UP Concert

I went to a crazy meetup for an group i belong to and met some crazy weird travelers. We'd gone to Off the Grill on Timog Ave. and enjoyed some good conversation before we headed off to UP campus. They had a weeklong Filipino rock festival so we caught a couple bands. We missed the popular "Sandwich" band, but still enjoyed ourselves. We explored the booths and some of us got henna tattoos.


This is the only picture I have of the evening. We fit 8 people into Ronnie's car so we didn't have to take a cab. yehey!

Hot Air Balloon Festival Feb 10

On an early Sunday morning I headed out to Pampanga with Norman and his crew to see the last of the Hot Air Balloon festival at Clark airbase. Thankfully, Norman drove us and we didn't have to worry about public commutes. Although we came out around 5am, we still missed the balloon sendoff. We did manage to catch the liftoff of a couple balloons. The Philippines represented:


but didn't quite make it off the ground.


we sat around afterwards to watch some skydivers.




it seemed more like a kite festival. even batman made an appearance.


aand this turtle thing. I have no idea.

After a few skydivers, we went to Subic Bay and had lunch at the beach.



I had grilled squid stuffed with tomatoes and onions, java rice and a refreshing mango shake.




Rick, Norman, Laurence

You know what's not awesome?

Um yea getting bit all over your face by mosquitos. The past couple of days I got bit in my sleep and my eye and lower lip were swollen. I looked like Quasimodo. Now, the swelling's gone down but it just looks like I have bad acne. I hesitate on using DEET based products on my face. IF worse comes to worse I'll be getting a mosquito net and becoming a true filipina.