culture/history
beauty of the land (...i don't know what else to call this category)
shopping
food
transportation
hotels & houses
overnight
churches & schools
miscellaneous
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
cliff notes
our trip to the philippines summarized (somewhat).
culture/history
villa escudero tunog at galaw @ the folk arts theater ayala museum fort santiago
beauty of the land (...i don't know what else to call this category)
zambales mindoro people's park in the sky in tagaytay
shopping
robinson's place sm mall of asia sm city sm mega mall eastwood city greenbelt divisoria
food
cabalen (robinson's place) villa escudero greenwich (mall of asia) max's (malate, near baywalk) soul food (greenbelt) jollibee (mall of asia) chow king (tagaytay) pancake house (harbor square) somethin' fishy (eastwood city) edsa shangri-la chinese restaurant (pasig) blue bay buffet complimentary breakfasts from hostel 1632, parang beach resort & angelo king countless homecooked meals
transportation
experiencing filipino driving for the first time in trace's car cramming into uncle ben's pajero searching for non-overpriced taxis clinging for our lives in jeepneys getting driven by uncle pip's driver trying to cross the crazy streets on foot getting serenaded on a carabao driven cart in villa escudero walking from max's to the folk arts center walking from harbor square to the floating restaurant (jumbo kingdom) sleeping on the ferry to mindoro reading & observing nature's beauty on the ferry to batangas getting stuck in traffic getting lost falling asleep in almost every vehicle (including the jeepney!)
hotels & houses
overnight
uncle ben & auntie ellen's in paranaque hostel 1632 on adriatico in malate the cua's 8-room vacation home in candelaria, zambales uncle minggoey's in baesa parang beach resort in oriental mindoro angelo king guest house at the manila adventist medical center visited
ephteen's apartment in pasay? lolo's brother's house in candelaria my cousin's relative's homes on my lolo's land in barangay binabalian (sp?) uncle manny's mom's house in candelaria uncle manny's brother's elizabeth beach resort in candelaria uncle ben & auntie ellen's kubo in mindoro (from the outside) auntie pinay & uncle manny's house in quezon city where my mom's old house used to be in project 3, quezon city uncle boy's house in quezon city edsa shangri-la hotel in pasig the model home of the house auntie mimi bought
churches & schools
manila SDA church in pasay philippine international church @ aup adventist university of the philippines (my dad's alma mater) university of the philippines (where my cousin is the chair of health promotion & education) university of santo tomas (est. 1611; my mom's/my cousin's/jose rizal's alma mater) we didn't visit any but Iglesia Ni Cristo's are EVERYWHERE!
miscellaneous
failed attempts to take pictures vomiting-causing migraine in zambales only 5 bug bites! (= getting darker... my tan line is sooo bad. T= boys diving for coins by the ferry in mindoro seeing the uncanny resemblences between siblings ads EVERYWHERE (huuuuge billboards in clusters, banners on homes, after each song on the radio) weird teapot in the lounge @ edsa shangri-la experiencing the hospitality and genuine niceness of people here getting called ma'am every 10 seconds ...getting followed by one of the many attendants in almost every store pollution... greeeen vegetation, blue skies, clear water being surrounded by filipinos 24/7 (it's really weird) the feeling of pride & amazement at cultural/historical sites feeling stuffed after almost every meal appreciating hot water, water pressure, toilet paper, and air conditioning being too scared to use my limited knowledge of tagalog to use... T= going without the Internet for over a week!!! hyperman & Sup Er Man weird, weird, cute, sexy wanting to come back ASAP to taste Zambales mangos, to see Cebu, Palawan, & Boracay, and to buy my parents a house?! my hair looks like crap... watching Superman Returns at SM Mall of Asia at 12nn June 28 karaoking with cousins
culture/history
beauty of the land (...i don't know what else to call this category)
shopping
food
transportation
hotels & houses
overnight
churches & schools
miscellaneous
a massive blog
From June 18, 2006
duuude! the house here in zambales (candelaria) is freakin' niiiice! it has 8 bedrooms and they just remodeled it. it has fresh paint, matching furniture throughout the house, new flooring... the rooms even have crown molding! O= but yeah... it's just a vacation house for my mom's cousins. of the 10 siblings, 5 are in the states and 5 are here. but even the ones from here have their own houses so they really just use it for a vacation house.
it took about 5 hours to get here from malate. we drove through the main part of manila, past rizal park (it's his birthday tmw), city hall, and UST (the oldest college in the philippines; my mom went there!). of course we also passed by numerous jollibees, greenwiches, and chowkings. i still haven't had the opportunity to try real jollibee food. oh well. we drove through a lot of the country side, too. i kept knocking out during the ride again, but one time when i woke up, i just had to say "wow!" it was so beautifully green; nice skies, with mountains in the back. we passed by a lot of water, too. we're supposed to go to a beach tmw so we'll get to see that part of zambales. unfortunately, though, it's not mango season so we won't see the gigantic mangos. T= you know what season it is? rainy season! it was pouring while we ate dinner; but it was so nice. we ate outside where it was covered. the rain made it a lot cooler. there was thunder and lightning, but it wasn't scary, just really cool looking.
my bug bite count is currently at three, all of which are on the lower part of my left leg. however, i have a nasty rash on my lower left arm. i also think i have exima (sp?) on my right arm, mostly around my elbow. i even have a patch of exima growing on my face... T=
oh yeah. so outside the gates of this house (yeah... there are gates), lives my lolo's younger brother. it's so trippy cuz you can totally see the resemblance! their facial features and their voice... hahah. it's uncanny. anyhooooo. he made us pastillas! yay! all these years, whenever an encina came back from the philippines, it was this lolo that made the pastillas! mmm. that's some good stuff. anyway...
we visited with him and his wife for a while. he's 79 but is still pretty vibrant/malakas. there were a couple of conversations going on at the same time in addition to having the tv on in the background, so it was kind of hard to follow conversations. his wife doesn't think that either my sister or i look like my mom, but he thinks i kinda do. yay! and of course they asked how old we were and how far along in our studies we were. we got the ever recurring question: can you speak tagalog? why not?! blah. i really gotta learn... maybe i should practice here (sorry khaing).
pwede kong salita kunti sa isip ko, pero matatakot atchaka mahihiya sabihin ako [outloud]. (wow, that was reeeeeally broken.) masmaraming intindihan ko ngayon, kahit na kunti lang.
bayan si nanay at tatay ko ay talagang maganda! dito sa bondoc, talagang verde; ang langit ay malaki.
mahirap ang buhay dito. kahit bata o matanda, magtrabaho din.
kahapon at ngayon, lahat ng tao inibig itong bayan. maraming tao magmamatay para sa Pilipinas.
From June 19, 2006
today in a nut shell:
now, today in a nutshell: (today)
Today is Thursday, June 22nd. Be proud of me. I haven't blogged since the 19th. d=
Tuesday, June 20
We woke up eeeearly in the morning to walk to one of the Zambales beaches. It was soooooo nice! The water was talagang clear! hahah. The waves were really calm, too. The sand was really dark, though; parang dirt. The sand was pretty fine, though. The temperature: a bit lukewarm; not hot, not cold. I didn't stay in there for too long, though, cuz I kept feeling tiny pricks here and there. Not sure what that was.
After we got cleaned up, we left for Baesa. It was another 5 hour drive through the countryside and back into the city. We ate and had a cake for my dad's youngest brother's wife's birthday. My sister and I stayed in my cousin Sunddie's room. She had tooons of choral music; she was away on tour with the Madrigal Singers. I took some pictures of some songs for pNotes. (= My uncle's house had 3 levels; at the top was a balcony. I forgot to take a picture of the view.
Post-dinner, we set up the projector... again. This time we showed my debut dvd and last year's PACN dvd. At first my uncle didn't realize that we switched from my debut to the pcn so when he saw the first people on stage, he was like, were those guests at your debut? hahah. The moment he saw the malongs, he was like, oh! Moslim ito! Too bad we didn't have time to show them the whole thing.
I stayed up late organizing my pictures in Picasa. Do I know how to have fun or what?!
Wednesday, June 21
We were supposed to wake up early and leave Baesa at 7am. I lagged a bit and we ended up leaving half an hour late. T= We drove through some traffic to go back to Paranaque to pick up some clothes then we drove a couple hours through the rain to Batangas. We were supposed to take the 11:30am ferry to Oriental Mindoro (an island). By the time we got there (11:30), the ferry had already taken off. There was another ferry scheduled for 12:00, but they cancelled it because there weren't enough passengers. O= The next ferry left at 2:00...
So with much time to kill we walked down to some of the store/restaurants to eat lunch. My auntie & uncle (who has been driving us around the whole time) got cold Cokes in bottles. I asked for a Sprite and they gave me a lukewarm can cuz they said they were out of bottles. A little while later, they gave another customer Sprite in a bottle. O=<>Thursday, June 22
Woke up around 7 and ate our complimentary breakfast at the restaurant. While we waited to get picked up (my auntie & uncle spent the night at Tita Tita's), we watched more TV. We saw a couple soaps and some cartoons (Mirmo, One Piece, and Doraemon) dubbed in Tagalog. I knocked out until it was time to check out.
We still had time to kill before getting picked up so we waited where we ate dinner. We chose the right place to wait, because my uncle and auntie brought lunch with them! They also brought their nephew who was friends with one of the people who worked at the restaurant. He hooked us up with utencils, plates, water, and cups (all of which we lacked the night before). Mmm! Filipino food makes me happy! Well, except for wet fish and most vegetable dishes. hahah.
We went back to the shop/auto shop before boarding the ferry. We watched GMA again. There was a contest to be an EB (eat bulaga) babe. It was the semifinals and they were down to two 18 year olds and two 21 year olds. The mystery judge went with half of the ones we predicted would move on to the next round. An auntie here mentioned to me that I could be a beauty pageant contestant. I totally don't think so. All the girls on TV here are really maarte (I don't really know how to translate that word). Well, I guess a lot of people here aren't afraid to act a certain way. I also noticed that in all the game shows/talk shows, they have people dancing. It's weird... Something else I noticed: there are a lot of contests and sweepstakes. So many people are hoping for a way out... Well, I guess we have lotteries, games shows and contests in America, too. But it just seems like every other commercial advertised one.
We were the first to board Princess Colleen. Instead of staying inside, I wanted to see the view of the islands and the body of water (whichever one that was). I'm glad we did. It was a lot cooler. Oh yeah. Before we left, there were a bunch of boys swimming in the water right beside our boat asking for coins. "Please sir!" I was taking pictures of the landscape. My mom said that one of the boys said, "Ma'am, I love you!" hahah. I think that's the closest thing to getting hit on thus far; I have gotten a lot of unwanted looks, though. ::shudder:: Anywho, a man started throwing coins at the boys. They quickly dove into the water to retrieve them, bit the coins, and kept them in their mouths. The water was really clear (I could see their legs) and supposedly the water wasn't that deep. The guy kept throwing more coins, and eventually, he bought some peanuts and threw that at them... Don't know how useful that was. My dad woke up from his nap (yes, he was sleeping before we left the port), and wanted to throw them coins, too. So he joined in, laughing. When my dad gave out all his coins, he sat back down, and then realized that he should've taped it. So he asked me for coins and went back to the side of the ferry with the video camera and taped it! Several of the boys had climbed up the ferry and were hanging onto the side. The ferry blew its horn and the boys jumped off the ferry, dove into the clear water, climbed back onto land, off to spend their pisos who knows how.
On the ride back to Batangas, I alternated between reading, playing sudoku, and just watching the lush green islands and the blue ocean/sea/whatever it was. Much more enjoyable than sleeping inside, worried about the weird men who had decided to sleep close to us. Not to say that this trip was without its weird men. There was this one guy in red that kept staring. He walked by frequently; each time I was worried he would stop and say something. Fortunately (or unfortunately), he just kept on staring... ew!
It was a long drive back to Paranaque. We picked up the rest of our luggage and packed all 10 pieces of luggage + miscellaneous bags and 6 people into the Parejo. I don't know how we did it, but we did. I also don't know how I managed to fall asleep, but I did. I woke up at the Manila Sanitarium/Adventist Medical Center. Some guy (Angelo King?) donated his hotel to the hospital so now it's a place at which Adventists stay? I dunno. I think missionaries usually stay in these rooms. It was already 11pm when we got here, so the main elevator wasn't working. We had to bring our luggage into the hospital where a hospital guy loaded our 10 pieces of luggage onto a gurney and into the hospital's main elevator. We went up to the 3rd floor, only to bring our luggage down the stairs to the 2nd floor. It's not a fancy room, but it has a descent shower (w/ hot water!) and a refrigerator. We'll spend the rest of our nights in the Philippines here.
I've had a lot of time to think on this trip. Any conclusive thoughts? A few here and there. There really is a lot of time in a day; we just feel rushed because of how we allocate that time... I like feeling busy, though. I feel so unproductive here. Yes, I am on vacation so I shouldn't be doing things, but still... I have hours of time to kill while these people work their asses off for mere pisos... Seeing life here and reading about it (in "America is in the Heart" by Carlos Bulosan) is really creating a unique experience. As a Filipina-American, I really have been missing out on the Filipina side. True, I'm still greatly lacking, but I have a better sense now of why so many people come to America.
I've heard "the better life" reason plenty of times, but never really understood what was so better about the life. I really am fortunate to have not only a house to live in, but one much nicer than necessary, with more rooms than we need, hot water, even in the bathroom we don't use, a walk in closet with clothes I don't always wear; my own room with a guitar I never play, a computer I rarely use, and pictures and books I don't spend enough time looking at. I have the opportunity to get an education--a quality one. Not only do my parents have enough money to pay for my education, but I've been fortunate enough so that they haven't had to pay for that much of it. Here, jobs are plentiful. I'm lucky enough to get a pre-job job (the internship) that really is paying bank; something I definitely don't deserve compared to how hard some of the people here work and compared to how much they get in return. I have the leisure time to go to the beach with my friends; I have a car to get me there. I have the money to buy a laptop to waste hours on, a camera to take random pictures with, and clothes that really aren't worth the price I pay. I have the option to throw my stuff away in either the trash bin, the recycle bin, or the yard waste bin. Every week, I can count on other people to take away the mess I've made. I don't have to burn it myself or watch it collect on my lawn or on the sidewalks. Well, California can still be pretty dirty, but it's still a nice place to live.
Despite all these things that most people are without here, people still smile. Kids, even though they're poor, still have fun, playing whatever it is they're playing. Their lolo's and lola's still laugh to see their apo's smile. Parents are proud to see their kids go to school. That motivates them to continue working hard through the long days.
[and then i knocked out.]
Friday, June 23
We took a taxi back to the Mall of Asia. We covered a lot more ground this time. Spent a lot of time at the SM Department Store, mostly waiting for the bank part to exchange our dollars for pisos. I ended up buying 2 pairs of slippers for a total of P130 which is about $2.50!!!
We finally ate at Jollibee! w000t! It was really good. I got maize con yielo (corn & ice) for P27 = $.50! Craaazy cheap! I also ended up buying mango cheesecake later on, but that was pretty much a waste of money...
(Right now I'm watching MYX, which is pretty much a Filipino MTV. The show that's on right now is "Versions" and they play remakes of songs. Apparently, Westlife redid "Fly Me to the Moon." Nothing too memorable, but still cool to hear. I wanted to make a playlist of remakes, but I wasn't sure what to title it; I guess I don't have that problem anymore.)
We went back to our room to get picked up by my auntie and uncle. Then we drove for what seemed like forever to Quezon City for my auntie Pinay's birthday dinner. Kaka inez naman! I think everyone in the car was aggrivated with the driving situation. My uncle was driving again. We hit traffic for a bit, but when we got closer to the house, he was driving insanely slow cuz he didn't know where the street to turn was. He even stopped in the middle of the street for a while! Aaaaaaaaah! I can't wait to get back to the states so I can be in control of the car. hahah.
Anyway... We finally arrived. Another nice house! Not as nice as the vacation house in Zambales, but still nice. We were the first to get there, so I guess it was good we got lost/were driving slow. The families started coming in and I got to meet more cousins. Yay! They're really nice, but I felt retarded cuz we didn't talk much... Two of them are around my sister's age (Pio's 21 and Paulo's 22) and they both graduated from business (I think). One just graduated this month and is looking for a job and the other one works at Citigroup.
Auntie: Michael just graduated and now he's looking for a job.
Mom: Oh. What about Pio?
Auntie: Oh! That's Michael.
Well, I guess you had to be there. It was just funny cuz we knew her son as Pio but she started calling him Michael out of nowhere. Inside we were all thinking, who the heck is Michael? Almost everyone here has house names. I feel left out. hahah.
The food was soooo freakin' good! Highlights: fried chicken, nilagang baka (beef soup), mango tarts, and mocha cheesecake!!! ZOMG! I was so full.
Saturday, June 24
Went to church at the new site of Philippine Union College which is now known as the Adventist University of the Philippines. My dad went to and taught at the old PUC. It was cool cuz he finished his studies a semester early and PUC hired him as a chemistry teacher right away. By the time graduation came around, he was walking with the faculty instead of the graduates! He ended up teaching for about 3 years, I think. The lady in charge of potluck was one of his students before. She was saying how my dad was the professor that they all had crushes on. o.O She was interesting...
That lady was also telling me to come back next year and she'll enter me in a beauty pageant. She said she did that with some other girl and she ended up winning Ms. Palawan or something. hahah.I don't think I would win, though. I was thinking about it, and I think one thing I'd like about being a celebrity of sorts is that someone else would do my hair. hahah. I'm so lazy. I totally wouldn't wanna be famous, though, cuz I'd be so weirded out by seeing my picture everywhere. Especially in the PI, cuz they have celebrities advertise everything. They even have Manny Pacquiao (I dunno how to spell his last name... but the boxer guy) advertising for Magic Sing Karaoke mics!
As for the church service itself... We went to Sabbath school. That lady I mentioned earlier brought us to the English speaking one, but we totally couldn't hear the teacher. We sat towards the back of the group and he spoke really softly. My dad walked up and moved to another group. hahah. One of the things I like about going to church is singing, but I didn't know most of the songs, so that part sucked. The sermon... I didn't like. He made valid points about how we're less reverent in the church, which I definitely agree with, but I didn't like the way it was presented. I felt like he was scolding everyone. One of the things he pointed out: not everyone brings Bibles to church, but people bring cell phones. As for the rest of the sermon, I dozed off frequently... 1. it was hot. 2. i was tired. 3. he wasn't captivating.
Potluck was an experience. Before he prayed, one of the guys in charge said, "We have a tradition here--it's a good tradition, actually--where we let our guests/visitors get their food first." After prayer, our family got up, since we were visitors, and were the first in line, but somehow, a bunch of other people ended up getting their food before we did. So much for tradition... Food wise... I've had better. Even considering the fact that it was veggie food, I've had better fake meat.
Btw, the people in our group were: me, my sister, my dad (Payo/Mario... I still don't know the story behind his nickname), my mom, my dad's oldest living sister Lina (Ellen), her husband Ben, my dad's youngest brother Minggoey (Domingo), his wife Dori, their daughter Ephteen (Roddie May?), and her husband Richard. After potluck and talking, we drove around the campus and Richard showed us the different buildings and picturesque spots. It's kinda weird cuz one of the colleges is a college of arts, science, and technology. They put art & science in the same college?!
We drove down (or up? I don't have a map so I'm totally disoriented) to "The People's Park in the Sky" which is a spot up on a mountain that overlooks Tagaytay. It's really beautiful. Well, the tower and stuff there is rusty and old, but the view is really nice. It was really windy, though; it reminded me of that place in Hawai'i. My mom said that place was Waimanalo, but I thought it was something else... Oh yeah! There was a pineapple that you could stand inside. I took a picture in it; I felt like spongebob. haha.
After that we drove over to Chow King for halo halo. Then we drove through traffic and rain to a new gated community being developed. My auntie in the states bought a house there and we tried to look at one of the model homes, but it was already after hours so the guards didn't let us. My dad told me to take a picture of it so we could show my auntie, but when I took out my camera, the guards told us we weren't allowed to. (Bawal!) I already took one, though, so sshhh!
Then we drove back towards where we were staying. When we were about a minute away, my uncle got a phone call. He answered it when he was stopped right in the middle of the intersection! He would've gone straight but there were cars in the other lane making right turns in front of him and then a huuuuge bus trying to make a left that probably would've driven into us. Gaaah! It was crazy. Once we got through the intersection, the police (pulis) pulled us over. My uncle got out and talked with the officer. He pretty much yelled his way out of a ticket. hahah. My uncle used to work for the government, too. The officer was young and I guess he got scared. Yay!
My auntie and uncle dropped us off and then left to pick up their daughter. We got back to the room, peed and dropped off our belongings. Then we decided to walk around to find a place to eat. It was craaaazy. At first, we walked across the small street to a small restaurant that was still open but had no food left. (wtf?!) Then we walked through the small, wet alleys in the dark towards the main highways. Crossing the street is crazy in the PI! Pedestrians don't get their official turn to cross the street so you have to just run across when there are less cars and hope that they won't run you over! Once we got to the other side, we checked out the various restaurants and ended up buying a whole chicken and rice. We crossed the street again, escaping death again. Yay!
Once we got back to the hospital/hotel, my auntie and cousin came out of the elevator! They had been trying to call us so they could take us out to eat, but my mom turned the cell phone off. (I still don't get why my mom turns her phone off! Gaaaah!) So we bought food for nothing. They took us to Harbor Square (which was by the Folk Arts Theater where we watched the cultural dance show). We ate at a place called Pancake House, even though none of us ordered pancakes. Then we walked around the complex, past the Folk Arts Theater, to a fancy floating Chinese restaurant called "Jumbo Kingdom." Er, technically it was a boat, even though it never leaves the port. Supposedly, there's a secret casino where all the high rollers play. O= We just went there to take pictures in the fancy seats. Hahah.
We walked the long way back, they took us home, then I came back to blog.
Sunday, June 25
Uncle Minggoey took us to Intramuros (walled city). We saw Fort Santiago, one of the oldest fortifications in Manila (old Manila). It was built in 1571 and kept getting destroyed & damaged by war and natural disasters, but kept getting rebuilt & restored. It used to be surrounded by water, since it's next to the Pasig River, but now there's golf around most of it. There's a shrine for Jose Rizal, the national hero, since that's where he spent his last night. It was freakin' awesome! I really liked the design of the place, how they placed text in various places (on the walls, on the floor, on the glass containers). The feeling of being in the same place where Jose Rizal was imprisoned is/was indescribable, though.
A few things about Jose Rizal:
His book, Noli Me Tangere (Don't Touch Me), was the first to expose the travesties Spaniards put Filipinos through and inspired the revolution against the Spaniards.
He was freakin' smart. I forgot the details, but he was highly educated at a young age.
He knew 7 different languages in addition to various Filipino dialects.
He had several love interests from various countries (Germany, Philippines, Japan, etc).
He was a doctor.
He was a sculptor.
He was imprisoned for several years on false charges. The Spaniards executed him by gunfire an hour after he got married.
His last words are translated into a bunch of different languages (English, Tagalog, Spanish [the original language], Chinese, Korean, French, Czech, etc) and posted around his shrine.
Anyhoooo. I bought an English version of Noli Me Tangere. Hopefully I can finish it this summer after I read America is in the Heart. Yay!
After that, we went to Luneta where the Jose Rizal park is (where they actually shot him down), but it was waaay too crowded to even find parking (everyone was double parked; even the sidewalks were packed with cars). I think it was crowded because they were celebrating Manila's 435th anniversary.
Then we went to SM City, another huuuuge mall. We went to the food court for lunch and ZOMG, there were sooooo many choices. Usually, our food courts have like... maybe 15 choices, right? In this food court there were like 40+! Well, I'm bad at estimating, but there were a looooot. Most of them sold Filipino food, though; I really don't know how these people differentiate themselves from their competitors. Most of the stores seem to be selling all the same things (especially the stores along the road) to all the same people. Anyway, I decided on getting boneless chicken bbq from Reyes Barbeque. It was sooooooo good! But it took a looooong time for them to cook it. I ordered my food before the rest of my family ordered theirs from elsewhere. By the time I sat down, they were already finished with their stuff. Gaah!
Post-eating, we went to National Bookstore to buy some books. At the Rizal Shrine, they were selling his books Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo (sp?) for P250 each. At National Bookstore, they were P150 & P135, respectively. Yay! I also bought a map of the Philippines which finally put most of the trip into perspective. Then we went to SM Supermarket to buy food. Yaaay! I bought a lot of pasolubong. I don't wanna list it out, cuz you'll probably get something I bought.
Then we went to my uncle Boy's house which was about 5 minutes from SM City. Their house was nice, too. The Cua's all seem to be pretty well off. Anyway, they talked and we ate. More awesomely delicious food. I met more cousins and 2 nieces. There are little kids everywhere! Most of the time was spent listening to the adults converse. It was kind of cool cuz they started talking about politics and I kind of knew some of what they were talking about. Well, very little, actually. Just that Fernando Poe, Jr. (FPJ) (the now deceased dad of some singer girl we previously saw on TV) ran for president against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA), but GMA won by paying for more votes and that the New People's Army (NPA) is a communist group that GMA is trying to stamp out. Nevertheless, it was cool cuz for once I was telling me sister stuff instead of her telling me what this word meant or who that relative was. Yay! After more talking and wrapping up food to take home in foil and tupperware, Uncle Minggoey took us back.
Monday, June 26
We woke up (late) and went to Ate Bing's office at the University of the Philippines. She's a department chair in the College of Public Health (sorry, not sure if I already mentioned that or not). We had to use her Internet to confirm our flight and then my sister and I each checked our mail. It was good that I got to because I got a couple of work related e-mails.
One of the conversations (since it was a string of e-mails) threw a dagger into my heart (and twisted it). I can't watch Wicked!!!! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! My cousin tried soooo freakin' hard to buy tickets but there were just too many other people trying to get tickets. She couldn't even access the site at first and by the time she could, it was too late. T= Another friend of hers stood in line for like 5 hours or something and ended up with crappy seats. Damn those who bought a bunch of tickets and are reselling them at ridiculous prices online!!! Gaaaaaaaaaaah! ::tear:: Again, you are out my reach, Wicked. I guess I'm just gonna have to fly to NY to watch you. (= At least I'm gonna watch RENT for sure!!!! w000t! Orchestra seats!
After the mail-checking, we took a jeepney up to Divisoria. It's kind of like Downtown L.A. cuz there are a bunch of cheap shops and stuff. By the time we got there, it was time to eat, so we ate at Max's (again). Another delicious meal. We didn't really find much at Divisoria, though. They had shoes, bags, clothes, and fabric, but what they had we didn't want. T= So we took another jeepney down to Quiapo. It was a tiny underground "mall." Not much their either. So we took another jeepney to Baclaran which was quite a ways away with all the traffic. So I fell asleep (I don't know how with the way the driver was breaking, shifting gears, and switching lanes). Then it started to rain. We decided to 86 our plans to go to Baclaran since it was outdoors and it was raining pretty hard. (We didn't bring our umbrellas cuz the sun was shining when we left.) We escaped from the death jeepney, ran through puddles to get under some shelter, and then waited out the rain for a few minutes before walking back to our room.
The rest of the day was pretty much just chilling in the room watching TV. We watched a Superman movie that reeeeally sucked. I don't know the title, but it had the mom from Smallville as Lana Lang. It really bothered me how the computers in the movie were able to anything. Some random computer in Smallville could supposedly control ATMs, traffic lights, and a weather satellite. Oh yeah, and it could also determine most of what Kryptonite was made out of (all by .57%). At the end, there was a super computer that created Kryptonite because it could find people's weaknesses or something. I don't know. Then it turned the bad guy's sister into a robot and tried to eat Superman. The plot was ridiculous... I don't know if it was just a crappy movie or if most movies in the '70s just sucked. The special effects weren't that great either, but I'm more forgiving with that given its time period. That's why I'm soooo looking forward to watching the new Superman. We might see it today if it's not sold out. w00t!
Tuesday, June 27
Auntie Aida & Uncle Able picked us up. They were planning to go to the Mall of Asia since they hadn't been there, but we already went there twice. My other auntie told us that Eastwood was nice so we ended up going there. It was a bit retarded cuz the stores didn't open until 12 and it was 11:30 so we ate at Somethin' Fishy. Yay! My sister and I ordered Japanese food while the rest of them got Filipino food. (They didn't want raw fish.) In the California roll, instead of avocado, they used mango. hahah. Then my auntie bought us stuffed animals as souvenirs for eating at the restaurant. I got a blue lobster. o.O ("See! He's her lobster!")
Then they dropped us off at SM Megamall. That place was huuuge! The flooring was weird, though: lower garage, upper garage, 2nd floor, 3rd floor, 4th floor, 5th floor. I finally bought something at a clothing store! (Plains & Prints) I liked a lot of their clothes and they had a sale for 50% off a lot of the ones I liked, but the thing I ended up buying wasn't even on sale. boo. Oh well. I will definitely go shopping when I get back. I r teh excited!!! Then my sister and I spent about an hour or so buying souvenirs at the SM Department Store. I got a lot of things for people, but I wasn't too sure about some of the things I bought. After I bought everything, I realized that I should've bought something for myself, too. Oh well.
Then we met up with Uncle Pip & Auntie Wilma. Their driver took us to a really fancy hotel called EDSA Shangri-la. We ate dinner at this nice Chinese restaurant. It was hands down the fanciest place we ate the whole trip. We saw one of the owners of Unilab there (my auntie knew him). Everyone in my family ordered the mango melon drink which was their special drink of the day, so we all got reindeer stuffed animals. It was reeeeally weird. o.O The food was soooooooo good, though! Crispy lemon chicken, tenderloins (extra tender!), steamed lapulapu (I didn't eat it cuz it looked weird), soup with a giant mushroom that was hard to eat, yummy vegetables, and crispy fried noodles with chicken! mmm!!!! It was sooooooooo good! And then there was hot jasmine tea that I drank all throughout the meal. For dessert, I had an almond jelly thingie which was pretty much like getting shaved ice except there was no ice. There was almond jelly (obviously), lychee, pineapple chunks, and some reddish fruit that I didn't know. The staff was really active in our dinner. They took away our plates and gave us new ones every so often.
Then we went downstairs to the hotel lounge to chill where we listening to a really good singer. She took requests so we asked her to sing Dahil Sa 'Yo, Someone to Watch over Me, and Sway. She sang a bunch of other Michael Buble songs, too. Everyone ordered a drink except for me cuz I drank so much during dinner. I finally gave in and ordered Morning Dew Green Tea. I don't remember what was in it. I left to pee and explore the hotel; my sister and I tried to take pictures with the scenery but it was night time and my camera still sucks with night pictures. T= I totally forgot that I ordered a drink so when I came back, my tea was already warm. The teapot was sooooo weird looking. It looked like two fused together; kind of like an elephant. How you set it down determined the strength of the tea. There was a story behind it, too, but since I was gone, I missed it. T= boo. After a few more songs, the driver took us back to our room where we watched a bowling competition on tv.
I think it'd be pretty cool to work as a lounge singer part time. 1. You get to sing. 2. It's not a large crowd and you're popperozzi-less (I really don't know how to spell that). 3. You get to dress up every night. But then you have to know a lot of songs, especially if people request stuff.
Wednesday, June 28
Today, we're gonna try to watch Superman and then go out to eat one final time. We're mostly packed up and everyone's pretty much just waiting for me to get dressed so bye!
[edit]
We watched Superman Returns! The effects were definitely cool compared to the old one we watched (of course). I'm glad I watched the old one cuz I would be extra annoyed by the ditsy bad girl. The plot was... I dunno. I don't know how good Superman movies are supposed to be. They seemed to throw everything in there: a plane crash, a sinking ship, a natural disaster. Some things didn't really make sense (Superman's reaction levels to Kryptonite), but whatever. Just make sure you wait until after the credits. (=
After the movie, we walked through the Mall of Asia for one last time. We went to Kultura in hopes of finding a bahag. I asked my mom to ask my dad to ask a worker there if they sold them and she just laughed. Oh well.
We went back to our room after that, only to be dismayed by the fact that the TV didn't work. T= So everyone just took a nap. Well, I read a little, too, but mostly slept.
Uncle Ben, Auntie Ellen, and Ate Epol picked us up for dinner. We picked Ate Bing up from UP and then headed for Blue Bay, the Buffet on the Bay. Trace, Richard, Ephteen, Sunddie, and Auntie Dori met us there. Unfortunately, the food was just okay. There was a lot of seafood we couldn't eat. But I guess EDSA Shangri-la is hard to follow. There was a female singer and two guitarists who went around to different tables singing happy birthday or OPM's. They stopped at our table and my uncle pointed out to the group that Sunddie was a Madrigal singer. hahah. That was cool. They ended up accompanying Sunddie on a song.
I think that inspired my cousins to want to go karaoke-ing. After some persuading my parents let us go (they didn't want us out late cuz we have to be leaving for the airport at 04:30) with the condition that we'd only go for an hour. The ones who ended up going were: me, my sister, Sunddie, Ephteen, and Ate Bing. We went to a karaoke place called Music 21. It was really cool (except for the smell of cigarettes). There were soooooooooooooooooooooo many choices! They had a whole book with OPM's and three other books with English songs. The remote controls were cool, too, cuz you could change the key & what not; it took me a while to realize that, though. Each of us sang at least one song. I wanted to sing more but the hour went by so quickly (and we kind of experienced technical difficulties so we were gyped 10 minutes). It was cool cuz there were so many Filipino songs! (Well, obviously you're gonna have Filipino songs in the Philippines, but it was still cool.) I sang Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang with my cousin (she can sing pretty low), Stop Think, and Dahil Mahal Na Mahal Kita. Yeah... I know, I always sing those songs (except for Stop Think). I also saw May Bukas Pa in there, but I didn't wanna sing that. My other cousins can really sing. (= It totally runs in the family. Later on, I found out that my lolo (on my dad's side) used to sing a lot. I wish I met him... Anyhoo...
Sunddie dropped us off at our place and picked up her parents who were waiting with our parents. Then we finished packing and what not and now I'm here blogging. It's almost 01:00 and I have to be up in 3 hours. I hope I get rid of my jet lag quickly... I also still have Filipino currency. I gotta buy more things! Oh yeah. Big downer: we couldn't find any Kraft cheese in a can! T= That stuff was good...
I gotta come back soon...
duuude! the house here in zambales (candelaria) is freakin' niiiice! it has 8 bedrooms and they just remodeled it. it has fresh paint, matching furniture throughout the house, new flooring... the rooms even have crown molding! O= but yeah... it's just a vacation house for my mom's cousins. of the 10 siblings, 5 are in the states and 5 are here. but even the ones from here have their own houses so they really just use it for a vacation house.
it took about 5 hours to get here from malate. we drove through the main part of manila, past rizal park (it's his birthday tmw), city hall, and UST (the oldest college in the philippines; my mom went there!). of course we also passed by numerous jollibees, greenwiches, and chowkings. i still haven't had the opportunity to try real jollibee food. oh well. we drove through a lot of the country side, too. i kept knocking out during the ride again, but one time when i woke up, i just had to say "wow!" it was so beautifully green; nice skies, with mountains in the back. we passed by a lot of water, too. we're supposed to go to a beach tmw so we'll get to see that part of zambales. unfortunately, though, it's not mango season so we won't see the gigantic mangos. T= you know what season it is? rainy season! it was pouring while we ate dinner; but it was so nice. we ate outside where it was covered. the rain made it a lot cooler. there was thunder and lightning, but it wasn't scary, just really cool looking.
my bug bite count is currently at three, all of which are on the lower part of my left leg. however, i have a nasty rash on my lower left arm. i also think i have exima (sp?) on my right arm, mostly around my elbow. i even have a patch of exima growing on my face... T=
oh yeah. so outside the gates of this house (yeah... there are gates), lives my lolo's younger brother. it's so trippy cuz you can totally see the resemblance! their facial features and their voice... hahah. it's uncanny. anyhooooo. he made us pastillas! yay! all these years, whenever an encina came back from the philippines, it was this lolo that made the pastillas! mmm. that's some good stuff. anyway...
we visited with him and his wife for a while. he's 79 but is still pretty vibrant/malakas. there were a couple of conversations going on at the same time in addition to having the tv on in the background, so it was kind of hard to follow conversations. his wife doesn't think that either my sister or i look like my mom, but he thinks i kinda do. yay! and of course they asked how old we were and how far along in our studies we were. we got the ever recurring question: can you speak tagalog? why not?! blah. i really gotta learn... maybe i should practice here (sorry khaing).
pwede kong salita kunti sa isip ko, pero matatakot atchaka mahihiya sabihin ako [outloud]. (wow, that was reeeeeally broken.) masmaraming intindihan ko ngayon, kahit na kunti lang.
bayan si nanay at tatay ko ay talagang maganda! dito sa bondoc, talagang verde; ang langit ay malaki.
mahirap ang buhay dito. kahit bata o matanda, magtrabaho din.
kahapon at ngayon, lahat ng tao inibig itong bayan. maraming tao magmamatay para sa Pilipinas.
From June 19, 2006
today in a nut shell:
- migraine --> me bedridden for half the day. vomited clear, white, and yellow liquid.
- drove around the barrio; turns out my lolo has a loooooot of land here in zambales: rice fields, mango trees, carabao, pigs, everything.
- the b-something barangay is pretty much dominated by encinas. (=
- visited my mom's cousin's husband's mom's house. she also went to elementary school w/ my lola. O= she's old, but still malakas.
- went to my mom's cousin's husband's brother's "beach resort." it was already dark, though, so we didn't even see the beach. T= we're gonna go there tmw morning.
- found out my lolo & lola had an arranged marriage. there are ladders to go up to bahay kubos. she didn't like my lolo at first, so when my lola saw that he was coming, she pulled up the ladder so he couldn't go up to see her. lol. so now, the fact that they've been married for 60+ years is reeeeeally cool.
- showed teh zambales relatives part of my debut dvd. it was really weird to watch that again. i've grown so much in a year...
now, today in a nutshell: (today)
Today is Thursday, June 22nd. Be proud of me. I haven't blogged since the 19th. d=
Tuesday, June 20
We woke up eeeearly in the morning to walk to one of the Zambales beaches. It was soooooo nice! The water was talagang clear! hahah. The waves were really calm, too. The sand was really dark, though; parang dirt. The sand was pretty fine, though. The temperature: a bit lukewarm; not hot, not cold. I didn't stay in there for too long, though, cuz I kept feeling tiny pricks here and there. Not sure what that was.
After we got cleaned up, we left for Baesa. It was another 5 hour drive through the countryside and back into the city. We ate and had a cake for my dad's youngest brother's wife's birthday. My sister and I stayed in my cousin Sunddie's room. She had tooons of choral music; she was away on tour with the Madrigal Singers. I took some pictures of some songs for pNotes. (= My uncle's house had 3 levels; at the top was a balcony. I forgot to take a picture of the view.
Post-dinner, we set up the projector... again. This time we showed my debut dvd and last year's PACN dvd. At first my uncle didn't realize that we switched from my debut to the pcn so when he saw the first people on stage, he was like, were those guests at your debut? hahah. The moment he saw the malongs, he was like, oh! Moslim ito! Too bad we didn't have time to show them the whole thing.
I stayed up late organizing my pictures in Picasa. Do I know how to have fun or what?!
Wednesday, June 21
We were supposed to wake up early and leave Baesa at 7am. I lagged a bit and we ended up leaving half an hour late. T= We drove through some traffic to go back to Paranaque to pick up some clothes then we drove a couple hours through the rain to Batangas. We were supposed to take the 11:30am ferry to Oriental Mindoro (an island). By the time we got there (11:30), the ferry had already taken off. There was another ferry scheduled for 12:00, but they cancelled it because there weren't enough passengers. O= The next ferry left at 2:00...
So with much time to kill we walked down to some of the store/restaurants to eat lunch. My auntie & uncle (who has been driving us around the whole time) got cold Cokes in bottles. I asked for a Sprite and they gave me a lukewarm can cuz they said they were out of bottles. A little while later, they gave another customer Sprite in a bottle. O=<>Thursday, June 22
Woke up around 7 and ate our complimentary breakfast at the restaurant. While we waited to get picked up (my auntie & uncle spent the night at Tita Tita's), we watched more TV. We saw a couple soaps and some cartoons (Mirmo, One Piece, and Doraemon) dubbed in Tagalog. I knocked out until it was time to check out.
We still had time to kill before getting picked up so we waited where we ate dinner. We chose the right place to wait, because my uncle and auntie brought lunch with them! They also brought their nephew who was friends with one of the people who worked at the restaurant. He hooked us up with utencils, plates, water, and cups (all of which we lacked the night before). Mmm! Filipino food makes me happy! Well, except for wet fish and most vegetable dishes. hahah.
We went back to the shop/auto shop before boarding the ferry. We watched GMA again. There was a contest to be an EB (eat bulaga) babe. It was the semifinals and they were down to two 18 year olds and two 21 year olds. The mystery judge went with half of the ones we predicted would move on to the next round. An auntie here mentioned to me that I could be a beauty pageant contestant. I totally don't think so. All the girls on TV here are really maarte (I don't really know how to translate that word). Well, I guess a lot of people here aren't afraid to act a certain way. I also noticed that in all the game shows/talk shows, they have people dancing. It's weird... Something else I noticed: there are a lot of contests and sweepstakes. So many people are hoping for a way out... Well, I guess we have lotteries, games shows and contests in America, too. But it just seems like every other commercial advertised one.
We were the first to board Princess Colleen. Instead of staying inside, I wanted to see the view of the islands and the body of water (whichever one that was). I'm glad we did. It was a lot cooler. Oh yeah. Before we left, there were a bunch of boys swimming in the water right beside our boat asking for coins. "Please sir!" I was taking pictures of the landscape. My mom said that one of the boys said, "Ma'am, I love you!" hahah. I think that's the closest thing to getting hit on thus far; I have gotten a lot of unwanted looks, though. ::shudder:: Anywho, a man started throwing coins at the boys. They quickly dove into the water to retrieve them, bit the coins, and kept them in their mouths. The water was really clear (I could see their legs) and supposedly the water wasn't that deep. The guy kept throwing more coins, and eventually, he bought some peanuts and threw that at them... Don't know how useful that was. My dad woke up from his nap (yes, he was sleeping before we left the port), and wanted to throw them coins, too. So he joined in, laughing. When my dad gave out all his coins, he sat back down, and then realized that he should've taped it. So he asked me for coins and went back to the side of the ferry with the video camera and taped it! Several of the boys had climbed up the ferry and were hanging onto the side. The ferry blew its horn and the boys jumped off the ferry, dove into the clear water, climbed back onto land, off to spend their pisos who knows how.
On the ride back to Batangas, I alternated between reading, playing sudoku, and just watching the lush green islands and the blue ocean/sea/whatever it was. Much more enjoyable than sleeping inside, worried about the weird men who had decided to sleep close to us. Not to say that this trip was without its weird men. There was this one guy in red that kept staring. He walked by frequently; each time I was worried he would stop and say something. Fortunately (or unfortunately), he just kept on staring... ew!
It was a long drive back to Paranaque. We picked up the rest of our luggage and packed all 10 pieces of luggage + miscellaneous bags and 6 people into the Parejo. I don't know how we did it, but we did. I also don't know how I managed to fall asleep, but I did. I woke up at the Manila Sanitarium/Adventist Medical Center. Some guy (Angelo King?) donated his hotel to the hospital so now it's a place at which Adventists stay? I dunno. I think missionaries usually stay in these rooms. It was already 11pm when we got here, so the main elevator wasn't working. We had to bring our luggage into the hospital where a hospital guy loaded our 10 pieces of luggage onto a gurney and into the hospital's main elevator. We went up to the 3rd floor, only to bring our luggage down the stairs to the 2nd floor. It's not a fancy room, but it has a descent shower (w/ hot water!) and a refrigerator. We'll spend the rest of our nights in the Philippines here.
I've had a lot of time to think on this trip. Any conclusive thoughts? A few here and there. There really is a lot of time in a day; we just feel rushed because of how we allocate that time... I like feeling busy, though. I feel so unproductive here. Yes, I am on vacation so I shouldn't be doing things, but still... I have hours of time to kill while these people work their asses off for mere pisos... Seeing life here and reading about it (in "America is in the Heart" by Carlos Bulosan) is really creating a unique experience. As a Filipina-American, I really have been missing out on the Filipina side. True, I'm still greatly lacking, but I have a better sense now of why so many people come to America.
I've heard "the better life" reason plenty of times, but never really understood what was so better about the life. I really am fortunate to have not only a house to live in, but one much nicer than necessary, with more rooms than we need, hot water, even in the bathroom we don't use, a walk in closet with clothes I don't always wear; my own room with a guitar I never play, a computer I rarely use, and pictures and books I don't spend enough time looking at. I have the opportunity to get an education--a quality one. Not only do my parents have enough money to pay for my education, but I've been fortunate enough so that they haven't had to pay for that much of it. Here, jobs are plentiful. I'm lucky enough to get a pre-job job (the internship) that really is paying bank; something I definitely don't deserve compared to how hard some of the people here work and compared to how much they get in return. I have the leisure time to go to the beach with my friends; I have a car to get me there. I have the money to buy a laptop to waste hours on, a camera to take random pictures with, and clothes that really aren't worth the price I pay. I have the option to throw my stuff away in either the trash bin, the recycle bin, or the yard waste bin. Every week, I can count on other people to take away the mess I've made. I don't have to burn it myself or watch it collect on my lawn or on the sidewalks. Well, California can still be pretty dirty, but it's still a nice place to live.
Despite all these things that most people are without here, people still smile. Kids, even though they're poor, still have fun, playing whatever it is they're playing. Their lolo's and lola's still laugh to see their apo's smile. Parents are proud to see their kids go to school. That motivates them to continue working hard through the long days.
[and then i knocked out.]
Friday, June 23
We took a taxi back to the Mall of Asia. We covered a lot more ground this time. Spent a lot of time at the SM Department Store, mostly waiting for the bank part to exchange our dollars for pisos. I ended up buying 2 pairs of slippers for a total of P130 which is about $2.50!!!
We finally ate at Jollibee! w000t! It was really good. I got maize con yielo (corn & ice) for P27 = $.50! Craaazy cheap! I also ended up buying mango cheesecake later on, but that was pretty much a waste of money...
(Right now I'm watching MYX, which is pretty much a Filipino MTV. The show that's on right now is "Versions" and they play remakes of songs. Apparently, Westlife redid "Fly Me to the Moon." Nothing too memorable, but still cool to hear. I wanted to make a playlist of remakes, but I wasn't sure what to title it; I guess I don't have that problem anymore.)
We went back to our room to get picked up by my auntie and uncle. Then we drove for what seemed like forever to Quezon City for my auntie Pinay's birthday dinner. Kaka inez naman! I think everyone in the car was aggrivated with the driving situation. My uncle was driving again. We hit traffic for a bit, but when we got closer to the house, he was driving insanely slow cuz he didn't know where the street to turn was. He even stopped in the middle of the street for a while! Aaaaaaaaah! I can't wait to get back to the states so I can be in control of the car. hahah.
Anyway... We finally arrived. Another nice house! Not as nice as the vacation house in Zambales, but still nice. We were the first to get there, so I guess it was good we got lost/were driving slow. The families started coming in and I got to meet more cousins. Yay! They're really nice, but I felt retarded cuz we didn't talk much... Two of them are around my sister's age (Pio's 21 and Paulo's 22) and they both graduated from business (I think). One just graduated this month and is looking for a job and the other one works at Citigroup.
Auntie: Michael just graduated and now he's looking for a job.
Mom: Oh. What about Pio?
Auntie: Oh! That's Michael.
Well, I guess you had to be there. It was just funny cuz we knew her son as Pio but she started calling him Michael out of nowhere. Inside we were all thinking, who the heck is Michael? Almost everyone here has house names. I feel left out. hahah.
The food was soooo freakin' good! Highlights: fried chicken, nilagang baka (beef soup), mango tarts, and mocha cheesecake!!! ZOMG! I was so full.
Saturday, June 24
Went to church at the new site of Philippine Union College which is now known as the Adventist University of the Philippines. My dad went to and taught at the old PUC. It was cool cuz he finished his studies a semester early and PUC hired him as a chemistry teacher right away. By the time graduation came around, he was walking with the faculty instead of the graduates! He ended up teaching for about 3 years, I think. The lady in charge of potluck was one of his students before. She was saying how my dad was the professor that they all had crushes on. o.O She was interesting...
That lady was also telling me to come back next year and she'll enter me in a beauty pageant. She said she did that with some other girl and she ended up winning Ms. Palawan or something. hahah.I don't think I would win, though. I was thinking about it, and I think one thing I'd like about being a celebrity of sorts is that someone else would do my hair. hahah. I'm so lazy. I totally wouldn't wanna be famous, though, cuz I'd be so weirded out by seeing my picture everywhere. Especially in the PI, cuz they have celebrities advertise everything. They even have Manny Pacquiao (I dunno how to spell his last name... but the boxer guy) advertising for Magic Sing Karaoke mics!
As for the church service itself... We went to Sabbath school. That lady I mentioned earlier brought us to the English speaking one, but we totally couldn't hear the teacher. We sat towards the back of the group and he spoke really softly. My dad walked up and moved to another group. hahah. One of the things I like about going to church is singing, but I didn't know most of the songs, so that part sucked. The sermon... I didn't like. He made valid points about how we're less reverent in the church, which I definitely agree with, but I didn't like the way it was presented. I felt like he was scolding everyone. One of the things he pointed out: not everyone brings Bibles to church, but people bring cell phones. As for the rest of the sermon, I dozed off frequently... 1. it was hot. 2. i was tired. 3. he wasn't captivating.
Potluck was an experience. Before he prayed, one of the guys in charge said, "We have a tradition here--it's a good tradition, actually--where we let our guests/visitors get their food first." After prayer, our family got up, since we were visitors, and were the first in line, but somehow, a bunch of other people ended up getting their food before we did. So much for tradition... Food wise... I've had better. Even considering the fact that it was veggie food, I've had better fake meat.
Btw, the people in our group were: me, my sister, my dad (Payo/Mario... I still don't know the story behind his nickname), my mom, my dad's oldest living sister Lina (Ellen), her husband Ben, my dad's youngest brother Minggoey (Domingo), his wife Dori, their daughter Ephteen (Roddie May?), and her husband Richard. After potluck and talking, we drove around the campus and Richard showed us the different buildings and picturesque spots. It's kinda weird cuz one of the colleges is a college of arts, science, and technology. They put art & science in the same college?!
We drove down (or up? I don't have a map so I'm totally disoriented) to "The People's Park in the Sky" which is a spot up on a mountain that overlooks Tagaytay. It's really beautiful. Well, the tower and stuff there is rusty and old, but the view is really nice. It was really windy, though; it reminded me of that place in Hawai'i. My mom said that place was Waimanalo, but I thought it was something else... Oh yeah! There was a pineapple that you could stand inside. I took a picture in it; I felt like spongebob. haha.
After that we drove over to Chow King for halo halo. Then we drove through traffic and rain to a new gated community being developed. My auntie in the states bought a house there and we tried to look at one of the model homes, but it was already after hours so the guards didn't let us. My dad told me to take a picture of it so we could show my auntie, but when I took out my camera, the guards told us we weren't allowed to. (Bawal!) I already took one, though, so sshhh!
Then we drove back towards where we were staying. When we were about a minute away, my uncle got a phone call. He answered it when he was stopped right in the middle of the intersection! He would've gone straight but there were cars in the other lane making right turns in front of him and then a huuuuge bus trying to make a left that probably would've driven into us. Gaaah! It was crazy. Once we got through the intersection, the police (pulis) pulled us over. My uncle got out and talked with the officer. He pretty much yelled his way out of a ticket. hahah. My uncle used to work for the government, too. The officer was young and I guess he got scared. Yay!
My auntie and uncle dropped us off and then left to pick up their daughter. We got back to the room, peed and dropped off our belongings. Then we decided to walk around to find a place to eat. It was craaaazy. At first, we walked across the small street to a small restaurant that was still open but had no food left. (wtf?!) Then we walked through the small, wet alleys in the dark towards the main highways. Crossing the street is crazy in the PI! Pedestrians don't get their official turn to cross the street so you have to just run across when there are less cars and hope that they won't run you over! Once we got to the other side, we checked out the various restaurants and ended up buying a whole chicken and rice. We crossed the street again, escaping death again. Yay!
Once we got back to the hospital/hotel, my auntie and cousin came out of the elevator! They had been trying to call us so they could take us out to eat, but my mom turned the cell phone off. (I still don't get why my mom turns her phone off! Gaaaah!) So we bought food for nothing. They took us to Harbor Square (which was by the Folk Arts Theater where we watched the cultural dance show). We ate at a place called Pancake House, even though none of us ordered pancakes. Then we walked around the complex, past the Folk Arts Theater, to a fancy floating Chinese restaurant called "Jumbo Kingdom." Er, technically it was a boat, even though it never leaves the port. Supposedly, there's a secret casino where all the high rollers play. O= We just went there to take pictures in the fancy seats. Hahah.
We walked the long way back, they took us home, then I came back to blog.
Sunday, June 25
Uncle Minggoey took us to Intramuros (walled city). We saw Fort Santiago, one of the oldest fortifications in Manila (old Manila). It was built in 1571 and kept getting destroyed & damaged by war and natural disasters, but kept getting rebuilt & restored. It used to be surrounded by water, since it's next to the Pasig River, but now there's golf around most of it. There's a shrine for Jose Rizal, the national hero, since that's where he spent his last night. It was freakin' awesome! I really liked the design of the place, how they placed text in various places (on the walls, on the floor, on the glass containers). The feeling of being in the same place where Jose Rizal was imprisoned is/was indescribable, though.
A few things about Jose Rizal:
Anyhoooo. I bought an English version of Noli Me Tangere. Hopefully I can finish it this summer after I read America is in the Heart. Yay!
After that, we went to Luneta where the Jose Rizal park is (where they actually shot him down), but it was waaay too crowded to even find parking (everyone was double parked; even the sidewalks were packed with cars). I think it was crowded because they were celebrating Manila's 435th anniversary.
Then we went to SM City, another huuuuge mall. We went to the food court for lunch and ZOMG, there were sooooo many choices. Usually, our food courts have like... maybe 15 choices, right? In this food court there were like 40+! Well, I'm bad at estimating, but there were a looooot. Most of them sold Filipino food, though; I really don't know how these people differentiate themselves from their competitors. Most of the stores seem to be selling all the same things (especially the stores along the road) to all the same people. Anyway, I decided on getting boneless chicken bbq from Reyes Barbeque. It was sooooooo good! But it took a looooong time for them to cook it. I ordered my food before the rest of my family ordered theirs from elsewhere. By the time I sat down, they were already finished with their stuff. Gaah!
Post-eating, we went to National Bookstore to buy some books. At the Rizal Shrine, they were selling his books Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo (sp?) for P250 each. At National Bookstore, they were P150 & P135, respectively. Yay! I also bought a map of the Philippines which finally put most of the trip into perspective. Then we went to SM Supermarket to buy food. Yaaay! I bought a lot of pasolubong. I don't wanna list it out, cuz you'll probably get something I bought.
Then we went to my uncle Boy's house which was about 5 minutes from SM City. Their house was nice, too. The Cua's all seem to be pretty well off. Anyway, they talked and we ate. More awesomely delicious food. I met more cousins and 2 nieces. There are little kids everywhere! Most of the time was spent listening to the adults converse. It was kind of cool cuz they started talking about politics and I kind of knew some of what they were talking about. Well, very little, actually. Just that Fernando Poe, Jr. (FPJ) (the now deceased dad of some singer girl we previously saw on TV) ran for president against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA), but GMA won by paying for more votes and that the New People's Army (NPA) is a communist group that GMA is trying to stamp out. Nevertheless, it was cool cuz for once I was telling me sister stuff instead of her telling me what this word meant or who that relative was. Yay! After more talking and wrapping up food to take home in foil and tupperware, Uncle Minggoey took us back.
Monday, June 26
We woke up (late) and went to Ate Bing's office at the University of the Philippines. She's a department chair in the College of Public Health (sorry, not sure if I already mentioned that or not). We had to use her Internet to confirm our flight and then my sister and I each checked our mail. It was good that I got to because I got a couple of work related e-mails.
One of the conversations (since it was a string of e-mails) threw a dagger into my heart (and twisted it). I can't watch Wicked!!!! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! My cousin tried soooo freakin' hard to buy tickets but there were just too many other people trying to get tickets. She couldn't even access the site at first and by the time she could, it was too late. T= Another friend of hers stood in line for like 5 hours or something and ended up with crappy seats. Damn those who bought a bunch of tickets and are reselling them at ridiculous prices online!!! Gaaaaaaaaaaah! ::tear:: Again, you are out my reach, Wicked. I guess I'm just gonna have to fly to NY to watch you. (= At least I'm gonna watch RENT for sure!!!! w000t! Orchestra seats!
After the mail-checking, we took a jeepney up to Divisoria. It's kind of like Downtown L.A. cuz there are a bunch of cheap shops and stuff. By the time we got there, it was time to eat, so we ate at Max's (again). Another delicious meal. We didn't really find much at Divisoria, though. They had shoes, bags, clothes, and fabric, but what they had we didn't want. T= So we took another jeepney down to Quiapo. It was a tiny underground "mall." Not much their either. So we took another jeepney to Baclaran which was quite a ways away with all the traffic. So I fell asleep (I don't know how with the way the driver was breaking, shifting gears, and switching lanes). Then it started to rain. We decided to 86 our plans to go to Baclaran since it was outdoors and it was raining pretty hard. (We didn't bring our umbrellas cuz the sun was shining when we left.) We escaped from the death jeepney, ran through puddles to get under some shelter, and then waited out the rain for a few minutes before walking back to our room.
The rest of the day was pretty much just chilling in the room watching TV. We watched a Superman movie that reeeeally sucked. I don't know the title, but it had the mom from Smallville as Lana Lang. It really bothered me how the computers in the movie were able to anything. Some random computer in Smallville could supposedly control ATMs, traffic lights, and a weather satellite. Oh yeah, and it could also determine most of what Kryptonite was made out of (all by .57%). At the end, there was a super computer that created Kryptonite because it could find people's weaknesses or something. I don't know. Then it turned the bad guy's sister into a robot and tried to eat Superman. The plot was ridiculous... I don't know if it was just a crappy movie or if most movies in the '70s just sucked. The special effects weren't that great either, but I'm more forgiving with that given its time period. That's why I'm soooo looking forward to watching the new Superman. We might see it today if it's not sold out. w00t!
Tuesday, June 27
Auntie Aida & Uncle Able picked us up. They were planning to go to the Mall of Asia since they hadn't been there, but we already went there twice. My other auntie told us that Eastwood was nice so we ended up going there. It was a bit retarded cuz the stores didn't open until 12 and it was 11:30 so we ate at Somethin' Fishy. Yay! My sister and I ordered Japanese food while the rest of them got Filipino food. (They didn't want raw fish.) In the California roll, instead of avocado, they used mango. hahah. Then my auntie bought us stuffed animals as souvenirs for eating at the restaurant. I got a blue lobster. o.O ("See! He's her lobster!")
Then they dropped us off at SM Megamall. That place was huuuge! The flooring was weird, though: lower garage, upper garage, 2nd floor, 3rd floor, 4th floor, 5th floor. I finally bought something at a clothing store! (Plains & Prints) I liked a lot of their clothes and they had a sale for 50% off a lot of the ones I liked, but the thing I ended up buying wasn't even on sale. boo. Oh well. I will definitely go shopping when I get back. I r teh excited!!! Then my sister and I spent about an hour or so buying souvenirs at the SM Department Store. I got a lot of things for people, but I wasn't too sure about some of the things I bought. After I bought everything, I realized that I should've bought something for myself, too. Oh well.
Then we met up with Uncle Pip & Auntie Wilma. Their driver took us to a really fancy hotel called EDSA Shangri-la. We ate dinner at this nice Chinese restaurant. It was hands down the fanciest place we ate the whole trip. We saw one of the owners of Unilab there (my auntie knew him). Everyone in my family ordered the mango melon drink which was their special drink of the day, so we all got reindeer stuffed animals. It was reeeeally weird. o.O The food was soooooooo good, though! Crispy lemon chicken, tenderloins (extra tender!), steamed lapulapu (I didn't eat it cuz it looked weird), soup with a giant mushroom that was hard to eat, yummy vegetables, and crispy fried noodles with chicken! mmm!!!! It was sooooooooo good! And then there was hot jasmine tea that I drank all throughout the meal. For dessert, I had an almond jelly thingie which was pretty much like getting shaved ice except there was no ice. There was almond jelly (obviously), lychee, pineapple chunks, and some reddish fruit that I didn't know. The staff was really active in our dinner. They took away our plates and gave us new ones every so often.
Then we went downstairs to the hotel lounge to chill where we listening to a really good singer. She took requests so we asked her to sing Dahil Sa 'Yo, Someone to Watch over Me, and Sway. She sang a bunch of other Michael Buble songs, too. Everyone ordered a drink except for me cuz I drank so much during dinner. I finally gave in and ordered Morning Dew Green Tea. I don't remember what was in it. I left to pee and explore the hotel; my sister and I tried to take pictures with the scenery but it was night time and my camera still sucks with night pictures. T= I totally forgot that I ordered a drink so when I came back, my tea was already warm. The teapot was sooooo weird looking. It looked like two fused together; kind of like an elephant. How you set it down determined the strength of the tea. There was a story behind it, too, but since I was gone, I missed it. T= boo. After a few more songs, the driver took us back to our room where we watched a bowling competition on tv.
I think it'd be pretty cool to work as a lounge singer part time. 1. You get to sing. 2. It's not a large crowd and you're popperozzi-less (I really don't know how to spell that). 3. You get to dress up every night. But then you have to know a lot of songs, especially if people request stuff.
Wednesday, June 28
Today, we're gonna try to watch Superman and then go out to eat one final time. We're mostly packed up and everyone's pretty much just waiting for me to get dressed so bye!
[edit]
We watched Superman Returns! The effects were definitely cool compared to the old one we watched (of course). I'm glad I watched the old one cuz I would be extra annoyed by the ditsy bad girl. The plot was... I dunno. I don't know how good Superman movies are supposed to be. They seemed to throw everything in there: a plane crash, a sinking ship, a natural disaster. Some things didn't really make sense (Superman's reaction levels to Kryptonite), but whatever. Just make sure you wait until after the credits. (=
After the movie, we walked through the Mall of Asia for one last time. We went to Kultura in hopes of finding a bahag. I asked my mom to ask my dad to ask a worker there if they sold them and she just laughed. Oh well.
We went back to our room after that, only to be dismayed by the fact that the TV didn't work. T= So everyone just took a nap. Well, I read a little, too, but mostly slept.
Uncle Ben, Auntie Ellen, and Ate Epol picked us up for dinner. We picked Ate Bing up from UP and then headed for Blue Bay, the Buffet on the Bay. Trace, Richard, Ephteen, Sunddie, and Auntie Dori met us there. Unfortunately, the food was just okay. There was a lot of seafood we couldn't eat. But I guess EDSA Shangri-la is hard to follow. There was a female singer and two guitarists who went around to different tables singing happy birthday or OPM's. They stopped at our table and my uncle pointed out to the group that Sunddie was a Madrigal singer. hahah. That was cool. They ended up accompanying Sunddie on a song.
I think that inspired my cousins to want to go karaoke-ing. After some persuading my parents let us go (they didn't want us out late cuz we have to be leaving for the airport at 04:30) with the condition that we'd only go for an hour. The ones who ended up going were: me, my sister, Sunddie, Ephteen, and Ate Bing. We went to a karaoke place called Music 21. It was really cool (except for the smell of cigarettes). There were soooooooooooooooooooooo many choices! They had a whole book with OPM's and three other books with English songs. The remote controls were cool, too, cuz you could change the key & what not; it took me a while to realize that, though. Each of us sang at least one song. I wanted to sing more but the hour went by so quickly (and we kind of experienced technical difficulties so we were gyped 10 minutes). It was cool cuz there were so many Filipino songs! (Well, obviously you're gonna have Filipino songs in the Philippines, but it was still cool.) I sang Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang with my cousin (she can sing pretty low), Stop Think, and Dahil Mahal Na Mahal Kita. Yeah... I know, I always sing those songs (except for Stop Think). I also saw May Bukas Pa in there, but I didn't wanna sing that. My other cousins can really sing. (= It totally runs in the family. Later on, I found out that my lolo (on my dad's side) used to sing a lot. I wish I met him... Anyhoo...
Sunddie dropped us off at our place and picked up her parents who were waiting with our parents. Then we finished packing and what not and now I'm here blogging. It's almost 01:00 and I have to be up in 3 hours. I hope I get rid of my jet lag quickly... I also still have Filipino currency. I gotta buy more things! Oh yeah. Big downer: we couldn't find any Kraft cheese in a can! T= That stuff was good...
I gotta come back soon...
Saturday, June 17, 2006
last post for a while
from Friday, June 16, 2006
It was a looooong day. The day started off with tapa & garlic rice for breakfast in the cafe. Mmm. I caught a bit of the Dallas vs. Miami game. Blah. I want the Heat to lose. It was so weird to hear the commentators speaking in Tagalog!
Then we took a taxi over to the Mall of Asia. It's freakin' huuge! There's a big globe in the front with which I took a picture that I will upload later. (= There's a skating rink inside, which I thought was really weird because it's not even in an enclosed area; the sun shines down on part of the rink.
The first store my family went to was Hyper____ (sorry, I forgot the name). It was basically a huuuge department store with food, clothing, home stuff, and virgin coconut oil. haha. Then my sister and I looked at Bench and a bunch of stores that they have in the states, but we didn't really find anything. T=
We ate lunch at Greenwich. Sorry to Mark & Teo, but we didn't LOVE it. Still good & crazy cheap, though: a double garlic mozzerella cheese pizza, garlic stix, spaghetti, and a coke for P169 (I think)! That comes out to a little more than $3!!! O=
I bought some CDs at Astro-something...
My sister and I met up w/ my parents; they got ice cream, my dad bought a barong for $13, and then we went all over the place trying to unlock my sister's cell phone.
We went back to the hotel and then walked around a looot. We got halo halo at Max's Restaurant for craaazy cheap. Then we failed to find a taxi to take us to the folk art theater so we ended up walking the 2 miles (or whatever it was).
The show was freakin' awesome!!!! A dance troupe showcased different dances from the different suites, but it was awesome how everything was worked in together. For example, for the Kalinga tribe, they started off with a short fight between guys in bahags, then actually reinacted a peace pact, a courting period, the wedding, and the celebration afterward! They pretty much did that for all 5 suites. Some dances were long and had me drifting off to sleep, but that was probably just cuz I was tired from lack of sleep. But yeah... They were so professional; their costumes were great, the music was live (of course), and the dancers were reeeeeally into it!
Dances performed:
When that was over, we rode a Jeepney! It was only for a short distance though, down Ocampo street. We got off at Roxas boulevard. Hahah. Yeeeah! I tried to take a picture of it for Geoff [Ocampo] and Fallon [Roxas], but it didn't come out to well. But yeah... that was cool. Then we ended up walking far again and stopped at Max's again. Mmm. Chicken. Then we walked back to Hostel 1632 and I knocked out for a while.
Japanese moments:
They show Naruto here, but it's in Tagalog!!! It was soooooooo weird, but cool at the same time. The voices fit pretty well. It was already a filler episode, where they met Sasame for the first time and that one guy turned into a dragonfly girl thing. o.O yeah.
Then, while I was downstairs using the Internet, I helped some Japanese guy get online. It was a bit challenging because of the language barrier, but he understood English pretty well; he even added in Tagalog phases here and there... diba? He had a Fujitsu laptop. It was cool cuz everything was in Japanese characters. Luckily, the icons were the same, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to figure out how to get from Control Panel to Network Connections and all the way to Repair. He asked me a lot of questions (where I was from, if I worked, and where my house was). When I told him I was in college, he asked what my grade was, and I was thinking he meant GPA. In my head I was thinking, damn, that's nosy! hahah. but he meant like, 1st grade, 2nd grade. Yeah... Took me a while to figure that out. But yeah, the overall experience was cool. Too bad I couldn't use any of the Japanese I picked up from watching Naruto. T= It just couldn't find the appropriate time to sa Kage Bunshin no Jitsu. d=
from Saturday, June 17, 2006
Today, Saturday, June 17, we're going to Pasay SDA Church and then we're gonna spend the rest of the day with family. I hope we get to visit the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) or the Metro Museam of Manila. eeeeek!
Tomorrow, we're gonna check out of this nice hotel we're in and travel to Zambales, where my mom's from. She didn't actually grow up, there, though, because they moved to Quezon City when she was still young. Growing up, though, she went back to visit her Lola at the beaches and what not. Joy [Empeno]'s uncle is the major of Kandelarya in Zambales. Too bad we won't be in the PI at the same time...
After that, we're gonna be in Mindoro. That's the real rural area: absolutely no electricity. Aaack! Wish me luck... As much as I'm dreading the lack of electricity, I'm so excited to find out how the real provinces are! Aaaah!
Luckily, we're only there for a couple nights, I think. Then we're checking into a different hotel in Pasay. I don't think it'll be as nice as the hotel we're in right now, but that's okay. Heheh. I wonder if I can come back here and use their free Internet. d=
Anyway, I gotta get ready for church. Happy Sabbath!
from Sunday, June 18, 2006
Happy Dad's Day! Yesterday was freakin' awesome! After church (next to the Manila Adventist Medical Center), we (me, my sister, my mom, my dad, Ate Bing, my nephew Justin, uncle Ben, and auntie Ellen) went to my cousin Ephteen & her husband Richard's studio apartment. I knocked out (I only had about 2 hours of sleep) and then we ate. Mmm! Filipino spaghetti!!!
Everyone talked for a looong time about work and different countries. Ate Beng travels a lot; she's involved with public health. Ephteen's sister, Sunddie, travels a lot, too, cuz she's with the Madrigal Singers. She's actually gonna come back from their European tour on the 20th. All my cousins are pretty much either in music, medicine, or teaching. ...and here I am in business. hahah.
After chilling at teh cousin's for a couple of hours, we headed to Makati. We went to the Ayala Museum. It was freakin' awesome! They have dioramas of pretty much all of the history of the Philippines!!! It was a lot of info to take it, but it was awesome to get some sort of a visual of it. I got a booklet w/ extra info in it, too. khee!
They also had a temporary exhibit on the paintings and photography of the Zobels (uncle and nephew). My relatives (especially my dad) were saying they didn't really understand the whole thing and were trying to find descriptions of the paintings and stuff. Looking at the art totally made me wanna go to a museum with an art freak. hahah. Then they could explain things to me. (Touch it; it's really bumpy.)
Then we walked a little ways down to Greenbelt. Damn. There are some reeeeally nice malls here. The stores are pricey shtuff, though (Louis Vuitton, Prada, Burberry). The atmosphere's great, though. I would totally hang out there all the time. It would be a nice date place, too.
We ate at a restaurant called Soul Food. hahahah. Yeah, I was totally expecting like jumbalaya or something. It was Asian Fusion stuff. I ended up having South Beach Grilled Chicken Espanol. Good stuff. We had a mango vasherin (whatever the hell that is).
Then we walked around for a little bit more. There's a section with a bunch of coffee places: Seattle's Best, Starbucks, Cafe Havana; a little ways down there's also a Coffee Bean. So much freakin' coffee! Anyhoo. We left, went back to the room, watched a little bit of SNL (hilarious!), and knocked out.
Now, I am utilizing what little Internet time I have left.
It was a looooong day. The day started off with tapa & garlic rice for breakfast in the cafe. Mmm. I caught a bit of the Dallas vs. Miami game. Blah. I want the Heat to lose. It was so weird to hear the commentators speaking in Tagalog!
Then we took a taxi over to the Mall of Asia. It's freakin' huuge! There's a big globe in the front with which I took a picture that I will upload later. (= There's a skating rink inside, which I thought was really weird because it's not even in an enclosed area; the sun shines down on part of the rink.
The first store my family went to was Hyper____ (sorry, I forgot the name). It was basically a huuuge department store with food, clothing, home stuff, and virgin coconut oil. haha. Then my sister and I looked at Bench and a bunch of stores that they have in the states, but we didn't really find anything. T=
We ate lunch at Greenwich. Sorry to Mark & Teo, but we didn't LOVE it. Still good & crazy cheap, though: a double garlic mozzerella cheese pizza, garlic stix, spaghetti, and a coke for P169 (I think)! That comes out to a little more than $3!!! O=
I bought some CDs at Astro-something...
- Regine Duets: songs by Regine Velasquez and the likes of Jose Mari Chan, Gary V., and yes, even David Hassellhoff! It came with a 2nd CD of minus 1 tracks, too! w00t!
- Akustik Love: acoustic (or so they came) versions of some awesome songs like "Bakit Pa Ba?", "Say That You Love Me", and "Buttercup"
- Ogie Alcasid's Greatest Hits: the O.G. version of "Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang" & a bunch of songs I have yet to learn. Oh yeah. It came with a VCD of his music videos, too. lol.
My sister and I met up w/ my parents; they got ice cream, my dad bought a barong for $13, and then we went all over the place trying to unlock my sister's cell phone.
We went back to the hotel and then walked around a looot. We got halo halo at Max's Restaurant for craaazy cheap. Then we failed to find a taxi to take us to the folk art theater so we ended up walking the 2 miles (or whatever it was).
The show was freakin' awesome!!!! A dance troupe showcased different dances from the different suites, but it was awesome how everything was worked in together. For example, for the Kalinga tribe, they started off with a short fight between guys in bahags, then actually reinacted a peace pact, a courting period, the wedding, and the celebration afterward! They pretty much did that for all 5 suites. Some dances were long and had me drifting off to sleep, but that was probably just cuz I was tired from lack of sleep. But yeah... They were so professional; their costumes were great, the music was live (of course), and the dancers were reeeeeally into it!
Dances performed:
- Kalinga Suite (Cordillera/Mountain people)
- Chalijok
- Salip
- Tachok
- Principalia Suite (Maria Clara/Spanish)
- Jota Rizal
- Jota Gumaquena
- Tacon Y Punta Danza
- Polkabal
- Sama Di Laut (Samals/Muslim "sea gypsies")
- Tangungguh
- Igal Tabawan
- Tariray
- Leppa
- Lumad (Indigenous people of Mindanao)
- Dugso
- Siring
- Ki-Lawan
- Basal Banal
- Kadal Onuk
- Sout
- Khinlesung
- Barrio (Rural)
- Pandanggo Sambalilo
- Sakuting
- Sayaw Ed Tapew Na Bangko
- Binasuan
- Tinikling
When that was over, we rode a Jeepney! It was only for a short distance though, down Ocampo street. We got off at Roxas boulevard. Hahah. Yeeeah! I tried to take a picture of it for Geoff [Ocampo] and Fallon [Roxas], but it didn't come out to well. But yeah... that was cool. Then we ended up walking far again and stopped at Max's again. Mmm. Chicken. Then we walked back to Hostel 1632 and I knocked out for a while.
Japanese moments:
from Saturday, June 17, 2006
Today, Saturday, June 17, we're going to Pasay SDA Church and then we're gonna spend the rest of the day with family. I hope we get to visit the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) or the Metro Museam of Manila. eeeeek!
Tomorrow, we're gonna check out of this nice hotel we're in and travel to Zambales, where my mom's from. She didn't actually grow up, there, though, because they moved to Quezon City when she was still young. Growing up, though, she went back to visit her Lola at the beaches and what not. Joy [Empeno]'s uncle is the major of Kandelarya in Zambales. Too bad we won't be in the PI at the same time...
After that, we're gonna be in Mindoro. That's the real rural area: absolutely no electricity. Aaack! Wish me luck... As much as I'm dreading the lack of electricity, I'm so excited to find out how the real provinces are! Aaaah!
Luckily, we're only there for a couple nights, I think. Then we're checking into a different hotel in Pasay. I don't think it'll be as nice as the hotel we're in right now, but that's okay. Heheh. I wonder if I can come back here and use their free Internet. d=
Anyway, I gotta get ready for church. Happy Sabbath!
from Sunday, June 18, 2006
Happy Dad's Day! Yesterday was freakin' awesome! After church (next to the Manila Adventist Medical Center), we (me, my sister, my mom, my dad, Ate Bing, my nephew Justin, uncle Ben, and auntie Ellen) went to my cousin Ephteen & her husband Richard's studio apartment. I knocked out (I only had about 2 hours of sleep) and then we ate. Mmm! Filipino spaghetti!!!
Everyone talked for a looong time about work and different countries. Ate Beng travels a lot; she's involved with public health. Ephteen's sister, Sunddie, travels a lot, too, cuz she's with the Madrigal Singers. She's actually gonna come back from their European tour on the 20th. All my cousins are pretty much either in music, medicine, or teaching. ...and here I am in business. hahah.
After chilling at teh cousin's for a couple of hours, we headed to Makati. We went to the Ayala Museum. It was freakin' awesome! They have dioramas of pretty much all of the history of the Philippines!!! It was a lot of info to take it, but it was awesome to get some sort of a visual of it. I got a booklet w/ extra info in it, too. khee!
They also had a temporary exhibit on the paintings and photography of the Zobels (uncle and nephew). My relatives (especially my dad) were saying they didn't really understand the whole thing and were trying to find descriptions of the paintings and stuff. Looking at the art totally made me wanna go to a museum with an art freak. hahah. Then they could explain things to me. (Touch it; it's really bumpy.)
Then we walked a little ways down to Greenbelt. Damn. There are some reeeeally nice malls here. The stores are pricey shtuff, though (Louis Vuitton, Prada, Burberry). The atmosphere's great, though. I would totally hang out there all the time. It would be a nice date place, too.
We ate at a restaurant called Soul Food. hahahah. Yeah, I was totally expecting like jumbalaya or something. It was Asian Fusion stuff. I ended up having South Beach Grilled Chicken Espanol. Good stuff. We had a mango vasherin (whatever the hell that is).
Then we walked around for a little bit more. There's a section with a bunch of coffee places: Seattle's Best, Starbucks, Cafe Havana; a little ways down there's also a Coffee Bean. So much freakin' coffee! Anyhoo. We left, went back to the room, watched a little bit of SNL (hilarious!), and knocked out.
Now, I am utilizing what little Internet time I have left.
Friday, June 16, 2006
i wanna be loved by her (=
sorry about the orientation; it's sideways for only 30 seconds, i promise!
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Greeting from the P.I.!!!!
from 2006 06 14:
duuude! i'm in the freakin' philippines! a rooster just woke me up. hahah. we just got in last night. everything was pretty much dark, so i haven't really gotten a chance to really see the PI, but, dude!!! i'm finally here!
the plane ride was looooong. to start off, we loaded the plane and started taxi-ing off when i guess the pilot received word that we had to take some luggage off of the plane. (they overbooked the flight so some people had to take a different plane.) so we pulled back in, took the luggage out, and then we started to taxi again, but found out that we didn't have enough fuel. so we had to get fueled up again. it doesn't sound like it took much time, but all in all, we ended up leaving a whole hour late! gaah!
the plane ride itself wasn't too bad, i guess. i did get seated in back of a tall guy who blocked my vision and in front of a japanese kid that cried and kicked my chair often, but i think it wasn't too bad of an experience. dinner was good: teriyaki chicken & rice. the breakfast options were an omelette or fried rice w/ pork. luckily, my dad got a vegetarian plate, so i just ate his food. he had a bagel (which was yummy) and some warm fruit/rice dish (which was reeeeally weird).
the movies shown: last holiday, big momma's house 2, and she's the man. they showed some other things, too, though, like behind the scenes of 8 degrees below (or something like that, i have no idea) and a special documentary on penguins!!!!!!!! how freakin' awesome is that?! they pretty much followed the life of a baby humboldt penguin from conception to teendom. i wanna hug a baby penguin!
we stopped over in tokyo! unfortunately, our stopover was reeeally short. we didn't get to see much, although i took a picture of a really weird toilet and some of the localized products in the japanese convenience store (popcorn called "mike", fruity kit kat, and french soup flavored pringles).
for the majority of the flight from tokyo to the PI, i totally kept knocking out. i was awake to tell the stewardess that i wanted water, but i think i fell asleep before she could hand me my drink. hahah. or something like that. i was really out of it. food served: chicken curry. i'm not too fond of curry, but it was some good shtuff!
my uncle ben (my dad's brother in law) met us once we got through baggage claim (which took freakin' forever! i have never seen so many balikbayan boxes in my life!). in the airport pick up place, they sort people by last name! "families with last names DEF." hahah.
my mom, sister, and i rode with my cousin jennifer and her husband tracy while my dad took the majority of our luggage and rode w/ my uncle ben. luckily, their house was only 15 min from the airport. we passed by a lot of mcdo's, kfc's, a jollibee, and a couple of chow kings.
we came home and we met one of my nephews! he's 3 years old. he's really shy, though. he was diagnosed as being autistic, but my auntie still needs to get a second opinion. he can talk (repeat words and recite nursery rhymes) but he's still lacking in conversational speech (i want this, i want that, etc).
at the moment, i am currently freezing my ass off. wtf? you ask. all of the rooms in my auntie & uncle's house are air conditioned. w00t! yes... so i still don't really have the full experience of the PI, but i think i need to be eased into it. so yeah. right now i'm cold as i listen to the sounds of a rooster and a crazy cat. i need to pee but the bathroom's in my parents' room and i'm not sure if i can disturb them. it's 1:00pm on june 13 in the states and 4:00am on june 14 here.
i'm not sure when i'll be able to get internet access to upload these or check my mail. hopefully, i can do it soon. my mailbox is gonna be freakin' full!
so preparation-wise... the 2 main things people told me: 1. don't drink the water 2. don't get kidnapped. hahah. i tried to learn some tagalog before leaving. kuya russell lent me a "conversational tagalog" book that i took a look at on the plane. he also conversed with me a little bit via txt and over the phone. but i'm still really not comfortable speaking it. when i got here, i had opportunities to say something, but i either stayed quiet or said it in english. T= d'oh!
we're supposed to check into our hostel today, but not for another 8 hours. one of my relatives is awake and in the kitchen. i don't know what her name is...
a lot of people have been telling me to have fun while i can (@ the barkada banquet after party & afterward) cuz e-board's gonna be a lot of work. i'm not scared of it, though. i don't know if it's just because i'm not aware of the magnitude of the work or if i'm just confident enough that i'm gonna be able to do it (with the help of e-board, a-board, and alumni, of course).
i'm excited for a-board. i think ideally, we would have 26 people on a-board. for each position, there would be someone who held that position in the past and someone who wants to hold it in the future. that would be awesome.
people have been dropping knowledge all of the place. i hope i can retain/remember it all.
we really are a bab-e-board. with the exception of rhea, everyone else pretty much got involved with barkada in the same year i did or later. i wish i went to more events so i had more experience. i didn't go to the alumni banquet or sportsfst my freshman year because i was either practicing for or having my debut. this past year, i wasn't able to attend a lot of the meetings because of MISSA meetings, but i think that's okay cuz i was able to see what clubs can offer its members academically.
i have a lot of ideas for next year. i still need to turn them into measurable goals. i'm so excited for e-board retreat!!! i'm glad we'll have a chance to sort out priorities.
i haven't even been gone a full day yet.
i should probably end this cuz it's getting crazy long. ingat ka!
--------------------
so later that day, we checked into our hotel (hostel 1632). it's near the malate district (bars & clubs). i wanna come back here w/ friends when i'm older. then we went to robinsons place (one of the malls) to eat at a filipino food buffet where we had a manalo family reunion!!! i met a lot of relatives. there's still one cousin i still have to meet, tho. but yeah. it was weird cuz one of my uncles looks just like my dad. hahah. but younger and he smiles a bit more. after that, ate bing, ephteen & her husband richard took my family to bay walk. it's a pretty chill place, lit up by colored balls, with restaurants and a coffee shop overlooking manila bay. there was a live band playing, too. awesome atmosphere.
today, we went to villa escudero. it's basically a plantation/museum thingie kind of like the polynesian culture center in hawai'i, but with filipino things. there was a carabao-drawn tram type thingie that picked us up at the entrance; they sang to us. i didn't really know the songs, though. the museum had a collection of arsenio escudero's possessions, including a loooot of catholic statues, exhibits of the different cultures of the philippines (igorots, moros, etc), and dozens of clothing. there were maria clara dresses from all the first ladies and clothes from all the past presidents (even emilio aguinaldo!). there was an exhibit on jose rizal, KKK flags, and armor. we had lunch at a "waterfall"; the water was flowing at our feet! after that i chilled with my cousin-in-law, andy, and her daughter, selena, in the pool. selena's so cute! she's about a year and nine months old! she's so tiny, but she has those big filipino eyes. then it started to rain and we went home.
the ride back to paranaque was a long one--three hours! i wanted to stay awake and just take in the views, but i kept knocking out. then we chilled at uncle ben/auntie ellen's for a lil bit. then uncle ben dropped us back at robinson's place to buy an adapter for the sockets. so now teh lappie is charging! w00t.
tmw: mall of asia?! (=
btw, the jollibees here are like starbucks; they're on every corner! i still haven't eaten there yet; i need to eat at a greenwich, too.
duuude! i'm in the freakin' philippines! a rooster just woke me up. hahah. we just got in last night. everything was pretty much dark, so i haven't really gotten a chance to really see the PI, but, dude!!! i'm finally here!
the plane ride was looooong. to start off, we loaded the plane and started taxi-ing off when i guess the pilot received word that we had to take some luggage off of the plane. (they overbooked the flight so some people had to take a different plane.) so we pulled back in, took the luggage out, and then we started to taxi again, but found out that we didn't have enough fuel. so we had to get fueled up again. it doesn't sound like it took much time, but all in all, we ended up leaving a whole hour late! gaah!
the plane ride itself wasn't too bad, i guess. i did get seated in back of a tall guy who blocked my vision and in front of a japanese kid that cried and kicked my chair often, but i think it wasn't too bad of an experience. dinner was good: teriyaki chicken & rice. the breakfast options were an omelette or fried rice w/ pork. luckily, my dad got a vegetarian plate, so i just ate his food. he had a bagel (which was yummy) and some warm fruit/rice dish (which was reeeeally weird).
the movies shown: last holiday, big momma's house 2, and she's the man. they showed some other things, too, though, like behind the scenes of 8 degrees below (or something like that, i have no idea) and a special documentary on penguins!!!!!!!! how freakin' awesome is that?! they pretty much followed the life of a baby humboldt penguin from conception to teendom. i wanna hug a baby penguin!
we stopped over in tokyo! unfortunately, our stopover was reeeally short. we didn't get to see much, although i took a picture of a really weird toilet and some of the localized products in the japanese convenience store (popcorn called "mike", fruity kit kat, and french soup flavored pringles).
for the majority of the flight from tokyo to the PI, i totally kept knocking out. i was awake to tell the stewardess that i wanted water, but i think i fell asleep before she could hand me my drink. hahah. or something like that. i was really out of it. food served: chicken curry. i'm not too fond of curry, but it was some good shtuff!
my uncle ben (my dad's brother in law) met us once we got through baggage claim (which took freakin' forever! i have never seen so many balikbayan boxes in my life!). in the airport pick up place, they sort people by last name! "families with last names DEF." hahah.
my mom, sister, and i rode with my cousin jennifer and her husband tracy while my dad took the majority of our luggage and rode w/ my uncle ben. luckily, their house was only 15 min from the airport. we passed by a lot of mcdo's, kfc's, a jollibee, and a couple of chow kings.
we came home and we met one of my nephews! he's 3 years old. he's really shy, though. he was diagnosed as being autistic, but my auntie still needs to get a second opinion. he can talk (repeat words and recite nursery rhymes) but he's still lacking in conversational speech (i want this, i want that, etc).
at the moment, i am currently freezing my ass off. wtf? you ask. all of the rooms in my auntie & uncle's house are air conditioned. w00t! yes... so i still don't really have the full experience of the PI, but i think i need to be eased into it. so yeah. right now i'm cold as i listen to the sounds of a rooster and a crazy cat. i need to pee but the bathroom's in my parents' room and i'm not sure if i can disturb them. it's 1:00pm on june 13 in the states and 4:00am on june 14 here.
i'm not sure when i'll be able to get internet access to upload these or check my mail. hopefully, i can do it soon. my mailbox is gonna be freakin' full!
so preparation-wise... the 2 main things people told me: 1. don't drink the water 2. don't get kidnapped. hahah. i tried to learn some tagalog before leaving. kuya russell lent me a "conversational tagalog" book that i took a look at on the plane. he also conversed with me a little bit via txt and over the phone. but i'm still really not comfortable speaking it. when i got here, i had opportunities to say something, but i either stayed quiet or said it in english. T= d'oh!
we're supposed to check into our hostel today, but not for another 8 hours. one of my relatives is awake and in the kitchen. i don't know what her name is...
a lot of people have been telling me to have fun while i can (@ the barkada banquet after party & afterward) cuz e-board's gonna be a lot of work. i'm not scared of it, though. i don't know if it's just because i'm not aware of the magnitude of the work or if i'm just confident enough that i'm gonna be able to do it (with the help of e-board, a-board, and alumni, of course).
i'm excited for a-board. i think ideally, we would have 26 people on a-board. for each position, there would be someone who held that position in the past and someone who wants to hold it in the future. that would be awesome.
people have been dropping knowledge all of the place. i hope i can retain/remember it all.
we really are a bab-e-board. with the exception of rhea, everyone else pretty much got involved with barkada in the same year i did or later. i wish i went to more events so i had more experience. i didn't go to the alumni banquet or sportsfst my freshman year because i was either practicing for or having my debut. this past year, i wasn't able to attend a lot of the meetings because of MISSA meetings, but i think that's okay cuz i was able to see what clubs can offer its members academically.
i have a lot of ideas for next year. i still need to turn them into measurable goals. i'm so excited for e-board retreat!!! i'm glad we'll have a chance to sort out priorities.
i haven't even been gone a full day yet.
i should probably end this cuz it's getting crazy long. ingat ka!
--------------------
so later that day, we checked into our hotel (hostel 1632). it's near the malate district (bars & clubs). i wanna come back here w/ friends when i'm older. then we went to robinsons place (one of the malls) to eat at a filipino food buffet where we had a manalo family reunion!!! i met a lot of relatives. there's still one cousin i still have to meet, tho. but yeah. it was weird cuz one of my uncles looks just like my dad. hahah. but younger and he smiles a bit more. after that, ate bing, ephteen & her husband richard took my family to bay walk. it's a pretty chill place, lit up by colored balls, with restaurants and a coffee shop overlooking manila bay. there was a live band playing, too. awesome atmosphere.
today, we went to villa escudero. it's basically a plantation/museum thingie kind of like the polynesian culture center in hawai'i, but with filipino things. there was a carabao-drawn tram type thingie that picked us up at the entrance; they sang to us. i didn't really know the songs, though. the museum had a collection of arsenio escudero's possessions, including a loooot of catholic statues, exhibits of the different cultures of the philippines (igorots, moros, etc), and dozens of clothing. there were maria clara dresses from all the first ladies and clothes from all the past presidents (even emilio aguinaldo!). there was an exhibit on jose rizal, KKK flags, and armor. we had lunch at a "waterfall"; the water was flowing at our feet! after that i chilled with my cousin-in-law, andy, and her daughter, selena, in the pool. selena's so cute! she's about a year and nine months old! she's so tiny, but she has those big filipino eyes. then it started to rain and we went home.
the ride back to paranaque was a long one--three hours! i wanted to stay awake and just take in the views, but i kept knocking out. then we chilled at uncle ben/auntie ellen's for a lil bit. then uncle ben dropped us back at robinson's place to buy an adapter for the sockets. so now teh lappie is charging! w00t.
tmw: mall of asia?! (=
btw, the jollibees here are like starbucks; they're on every corner! i still haven't eaten there yet; i need to eat at a greenwich, too.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Harlem Nights
Barkada's End of the Year Banquet + After Party @ PR house = awesomeness! I just got home. I don't have time to recount the whole night cuz I need to get ready for my sister's graduation stuff, but I just wanted to post some stuff since I probably won't be able to go any other time before I leave.
Congratulations to Barkada's 2006-2007 Executive Board!!! (A.K.A. Baby-Board/babe e-board)
Thank you to all the members of the 2004-2005 E-Board. As a member, I really appreciate all the hard work you guys did this year. Good luck in whatever you decide to do.
A huge thanks goes out to all the past e-board members and all the old schoolers who have made Barkada what it is today. I hope we make you proud.
Just in case you don't know, I'm gonna be in the Philippines from June 12 (Monday) to June 29 (Thursday). I don't think I'll have Internet access, so this'll probably be my last blog for a while. Take care all!
Congratulations to Barkada's 2006-2007 Executive Board!!! (A.K.A. Baby-Board/babe e-board)
- Historian: Vinzon Lim
- External Rep: Jared Falcis
- Public Relations: Anne Soliguen
- BEC Coorinator: Dominic Tuazon
- MCC/ASI Rep: Patrick Bondoc
- Secretary: Joy Empeno
- Treasurer: Rhea Desaca
- Social Chair: Joanna San Antonio
- Sports Chair: Jon Perry Padiernos
- Culture Chair: Leomar Cachola
- Academics Chair: Erin Manalo
- Vice-President: Analisa Manlic
- President: Michael Pedro
Thank you to all the members of the 2004-2005 E-Board. As a member, I really appreciate all the hard work you guys did this year. Good luck in whatever you decide to do.
A huge thanks goes out to all the past e-board members and all the old schoolers who have made Barkada what it is today. I hope we make you proud.
Just in case you don't know, I'm gonna be in the Philippines from June 12 (Monday) to June 29 (Thursday). I don't think I'll have Internet access, so this'll probably be my last blog for a while. Take care all!
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
almooooost!
So the last final for the day/quarter/year is in 30 minutes. I've been sitting in my car since 6pm.
Well, there was the exception of me getting out to turn in my research paper to Gallegos. I totally forgot to put the paper on a disk and submit it through turnitin.com before submitting my paper. Luuuuckily, he let me e-mail it to him. I submitted it to turnitin.com and barely got green (1 word - 24% similar); 25%+ may be considered for plaigirism issues. Yes, I can't spell.
I totally should've gotten something to eat. The only thing I've eaten today was a bowl of granola & soy milk from Trader Joe's (or Traders Joe if you're my dad).
I'm so done with this quarter. I probably should have studied more for this final, but I think I've reached the breaking point.
I r teh excited for the banquet on Saturday!!! I can't wait to see Jean's rendition of "I Wanna Be Loved By You." Hopefully I don't screw up on "Someone to Watch Over Me." I still need to practice w/ teh instrumental...
I'm gonna beach it tmw and Friday. Yay! Too bad it's gotten gloomier and gloomier. I'm sure it'll still be fun, though. Yay for time to do absolutely nothing!
I hope I'll have some form of Internet connection when I'm in the PI. I dunno how I'll survive w/o teh Internet for 2.5 weeks. Gah!
What I plan to do on the 16 hour (?) flight to the Philipines:
Test in 20min. I guess I shall end the pointless blabber now.
Well, there was the exception of me getting out to turn in my research paper to Gallegos. I totally forgot to put the paper on a disk and submit it through turnitin.com before submitting my paper. Luuuuckily, he let me e-mail it to him. I submitted it to turnitin.com and barely got green (1 word - 24% similar); 25%+ may be considered for plaigirism issues. Yes, I can't spell.
I totally should've gotten something to eat. The only thing I've eaten today was a bowl of granola & soy milk from Trader Joe's (or Traders Joe if you're my dad).
I'm so done with this quarter. I probably should have studied more for this final, but I think I've reached the breaking point.
I r teh excited for the banquet on Saturday!!! I can't wait to see Jean's rendition of "I Wanna Be Loved By You." Hopefully I don't screw up on "Someone to Watch Over Me." I still need to practice w/ teh instrumental...
I'm gonna beach it tmw and Friday. Yay! Too bad it's gotten gloomier and gloomier. I'm sure it'll still be fun, though. Yay for time to do absolutely nothing!
I hope I'll have some form of Internet connection when I'm in the PI. I dunno how I'll survive w/o teh Internet for 2.5 weeks. Gah!
What I plan to do on the 16 hour (?) flight to the Philipines:
- watch as many movies as I can before my battery dies
- read "Conversational Tagalog" (thx kuya!)
- teach my parents how to use my old/their new digi cam
- sleeeeeeep
Test in 20min. I guess I shall end the pointless blabber now.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Honor. Wisdom. Earnestness.
Tonight, I was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, the international honor society for business students. I actually saw a few familiar faces; no one I really talk to, though. The ceremony could've been smoother--you'd think after 11 years, they would've done things like have a paper program and tablecloths and have the people announcing names speak into the mic--but overall, it was still a pretty good program.
A couple people spoke, but I couldn't really catch their names. I think one was Frank, an alumnus of Cal Poly Pomona who used to make $1.50/hour bagging groceries. Another speaker was a current teacher, Ralph Miller, I think. He had a lot of good things to say. A memorable thing he said was, "Society is a mosaic." Each of us is different, we are our own picture; but we have to work together to make an even bigger picture. His grandpa immigrated to the states from Denmark when he was only 16 and was the first foreigner to graduate from San Jose State University. Miller's really big on promoting immigration; future leaders/entrepreneurs/bright people shouldn't be hindered by the color of their skin, their country of origin, or gender. Well, he said it more eloquently than that, but you get the picture.
Beta Gamma Sigma. What the hell does that stand for, you ask?
Bebaeos = HonorThose are some honorable values. I just hope I can live up to those principles. I just need to remind myself each day to strive to do honorable things, seek wisdom, and be earnest in everything I do...
Gnosis = Wisdom
Spoude = Earnestness
I want these when I graduate:
These things make me wanna graduate right now! Can I graduate but still stay in college, please? (=
Saturday, June 03, 2006
growth, change, and side notes
This past year has gone by so quickly. I didn't think that I changed much, but in comparison to last year, a lot has happened to affect who I am.
Tonight was the CIS Interclub Banquet. At last year's banquet, the only other CIS person I knew that was there was Jay (Ballesteros). This year, I knew practically all of the MISSA people and some SWIFT, faculty, and alumni. My network has definitely grown in the last year.
Side note: I really don't like speaking in front of people, especially if I don't have a speech prepared (which reminds me that I need to work on a welcome for P-Grad).
I definitely think I'm more social and open-minded than last year; I still have a long way to go, though.
I've learned a lot: from corporate cultures to Filipino culture; improving performance on the stage and on the court; what I want from myself and what I want from other people.
I need to be less passive. And, as aforementioned in a previous blog, I also need to regain my punctuality.
I feel freer to be myself. I can talk in a British accent, say a corny joke, or sing my heart out in front of other people now. I can admit my uncertainties to a room full of people. I can say what's on my mind more often.
I need to remember to think before I speak more often, though.
Another side note: With some people, the more you get to know them, the more you like them. Sadly, with others, the more you get to know them, the less you like them.
My circle of friends has evolved quite a bit, as well. When pNotes went karaoke-ing, the girls sang "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls.
Some friendships from high school still remain. I must acknowledge Khaing at this time for her efforts in trying to keep us together. Thanks, also, to the PCN goers. Maybe it'll become a tradition?
I still have a lot of thinking and reflecting to do, but now I must work on my welcome...
Tonight was the CIS Interclub Banquet. At last year's banquet, the only other CIS person I knew that was there was Jay (Ballesteros). This year, I knew practically all of the MISSA people and some SWIFT, faculty, and alumni. My network has definitely grown in the last year.
Side note: I really don't like speaking in front of people, especially if I don't have a speech prepared (which reminds me that I need to work on a welcome for P-Grad).
I definitely think I'm more social and open-minded than last year; I still have a long way to go, though.
I've learned a lot: from corporate cultures to Filipino culture; improving performance on the stage and on the court; what I want from myself and what I want from other people.
I need to be less passive. And, as aforementioned in a previous blog, I also need to regain my punctuality.
I feel freer to be myself. I can talk in a British accent, say a corny joke, or sing my heart out in front of other people now. I can admit my uncertainties to a room full of people. I can say what's on my mind more often.
I need to remember to think before I speak more often, though.
Another side note: With some people, the more you get to know them, the more you like them. Sadly, with others, the more you get to know them, the less you like them.
My circle of friends has evolved quite a bit, as well. When pNotes went karaoke-ing, the girls sang "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls.
If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends,Something I realized: I don't consider any of the girls I was friends with at the time that that song came out (essentially, TABEN) to still be close friends. I rarely even talk to them. lol. I'm so retarded. TABEN and NAMAN. How do we come up with these names?
Make it last forever friendship never ends
Some friendships from high school still remain. I must acknowledge Khaing at this time for her efforts in trying to keep us together. Thanks, also, to the PCN goers. Maybe it'll become a tradition?
I still have a lot of thinking and reflecting to do, but now I must work on my welcome...
Thursday, June 01, 2006
eBags Shipping
so I bought this the other day and then I went to UPS's package tracking page and found this:
why did it go from freakin' baldwin park to vernon if it's just gonna go out east to riverside?!?
boo for ups.
anyhoo. teh camera came last night! i am going to play with it today. yay!
Package Progress:
| Location | Date | Local Time | Activity |
| VERNON, CA, US | 05/31/2006 | 10:16 P.M. | ARRIVAL SCAN |
| BALDWIN PARK, CA, US | 05/31/2006 | 9:48 P.M. | DEPARTURE SCAN |
why did it go from freakin' baldwin park to vernon if it's just gonna go out east to riverside?!?
boo for ups.
anyhoo. teh camera came last night! i am going to play with it today. yay!
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