints of sarcasm), then we'll definitely see each other again in two years.
But till then...YM and snail mail would keep us posted with each other's new adventures as adults outside of the home we call UP.
posted by Unknown @ 11/03/2006 02:58:00 PM
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