ack! after much heaving, grieving and rejoicing, it's almost been two FULL weeks since my vacation began! omg! i haven't really done anything -- no essay, no nothing -- yet! (i'm supposed to be submitting three essays on the first week of november! bah!) ... i swear, i'll be getting over 'em by the end of the month. :|

but for now, i'm relishing my dominance of the remote control. what have i been up to on the boob tube lately? (warning: excessive babbling ahead.)

ellie has become a sports maniac fanatic!

even the laziest bums enjoy sports... watching sports, that is. ;)
back then i never would've given a thought to switching into sports channels as an afternoon pastime. i believe the only thing i've watched that's related to sports before was basketball & volleyball. but right now, look who's whooping it up! i don't know exactly why, it just happened! i suddenly enjoy watching those sports stuff on tv! (ok, stop the exclamations --!!!-- .)

since the FIFA epiphany, i've been partial to watching football matches. it's just fun to see them kick the ball and hit those goals. last week, i've seen the English Premier League, and now, it's the UEFA Champions League. although sometimes it does get a little stretched when no one scores. but you'll never know when the action kicks in! just today i saw a great game of UEFA between Portugal and Germany (couldn't memorize the teams -- porto vs hamburg?!), when portugal scored three goals in just over 20 minutes of the game! :)


and what's sprucing up my daily highlights this time around is TENNIS! yup, you heard it right -- i now have come to appreciate the art of 'love'! hahaha... :p i recently caught the ATP Master Series - Madrid and i'm glad i caught the action! i saw three matches: Federer vs. Soderling (tight match!), Nadal vs. Haas (predictably, Nadal won), and the finals with Federer vs. Gonzales (though i wasn't able to finish it -- RF won the series.) i tell you, Roger Federer is a great player! he is flexible, a fast runner, a strategic shooter, and has lots of stamina. another thing is that he's very calm when he's playing. with Rafael Nadal, i can hear him grunting miles away! (haha, that's an overstatement) ... i cannot compare these two since i've only seen them in a game once -- in the French Open this year. it's strange that even if the seemingly invincible Federer is the top-seed in the men's category (World #1!!!), his only losses, finals-wise, this year are attributed to Nadal (he won the French Open). just what is that spaniard made of?! i have yet to investigate... ;)

right now, i'm digging up some facts and figures about tennis ... i can't imagine how i'd live a yearful of tennis games! every month there's always a match someplace, and of course if you're good you're bound to reach up to the finals! barely enough time to relax and unwind... about 2-3 weeks at the most? but well, these guys are trained for it and it's their chosen field... got to make the most of it, right? hmmm. anyhoo, i admire RF (check out his blog) ... i think he's a nice guy (and no, this is not fangirling! *hee*). he was chosen as Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF (i saw that feature on cnn!), organized charity matches for tsunami relief, he's even got Feder-bears! (look at pic ;p) .. those fuzzy beanie bears are product of a partnership between ATP and UNICEF, proceeds to help disadvantaged children around the world. ain't that sweet?

and so, because of all this tennis hullabaloo, i've signed up for a fun alternative: table tennis as my next, and very last, PE! ... i'm actually very excited about it, since some most of the rules in tennis can also be applied to table tennis (hence the name! *crazy*) i've never tried playing it - but because i'm inspired, who knows, i just might be the next ping-pong star! (jubi, watch out! ;p)

the BNP Paribas Masters, held in Paris, will be from Oct 30 to Nov 05! now that's something to look forward to - the rest of my sembreak is solved! *yay*

(p.s. 'love' in tennis terminology is basically the first point you make in a game, equivalent to 0. i know something! *glee*)

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