Seasons of 2005

As we light the fireworks and usher in a new year, we are also celebrating our first year together as a married couple. And we thought it would be a good time to start a tradition every January to let our loved ones and close friends know how we spent our previous year.

2005 was a very blessed and meaningful year for us! We tied the knot on January 3 at Santuario de San Antonio at Forbes Park in the Philippines. It was a festive several weeks that started even before Christmas day – with family and friends traveling from afar to celebrate with us. After spending a short “family-moon” in the Philippines, we planed straight back to the US for work and business school.

It was a hectic Winter as Mara completed several projects for her client Unilever in New Jersey and Connecticut, and Xavier plowed through school while toggling between North Carolina and New York. In February though, we caught a good break and tried skiing for the first time, with trips to the Poconos and Lake Placid (site of the ’32 and ’80 Winter Olympics as well as the famous 1980 “Miracle on Ice” hockey game). We did some bobsledding & dog sledding too!



Spring showered us with more blessings. In May, Xavier graduated with an MBA from Duke University’s The Fuqua School of Business. For those who have always wondered but hesitated to ask, the correct pronunciation is [few-kwa] and NOT [foo-kwa]or [foo-ku-wa]. Fuqua is the youngest of the top-tier US business schools and is named for famed industrialist, philanthropist and statesman J.B. Fuqua of Atlanta, Georgia. He presently continues to study in pursuit of a second Master’s degree. In late May, we took our dad, mom & sister Abbie – who flew in for Xavier’s graduation ceremonies – to an enjoyable ride around the East Coast.



Also during this time, Mara was promoted to Partner & Global Knowledge Manager at Ogilvy Worldwide. This meant a shift from her previous client-facing work to a more internal role serving the firm’s top brass. This also entailed late nights (and some very early mornings) conferencing with people from multiple time zones away. Dinners were not a problem though because Xavier has taken the reins of cook – one of the skills that he has learned while doing business school – and has now even added gourmet dishes to his repertoire. Watch out iron chefs! By June, however, we were both working as Xavier was also offered a summer internship at a marketing strategy consulting firm based in Manhattan.

Summer brought us even closer to our friends in the New York area – with things like opera-watching-slash-wine-and-cheese-picnics at Central Park,white water rafting on the Delaware River, midsummer-night-swings at Lincoln Center, and BBQ-and-king-crab-nights at friends’ homes, and beach escapades in The Hamptons. On Labor Day weekend, we concucted what was literally a last minute trip to Atlanta to visit (Xavier’s) cousins Chris & Maddie and friends Hana & Sam, and had a wonderful time to close out the summer.



Fall was a time of stepping back and revisiting our other passions. A number of our good Filipino friends in the US have returned to Asia during this time, which poses the question for us as well: when are we coming back? All is still up in the air, although we will certainly see a change this year – perhaps move to a new apartment in New York or something else. Down the road, the objective is still the same: for Mara to be able to help her family’s hardwood farm venture, which after 15 years, will see its first harvest in a year’s time and for Xavier to get involved with the technology and Venture Capital industries. We will continue to pursue our passion of “giving back” through our various lifeworks. On another note, Xavier also started playing the acoustic guitar again after a 3-year hiatus.

We finished 2005 with a bang. Mara organized a global conference in Toronto, Canada which was a resounding success. She is hosting another one this year in France. Xavier was offered a post to head a new office in Asia for a VC-backed technology start-up (although he is presently looking at other opportunities).

We also had the chance to catch up with family & friends with a surprise Thanksgiving week visit to Manila. During the Holidays, we had a blast in Hawai’i – lounging around Waikiki beach, visiting volcano parks on the Big Island, and swimming with the dolphins on Oahu’s West side.

Now we are back in the Big Apple looking forward to the next seasons! So again, a very Happy New Year (or Chinese New Year) to everyone and thank you for keeping in touch! We wish you all and your loved ones good health, peace of mind, fulfillment, great joy and success throughout 2006!