The Ends

The semestral break has officially ended today since although we haven't started our lessons yet, we were already required to go to school for the reorientation. As usual, the UA Nursing Department did not follow the time they set for the event. Oh yes. They told us to come before 1pm but the reorientation itself started at 2:30pm. Neat, ne? We had a very nice time waiting (and sweating like crazy) at the cramped area outside of the Multipurpose Hall since the place was locked till 2:00. Course they had to ready the place first, chitchat, then try to rearrange the seating to per section which we refused to do since some came late and there were no longer available seats. Had we followed what Sir Kit wanted those who came in early would've lost their places for sure to those who came in tardy. Anyways, they reoriented us to the retention policies, rules and regulations of Nursing yadda yadda yadda... it was a pretty boring hour with lots of sermon and power-tripping c/o Mrs. Santos and a few other C.I.s... bless their soul and may they rest in peace, Amen.

Regular classes will start on Monday from 7:30am till 5pm. Lectures will go on till the 25th, then on the 27th our real schedules will start. Meaning Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays will be spent at the hospital for our Related Learning Experience (aka duty), Wednesdays for the remaining concepts for the Lecture in NCM105, and Fridays, Saturdays AND - take note! - Sundays for the Comprehensive Review for the June Nursing Board Exams. What a super nice schedule I have this semester, ne? Isn't it really cool! I get to spend the whole blessed week at school or at the hospital! Yehey! Wai! Wai! Wai! I'm so happy!!!

... ... ... ... ... ... HELL NOT!!! *grumble grumble grumble*

Anyways, I refuse to rant any further about my schedule for this semester, since I really can't do anything about it. All the 4th years have basically the same scheds with the lecture day as the difference (some sections have Tuesday for their lecture instead of Wednesday, for example). So what else have I been doing?

Downloading anime, of course.

So far I've completed the first season of Tsubasa Chronicles (and watched till episode 20); downloaded all the episodes of Pretear (of which I've only watched episode 1), Chobits (watching episode 12 right now), Gravitation (haven't watched any of the episodes yet), Ouran High School Host Club (finished watching this! I'll elaborate later coz I really wanna talk about this one coz it was just TOO FUN to watch!!!), Chrono Crusade, Onegai Teacher, Hellsing, Air, Saikano (finished watching this as well), and a few more of which I've only downloaded 2 or 3 episodes but plan to complete as well. Oh, and some Studio Ghibli films of which the cd I bought before wouldn't play so I ended up downloading them just so I'd be able to watch the darn things...

Since we are already talking about Ghibli films, let me start with Howl's Moving Castle. Can I just say that I just love Love LOVE LOVE this film?! ^_____^ I especially love Ghibli films that are love stories. My all-time fave Ghibli film is "Whisper of the Heart". Howl's Moving Castle is now my second. To those of you unfamiliar with the story, the film follows the adventures of Sophie, a teenager who works at her late father's hat shop, of how she meets a mysterious wizard, gets cursed by an evil witch, and goes on a quest to break her curse. Of course, I'm having second thoughts about spoiling the story for you so if you plan to watch this film and don't want to be spoiled then stop reading here. Now! Stop!

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Still there? Okay. Turns out the wizard was Howl, himself. The owner of the moving "castle" that wanders around the lands called "Wastes". Howl's archnemesis, the Witch of the Wastes, was the one who cursed Sophie turning her from 18y/o into a 90y/o grandmother. What's worse, Sophie's curse did not allow her to speak about it so she's left to find how to break the curse by herself. She leaves her hometown and ends up getting welcomed at Howl's castle as their new cleaning lady.

What I loved about this film were the symbolism. I found it cute how Howl literally and figuratively swept Sophie off her feet at their first meeting. How her curse reverted her to and fro an 18y/o and a 90y/o woman depending on how she felt: the happier and the more confident she was about herself and her love for Howl the younger she looked while the more insecure she felt about herself and Howl's affections for her the older she got. I love how she never really went back to how she originally looked. Oh she still dressed the same way but her hair showed the main difference; at the start Sophie's hair was long and brown and in a braid, in the end it was burnt short till to her shoulders and turned into silver. I guess it's a way of saying that although she looks young, she has matured a lot from when the film first started.

Howl was uber cute, especially the tantrum scene which I found extremely funny. Another hilarious scene was when Sophie and the Witch of the Wastes were climbing up those stairs weheheheh...

Every time I watch this film - watched it about 5 times now - I always find something new in it, some deeper explanation of certain dialouges or scenes. I doubt I'll tire of watching it anytime soon.


Saishu Heiki Kanojo. Saikano. The Last Love Song on Earth. She: The Ultimate Weapon. This series has so many bleeding names! Yeeech! But dang it to hell. I watched all 13 episodes in one sitting. I couldn't not. I just had to know how it will all end. And like what Robert Wong said when he posted about this anime on his blog, don't ever even think of watching it if you're feeling even just the slightest bit depressed! Nothing in this anime will help you get out of your depression. Multiple character deaths, unrequited love, needless violent war, tons of emotional and mental pain, broken promises... it really is just not for someone already feeling down. I feel bad for Akemi and Atsushi, for Tenchu and Fuyumi... I feel sad for every fricking character in this series! None of them deserve what happened to them, darn it! Yet amidst it all is love. Despite everything that happened, there is the undeniable presence of love. Saikano’s essentially a love story in its most tragic form. *huge sigh* I feel like my heart's going to burst for Chise and Shuugi. Especially Shuugi because... ah heck, go watch it yourself! I don't want to spoil the ending. Just expect it to be sad sad sad sad sad sad sad sad sad sad sad sad sad sad saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad !_!


Ouran High School Host Club was just plain HILARIOUS!!! I want more of this series! Isn't there a season 2 or something?! Anything?! Haruhi - being the girl - is my least favorite character although she's the lead hehehe... I like Tamaki coz he's so hopelessly clueless at times. I like Kyouya coz that guy just reminds me of James Xavier Blanco and his being positively and unapologetically money-crazy is just too cool to watch. I love Kaoru and Hikaru coz they reminded me so much of George and Fred of Harry Potter, only they were a little bit more scheming and confused than the Weasley twins. I like Haninozuka and Morinozuka coz they reminded me of Sohma Momiji and Sohma Hatori respectively. Okay fine, Hani-chan's probably Sohma Momiji's long lost twin brother coz even their voices sounded the same (too lazy to check if they have the same seiyuu), but really Hani-chan's cool on his own way too coz he and Mori-kun can seriously kick butt!! Umn, did I leave anyone out? I especially loved the "Cassanova" episode coz that was probably the only time Mori-kun got SD-ed when trying to explain to a crying Hani-chan that he wasn't being "used" mwahahahahahah!!! And of course the ending was just heart-shaped-eyed-turning-long-sighing-heart-flutteringly SWEET ^-^ Especially that scene between Tamaki and Haruhi ^_^ Actually, I sorta HAD to watch this after finishing with Saikano. I needed to find something to laugh about and boy did I find it. I've probably weirded everyone within a 100-meter radius of our house coz I was cackling and snorting and giggling and laughing rather loudly at very ungodly hours of the morning just so I could finish watching all 26 episodes. And it ended really nice, although I couldn't help but wonder who Haruhi will end up with. She seems a lot more interested in Tamaki if you ask me, but then Hikaru and Kyouya are also good candidates, what with Kyouya's dad actually planning to marry Haruhi to his son. Oooops! Was that a spoiler? lolz hehehe...

Like I said, I'm watching Chobits right now while downloading episodes from different anime titles. I got till Sunday afternoon to watch these things then I've gotta go back to my lessons again until the board exams. I guess my being an anime fanatic has not ended after all, it's just been put on hold till I find free time ^-^