what twixsleepyhead does other than sleeping

BANGKOK TRAVEL DECEMBER 2008

2009-01-13T05:58:00.000-08:00

TAKE A NAP HOSTEL
Charol was the one who discovered this hip hostel through their website. I was attracted by the design effort they put into every room. No two rooms are the same.

"Sea Breeze"

"In the Pink"

We have a wooden tub!

Plus points for this hostel for:
1. The quick email response for reservations. No downpayments required.
2. Friendly and helpful staff
3. Well-designed rooms
4. Really cheap. The 500Baht per person per night includes eat-all-you-can breakfast.
5. Free internet... that's much faster than mine at home
6. Convenient booking for tours and taxi cabs
7. Convenient location

Hostel Breakfast

ON SHOPPING
City Center
We passed by series of malls while walking from MBK to Pratunam - MBK Mall, Siam Discovery, Siam Paragon & Central World. Of the high end malls, Siam Paragon is our favorite. We spent quite some time in Kinokuniya, an international bookstore chain. One thing I love about this bookstore is the free bookmark and book wrapping services while you wait for a minute. (Yeah, they really do it fast!) We watched a movie in the same mall. Their movie house looks more of a stageplay theatre, very grand, spacious, with a giant chandelier. Sorry, no picture taking inside the cinema.

Pratunam
Platinum Fashion Mall is the best mall in Bangkok! It's not really that cheap compared to shopping in Divisoria or Tutuban, because Manila still has the cheapest source - China. However, there are lots of good finds and they give discounts for wholesale purchases. Wholesale is 3 pieces up, so if Sally and I buy one thing for us, one for my mom and one for my sis-in-law, all from the same store, we can already get the wholesale discount. How cool is that! We also have our shopping pals Charol and Ivy who happens to have the same taste in clothes and other stuff. The only bad thing about this mall is most stores don't allow fitting of garments. This mall also has a huge section for accessories and some shoes and bags.

Chatuchak
Since we visited Platinum Mall before going to Chatuchak, we feel that things in Chatuchak are quite pricey. There are lots of unique finds though. The place is too big that we only finished one portion and we're dead tired already.

Floating market
There's nothing to buy here. Everything is expensive because the boatman gets a cut. It's a fun experience though... to see the vendors trouble themselves to sell stuff on boats. They have to row, make sure that their goods don't fall into the water, some even have to cook inside the boat, and deal with haggling customers all at the same time.

Aside from the usual fruits and souvenir items, here's the boat selling LV bags.

Travelling for people like us who do not exercise, it's quite demanding for our muscles to get back to work. Solution ---> Thai massage! This is the most relaxing part of our trip.

AYUTTHAYA
We booked a whole day tour to Ayutthaya to see some history and culture of Thailand.

Bang Pa-in Palace
It used to be the residence of the kings before Bangkok became the capital. I was expecting a palace to be 100% native in design, however, this one is different. It's like the architecture from different parts of the world were patched together in one palace complex.

Wat Yai Chaiya
I was so amazed to see and climb a stupa for the first time! Inside is an image of a Buddha and a dry wishing well.

Wat Phra Si San Phet
This is the largest temple ruins in Ayutthaya.

Wat Mahathat
There are beheaded Buddha images all over the place, with one of the heads that was left was wrapped by tree roots.

The elephants
A visit to Thailand is not complete without seeing the elephants.

ON FOOD
The quest for Pad Thai
If I should give this trip a title, it would be "The quest for Pad Thai". Thai in Pad thai means freedom, for there is no standard recipe. Thai people have the freedom to prepare this dish as they desire , which makes every Pad Thai unique in every place that we visit.

Pad Thai Noodles

At hawkers outside Grand Palace, we saw how Pad Thai was prepared.

In the same venue, I finally found Bagoong Rice! It's really good! Aside from green magoes, it also has Thai versions of sweet lechon kawali and longganisa.

Noodles at Hawkers
Thanks to Mon for taking us to the side streets of Bangkok!!! Every few blocks has food stalls that open at night. These places offer great food at affordable prices, but not tourist-friendly though due to language barrier. It's good to have Mon to help us get a taste of authentic Thai food.

top: 2 types of noodle soup - clear based soup and tomato based soup; bottom: Pad Thai, Ground pork with chilli and basil

On the same street where we had our noodles, we found colorful local desserts. The first one looks like a relatively huge halo-halo store. The second one sells sticky rice + coconut milk goodies. I always believe that the food that looks pretty does not taste good.

Colorful Thai desserts

After dinner, we went to a night market and ate dinner part 2 in the same area. I forgot the name of this place. It's an open food court with live bands playing on the big stage afar.

The quest for Ice Cream
Bangkok is also the land of good ice cream. We tried all sorts of ice cream with prices starting from 5 Baht up.

Let me start with the"Frozen Fanta" @ 5 Bht per stick. At first, we didn't know what those stuff inside the holes are and I didn't know that Fanta still exists! When the vendor was asked about the flavors available, he just pointed at the soda bottles.

Like the "dirty ice cream" here, Bangkok has it's own verion of coconut milk-based ice cream. I got this one for 10 Baht at Chatuchak. It has only the original flavor and served with peanuts.

We also tried an ice cream similar to Singapore's brick ice cream but it has no wafers. Instead, the vendor literally hammered in a stick so we have something to on hold to while eating it. The flavors.... strawberry, pandan, durian, chocolate,... and so much more! Unlike the Pinoy sorbetes which tastes the same no matter what the flavor is, this local ice cream is tastes really as what it claims to be.

It's been a long time since the last time I saw Swensen's and Baskin Robbins. They're all in Bangkok! Here's the triple choco cheesecake ice cream from Swensen's.

If I'm not mistaken, Bonito gelato is a local brand. I like the spoon. :)

Crepe
Since there is nothing to buy in the floating market, we opted to try local food.
While the boat was moving, we bought Thai pancakes, which is made up of crispy crepe filled with sweet cream and shredded dried coconuts.

Before leaving the market, we stumbled upon a crepe stall and met a Burmese crepe maker who makes his crepe not the way I see it in Cafe Breton. He stretches his dough in the air just the way Indians make their roti prata.

The Making of the Banana Nutella Crepe

Thai halo-halo
I saw this thing in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and I saw it again in Bangkok. It's made up of some colorful unidentified objects similar to kaong + ice + coconut milk.

Fast Food
Aside from ketchup, sweet chilli sauce is a standard condiment in fast food chains. This serves as an equivalent for the chicken gravy for Pinoys.
.
BK meal with ketchup and chilli sauce

KFC chilli sauce, KFC Go go's stuffed with carrots and brocolli, the super duper spicy chicken wings

McDonald's offers lots of pies... apple pie, taro pie, tuna pie and the carbo-overload corn pie! They also have a tiny chicken wrap which disappointed me when I got it for dinner.

On People
While researching for my travel itinerary, I read many comments about swindlers in Bangkok who wants to take advantage of clueless tourists. I was on full guard when I was there, however, I met none except taxi drivers who want fixed price in lieu of using the meter. In general, local people I met there are quite nice. Most of cab drivers we encountered seem to be friendly, but either too shy to talk in English or too enthusiastic to converse even if we can't understand the broken English.

Infrastructures
The last time I was in Bangkok, about 11 years ago, there were lots of unfinished construction due to financial crisis. Now, freeways are everywhere! On our way from the airport to the hostel, the freeway seems to be endless. A lot of people invest in luxury cars, because they have roads good enough for a Grand Prix street race! People there like to drive fast, but much more disciplined than people here.

The Election
When I was in Bangkok,campaign posters are all over the city. Each candidate has an assigned number written in their standardized campaign poster. I like that idea of having large, durable and full-colored tarpaulin ads, in leiu of those numerous bond paper sized monochromatic paper that candidates stick to you wall and you just hope that the heavy rain would wash them away.

Campaign Posters

GREEN PASTURES
Whenever I travel, I always end up in cities better than here. Roads have clean sidewalks and smooth carriageways. These are places wherein I can walk alone safely on the streets even at night. People live in a high standard of living and they suffer much less trouble with their government. Yes, I still consider the political situation in Thailand less grave than what's happening here. The grass is greener on the other side.

After my last travel for the year, I suddenly felt I wanna go home, sleep in my own bed and cuddle my Penguin. The green grass on the other side does not look as attractive as it used to be. No matter how many times I told myself that this place is not livable now and would get worse in the future, this is still my home and there's no other place like it.

HUNDRED PESO BILL

2008-08-07T07:38:00.001-07:00

Isang araw, nagulat nalang ako nang makita ang UP Centennial logo sa hundred peso bill. Wow, ganun ba ka espesyal ang Peyups?! Mula noon, tinititigan ko na ng mabuti ang lahat ng hundred peso bill na dumaan sa kamay ko. kung merong UP logo, tinatabi ko ito para di magastos.

Way back in college, eto mga pwedeng mabili sa san daan.

1. About 44 rounds ng ikot / toki jeep (nung freshman ako)
2. 200 pcs fishballs
3. 10 sticks of banana-q / carioca.
4. 10 pcs cheese monay
5. about 4 orders ng BBQ with rice sa beachouse
6. 10 servings ng Myrna ice cream in small sugarcone
7. 10 servings of taho
8. about 30 servings of isaw. grabe, isaw sa UP da best!
9. tapsilog sa rodics! 2 servings for 100 bucks! but not anymore...
10. McChicken value meal + sundae. The other fastfood? I have no idea. I'm not a friend nor a fan of that big orange bug with yellow stripes.
11. 50-100 pcs na blue book, depends kung san binili. syempre mahal dun kay manang na may tindahan sa loob ng girls' CR sa AS. (mga guys,... hindi to myth. may tindahan sa loob ng CR.)
12. 1 Kure color. of course kulang ang 100 pag sa nbs bibili.
13. about 10-15 sheets of 20x30 tracing paper, depends sa gsm
14. 25 sq.in of colored print in bond paper. oo, ang mahal ng printing noon!
15. 10 images scanned... eto din mahal,kaya ako bumili ng sarili kong scanner.
16. 100 bucks and may change pang barya - eto lang binabayaran ng isang oblation scholar sa UP every year. pero sa kasamaang palad, hindi ako pinanganak na henyo.
17. 1 copy of booknotes. sa mga model students, malamang di nyo alam kung ano to. booknotes- eto yung parang ready-made book review na may synopsis and comments, available for certain novels, classics and whatnot. Kung sino man nag-imbento nito, bow ako sa yo!
18. 1 shirt. eto uso noon, round-neck spandex baby-tee available in as many colors as you want. mabibili sa tiangge. parang official shirt na nga to ng mga girls sa UPCA.

Sa taas ng inflation rate, iba na ang value ng hundred bucks. Ano na kaya ngayon ang mabibili sa san daang piso?

AFTER 1 YEAR....

2008-07-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a year since my last day in Xiamen, my last taste of beer (which I don't like anyway), my last day as a nocturnal person.

So what have I achieved in my 1st year back to my parent's house?

Hmmm....

1. I'm now learning to live a life with restrictions. I'm not saying that I've mastered the life here.
2. Instead of complaining,...
I learned to enjoy my moments at home playing with my little nephew.
I learned to enjoy my sweet but short moments of escaping to the other house, with no curfew existed ever. I'm not really doing anything bad when I'm out. I just love the freedom to come home late.
3. From childhood, I face academic pressures everyday (like getting beaten for a score of 99). After college, work consumed my life for almost 2 years. Now is the time that I let go of that idea that was fed into me that I should be the achiever type. I let go of my career regardless of what people say. So what if I'm just plain and ordinary?

BRUNEI TRIP 2008

2008-07-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

PROLOGUE
Weeks ago, my mom saw this advertisement in the newspaper. Royal Brunei Airlines is offering package tour to Brunei for a reasonable price. I was asked to call them to inquire for further details. My mom wasn't seem convinced enough to pursue this travel.It so happened that my aunt just came from her trip to Boracay and she wants to find another place to travel. Just 2 days prior to departure, my mom told me to book the whole travel package. It feels so surreal that Saturday everning when we were about to leave. I did my last minute packing of my stuff, had a quick dinner and headed for the airport to catch my flight.

BRUNEI TRAVEL

ON PLACES
What made me wanna go there is that idea of entering a mosque without any fear of getting kidnapped or whatnot. There are lots of them! I just learned that they should take off their shoes before entering their sacred place, without worrying that their shoes might be stolen by somebody else.

Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

Jame 'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque

Who would expect to find waterfalls walking distance from the city center? Tasek Waterfalls is about 20 minutes away from our hotel on foot. We walked under the heat of the sun, but it's worth seeing.

The palace is only open during Hari Raya with free buffet meal for everyone and 5 Brunei dollars for all kids 12 years old and below. Unfortunately, it's not Hari Raya when we were there. We only reached the gates, which the street in front of it is lighted up because it's the sultan's birthday.

We were supposed to go to an amusement park but it's closed during daytime. To save all efforts for that trip, the cab driver took us to this place that we never imagined we can enter....Empire Hotel is a palace converted to a 6-star hotel & resort. They usually accommodate only checked-in guests, but the cab driver somehow managed to talk to the guards to let us in. At lease we don't have to pay 3000 Brunei Dollars to get in.

Brunei is not a place to shop. They don't have much of their local products, except for oil. One time, we asked a Filipina what she usually takes home as pasalubong. She said, "Minsan chocolate, minsan Palmolive (bar soap) kasi mura, 1 dollar yung tatlo."
We found a difficult time disposing our Brunei dollars, coz there is nothing to buy. Here is the image of their biggest mall, called The Mall.

We also visited 2 other museums, but I'm not a big fan of museums.... too lazy to include them in my blog.

ON FOOD
Most of the stuff I had there are part of the package tour. It's great to have a daily buffet breakfast at the hotel. I can have my daily dose of laksa and roti prata with cheese, among others.

Any meal is not complete without sweets. Their sperical-shaped doughnut + cream puff in one beats my fav Krispy Kreme.

The hotel also offers the Brunei version of Hainanese Chicken Rice. They call it simply Chicken Rice. They have big servings, that no one in our group was able to finish the set meal.

They also have their version of the Cold Rock Ice Cream which they call Teppanyaki Ice Cream. This photo is courtesy of Rodan, the cemara-shy Pinoy food attendant in the hotel performing this mixing of ice cream & other stuff.

Lunch in the hotel has nothing special to offer, except for their generous selections of desserts.

When we detoured into this 6-star hotel, we have no choice but to stay there for lunch. Their Nasi Goreng is nothing great for the price. Nevertheless, the I never regretted ending up there coz of the specacular view and the priviledge of entering a former palace.

Who would think of eating shabu-shabu in a fine-dining Italian restau? Our dinner included in the packege tour was in an Italian Restaurant serving Steam Boat (Shabu-shabu). Weird? Yes, it's weird, but it's yummy! It's a huge serving of seafood and a lighter version of tom-yum soup.

The next day, we want to try a Chinese restaurant recommended by our cab driver, who just pointed at the building where the restaurant is. We went up the building and found ourselves in a maze. A friendly Indian guy with a big black turban showed us the hidden way to get there. Yeah, another weird thing... an Indian guy showing us the Chinese restaurant...How did he know that there's a hidden way to get up there?

Any trip is incomplete without a dose of their street food.

After eating in the "hidden" Chinese restaurant, I felt that I just had a partial meal due to absence of sweets. While walking home, I suddenly saw this familiar thing... a waffle maker!!! If HK only has waffle + peanut butter, Brunei offers waffle + peanut butter and waffle + kaya. I got my fav peanut butter and had my dessert with coffee in my cozy hotel room.

I know my trip involves lots of food. Can't help it. Now let's move on.

ON ARCHITECTURE
One thing I like about their architecture is the way they design based on function. They are influenced by other cultures, but they stick to what is suitable to them.

Most people have cars. The ground floor of residential buildings are normally used as parking, whcih means cars are not clutters on streets. It's also common to install bris soleil (sunbreakers) in their buildings suitable for the hot climate.

This is a relatively new development with lots of overhangs. Other portions of this site has lots of trees.

Any relatively new office building in Manila would mean a mimick of the western high rise buildings with neat glass curtain walls all over depending highly on mechanical systems for cooling, and a parking space that is never enough for the demand. They look nice from the outside, but in function, they're not. When I saw this office building, I stared at it for a while wondering if it's really and office building. It has spacious balconies, planted, and has a huge parking space (not in the picture).

In general, houses there are huge, especially the living area, coz they usually have family gatherings and events within their own property. (Unlike here wherein people block the streets for their personal interest.)

clockwise from top left: 1 & 2. Houses in Kampong Ayer (Water Village) 3. A typical set up in a house for weddings 4. Tea and biscuits are usually served to guests 5. Interior of a house in Kampong Ayer.

ON PEOPLE
Brunei people consists of their locals, Chinese, Indians, Indonesians, and lots and lots of Filipinos. I've met a lot of locals who can already speak Tagalog because of the influence of their Filipino friends.

The people of Brunei seem to have a happy disposition in general. They are very very friendly and hospitable, incomparable to the people of all other countries I've been to. I wonder if it's because they have a worry-free life courtesy of their Sultan. Imagine a place where there is no such thing as income tax and other salary-related deductions, and where the high-end gasoline costs about 17Php/liter!

EPILOGUE
Brunei is a small country where people seem to have a perfect world. Watching their local news is boring. They splurge a long segment showing their sultan's leisure activity for the day, coz nothing interesting is happening. They're just well-off and that's it.

I am used to living in a place where everyday is a challenge for everyone, where there headlines are always big news, and where tomorrow is not always the same as today.

After exploring Brunei,I still cannot imagine myself migrating to a place like that. I realized that if my world is perfect, it would drive me crazy.

NEW FLIGHTS TO XIAMEN

2008-03-12T06:25:00.000-07:00

I was browsing through the newspapers yesterday when I saw an ad of Asian Spirit. They are promoting their new destination - Xiamen, China, with some pictures of supposedly taken in Xiamen, China. I used to live in that place that me and my friend Dhia call "the lost island". It's a relatively small island with lots of gardens, one little SM and zero Starbucks. Anyway, going back to the ads... With just one look, I can already tell that the pictures posted are not in Xiamen. The first picture shows an old Chinese house in a winter setting. Hello, the trees in Xiamen are evergreen and there's no real winter. The lowest recorded temperature is 2degrees. The second picture shows a busy street, something similar to Zhong Shan Lu in Xiamen. Zhong Shan Lu is Zhong Shan Lu and there is no other. I know exactly how it looks like and that's not the one in the picture.

I'm not exactly against them adding new destinations, but I'm criticizing how they put something into publication without researching. Actually, it's good for them to add new flights. Who knows, I might get an affordable ticket to go back to Xiamen and meet my friends again.

A GREEN TEA PLACE

2008-03-11T08:00:00.001-07:00

I've seen this place featured in two different magazines before I finally got the chance to go to Kozui, the only place I know that serve anything green tea. Though I'm not a fan of green tea, I really appreciated their desserts.

Green tea cheesecake

Halo-halo with green tea ice cream

UP ARKI HOMECOMING 2008

2008-03-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

The UP Pep Squad in their opening number

It's my first time to attend a homecoming event. What made me go to this event? Hmm... maybe the continuous advertisements i get via email. i've been getting updates regarding this event for weeks already. i was actually expecting lots of people from my batch to attend, but it turned out that only three of us were there - me, mumty and risha. Unfortunately we are the eat-and-run type of guests. We don't have the time to take pictures of some interesting professors who changed their overall look for some weird reason. We were about to leave when we bumped into another batchmate, lesley, who just arrived.

Mumty, me and Risha

The 1GB UP Arki USB drive souvenir. (Janrey, mainggit ka!)

We were rushing home because Mumty has to go after the last MRT trip and I have to be home early... for no particular reasons. I was just trained to be like that since I started living in Malabon again.

We were already out of the college building when we saw Beka in her car. She arrived late coz she had a car accident. Her right rear door was wrecked and she's still in the "shocked" state. She told us the whole story of how a jeep collided with her car and that they waited for the MMDA for an hour and a half to get things settled legally. Poor girl.

And so we were delayed again. Mumty, Risha and I rushed to trinoma to catch Mumty's train. Risha and I stayed at Starbucks while watching the cab line get shorter so she can take her ride home. Since it's already late, I decided make the most out of my night-out. I called some friends within the area to join me for coffee.

STRANGE DREAM

2008-02-26T06:58:00.001-08:00

I had a strange dream: Penguin became a chicken.

A GREAT YEAR ENDER

2007-12-31T06:10:00.000-08:00

I know I've been doing this since I came back home.... eat, eat, eat. Yeah, that's life! I learned to appreciate Manila life after living in an oriental island for 10.5 months where western food is rare, not so great and, worst of all, rip-off.

Just look at these... the great food here in Manila. Forgive me if I can't remember most of their names.

Heaven and Eggs Tomas Morato... our favorite breakfast place. For a change, I had these for dinner and not for breakfast.
This is their Pinoy salad. Highly recommended!

I used to wonder why this is called Pigs in a Blanket. After ordering this, I learned why this is so. It's a cute name for sausages that were wrapped in pancakes.

Eggs Popeye, Popeye coz they put some spinach in it.

Forest Grille at Silver City. Highly recommended. I describe their food as gourmet pinoy. Most people will give me this reaction when I tell them about this place: Huh? San yun? Silver City is behind SM Pasig, near Tiendesitas. Last time I passed by that area, there are more developments already. Looks like more food places to try.
This is their ceasar salad, if i remembered it correctly.

Bagnet... a must try!!!

Forgot what this is.

Puttanesca pasta. Typical but ok.

Callos.

Few stores away from Forest Grille is a new doughnut chain called Napoleon's. It reminds me of Cello's doughnuts, but more pricy.

Here's my year ender...

@Italiannis
Sicilian chicken salad, my favorite at Italiannis.

The shrimps in this pasta are wrapped with bacon... yum!!!

Ven, me, Cha, Drich and James at Five Cows.

We had chocolate fondue, although they should have served more fruits in proportion to the chocolate.

They have the best ice cream cakes!!! I already tried their Smores cake before. Highly recommended! Here's another thumbs up cake, the blueberry cheesecake.

This year, I was here for only five months and I've tried more variety of food that I did in the past years. It's such a regret that I did not document them all. I'm hoping that more interesting food will be available for blogging next year.

To all my friends, foodtrip-mates, thanks for the company, for helping me explore the world of food, for spending time of fun and laughter. Happy new year to all!

ANOTHER WEEK ON VACATION

2007-12-05T07:24:00.000-08:00

About four months ago, I left Xiamen. It was a happy and a sad day at the same time. Happy coz I’m finally coming home to see my family, friends and enjoy life in Manila once again. Sad coz I’ll be leaving some friends behind and there is no certainty when we will meet again.

November 25, 2007. It was so surreal. Four of them were here waiting for three “late-as-usual” Pinays to fetch them from the airport. It’s obvious that they’re starving coz there’s nothing to eat in a budget flight. We went to Dencio’s @ Harbourview for our first meal together.

November 26, 2007. We went to Jollibee for brunch. (To my college friends, you may laugh your heart out.) Way back in college, I am known to be the girl who hates Jollibee. I remember Betty teasing me to take a picture with Jollibee to show that we have reconciled, but I fiercely refused. Food in Jollibee is still substandard for me, but I can’t refuse when I was asked to take them there. Anyway, it’s only me who has that opinion. Most people I know think Jollibee is ok.

Since Jollibee food is made only to satisfy the Filipino appetite, I need to get them something else to eat. I brought the gang to UP Diliman for bbq and lecheflan at Beachouse. I just turned my back for a minute then I saw one of them dipping the bbq into the lecheflan. Instructions on how to eat the food are important, I realized. They don’t know the food that’s served in front of them.

We had a jeepney joy ride after the food trip. UP Ikot now costs 7 bucks! It used to be 2.25Php when I was a college freshman.

At Trinoma, we had another dessert at Five Cows, as recommended by Mumty. We had a Ferrero Rocher ice cream and their famous flamin’ Alaska. When I tasted the flamin’ Alaska, I realized I’m not supposed to eat it coz it has some wine in it.

They discovered a Korean billiards place along Timog. They dropped by for a game, which is something I was thankful for. I lounged comfortably in a sofa and had a short nap, which is something essential for a sleepyhead like me. While I rested, they played this relatively unique game of billiards with no holes on the table. It’s something like hitting the balls of different colors in order, but I don’t exactly understand how the game is started and how it’s ended.

A few meters from the billiards place is Dampa sa Timog. It’s my first time to try it. Food is good and cheap!

That same night, we went to Manila Pavilion Casino Filipino. It’s my first time to enter such a gambling place. By nature, I’m not a risk taker. I did not spend a single penny except for a cup of coffee at Figaro inside the Casino. I remembered Shewei (my Indonesian friend) telling me and Ivy to shop to our hearts’ content but never play in a casino.

The boys played all night, focusing on the horse race betting game. Technology reached this far nowadays. Horserace is now in computer generated graphics, not like the “jologs” horse race in Sta. Ana. As I stood there waiting for them, I wondered if my mathematician friends will be able to compute the probability of each horse in winning the game. If I bring them there, will they be able to bet on the right horse and win big bucks? Just a thought….

It’s already sunrise when we went home. They all dropped down to bed except for Ivy and me. I set my cellphone alarm to the loudest volume and woke the boys up at about 730am for our beach trip. I told them the driver is already waiting downstairs. In three minutes, one of them is ready to go. In five minutes, all of them are ready! They told me the driver is already waiting downstairs and they all went down, while Tintin, in the shower, is clueless that they’re all ready. Wow! Amazing! Is that what military service training all about?

Maybe it’s only me and the driver who really felt the long travel. They were all asleep on our way. I woke up after an hour of deep sleep in the car then took the lead as the map reader.

Our lunch is quite interesting. The boys discovered the “siling labuyo”, a small but terrible chili. When Kimchi took a bite, he reacted, though he’s used to eating spicy food. Oopa was deceived into taking one. He bit the whole chili and just left the head behind. @#^*$%$^&* is all he can say. We can’t help but laugh out loud. While eating, we were fooling the resort staff in saying that our Korean friends are actors in Korea, particularly the cast of Jumong.

I slept again after lunch. Though they kept on knocking at my door and peeking outside my window, I’m dead asleep. There’s nothing they can do about a sleepyhead sleeping.

Finally I woke up and we took this picture.

The waves are already harsh but we still went on kayaking. One of them fell into the water and kept on swimming. In a while, he realized that the water is so shallow that he can just stand up and walk.

Here is our fabulous merienda… lomi and turon. We discovered Mickey’s fascination to kalamansi. He puts them in everything he eats, including turon. Turon + kalamansi is a newly discovered dish that Filipinos never tried. In our every meal, the resort serves Batangas coffee… the best brewed coffee I’ve tasted!

At night, there is nothing much to do since the weather turned from bad to worse. There’s no other choice but to hang out indoors.

The next morning, we went out to try the transparent kayak. It’s not as stable as the yellow kayaks. But it’s so cool! You can see what’s under the water. My cousin Ivy backed out for fear of the unstable kayak so I stood there waiting for another partner. Minmin suddenly showed up, though he had his last pair of dry pants gotten wet just to accompany me. I was moved that someone pitied a helpless girl wanting to try new things but can’t do it on her own.

The beach. It’s a beautiful place to be. We had our last look before leaving.

It was another long way coming home. Instead of resting upon arrival, three of the boys, for the second time, went to go to the casino. The following day, they went home at 11am.

While the boys are in the casino, me, Ivy, Tintin and Mickey had coffee at Serendra. While waiting for Ivy and Tintin in the parking lot, Mickey and I witnessed something extraordinary. An SUV was driving along the road outside the parking and went up the sidewalk and hit the planters and one of the cars parked in the parking. Oh well, no place is 100% guaranteed safe.

November 29, 2007. When I went down to start up the car, the maid informed me that one of the front wheels is flat. Good thing my cousin Ivy is familiar in the tools and processes on how to change a flat tire. We called up the car mechanic to ask where the tools are located. Another good thing is that Mickey’s there to change the flat tire for us! For the first time in my seven years of driving, I witnessed how a tire is changed.

We went to Greenhills for shopping. They’re all enjoying when we learned that we have to eat dinner as soon as possible coz restaurants are closing at 9pm. Due to the coup attempt at Manila Peninsula, a 12am curfew was imposed. We have to choice but to buy cards, food and drinks and stay at home the whole night.

November 30, 2007. We attempted to go back to Greenhills to continue shopping but we were not successful in doing so due to the traffic. It’s a holiday. We went to St. Francis and Megamall instead. At night, we had dinner with my family at Dad’s. After dinner, let’s not mention where we left the boys while three of us relaxed at Starbucks.

December 1, 2007. We had lunch at a Korean Restaurant somewhere in Malate. The food reminds me the good old days in Xiamen where the most decent food is Korean food. We went to MOA after. As usual, shopping time isn’t enough for a big mall like that.

For the last night together, we had dinner at Binondo. We’re still in the restaurant when we started singing in the karaoke. We went to ktv after. On our way there, I turned left to UN Ave from Roxas Blvd. In less than a hundred meters from the corner, there were policemen and civilians blocking the way. They said there’s a bomb or bomb threat or something like that. Oh well, that’s Manila. I remained calm and told my visitors it’s ok.

For our last meal together, we had breakfast at Banapple with Sally and Jen.

When I got home after sending them off to the airport, I fell asleep. When I woke up, it’s so cold and quiet. For many years, I go to that house to enjoy all the privacy I could ever wanted. For the first time, I felt sad for being alone in that house. I became so eager to leave to meet my college friends just to forget that my “kuyas” just left.

Thanks to Ros for attending the get-together. Without her, I’m one of the boys again.

As I reached home, I’m still sad that they’re not around anymore. I really had fun for a week. They told me they enjoyed their stay as well. Only the fun memories and this little guy in my car remain.

HK 2007- PART 5: ETC

2007-10-18T06:34:00.000-07:00

We were able to watch the national day fireworks on Kowloon side. Looking at this picture that I took is nothing compared to watching the actual fireworks.

I used to think that Central is a jologs place. When I got out of the mtr station, the first thing I noticed is the smell of Jollibee Chicken Joy. Beside Jollibee is a Pinoy fastfood called Little Quiapo. It has one outlet store of Giordano where they play OPM’s in jologs category and where Cantonese sales personnel speak Filipino. In half a block away, there stood a Loius Vuitton store in spectacular façade! I rarely see an original LV bag, much more a huge LV store!

I wish I could post to take my picture here on August 8, 2008.

HK 2007- PART 4: DISNEYLAND

2007-10-18T06:24:00.000-07:00

The only way I know to get there is to take the Disney Resort MTR line. The train itself was designed in such a way that visitors are conditioned that they will soon enter the “magical” world of Disney as announced. There are Disney characters everywhere in the train. Mickey windows are all over.

I used to think that HK Disneyland is not worth going coz it’s too tiny. True, there are not much places to go to in this small Disneyland, but there are great shows to watch!

Disneyland has a fairytale town with fairytale stores, with fairytale goods, with fairytale qualities and you can afford to buy them all only in fairytales! But we don’t live in fairytales. We live in reality. So why buy them when you can take pictures with them?

It’s Halloween season when we went to Disney. Only in this time can we take pictures with Mickey and Minnie in Halloween costume.

HK 2007- PART 3: OCEAN PARK

2007-10-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

From what I remembered since I was a kid, Ocean Park only is only special for its huge aquariums. Although now they have much more to offer, seeing the what's under the water still excites me.

Ocean park is now an amusement park with rides for brave souls. I rode that roller coaster behind us during my visit last February. After that traumatic ride, I’ll just take a photo this time. Now I know why my cousin refused to ride with me before.

I was so disappointed last February when pandas’ house is under renovation. Finally, I was able to visit them! They’re much bigger and fatter than the one in Shanghai zoo.

This is the place where I got my “shoti” penguin. I went back to get little penguins for Justine and Jason. After getting 2 more penguins, my mission in Ocean Park is over.

HK 2007- PART 2: ON FOOD

2007-10-17T07:15:00.000-07:00

While stores are closed early in the morning, restaurants aleady serve breakfast. I’m so amazed to find a big big buchi… large enough for my 1 breakfast meal. Soya milk is also everywhere.

They have bakeries selling eggtarts, which are different from the “Lord Stowe’s” eggtart. Theirs is so yellow and no burnt top layer. I also found a chocolate chip version of the coffee bun, but it’s just so so.

A visit in Hong Kong is never complete without eating in Café de Coral. This fastfood chain is an institution. I love their porkchop baked rice with serving big enough for 2 people. They also have my favorite HK style milk tea.

It’s quite difficult to order your favorite dimsum in Hong Kong if you’re not familiar with Chinese characters. Years back, you can order dimsum by choosing from the dimsum cart which goes around the restaurant. Now, you have to READ, check the items that you want and give them to the service attendant.

This little store in the Fortress Hill MTR station sells the best tarts and pies I’ve tasted!!! Though I normally hate hand carried luggage, these pies and tarts are so good that we brought some of them home. Wish I can afford a franchise here in Manila.

STREETFOOD

Isn’t tapioca the English word for sago? Along Paterson Street in Causeway, there’s a store selling mango sago labeled as “mango sago”. They also have coconut milk sago and water chesnut beverages for 5hkd per serving.

Yakult + pineapple. Out of curiosity, we tried this drink. Though I’m not a fan of pineapples, I love this drink! We went to another fastfood where there’s a stall selling fruitshakes. Sally bought strawberry and mango milkshakes. We wondered why those drinks taste quite sour. Later on, we realized that there are piles of yakult on the display shelf of the stall. I assumed it’s a HK way of making fruitshake to use Yakult instead of the ordinary milk.

The sidestreets in Causeway offer crunchy sweet waffles. It’s tabi-tabi food but it’s way better than the waffle served in restaus here in Manila. We tried their best seller peanut butter + condensed milk waffle and their plain bubble-looking waffle.

There are side street version of dumplings, which of course we cannot resist.

AMUSEMENT PARK FOOD

One thing I hate about amusement park food is the price that doesn’t correspond with the quality and vice versa. This is quite true for food at Ocean Park. Another bad thing is that we went there on a Chinese holiday. We really have to line up, wait for our food, only to have a bowl of expensive noodles with ungenerous serving. We even have to move fast to get some seats for our mealtime. On the other hand, I’m very satisfied with the food at Disneyland. Their fast food is literally fast, no need to line up for a long time, no need to struggle to find some seats. It’s my second time to eat their burger and fries in Disney, coz it’s quite decent for an amusement park food. The price is almost the same as in Ocean Park. Hmmm… just a thought… maybe we don’t have to line up for burgers and fries coz we’re competing with the Chinese nationals who are in HK for the holidays.

INTERNATIONAL FOOD
I forgot the name of this place. It's a mall in the station after Sunny Bay. It has malls with outlet stores in it and a fast food which offers different kinds of cuisine. We decided to have Korean food to reminisce the good ol' days in Xiamen with our Korean friends.

HK 2007- PART 1: ON ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIORS

2007-10-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

The first time I went to Hong Kong about 15 years ago, Chep Lap Kok International Airport does not exist yet. The second and third times, I went to Hong Kong by MTR from Shen Zhen. Finally, I was able to step on the gigantic airport by Norman Foster which I only used see in aerial view in my architectural board exam reviewers. Indeed it’s a huge busy airport. We have to go though several moving walks and take the MTR within the airport. There are planes on almost every bay of both known and obscure airlines.

You need to pass this bridge to get to the airport, unless you take the more expensive MRT airport express.

Although I already quit my career on being an architect, I still find buildings interesting. I can’t get rid of this urge of taking photos of famous and/or interesting buildings. There’s also a sentimental feeling in looking at buildings that I only used see in pictures, again for my board exams.

Hong Kong is so small that that they build everywhere. I saw a cemetery on slope, which is ok. What surprised me are the high-rise buildings on slope.

All apartments I’ve been to are more or less the same. They have tini-tiny rooms and tini-tiny toilets with y lavatories so tiny that when you wash your face, most of the water will spill out to the floor. The room we rented is quite interesting. Since there is not much space, glass walls divide the bedroom from the t&b in lieu of CHB + glazed wall tiles.

Call me weird if you want. It’s my first time to see a retractable canopy. I was standing on the sidewalk when I saw a lady adjusting the canopy outside her shop.

Architecture is not he only interesting part of HK. There are so much more to be said in my next few entries.

CHANGING CAREER

2007-09-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

After about a year after getting my license, I finally had the courage to quit my profession. It's not easy; have to swallow my pride, quit my title and start learning something else... everything about plastic bottles and related products. feels like a fresh graduate, optimistic... and ummm,... stupid. i already did a lot of booboos in my first week. i hope my brain cells will be able to adapt to fit for this new career of mine.

I'M HOME!!!

2007-08-06T06:19:00.001-07:00

For a few months, i couldn't access my blog nor my multiply accounts in china. why they block it, i really dunno. as if i care, now that im home.

I spent my last few days in xiamen doing errands and going out with friends. the weather is sooooo hot that my friends and i switched our body clocks to sleep during the day and go out at night. i always miss my breakfast and lunch. i eat dinner and bbq after dinner instead.

it feels a lot more comfortable here at home. but of course, i couldn't help but miss my life in china. here are the stuff that i miss right now:

1. my friends, classmates and teachers... i'll never know when i'll be able see them again... huhuhu... :(
2. dining on sidewalks... something that i will never do in manila
3. playing korean games while eating and drinking
4. playing bowling - we actually do this often coz there's nothing else to do
5. swiping my bus card and riding the trip to hell bus
6. my "clean" little apartment - i discovered that a house is cleaner without a housekeeper! but hell, i don't wanna do housework again.
7. the student life without pressure
8. kfc chicken twister - pecking duck flavor
9. mc donald's strawberry sundae with "real" strawberries, not just the syrup
10. 5rmb fruitshake with lotsa fruits
11. the hand-pulled noodles made by this friendly muslim guy behind my apartment building
12. the free ferry ride to the tiny Gulang Island... but you have to pay to get back... hehe.
13. texting in chinese, pretending that we're fluent... but actually we send messages in wrong grammar!
14. ooppa's piggy (penguin's friend). i carried this pig all the way from hong kong to shen zhen then to xiamen.

when i first came to xiamen, i only knew one person, which is my cousin ivy. at that time, i never imagined that this is what i will leave there.

really miss you guys!

ON FRIENDSHIP

2007-05-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

Who are my friends? How to be a friend to my friends?

For quite some time, I was lost. The definition of friendship perplexed me.

My relationships in school, work, outside school and outside work revolved around friends. What else can I deal with, since I never had a boyfriend? I already learned to differentiate friends from acquaintances and companions. How can I be confused?

If I don’t stick with them 24 hours a day, am I an unworthy friend? If I spend some time alone, do I lose my qualifications as a good friend?

Do I have to be exactly who they are? Do they have to be exactly who I am?

At the back of my head, I knew all the answers, but I let my emotions overwhelm me.

I never had a best friend who’s exactly like me. Ironic, isn’t it? My best friends are those who are my opposites in many ways. We don’t go for the same fashion, we don’t necessarily crave for the same food, we don’t listen to the same music and we don’t like the same movies and tv series…

Acquaintance results from the little time used to get to know the existence of another person. Companionship is about spending time doing things together. Friendship is about connecting with other people while spending time and doing things together. Time, location, gender and race are not barriers at all.

Another lesson I just learned is that not all people can be friends. Some are acquaintances while some are companions. In this lonely city, two exact opposite things happened. I was hurt when I realized that people whom I thought are friends can only be companions. On the other hand, I was amazed to discover people whom I never thought I can communicate with can be friends.

It’s fun to meet new friends, but of course, old friends should never be forgotten. Though they are so busy and far away, they were able to keep me on track.

THE ADVENTURES OF JOY BABOY

2007-05-16T10:56:00.001-07:00

Why Joy Baboy? Well, this little piggy gained weight here in Xiamen. There’s nothing much to do but to eat, drink and be merry. So this little piggy and some friends decided to make life more interesting.

HONG KONG TRIP PART 2 – April 2007

When I asked my teacher to be excused in his class for another trip to Hong Kong , he laughed and advised me to bring more money so I can shop more. I should've listened to him. When I got home, I'm penniless.

It’s sad that we don’t have much pics in this trip coz the memory card suddenly won’t work when we were about to download the pictures. At least we got a few from the camera phones.

MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITIES - April 2007

IT’S RAINING. One afternoon, we were bored, as usual, and decided to go to ktv. When we got out of the ktv, it’s raining heavily. We got soaked though we have umbrellas. We’re wet anyway. A few blocks from Tintin’s apartment, we put down our umbrellas and started running in the rain.

DRESS-UP DAY. Another boring day, we decided to dress up just for picture taking. From Tintin’s cabinet, we pulled out gimik clothes that we cannot wear in front of the conservative elder brothers.

KITE FLYING AND BIKING. One boring Sunday, we went to Xiamen Convention Center to fly a kite. At first, our kite just wouldn’t fly. Later on, a kind-hearted local helped us untangle the strings which kept the kite from flying. It was that simple?!

After kite flying, we went biking. Actually, I can’t even make the wheels turn one revolution. This picture is just a fake!

MEET MY FRIENDS. I always hang out with them on weekends, especially friday nights.

From left to right: Ivy (aka Peanut), me (aka Milk), Tintin (aka Coffee), Oopa 2’s tutor, Oopa 2 (aka August / Minmin / Fried rice), Oopa (aka Beer), Ping Yi (aka Ice Cream), Sheila (aka Banana)

SHANGHAI TRIP - May 2-5 2007

We stayed in a dorm called Hiker’s. It’s quite clean and cozy. The bed is more comfortable than my bed in Xiamen that it really made me feel difficult to wake up in the morning. There are four beds in 1 room. There were three of us – me, Ivy and Tintin plus another middle-aged female backpacker from Switzerland. The shower and toilet is common though. Still, 55rmb per night isn’t that bad, considering that it is located in the city center, walking distance from Nan Jing Lu, the main shopping street, and the cinema.

The first thing that we did after checking in is to look for the movie house. We were so happy to find one showing Spiderman in English. We took the last show and so ended up going home past 1am.

They say everything in Shanghai is expensive. That is so untrue! Food and shopping is much cheaper than in Xiamen. The hand-pulled beef noodle soup which I usually get for 10rmb in Xiamen, we only got it for 3.50rmb. The waiter is quite friendly. We were able to get directions on how to buy our train ticket to Su Zhou. Everywhere in Shanghai, the typical bbq is either lamb or squid. We tried them both and they’re great! For 2rmb, it’s big enough for a meal. We cannot miss Starbucks! It’s in almost every block. If I only knew that Shanghai is a Starbucks haven, I should have moved there for my second semester!

Under the Shanghai Museum is a jologs mall similar to Grand Central, where things sold there are almost the same as things sold here in Xiamen, but much cheaper. Outside the cinema where we watched Spiderman is a sidewalk where street vendors sell really cheap stuff, like a pair of earrings for 5rmb, which usually starts from 20rmb in Xiamen. They sell things cheap coz they are illegal and only come out during late night. While shopping, we witnessed how police in motorcycles came to drive the vendors away. After a few minutes, business resumed.

One thing I really like about Shanghai is the architecture. It has both well-preserved old buildings and new ones. The new structures can be seen from The Bund, a place for sightseeing located on one side of the river, where one can see the Pearl TV Tower, Jin Mao Building and The Shanghai Convention Center. Buildings on the other side of the river consist of old Western architecture and Chinese architecture. Shanghai has a unique charm that I never experienced in other cities. Even Hong Kong is not comparable to the beauty of Shanghai. Specially at night, the buildings are pretty coz they don’t have the jologs neon lighting which is typical in most cities in China. I think people in Shanghai have aesthetic values unlike the rest of the Chinese people. Even the way they dress up is not as jologs as the typical Chinese people I see around in Xiamen.

One of our friends suggested that we go up Jin Mao Building through the hotel, where we can have coffee, coz it’s quite expensive to go up the viewing deck at the 88th floor. We thought she’s referring to the restaurant, so we went up the 56th floor where I ate my most expensive meal in China. I got salad for 90 rmb plus 15% service charge! After our meal, we realized that our friend was referring to the hotel lobby on the 54th floor where we can just have coffee or tea. Anyway, I think the expensive salad is still ok, coz the line to go up to the 88th floor is soooooooo long and it costs about 70-100bucks, I think. I’d rather eat than line up forever and pay to get up there.

I thought Shanghai is nothing but buildings. Who would think that a zoo, which I think, is larger than Singapore Zoo, would fit in that crowded city? The zoo is quite far from the city center, about an hour by bus, but it’s worth the effort to go there. For the first time, I’ve seen zebras and a small panda! Now I don’t have to travel all the way to Beijing to see the little buddy.

SU ZHOU - May 4 2007

From Shanghai, we took a train to Su Zhou. Going there, we took the ordinary train, which isn't that bad as long as you don't pee. Tintin says the toilet is unbearable. Anyway, it took us about an hour to get there. For convenience, we joined a tour group to maximize our day. The tour guide assured us that they can buy the return ticket to Shanghai. After paying the tour fee, he told us that only bus tickets are available. I was pissed off and insisted that he should get us a fast train ticket, the CRH. He told us it’s impossible coz it's holiday. I threatened him that I would back out from the tour group and would like a refund if he couldn't get us the train ticket. I argued that CRH class A tickets are surely available coz not a lot of people are willing to pay for higher-priced ticket. He finally agreed that he would try his best. I felt like a bitch, while my two companions did nothing at all, probably too shy to argue in broken Mandarin the way I did. Well, at least at the end of the day, I got what I want. He handed me our tickets, CRH, class A. It was waaaaayyyyy better than the train we rode that morning! We're like riding a plane, but the seats are much more spacious. It took us only 30 minutes to get back to Shanghai.

In Su Zhou, it was my first time to see an ancient pagoda. It’s difficult to climb up there coz the stairs are steep and squeaky. I only climbed up to the 3rd floor.

Su Zhou is like Venice. In most parts of our tour, we're on a boat cruising the rivers.

The last stop of our tour is just a money-making scheme of the travel agency. The tour guide himself is not so enthusiastic about this place selling medicine products made out of pearl. Since our train leaves at about 6pm, at 5:30pm, while the tour hasn’t ended yet, the tour guide requested us to rush to the train station to catch our train. We were laughing out loud coz the tour guide gave us 10rmb for the cab as he pulled us out from the group. If we translate what he said, it's something like this: “Eto pera, mag taxi kayo mag-isa nyo kasi baka maiwan kayo ng train.”

LONG YAN - May 6-7 2007

We have a tight schedule during the Labour Day vacation. We went home from Shanghai on May 5. The following day, we have another scheduled trip, organized by school, to Long Yan. We were like high school kids coz we went there with two school staff to watch over us, aside from the two tour guides.

Long Yan literally means Dragon Cliff. It’s famous for the Long Kong Dong (Dragon Cave). It’s my first time to enter a cave with multi-colored lights. It’s sooooo China. After touring the cave, we were offered a boat ride to get out for only 5rmb per person. It seems to be interesting and affordable enough. When we got into the boat, we realized that it’s cheap coz we have to row the boat on our own! It took us a while to figure out how to row a boat. We were so exhausted by the time we got out. A teacher was laughing out loud and offered us another boat ride to return inside the cave for only 1rmb per person.

The next day, we went to a traditional village with unique dwelling structures known as Tu Lou (literally means buildings made out of soil). They are either circular or rectangular in plan, made of bricks from soil found within the area. Some are big enough to house hundreds of households. Some rooms were converted to guesthouses. Anyone can get lodging for 10rmb a night, but there’s a catch ------ there’s no toilet. You pee in a big vase or something.

Well, it seems to be the end of the adventures of Joy Baboy coz we have to get back to school for our midterms.

WINTER BREAK

2007-03-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

Most people went home for the winter break, soooo sad. The three of us (me, ivy and oopa), instead of dying of boredom, took the chance to go to places.

1. Tong'An. We're supposed to take the bus to go to our teacher's hometown. Unfortunately, all bus tickets were sold out that day. We took our adventure to Tong'An instead. Look what we've found! It's a replica of Tiananmen Square of Beijing. Although it's 1/4 the original size, it's really really huge.

2. The week after, we went to Hong Kong. It's cool! It's like a combination of China, Singapore and Manila. Filipinas are everywhere! It's the land of the good food!... and a great place to shop too. Unfortunately, I can't shop that much coz it's difficult to bring them when I go back to Manila. The tall buildings which I used to study for the board exams,... I finally them for real!

3. Yuan Xiao Jie. This is the 15th day of the 1st month of the lunar calendar. They celebrate it with display of lanterns. After the event, we had a really long walk coz there are so many people, no way to take a bus or cab.

I LOOK LIKE...

2007-02-04T06:50:00.000-08:00

A lot of people tell me that I look like someone else...

1. When I was in high school, a classmate approached me and told me... "Your sister is already outside waiting for you." I asked, "Do you know my sister?" My classmate replied, "No, but she looks like you."

2. It was early college years. My high school friends and I were scattered among different colleges. One of my friends ended up in UST. He told me that he saw a freshman in UST who looks like me, but it can't be me coz I'm studying in UP. My sister said I have a niece (from cousin) who looks like me, but I haven't met her.

3. Some of my college friends went to Hong Kong for a presentation. They told me that a flight attendant in their plane looks like me.

4. In one of the family gatherings, while chatting with some relatives, one of them said that I look like my late aunt when she was young.

5. Chow (now in singapore) told me that she met someone who can qualify as my sister, or in other words, someone who looks like me.

6. Once I was invited to have dinner with the visiting parents of one of my Korean friends. The oldies said I look like a Korean.

7. Here in China, they can't guess my nationality. They can't tell if I'm a local, Singaporean, Korean or Indonesian.

So who's next to tell me that I look like someone else?

DECEMBER

2006-12-01T04:11:00.000-08:00

It's already past half of the semester. Time really flies fast when I'm having fun! The weather is getting colder and colder. (Ahem, Atsi, don't forget Penguin's winter attire.) I already put aside my short sleeved clothes and started looking for cheaper winter clothes. Unfortunately, Giordano is not on sale. :( Ivy and I started the habbit of washing our clothes twice a week or else we would run out of clothes to wear, coz it takes several days for drying, even with the help of the dryer in the washing machine. For now, I'm still saving mg cheapo knitted jacket for the colder days. Has anyone here tried washing knitted clothes? It's hell! The knit absorbs water and I cannot squeeze it. It gets really heavy. It's not part of my plan to grow some muscles here.

There is no Christmas ambience here in Xiamen, except perhaps some not-so-spectacular decors at SM. But we prepared something in our little home...

Merry Christmas to everyone!

SOME KINDA UNDERWATERWORLD IN XIAMEN

2006-10-08T07:51:00.000-07:00

It's my 3rd time to visit Gulang Yu, an island part of Xiamen. I've neglected this place twice. Just last week, I went into this place and discovered that it's like a class A pirated Underwaterworld in Singapore.

LIFE IN XIAMEN

2006-10-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

Home
This is my new home. It shows nothing except what I told Jason. “Penguin stays where I sleep.”

Transportation
On our first day to school, we rode this bus with smelly people in it. Another time, we waited for 35 minutes for a bus that goes to the university but in vain. We ended up taking a cab. Ivy and I agreed that we should take the special bus at SM to go to school. Ordinary buses costs 1rmb for non-ac and 2rmb for those with ac. The pretty bus costs 3rmb. It’s new, clean and almost like our private bus. Once, I met my Korean classmate who’s also taking the same bus. We were the only three passengers (me, ivy and my classmate) until we reached the end of the terminal. Normally, there were about 5 passengers. Oks pa mga drivers. They are not drivers from hell. Magpapaka-burgis nalang ako kahit mahal.

School
My school building is up on a hill, with no Ikot or Toki to take me there. Everyday, it’s a long walk. I have to wear rubber shoes as much as possible coz I’m afraid that the cheapo planet chinelas would break down.

The school has a lake instead of a Sunken Garden.

Food
I’ve mentioned this before… ayoko na ng food dito. As much as possible, we prepare our own food.

I already tried the Filipino food here. There’s a restaurant called Venezia, owned by a Tsinoy. Ang sarap ng sisig and sinigang! Benta rin sa Indonesian friends ko yung sisig, sobra crunchy kasi. Although there’s no kalamansi. They used lemon instead.

Since there is no Starbucks around, I substituted coffee for milk tea. I crave for it everyday. Standard pa naman dito na ang milk tea may kasamang pearls na parang sa Zagu. Overdose na ko ng sago ngayon.

People
I’ve met a lot of different kinds of people here. May weirdo, may masungit, may overly friendly…

One day, Ivy, me and Novi (our friend from Indonesia) went to hang out in a place na may super sarap na milk tea. 6rmb… that’s the most expensive milk tea that I’ve tried. But the place is ok,… with cozy lounge seats. Then there came this waiter who took our order. He realized that we’re not locals. He brought his English books tapos nagpapaturo samin. He wrote out his name and gave his number. Nakikipag-appointment na samin kung kelan daw kami free to teach him. We pretended that we cannot understand him to make him go away. Grabe… nakakatakot sha.

On another time, Ivy and I are waiting on a bus station. A guy approached us to ask where the bookstore is. I told him that we are not from here and we don’t know the place. Tapos parang na excite sha. He asked where we are from and if we can speak English. He’s a local, from another province, but his English is quite good. Medjo nerdy lang impression ko coz he talked about the best universities and cities in China and all that. Memorize pa ata nya yung ranking. Top 20 daw Xiamen University. Great, 20 lang?!

On our way home last Saturday, we rode the pretty bus with, as usual, with about 5 people. Another guy of about 40 asked me where the bus route goes. E medjo mabilis, sabi ko sa kanya, di ko sha maintindihan coz I’m not from here. Na-excite nanaman, just like the other guy. He asked me why I don’t look like a foreigner. Tapos yun na… interview…like what I’m doing here, how long is the course in school, where my ancestors came from, pang ilang generation na ako… Grabe… eto talaga the ultimate Mandarin Challenge. Pahirapan. Di ko pa masabi in Mandarin the province of my grandparents. Sinulat ko, then he taught me how to say it. (At least I learned something). He gave me his calling card. He works in a shipping company, sending goods to Thailand, but he came from this so and so province from way up north na lagging may snow. (O diba, naintindihan ko!) He told me that my Mandarin level is pang Grade 2. Dunno if I should be flattered or not, coz I’m only Grade 1 level 3 in school. (Grade 4 is the highest, wala na Grade 5.) Anyway, it so happened that he also went down at the SM bus terminal. Ang kulit talaga nya. He invited us to this store selling clothes tapos sobrang *close* sila ng owner ng store who’s a girl of my age. Di naman talaga sha bibili dun, as in tambay lang. Labo talaga. Nakipagchikahan kami sa owner ng store, named Michelle. Grabe, the Mandarin Challenge continues….Wala lang… they just wanna make friends with alien creatures. Labo talaga.

I know a lot of people here cannot be trusted, topak, no manners, but there are some friendly people here, or dunno if they only act that way to foreigners.

Shopping - “Stop it! Stop it!”
It’s hard to resist Giordano and Bossini when they are on sale. I was able to buy 4 shirts already… e hello, wala pa ko one month dito. Sobra cheaper as compared to Manila. Actually, masmura pa as compared to the export overrun shirts sa Greenhills. When they’re on sale, they usually have my size. It’s not like Bayo na pag sale panay large or x-large nalang. Mom was right when she told me not to bring too much clothes. Dito nalang daw ako bumili. Good thing I did not bring in too much.

Ivy and I saw this spectacular jacket at Bossini, black or white with copper–colored beads… pero super mahal, 235rmb. Wala na, hanggang tingin nalang kami. I told her to wait for the end of autumn sale, baka 50% off na. Although kahit 50% off, di ko yun bibilhin. Mahal parin.

About two and a half years ago, Panny and I visited a lot of Nike outlets in Manila in search for this basic black Nike chinelas na wala na ang size ko. Yesterday, I found it! There’s an outlet for sale items of Nike and Addidas at Huo Che Zhan (Train Station) and there it is, the only one, on sale, and it’s my size! Finally, I got my pretty black chinelas!

Stop it! Stop it!

We went to Zhong Shan Lu, the ultimate shopping district here. We are actually in search for the night market, but we only found a strip of collapsible stores. I don't think that's the one.

Their shopping district is quite busy at night. They have street performances for free.

KITCHEN BOOBOOS

2006-09-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

After several weeks of eating out, Ivy and I decided to start cooking our meals. Medjo lang no... kadiri na yung araw araw ko naaamoy ang local food dito.

On one late morning (late, because we woke up about 10am), we traced the location of the market by following the oldies carrying their baskets with veggies. Yep, they're done with their market routine and we're just going. Finally the market! A big wet market, literally wet with containers for the live seafood creatures, and without a single fly. Dunno if they have some kinda new technology to keep the flies out.

We got shrimps at about 77php per half kilo. Half kilo is their standard unit of weighing. It feels weird to carry a bag of jumping live shirmps, as if we're the evil giants who took the innocent shrimps as captives. When we got home, we put them into a basket to drain of their water and wash them. Some of them started jumping out. Eeeeek! Kadiri lang talaga when you see their feet na gumagalaw ng sabay sabay. At times, medjo mapagpanggap sila... they will all act like dead, tapos tatalon sila when we uncover the container. But we managed to cook them anyway.

The leftover shrimps were used for the palabok for dinner. Great, wala ditong kalamansi, chicharon and tinapa. We had a bright idea! We got chicken flavored potato chips from the convenience store on the ground floor of our apartment building. That's what we used as the substitute for the chicharon. For the other two, it's hopeless. Pero panalo talaga yung potato chips! It tastes like the fun shots of KFC!

Our special palabok

The previous story has nothing to do with the title of this blog entry. Read the next one.

Recently, I discovered that the long noodle-like thingy in a typical chinese appetizer is not really seaweed. It's jellyfish. Anyway, we wanna have some jellyfish and century egg for lunch today. We went to the grocery yesterday to pick up the stuff that we need. This morning, I was about to remove the egg shell when Ivy made a comment... "Oks yan, wala na yung makapal na coating na asa century egg." I told Ivy... "Baka mas-hi-tech na sila in terms of producing century egg. Di na kelangan ng extra cover sa shell." Later on, I realized that I was actually holding a salted duck egg! Ivy got the eggs from the rack of century eggs and chose that particular brand coz it's the only one in packs of 4. The rest are 8 to 10 per pack. Gee... that's what we get from not reading the package. But that's not yet the worst booboo for the day...

Since we have salted egg, I told Ivy that it would be best to buy tomatoes to go with it. I went down to look for the nearest place to get the tomatoes. There's a fruit store behind our apartment building. I took my chance, hoping that they sell tomatoes too. There they are, outside the store, in large quantities! So many tomatoes, much larger than those in Manila! While picking, I wondered why they are softer than the usual. I got one anyway.

Ivy was surprised that I was able to get the tomato that quick. I told her that I got it from behind the building. She was excited! She got the tomato from me and sliced it. She told me there's something wrong. It's not a tomato! It's some kind of a fruit... which, until now, we cannot identify. We ate it anyway, but of course, not with the salted duck egg. But it really looks like a tomato... a red one, with the leaves on top!

We ate out again after that.

FALSE ALARM

2006-09-16T00:32:00.000-07:00

I thought blog can't be accessed here in China. It's here, in front of me!

It's easier to stay here than I expected. It's only my fifth day and I already feel so much at home in my place.

Here are some of my achievements related to communicating in Mandarin:

1. I was able to express my intense desire to the building admin people to get an internet connection asap.
2. We were able to buy a router and asked the computer store to program our router for our dsl connection.
3. I already know how to order our meals though I cannot read the menu. I would simply ask for their specialty.
4. I already know how to say McChicken, McNuggets and Fillet-o-fish in Mandarin. Thanks to Charol's electronic dictionary. It has some of McDonald's menu in it.
5. We already bought a washing machine!
6. I already discovered a spectacular pan fried dumpling and learned how to say it.
7. All installation and delivery guys make appointments before coming to our apartment. I had phonepals for 3 days! They kept on calling me to confirm and reconfirm appointments... and they all speak mandarin.

I also discoverd places I've never seen in my previous visit.
1. There's a park with a lake near my apartment. It's pretty by itself minus the lovers.
2. There's a gym and a yoga place above Rainbow Department Store. They are very clean and luxurious looking, much better than gyms in Manila.
3. Kim Sam Soon piggy is in every toy store, but expensive. the big one is about 1000php.

I haven't explored the area around the university. School starts next week. I have more places to discover.

See? I'll survive!

LAST BLOGSPOT ENTRY THIS YEAR

2006-09-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

I will be leaving for Xiamen today, September 12 2006. Unfortunately, I won't be able to open my blog and your blogs there. Please visit www.twixsleepyhead.multiply.com for my upcoming entries. I hope that you guys will be able to import your blogs to multiply too.

I'll try to get an internet connection as soon as possible... as if naman makakatiis ako ng wala... hehe. Keep in touch! See you on YM Sunday nights and random weeknights too!

Para sa mga gimikero't gimikera...I will be back on the 30th of January.

Miss ya all!

-joyce

PENGUIN TAKES A BATH

2006-08-31T07:28:00.000-07:00

I brought my dear Penguin to the dry cleaner today.

Even though I tried to postpone it for about 3 months (since I told myself to have him cleaned by his 1st birthday), I really have to do it coz he's dirty enough to cause my pimple outbreaks.

He rode with us (mumty and me)while we do our errands, all the way to the yearbook printing press, to eastwood for lunch, and finally I have to leave him there in the laundry store. It was a horrible sight to see him in a huge clear plastic bag with all those dirty clothes. Next time he has to take a bath, I'll put him inside a sealed clear plastic bag and put a note saying "Please take care of me."

This is gonna be a long week. I shouldn't be depressed in anyway coz my little fat penguin is temporarily not available to make me smile.

MY LITTLE CLIENT

2006-08-23T23:18:00.000-07:00

One day, Jason called.

Jason: Go-e... di ba you're an architect?
Me: Yes, why?
Jason: Can you build me a house in our garden?

Great. He wants a play house. Is that feasible? What materials can I use? Wood easily rots. High impact plastic is too flimsy. It cannot stand any typhoon or rain. Stainless steel is expensive. Plastic... duh, why not buy a ready made playhouse? Bamboo... There's also a ready made native house. Concrete is too massive. And so I cannot think of a feasible building material that would stand the weather if I would really build that house. The best thing is to buy ready made.

Me: Jason, the house will get wet.
Jason: Then put a roof!

Gee... the little kid thinks I'm dumb.

OATHTAKING

2006-08-23T23:09:00.000-07:00

We were finally inducted as new architects last Sunday. I'm so glad that I'm not a nurse, who are rallying these past few days coz their registration was temporarily on hold.

MY 24TH BIRTHDAY

2006-08-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

Here are pics from my brithday.

Would you believe, Charol is not in the picture, for the first time?! She took the picture herself. From left to right: James, Keith, Venice, Cheng and me.

There she is...

Here's a pic at home. I wanna let my penguin blow the candle.

ADDITIONAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

2006-08-01T02:46:00.000-07:00

To the people who have encouraged me thru their prayers... Drich, Lu, to my fellow grade 6 teachers at DVBS, etc.

To Panny... You're right, you contributed a lot!
1. For the spf 45 Neutrogena Sunblock as my ulitimate sun protection while commuting to and from the Manila City Hall and PRC.
2. For the endless supply of lotions. So kung ayaw ko na mag-aral, lagay nalang ako ng lotion.
3. For my AK watch, as my time limit guide during the 3 days of exam.
4. For my pretty office shoes... although this has nothing to do with the board exams. I might use my black Naturalizer shoes for the oathtaking. FYI, my Steven shoes is now in bad condition due to excessive use. I'm ready to accept new pairs of the same style.
5. For the supply of body wash, shampoo, facial wash, etc... For helping me save time and money for toiletries... duh! Kelangan ba talaga manggaling pa to sa US? By the way, Jason loved the Loreal citrus shampoo.
6. For staying there in the US. Sally and I have the reason to shop for more stuff, so we have something to send to you. Shopping is a good therapy.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

2006-07-23T08:27:00.000-07:00

I would like to thank the following, for without them, I will not be able to make it.

To the Almighty God, the provider of all wisdom and knowledge, who allowed me to pass, regardless of the unforgivable sin of missing one fire exit, and the guessing game written exams in the earlier days.

To my parents, for their unwaivering support and for feeding the unemployed pennyless reviewee...

To my mom, for preparing my favorite coffee jelly dessert, as my official food before going to review class.

To my mentor, Arch. Annie Guevara, for the tips for the exam and for signing my magical logbook.

To my driver Dino, for all the overtime work in taking me to school and to the board exam venues.

To the people who lent me their reviewers...
To Brian, the 1st person who handed me the box of knowledge.
To Janrey, Michelle and Lesley, for sharing the Venus compilation and more.
To Mumty,... I really dunno how she can source out such great amount of reviewers. She must be very sociable.

To Janrey, Denin and Michelle, for the tips.

To Ros, for the drafting board.

To my study group partners.

To Betty, for the Arkiboard blog.

To my enthusiastic classmates at JPT,... Sheila, Gino, Jericho, Vanessa, Joanne etc.

To Anna, for the positive outlook. "Ano susuot mo sa oath taking?" This is the only question I've heard while reviewing.

To my regular ym-mates, Risha, Charol and Chow... for the brainless talks on Sunday nights...

To Charlie the cat and Penguin the penguin, for entertainment.

To my fellow new architects, congratulations!

BOHOL TRIP

2006-07-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Clockwise from upper left:

Let me begin by saying that I'm not an animal friendly visitor. It's an afternoon when I visited the tarsiers, which are nocturnal creatures. I forgot to turn off the flash of my camera. The result... wooolah!... My nicest tarsier shot!

I did not expect tarsiers are sooooo tiny. They're only about the height of the head of my penguin.

While the tarsiers are tinier that I expected, the Chocolate Hills are much larger that what I imagined.

All floating restaurants have live entertainment. This guy here looks like a Mexican, though he's a Boholano.

Kids swimming in the river would suddenly show up and jump back into the river.

Waterfalls in the Loboc River terminates the route of the trip.

I had foot massage under a coconut tree... heaven....

Though I went out with oldies... they're cool! They're a bunch of old people who have nothing to do but to travel. On our flight back to Manila, they're already planning their next trip to Cebu, Davao and Laoag! It's interesting to be exposed in a different crowd who have been through a lot of tough times and with so much insights in life.

MEET GARFIELD

2006-07-21T05:53:00.000-07:00

My brother borrowed this cat from my uncle. Isn't he cute?! For the first time, Charlie scratched the walls to mark his territory and showed his aggression towards this foreign kitty.

CHARLIE THE BIG KITTY

2006-07-14T09:17:00.000-07:00

Meet Charlie, my sis-in-law's kitty. Looks innnocent? Don't be deceived. He jumps on people's lap to get attention, bites people (but only the playful bite), makes himself comfortable on our beds, steals butterscotch bars and the list goes on...

I'M NOT A SPONGE

2006-07-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

It's only been almost 2 weeks since the board exams, but I'm now numb about it. I guess the outcome doesn't really matter. It wouldn't affect my life that much. It wouldn't help me achieve more or do less in the future. Why did I waste 5 months? Because my sister and my mom told me so.

Last Friday, I'm supposed to join the Young Professional Group of Grace Christian Church. I wasn't able to attend their night / jogging at UP coz my dad said I cannot go. I cannot go out at night because it's not safe. It's very embarrassing to be an abnormal kid here. Imagine me... telling Enoch Hya..."Sori, di ako pinayagan ng dad ko." Hey, we are talking about a *Young Professionals' Fellowship* here, not fellowship for teenagers or kids.

I just went out with Ros that afternoon. She's the only friend who's still in school and the only person free to go out while the sun is still out. The rest of people my age are out there working 'til sunset. After Ros graduates, I'll be alone, since everybody goes out only at night, unless by good chance, there's no overtime work for some people on Saturdays.

It feels lonely often times, not being able to get out with friends. Everyone's free on Sundays, but that's my self-imposed family day. That's the only time people in the house have time to go out.

Tonight is my 1st attempt to ask my dad for permission to go to China to study. He said "no". He suggested that either I go back to my former work and stay in White Plains or work in his office. By the way, he said this while watching tv. I couldn't even get pure attention. I'm getting fed up. I feel deprived of good opportunities in life. It's so easy to be a rebel right now.

Imagine if I just do everything he says... I'll just be a big looooooser here. Getting a license for architecture wouldn't matter. It wouldn't even make a difference if I did not finish any degree. While other people are being pushed by their parents to achieve things, I'm deprived to pursue things that would give me that sense of achievement. Right now, other people of my age are having a quarter-life crisis about work, worries about board exam results, etc. Good for them, they're all far ahead of me. I'm still having the same problem as that of a grade school kid asking a dad for permission to go out with friends after school when the sun is down.

I believe I already gave up a lot just because my parents said so, and some of them are not easy to accept. I don't know how far should I go to do what parents say. I don't sense a good reason to wake up in the morning if there's nothing to do that would make life challenging. If I were a sponge, I would have appreciated it. I can sleep all day and live on my allowance...But I'm not a sponge!

Ms. Popular

2006-06-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

It's almost 5.5 months since the last time I worked in an office and started living like a student once again.

When I started attending classes regularly, I realized na mas high school ang feel sa JPT as compared to Cdep. It seems that people really know each other or at least, they try to interact with the people around them. Unlike sa Cdep, parang galit-galit mga tao in our class. I guess that's not the case for Mumty's class.

So I have to learn to be sociable, although I prefer to stick in my small comfy group with Sheila and Gino (Mumty's officemates). It was only last week when I realized that a lot of people in the class knows me as...
1.) Jang gyung no.1 as introduced by that lousy old #$$^%&*. Yp, there's Jang gyung no.2
2.) As their topnotcher *DAW*. Though some of them did not attend the UAPGA seminar, mabilis kumalat ang chismis. Yuck no... never nga ako nag top sa pre-board ng JPT ever.
Since last week, dun ko na feel na a lot of people are talking to me, eh hello, di ko naman sila kilala. They don't know me by name tapos tatawagin nalang akong Jang Gyung or they will tell me na... di ba ikaw yung top notcher namin? Meron pang makulit na nagtatanong ng study techniques... eh wala naman ako nun. 2log lang ako ng 2log pag ayoko na mag-aral. I just feel uncomfortable knowing that they knew me and I don't know them. I remembered when I was still in college, I told my mom not to buy me bright colored or printed shirts coz I don't wanna be noticed. I just wanna blend in the crowd. I hate being Ms. Popular.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY PENGUIN!!!

2006-06-04T04:56:00.000-07:00

I came home late from my review class on a Friday night. To my surprise, I saw the kids making party hats for my Penguin's birthday. I did not expect that they will be able to do such... I mean, who would really consider celebrating the birthday of a stuffed animal? We even had a special guest, Charlie the Cat, who happens to be JR and Carol's new pet.

Check this out. Justine's book looks really interesting. Somebody else is reading with her.

GOUTY ARTHRITIS

2006-05-10T07:23:00.000-07:00

It started from a swollen joint in one of my fingers, moved to another finger , and now it’s in my big toe. According to Doctor Panny, I should search for "gouty arthritis" in the internet.

from http://bone-muscle.health-cares.net/gout.php

"Gout is probably one of the oldest recognized forms of arthritis it was described by Hippocrates who noted amongst other things that "eunuchs neither get gout nor grow bald". It is also described as the king of diseases and disease of Kings. Gout is much more common in men then women who as Hippocrates also pointed out, are rarely affected before the menopause. (Hey! I don’t belong to this group! I’m only turning 24 this year.) It would seem that gout tends to affect those with a more affluent life style. (Really?! I think I should get a job right after the board exams.) It has also been said that sufferers from gout are often of more than average intelligence. (Wow! I’m flattered!) Gout once was mistakenly thought to be a disease of the wealthy because it seemed to be caused by eating rich foods and by drinking too much alcohol. Although diet and excessive drinking do have something to do with gout, they are not the main cause of the disorder."

"Gout (old name: podagra) or gouty arthritis is a form of arthritis caused by the accumulation of uric acid crystals (due to hyperuricemia) in joints. It is an immensely painful disease, which in most cases affects only one joint, most commonly the big toe."

I should now be avoiding animal protein including meat and dairy. Is it my over-consumption of ice cream this hot summer? or maybe it’s the board exam review… my intelligence probably improved causing this gouty arthritis.

DVBS

2006-04-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

Inspite of all the tragedies I've been experiencing regarding the board exam application and my fruitless review days, at least something good is happening in my other side of life.

Here's our room in DVBS (Daily Vacation Bible School). Bulk of it though is done by an artist. We only did the bulletin boards, the banners, props for the parade and Sunday programme.

Here's also Justine and Jason.

Here are pics from the parade. Our class won 1st prize!!!

And of course the pic of Grade 6 teachers. :)

Meet some of my students. They're really really nice, always cooperative, quiet in class, listens to instructions... Although sometimes they are demanding. Like for the crafts session every day... they would always call us... "teacher, teacher, please help me..." We teachers would usually end up moving from one student to another assisting them, or rather doing portions of the instructions for them. Today we had film showing. My hand ached for opening so many bottles of their drinks. Of course I have to respond when they call me... "Teacher, teacher, can you open this for me?" Oh well,... I'm dealing with pampered kids. Sometimes I wonder if I was like that too when I was younger.

MOMENTS WITH THE KIDS

2006-04-09T05:09:00.000-07:00

MARCH 32
It was the last day of March. Jason was in our house when he saw this one-page-per-day calendar(the one that you have to tear the page everyday). He said, "It's 31 already?!... Tomorrow it will be 32."

ICE CREAM
I went to a neighborhood grocery and brought home some ice cream. I gave Justine a stick of Kimmy. To my surprise, Jason asked for ice cream too. I never knew that he can be interested in ice cream when he hates milk. After a few minutes... (just look at the pic).

CHILDREN'S PARTY
Also, last Sunday, I went to my nephew's 1st birthday party. The event is quite a surprise coz i didn't know that my cousin already got married (probably in papers but without church wedding).
Anyway, Sally and my mom took the kids with us. The kids, being out without their mom, kept on dragging me as a substitite stage mommy. Sally and I were able to supply them a number of items for the game "bring me". Justine dragged me to the nanay edition of pabitin so she can have more toys. We went home with too much stuff, a grocery bag of toys and goodies, balloons, 2 mickey foot stools, mickey and minnie stuffed toys...
Food is great. Although they have real food catered... who cares?! I just got the fun stuff from the FIC booth and the chocolate fountain table.

PENGUIN'S NEW FRIENDS

2006-03-26T04:40:00.000-08:00

from left to right: eeyore, penguin, pooh and jason

MOM'S BIRTHDAY

2006-03-25T02:57:00.000-08:00

I have to cut another design class again... for the last time. I attended the short lecture and left.

Sally and I met at White Plains and started our errands. Our first stop is National Bookstore to get some balloons for the kids. Then we went to Estrel's to pick up the cake that Sally ordered. Indeed, it was a special cake, considering the price! I know it doesn't really look like anything extravagant, but it's good! It should be. It's worth more than cakes in Chocolate Kiss. Just before lunch, Sally headed back to Malabon to join my parents in their usual Sunday malling, while I slept in White Plains, so my parents would think that I'm in school the whole day. I slept for 3 full hours. (I really dunno why sleep is so sweet in that house.) Late afternoon, I woke up and picked up other food at Conti's. I came back home to start setting the place.

I'm glad everyone arrived just at the right time to surprise my mom. I locked the kitchen door, but we forgot to lock the door in the office. My mom insisted to enter the house through that office door. Sally inisited to my mom that they should enter the main door. She told my mom.. "Baka magasgas yung sahig." Duh?! But she was able to convince my mom anyway.

And there goes the surprise. Actually, my dad was surpised too coz he was not informed. We are certain that he would spill if he knew.

Married people standing up, singles sitting down.

LAUGH TRIP

2006-03-18T00:45:00.000-08:00

Some stuff I picked up from watching Extra Challenge for kids, interview portion.

Ethel / Paolo: Ilan ang dwarf ni Sleeping Beauty?
Kid : Wala namang dwarf si Sleeping Beauty…
Ethel / Paolo: Ah, wala ba…? Eh sinong may dwarf?
Kid : Si Snow White.
Ethel / Paolo: Ilan ang dwarf ni Snow White?
Kid : THREE!

Ethel / Paolo: Pag ang uod ba namatay inuuod?
Kid : Opo
Ethel / Paolo: Talaga? Bakit?
Kid : Kasi lilibing sha ng ibang uod.

Ethel / Paolo: Bakit walang salawal si Pooh?
Kid : Meron! Yellow!
Ethel / Paolo: (Turned to look at the poster of Pooh within the room) Meron nga!

So Sally and I tried asking the same tricky questions to Jason and Justine.

Sally / Joy: When a soap falls down on the floor, can you still use it?
Jason: No, it’s already dirty. I’ll ask mommy for a new one.
Justine: I’ll just wash it with water. (Smart Answer!)

Sally / Joy: Why is Pooh not wearing shorts?
Jason : Because he’s too fat. His shorts will not fit.
Justine: Yes, because he’s too fat.

Sally/Joy: If oranges are orange in color, why is apple not called red?
Jason: You’re questions are joke!

Some brainless conversations at home

Jason: I think Go-e (that's me) is in love...
Sally: Really? (wondering why I'm not telling her anything)
Jason: Yes... she's in love with her penguin.
Sally: How did you know?
Jason: I just knew it.

Me: Ang cute cute talaga ng penguin ko!
Sally: Oo nga... ang bait-bait pa, nakaupo lang dyan.

IF YOU'RE DIFFERENT, YOU'LL KNOW IT

2006-03-17T06:41:00.000-08:00

I realized lately that Filipinos have this culture of descriminating other people. Culture, meaning, it's part of life, without any malicious intent.

1. jologs/squatter vs. conyo

We say jologs/squatter when we want to express how unfashionble a person is in terms of clothing and accessories, or when someone does not meet our standards of proper ethics.

...And if we meet someone so well-mannered, well-dressed and who speaks english fluently,... we call them conyo. We label them who has all of the latest gadgets and moolah that we never had in our lives.

2. delingkwente vs. nerd

If you always submit plates on time and get high grades, people see you as a nerd or "hindi to tao". If you're the other way around, you're a delingkwente or pasaway.

3. muslim, bisaya, etc.

We can't label them all as Filipinos.

We often laugh at bisaya architects who says, "Pahiram ng triangol", instead of "triangle". I myself am guilty of that. Once, I went to a renovation project in St. Luke's with Ryan. The foreman told us, "Eto yung wall na i-didimulis", and pointed at the same time towards a wall marked with a big red "x" and the word "dimulis". I can't help it... I faced the side opposite of the foreman to hide my red face almost ready to burst with laughter.

Malls nowadays are also used as a venue for Sunday mass. However, they did not allow a formal mosque to be constructed in Greenhills, while these guys pray in this warehouse / back-of-house area of the mall.

4. Chinese ako... obvious ba?

Sometimes, I wonder why people ask this question..."Chinese ka ba?" Obvious ba and would it matter?!

I first experienced descrimination in college. One of our batchmates seems to be overwhelmed about the size of my eyes... as if he hasn't seen a Chinese in his entire life. He tried to mimick in his eyes how small mine are. (I won't tell you who he is...)

Same thing goes in my former work. People tend to crack this joke that I can't see things clearly with my eyes. I would just answer back, "Wide screen DVD format kasi yan, panoramic view pa."

The last was that lousy dean of @#$ (lecturer in JPT) who keeps on calling me Jang-gyung, or whoever she is. I'm pretty sure the whole class of more than 50 already knows me as Jang-gyung.

5. Papaya soap

There's probably a dozen or more brands of papaya soap available in the market. There's even one with real papaya bits... as if they're selling gelatin. These sell coz a lot of people wants to be whiter. In general, whiter is better. If you're dark, there's a necessity for you to buy one of these soaps to change your natural complexion.

Although people still tend to express it when they find you so maputi, in the same way if you're so maitim.

6. Boy whatever

Boy tangkad, boy payat, boy whatever... people tend to label you for your extreme characteristics that's beyond the norm.

I'm sure there are lots and lots of other examples. Here in the Philippines, if you're different, you'll definitely know it coz people will surely express that you are from another specie.

SHUCKS... I FLUNKED!

2006-03-17T06:28:00.000-08:00

I'm sad and depressed. After 3 weeks of studying building tech and construction, I still did make it in the JPT pre-board exam. The Cdep exam was fine, just a passing score... but the other one... shucks! My seatmate who is still full-time employed got a score much much higher than mine. I don't mean to compare myself with others... it's just than... shucks, I've been spending all my time studying!I already delayed my utilities module for this building tech!

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

2006-03-12T04:26:00.000-08:00

Taz, me, Anna and Jem went to the World Bex yesterday. Oks lang, quite an exhausting trip. Grabe, in less than 5 minutes, Jem was able to get a client. We were just inquiring about the new product at Boysen booth, then this guy approached us and asked if we are in what industry. He's looking for an interior designer for a Japanese friend. Jem's leaving for Bahrain anytime soon, so she passed it on to Momoy. I wish it's as easy to get architectural sidelines too.

I already got the comments from the past design plates in the review class. Comments are ok, or rather I don't care. There's a lot of areas for improvement, but the comments don't really affect me at all. As if naman gusto kong career-rin maging designer no?!

Usapang career narin lang... My last job was ok. Actually, it was fun, I don't need to design, but i was involved in a lot of projects. Everything's ok except for finances. I can't live with the arki salary. So I guess I have to open myself to other options in order to get the lifestyle that I want.

TIMES LIKE THESE

2006-02-25T03:12:00.000-08:00

Bad trip talaga! State of emergency daw. May curfew. Di tuloy ako makagimik. Anong klaseng place to? Wala na ngang nangyayari sa libo-libong tax na binabayad with my tiny bit of salary, wala pa akong freedom lumabas anytime I want... well, pwede naman, kaya lang, baka mapagtripan lang naman ng mga bantay na police / afp all over. And there's no reason pa naman to declare such state. Usual EDSA Revolution gathering lang naman yun. The government is so paranoid... kasi guilty.

Times like these, I feel that there's no reason to stay in this filthy country. Everything is so wrong. No decent job that would somehow generate sufficient income,... and if you happen to own your own business or firm... don't expect that everyone will pay you for what they owe coz taghirap nga.

Times like these, I wanna get out of this country and settle eslewhere. They say that people who go abroad will always remain as employees. Right now, I think that's ok, as compared to living in luxury that no one knows if it still exists the next day, and much much better than living like the president who probably couldn't sleep sa dami ng kasalanan nya.

Times like these, I hear people saying kung may balat ba sa pwet yung president natin... sa dami ng calamities na dumating during her term... as in one after another. Or maybe makasalanan lang nga talaga sha.

Times like these, I just keep on hoping that when I wake up tomorrow, there will be a leader who's not necessarily perfect, but at least man lang, may konting honesty.

KAY SHAW

2006-02-19T04:29:00.000-08:00

My Dad is kinda nice to me since Friday,... coz he wants me to show up in another kay-shaw thingy. According to him, he's a 29-year old guy, supposedly for Sally, but my Mom doesn't want someone a year older for Sally. I told my Dad that I don't wanna meet anyone right now coz I have no time to entertain phone calls. (Coz usually, the oldies would give the telephone number to the guy.) The genius is studying for the board exam. Unless the guy knows YM, maybe I would consider. But I doubt, he's an oldie.. 29.

I told Sally to be my proxy just in case I'm out of the house when the guy shows up. Anyway, we look alike.

FIELD TRIP

2006-02-18T04:31:00.000-08:00

After 7 years, I went back as an alumnus scout to my high school to join the field trip to Avilon Zoo. Sulit nga naman... all 4 alumni only paid for the entrance fee and lunch. Transpo is free (or rather shouldered by the students...hahaha!). It had been such a long time since I last used my neckerchiefs. Yep, we were required to wear type D (white shirt, jeans, rubbershoes, neckerchief). Buti nalang di kami staff coz they are required to wear their type A. (My type A is the printed white top, entremely green skirt, and the cadet scout neckerchief.)

Somehow, we were like baby sitters. We were on the same team as the elementary scouts. The kids are relatively well behaved as compared to my little devil pamangkins. However, kids are kids. We have to stay behind them... baka merong pasaway and mawala. Pero actually, kaming mga alumni yung pasaway... To our amazement sa snake area, we lost the group. Hahaha! We have to survey the area everytime we have to move locations coz these kids have the tendency to leave some of their things behind. I was shocked when Drich saw a bag of a videocam na naiwan ng one of the kids... although I'm not sure if it really has a videocam inside. But still, how can that little guy leave a big bag behind? Also, one of the girls lost her wallet. She pointed me the pocket in her jogging pants where she put her wallet. Grabe, ang baba ng pocket, ang laki ng butas and overflowing na with stuff like handkerchief, etc. Pano ba naman di mawawala yung wallet nya? But of course, di ko sinabi yun.

The zoo is only an hour away from school. Clean up to international level. Although there's a natural tendency for Pinoys na magkalat, their maintenance crew are relatively fast workers. Animals are kinda well fed and groomed... ang tataba and some of them, mga bagong ligo pa, unlike those at Malabon Zoo.

cute cute ng lion... nakabulagta, laging tulog.

They have these extremely big fresh water fishes, the arapainas (or arapaimas?). Sobrang dami nila... and they're like giant sea serpents with a head that resembles a catfish without the whiskers. And by the way, you can buy chicken heads to feed those carnivorous creatures.

Look at this peacock. He's the only male in he cage with 3 females. Mukhang medjo mabigat yung burden nya, specially when he's trying to impress the females, pero walang pumapansin sa kanya. Wawa naman.

Basta maganda... and of course masaya! Specially now when I'm busy reviewing, I have lesser chances of meeting friends, lalo na friends from high school.

PANIC, BANGAG, 2LOG

2006-02-14T04:36:00.000-08:00

The night before my brother's wedding, Sally and I are still rushing on last minute instructions and on what to do for the following day. Although we were able to finish before midnight, we still find it hard to sleep.

We have no choice but to wake up at 4am since the make-up artists are aleady waiting. Yep... they're sooo punctual.

While dressing up, Sally realized that the zipper in my gown would not go up. My dad tried to help Sally and so did my brother and my mother. They are all there behind me trying to fix that thing! I was already planning to go to the Claro, the dressmaker, after the family pictorials. I took Panny's orange gown that she used in my cousin's wedding, thinking that, at least, i have something to wear for the moment. Sally's also having a problem with her tube gown coz it keeps on coming down. When she saw that Panny's gown is too long for me, we switched. It turned out that her gown, no matter how many alterations it had beed through, is meant for me. We decided to abandon my original gown.

I was soooo sleepy the whole day. I really hate the usual monotonous wedding mass, conducted as if we still live in the Dark Ages. Can't they make it livelier?!

The venue for the wedding reception is much larger than I thought it should be. The projector screen is already the largest one I've ever seen, but only sufficient for about half of the place, consisting of about 50 tables for 12. At least, the newly weds loved what I did for them as they gathered other praises from friends. Thanks to the wonders of powerpoint... which is perhaps one of the most significant things I learned way back in college.

I can't eat that much coz I'm afraid of getting sleepier. So I went home sooo sleepy and hungry. We had a small chat at home with my siblings and new sis-in-law. By 8pm, I was asleep already.

left to right: Sally, Cherry (Carol's older sis), me, Ej (my niece), Charina (Carol's younger sis)

Charol and meeeh!

the little devils with the newly weds

OFFICIALLY UNEMPLOYED

2006-02-12T19:00:00.000-08:00

I thought life would be easier after I resign and be a professional student. Last week, I realized that I have more things to do than before.

Reading NBC and Fire Code took me a lot more of my time than I expected. 3 days for the NBC and another 3 for the Fire Code. Unfortunately, I can't remember right now the stuff that I read just a week ago!

Most of the time, I feel the burden of having this need to study fot the board exams. Adding to that pressure is the fact that Janrey is one of the top notchers,... eh nangungulit lang sha during our review days at CDEP... as in ang kulit. I can't understand how other people do that. When I opened the Fire Code courtesy of Mumty, I was shocked. Grabe... may highlights na! So lalo akong nag panic. FYI Taz, according to your officemate Gino, they discovered that you were listening to your audio recorded voice reciting your review notes instead of music mp3s. Shucks... di ko kaya yun.

Last Tuesday, I went out with my ex-officemates for lunch. Nothing's changed. Toxic silang lahat, especially for Jasmine, who ended up doing her usual job in the design department + my former job. As in kawawa si Jas. I also heard that she was assigned to go to Butuan for site inspection last Thursday. Buti nalang, I was already out of the office. My boss already asked me about going out-of-town trips before. If ever kasi, I should be the one to go to site. I can't afford to be out on the weekend of my brother's wedding.

Last Wednesday is teh first day of review class. Super olats. We extended 30 miniutes... eh wala pa namang lecture. we just got the course outline and the rest is chika lang ng lecturer namin. Feeling ko, sayang sa time. I could have radu about half a book or something with that time, considering the travel time of almost 2 hours back and forth, plus the cost of gas and o.t rate pa ng driver na masmataas pa rate as compared to my last salary. I realized na sobrang hasel pala pumasok sa JPT kahit na 200bucks lang binayaran ko dun. No wonder, Betty prefers reading on her own as compared to attending review sessions at JPT.

Last week, I was also rushing with last minute preparations for my brother's wedding. I went to Tiendesitas to search for the ideal packaging for giveaways to ninangs. My sister and I wants to put some beads or bohemian-looking accessories in addition to the ribbons. Kaya lang... grabe... super mahal if we want to achieve the glamourous effect that we want. A brooch is about 300 bucks... and that's not enough. So I ended up buying nothing.

I only met up with his emcee last Thursday. I have to fit in the audiovisual presentations with the program, so I ended up revising the two presentations. It was fun though... much much better thing to do than studying.

Last Saturday, I went out with Charol... (2nd to the last time na lalabas kami before she leaves for Xiamen.) Last minute shopping for *supposedly* what she needs to bring. Masaya mag shopping... pag madaming mooolah! Unfortunately, wala ako nun... coz I haven't received my last payslip and no allowance yet from my dad.

Next blog nalang yung about the wedding.

MINSAN LANG 'TO

2006-02-06T06:31:00.000-08:00

I'm not expecting this to happen in again until so and so years...

MY LAST DAY OF WORK

2006-02-02T04:40:00.000-08:00

31 January 2006. It was my last day of work.

For the first time, I held such documents that I've never signed before - Clearance forms and quitclaim waivers. Yes, I was forced to sign the quitclaim waivers even though I haven't received my gas and parking reimbursements and my last paycheck. I have no choice. It's a prerequisite to the clearance form. I have to trust the company to fulfill their obligations. Although salaries have been dalayed before, they always come. So I guess I just have to wait.

Although I was only supposed to stay until the 27th of January, I went to work on the 28th since they need an extra hand for the big project. I also have to go back on that Tuesday to help Jasmine. Somehow, I was pissed off, since she was still doing design and cad work at that day. I found our cad manager teaching her to do xrefs and all cad stuff. My presence that day is pointless. I did my usual work instead of traning her.

About 5pm, I waived goodbye to my *beloved* officemates. While driving my car out of the parking, I saw Sir Ed opened the window and waving and shouting goodbye. I never realized that the casement window of the office can be opened!

I left the office early as per my sister's request, since we're supposed to have a surprise birthday party for my dad. But they ruined the surprise. Sally wore a red shirt instead of her usual white and my mom spilled it out to my dad. When my dad found me and Charol at home, he asked us if his grandchildren already arrived. And so i realized that he's expecting a family gathering.

OFFICE STORIES AND MORE

2006-01-22T04:14:00.000-08:00

1. One merienda afternoon, Sir Ed ordered a cup of Ovaltine from Gemma’s Tindahan. I asked him why he preferred Ovaltine over Milo. What’s the difference anyway? Sir Arnel answered my question. “Di mo ba alam yung acromym na MILO?... Masarap Inumin, Lasang Ovaltine!”

2. Two of our printers that broke down must be taken to the repair store by our messenger. Our boss instructed that printers should not be put in their original boxes. Printers should not be seen as printers coz they will be transported by taxi… just as a precautionary measure against theft or any sort-of similar incident. The people in our office started murmuring about that crazy idea. Who would want to steal old printers anyway? The people in our office started laughing when they saw Mang Rey trying to put the printers inside a TV box! Sir Romy Q. said to Mang Rey, “Oi, wag mong itagilid yang printer,… baka matapon yung Freon nyan tapos di na yan lalamig ulit!” I was kinda slow at that time, wondered for a few seconds before I realized that he’s trying to make fun of the poor guy.

3. I finally got my diploma!!! Hopefully, my transcript will be available tomorrow. I had them redo it coz it’s written there that I graduated as B LA.

4. I discovered that Oreo flavoured Cello’s Doughnuts, is best with F.I.C. caramelo.

FOR THE FIRST TIME...

2006-01-15T05:32:00.000-08:00

1. For the first time, I refused Sir RP's request to postpone my resignation.

2. For the first time, I was able to use a dot matrix printer. Our encoder left the office early and I was forced to do a transmittal. Since we changed our transmittal form to that thing with integrated carbon paper type, we also have to revive the use of that ancient machine.

3. For the first time, I encountered a supplier offering me a bribe. If only she knew that I am noone in that office, who has no right to make any decisions... Hahaha!

5. For the first time, my dermatologist told me that I looked unusually relaxed. I told her that I'm happy coz I'm resigning from work.

4. For the first time, someone I do not personally know commented on my blog. To non-Filipino readers of my blog, pardon me for some words I use. It's a culture here to use Tag-lish (Tagalog and English).

5. Probably, for the first time, I will be requesting an allowance from my dad. Surely, I will not receive any paycheck for my last 2 weeks until after so and so months.

COUNTDOWN PART 2

2006-01-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

Finaly another work week is over. I'm already counting down the remaining working days. In a while I'll be typing my final final resignation letter. I can't understand why I was being tormented by my boss. Actually I dunno if that's intentional or it's just a post-holiday thing. Or maybe all people soon to leave the office were treated that way. Good thing I have something to look forward to. Don't worry, friends, I'm not depressed. Although I'm a bit bothered into thinking of what to do after. One thing for sure, I'm not satisfied with either my work, life after work, or both. Something's missing but I'm clueless on what it is. Maybe I'm just bored and I need some kind of an adventure.

Here are some activities that I never tried before:

1. Go fishing

2. Visit Avilon Zoo (is this the correct spelling?)

3. Hike to Taal volcano

COUNTDOWN

2006-01-03T05:54:00.000-08:00

20 working days left and i'll be back as a professional bum!

SINCE NEW YEAR'S COMING...

2005-12-29T22:55:00.000-08:00

Here are my goals for next year...

1. Cut down weeknight gimiks to cut down expenses.

2. Resign from work... I'm sure I'm the only one who could think of such things right now.

3. Study for the board exams... serious na talaga... pramis.

4. Reply to received text messages as soon as possible.

5. Find another Madagascar penguin for Jason... I can't understand why Sally and I love that little devil.

ITHACA

2005-12-29T22:15:00.000-08:00

When you set out your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon - do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your heart does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
atop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would never have set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

- Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933)
translated by Rae Dalven

To all my friends, may you have a blessed new year!

RANTS AGAIN

2005-12-18T05:03:00.000-08:00

Perhaps many of you are already sick of hearing me rant about my work. Please bear with me again. I really need an outlet.

Here are more reasons why I hate my work:

1. I hate the "tamad" and "comlaining" attitude of my officemates. I want to work in an office wherein giving your best is a normal thing.

2. I'm always descriminated,... due to my race and financial status..., my position as an admin architect... and for other indescribable reasons.

3. I'm not getting a new adventure anymore. I'm bored.

4. I don't like wearing a skirt while doing dirty jobs like searching for granite and floor tiles.

5. I hate the fact that I don't have a compact cubicle. I have to walk at some distance if i have to work on a computer and walk back to answer the phone and so forth. My materials are on the other end of the office... at the far far end. I have to have my shoosies repaired in like every 2 months due to excessive walking!

But here are the reasons why I'm staying right now:

1. It's so convenient, less than 2km away from home.

2. Compared to the other firms, the salary is kinda bearable, although sometimes delayed.

3. My bosses treat me well enough.

3 THINGS

2005-12-04T04:49:00.000-08:00

Three things i HAVE to do:

*Read my new book by Paolo Coelho... The Zahir.
**Add more decors to my Christmas tree to be seen by no one but me.
***Wrap some gifts i already gathered as of today.

three things i WANT to do:

*I agree with Charol... Shopping!!!
**Discover what i really want to do in life.
***Sleep

three things i read in the newspaper lately that put a smile on my face:
--> i don't read news paper or watch news on tv.

three things i'm crazy about right now:

*Work... Ayala Greenfield Clubhouse. It's almost done and actually operational already, but still have soooooo much pending.It's driving me nuts.
** Toffee nut frappe at Starbucks!!!
*** Food at bazaar!!!... shawarma, bibingka, kutsinta... etc.

three things i wanted to but wasn't able to blog about:

* My hell week this week
** My innermost thoughts and fears
*** Anything crazy I don't have time to think about crazy / funny stuff to write.

three things i'm really looking forward to:

*Charol knows the first one,... always something that i look forward to but it seems that it will never be... :(
** My brother's wedding
***Our family beach trip this Christmas

three reasons why i did this:

* Sabi ni Charol eh.
** Just to make people feel that I'm still alive and updating my blog.
***Wala lang

THINGS I REALIZED LATELY

2005-11-27T22:09:00.000-08:00

1. I was wondering why the rootbeer float in my high school canteen is sinking at the very bottom while staring at my Mcdonald's Coke float. But hey... the ice cream is resting on the ice!

2. I learned this during my trip to Xiamen. My nephew Jason wanted to pee on the plants in a park. I was forced to cover him up, which is really awkward for me. The only thing i wanna do is to have him finish his thing. Then I told him... "Jason, stop playing with your *tooooot*!" My sister started laughing and told me that males who shake their thing after a pee are toilet trained. So that's why men don't use tissue!

3. There is such thing as a papaya soap with real papaya cubes inside. It looks like a gelatin thingy actually. I wonder how people use that.

WHAT IF

2005-11-13T19:32:00.000-08:00

In relation to my previous entry, this is one of our non-sense discussions.

According to Janrey, one of our batchmates, Bridget, if he remembered it right, mentioned that, what if the masses or the poorest of the poor were deported to North Pole in large ships to decrease population and poverty in the Philippines?

Here are the reactions:
1. From Mikey: The masses are important to us. Without them, we will not have workers such as maids, drivers and construction workers.
(True. Reasonable.)
2. From Janrey: How can the masses survive in such a cold whether?
3. From me: Of course they will survive! They will be able to develop penguin products industry. Penguin sushi, sinigang na penguin, adobong penguin,… and the penguins will become endangered species.
4. From Janrey: Oo nga. Tapos yayaman sila… and the middle class left in the Philippines will become envious.
5. Also from Janrey: It’s not feasible. If we move the masses there, it will be our tragedy. What if mag-wee-wee sila dun tapos matunaw yung mga ice,… babahain tayo dito.
6. Michelle: (no comment… tawa lang ng tawa)

TAMAD

2005-11-13T16:28:00.000-08:00

yesterday, sobra na akong tamad. i knew that the topic is building laws,... and the lecturer of course is you know who. so i deliberately woke up at 11am (and my class is 8am). di na sana ako papasok. pero sabi ni janrey, oks daw yung lecture, medjo boring pero may content. so fine. pumasok ako ng hapon. sobrang boring talaga, na di na kami nakikinig. nagkukulitan nalang kami dun. during break time, we bought nagaraya and flat tops na pinagpyestahan namin para magising. kalat-kalat ng table namin. after class, tumambay kami for a while sa house ni mikey. ayun, kulitan like before. hay... sana di na ako pumasok! wala ata akong napala.

TRIP TO XIAMEN

2005-11-07T21:30:00.000-08:00

I brought penguin along with me. On the very first day, i found a kiddie hand print on penguin's tummy! Grrr... that little devil! Eventually, I realized that my 5 year old nephew was also in love with penguin, just like many other friends. He would often tell me, "Penguin is so cuuuute, faaat and cuuuuddly..."

This is one of the places by the beach where the island of Taiwan is visible.

These are the famous universities in Xiamen.
Take note of the seawater pool. I actually saw half naked men swimming in that dirty pool. it's not that dirty, but it doesn't look like an ordinary pool na blue. it;s more of natural lake na may lumot and all but tiled all over. (kung gwapo lang sana yung mga andun... pero.... wag na, di bale nalang.)

This is the most commercialized tourist spot in Xiamen. Tourist guides can be hired at 10-20RMB (70-140Php). This island has the highest ratio of resident to piano.

This is a rock mountain within the city of Xiamen, and also the most challenging task in all of our destinations.

Tsinoy pala si Rizal?! haha, i used to think that this is just a rumor or what not. His province is next to my grandparents'. He has a munument there with a better landscape than the one at Luneta.

This is a province... though it looks more like a city. If you want to buy wholesale garments and sell it to Divisoria, this is the place to be, the home of garments factory in China. This also happens to be my dad's province. Andito rin yung mga maiitim and not so fair-skinned Chinese. So now i know where i really came from.

and finally, i was able to see my ancestral house!

PANAGINIP

2005-10-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

I had a dream. I was back to the enrollment period of the last semester of school. I was freaking out coz i got KAS2 when I'm supposed to get NAT SCI2. I panicked coz i won't be able to graduate on time if i don't get NAT SCI2 and have 2 KAS2 records.

Then I saw Meg forcing Peter to be back on duty for ARC. He was inisiting to Meg that he already graduated from ARC, but he can't seem to convince Meg to let him go. Inaway ko si Meg coz feeling ko Peter can't defend himself.

Then I'm back to my own concern of NAT SCI2, wondering if i can still get a class.

Good thing I woke up in just a short while to reallize it was only a dream. I'm glad i'm not a student anymore. Unfortunately, in less than a minute, i realized another dilemma. I was supposed to attend an out of the office meeting at 830am, but then i forgot to load in my car the material board necessary for the discussion. WAAAHHH!!! The office doesn't open until 9am.

So that's the real thing. But it's ok. I was able to resolve the issue. I knew i was gonna be late for the meeting. I told Jasmine who was with me... that if God can't make me early, maybe he can make everyone late. True enough, the meeting started really really late, and some didn't show up.

DON'T READ THIS IF YOU'RE FRUSTRATED

2005-10-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

Friends, I’m getting burned out with my job again. Allow me to use my blog as an outlet for all my frustrations.

Here are reasons why I don’t feel like going to work:

1. I don’t wanna wear skirt everyday. Imagine me climbing up a chair to reach the marble or tile samples, or going through the tambak of marble and tiles outside the office with insects and all. I do that in skirt. And I have to carry all my preselected materials back and forth for approval. They’re kinda heavy you know.
2. I hate the canteen outside the office. Yeah, we were forced to spend lavishly for lunch to get a decent meal and to eat in peace, without the hearing the voice of Kris Aquino in Game k n b and “Wowowee” community singing as shown in TV in that lousy canteen.
3. I always do the dirty work. I spend so much time stamping RFA’s and RFI’s, which does not contribute in my learning experience. Suppliers and clients’ representatives contact me for appointments with my boss. Am I a secretary?!
4. I hate the beaurocratic system. Sometimes, I’m overwhelmed with pressure preparing the documents for release in time for the site meeting the following day, only to find out that our master encoder ignored that need of preparing the transmittal on time. So it’s really pointless.
5. Some people in our office are like government employees. Last Friday, one of our cadders wants to go home early. She said, “bakit sila, naka isang araw nang wala this week. Ako wala pa.” I’m so pissed off. I can’t even afford to take a leave to get my diploma, or to see a doctor for my back pains. I’m workload always piles up.
6. I used to say to my friends that admin work is basically everything except CAD. But now, I also some CAD work since for a time, our CAD people are busy. That’s fine with me, I can do their work when they are loaded. But why aren’t they flexible? When I’m busy and the CAD are not, they can’t even lift a finger to help the admin. It’s not that I hate the people personally. I hate the system.
7. I hate the way people steal my things. I already lost my scissors, stapler and 2 cutters. That latest incident, I was working on a big table, turned my back and it’s gone. I already had a feeling who’s the culprit. The Safeguard soap in the ladies toilet was suddenly lost right after the cutter. And there is only one lady moving around me at that time.

I dunno how I will be able to manage to go to work tomorrow. I’ll try to write on the positive side next time.

THE SWAMP

2005-10-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

This is a product of the need to get off from work to unwind on a weeknight.
Special thanks to Charol and Aldrich

LONGEST BLOG

2005-10-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

LONGEST BLOG

This is probably a long blog, since I haven’t really updated it for quite some time.

LAST WEEK’S HELL WEEK

Yes, it was hell week last week for the whole office. Last week Tuesday, Lola Goy, the mother of Sir RP, passed away at the age of 86. It’s sad seeing my boss in tears for many days. He can’t help it. His dad was lost in war and she was the father and the mother to him. It’s also unusual for a lola who would remember me when we met only for the 3rd time. How I wish I had a lola like her, who goes out for coffee or movie with her grandchildren.

On that same day, a big big issue on the big project exploded. Imagine my boss, at the emergency department of the hospital, while his mom is not yet even brought to the mortuary, this big client called him up on the phone and wanted to have an emergency meeting. Although informed of the situation, he said his condolences and still insisted on a meeting that same morning. How cruel. But I’ll just keep the rest of the issues as confidential. Our office started Saturday work again because of that. Of course I have to excuse myself since I have classes on Saturdays.

I’M FAT FOR ONE DAY

It’s a weird Monday morning when I was about to get dressed. I looked at the mirror and realized that my face is bloated. Dunno why. Then I looked at my arms,… they’re kinda fatter than usual too. I thought it’s just an illusion.

I went to the office and saw Charline, a former officemate hired back to our office. She told me, “Tumaba ka!”. Which I believe is true. She hasn’t seen me after I came back from my two-week leave, when I really fattened myself. I had in mind that I haven’t really lost those fats I gained at that time. At another time within the day, my officemate Ryan suddenly pinched my arm. I reacted by giving my trademark sungit reply, “Ano ba, sakit nun ah!”. Then he told me,… “Nanggigil ako… para kasing ang haba ng tulog mo nung weekend eh.” Okay, fine. Tumaba ako.

Just yesterday, I saw myself in the mirror… and I seem to be back to normal. Weird.

IN SEARCH FOR MATERIALS

Jasmine and I were assigned to do the material board of a Paseo project. We’re in urgent need of some kinda Mediterranean-looking colorful tiles for the exterior, something similar to Machuca tiles. So we were sent to MC Home depot in Ortigas. In addition to that, we have to search for abaca carpets and tropical-looking lamps for Ayala Greenfield project. So we’ve made our way and went all over the shops. We regretted that we were in our skirts and office shoes instead of our jologs UP get up.

The next day, I was sent alone to MC Home depot in Fort Bonifacio. I dropped by the house and changed to jeans and sneakers before doing my mission. But still, it was really exhausting and frustrating. I cannot find everything I need! Until now, I’m still having problems with those lamps.

When I shop for my personal stuff, I have that tendency not to buy anything for several weeks of going to different malls because I can’t find the right stuff. I feel the same way with building materials.

But at least, because of those trips, I was able to satisfy my craving for dirty ice cream… an on going longing for since I started working. Jasmine and I found an ice cream cart on the way back to the office, so we stopped for a break.

HYPER

It’s another weird thing this week. I felt so hyper for three days… Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, as if I had a caffeine overload, when I’m not really taking anything unusual. Sooo active that my boss called me “power”. I felt hyper inside, but physically I’m about to collapse. Well, I’m back to normal as of yesterday… bad trip,… it was hell yesterday and I really need that kind of an adrenaline rush.

MEET BRUCE

2005-09-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

He's one of the 8 cats for adoption from Sir RP's house. If you guys are wondering why I adopted this one... it's because he looks like oreo and he's really friendly. I tried letting him sleep in my room a couple of times. He's just like one of my pseudofriends. Never made any noise, sleeps in his basket all night until i tell him to get up. By the way, I'm not yet really sure if he's a he. I was just hoping so.

MY PENGUIN IS 3 MONTHS OLD

2005-09-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

One thing I learned from Madagascar is that he's a he. This cute cuddly thing had been my companion in place of my prodical cat Oreo. He's been with me for 3 months already and still has no name. Any suggestions?

I DID IT AGAIN and other stories

2005-08-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

I used to have a habit of having a long nap after school. Now I’m doing it again. I can’t understand why I can wake up after about 3 hours way back in college and I can’t do the same now. I keep on forgetting to remove my contact lenses, but that’s fine if it’s just a nap. One night, I fell asleep about 8pm, woke up in the middle of the night, read a little and slept again without realizing that I had them on. I only realized it in the morning when I opened the empty container of contact lenses. Well, at least nothing happened.

Yesterday is my first day of school… or rather my first day of review classes. It really feels like school. Ma’am Espina is like a scolding mother who keeps on telling us that we’re not supposed to be late for class. Eh, ang dami pa naming late, as in like about 2 to 3 hours late yung iba. It’s fun coz there’s Michelle and Janrey. Kulit pa ni Janrey, di natulog the night before the review coz Hiyas ng Arki the night before and he went out with arki pips. Yung katabi ko feeling ko weird. Mukha naman shang matinong girl, simple and basic in style. Gulat ako pag nagpapatawa si Ma’am Espina, she would react na, “wowowee!”. Eh dib a sobrang hate ko yun… coz yun nalang laging palabas sa tindahan sa labas ng office. Feeling ko ang tino ng itsura nya tapos ang jologs ng expression. Ang sama ko talaga. Lait ulit. Hehe. Pagbigyan nyo na ko… minsan lang to.

After class, I went to my sister’s house. They have a new rabbit! See my pic… According to my sister, she probably adopted a dog, not a rabbit, coz that little creature loves running around the living and dining room chasing and biting people. That cute little thing loves my jeans. Keeps on munching them like carrots.

ROAD TRIP

2005-08-21T22:29:00.000-07:00

Here's our first real road trip... to Lian, Batangas.

KAY-SHAW

2005-08-21T16:03:00.000-07:00

For the sake of those who haven’t heard of such term, kay-shaw is an Amoy word for introduction. Usually, this connotes to an introduction of a single male to a single female by friends, relatives, friends of friends, friends of relatives, relatives of friends, and whatever possible combination you can come up with. In modern English term, this means setting up.

So today is my 23rd birthday. I didn’t expect that I’ll be having this jologs experience before my 22nd year ends.

I innocently went home as usual on a beautiful Saturday noon. (Noon, since I wasn’t able to wake up early enough.) I was staring attentively at the TV watching Sweet 18 when the phone rang. It was my sister Sally who called me from her office downstairs. She said she want me to get into this kay-shaw thing. I politely refused, though I’m still single. Well, actually, I don’t wanna be bothered with my weekend dvd marathon. We hung up. Then she called again to inform me that her friends and their shoti are on the way. So I unwillingly changed my comfy short shorts to a more decent get up but my top was ok. I turned off the dvd and dragged myself down to the office. After a few minutes, they came, two sisters who are my sister’s business friends and their shoti. The sisters are quite cool and that’s it.

Typical Chinese guy whose skin is whiter than mine,… that I really hate…, who does his dad’s business and looks like someone who has no chance of reaching his own dream, seems like a barkada type of guy, always holding on to his cellphone…, mukhang malambot but not exactly bading, malapad… I can just imagine how he would look like once he’s married,… parang lahat ng ayaw ko sa guy. Although some of my descriptions are actually based on my gut feel of what type of guy he is. Worst of all, doesn’t even talk. If you guys ask me his name, really, I couldn’t even remember. I can only remember the name of his two sisters, Vicky and Wandy. I didn’t mean to be mean, but those are my brutally frank comments.

Aldrich suggested to me that I document all my kay-shaw moments, compile them and compare notes with Charol, who’ll probably experience the same thing, just for the fun of it.

So that’s how I ended up being 22, and I’m not hoping for more to come.

THOUGHTS AND MORE THOUGHTS

2005-08-16T21:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, I found out that the one who should be taking my place has backed out. It was depressing. At that same moment, I was blamed for not e-mailing a document which I thought is not really urgent. And so it was really a bad day. What if I wont be able to leave my job to take the board exams? I know it's not really my responsibility to look for a replacement since I gave my resignation letter on time and agreed to my extension until the end of the month. When I got home, i dozed off to sleep and woke up after 3 hours. I wouldn't be able to do so if my dad didn't call me up. I was just so tired.

So today is another day. I already have 2 potential trainees for interview this coming Thursday. But I don't really have much time to turn things over, which is something that makes me feel really uneasy. I know how it feels to be dumped with projects without proper orientation. It happened to me twice already and I don't want it to happen to someone else, most especially to a fresh grad.

On the other side, since I myself had been looking for a replacement who will be happy enough with the job like me and Patt, I realized how difficult it is to get that someone. This is not like cad work which is mechanical and with lots of available skilled people somewhere out there. This is something that involves a lot of patience, wayfinding and other things that are not to be expected from a first out-of-school job. I realized that I had become so comfortable in dealing with harsh situations that I would sometimes give strategies to some officemates more experienced than me. I had learned how to handle things. One of my bosses even asked me to change my resignation letter to a request for leave. This brings me then to the thought if I should really quit my job.

But future is very uncertain. I'm not sure if I will end up in my dad's office, in some other business or even in China. But most likely, I will not be employed in some other architectural firm.

I really don't know what I want to do and what I'm meant to be. That's what I want to discover soon.

Burger and Fries

2005-08-14T22:42:00.000-07:00

I dunno why i'm in love with burger and fries for the past few weeks! :)

Even if Baron already told me about the fries in the movie "super size me"... the fries that does not rot even after a few weeks stored in a jar... i can't help it. McDonald's fries is heaven! And there's new double cheeseburger. gotta try it one of these days.

MY BROTHER'S ENGAGEMENT

2005-07-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that my brother is already engaged... He's only two years older than me and his fiance is just a year older. But of course I'm happy for them. It's fun to finally get close to my soon-to-be only sis-in-law.

Here are some pics... taken with Charol's new phone which she bought from my cousin in less than 5 minutes after I introduced them.

TV

2005-07-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

Every lunch time, kumakain kami ni Patt sa canteen sa labas ng office na tinatawag na VEG. Jologs place at may TV na jologs ang palabas. Every lunch time, nakatutok sa channel 2, sa Game K N B ni Kris Aquino. Nakakairita nga eh, naririnig ko boses ni Kris araw-araw. Di lang yun, sobrang olats pa ng fashion consultant nya. Imagine, very retro colorful type ang stage setting tapos naka sequined evening gown si Kris almost every show.Once naman, finally she's in casual get up. Naka Indian-inspired na glittery top na mukhang pambumtis... as in yung uso ngayon na top sa mga tiangge. She paired it with jeans... pero naman, when she came out and showed her whole get up, punit-punit ang jeans. shucks baduy talaga! Minsan nga sinasabi ko na kay Patt na umupo kami sa pinaka malayo sa TV para lang malayo na ako kay Kris.

Eto pa... naaabutan din namin yung next na TV show, yung Wowowee. Isa pang ubod ng jologs. Every start ng show, they sing this theme song ng wowowee na parang community singing led by this guy named Willy. Di ko ma-gets kung bakit naaaliw mga tao dun sa show, eh paulit-ulit lang yun everyday. Feeling ko parang Barney for adults yung show... pero actually, masmadami pa ngang songs si Barney eh. Labo noh? Pero click 'to sa masa.

Oh well, sabi nga naman ni Patt, pasalamat nalang kami coz with that same TV, we were able to catch American Idol.

I'M LATE FOR WORK, PERO BLOG PARIN!

2005-07-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

today i decided that i wanna be late for work. why? i've been going to work on time, or at least, a minute late, but there's no one in the production whenever i get there. Usually, there's only Ate Cherry the receptionist, Mang Rey and Mang Junnie the maintenance staff... and me. so i guess it's pointless even if i get there on time coz the people i need to get things going aren't there.

Last Wednesday night, i went out with patt, betty and teeds. in our serious part of our conversations regarding career. i learned from them the importance of enjoying work. betty has batchmates who are now doing well in life, but she has no reason to envy them coz she's certain that she will never stay in those kind of job, like the one in ibm. she's in search for what she would really enjoy doing.

so am i. i can't seem to find that fulfilling job. i used to love my job. but not amymore, when i feel that everything seems to be a hindrance in getting things done. i have to admit that i'm a control freak. it's very difficult for me right now to just let things be... submissions and responses to correspondece and rfa's are always delayed due to this government system prevailing where people cannot feel for the need of the other team members... i've also been job of other people just to get my documents released as early as possible. i hate it! but for some weird reason, i cannot just quit my job. i dunno what it is.

i might not be able to last long in this job. i wanna take the board exams as soon as possible so i can do whatever i want after. hopefully, i can join my niece and nephew in xiamen. i wanna try living in another country temporarily so i'll learn to appreciate home.

and of course, there are more things to look forward to this coming february.

EWAN...

2005-07-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

It's another hell week.

Here are probable reasons:
1. I had a really bad mood because of my period.
2. I'm a cup waiting to overflow. I've been getting all rants from my colleagues and bosses. I'm getting fed up. It's difficult to get caught in between, knowing the issues and problems of both sides. I'm always a listener and I really don't have much of an outlet for my own concerns.
3. Charol hit the magic word. "Fulfillment". I don't have that in my kind of work. Oftentimes, i feel that I'm just a professional alalay.
4. I'm bothered. I feel something's missing. It's hard to explain. I'm not happy. Everyday is just another day to struggle to survive.
5. I'm frustrated coz I can't earn enough to support my lifestyle. Or probably I was just too pampered throughout my life that I can't immediately reach that level of what my parents were able to achieve. But I really don't wanna join the family business.

Board Exams Atbp.

2005-07-09T12:49:00.000-07:00

It's another boring week.

There's really nothing to do here but to work, eat and shop. But sawa na ako mag shopping, so kain nalang.

Again, Charol and I went out on a weekday night. As usual, food trip.

Nothing great seems to be happening with my work. At least now we were able to get the remaining 2/3 for June 15. And I'm really learning a lot due to my exposure in site constructions.

To take the boards this Jan or not to take...

Here are the advantages if i take the boards right away:

1. i'll be free by feb, just in time for my brother's wedding.

2. madaming relatives na uuwi sa feb... such as panny. of course, she has to be there for my brother's wedding.

3. i wanna go with justine and jason in china... wala lang, tag along. who know, i might be able to learn mandarin during the summer.

4. i just wanna get rid of that thorn so i can start doing what i want. whether to pursue the profession or to do some other business.

IT'S ALMOST 9AM AND I'M STILL AT HOME

2005-06-23T08:50:00.000-07:00

I learned from Patt that a number of people in the office have noticed that I've changed quite a bit since I came back from my vacation. Before I took my leave, I'm usually the last person to leave the office. Kulang nalang bigyan ako ng key, pero actually, once iniwan na sakin...hehe. But after, iba na. minsan pa nga I would peek at the bundee, since it's just a few meters away from my cubicle, and then I would cheerfully announce pa to my officemates na time to go home. B.I. ba? hehe.

Others would think that I'm dating someone. Everyday? Hello?! Yesterday morning, they were teasing me coz I left early the day before and I was wearing a smile the next day. Kala naman ng iba, it has something to do with salary, coz wala ng pang sweldo, so why work?

Bakit nga ba? Maybe because di lang ako sanay ng not-so-busy. I'm getting bored na. Kaya nga one morning, I just realized that I want to take the board exams so at least I'll be busy reviewing. And at the same time, a lot of things are bothering me. Siguro 20% lang dun yuung salary thing and the rest is "future". So di naman ako completely nagpapanggap when we discuss the difficulties of not getting paid on time. Of course I can relate to my officemates, but di lang talaga yun ang main concern ko. Life is more than that.

I was given a motivation to stay pa sa office coz I had been going to the site for the past three weeks and I'm learning a lot. Yun lang, the place is really really messy and yuck ng feeling after mag site. Kapal sobra ng dust that I get from there. Kitang kita from my site shoes. hehe.

It's almost 9am, and I'm still at Malabon. I'm stuck here. My brother fetched me last night coz brown out sa White Plains. Now I have to wait for someone to drive me back to White Plains. Nakakatamad sana punmasok but I have to do a presentation for Monday. Cute cute ng powerpoint ko. Feeling college ulit. :)

NATIONAL ANTHEM

2005-06-20T23:23:00.000-07:00

Charol and I have a new national anthem, which I'm posting here. We put this mp3 in our phones although the file is relatively large for an mp3 (more than 4mb)and listen to this song everyday since we got this. Of course no one will be able to understand a Chinese song. Charol's singing this song confidently yesterday morning, but it doesn't mean that she can knows every phrase. It's a sign of that she's a true gracean... in other words, "kabisote". No wonder she surived Chinese classes in high school. I'm so proud of you girl!

GUANG LIANG TONG HUA LYRICS

忘了有多久再没听到
你对我说你最爱的故事
我想了很久我开始慌了
是不是我又做错了什么
你哭着对我说童话里都是骗人的
我不可能是你的王子
也许你不会懂从你说爱我以后
我的天空星星都亮了
我愿变成童话里你爱的那个天使
张开双手变成翅膀守护你
你要相信相信我们会像童话故事里
幸福和快乐是结局
你哭着对我说童话里都是骗人的
我不可能是你的王子
也许你不会懂从你说爱我以后
我的天空星星都亮了
我愿变成童话里你爱的那个天使
张开双手变成翅膀守护你
你要相信相信我们会像童话故事里
幸福和快乐是结局
我要变成童话里你爱的那个天使
张开双手变成翅膀守护你
你要相信相信我们会像童话故事里
幸福和快乐是结局
我会变成童话里你爱的那个天使
张开双手变成翅膀守护你
你要相信相信我们会像童话故事里
幸福和快乐是结局
一起写我们的结局

CROSSROADS

2005-06-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

I thought things are just going to be back to normal once I get back from my vacation. It's turning out now that there is no such thing as normal anymore.

Work seems to be fine superficially. Major problems were resolved while I was on leave, and I find that really comforting. I now make more time after work. I talk to someone on-line or on the phone, I watch DVD's or do something just to really live the life after work. Here's a pic of Charol, Patt and me on a weekday night.

I enjoyed my time off-work and my hang-over after, but that gave me the opportunity to realize that I'm trapped in my own circumstances and I'm too helpless right now to do anything about it. I'm not motivated to work anymore since I can't even choose what I want to be and who I want to be with.

One thing I am grateful for is that I realized too that I want to live and explore possibilities. I just dunno how. All I know is my world is never the same again.

TRAVEL PICS

2005-06-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

I have nothing much to tell except that this is my most memorable trip ever. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

I AM A TENDERHEART BEAR

2005-06-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

	Tenderheart Bear You are thinker, organizer, peacekeeper, and leader all in one. You have a power to command attention and people listen to you. However, you are often so concerned about not hurting others' feelings that you don't tell them what they need to hear and this gets you both into trouble. But you always have loyal friends to help you out.
*Take the Which Care Bear Are You?* Quiz!**

THINGS I LEARNED LATELY

2005-05-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

1. 5.50 Php na pala ang minimum ng jeep.

2. kalachuchi na pala yung asa hair ni jasmine trias. just saw her in american idol live telecast.

3. only this week did i learn to sew... wala kasing mom, os i was forced to make my own secret pockets for jeans for my trip. grabe... it took me the whole afternoon to finish all 3 of them.

4. madami palang good buys sa monumento... meron sa uniwide and sa ever grand central. :)

5. masaya maging bum sa bahay!!!

MISSING LINK FOR ONE NIGHT

2005-05-23T16:11:00.000-07:00

This is offically my first day as a bum. :)

I'm now spending my entire afternoon checking other options for my one day of being homeless. Here are my findings:

1. There are available accommodations around the area of Queen St., although some are quite expensive. since I cannot make an on line reservation because I don't have a credit card, i just have to personally check them out on my first day.

2. As chow suggested, we can go clubbing! but hellllllooooooo?! Both of us don't drink.

3. There is a 24 hour mall. I can shop 'til i literally drop! hehe.

4. I can go to Malaysia! I'm now checking up some places of interest in Kuala Lumpur. The city seems to be beautiful in pics. I dunno how it feels like to be there. And this an opportunity to travel alone. :)

Only option 1 and 4 seems to be feasible, but option 4 is more exciting.

LAST DAY OF WORK

2005-05-20T22:57:00.000-07:00

This is actually like the last day of school. The only difference is that, I'm the only one taking a break.

I woke up really excited for my last day before finally taking my long awaited 2-week break. I watched the sunrise as it lights up the blooming fire tree of my neightbor as viewed from my cozy bed. Shucks, this is not so me to wake up that early. Actually, I have an early meeting in Ayala, so I have no choice but to wake up early.

I was rushing up the whole day for me to completely turnover the my work. I was excited and at the same time I feel soooooo O.C. in organizing everything I need to hand over to my officemates. Though I was depressed about my work for the past few weeks, I learned to appreciate my role in the firm coz I realized that I have serious responsibilities that no one else can handle if I suddenly disappear. It took me a great deal of time and effort teaching Tina, a cad architect, to do the admin work. I also realized that my job description, as compared to the normal job of an apprentice, is a lot more challenging. So I realized that I am quite priviledged to be able to get into my position.

Aside from appreciating what I'm doing, I also learned that somehow, I'm already comfortable with the firm. I know it is only in that firm and no other where there's a big big boss who will make pa-cute and tell me that they'll surely miss me... and that they don't want any other pasalubong... except for me to report back to the office... ASAP! hehehe...

I was really hoping that my break will recharge me to do better when I get back.

hay...

2005-05-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

I now got what i want. I can take my 2 week leave, about a week with my family and another week in Singapore. What is this all about? Honestly, I felt like a brat... or at least this is the brattest thing I've ever done. I talked to my dad over the phone and told him I'm too exhausted from work and I want a time off. That's how I got my permission to travel. How many among the young professionals can do that? I haven't even worked for a year. (although my working hours would probabaly amount to a year and 2-3 months by now.) But still, there's a sense of guilt in me for that trip, although I strongly believe that I deserve it.

I have to work to my best for 2 days more... and I'm finally going home. I know my dad misses me so much... coz he warned me several times not to even try to look for a job in Singapore. Of course I will not. I don't even know how to do my own laundry. I think he misses Panny too. She's supposed to come home after her exam but she ended up getting a job there until who knows when.

I can't help it, but i can still feel the stress from work until now that I'm home. That includes my own assignments and for getting the blame of being responsible for the holding of some other person's salary. I am too helpless but to accept all the false accusations. I'm too tired to react to such things. And besides, my idealism is starting to dissolve since I started working. My exhaustion will just make me sigh and say "Who caaaaares?"

I gotta get busy right now. I'm not yet done with my itinerary for my trip late next week. :)

IN BULLETS

2005-05-09T22:40:00.000-07:00

I’m kinda lazy today but I feel that there’s a must to write something in my poor unupdated blog, so I’ll just write in bullet format.

• It’s a really really hot summer. And tonight, it’s gonna rain. Shucks, I’m afraid of thunder.

• I feel obliged to apologize to my friends for always being bangag on Sunday… my on-line schedule. I’ll try to sleep on Saturday nights… really.

• Sometimes I wonder if I should’ve submitted a resignation letter instead of a request for leave. Work is really depressing. I don’t have a sense of achievement anymore coz I can’t get things done on time.

• Finally, I’m going to travel without an adult companion. Or at least, I don’t consider my best friend as an adult. Sudden change of travel destination and travel companion.

IN SEARCH FOR A NEW ADVENTURE

2005-05-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

If I'm a pessimist, I would consider this situation as a quarter life crisis. After this long weekend, I had now become more optimistic and call ths status a search for a new adventure. I'm just bored of my usual routine of working and sleeping and going out on weekends. Life must be something more than these.

So I figured that I want do the unusual. Here is a list of things I wanna do, although some of them are achievable only if I resign from my work.

1. Travel
2. Major major cleaning up in White Plains and in Malabon. White Plains is do-able, but Malabon is not if I don't resign from work. I mean, it's really horrible.
3. Have a major rummage sale after the major clean-up
4. Be a tutor to high school students,... any subject except Chinese.
5. Got to Xiamen and study Mandarin.
6. Be a full time reviewee for the board exams.
7. Watch all the koreanovelas available at home.
8. Get an interesting raket.
9. Learn Marcomedia Flash.
10. To just be a bum!

another quiz

2005-05-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to mumty for this quiz. This is kinda accurate.

"You Belong in London
A little old fashioned, and a little modern.
A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock.
A unique woman like you needs a city that offers everything.
No wonder you and London will get along so well."

AFTER ONE YEAR…

2005-04-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

Ros, Taz and I are supposed to drop by UP to have our lunch today before finally ending our weekend get-together. We then realized that it is already the graduation day of batch 2005. We dropped by Arki to say hi’s and hello’s and to just take a peek of what’s happening.

One year ago, it was my batch in their place, finally released from the bondage of school. Or at least, that’s how I felt when I graduated. But now is a more difficult situation that I’ve gotten into… the state of not knowing how to release myself from the bondage of work.

Last Monday, I met with Sir Dytoc to return his original plans. The coffee meeting turned out to be another lecture session… lecture but really interesting and philosophical… something I haven’t really heard for quite some time. I learned that he met with Mia just a few days before setting a meeting with me. Out of curiosity, I asked why Mia resigned from work. He simply answered that Mia and I are different, and therefore we react differently given the same conditions. I understood that I chose to stay in my work. I told him that I’m not giving up yet. I want to give myself a chance to try to live normally and work efficiently at the same time. He told me that for the fact that I’m trying to be normal simply means that I’m admitting that I’m not. And from what he knew ever since I was a student, I’m not normal. I really don’t know if that’s a complement,… that I can endure situations that other people can’t normally take. He also lectured that my mindset will definitely affect how I work. In other words, a positive mind will help me lessen the burden of my job.

And so I tried to be as cheerful as possible. But the unexpected happened this week. I had been blamed for my inadequacies, which are very true. It’s true that I cannot do everything that was assigned to me. Again, I left a ton of work piled up on my desk this weekend. I was conditioned helplessly that my work cannot be done by one person. Although VJ already submitted a resume, she wasn’t called yet for an interview. I got the impression that Patt and I were assumed to be able to handle our assignments without needing an extra hand. And so I was thinking of taking a leave to re-charge and to think things over.

To keep my sanity, I always find a way to go out on weekends with my friends. This was our itinerary this weekend:
23 April, 1pm – I picked up Ros
330pm – We met up with Taz in Shang
about 530pm – We reached Intramuros and walked to
Orchidarium for dinner
Until about 11pm - we toured Intramuros, hang out in the
walls area over-looking the golf courses, went to church
ruins,… etc.
24 April, Until about 130am, we hang out in Starbucks Salcedo
Village branch and stayed in the park.
3am – We finally slept soundly at our official sleep-over
headquarters
Until about 1pm – We dropped by 2005 graduation
ceremonies held at the new arki building
We finally went home after lunch.

I missed my college days when life’s problems are unreal, where friends are always there, free for hang out sessions… Or maybe I’m just in this stage of uncertainty… I really don’t know.

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW… :)

2005-04-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

Forget about the title of my blog for now. I’m not gonna start with that.

Friday about past 6pm, Charol called me up. She said she’s going to Market Market to have her contact lenses replaced. Hint, hint. It simply means she wants to go out. Although we just went shopping last weekend in the same place and went on with a gimik after, here we go again, threatening the existence of every cent of our wages. So I gave in, as usual. We went out for dinner and watched Miss Congeniality 2.

So I was asleep the whole Saturday, until I decided I wanna go to Eastwood that late afternoon to get my first pair of contact lenses. It took me two full hours to put in and remove and put in again those little plastic thingies. In the midst of that struggle, Charol called me up again to inform me that the and boyf had a time-out. I was sorry for her that I invited her to come and join me. From her house in Parañaque, she reached Eastwood City only to find me still in that optical shop trying to put on contact lenses.

So finally I made it. I went out of the store and realized that the world was such a bright place, even at night.

Instead of heading for the movies, we decided to try something different. We went to Gloss for our foot spa / foot scrub / foot massage. Actually, it’s not only the feet, the services include the legs. Heaven. That’s all I can say.

Since we already spent so much for 2 consecutive weekends, we will be trying out a cheap shopping next weekend… in Ruins, wherever that is.

MY VERY FIRST TICKLE TEST RESULT - ABOUT SHOPPING

2005-03-27T01:37:00.000-08:00

joyce, you're an Impulse Shopper

Were you born to shop? Maybe it's the allure of new things or the fun you have along the way. Or maybe you enjoy shopping to relieve boredom or stress. Either way a little retail therapy seems to do the trick. We wouldn't be surprised to hear that you headed to the mall for sandals and came back with a new winter coat. It also wouldn't surprise us to find some clothes in your closet that still have the price tags on them. A seasoned and enthusiastic shopper like you knows that things are here one day, gone the next. So if you like it, it's best to buy it when you've got the chance. And you'll definitely use it or wear it… eventually.

As for gift giving, you might have a stash of goods that you picked up at some point that you can draw from. If not, it's probably not that much of a stretch to think that you wouldn't mind going shopping for something. What's not to love about shopping and the thrill of the hunt? It's fun, exciting, and a great way to bond with friends. And if you find a few things for yourself along the way — even better!

2005-03-27T01:15:00.000-08:00

For quite some time, I had been enjoying reading Risha's and Mumty's blogs as they share their daily experiences. Their blogs make me feel asif we were still in college and know everything about each other. but then I realized that I'm not the ma-kwento type in my own blog. I don't really put in much details to share exactly what's happening to me. Maybe it's time to make some effort to tell as much as I can since I have the time and resources this loooong weekend.

"THE SUMMER SKIRT"
The last time I went shopping with Taz, I dropped by the landmark to buy a cutie summer skirt. It was a carnation pink slightly-below-the-knee a-line skirt with large white and light pink flowers. Perfect for a white 3/4 top... my self-declared office uniform. It's been weeks since I bought that, but I was able to resist wearing it until the last day of work before the much awaited Holy Week vacation. As expected, it got the attention of several people. That's actually my problem in dressing up for work. I don't wear fancy girly skirt, specially those with prints coz there were several people who would really react to my get up. Although the comments are always positive... like those boys like me dress up in girly attire... but I really hate gatting attention. So oftentimes, I would just stick to my basic black, grey, beige, white or denim skirts that I can keep on wearing without people noticing me. I wanna dress nicely for myself but I hate getting attention. Sometimes I wonder if that's possible.

"IT'S MEANT TO BE"
I'm not sure if I wrote something like this before,... but these thoughts had been circulating in my head for days.
When I was in high school, I was so busy that I really don't have much time to think of what course to get for college. I just eliminated everything I don't wanna take and.... walah! I ended up in UP College of Architecture. I entered the college without goals or whatsoever, but I enjoyed it and finally made it! So I guess it's meant to be that I graduate with flying colors in that course.
As a college student, I used to hate hospital architecture. They're boring. Everything is standardized. It so happened that my first job was in a firm specializing in healthcare planning. My impression about hospitals was reconfirmed. Once I witnessed those guys over there just copying and pasting schedule of doors and windows. One guy even explained to me that there's not much to stuff to play around with hospitals, so they can re-use their old files. Last June, I entered a firm known for anything but hospital. From Day 1 'til now, I was assigned to that big big hospital. My baby project too is the hospital, but the renovation of the old one. My involvement in hospitals is soooooo unplanned and unthinkable about a year from now. So I guess it's meant to be. Sometimes I wonder if I would end up as a hospital building administrator one day. Not a healthcare planner.... pleeeez.... I was never inspired by healthcare planners I've worked with. For this portion, details are quite confidential. Maybe I can share everything once the big project is done... and that's about year 2008.
Friends, you can correct me if I'm wrong. I believe that my unplanned way of moving on with my "career" is applicable in my "future" love life, if any. As my dear sis told me, the right guy, if any, will come to me even of I lock myself inside the house forever, if it's really meant to be. Her examples are our very own older sisters. My eldest sister was working in our office, some place wherein she cannot really meet cool guys. For a time, there was a water crisis under the Aquino administration, and so my brother-in-law was the one sent by his company to purchase water containers. So there he met my sister and started writing his love letters in YELLOW PAD...Baduy. But now he's really cool and realized what a crazy thing he did. It's meant to be. My second sister got married at a late age. It all started through this Chinese culture of "introduction". All of us thought she'll never get married coz she's always stuck in the office and never goes out with friends. Then one time, this guy named Ernesto was introduced to her. But he's not the guy. His younger brother Marcelo tagged along one day and he was the one who ended up as my brother-in-law. Now, that's meant to be. So I guess no efforts are needed in search for the right guy. Enjoyment of singlehood would be a practical lifestyle for now.

DEPRESSED

2005-03-16T22:40:00.000-08:00

I dunno why there are mornings when I wake up and realize somethings wrong with the day. It is not a mere feeling. Oftentimes, if not all the time, it is my own instinct telling me that there's a bad day ahead of me.

Just like this morning. I came to the office to work the job of three people - my own assignments, Mia's and Kuya Rommel's. Both of them were absent for the day. I'm not a superwoman. I have all the things in my head but I can only accomplish so little. So then I felt so harrassed. But that's not everything that made this day a torture.

I was checking some plans and realized the great deal of errors in them. It seems that I've been checking plans forever but in vain. Yes, it was really frustrating. I can't seem to connect this with my goals.

Actually. I have no goals. I just want to live one day at a time and grab every opportunity I can get.

I always wanted to travel and to live different lives, but those I have to give up because of my job. I let go of an opportunity to travel to Beijing and Shanghai for 10 days, a 2-week vacation to Xiamen and a 3-month study opportunity to Beijing. I never found time to go to Bohol and Cebu or to go on a roadtrip with me driving. I never had the chance to replicate my favorite cheesesteak sandwich from Brother's Burger. I have no life except this work, which I actually enjoy if isolated as is, but not with the way I let things pass by.

I dunno why I'm doing this to myself. I know I won't go hungry and pennyless if I don't work, but I can't help it. I have my own standards in terms of my own performace. I'm killing myself.

Thanks to my friends who are making effort to expose me to different sides of the world. Hope I can give you more time than what I'm giving now.

I think I'll be having my period soon. Sorry for the drama.