Determinant Saturday

Saturday, December the 8th, 2007 was a neat day (for me).

But my last blog closed off on Thursday, so I'll narrate my Friday first.

I had offered Kira to help her on Friday in the arranging of the auditorium for the abacus championship. She told me to arrive at 10AM, but I arrived at 11. Not TOO big a deal. So I got there and began to get busy. My first task was to put together several pieces of japanese armor so as to give the impression of a fully dressed japanese warrior. There was already a girl at the site putting together the first pieces, so I joined in and put the thing together. As a sort-of sculptural task, it was kind of hard for me, but after about an hour or so, we managed to put it together. It came out neat. :)

Later I helped with hanging some japanese kites off the auditorium balcony. Along with Maria Socorro and Daniela, we used fishing line and tape to hold nine paper kites to the wooden handrail above the lobby. It was good teamwork. :)

But aside from the decorating labor, what struck me the most was meeting Daniela, the famous undefeated Guatemalan japanese abacus champion for 8 years, from 1999 to 2006. A nice, slim, black-and-jeans, friendly girl, we didn't talk much about anything beside the decorations during most of the day. But then when the decorations were finished, we had a chance to talk a little bit more. I usually began saying anything that occurred to me, and then she'd reply with something related, and so small bits of chit-chat occurred. Just normal conversation, you know... She told me something about wanting to finish 70 abacus exercises in one week :O, and that she only had to do 5 to reach that record for this year. And then her mom arrived, she left, and then I did the same.

Upon getting back home, I turned on my PC. As usually happens with me, I procrastinated my planned labor (abacus exercise) several hours, and then it was time for me to leave with Elisa to Manfredo's graduation party, near Antigua. So we left (I drived), and though we got lost for a while, we found the place. The party was nice... there was food, drinks, wine, and even music and a dancing area. And even I danced! :O Yep, with Estebaneiro's girlfriend, almost fianceé. The place was really nice - it had lush, pretty gardens, a waterfall, it was christmas-illuminated, and there were even a couple of peacocks walking around! I liked them a lot! I also spent some time playing with Daniela - she's so lovely! (I mean my 1-year old niece Daniela).

Then I got back home. It was almost midnight, and I had not practiced ANY ABACUS that day for the championship tomorrow. So I thought, "well, it has to be done...", so I did it. I finished up my affairs on the computer, turned it off, and cleared up my desk. And then I practiced abacus. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten... I'm not sure how many exercises I did, but it was DEFINITELY more than... what... more than my WEEKLY average, I think? I finished a few minutes before four. Sleep was already hitting on me, and I needed to save energy for the real thing. So then I went outside the house, walked a while under the 4AM sky, tried to pray for good results in the championship, and then went to sleep.

I was supposed to arrive at the championship at 8AM. I got up at 7AM... yep... late already. My body wouldn't help me in getting up any earlier, but I managed at 7. I had some cereal for breakfast, took a shower, got dressed, and hurriedly drove towards the abacus championship. I entered the university parking lot at 8:08AM (my parking ticket says so), so my arrival was not AWFULLY impunctual. I got a little red card with the number "2" on it that I pinned on my shirt, and then I placed my abacus on the desk on the stage with my name on it. Before the competition, I talked to some other participants, we joked around, and stuff. I found Dyana (yeah, her sister is an abacus student, too...), and while we were talking, Daniela (the abacus participant) came in asked me where was I going to sit. After that, we began talking a lot. We sat together before the competition, we sang the Guatemala hymn, we listened to the japanese hymn, and then we were called to occupy our desks on the stage. (I got a purple little pencil, Daniela got a green one). Daniela and I were on the front of the stage, side by side, so we exchanged some last comments before the competition, like "are you nervous?", "my fingers are cold", "I'm trembling like crazy", "good luck!", and stuff like that.

Then... the competition. Precise details will be ommitted here, but it was exciting :). Daniela always signalled her results to her sister on the front row after each stage, while I just watched and discerned whatever I could. We also talked between ourselves a little, to ask how did it go and stuff. And then the competition ended, and we went down to eat and spend time with our families.

Elisa, Manfredo, his family, and Olga accompanied me. :) It was nice to eat pizza, churros, and drink a little fruit juice with them. Then Kira put a video about Japanese culture and technology on the main stage, which we watched. And after the video... well, several things happened. Kira sang honoring her daughter graduating from high school, we got our participation diplomas, and finally the prizes were awarded.

I was almost certain that I would get 2nd place in the competition (in the "super experts" category), but I was not aware by how LITTLE would my place be decided. Nearing the end of the award ceremony, she mentioned a large part of my academic achievements throughout the years, and then announced that I had gotten 2nd place under Daniela's 1st place by a difference of TWENTY POINTS!! :O And I REALLY gaped my mouth at hearing this... TWENTY POINTS!! OUT OF 1500 OR SO!!! 20 POINTS!!!

I still don't know if the corrector/s was/were biased on my favor, but I was TRULY surprised to hear this. As we got up on the stage, I was mouthing "TWENTY POINTS" to myself, still quite unbelieving. And I was given my second-place diploma I see before me right now and a small box with some japanese paper art. I was SO happy... I had no idea I'd really reach that high. Of course, a little frustration also sank in, saying "if you WOULD'VE gotten 20 more points, you could've won!", but I was OK. I'm still happy with this result :)

Almost everyone gladly got up and began to walk away as soon as the awards were over, but I was happy to stay. Daniela and I heartily congratulated each other, still joking a little about it. :)

Then, after some parking fee jumble and some helping Kira boxing all of her japanese stuff from the auditorium, we were ready to leave. Then Daniela had to leave, but not without exchanging her emails with me. I hope to meet her again soon. I still want to ask her and tell her some stuff. I'm not trying to gloat or anything, but being the top two abacus participants at Kira's classes, I do believe we can happily exchange meaningful experiences, impressions, opinions, thoughts, feelings, etc... I mean, we share a common, unusual hobby. I believe that is good grounds for nice conversation and friendship. I even felt we had a hard time saying goodbye. Oh well...

On another topic... Reddwerks... Time DID tell.

Yup. I got a job offer. And less than 24 hours later, on Saturday afternoon, I took the offer. And a couple of hours later, I printed out the contract, signed and dated the last page, scanned it, and sent it back. So yes, I took it. I am now scheduled to arrive at Austin and work for Reddwerks, starting on January the 7th, 2008. Wow.

I'm still a little unbelieving. I've never lived too long far away from this house, my house. I believe never for more than 2 months. And now I expect to leave for at least 6 months... seems it's as some other people call it: a new stage in my life. It'll definitely be a new experience. I'm not TOO sure what to expect. But... oh well, as everything has been up until now, "Time will Tell".

The salary's not bad at all. How's 40 a year sound? (I know, I KNOW it's not good practice to publish information like that on a public blog... but anyway, how many people actually READ my blog? Besides, on a US standard, that's not exactly Forbes' idea of a generous salary. I hope Reddwerks doesn't mind too much about my publishing information on their salaries...)

What a big deal with the salary. Anyway... now my days in Guatemala are counted. My travelling date was conveniently pushed until January, and now I may be able to finish all of my remaining projects here. Maybe I'll even apply to some New Horizons exams and get some useful MSDN certifications... And then there's also Marcelo's vacation. He's going to Cancun for New Year's... so THAT'S an EXCELLENT option to say goodbye to my life here in Guatemala!! Don't you think? Don't you? Don't you?? :P I know Cancun is not in Guatemala, but hey, it once was, so who cares about a 150-year gap? I'll be saying goodbye to Guatemala in a Guatemala-owned, Mexico-administered city, which makes sense 8-). Well, at least that's the plan. I believe I can spare about $500-$600 just this while...

So that's what happened on Saturday. I got a second place in the abacus championship, met and contacted a really cool girl who also happens to be the undefeated Guatemalan japanese abacus champion, and accepted a job offer away from home. As I told my brother, I think Fate took me literally when I said "I want to take a year off". Yep, Fate (through me) has already scheduled 2008 for something besides "off". Normal activities... work... money... yeah... not my ideal... comfortable. I wonder what will happen? Will I stay long? One year? Two years? More???

Time will Tell.