Kupal is a word that I've heard all throughout my high school years. I've never used it myself, as I've always noticed that only the truly unlettered uncouth use the word.

I never really knew what it meant, really. It had a negative connotation, for sure, and I never hung out with people whose vocabulary included that word anyway.

So, basically, work today was exciting as usual. My batchmates and I have been deployed to different offices, but we still manage to multitask and keep each other abreast of what's going on in our different offices. Anyway, one message from one batchmate, who's working on the upcoming negotiations in Copenhagen, basically told us that he was so sick and tired of reading the word Copenhagen, that he started reading it as "k-palhagen"

Of course, I didn't get it, so I marched into the office next door where another batchmate was reading the same message. I asked: "What does k-palhagen mean"?

In a hushed voice, my batchmate told me that k-pal stands for kupal.

I wondered why the voice was so hushed. Sure, our bosses were within earshot, but I didn't think that the word was that crass. I asked him for a definition.

He couldn't give me a proper definition, so we both resorted to google.

And lo and behold, from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=kupal

KUPAL

(noun) Tagalog; Called SMEGMA in medical terms, it is a yellowish paste-like substance found inside the skin of an uncircumcised human penis.

(adj.) Tagalog term used to describe an annoying, stupid, dumb and/or foolish person.
(as a noun) Ang dami mong kupal, kadiri! - You got a lot of smegma, gross!

(as an adj.) Tingnan mo ginawa mo! Kupal ka talaga! - Look what you've done! You are so kupal!


...


EWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!

PATATAS FRITAS, THAT IS SO DISGUSTING!!!! FOR A CULTURE THAT VALUES CIRCUMCISION, I'M SURPRISED WE EVEN HAVE A WORD FOR THAT!!!! TEENAGERS USING THAT WORD TO DESCRIBE EVERY LAST ANNOYING THINGAMABOB IS SO.NOT.FUNNY. WE MUST CLEAN UP THE LANGUAGE OF THE YOUTH!!! GROSS!!!


[/utter disgust]

So, I finally assumed my duties in my new office today, and...

( cut to hide the fact that I am a sad, shallow brat )

Okay, so maybe I was looking at 'em. In this week's episode of the Amazing Race, teams could choose to play volleyball in the mud in their underwear.

I swear, I love this show so.much.

The hottie Estonian guys were a plus, as they all looked like they came out fresh from a Bel Ami studio, but the highlight of the episode was Sam and Dan. Stripping down into their underwear. And having their crotches blurred.

I swear, most people would pay more attention to their torsos, but the blur just made sure that the eyes would remain staring below the belt. It.was.so... well, it didn't help that Sam was extra cute earlier in the episode, and the blurring just made it seems like he was just really excited to play in the mud with a hottie Estonian guy.

Either way, I'm smiling. Now, my Gossip Girl download's complete, so I'm gonna go watch that

I missed the 9:30 mass, so I'm sitting half-naked in my room coz I don't wanna rumple my clothes while I wait for the 11:00 mass. I'm very rarely on time for mass, even if the church is walking distance from my house. My brother came up with the Papuri system. For him, if you manage to creep inside the church during the Papuri sa Diyos, then you're not really late. And it sorta stuck.

I'm supposed to be preparing for a presentation at the moment, and while I've looked through the materials, I'm mentally budgeting my time today so that I'll have time to do shit. A huge swath of my time today is gonna be dedicated to the International Bazaar. My dad handed me a ticket in my dreams while I was half-asleep. I'm hoping that I don't run out of salmon. The international bazaar is the only place in Manila where they sell good smoked salmon for a decent price.

Mmm... mass is in 25 minutes... maybe I should get dressed now...

The advantage of living near a church is that I can hear the songs they sing from my window. I think I'll wait for the Papuri.

Today is one of those days wherein I wanna update lj, but I'm just at a loss for words. If I talk too much about work, then I'm gonna have to lock the post, or not talk about it at all, coz half the stuff I do shouldn't be floating around publicly on the net. Plus, I'm not too fond of locking posts.

What else is there to talk about? Lovelife? Again, the lock, haha. My youtube soaps? I'm enough of a dork as it is without broadcasting it to the universe.

I'm not in the mood to talk about anything, really. But I just wanna post because I had a really wonderful evening, and I wanna remember this day as one of many days when I can smile and be happy for no particular reason.

Over the weekend, it was the first time for me to meet people who were HIV+. We were all there to learn from their experiences so that we'll know how to better address the needs of those who are positive, and boy, the stories are heartbreaking. Some of them don't really know who infected them, but the majority of the ones that we met were people infected by their monogamous partners/spouses. One of the HIV+ wives only found out that her seemingly perfect and religious husband was a lying, cheating, piece of scum only a few weeks or so before he died of a variety of opportunistic infections that couldn't be fought as he had full-blown AIDS. He didn't even tell her that he had the disease until that point.

This weekend really scared the shit out of me. If you sleep around, you can get it. If you stick to only one partner, you can never truly trust them, and you can get it. It all boils down to safe sex, or celibacy, or both.


Guys, be safe. If I find out that any of you guys were positive, I'd be crying my eyes out.

I swear, Muse just keeps getting better and better. I'm totally hooked on their latest single Uprising. I can't stop dancing to it. If I hear it in public, my ass discreetly jiggles to the beat.

Plus, the lyrics can sorta be related to my job, if I think about it in the most elemental sense.

I'm still listening to it as I type. Loop!

...and cadetship ends...

Damn, it's been a fun five months so far, and as we enter the last stretch, I'm gonna miss it.

I'm gonna miss being with my batchmates through all sorts of scenarios.

We've been through a lot together. And we'll go through much more as the years go by.

*sigh*

'tis a bittersweet November.

They say cadetship is like a cocoon. We go into it with all our rough edges and then gradually, we metamorphose into diplomats that are ready for anything.

Others say that it's like a honeymoon, a sort of vacation period before we're gonna be shoved into the real world of diplomacy.

For me, so far, it has been a wonderful experience. I'm gonna be treasuring every minute of this last month that we have together.