November 2007 ~ Mauie Flores

Monday, November 19

Totus Tutee, IELTS Passer! :)

Last night, I received news from Kuya Alex, a cousin working in Saudi Arabia. His co-worker, Bong Gumaran, has passed the International English Language Testing System or IELTS. It is the test that measures the ability to communicate in English across all four language skills – listening, reading, writing and speaking – for people who intend to study or work where English is the language of communication.

My sister and co-tutor, Doreen, is also an IELTS passer. Kuya Alex referred us to Bong and he went home last October to attend one-on-one review sessions with us. Ate Do handled the Listening, Writing, and Speaking areas while I, as a taught him Reading. Bong took the exam in the first week of November.

We think that one-on-one IELTS tutoring is better than the regular small class review sessions that other centers offer. For one, we can cater our teaching style with the unique need of each student. Also, especially in the Speaking area, the student gets to speak with the tutor him/herself and not with a fellow student. Thus, the proper accent is modeled by the teacher and followed by the student.

For interested parties, you may contact us thru this site. You can also visit our homepage.

Our Banchetto Experience

By Mauie Flores 10:55 PM // No comments

I wake up everyday at 5 in the morning to prepare Rap's baon and breakfast. To make me more alert, I usually turn the TV on. Usually at this time of the day GMA 7 and ABS-CBN 2 play re-runs of their shows. (Sidenote: wala pa ring cable dito sa village namin, help naman po Sky Cable!)

Anyways...

So that morning I decided to watch the re-run of "Kay Susan Tayo" and it featured a Saturday morning street fiesta right in the middle of F. Ortigas Ave. (formerly Emerald Ave.) in Ortigas Complex. It caught my attention because the street fiesta starts at 2 am until 1 pm every Saturday. I then planned to go there with Daddyjun after we send Rap to St. Paul Pasig for his MTAP training.

Yesterday, was Rap's first MTAP session. MTAP stands for Mathematics Teachers Association of the Philippines and they train mathematically talented students nationwide for 5 consecutive Saturdays. My Raprap is one of the Grade 1 students sent by Lourdes School of Mandaluyong. (Ehem!)

From St. Paul we headed straight to F. Ortigas Ave. to satisfy my curiosity about the place. We didn't have a hard time finding it because it was really set up along F. Ortigas Ave., just in front of the Strata building. We ordered a quarter pounder burger with cheese for 70 pesos, a sausage in bun for 60 pesos (I forgot the name of the sausage kasi it's hard to pronounce, basta it's not German nor Hungarian.), and spaghetti with 2 big meatballs for 80 pesos. We bought some drinks from Ministop that's just a few steps away and settled on a bench in the park just right across the site.

It was quite an expensive breakfast compared to the usual breakfast meal at Mc Do or Jollibee. But it's worth the experience. It's really like a street fiesta, ang daming tao. Most of them are call center agents. Lalo na raw in the wee hours of the morning. There's also a tiangge there. I'm thinking nga of getting a stall eh but I still have to consult my mother-in-law on that. (We have a stall at Ever Gotesco Pasig btw.)

Here are the pictures I took...

Calamares for Raprap

By Mauie Flores 9:48 PM // No comments

Calamares is one of Ralph's favorite foods. He always asks me to cook this for him. Lately, I've been too busy to cook for him. Since it is still vacation time until tomorrow for the two of us, I cooked calamares for our dinner tonight.

The usual calamares (or fried breaded squid) should look like fried squid rings. I always cut the squid into rings until we tried the "strip style" that we always buy at a food stall in Ever Gotesco Ortigas. This time around, I decided to cut the squid into strips. I also used Pusit Bisaya. There are two variants of squid in the grocery: Pusit Bisaya and Pusit Lumot. Pusit Bisaya is long and small while Pusit Lumot is fat and big and is usually used for grilling.

After thoroughly washing the squid, I sliced it into half and peeled off its thin skin. My father told me that doing so will prevent the meat from being tough. Then, I sliced the meat into strips.