My Romeo and Juliet Story

       I honestly still feel terrible,hurt and very affected watching this kind of movies where the main actors/actress needs to die at the end of the film. I really hate it to the highest level. To the point that I really avoid to watch such kind of movies because after finding it that someone must die in the end, either the boy or the girl, I can't explain the feeling why I'm so , so , so much affected. My close friends could really say that after finishing a tragic movie, they're seeing my face like a crumpled paper! I can't get over easily with such kind of sadness. That's why I watch comedy films, happy ending stories, I really don't watch tragic movies. Actually the first time I saw this film was few years ago already and I intended not to finish the film because I can feel already that it's not going to be a happy ending so, I didn't finish it. But I was forced to watch it now up to the end   because of this subject. :)

       I'm wondering why Shakespeare choose to wrote many tragic stories while it seems that his love life story was so far away on his written stories? And as an amateur writer of scripts, I'm starting to believe that in every stories you write, there is always a piece of you in there whether you admit it or not because in the first place, you're the one who's actually writing the lines,up to the characters. As a writer, you're obviously the mother of all the characters you wrote. So we could say that you bear all of them. They practically came from you. As for Shakespeare, I'm thinking where he's getting this kind of very tragic stories but so powerful. But there's one thing I realized, Shakespeare is brave enough to write such kind of stories because I could see that he was not afraid whether many will criticize it for it's sad effect to his readers like me, for all his stories were almost tragic stories. But his attempt to write stories without a happy ending, it only shows that in real life, it is not always a happy ending. Hence, it is an inevitable fact that in life it really happen for not just few people but to many.

       I mentioned in my title that this is "My Romeo and Juliet Story". Well, I have a story to share tough it's not exactly the same as what Shakespeare wrote but it has quite resemblance. Because I had experience that my parents we're against for my feelings to fall in love with my current boyfriend. We had an age gap of 10 but I am not ashamed to tell it to my friends as well as sharing it here to my prof not knowing what is she thinking to me right now. But that's a fact. And we're four years and seven months and counting. Just to share the feelings as what Romeo and Juliet felt, wherein they love each other but the world was against with it, it's really more than a heartbreaking feeling knowing that your parents who's expected to be the no.1 who should understand you was against to you instead. Though after a year my parents learned to accept our relationship. The suicide part in our story was our decision to go on with our certain love to each other despite of what will other people may say against us. And to people without real love towards their partners,I think it's impossible for them to win against the peoples judgment to them. But I can proudly say that I am very lucky and blessed to have the man that I wish to be my partner for better or for worst,
till death do us part. :)

(I'm really sorry, I think the blogger has a problem with uploading pictures. I wanted to show to you some pics with the love of my life :) maybe some other time :)

Boccaccio Station 3: Food for delight

I love discovering places where to find delicious dishes are. For some time, when I get disappointed, I used to comfort myself with delicious, satisfying food and sweets. I know it's not a good hobby so I control myself from doing it. But to give myself a reward, I treat myself once in a while and dine in a fine place that serves my cravings for the day. Thus, what it makes more delicious is when every time I get it for FREE by using the "hello mama" system!  :)


Here are some of my favorite food for delight!
                                                                                                                                                                                               

                         

Ooops! I'm sorry if I made you crave for these. But you can surely rush now to your phones and call a delivery service for your instant pasta and pizza!

And as you wait for your food to come, do you know that during Boccaccio's time, in 1300's, pastas had the great role to do during the voyages of the explorers? Yes. According to some articles I've found, in the form of "dried pasta" as they call, it was very popular for its nutrition and long shelf life, making it ideal for long ship voyages. Pasta made it around the globe during the voyages of discovery a century later. By that time different shapes of pasta have appeared and new technology made pasta easier to make. With these innovations pasta truly became a part of Italian life. However the next big advancement in the history of pasta would not come until the 19th century when pasta met tomatoes.
(http://www.lifeinitaly.com/food/pasta-history.asp)

TRIVIA!!!

DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY SHAPES OF PASTA WERE INVENTED?

There are roughly 350 different shapes and varieties of dried pasta in Italy, even more counting regional differences. Shapes range from simple tubes to bow ties (farfalle, which actually means "butterfly"), to unique shapes like tennis rackets (racchette). Many, but not all of these types are usually available wherever pasta is made. By Italian law dried pasta must be made with 100% durum semolina flour and water, a practice that all but the worst quality pasta makers worldwide have since adhered to. However there are two factors in dried pasta from Italy that make it typically better than most other products: extrusion and drying methods.

(http://www.lifeinitaly.com/food/pasta-history.asp)

HAVE A YUMMY DAY ! :)

Boccaccio Station 2: Music Trend

This is how music was like back in late Medieval period of Boccaccio. 

Questa fanciull' by Francesco Landini ( 1325-1397)

Fenice fu' by Jacopo de Bologna (1340-1386)

Or qua, Compagni by Maestro Piero ( 1300-1350)

Boccaccio Station 1: 664 Years Ago

 I think you will all agree with me if I say that we should feel blessed and lucky to live at this generation where everything is almost available and accessible for the benefit and convenience of mankind. Can you imagine living in a time where there's no internet for the rest of your life? Too sad for those addicted to Twitter and Facebook right? Nevertheless, it is not the worst scenario. Mankind survived for the longest time without the Internet, so we could still handle it if ever. But to live without a cure to a certain illness... to live in a midst of numerous dead just outside your house... to live where seems there's no way to go, and the epidemic of a disease is everywhere. Would you still want to live if it seems there's no way to live anymore?

This is the Black Death

Coming out of the East, the Black Death reached the shores of Italy in the spring of 1348 unleashing a rampage of death across Europe unprecedented in recorded history. By the time the epidemic played itself out three years later, anywhere between 25% and 50% of Europe's population had fallen victim to the pestilence.(http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm)

 The plague presented itself in three interrelated forms. The bubonic variant (the most common) derives its name from the swellings or buboes that appeared on a victim's neck, armpits or groin. These tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple.

 Although some survived
the painful ordeal, the manifestation of these lesions usually signaled the victim had a life expectancy of up to a week. Infected fleas that attached themselves to rats and then to humans spread this bubonic type of the plague. A second variation - pneumonic plague - attacked the respiratory system and was spread by merely breathing the exhaled air of a victim. It was much more virulent than its bubonic cousin - life expectancy was measured in one or two days. Finally, the septicemic version of the disease attacked the blood system.

Having no defense and no understanding of the cause of the pestilence, the men, women and children caught in its onslaught were bewildered, panicked, and finally devastated.
 (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm)

I had the chance to have a short interview with our History Professor at Philippine Women's University- Quezon City Campus, Sir Bob Serviño , with regards of the Black Death occurred in time of Boccaccio.

He told me that one of the reason why there was a lot of deadly fleas  and other factors that cause of pestilence during the Middle Age is because, during their time, there was no proper waste disposal yet. So their waste were all thrown anywhere, in the canal, backyard, rivers, and streets. And so the pestilence occurred due to the absence of knowledge on the effect of not disposing their waste properly.

Many of the landlords, merchants, and officials where nowhere to find from hiding, migrating to other places far from Italy to avoid the disease. And because of the absence of the landlords, the laborers learned to start business on their own. Like for example, the carpenter whom is a carpenter of his landlord started to be a carpenter for all who needs his work in exchange of money. As well as the others started to create their own business.

So this seems to be the positive effect of the pestilence occurred during their time. It opened opportunity to others.

Another thing was, it is surprisingly that a Giovanni Boccaccio's masterpiece was born during this plague!

 The Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio lived through the plague as it ravaged the city of Florence in 1348. The experience inspired him to write The Decameron, a story of seven men and three women who escape the disease by fleeing to a villa outside the city. In his introduction to the fictional portion of his book, Boccaccio gives a graphic description of the effects of the epidemic on his city.
 (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm)

I remember what I learned from our Scriptwriting Class. One of the factor that influences a writer is his environment. Base on what he sees and what he feels, he was able to write. Moreover, a writer can see beyond the ordinary eyes could see. 

From the book, "Trip To Quiapo", the author Ricky Lee said that, "a writer should see and let others see what he sees."

And as for me, as an aspiring writer, I should see what can't others see and let them see.

Till the next post !

Boccaccio Ticket

Do you love to travel? I love traveling! If given a chance, I would love to travel around the world and explore all the things possible. But I believe that there is an alternative way to travel even way back a hundred and thousand years ago. And that is through Literature available in our time.  So come and join me as we discover the magnificent wisdom behind World’s Literature.

 The Middle Ages encompass one of the most exciting periods in English History. The names of famous Medieval people scatter the History books. One of those is Giovanni Boccaccio. (http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/giovanni-boccaccio.htm)

Boccaccio is an Italian writer, born in year 1313 in Paris but moved to Florence Italy as a young child. His father was a merchant and wanted him to take up Commerce and Law. And because of Boccaccio’s respect for his father, he took up Business but later on, he abandoned it and pursued his literary career.

I just noticed that some of the famous writers were some kind of a unique person in deed because like Boccaccio, he still pursued what he really wants and disobey his father because what matters is what you love. And Boccaccio has the heart of writing. 

His famous work is entitled, “Decameron”. And he finished it in the middle of a plague occurred in Europe. This epidemic was known as the “Black- death” in history. We can imagine that many have died during that epidemic, there’s a full of chaos, no cure, many had lost their hopes, but on the contrary, there’s a man who looked at it far differently from the rest, and so he come up with a very interesting, wonderful  masterpiece who inspired many writers, the “Decameron”.

I would like to know more what is in the Middle Ages when a Boccaccio was born, that makes this age unique and great because they bore a famous writers despite of epidemics and chaos surrounds them.

Till the next post, we will continue our travel back in the Middle Ages.

Keep your tickets!