Of Rice Paddies and TOEFL Exams

I accepted a tutoring job again, this time to help somebody prepare for a TOEFL exam. The guy’s name is Tom, and he’s a 25 y.o. Chinese guy. He currently lives with his father, who is an agriculturist. Today’s the first time I visited them at their home. It was raining hard, and it took me several minutes to locate their house. I was drenched and soggy, but their warm welcome brightened me up.

I gave Tom the test I made, and while he answered it, I had a nice, long chat with his father – mostly about his travels abroad, and his job to help farmers increase the yield of their crops – specifically, Rice~ I sympathized with him when we came to the topic of an observed phenomenon: the art of farming is dying – with more and more rural teens preferring to succumb to the lure of the city and leaving their fathers – and their hectares of land behind. I remember reading somewhere that the average age of farmers in Asian countries are somewhere between 40 to 50 y.o., quite alarming, since a lot of things in farming involve manual labor.

I remember my grandfather, and my childhood days of visiting his farm, climbing mango trees, fishing in the pond, straddling his carabao, running along the borders of the rice paddies and generally having a good time with other children who have never heard of TV and whose blissful, rustic lives are mirrored in their eyes. Had I been gifted with stronger arm muscles, I would have gladly traded this city life with life on his farm – to wake up to the fresh air and the singing of birds, and to see the unbroken expanse of star-strewn skies at night.

Tom’s father is a kind man. I can see that he loves his son very much. He’s doing everything he can to ensure that his son may have a shot at success. He: the agriculturist – and his son: the Chemical engineer. It’s inspiring, really.

Here's to Patty

Its quite interesting that I can still sing along to songs I haven’t heard in over 12 years.

When I was 13 y.o. my father went to another city in order to receive training – a part of his job (He used to work in a factory). That was probably the first time that he was away from home for several weeks. Well, when he came back, he got me a tape of Patty Smyth. (Note: In 1999, ipods, DVD players and MP3s were unheard of~ and my generation only had audio cassette tapes), I used to play the tape all day, changing from Side A to Side B, and turning the tape over and over, till the roll gave out~ to which I’d tape back again with a bit of scotch tape.

Years passed, and pop music invaded the air waves. I began to make mix tapes of Alanis Morisette, Hansons, The Moffats, The Goo Goo Dolls etc.

Patty Smyth was left to rust in a drawer, which eventually got discarded along with piles of junk from my childhood.

A couple of days ago, I suddenly had the inspiration to download Patty Smyth’s 1992 album online – and guess what, now that “I Should Be Laughing”, “One Moment to Another” and the famous “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough” is playing on WinAmp, I can still flawlessly sing – along to all of them. Except for “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough”, these songs have never experience airplay in local radio stations in more than a decade, more so on the TV, and yet, I could freakin’ sing-ALONG with them.

Cell memory? Nostalgia? I don’t know… I love the feeling. 

Cover of the Cassette tape,
thanks to Google images for this

A younger Patty Smyth (not "the Patti Smith")