On Becoming Filipina in 10 months...

some thoughts

2008-07-15T16:54:00.000+08:00

So, it's my last few days under the grant and I'm taking a few moments to pause. It's been a wild ride thus far and I'm not at a place where I can even think about what has happened these past few months. I'll keep this entry a little light and just share a few things from this past week.

A couple days ago, I went to the NAIA airport to pick up her friend who is visiting for a few days. It was the first time I had gone to the airport there to pick up someone rather than me being the one being picked up or getting dropped off. Let me just say, the people are the airport are pretty mean! It was a bit confusing as to where we should go to wait for the arrivals and the airport staff could barely muster up a grunt and point in the general direction of where we should go. I asked one security guard and he just pointed to the highway. How frustrating. When we got to the waiting area, they required you to pay 30 pesos to wait by the gate. You can tell Krystal and I had been here too long when we refused to pay that exorbitant fee. So there we were chatting on the curb outside some cantinas, eating hamburger buns with thin slivers of meat and waiting for Krystal's friend. Well, as Krystal says, even the government has to make money somehow. When Kristen got there, Krystal was ecstatic. They ran into each others' arms and shrieked with joy, causing stares from everyone around. We Americans arer so loud.

The other day I was in a taxi and the cab driver was trying to flirt with me. He asked if I had a husband to which I lied and said yes. I concocted this whole story about how my hubby worked at a bank. We're both from the province you see. He's from Lucban, I'm from Lucena. We'd met in college and had been married for a blissful three years. Children? no, we don't have any children yet. Why not? oh.. we're waiting to save up. Oh? well maybe there's something wrong with your husband and he can't produce any kids (maybe I can get your number and we can be friends and I can get the job done for your husband) *Sigh* Can I just pretend being single and being happy aren't two mutually exclusive things here?

Smoothies and city grit

2008-05-20T11:08:00.000+08:00

I'd like to tell you a little story about my normal day here. I know mom has been a bit worried due to my lack of contact lately, but it's simply that I have gotten into a regular routine. I wake up around 8am and depending on how lazy I feel, I either get dressed and make lunch or run out the door with a slice of wheat bread and peanut butter.

Today was particularly lazy because I had been watching National Treasure last night. I also had this interesting dream about treasure hunting. go figure. So, I got dressed and packed up my leftover pasta for lunch and computer. Since I didn't wake up early enough, I didn't have time for breakfast so I dropped by the Fruit Magic down the street. It reeks somewhat of those Jamba Juice corporate places that are everywhere in the states but hey I can't complain. It's a bit healthier and quicker than the usual rice longganisa fare that's close by. Also, it's easier to drink on the go. There's something about mango smoothies that just make the day better. I usually walk to the jeepney station under the Katipunan overpass. Sometimes it's a death defying event and sometimes it's just a matter of crossing the street, depending on how fast the traffic is going. And then there is the occassional wind gust that makes the morning humidity bearable until you realize that along with it is handful of street dust. More than once I've been caught in that temporary swirl with my mouth open. Today it just managed to coat the smoothie container and straw in my hand.

I boarded the jeepney and was the last person before it departed for University of the Philippines campus. Now the positive to that is I don't have to wait too long to go home. The negative is that we're packed in like sardines. Filipinos don't really understand that not everyone is stick thin here and they pack an exact number of people on each side of the jeep regardless of how many larger people get on board. I was sitting on a couple inches of bench for the first mile before somebody got off. Oh, did I forget to mention that on your so very lucky days you'll be stalled in traffic next to a mac truck that belches fumes from an exhaust pipe directly pointed at your window?

I get dropped off at a UP jeep station to wait for the IKOT (that goes around campus) to a park that's near my work. This is an annoying stretch of street because it's usually filled with scattered trash, stray dogs and the two or three guys standing by the local carinderia who make catcalls at me. The situation is made even worse on those sticky hot days that have my shirt soaked in sweat in the less than quarter mile walk to my office building. Man I love the tropics.

Sorry folks, no pretty pictures for you. Perhaps I'll take some today for your future viewing pleasure

The Chinese Cemetery and Fulfilled Dreams

2008-05-12T09:09:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, Nicole and I went to the Chinese Cemetery. It had been on my to do tourist list since I first perused my imported Lonely Planet Philippines book. I had invited Nicole to come with me and take pictures, but it always seemed that in the six months of her stay here, our schedules were always at odds. Either she'd be busy or I'd be gone for the weekend. We had been scheduled to go diving yesterday but due to some unfortunate circumstances we found ourselves with a free day. I immediately contacted Nicole and we made arrangements to finally go see the Chinese cemetery. Neither of us were
(pictured above, Millionaire's Row)
really prepared to go, and I had left my city map so with the quick help of google, we set out to find where it was. We enlisted the help of a guide, Jun, who took us through some of the history of the place, as well as some tidbits of interesting information. The cemetery was developed in the 70s and is apparently the only one of its kind. Rumor has it the Chinese just wanted to copy the cool Filipino tombs and make them ostentatiously fancy for their dead relatives. The houses of the dead include private bathrooms, benches and some even have dining tables, chandeliers and air conditioners for the relatives who drop by. A piece of land, and structure will set you back at least a million pesos and sometimes much more. For every structure, there were good luck statues, such as this lion, red symbols for longevity and and chimneys to burn fake money and incense for the dead. The mausoleums were well maintained by caretakers and are a frequent site for both family and tourists. Some tombs displayed colored paper to indicate that family members had dropped by to say hello. I really liked the place, and it seemed a place that invited the living to remember the dead and visit once in a while, rather than the foreboding dilapidated graveyards I've seen.

This pagoda below is part of a memorial for one of the famous Chinese Filipinos. It overlooks the Rose Tower terraces, which are like the rice terraces of the dead. The bodies buried in these terraces were all victims of the 1968 7 magnitude earthquake that felled the RoseTower in Manila.
Another memorial that is one of the central obelisks found in the cemetery. It's the bright orange wall you see on the left side of the globe.

This is the Children's wall where hundreds of children are buried, almost all under the age of 10. Families pay to have them entombed there for 12 years and afterwards, they have to either pay to extend the "rental space" or take out the bones. Many of the grave markers I saw were for children who died at childbirth. They didn't have enough time to make an impact on the world besides in the memories of their parents and the 15 year grave markers.

Eco Park

2008-05-08T08:03:00.000+08:00

After the Aliwan Festival, Ryan invited some of us to accompany him to the Eco Park Dam for some photo ops. I really liked the place, but it seemed difficult to get there without a car. I remember when I was living in Fairview and I'd see it on the maps, but I never actually went there. Oh well, that's just another hidden gem in the city right? Roy, Jason and I piled into Ryan's car and went on a little detour. Found this sign that was quite amusing. We got into the park at around 4, after picking up some picniking food after the rain stopped.
Lots of picturesque scenery like the fishing pond and flower hill. Apparently it's a favorite for many wedding pictures, so we decided to model some out. Romantic at all?

After the picnic of cheese bread, chips and peanut butter, we walked around for a bit and I couldn't resist running off to the playground.

I love swing sets.

We cooled off a bit with some watermelon. It wasn't that sweet, but was still a refreshing treat. All in all I'd say it was a good day, despite the fact we didn't get a chance to stay that long. I would have loved to laze around and get some leisure reading done. Maybe we'll see if there's another lazy Sunday around the corner.

Aliwan Festival with new friends, May 3

2008-05-07T09:02:00.000+08:00

On the weekend of May 3, I had planned to be in Donsol swimming with the whale sharks. My plans fell through, but the weekend was salvaged along with my fellow couchsurfers. We attended the Aliwan Festival, which I can't really explain what the festival was about, but apparently they were showcasing street dancers from across the nation to participate in a parade. So, with my trusty compact camera, I made my way to meet up with friends at Chowking (that's a completely different story) and we headed over to the parade grounds.

We got there a bit late, but still had some time to take pictures of the different floats and costumes. It's times like these I wish I had a fancier camera, well that and I was a better photographer. Fortunately, point and click photographers still got some fantastic shots during the time. I loved the colors and music.

Unfortunately, while we were waiting for the parade to begin, there was a deluge. My friends Amillah, Helen, Ange and I sought shelter under the awning of a sari-sari store along with some Igorot dancers. Although it caused a delay, the rain did little to dampen our spirits and eventually, some of the dancers came out and danced in the rain. The show must go on!

The little flower boys came out to dance in the rain. After a while, the performers regrouped and the parade began (about 2 hours later). They really amazed me. As we were watching them perform, some of the street dancers were barefoot and completely soaked through. Not to mention that the parade lasted for hours down the streets of Roxas Boulevard. Kudos to them! Unfortunately, there weren't as many spectators due to the rain, but they definitely missed out.

For more and betterer fotos, if you please to CLICK HERE

Cooling off in the mountains

2008-05-05T12:48:00.000+08:00

For the third time in my first six months here, I boarded the bus to Sagada again. CATW held a young women's camp for university students as a training on gender issues. This time however, we took the route through Baguio instead of Banaue. The route is a few hours longer, but there are some gorgeous views and the road isn't as rough. Along the way, the bus stopped at different towns and women would swarm the buses selling their wares. How's that for service? You just reach your hand out the window, deposit a few coins and get soft drinks, coconut juice, snacks or even vegetables for the evening dinner.

I don't have any pictures of the actual camp, but the topics discussed were quite sensitive and I'd like to leave that more to memory. If you have any questions about it, I'd be happy to tell you in person.
The choice of venue for the camp could not have been more perfect. Although it was really cold in the morning, I think everyone benefited from the clean air of this little sleepy town. It's quite idyllic and perfect for those who need a little time away to think.

I stayed at the Sagada Homestay, which was a little walk away from the rest of the town, but well worth it. I had a balcony that afforded me a beautiful view of the mist that crept in the morning and the millions of stars that came out in the evening. The only negative part was that it was so dark I needed a flashlight to walk home and there were dogs that ran around and barked at me. It was definitely a test in courage.

After Sagada, I decided to have a daytrip in Baguio and fortunately for me, Ryan has a flexible schedule and was able to join me in my adventure. We started the morning with breakfast at Cafe by the Ruins, one of my most favorite restaurants ever. As its name suggests, it's built next to some ruins, but it has a character all its own. There's a section with natural lighting and some traditional art. I had some hot chocolate for breakfast and some delicious french toast with pure honey. I love the entire menu of the place, and if I had some extra time, I would have sampled all the food there.

Most of the day was spent at the ukay-ukay (thrift store). If you've never been there, it's absolutely amazing! Baguio is theoretically the strawberry capital of the philippines, but it should really be called the Ukay Ukay capitol.

I wish I'd taken pictures of it, but i was too busy bargain hunting for cheap clothes. Lately, I've been really dreading any sort of shopping because Manila malls suck out your soul little by little. I'd only be able to spend ten minutes in a shoe store before I go absolutely nuts. In any case, we spent the whole day poring through ugly weird clothes to find some gems. I spent a lot of money, but it was kind of ok because I was able to refresh my wardrobe without breaking my budget, and also finding clothes that were more my style.

During our shopping break, Ryan took me to Eat My Gulay/VOCAS. It quickly became one of my favorite places in the Philippines. We had to walk up four flights of stairs, through dark hallways, but when we got to the restaurant, it was like crawling out of the rabbit hole into Wonderland. The restaurant is built at the top floor of the building and the ceiling is a giant skylight. There are three levels and all sorts of eclectic furniture, art and handicrafts. Sort of reminded me of when I used to dream of living in a treehouse.

Above left: Ryan playing with his new G9 camera. I suspect the only reason he agreed on this trip was to practice his photo skills.
Above right: Me soaking up the skyline of Baguio. It's quite polluted and busy outside, but from within the haven of the restaurant i didn't mind so much.

All in all the weekend was quite stressful. Gender issues always take an emotional toll, especially in the context of trafficking, rape and other violence against women. I'm really glad to have some time to myself to relax before getting back to my research. It's nice to know there are some beautiful things in this world.

Dive & Trek Part II

2008-04-16T01:46:00.000+08:00

For the third week in a row, I was @ Mabini, Batangas going diving. This Sunday, I joined Ryan's groups for a daytrip of fun in the sun. Ryan was doing a special intro dive promo so a lot of people took him up on the offer. I joined along to go diving, along with a few snorkelers.
As always happens, I did not get much sleep the night before, so when Ryan picked up me and Krystal (Fulbright buddy), we popped into the backseat and promptly napped for most of the way to the resort. We were joined in the car with our friend Amillah, and new buddies Mikko, Alex, Victor & Ava. We took a boat to the resort, along with a couple families who were availing of Ryan's super fun summer deal.

The morning began with snorkeling while Ryan was teaching his class. These chicas were instantaneous BFFs. And yes, those safety vests are made out of styrofoam.

The resort has a house reef so as soon as you step down, you see all the colorful little fishies and corals you could ever want. This was Krystal's first time snorkeling so she was really excited to get up close and personal with the fish. Although the water was not as clear as the last time I was here, it still made for a great time.

I'm slowly making my way to "more experienced beginning diver", but this picture looks so badass hahah. You think I know what I'm doing :-D After a lazy dive around the house reef @ dive and trek, we borrowed a boat and dove at Ligpo Island. Unfortunately my dive buddy got a little sick so we had to abort the dive. It was still fun though, I saw a huge yard long fish and another lionfish to add to my picture collection I've gotten lazy with my picture posting, so all 100 some can be found here

I managed to convince Krystal to do an intro dive with Ryan after her asking many many "what if questions", like the probability of a cute jellyfish going crazy and attacking her. Wha-PAM! Anyway, Krystal got to dive in and luckily I was able to accompany them to take pictures. Krystal was a little scared at first but overall I think she had a great experience. Now maybe she'll get a little less annoyed when I start raving about my latest dive trips.

I think we all had a really exciting but relaxing time that day just being lazy, snorkeling and having conversations over chocolate wafers and Milo. Thank goodness for beach chairs and portable speakers. One of the best feelings in the world is sitting on a balcony looking at the stars after a good day in the water and a nice hot shower.
And of course a big thanks to our resident superhero Ryan, who after just a couple hours of sleep that morning greeted everyone with a Morning Person smile that's both enlivening and annoying at the same time (especially before I've had my coffee). After managing our crazy crew, doing 7 intro dives and then driving us all home while we were all passed out in the car, I have concluded that Ryan is either awesome or insane.

Sagada II: Hiking Excursions

2008-04-01T10:56:00.000+08:00

On our second day, we hiked and walked all day. I guess perhaps the drinking session the previous night wasn't such a good idea. I was still a bit sleepy but still energized after another wonderful breakfast. We began the morning by walking up to the Kiltepan viewpoint. Ryan had bragged so much about it, I was really hoping it was as good as he said. My mood was greatly affected by the weather. When the sun was out, it was a bit difficult to hike as I would get sweaty and cranky. Then the clouds would pass and I'd get some form of relief, so much so that I'd be practically bouncing up the trail. Thank god for random flat areas that give me a little breather.

As promised, it was definitely worth the walk. It was mountains as far as the eye can see, and despite the hot sun beaming down on us, it was a gorgeous clear day. If only we had packed lunch, we could have stayed there for a while longer.

Of course we were in great spirits after the hike. After an amazing view like that you can only be smiling ear to ear. Mm, downhill is definitely much easier than uphill. We were also quite enjoying the random wafts of pine trees once in a while.

After lunch at a strange carinderia behind the local hospital, we had a short rest, then hiked up to Ampacao. On the way we passed through some rice fields. It was one of my favorite parts of the hike since we got to see what farming is like there. The houses were simple and are these arranged rocks around firepits for group meetings. I think it'd be really hard to drop off mail as everything is winding and really there aren't any "streets" per se.

Finally at the top of Ampacao, we just hung out, ate some cinnamon bread and absorbed the fresh air and vistas. We had been hoping to catch the sunset there, but unfortunately the clouds didn't cooperate with us. It wasn't a lost cause though. The view was still wonderful.

The next day, I had been aching to go to the waterfalls, but we were all really exhausted and would have to pack up by noon. Instead we took a leisurely stroll to the Lumiang Burial Caves. I was disappointed that we didn't get to go inside the caves, but it was still a nice excursion. The last time I had done this hike, it was raining, I was exhausted and very much out of shape. Much better this time and I was able to enjoy.

Ryan says that they used geckos in their artwork because it's a symbol of a fulfilled life. I hope that when I die I can claim that too. Right now it's a process and I am enjoying working towards new and challenging things. I'm really glad for the opportunities that have been given to me in my life, both the chance to be here in the Philippines to see the amazing things here and also for the friends that I have met along the way. I'll always remember what was at Sagada but really it's the shared laughter that means more to me.

Sagada Round II: Fooding

2008-03-26T10:09:00.000+08:00

As some of you remember, I tried to brave the Sagada route in November during rainy season. In addition to being ridiculously out of shape, I'd been exhausted from the bus ride and trying to keep up with climbers. Needless to say it was a miracle that I survived. On a whim I joined my friends Ryan, Will & Riva for a longer stay in Sagada and let me just say it made all the difference. Four days in the mountains meant that I wasn't rushed to see all the sights and was a relief from the pollution that is Manila. This entry is mainly centered around food. Honestly one of the main reasons I went back to Sagada was to get a taste of yogurt and eat at the Saturday buffet at Log Cabin. More on that later.

We stopped in Banaue for a few hours just for lunch and a couple scenic pictures, but our main focus was the sleepy little town of Sagada (which is usually overrun with tourists)

Me and will en route to Sagada. Bumping around in a jeep for 2 hours is not that fun, but the view is fantastic.

Will ponders the meaning of life...
Well no not really, but I thought this was such a great picture.

We relaxed on the first day we were there, and the next morning we got up and headed into this little restaurant in the basement of a building. Maybe we were really hungry, but the food was absolutely amazing. Will had fish and the best stir fried veggies ever. The green beans were very fresh and slathered with a bit of butter, so it was hard to go wrong with that.

As they are still a farming community, almost everything on the table is locally grown. The market is supertiny but they have everything you need. Clearly though, their tents are not made for 6 ft tall foreigners. Let me tell you, if I ever became a vegetarian, I'd park myself here in these mountains.

After one of our outdoor excursions, we smelled the aroma of baking bread and steered away from our course home. We found a bakery a little off from the main road and bought 5 different kinds of breads to snack on. The best one was a pack of cinnamon rolls that were almost immediately devoured by Will.

A good breakfast might be a reason for me to wake up earlier in the morning. Usually I'm up by 8am or so because the sun is so intense in the Philippines, but I'm always cranky. In Sagada, I'd wake up and instantly fantasize about what I was going to have for breakfast. This is what I had at Masferre's. Bread, eggs and and yummy Sagada coffee.

The Yoghurt House was one of my favorite haunts. They make fresh yogurt topped with different things such as honey, strawberries, granola or bananas (or if you're a glutton like I am, all of the above)

So as I mentioned earlier, my goal was to have buffet at Log Cabin. As soon as I was invited to go on the trip I said "and of course we're doing buffet at Log Cabin" It was as good as I remembered. The menu this time was baked tomato, chicken lasagna, fresh salad with papaya blossoms and many more things. I only just remembered to take pictures of dessert so here it is. A white chocolate layered mocha cake with peanut brittle and strawberry toppings and a chocolate biscotti accompanied by strong Sagada coffee.

During our travel to Sagada, we met some German tourists who we would occasionally bump into on the main street. We spent our last dinner in Sagada with them at Masferre's. I had garlic potato wedges and roasted chicken. Mmm. (Pictured clockwise from left: Riva, me, Will, Nicole, Leo, Ryan)

40th Wedding Anniversary

2008-03-25T12:06:00.002+08:00

After being out of touch for a couple months, I finally made the four hour bus ride down to Lucena to make it in time for Tito Eddie & Tita Elsa's surprise 40th wedding anniversary celebration. Sometimes deception is fun! All the fam and friends were in on the ruse and making excuses as to why we couldn't make it out to dinner or whatnot. It was really great to see the look of surprise as they came in and figured out that the crazy party they walked in on was actually thrown for them. All the pictures are in my multiply account so feel free to peruse them.
Eddie & Elsa 40th wedding anniversary

Surprised with confetti.

Manel, Dimples & Jolo were the emcees for the evening.

The program was a reenactment of a wedding reception. They cut the cake, did the money dance and handed out the bridal bouquet.

The best gift was a refinished copy of the original wedding pictures in a new photo album.

After 40 years of marriage, they have a whole clan :-D

Hot Suns and Holy Week

2008-03-24T11:52:00.002+08:00

Another step into the world of kikay filipina. I went outside the other day and used a sunbrella. The weekend before, I'd gone to Sagada and forgot to bring my sunblock (more on the Sagada trip later). Although I didn't quite get burned, the skin on my arms were feeling a little tender. So, on my way to my errands, I broke out the ol' umbrella and walked out with it on a sunny day. The sun was just too intense for my skin. Although it's the in thing for girls to do here to make sure their skin doesn't darken, I felt a little embarassed. I promise folks, I haven't caved in and bought the whitening soaps and lotions just yet.

On another note, can I mention how much I hate holiday travel? After a relaxing lunch with Ate Liza, Kuya Dane and their friends, I got dropped off at the bus station only to find that there was a huge line for buses back to Manila. I waited about half an hour in line before I got packed into an A/C bus. While the first part of it was ok, it was soon crammed to capacity with people standing in the aisles and my head getting jostled by an oversized fake LeSportsac purse. Not to mention that the battery ran out of my mp3 player and I had to tolerate corny love songs and strange pop jingles on the radio for three hours. Traffic was horrendous, though at least for the most part it wasn't quite standstill. It added about an hour extra to my commute.

By the way, I'll also post more about Holy Week later. Although I didn't get to vacation like I wanted to, it was still nice to take a break from the excitement/ stress of traveling

Anti-GMA Rally

2008-03-20T12:21:00.002+08:00

Feb 29, 2008
Leap Year, Denver's Presentation and Anti-GMA rally.

The Fulbrighters commuted to Makati so we could all see Denver's end of grant presentation. Apparently in addition to leap year, that day was also a scheduled Anti-gloria rally (Philippine President) As a representative from the U.S. government, we're technically allowed to participate in any political rallies. Fortunately however, I snagged some shots of the crowds pouring through the streets from the skywalk above. I have a not-so-secret hatred of Makati and its skyscrapers. It's too clean in comparison to the rest of the city and an ill representation of the Filipino people (i think) Ayala Ave is just one mall after another and it's difficult to get to the PAEF building without going through at least four malls. Commercialism at its worst and most annoying. That day was different however. It reminds me that this country once fought for freedom and that there are people who see past the corporate monopolies that dominate the city. News reports said that about 15,000 people joined the rally, but reports on ground estimated it at 80,000. Did the rally accomplish anything? It depends on your point of view.

Baguio? You mean.. La Union!

2008-03-18T11:22:00.003+08:00

Feb 23-24 were marked as the yearly Baguio Flower Festival. Apparently there were parades of flowered floats and general enjoyments to be had that weekend, so Ryan invited some of us to partake in the enjoyment. Since it was right before a national holiday, i thought why not? Ok I lied, it really doesn't take a lot of effort to convince me to go on weekend adventures. Unfortunately, many people flaked out so it ended up being me, him, Lauren (engineer I met just a few days before) and Krystal's friend Jackie, who was vacationing from her teaching job in Korea. Krystal couldn't actually come but she sent her friend to spend the weekend with us. My cousin KM and her boyfriend were also going to come, but she had work till later so they were supposed to follow up.

When we got to the bus station, it was ridiculously crowded and buses were booked till 5am. It took about an hour for us just to get to the ticket booth. On a whim, Ryan said "We should just go to La Union instead!" well.. why not? So we transferred to another bus station and immediately booked tickets. (La Union is a beach town in the northern province, known for good surfing.) Along the way, I kept in contact with KM to make sure she got to the destination ok. To my dismay, she texted me at 2am saying that she's on the way to Baguio after all.

My bus crew (Ryan, Jackie & Lauren) and I touched down at La Union around... 3am. We parked ourselves on the beach while Ryan tried to find a room for us, but no luck as it happened that we had gone there on a surf competition weekend and all of the hotels were booked. We contented ourselves with napping on the beach and watching a beautiful sunrise.

a father takes his kids out for a morning walk

We finally were able to get a room and played around on the beach for a while and watched the surf competition. Later on, we walked around the market in San Fernando. Since we were prepared for the mountains, we didn't have many warm weather clothes. Jackie and I were in search of a bathing suit and Ryan had to find flip flops. Palenke's are quite fun to explore, as you can find lots of random things there that you may or may not need.

Ryan & Jackie on our way to San Fernando. We got attacked with a zinc stick on the beach just prior.

During the evening, we ended up hanging by the water and drinking beers while waiting for some bands to play on a stage.

We also met up with Zara (pictured top left) who was there to practice her surfing. Unfortunately, we three girls were just too exhausted from the day's adventures that we went to bed early. Ryan watched the bands and hung out with the drunk guys on the beach.

surfer dude

Lauren and Jackie both had to leave a day early since Lauren had to work and Jackie had a flight the next day. Ryan and I decided to go to Baguio to meet with KM. We had lunch at Cafe by the Ruins. Mmm hot chocolate

KM ended up buying a puppy in Baguio and named it Hegel/Reggae/Reggie/puppy. We played babysitters the rest of the weekend. I'd like to call him Napster, curiouser and curiouser but too lazy to do anything about it.

It turns out we wouldn't have missed the parade after all, but it was hard to leave La Union earlier than I had to. In fact, there was some ambivalence about staying in Baguio so we ended up getting on the bus back to La Union for another night of fun and relaxation. KM took surfing lessons and I just chilled by the beach with Hegel.

checking out the hot surfer guys?

my sentiments exactly...

Karaoke Tuesday!

2008-03-13T00:08:00.002+08:00

After the despedida of the guests of one of my friends, we decided to go to the karaoke bar. It was dark in there, so the only picture I got was of being crammed in the car.

Donnie, Will & Czar above.

Oh, and I should also note the tallies on my profile. I had not been home much, so not so many people to comment on my weight. Oh and I just recently came back from there and apparently I lost about 10 lbs so I'm McFattie lite now I guess. As far as McSingle, yes. yes I am still single and have no purposeful intention of remedying that soon.

Puerto Galera Part IV (Feb 16-17)

2008-03-12T23:13:00.002+08:00

My apologies for the very belated post. I've been too lazy to post on this little baby. So a lot's happened since.. karaoke night. This mid-February I joined up with a diving group so I could get some experience on fun dives. Amusingly I only knew a couple of the people I went to Puerto Galera with and only through a couple of parties that I went to. So with this rag-tag miscellaneous group, I set off for Puerto Galera for the FOURTH time in my life. (Note: I can't stand the place-it's always raining when I've gone, but hey it's the closest island paradise to Manila) Despite my hesitation at going there, I quite enjoyed myself.

There were a bunch of us on the trip, but only 4 of us went diving.
The weather was pretty rough on the ferry there. Luckily I had my dramamine with me so I was only slightly nauseated by the time we reached shore.

We stayed at Muelle Beach at a private dive resort. It was a cute area but quite far from town. Yes it was actually quite cold the weekend. Yes, sometimes you need sweatshirts on tropical island paradises.

I was scheduled to go on 4 dives, but I only ended up doing two. The pictures are from the first dive, as it was a pretty laid back dive.

This is Ryan, our token DM for the weekend. He's been diving um.. since I graduated high school. How much do I trust this guy? Well I trust him with my life since I was further than 60 ft underwater and had to rely on other people knowing what to do. Also, as this was my first fun dive weekend of course there were problems, like me not being able to deflate and sink underwater, my tank getting loose and my dive buddy losing his weight belt. Oh, did I mention the fact that I was nervous and kept panicking that I was going to run out of air? (I didn't, everything was fine and I'm sure ryan had a good laugh at my neurosis)

So, even through my minor problems, I did manage to take a few pictures.

This is Erick, my Swedish dive buddy. He helped me fix my tank when it started to float off my dive vest (BCD). Great guy, even though I didn't understand that he was pointing to his dive belt that had fallen off rather than a stone fish right next to it.

Unfortunately, this is the only underwater world picture that I'm posting. My stonefish pictures were too blurry to bother with. If you look on the bottom right corner, there's a pretty sea slug with a floofy butt.

After that dive, I was cold, tired and a bit seasick so I went back to the resort instead of doing my night dive. Apparently I missed out :(
Dinner was great though, with some fun company and amusing conversations. Afterwards, most of the group went to bed as we'd all had a long day. I stayed up with the guys for a few drinks. Before we knew it, we hit poolside for some fun pictures.

My Three Stooges. Mitsunori on the left. He's a Japanese tourist who was loads of fun and always had something amusing to say. Cillian in the middle- pasty Irish boy who loves to drink (a given)- outrageous and smart at the same time. Thanks for the discussions on Irish history! Ryan on the right- admirer of my "pinay pride" tattoo.

kind of a neat picture of me and Mitsunori. I think it took us 20 pictures to get something somewhat decent. For some reason, this boy would just end up with his swim trunks or butt in the shot at the last minute.

Oops i dove into the wrong end of the pool. Ouch!
Just kidding. I was swimming down and Cillian took the picture at the wrong moment. No, I did not head, and no I didn't snap my back in half.

The next day was also spent diving. Unfortunately I got seasick before the first dive, so I spent it lying on the boat bench with a towel over my head. Before the second dive, we rested at Monkey Beach (i think) and hung out.

Luckily I was able to hit the last dive and I saw a stingray and some other fishies that I can't recall right now.

UP Concert

2008-02-22T15:34:00.002+08:00

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

2008-02-21T19:46:00.002+08:00

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?

2008-02-21T11:49:00.001+08:00

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.

Scuba Diva'

2008-02-12T13:42:00.001+08:00

So, after about a year of saying "I'm going to take scuba lessons" and not really following through with it for one reason or another, I literally took the plunge and signed up for a course. Laura, my roommate from last year had taken classes with Dive Network and seemed to like the group so I went with them. Also, I couldn't justify taking two days off just to be able to take open water courses at a resort, and these guys were really flexible with scheduling. I had to buy my own gear, which is pretty pricey but in the long run, I'd rather have my own equipment. Besides, I don't know if I could deal with trying on a new wetsuit every time.

So, one night of classes and one night of confined pool dives led to a dive weekend in Anilao for practical skills tests in Anilao, Batangas at Leisure Dive Resort.

Dive Network crew were regulars at that resort so it was a really friendly atmosphere. We had some really fantastic buffet meals too, and all the coffee i could want.

sunset from the waterside.

Diving was great though, I didn't have any major problems, aside from my fear/annoyance at having to clear my mask. Usually I open my eyes underwater, but since I have to wear contacts for diving, I panic just a little bit since I have to do everything by touch. Our first dives were at Leisure house reef, which didn't have much as far as coral or fish, but gave us practice on swimming from the beach, Koala (found angelfish & moray eel), Cathedral, ( couple lionfish, surgeons and stonefish) which had a cross placed there somehow.

So, these next pictures are from my second day of diving. I didn't want to bring my underwater camera since we were still doing skills tests and just in case I panicked underwater, I didn't want to lose it.

our assistant instructor, Ramon

our "class" me on the left, Cecile, our instructor Tom Morato, & JB.

our last dive was at Darilaut, which boasted the wreck of a floating casino. All that's left now is the structure, kind of like a hollowed out rubix cube. We saw batfish there and random soft corals.

So, as of now, I'm fully certified and just waiting for my fancy ID card in the mail. Actually, this week I'm going on my first dive vacation with some people. I'm really excited and hoping to not have to put my "in case this happens" skills to use.

Puerto Princesa

2008-02-11T21:43:00.000+08:00

Almost done with January!

So, since Rachelle has not had the opportunity to see the Philippines without her huge family in tow and many botched plans, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I whisked her away to Palawan for an island getaway. It's the stuff you wish you could win in a raffle.

We only had a couple days but we made the most of it. The first day was laid back. We got there early enough to do stuff, but we didn't know where to go. We tried to go to the beach near our resort, but it was a little less than paradise.

kind of sad and lonely, but neat at the same time. Mostly mangroves with loads of hermit crabs to play with.
It stormed later that day and we were exhausted so we slept through most of it.

The next day we signed up for an island hopping tour, including snorkeling and a fantastic buffet lunch. We joined up with some people, mostly couples, and visited three islands. The first was Pandan. I really liked the coral and fish combination. There we saw a ton of neat things including

Nemo

and a COOL LIONFISH

this baby

yay underwater!

Now, we went crazy with photographs and luckily Rachelle was kind enough to post most of the pictures so I don't have to: http://picasaweb.google.com/rachelle.glorioso/WeekendGetawayPalawan

Trust me, you want to click that link.

Taal Volcano (Jan 11)

2008-02-07T22:10:00.000+08:00

On yet another of Rissa's Harebrained Ideas, I took the balikbayans to climb Taal Volcano. It is a world known tourist attraction and the famed island in a lake within an island in a lake within an island. Rachelle's cousin Louie came,and KM and Simon.

Anyway, we ended up getting dropped off in Tagaytay. After going to a horrid bar with horrid music, we went to a decent bar with decent music, but an awful sewer smell. Rachelle and I roomed together in a creepy room with a palm sized spider, dirty "sheets" and no water. I hadn't quite intended for it to be a roughing it out kind of weekend but that's basically what happened. The next day, it started raining during breakfast, and we were quite upset about our plans getting rained out. It did however ease up a bit and we continued our little adventure.

after waiting at Jollibee, we found a tricycle driver who offered us a boat package to Taal Volcano. We thought he was really nice, but not so quite. I'd rather not dwell on the negative, so I wont go into detail about what happened with him and the resort.

It was a 15 minute boat ride across the lake to Taal Volcano. Check out the fancy boat gas tank

The trail was not promising. It smelled like a giant pot of horse poo. They kept offering us to ride on the horses for a small fee, but the things were really pathetic looking, so we walked our merry way up while dodging piles of poo.

we got this yo'

great vistas along the way

i'm not dying on this climb

volcanic rock

I have no idea

lake in the middle of Taal Volcano

and the baby island

phew tired!

and down the mountain we go. It was raining much harder on the way back, so the trail was much more slippery. We wouldn't have minded except for the fear that the horses would also slip and crush us.

Of course the story ends happily and we made it all in one piece, though the smell of horse poo does linger in our minds

Mae hits Manila

2008-02-07T21:37:00.000+08:00

So of course I had to take the kid sister to Manila to see the sights and hit up the scene.
We didn't have much time there so I just took her to Mall of Asia

sorry, you only get me in the picture. All her pictures are in her cam.

a GIANT pile of butter/lard whatever sitting there. kinda gross

One of my favorite spots to see the Manila sunset. Too bad it's really beautiful cuz of all the pollution

There are always a lot of people bayside to watch the sun set. It's quite the place to take your date.

Kamayan.. of course

2008-02-07T21:05:00.000+08:00

After a trip to the shrine, we went to eat at Kamayan Palaisdaan. Yummy foods as always.

first or all we had to get the tires changed

floating dinig tables

Then hanging w/ the kids later. They're so silly

Kamay ni Hesus

2008-02-07T20:55:00.000+08:00

Tito Eddie & Tita Elsa decided to take Mae & me to the shrine in Tayabas. 598 steps i think, and we conquered it!

start up

long way to the top

Ate liza & kuya dane left their mark

Mae wondering why she agreed to go up with us

going down

finally onto 2008

2008-02-04T06:22:00.000+08:00

After the harrowing hike trip, I stayed awake long enough to meet Cam, Ate Liza's diver friend. Will also dropped by to visit for the night. The next morning, Tito Eddie took him on the Bigo tour and they discussed plant stuffs. After that, we had lunch w/ KM and her crew.

To end the old year, Mae and I spent the eve with Ate Liza, Tito Eddie, Tita Elsa & Dimples. It was a small party but we definitely rang in the new year with some crazy firework action.

ok, no she's not bored, I just somehow grabbed her drama moment.

fireworks

lights

FOOD

U.S. represent!!

ciao time!

So that's what it's like to celebrate a new year in the 'pines. Best part is that no fingers were blown off or eyes singed away during the fireworks. yehey!

Bantacay Falls: To Hell and back

2008-01-28T11:06:00.000+08:00

In another of my adventuring ideas, Kuya Ewin, the kids and I went to Bantacay Falls. The game plan was supposed to be a half hour hike followed by relaxing at the waterfalls. What we got was much more than we bargained for. Since I thought it was only half an hour, I wore only my flip flops. after all, that's pretty much all you need here right? It was raining a bit on our way there, but a little rain never stops the fun in the 'pines. I got my first warning when we were at our start point and an old man came around leading a horse. His galoshes were covered in mud. In any case, we pressed on because well a little mud never hurt anyone right?

We walked for about a hundred meters on a paved walkway before we hit the mud and I soon realized that flip flops were a VERY BAD DECISION. I kept getting stuck and within a half hour of pulling the flip flops out of the mud, I gave up and went barefoot.

At this point we're all still in good spirits.

a little stream to wash off some mud

Soon however, we were walking in knee deep mud. It's a horse and water buffalo trail so the mud was particularly deep. It was a slow going because of all the mud and stepping over piles of poo. The frustrating part of it was that our guide was wearing flip flops and his feet were spotless. Somehow he managed to just alight on random objects and not get stuck.

the view was great...

trail was horrible!

we got to another stream along the way to eat our lunch. We hadn't packed much since we anticipated it to be a morning activity. After three hours of walking in mud, we finally reached the falls. I don't know if I can quite say that our hike was all that fun, but it was definitely an adventure. The falls were really gorgeous, but very very cold.

trying to smile in the freezing water!

The way back from the falls was even worse. It took us almost four hours to hike back and I got left behind on the way and it rained the whole time.. As the most out of shape person there, and with no shoes, I was struggling. My arms and legs got cut up by the sharp plants along the way. Looked pretty gruesome. When we got back to the car, I found out my backpack was not waterproof so I ended up riding in the car wet. Thankfully though, we all made it out alive and it's definitely an adventure for the books!

View from the Top

2008-01-22T12:15:00.000+08:00

Well, hundreds of stairs later and at least 15 rest stops, we finally get to the last station, the altar and a gorgeous view. Enjoy the pics, cuz I poured my blood sweat and tears to get those for ya.

giant pakil sign.

caretaker

papaya anyone?

famished!

aaand walking down is the best part.

afterwards we dropped by Lucban

had dinner at a cute bossa nova restaurant

mmm rice, it's what's for dinner..

Mt. Ping-as Pt II

2008-01-21T12:28:00.000+08:00

The morning light reveals new things...

like this creepy haunted house...

abandoned dinosaur?

Ok, so onto the hiking up a steep road...

resting already... what a great view!

another rest stop. dirt road and rocks now, which is actually better than the wet slippery paved one we were walking on.

oh geez, are we there yet? please tell me we are!

ungraceful trip to the... "bathroom"

NOT FUN

sure it is!

rinsing off before the last leg of the journey

pretty waterfall

no.. not thank you yet.. we just got to the base of the stairs. STAIRS?!

Journey to Mt. Ping-as

2008-01-21T11:23:00.000+08:00

Again, I'm sorry for the major delay in all of my picture blogging. Sitting at the comp becomes quite difficult when you're an adventurer like me. Well, actually somehow all my adventures came every weekend this month. I ended up having to play tour guide for some fam so it was also an excuse to go see some places. It's almost the end of January and I'm still on pre- new years pictures.

I was raised as a very... safe child. My fam's not big on strenuous activity, so it's only now that I ended up hanging out with crazy rock climbers and jetsetters. I figured I'd try an easy route before I even attempt to hang out with the big leagues. To help me on this particular trial were KM & Simon. We planned to hang out in the Los Banos area, go to some hot springs and then climb a mountain the next day. So, we left Lucena via a very long jeepney ride. Nothing to note except that KM and I would play pretty eyes with a baby across the jeep and then later on the dad made KM put her spit on the baby to ward off the evil eye? Apparently she'd jinxed the baby and it was feeling bad and that was the only remedy. Hurray for superstitions.

The first day, we tried to get to Mt. Makiling, where UP Los Banos sits. There is supposedly a natural mudsprings there. Unfortunately we got started too late and an old guy met us before we started climbing up. He told us not to go up because there were "holdappers" at night. Since we were two girls and one guy, and it was kinda spooky, we decided to take his advice. We instead went to City of Springs resort. It was equally spooky, but at least a bit safer.

scary hallways

After taking a dip in the warm pools, we had a couple beers. When we got back to the room, we found THIS.

The next morning, the resort didn't seem as scary. There was a gorgeous lakeside view at dawn.

Christmas Day

2008-01-17T11:48:00.000+08:00

Christmas Day was spent at Kuya Ewin's house. It was a pretty big party with lots of kids and lots of games.

Of course the boys of the house were these three cuties

Despite the intermittent rain, it was still a festive day with LOTS of food.

Christmas Eve

2008-01-16T13:01:00.000+08:00

For part of Christmas Eve, Mae and I decided to hang out with the Argosinos. Since things were a bit hectic, it was just a small get together/ drinking session. We gave our presents and just hung out w/ the kids.

no inuman (drinking session) will be complete without balut. This one's a little ... overdeveloped though. Here's lookin' at you, kid!

Of course we dropped by Kuya Jali's place to see his kids too

Afterwards, it was an evening mass before the eve festivities with the Marinos.
Church in RGR

We labeled christmas stockings for all the kids. SO MANY of them

what party is complete without videoke??

Tattoos & Mangrove

2008-01-15T11:00:00.000+08:00

After the island hopping, Mae got a tattoo (not pictured here). We ended up meeting a lot of our family members there so it was like a little party at the tattoo parlor. I'm sure they were not as amused.

We ended up hanging out with KM and Simon that night and going to the Mugs Cafe @ Pacific Mall. It was the suck and they kept forgetting they DIDN'T have the food we ordered. Poor Simon ordered three times and waited over an hour for his food.

Finally Simon got to eat after the rest of us.

The next day, Kuya Ewin took me and Jawen to the mangrove plantation. It was originally begun by the Mirant Power Plant as a sort of penance for polluting our precious planet. There are several different species of mangroves that were planted there and it spans many kilometers. Surprisingly, the power plant has several good conservation projects to help decrease the damage of their waste output. We drove a little while from the main road along farmland.

I miss the lush greens of the province when I'm stuck in Manila

bridge to the exhibitions

me & jawen

I was gonna throw a fit if this was the entire route

thankfully most of the trail was like this. Although it was slippery it was quite a pleasant walk.

mangroves as far as the eye can see.

Lukang Pt III

2008-01-14T14:11:00.000+08:00

Pardon the blurs on the pictures. My underwater camera case works better in water than out. Anyway, here are more pictures from island hopping day. We ended up going to Lukang Beach again, so here are the pics.

the power plant that Ate Liza & Kuya Ewin work for

sea monster Rissa!

pitiful

Dimple's barnacles

water inside the cafe

kid at the town we rented the boat

Tita Elsa

Island Hopping

2008-01-14T11:12:00.000+08:00

So my goal when I first got to the Philippines was to step foot on 100 of the seven thousand some that make up the Philippines. To help me accomplish that goal, Kuya Ewin booked a boat for us to go around the islets right near my hometown. We went with Mae, Tita Elsa & Dimples. This happened right before Christmas so it was a great present. So far the count is now 21 and hopefully I'll be able to get close to my ideal number. Here are the pictures from that day. Again, too many to post all here so check out the photo album for more.

Yes, this counts as an island

crocodile "island"

turtle island
at the neck

A Kubo Christmas

2008-01-08T13:55:00.000+08:00

This year was the first time i spent the holidays in the Philippines since I was 5. Although I missed the usual tidings in the states, I was excited to be here. Another note about Christmas here. It begins in September. don't ask me why, but I'm sick enough of the carols and decorations by now. In any case, the celebrations at home began the Saturday before Christmas. We had a party at the kubo with all the cousins etc invited. Everyone got their presents early so we didn't do exchanges. My uncle rented a videoke machine and the kids very much enjoyed singing and dancing along. It was like a mini talent show. Due to the huge amounts of pictures that I have, I figured I'd save all you bloggers some sanity and post my choice "few". For my family members, and otherwise interested please check up my photo gallery here

Anyways, here are some of the highlights

kids games

horseback riding

buko juice

drinking

yummy food!

grandpa

sippin' coconut juice & eatin some food. ahh this is the life

baby red!

boys be chillin'

but wait there's more! more xmas festivities to follow

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-29T17:44:00.000+08:00

Hi Everyone! Sorry I've been lax, but if you're family you know how busy the holidays get here. Thank you for everyone who sent me a card through Mae. I missed you these holidays and I'm sorry I couldn't spend Christmas with you.

Things were the same and different here. Lots of presents and they had games too which were really fun. Lots of kids running around and money passed around. It's been great. I'll have to write more details later. Also, I've done a lot of adventuring around Quezon and I'll definitely be posting my adventuring pictures soon, I promise. Till then, miss you all and Happy New Year.

The Path to Diabetes starts here.

2007-12-20T11:30:00.001+08:00

I'm sitting at the office having a yummy little layered cake slice made of honey cracker bread, chocolate, nuts and what seems to be an entire stick of butter. I can feel my heart stopping now.
I recall the days of my childhood when I would buy juice from the street vendors and they would be so bland because they didn't want to use up their sugar and save a couple pesos. It seems that now that's definitely a thing of the past. Even meat dishes, spaghetti and pizza are all sweetened. I have to add water to all the beverages I drink because for some reason, everything has at least 3 grams of sugar. I hold back as much as I can, but it becomes difficult to find less sugar items. Not to mention the fact that exercise is very difficult to get here. I don't walk around too much because of the fumes coming by the subdivision.

Hopefully I can get back on track at some point before I begin to have some serious health problems.

Pandesal Frenzy

2007-12-19T10:42:00.000+08:00

Here's the one video I took while snorkeling. Pardon the shakiness. kinda hard to hold a camera while swimming against a current

Token tour guide

2007-12-17T12:58:00.000+08:00

I'd been aching to get out of the city and my friend Rafe graciously accompanied me since he had a friend visiting him. In the end, we had decided to make our way to Puerta Galera for some much needed weekend relaxation. We boarded the JAM bus liner to Batangas pier and then had a 2 hour boat ride to Puerta Galera. Upon setting foot in Batangas Pier, we were swarmed on by hawkers of all sorts asking where we were going and would we like to buy from them. It was stifling, and as the token Filipina accompanied with two white guys, we were a conspicuous group. All the hawkers would use me as the point person because they assumed I was the only tagalog speaker. From Batangas port to White Beach, it was a constant hassling of "Sir, sunglasses!" "ma'am snorkeling! boat ride! taxi!" Immediately, I was stressed out beyond belief. I don't like attention on me, especially when they are pressuring me to buy things. Thankfully, we had chosen Talipanan, which is a bit removed from White Beach, but much quieter. There were three resorts running, but we ended up choosing Mengie's beach resort. The proprieter was pretty welcoming and would make sure to inform us of the meals she would cook. I ended up sleeping on a mattress on the floor, and we had no A/C but hey for $10 a night I wasn't complaining that much. In the end there was a brown out, so the A/C would not have been utilized anyway.

anyway, who could argue with a view like this?

This is a little german girl that was staying at the resort. She's holding up one of the random cats that prowled the premises. Note the different colored eyes.
When we agreed to a little hiking excursion to some waterfalls, she enlisted her two nephews (?) to guide us. It was a strange situation, as I don't think they were really guides as much as being at the wrong place at the wrong time. It was a silent trek through pig farms, a "tribal village" and heavy terrain. The boys would just look back at us long enough to make sure we were still following. Now, these boys, despite their surly demeanor, were quite amazing. Wearing only flip flops, they quickly navigated through streams, dense underbrush and this random vertical wall of rocks and roots. We Americans were not quite adept. We were also wearing sandals, but it was a slow going because we were not used to the terrain. We'd gingerly step over wet rocks or try to find solid footing on boulders. I love my havaiannas, but I doubt they were made for trekking mountains. It was amazing that they didn't fall apart on the journey. It was only half an hour's worth of hiking, but as inexperienced and out of shape as I was, I was sweating and panting with the effort. Once in a while I'd hear the sound of running water and get my hopes up, but then it would turn out that it was just a mini waterfall cascading down. Finally we got to the waterfall, and though it was small in comparison to some others i'd seen, it was well worth it. The water was quite brisk, but welcome after my sweaty ordeal.

After the hiking, we gave the boys a tip and they went along their not quite merry way. We hung out beachside, and it was pretty relaxing. I swam a bit and although there were a lot of rocks, I appreciated that we were practically the only swimmers and there were just a couple boats parked in our neck of the beach.

The next day we reserved for snorkeling which was both really fun and really sucky. I loved the snorkeling part, and got to see some very colorful fish, urchin and oo a pufferfish. Luckily our boat guy had a mask for my nearsighted eyes, so I was able to fully enjoy viewing the ocean floor. Unfortunately due to a lot of boating and overfishing, the corals were mostly dead, but at least there were still plenty of fish to appreciate. Halfway through our excursion, it started raining, and got much colder. We had to abort after a couple hours because we all had goosebumps and were just generally miserable.

Pat feeding fish

urchin hiding

fishies

coral

blue starfishes were common along the corals

the boatman's kid came with us. when we got to a beach, they dug up a couple crabs. he tied them to twine and sort of dragged them around for a while. He'd let the string go slack and the crab would think he was free, then he'd get yanked back. It was a bit disturbing

It pretty much went downhill from there, as the rain continued. We had a mix up and ended up getting two tricycle drivers so I had to pay off one to leave and one to take us back to White Beach. Then our ferry was booked, so we had to take another ferry (lost out on $150 each). Oh, and it was still windy on our ferry back so I started getting a little seasick. Fortunately I took some dramamine so I was able to hang on for dear life without puking it all up. Half of the ride though, I had my eyes focused on the peak of an island, while clutching the side of the boat. After the harrowing experience, we couldn't get refunds because no one was at the ticketing office. And then to top it all off, we kept getting harassed when we left the terminal. "taxi? peanut brittle?" As token brown person, I again kept getting asked if whether the white boys wanted taxis or souvenirs. At one point this one lady followed me for ten minutes and kept telling me that I should buy something from her so she has some money for Christmas. Sorry lady, barking up the wrong tree with your pity me gimmick. Everyone needs money for Christmas, and you're not getting me to give in by stalking me into my bus. The ride back to Manila was riddled with traffic, but at least this time I had the company of two fun guys and some random 80s music blaring in the bus speakers.

I'm in Love

2007-12-14T11:39:00.000+08:00

So last night, I was getting the clothes I had hung up to dry from a couple days ago. I look over near the washing machine and there's something moving in the darkness. At first, I was scared, I thought it was a rat coming to give me rabies. Instead, I peered closer and it was a tiny tiny kitten, nestled in a couple pieces of laundry that I had yet to handwash. It probably was not more than a couple days old, and still a bit trembly and unable to walk. I substituted my laundry for a larger dishcloth for her to nestle in. I was scared that her mom had abandoned her, but when I checked this morning, the mom and dad were both peeking at the corner of my yard, obviously kind of freaking out that I was near their baby. I went back into my house. When I checked on them again, they were all snuggled together in the container. I was surprised they all fit, but they looked quite comfy. I'm really hoping they stay for a while because I love kitties. I'm not around at home that much so I can't get anything, and I'd hate to have to find a home for a housepet once I leave, so this is the closest I'll get.

the little kitten! The dad is almost completely white, and he has these intense blue eyes. I think I'll call him Frank Sinatra.

Resistence is futile

2007-12-12T11:51:00.000+08:00

As much as I want to blend in here, I am hopelessly American. I struggle to maintain the independence i felt in the states. I don't mind traveling around Manila alone, but I do recognize that it's a bit more dangerous at night, so more often than not, I beg people to go with me to places. I absolutely refuse to buy any skin whitening products and I am avoiding using my umbrella unles it really is raining. Asking questions is more difficult for me. I hate asking for directions, but a lot of the time it has become a necessity, especially at the malls where directories don't exist, and there are random nooks and crannies designed to get the consumer lost in a sea of retail stores. One thing i did give in on was that I bought a pitaka the other day (small coin purse) It is quite convenient for taking the public transportation and having my handfuls of coins in one place. Also, I get to hide my larger bills in my real wallet stashed away, so I don't get targetted for the random jeepney muggings.

Sometimes, you just gotta give in to avoid being singled out as the vulnerable tourist.

No Green Card for you!

2007-12-07T12:32:00.000+08:00

So, I was depositing some mail at the post office, which is basically a stall in the middle of the Market Mall labeled "Post Office" and I ended up getting hassled by the postal worker. I tried to speak in tagalog but had to give up halfway through it. The guy kept asking personal questions, and when it came to "Do you have a boyfriend?" to which i replied YES to avoid further hassling, he said well i'd be the perfect girl to ligaw (or woo as you english speakers know it) because I'm a U.S. citizen and I could bring him to the states. But then he already was married so too bad, but hey he has a sixteen year old son who's really handsome. Um yea mr. first of all that's a bit illegal, and second of all I'm not into dating someone who's using me for my citizenship status. Move along buddy! Then he asks if my boyfriend is "puti" (white) which i said yes (well why not. when you're in the states... do as the romans?) and then he asks me why i don't like Filipino boys. *sigh* Really there's no right answer to avoid people prying into my business.

NuRock Awards and Despedida

2007-12-07T11:58:00.000+08:00

On Friday, I was invited out to the NuRock Awards with KM and her friends at the World Trade Center in.. Pasig i think. Actually this is the largest concert I've been to really. Although I like live music, I usually prefer smaller venues. Anyway, it was a pretty long event, beginning at around 8:20 and ending close to midnight. It was an awards ceremony for the popular filipino bands, including some old faves that I actually recognize: Kamikaze, Rivermaya, Bamboo. I also found a couple bands, Imago and Sinosikat? that i will probably buy a couple albums of. They're fairly alternative and definitely Tagalog. The hosts for the show were Asia something (softcore porn actress) and a local comedian. They were somewhat amusing, but i think the girl was pushing it with the sex references. Tacky and not really entertaining.

Rock Awards pictures.

Afterwards, Noelle, another intern from CATW was going out for last drinks before she left for Bohol, so I took KM and Simon with me to Greenbelt. We met up with Noelle, her friend Craig, and fellow fulbrighters Rafe, Andrew and Will at m-cafe. It's a lounge abutting the famous Ayala Museum and this evening was sort of a ..brazilian house music. We danced a bit, but it was too crowded for my tastes. Also, I met up with Mackey, who was a fellow partier the last time i was in the 'pines. Later on we went to my previous haunt, Absinth. They were playing mostly hip-hop and the tiny dance floor got ridiculously crowded later in the evening. We had loads of fun and I found out that Will is a dancing maniac. It was really strange to have four guys over 6ft around. It felt like I was back in the states.

Noelle with the dancing machine

Afterwards, KM Simon and I headed out and met up with Will, who had previously disappeared. We ended up at McDonalds for some late night merienda.

Will found a frog and had to tamper with it.

Vampires!!

2007-12-05T16:13:00.000+08:00

Last night, I got plenty of rest. Since I was sick the whole day yesterday, I slept so much, then called it a night at 10pm. However, I woke up groggily around 2am and felt sort of itchy all over. I turned on the lights and somehow I managed to get bit all over my legs and one right in the middle of my back. I looked around and there were two mosquitoes floating lazily around the room, obviously drunk on my blood!! After giving them a violent end with a rolled up magazine, I applied some Tiger Balm to my dime sized bug bites and grumbled back to bed.

Hopefully I wont contract some bugborne illness.

Pagbilao Fiesta

2007-12-03T11:06:00.000+08:00

So I went home for the weekend because it was the Pagbilao Fiesta on the 25th. What does that mean? Well, the fiesta is in honor of our patron of the town, St. Catherine of Alexandria, who is incidentally also my confirmation saint. Anyways, it's a chance for the town to celebrate. In reality, it's more an excuse to eat and drink a lot. Here are some pics from my weekend.

First thing's first, I arrived on Saturday afternoon and went out to see a movie with KM (one of many cousins) We watched Beowulf, which was a bit underwhelming and for some reason our hero just wanted to be nude all the time. Afterwards, we ate dinner at Mug Cafe, which is the hotspot of Lucena. On weekends, they have an acoustic band playing.

me with some of the viewers

On Sunday, Tito Eddie picked me up and dropped me off with Kuya Jally and his fam. I got to hang out a bit with my godson and his other kids.

Jolo, Manel and Dimples. I just want to ship them back to the states to hang out with me

(ok now really onto Kuya Jally's crew)

This is Junior, Kuya Jally's youngest. He was a bit wary of me first, but started flirting with me a bit later.

my godson Fuego

After hanging out with them, I went to the fair with KM, her friend, Popot and Amiel

Pagbilao Church -apparently there were 40 babies being baptized that day. insane!

I don't know where they got this idea... but baby chicks are always being sold in fairs, and for some reason they like to dye them weird colors. Not very cool for the animal rights activists.

So, tradition is that everyone lays out a buffet and you just go around visiting at people's houses and keep eating.

This is Betty. She owns a funeral parlor.

us hanging out with the coffins. hopefully these are empty

In the afternoon, we started drinking the san mig, which is also part of tradition i guess. We hung out with KM's friend at her kubo

mmm fishball pulutan

Krisha

encouraging a little cannibalism here, I was feeding the prize winning cocks roasted chicken. mm

We continued the festivities and went back to Betty's funeral parlor, where we ended up having drinks with some guys who were more than a bit tipsy and quite excited that the balikbayan was hanging out with them

grilled shellfish dipped in vinegar, the perfect complement to Red Horse beer

close up of one of those dyed chicks

Rissa, be home by midnight...

2007-11-30T13:42:00.000+08:00

... or else you'll get arrested by the cops!

Just in case you didn't hear the news, or perhaps just in case the news didn't cover it in your part of the world... there was a coup attempt in the Philippines against the current president, Gloria Arroyo. A google search will by now, provide the basics of what happened. Pretty much a senator and general walked out of some court hearing, paraded through the financial district and shouted "down with the gov't!". there were tanks and guns and all that good stuff but in the end not that many people showed up and they were eventually dispersed.

I'm fine and safe in my little community in teacher's village, at least half an hour away from the commotion. As an after effect though, there was a curfew mandated by Lady President. 12am-5pm, no one is allowed to roam the streets. I was listening to the radio last night and one of the talk show guys brought up some good points as he was talking to one of the people who was enforcing the curfew. What about all the people who HAVE to be out at that time? people who work at clubs, medical staff, call center workers... oh and it turns out a bunch of other people, based on the discretion of the police. Yea that makes a lot of sense.

Anyway, that was the big news all yesterday.

Washing Machines...

2007-11-28T15:54:00.001+08:00

are something of a luxury here in the 'Pines. The person who owns the house has one of these. First of all, it's half the size of the U.S. counterparts. Second of all I had to be instructed on how to use one. Bear with me as I enlighten you on the process.

1) Plug it into the wall. This is a complicated task, as the outlet is located behind an old refrigerator. Incidentally, my washer is located outside of the actual house.
2) Attach hose to faucet at side of the house.
3) Put in dirty clothes (i think I can put in 10 items here maybe) and detergent.
4) Run faucet, and fill machine with water.
5) "wash" for 25 minutes. Basically the round container filled with water shakes around for a little bit.
6) Drain machine into built in sewer on the floor
7) repeat to rinse
8) "Dry clothes" Now there's this spin dryer attached to the washer. you get to put in maybe 3 or 4 articles of clothing in there comfortably, and then you can "spin dry" it for 5 minutes. Basically, I have to spend 20 or so minutes refilling and resetting the dryer to dry all my clothes. The clothes end up still damp, so you have to hang dry anyway.

Needless to say, washing clothes in the 'pines sucks!

Thanksgiving

2007-11-28T14:20:00.000+08:00

This is I think my first thanksgiving away from home. Surprisingly, I spent it with mostly white people, definitely a first for me. I was invited to one of the fulbright student's house and got a chance to meet some other fulbrighters. They're all pretty cool. sorry for the lack of pictures, most of them are on my facebook and for some reason my account is not cooperating with me. Anyway, we did a potluck and I made stuffing from scratch. Let me just say I didn't realize you needed an oven for it when I volunteered. I had my first experience with an oven that needed to be lit with a match. I was quite afraid that I would blow myself up, but somehow it was successful and my vegetarian stuffing was pretty yummy. During dinner, we all gave thanks to this and that but i think everyone was just mostly thankful that we were able to have thanksgiving together instead of letting the holiday slip by.

Although there were a couple of accidents involving broken glass, we still made most of the evening. After one injured party was escorted to the ER (he's fine) we all made our way to the bar to end the evening.

Mountain Province

2007-11-28T13:57:00.000+08:00

A couple weeks ago, I went to Sagada with Nicole and Eric. It was a harrowing ride up steep mountain terrain while there was a heavy downpour. The trip was a last minute idea and definitely something i was not quite ready for. It was quite cold there and I had only brought a thin sweatshirt for the trip. Ironically, the most trouble I had was during the 8 hour overnight bus ride because it was so cold. We made our way up to Banaue, after having to climb over a large landslide that had blocked the road. I managed to get splinters all over my feet because I had not anticipated on having to walk onto a large mudpile filled with upturned trees before I even got to our destination.

After we got to Banaue, we transfered to a jeep to Bontoc and then finally to Sagada.

This is one of the vistas on our way to Bontoc. These are the world famous rice terraces in all their glory.

endless rain as we travel up the mountains. In some areas, there were no barriers alongside the cliff edges. The drivers all seem quite confident as they would blast through turns on the road.

Pardon all my pictures. most of the time it was quite rainy, so there's this blur on a bunch of my pictures. This picture, i think turned out quite nice.

Bontoc. There's really not much to say about this place except that it's a nice quite little town between Banaue and Sagada. Also, apparently there's a hot spring that's somewhere near there. I didn't get a chance to go though.

Once we were in Sagada, we checked into a hotel and headed straight to one of the tourist attractions, which are stacked coffins near the mouth of a cave. The mountain tribes apparently mummified their remains with tobacco smoke and then put them in these handcarved coffins. Pretty neat.

cave mouth

The others went into a really neat cavern, but I opted out for some well deserved rest.

view of the town center from the hotel

this is one of the most stereotypical postcard set ups.

When they got back from the caves, we went to the Log Cabin for a fantastic buffet made by a French Chef. Food included homemade bread, vegetable soup, fern salad, eggs in sauce, roast beast and sausage on puff pastry. For dessert there was chocolate crackers, souffle and tart. On a cold rainy day, with a fire burning, it was quite heavenly.
From left to right, it's Nicole, Me, Canadian girl we met while up there, Eric, and Mark, who runs the Philippine branch of the Financial Times Magazine.

After Sagada, we headed back towards Banaue. The other travelers insisted on riding on top of the jeep. Let me just say, although the view was amazing, I was clinging on for dear life and hoping that I wouldn't fly off the top.

more terraces.
if it's a bit blurring, sorry we were zooming down the mountain and I was taking pictures with one hand.

I decided to stay in Bontoc because they had a bus going to Manila. Man, that was not a great idea. The bus ride was longer (11 hours), more uncomfortable, and we passed by Banaue anyway. Oh well, tough lesson learned.

Oops

2007-11-26T18:44:00.000+08:00

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have 2 weekends worth of pictures to show so don't be surprised that my next post is so loaded that it'll take you 5 minutes to load your page. Anyway, went to Pagbilao fiesta this weekend and it was fantastic. More details to follow, i promise!

Back to Bigo

2007-11-20T10:47:00.000+08:00

Again, sorry for my roundabout concept of time. These are pictures from last week's trip to Quezon province. After the beach, I took the Americans to see the family farm. Tito Eddie was really excited to show them his new projects with the land. Although it rained too much in the morning to go exploring around the farm, we still hung out at the kubo, sipped on coconut juice and snacked on kamote. They were delighted to be away from the smog of the fair city.

Tito Eddie's malapapaya project

Tito Eddie explaining his project to nicole & eric. He focused on the organic farming that he is trying to implement.

close up of the babies

3 day old baby calf

fresh from the coconut

treated the Americans to Palaisdaan. we had fried fish, coconut milk shrimp and greens & pinakbet. For dessert there was buko pandan, leche flan and halo halo yum!

dimples by the fountain

In the mountains

2007-11-18T12:29:00.000+08:00

So, a last-minute bus ride landed me in the mountain province with two very blonde americans, a worldly aussie and a canadian volunteer. I think this is the first time that I've felt like a tourist in the Philippines. We had quite the adventure yesterday even trying to get here. A 10pm bus ride in a practical freezer car going up slippery roads with no guard rails. Not to mention the fact that we had to stop the bus and walk over the giant landslide that was blocking our path. After our jeep driver stiffed us on 70p, we went to Sagada and saw the stacked coffins in the burial caves. Pretty neat. I didn't get a chance to go to inside the cave, but the town was still pretty neat. Aside from being cold, damp and miserable it was overall a pleasant trip with interesting company. I think one of the highlights of the trip was the Saturday night at the Log Cabin. We had a buffet carefully prepared by a french chef. tasty tasty, along with a candlelight dinner and fireplace. Mmmm yea.

Sorry I don't have the pictures immediately, I'll have to update once I get to Manila. Right now I'm at the internet cafe in Bontoc, a small provincial town, just waiting for my 4pm bus back to the city. The others have decided to do a little more trekking around for the next couple days. As for me, it's back to the sweltering heat and endless busy ness.

Trip to Lukang

2007-11-16T12:35:00.000+08:00

During my orientation, I met another Fulbright person Nicole. She's a pretty nice hippie rockclimber. Currently, her friend Eric is staying with her on vacation. They're both very much in culture shock here, so I decided to play tour guide. I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to get around as well as I am. I'll post later about that. Anyway, last weekend, I took them with me to visit the hometown. We went to Lukang Beach on Saturday with Ate Liza and Kuya Ojit and fam. I also got a chance to test out my underwater camera case. fun times, except my battery ran out pretty early so I only got a few pictures. Later on I'll post some pics that Nicole took.

the port at Bayview. Ate Liza got the company boat to drop us off at Lukang, a private beach right near the power plant (scary just a little? )

Lukas at the ferry

deboating

gotta make sure we don't get any cooked lobsters

cave

corals! pardon for the blurriness. I forgot to set the "underwater" feature

monsooooooon

2007-11-15T11:27:00.000+08:00

So, I just spent three hours on the bus going from my fortress of solitude to Makati riding next to a leery sketchy guy. He kept trying to make conversation but i was not having it. I was supposed to have a meeting at 9am but i had to cancel since I didn't even get to Quezon City (about an hour away from Makati) till 9am. What's more is that it's been raining nonstop since 5am this morning. Commuting in this rain is not pretty. I ended up riding the tricycle to the mall parking lot but then still walking about 6 blocks in the rain to get to the bus stop.

Let's backtrack a bit...

2007-11-14T10:35:00.000+08:00

here's a few shots of my travel here and my first few days in the 'pines.

my ancient Boeing757 with a craptastic projector and even better service.

Fuji-chan came along for the ride with me. I think I'll start a mini-blog series of our adventures.

After more than 24 hours of travel time, here I am waiting for my baggage to arrive. Since I checked in so early, my bags were the absolute last out.

Our cab ride from the airport.

sounds good except for the last one... drives with care my ass!

For the first three days, I stayed at BSA Sutes on the 21st floor.

here's the bedroom..

living area

kitchenette

Apparently I had a nice posh room. The other fulbrighter's room was half the size of mine.

here's my smoggy view There was also a nice little pool on the roof with a view of the smoggy sky, but I didn't get a chance to take pictures.

This is the fulbright PAEF building. It's pretty snazzy.

just met my "roommate"

2007-11-13T12:53:00.001+08:00

This morning, the water was still being funky. I turn on the faucet and it spurts. I had to take another bucket shower. While I was doing so, I caught a 6-legged peeping tom. One of those supersized post-apocalyptic-nuclear-holocaust-surviving 2 inch roaches. After screaming bloody murder for a few seconds, I realized that there was no help to be found. I managed to maim the bugger with a toilet bowl brush. Then I continued my bucketshower.

Life in the Suck-Lane

2007-11-12T16:50:00.000+08:00

I've been here exactly one week, and it's just dawning on me how spoiled I have been. I've had a rough adjustment to my life here, despite the fact that I'm familiar with more here than most of the other fulbright people. In my haste and greed, I had picked housing that was way too far to commute. Since there was already a down payment on the house, I can't leave until the end of January. Although the house itself is quite lovely, I have a difficult commute and it is isolated from everything and everyone I know. After I get off work, I hesitate on doing anything else because I don't want to travel that far at night. It takes about an hour to get to Makati, and since the fulbright office is there, I'll be suffering through it.

After my meeting at the shelter I work with, I took a jeep ride half an hour to my neighborhood. I think I have about a coat of grime on my face and have shortened my lifespan about a year because of all the smog. Not to mention the jeepney driver was insane. Oh, and it helped that I had to grab the overhead bar on the jeep and feel my armfat jiggle for half an hour. As much as I complain though, I thank my stars that I can have alternative means to get to work. Not that many people can even afford my daily commute.

Oh, did I mention that though I am thankful to have water, it was not cooperating this morning. I held off on my morning coffee because black particles were floating around in my mug. I showered with a bucket because the shower was off an on.

I guess I'll end this post now, as I'm a bit tired and nauseated from the ride.

Yea, i just travelled halfway across the world

2007-11-05T19:42:00.000+08:00

So, I left my house at about... 7:30am on Saturday and arrived in Manila at let's say about 12pm Sunday (EST). Can we please give me props for surviving the ordeal of two 4 hour flights and one 14 hour flight on Northwest. Everyone, also please note that Northwest is THE SUCK. If at all possible, patronize someone else because you'll definitely not regret it. I spent 14 hours on an understaffed (7 /11 flight attendants present) and nearly died of dehydration and boredom. Instead of my awesome personal tv screen complete with a selection of movies, games and music, we had one centralized white pull down screen up front with a half-assed fuzzy projector. Not to mention that the food was mediocre and the alcohol WAS NOT FREE. do they really expect us not to get murderous after being on a plane for that long? Have they not seen The Shining?

In any case, I arrived 1am to my hotel room and slept for 4 hours before I instantaneosly woke up to the morning smog of the Manila skyline. We had a short orientation and I gots my money. Now, less than 24 hours of being in the country, and I'm already at the mall.

Round II

2007-10-31T01:20:00.000+08:00

All right, I'm back in my home country this Sunday. Manila you better watch out, crazy bitch is back!

Rambutan!

2006-09-01T10:23:00.000+08:00

I couldn't leave the Philippines without swiping some rambutan on the way to the airport heheh

me at the stalls. they were expensive but i couldn't help it.

aww they're like furry edible pets!

this one's hatching..

Final days..

2006-08-22T20:17:00.000+08:00

My last few days in the Philippines were in Lucena, where it all began.

Buddy's Pizza, a regular haunt

Kuya Edwin's kiddies w/ Dimples

Manel

aww my homeboy

last night of drinking @ Loaded

Tsuki restaurant.

New godson pictures

2006-08-22T12:51:00.000+08:00

Ate Liza, Kuya Dane and Kuya Ojit helped me move out of my Manila apartment. Damn I'll miss the view from my bedroom window. We went to Tarlak to visit Kuya Ojit's new baby Romulo Edd ("Redd") and I'm apparently one of the godmothers (yay!!)

aww baby

proud daddy

gramma!

awww Lucas is still so mayabang

the other baby Rubix (?) Lucas looks like he has him in a headlock

aw that's better

RAMBUTAN!!!

let me help you with that..

closer look at the baby

awww he so pretty. looks just like his Kuya

Last days in Manila

2006-08-20T15:49:00.000+08:00

I guess it all had to come to an end. Here are the last few pictures and moments in Manila.

Cheri and I doing dinner at Aruba. Kinda pricey but i liked the ambiance. Looked like a nice place for a date. We were looking across the window and discovered this cute little restaurant on a side street with romantic little lights. Too bad i found it on the last couple nights I was there.

(drinking mango and cherry margaritas)

and a funny sign

and our absolute last night at Absinth
Marcus

American Cemetery

2006-08-19T17:37:00.000+08:00

On a semi-rainy Saturday, I ended up doing a little sightseeing with SP and Ruby's mom. We ended up at the American Cemetery. I guess they figured I missed the U.S. haha

Kinda weird to see graves and skyscrapers together. Not a fan of all this new development. No peace for the dead.

I don't know why I ended up looking like I'm modeling with a backdrop of tombstones.. but here i am

thousands of names

SP's such a ham

I love these trees

Work Despedida II- the fun stuff!

2006-08-19T17:18:00.000+08:00

Here are some more pictures from work when the band started playing and the girls started dancing :-D

Work Despedida I

2006-08-10T18:59:00.000+08:00

It's been fun working with the CATW people. Never have I met so many amazing women (and 2 men) in one place before. Each one of them has such a unique personality that they bring to work, and it's been wonderful getting to know them. I'm inspired by such passion and I hope I can keep in contact with them.

We started the evening at a mongolian grill

Laura was a latecomer but she managed to scarf down 2 bowls before we all headed out.

and then we all headed over to the 70s Bistro, my first and only bar in QC that I managed to go to. It's apparently a favorite hangout of some activists and NGO workers. My kinda people!

A day in Bigo

2006-08-10T18:53:00.000+08:00

As per requested by Mom, here's pictures of Kuya Onad's new baby, along w/ some of the sibs. Aww so precious!

And, because Manila is the suck as far as fresh fruits, we dropped by the farm to request some for freeeee.

Kuya Joel getting some santol for me

nothing like fetching avocados on a rainy day

Absinth= Addiction

2006-08-10T17:50:00.000+08:00

Here were are partying at Absinth again, as if we didn't do it already the previous Monday night. I was going away for the weekend so we partied it up.

This section should have been called the Artsy Black and White Drunkenness.

Alize!

Afterwards we headed over to a club near Embassy but I can't recall the name

Absinth-Monday

2006-08-09T11:56:00.000+08:00

And because Puerto Galera wasn't enough vacationing, we headed over to Absinth (after watching Lady in the Water) for a little dancy fun. There wasn't much going on, but the usual crowd was there.

I don't know why i was such an oompa loompa in this picture

interesting..

dancing, or just staggering over?

caught me just in time!

and as always Kiko's phone in hand "I don't wanna wait in vain..."

Puerto Galera III

2006-08-08T16:48:00.000+08:00

Ok, well these aren't really from PG anymore, just the tail end of the

weekend. This time, I was prepared and had hunted down some

dramamine. Also, the seas were calm so it was a relatively enjoyable

ferry ride back. I recall the last ferry ride back from PG was so

peaceful and breezy, and this one wasn't really as calming, but I'm

just glad we weren't being tossed around.

i'm smiling because god blessed our trip

back on solid land, relatively unscathed

peeing cow

aww snuggle baby!

Kiko being the man and getting us transport from the random "port' to Manila

Laura's artsy picture of lice-picking

piggies!

Puerto Galera II

2006-08-07T12:02:00.000+08:00

So here are some more pictures. I had posted this detailed post with all these pictures but of course my internet had to crap up and I lost everything. What you get now is an abbreviated version.

Huh?

only 2 of Kiko's million pictures

fishies

bobbing

blurp blurp

Kiko's HK fans

best seat on the boat

wish God blessed our trip going there so I wouldn't have been puking out my innards

Despite the trip not being what I expected, it was still pretty fun and relaxing.

Puerto Galera and the Typhoon Gloria

2006-08-04T11:51:00.000+08:00

So apparently we tried to take a wonderful resort vacation to Puerto Galera right during when Typhoon Gloria (renamed Glenda cuz GMA flipped out) payed a visit to the isles. It was a miserable weekend but we made the most of it.

We took the ferry early on Saturday morning, which was a traumatic experience for me.

Here's Kiko making the squid-face and Laura being irritated

aww baby's finally asleep

and 6x6

aww cuddles

and then i got sick. I mean really.. really seasick. After about half an hour being tossed about at sea I lost it. Not one of my shining moments, let me tell you. In between puking in a potato chip bag and clinging onto 6x6 for dear life, while whimpering and crying, I felt quite awesome.

Was it worth the awful journey. Of course! The sky was overcast the entire time, with hours of sporadic rain, but it was just nice to get out of the city.

me and Laura bobbing in the water trying to avoid stepping on coral (nearly impossible)

blurp!

kinda dreary and sad

hi five laura, hi five!

grrr, no sun!

looking at boobies

yep they're quite fascinating

ok just kidding. just trying to watch for jagged rocks in the water

and pina coladas by the water

this was a sticker on our refrigerator. cute, but disturbing at the same time. At least they're all about diversity?

Sushi night, a couple Fridays ago.

2006-08-04T11:11:00.000+08:00

Well, sushi night happened after a hardcore night of dancing at Absinth and 7 hours of work. We went on this mad goose chase for sushi ingredients at the local grocery store and then got back to the apartment at 9. I had wanted to show off my mad cooking skills and it was sort of a comedy of errors. Regardless, I did pretty good for myself and everything turned out quite yummy.

Here's the spread.

Cheri learning how to wrap a maki and me wiggling a yellow radish

Rissie home-maker

That's all folks

Absinth, we can't stop!

2006-08-01T15:02:00.000+08:00

So it was a wild thursday night at with the crew we rounded up. Six and Kikoman were out in full force on the dance floor. Lots of lovely people around and a fair amount of drinking.

Nick, one of our faves. He's such a male model hehe.

wild hair

the evil eye!

scared!

ooo creepy

drunk pout

drunk squint

rawr, rocking the new shirt

group photo

aw smuggles

looks a little too innocent to be me

Motherhouse and Jali Jr.

2006-07-18T10:59:00.000+08:00

This post is mainly at mom's request. Here are some pictures of the motherhouse and Kuya Jali's new baby.

Storeroom

canal

the family w/ the new baby

mommy and baby

the attentive kuya

proud daddy

Lukang Beach

2006-07-17T14:38:00.000+08:00

On Saturday, after staying up late with the Videoke crew, I woke up at 5:30am to take the bus down to Pagbilao. I had a half hour rest before we headed over to Lukang Beach. Kuya Edwin said to prepare for a long walk. It wasn't a long walk, it was a long hike up treacherous terrain. It was high tide, so we didn't have access to the nice beach walk. Instead we climbed up and down ditches and forded washed out trails. I was wearing my standard walking sandals, so it was slow going. It was well worth it however, and the beach was pretty nice.

This is a neat little cave that we were able to go in after the tide went down.

Joelyn getting prepped

Kuya Ojit's dog, Veggie also got a chance to play

the little mermaid washed up on shore

Kuya Edwin relaxing in the little hut

woo doggie

climbing up the tree

fresh coconut... and Veggie getting in the way as always

good times, good times

it was Veggie's first time at the beach. she really enjoyed herself

Videoke @ ABS

2006-07-17T14:18:00.000+08:00

Friday was videoke night at ABS-CBN. Tita Ruby invited me to hang out with her fam and friends. We had this private booth with plush little couches and a complicated videoke system. A good time was had by all, and thankfully I didn't get pressured to sing. There were many who were very excited to have extra time on the mic. Everyone got really drunk, and afterwards we all went to Zirco, a comedy club. It wasn't my thing so I went home early, but overall it was a great night.

Here were are taking lemon drop shots with Tita Ruby. She really liked them and took a couple more afterwards.

Everyone grooving to YMCA

he fell down taking a picture while making a weird face. Guess we're not all talented at multi-tasking

and we're a big fan of the close up shots

drunk = wheee

yay for drinking with Tita Ruby!

breakin out the vocals

and here's how we can tell we're all drunk:
6x6 = red eyes, goofy grin
me= squinty eyes, wide smile *giggle*
cheri= glazed look, asian blush

Baywalk w/ Tita Ruby's crew

2006-07-14T10:56:00.000+08:00

Yea.. so i dont exactly have great pictures here ...

Here's one of the pretty lights...

cheri and 6x6

my fabulous talc powder. never leave home without it!

6x6 on drugs and cheri looking scary

Bon Voyage to Tyler, Jackie & Adrian

2006-07-14T10:45:00.000+08:00

Last Wednesday was the bon voyage for our three buddies. Jackie & Adrian had been in the Philippines for a while and Tyler came to visit for about 10 days. It was a night of drunkenness for everyone, especially Adrian. Fortunately, we all had a good time and no one got injured hehe.

and Tyler got really wasted. It was fantastic! (Mission accomplished)

Tyler = drunken dancing = amusement

i dont know what's going on with my face here

Adrian's already passed out

Random Apartment Party on a Sunday Night

2006-07-12T16:23:00.000+08:00

Well promise this is the last photo post of the day. These are pictures from last sunday actually. Laura and I had gone to Mall of Asia to watch the new superman movie with Jimmy, Bok and their friend ( i dont remember the name) Laura and I had gone shopping for a little while, but got texted and found out Jimmy and Bok were literally about a block from our apartment. We eventually made our way home and I ended up inviting them and a couple of their friends up to the apartment. Our Boracay buddy Kikoman also joined the crew. We had beers and the Last Samurai. Overall it was good times, as you can see from the pictures. Pardon the sweaty grossness of the pictures, we don't have A/C in the living room.

what's up with the weird faces?

got my mac face on

Cebu

2006-07-12T16:03:00.000+08:00

I decided to go with Tyler to Cebu and Bohol, but I got sick the entire weekend. Tyler was a trooper and we still had fun. I think...

Here's our motel room.

and our fancy fish keychain for the room key

and pictures from the Daoist Temple

boogie fever

Fort Santiago with Tyler

2006-07-12T15:58:00.000+08:00

Tyler came to stay with me for a few days. I decided to show him Fort Santiago in Manila because I'd never been there. It was pretty neat and historical. I've never visited before since Manila isn't usually a travel destination for the fam.

Anyways, I learned a lot about Jose Rizal and it was a beautiful day to do some sightseeing.

This is a little chapel we found. It was all boarded up so we didn't get to see the inside.

I found this pretty little butterfly flitting around but it wouldn't stay in one spot long enough for me to take a halfway decent picture of it.

water and old cannons

I thought this gateway was pretty neat

Tyler's flag

Danger, falling brick wall!

for some reason, I really love this picture

and of course I had to visit the mall of asia.

rainy season on the bay.

Bahay Kubo

2006-07-12T14:54:00.000+08:00

I had Tito Eddie take Michelle, Laura and I on a tour of Pagbilao. We ended it by going to the kubo for some traditional coconut juice. It was a nice relaxing afternoon and Michelle described it as "the best ever!"

pony!

and my favorite plant in the Philippines, makahiya.

Majayjay

2006-07-10T17:45:00.000+08:00

I decided to take the other interns out for a taste of the provincial life. Laura, Michelle and I went to Quezon province to travel the Majayjay falls. I was scared i wouldn't make it because of my ankle and laura's techno knee, but it was all good. Ate Liza and Kuya Angie were nice enough to take us to Taytay Falls, which was amazing, despite being ridiculously cold.

Here's us trekking to the area. There was a canal of crystal clear water all along the way.

and here are the falls. pardon for the crazy lighting exposures. I was too lazy to fix the cam

and me looking frumptacular

oh and a picture of scary King of the Forest Guy

The water was so cold I broke out in hives. After the falls, we all went to the spa to get some body scrub treatment. Overall it was a great day.

Father's Day Picnic

2006-07-10T17:13:00.000+08:00

Day after Kuya Ojit's Bday: we had a picnic at Dalahikan where there was a little beach area and the little kiddies got to go around and play.

playing at the shoreline

he just looks like mischief

seashells

and don't forget scrabble by the beach. woo!

Boracay Trip Part V: Blue Water Princess

2006-07-07T10:53:00.000+08:00

So, finally here are the last of the Boracay pics. Actually these were just from the ferry coming back.

manly pole pose

looks like a happy couple superimposed with fake backgrounds

pensive...

Boracay Trip Part IV: Juice Bar

2006-06-29T11:32:00.000+08:00

2 nights of craziness at the Plazoleta Juice bar. Drunk, sweaty with free-flowing alcohol. I don't remember the names of about half these people.

The Irish sibs: Adrian & Jackie

band guy

Kuya Edward butting in

For some reason, everyone has demonic eyes

aww roomies!

Pinsan!

oh the pole

yay for the Russian (Alex)

Boracay Trip Part III: More island hoping. wishing

2006-06-29T10:46:00.000+08:00

Ate Liza's boat

oo pretty

hanging out in the water

a little mojo magic from our filipino idol

castles in the sky

Boracay Trip: Hotel

2006-06-28T15:53:00.000+08:00

Almost forgot. We stayed in Boracay the first weekend of June and picked out de Paris for accommodations. We first got these nice rooms that had a kitchen, but was in the middle of the woods, so we changed to some that were closer to the beach.

view from the balcony

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof!

mmm papaya shake

restaurant

Boracay Trip Part II: Island hopping and Beach Fun

2006-06-28T10:03:00.000+08:00

Here are some pictures from the island hopping and frollicking on White Beach.

Boracay Trip Part II: Island hopping and Beach Fun

2006-06-28T09:57:00.000+08:00

So the pictures are a little backwards but that's ok. After our 10 hour ferry ride, we got hopping to all the fun exploration that Boracay had to offer.

We went to the island where there were some underwater caves, which were fantastic! Didn't really get a chance for pictures because I was afraid the camera would get wet, so this is all you get.

Filipinos like to make weird statues

Kuya Edward being weird

mmm nothing like beaching

When I get a bazillion dollars, this island is MINE

some pretty resort that we couldn't afford to stay at

Laura looks really drunk, but the truth is she hadn't even finished her first cocktail

chug chug chug!

Ate Liza looking demonic in the middle

almost everyone looking sorta creepy

yea i dont get it either

and some beautiful sunsets

random grotto

Boracay Trip Part I: Blue Water Princess

2006-06-27T11:49:00.000+08:00

Ok, so I'm finally trying to upload my pictures from Boracay from the beginning of the month. Sorry for the wait but it's been a busy few weeks. Here's a few pictures from the ferry Blue Water Princess that took us to Boracay. It was 10 hours of amusement. We found out that there was a bar on the top level of the boat so we took advantage and drank away about 5 hours of the trip. Laura made friends with the band and we met some really great drunk old guys.

The guy in the middle, lead singer of the band, had a huge crush on Laura. There are a couple more pictures from the boatride that I'll try to post later.

couple old guys dancing

and Laura's serenade

Baguio day trip

2006-06-20T12:15:00.000+08:00

Because Laurita and I are crazy, we decided to accompany CATW on their Baguio retreat, which was the day before Laura and I were supposed to be going to Boracay. Laura had gone to the ER just the day before and we were going to have a crazy amount of traveling to do during the week. Our bosses were training Bagong Kamalayan, a support group of survivors of prostitution. It was an emotional training and I'm glad we were able to go. I didn't post any pictures of the women though. Unfortunately, we didn't stay long enough to go sightseeing and I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the beatiful view. Some of these are Laura's shots

Laura w/ the bosses at a yummy restaurant called Cafe by the Ruins

Some weird traditional idol

Some of the kiddies that came along on the trip. Most of the survivors were mommies so the kids came along too. It was exhausting playing with them.

Pensive Laura

The palenke (market)

Us with the kiddies

Laura's black and white photo

Contemplating the meaning of paper art

Mall of Asia Etc

2006-06-20T11:15:00.000+08:00

Here are some pictures from when KM came to visit. Sorry about the wait, this was a few weeks ago already.

Random sign that amused me

Rooftop view

Marino Picnic: Sunday May 29, 2006

2006-06-06T16:14:00.000+08:00

We gathered the Marinos up and had a picnic at the Metropolis community center. Thankfully the pool was open now so the kids had a lot of fun. The colors in some pictures may look a little funny since the flash wasn't working on my camera and it was such a bright day. Had to "photoshop" some things. and by photoshop, screw around with the tools so we can at least see people's faces. Durned Marinos, we're so itim (dark)!

Jimwell, Nicole & Mai

It was a bright day so Kuya Ojit installed some awning

Oops forgot to resize this one.

Kids just sittin around at the house

We were desperate for any sort of shade

Ryan

Bashful Jerome

Oops, slice of life

One of several glammy Nicole shots

How many Marinos will fit into one pick up truck? Still room on the roof.

Lucas was content to have his own little wading pool. Or rather a large pan of water and hose.

Jimwell & Nicole examining their new toys

Tito Porping's grandkids

picture

Aw Tito Eddie's grandpa moment

Dimples pool shot

handing out toys

tempted to shove him in

I like how they randomly formed a line in this picture

Argosino Picnic

2006-06-06T13:03:00.000+08:00

May 27, 2006: Picnic w/ the Argosinos at a local resort.
Only 2 families + me and my mom and we filled up a whole jeep.

Always need the videoke.

I love this picture of the boys. Perfect representation of their personalities.

Amiel going snorkeling at the pool

Hidey kitty. Poor thing was so scrawny and had a broken tail. He was hanging around our picnic table begging for food.

Mammoy checking out the scenery

me and popot. awww.

family pictures

joint pondering

awww give mommy some love

and pictures of KM
stoned/drunk

angry grr

pissy?

picture @ the nipa hut

stolen shot of Ken-ken. that boy refused to have his picture taken, but the one i snagged is pretty cute.

prepping for the drive. Parra po!

sad little boy eating alone

sorry the colors are weird. the photo was really dark and this is my only one w/ carl

blurry :(

amiel is such a ham

looks just like kuya jali here

nothing like spending all day at the pool

Iwahig

2006-06-02T16:20:00.000+08:00

Forgot to mention we also went to Iwahig when we were in Palawan. This place is very interesting as it's a fairly self-maintained prison. If you didn't see the guard and sign outside, you'd just think it was an average run of the mill farm. The min security prisoners have uniforms but no chains. They farm, do chores and other kinds of activities. We went to the gift shop where the prisoners had made pretty much most of the items that were for sale. They worked on commission, so the sellers were reallty attentive. Our group bought a ton of stuff to help em out. Hehehe souvenirs for everyone!

Sorry this is the only picture I have. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the prisoners and I felt weird being a tourist there. But, here is a link for some other pictures and a little bit more info about Iwahig.
Iwahig Prison Colony

Palawan Day 3: Underground River

2006-06-02T16:06:00.000+08:00

On our last day in Palawan, we went to see the Underground River. Apparently it's recognized as one of the wonders of the world and I believe it . It's the longest underground river, but we only went about a third of the way because the rest would require some scuba gear. There were live bats, birds, insects and it wasn't the best smell in the world, but it was well worth it. I wish i could have taken a picture but I'm sure i would have been attacked by bats if i did.

There were lots of great mountains views on the way there. Here's a view from one of the stopovers. The little blip of an island is mine. I claim it, and when it goes on sale I'm buying that sucker. I think it's only about 20 feet wide if that but it'd be great wouldn't it?

Here's me on the half hour long ride to the underground river. It was on the other side of the mountain so we boated it. Apparently there was also a walking trail but with all the half-centurians i didn't think that was an option.

Monitor lizard. There were a ton of these at the picnic site. Kinda scary looking. This one was about 5-6 feet from head to tail

Me at the beach

trail to the river

Mouth of the cavern

And the opening to hell (just kidding)

and back to the living world. notice our hot vests and hats. literally, i was sweltering and it had the delectable odor of people's sweat and guano.

Cheers

Lots of monkeys too. The kind that would steal your food from right under your nose.

Dos Palmas

2006-06-02T12:42:00.000+08:00

This is from our trip to the resort, Dos Palmas. For some reason i didn't take that many pictures here so this is what I have. I'll get mom's pics uploaded when she sends them to me. Anyways, this was just a day trip since staying there was way expensive. We took a bus, then a boat ride, and then stayed at the resort for the day. It was good times. I went snorkeling and kayaking with Tita Elsa and then mom & tita nonet decided they wanted to go on the banana boat so we went with them. They got so scared but it was funny.

Tita Nonet and mom eating our favorite mango with bagoong

dock where our boat was

for some reason I have a knowing, daring smile. Not that i know what I know... but anyways

safety first

some vistas during the ride. These are all a bunch of little islands

and dos palmas. those little huts there are actually places where you can rent and stay. rooms right on the water. wow

We took a golf cart ride of the whole island. it was pretty neat

but no turtles to be seen

some of the bungalows that we couldn't afford to stay at

lights at the dining room

mmm seaweed

and more gomamela

Palawan Day I : May 19, 2006

2006-06-01T17:19:00.000+08:00

Here are pictures from our first day in Palawan. We (Mom, me, Tita

Elsa, Tito Eddie, Tita Lowell & her husband Geoff, & Auntie

Nonet) arrived at Puerto Princesa by plane sometime in the afternoon

and still had a little time to go sightseeing for a little bit.

Here are some pictures of the scenery. I love the rice fields with the sea in the background

and some neat tricycles

Tito Eddie's sun hat

restaurant under our hotel

hotel mynas. Here are some things they'd say: pangit pangit, wow, guapo ako, hehehehe, meow, morning

and tito kokoy's myna

me in front of the hotel we didn't stay at

group photo at tito kokoy's house

gomamela

And pictures from the gator farm. It rained so we didn't really get to see much

Here are some Philippine turtles. They're endangered but oh so cute.

This one's relaxing in the pool

so many cuties!

scary walking one. he walked 3 feet then plopped down. They'd just eaten so they were all being lazy and fat

3 foot one that tita nonet held for a picture

Mynas at the park. These had been rescued from neglectful pet owners. Mynas are listed as an endangered species. Although tito eddie wanted one for a pet, it's prohibited to take them off the island

pile of babies

and everyone was tired and fell asleep

pretty flower

bananaQ. my fave!

Baker's Hill, one of the neat little restaurants they have

Homer and Marge. apparently there was ostrich on the menu too but we didn't get it. We got halo-halo instead

hidey kitty

amusing statues all over the place

my pirate boyfriend