Nellie Woke Me Up To A Day Of Fun!!: Manila Trip With Nellie's Singaporean Friends

- December 28, 2009, Monday

- I woke up around 11am and immediately saw Nellie calling my cellphone. I answered the phone with my hoarse morning voice, and she told me that her Singaporean friends would be in Manila today, and that she needed me to guide the city (or at least Chinatown) with her.

- I immediately prepared myself and went straight ahead to the Binondo Church. She told me to meet her there.

- I met Nellie around a bit more than half an hour later, and stood inside the Binondo Church to wait for her around 20 Singaporean friends. Since they were still in Intramuros, from the last time we contacted them, we "loitered" around Chinatown, as Nellie would say, and went to Mr. Ube to talk to Royce, the son of Mr. Ube.

- We told Royce about Nellie's friends coming over to Chinatown (and Eng Bee Tin). Royce made us talk with his mom, and his mom immediately told us to look for Connie when we get to Eng Bee Tin in the afternoon. She was ready to give discounts to Nellie's Singaporean friends.

- While waiting, Royce and his nice family also treated us to a light brunch in Mr. Ube. It was really nice of them to do that. :D:D:D:D

- Nellie got a phone call around half an hour later from one of her Singaporean friends. They were already in Chinatown and looking for somewhere to eat. Another phone call came, and this time it was from a Filipino person. We found out that Nellie's big group of Singaporean friends had two Filipino companions already. The person, who later introduced him as RS, also told us that they were already at the second floor of Ying Ying.

- Nellie and I walked to Ying Ying, and promptly met all of her friends. To be honest, I only remember the names of a few of them. I can't memorize that much names in a short day. :) :) :) :) They were really nice, and they were all Chinese, except for Hara, a Korean.

- Nellie and I ordered for our table (2 + 5 Singaporeans), and had a bit of chat with them. I am really amazed that they were really open in meeting me, I think, and they had a really good sense of humor. Also, they were SO SHOCKED to hear me speak Chinese. They didn't expect me to know the language. HARHAR. :)) :)) :)) :)) By the way, the Singaporeans also treated my meal and Nellie's. It was really nice of them to do that. :) :) :) :)

- After eating a big banquet, we went to visit the Binondo Church, as well as Eng Bee Tin. During our stay at Eng Bee Tin, Nellie looked for Connie, and we were told that she was with someone on the phone. The Singaporeans however, were already lined up to pay for the hopia and other treats. Coincidentally, Connie went out from the back after the Singaporeans bought their stuff. Goodbye discount. :)) :)) :)) :))

- We walked to Cafe Mezzanine, since 4 of us needed to go potty. I saw Shirby in Cafe Mezzanine. :D:D:D:D

- Next, the big big group went to Santa Cruz and Quiapo. We were supposed to make them go to the "Ilalim ng Tulay" to buy souvenirs. Since they had a fun time shopping, it kinda ate away some of our time. It was ok though, things in Quiapo are still really cheap.

- We waited for one of the Singaporeans' Filipino friends. That also took away another bit of our time. They also needed to see the epic sunset at the Manila Bay, and time was running out. We weren't able to bring them to the "Ilalim ng Tulay".

- We rode the jeep to the Baywalk, and settled there to watch the sunset. It wasn't the best sunset I've seen since the sky was partially cloudy.

- After the sun set, we all walked to Robinson's Place Ermita. Nellie and I planned to go to Korean Village for dinner, so we separated from the group somewhere in Pedro Gil corner Adriatico. It was a quick goodbye, but a very sincere one as well. I had loads of fun meeting them.

- Nellie and I walked to Korean Village and saw that it was closed. The big fool that I am, I forgot that Korean Village was always closed on Mondays. Haha. We walked back to Robinson's and decided to eat dinner there instead.

- We chose to eat at the Banana Leaf for some Asian food. We had roti canai with curry dip, pad thai (don't order this please....it doesn't taste anything like the real pad thai), chicken satay, nasi goreng (that tasted like beef hofan....which is a good thing for us, since Nellie and I were craving for beef hofan, and they didn't have beef hofan), and Thai grapefruit salad (don't order as well....small serving size, and it had sour pomelo instead of the sweet one)

- It was also a good thing that the Banana Leaf had credit card promos. Due to my Citibank card, I was able to get a 15% discount. HAHAHAHA. YEY THE POWER OF CREDIT CARDS. :)) :)) :)) :))

- Nellie's mom talked to Nellie, and told us that we were going to be picked up instead, so we don't have to commute home. That gave Nellie and I so much extra time to go around Robinson's and window shop. I also grabbed a gelato from Volare, an Italian restaurant in the Padre Faura Wing. :D:D:D:D

- We were picked up around 8:30 by Nellie's parents, and rode home. Now that I'm writing this, I still can't believe that all of these happened today. It all began with a phone call from Nellie. :) :) :) :)

The Ocean Adventure Of The Not-Annoying Customers!!: Manila Ocean Park Adventureeeee.

- December 27, 2009, Sunday

- Tina and I talked through YM this morning, and randomly decided to go out, since we were both stuck at our own homes without anything to do.

- We headed towards the Ocean Park around 1:15pm. We rode the LRT to UN Ave., and rode a cab to the nearby Ocean Park.

- We arrived around 2:10pm, and had to get a number from a guy by the door. A sign by the cashier for the entrance tickets showed which number was being served. Figuring that we had to wait for a long time before paying for our entrance fee, we took a short trip to the minimall (yes, the Ocean Park has a minimall). We also took a peek at Makansutra, the international Singaporean-hawker-type restaurant. I was pretty cool, and the prices were playing around the 100 something pesos area. We had our eyes on that restaurant, and decided to eat there after going around the oceanarium.

- After a long long stroll, we went back to the cashier area which by the way was surrounded by an "ocean" of people. The number being served that time was "154", and our number was "184". The marshall taking care of getting the stubs decided to let us in. WE DON'T KNOW WHY. We even insisted that we were 30 numbers away from the number being served. He still insisted that we go in. (Thank goodness though, at least we wouldn't have to wait any longer. Or else, we might have had gone in during sun down!!)

- We took one of the packaged deals; it was the ocean park's holiday promo. 500php for the entrance + 2 other attractions (if the packaged deals didn't exist, the entrance and 2 other attractions could cost around 600+php). We chose to go with the second packaged deal, which consisted of our entrance fees, plus tickets to see the neon colored jellyfish, as well as the Zoocology area, a place with stuffed dead animals.

- We went inside and marveled at all the fishes, big, small, dangerous or not. We were greatly annoyed by people who tapped at the aquariums and scared the fish. Even more annoying if those people were ADULTS. (Hello people, CAN'T YOU READ THE SIGNS?? And besides, YOU SHOULD KNOW IT'S NOT PROPER TO DO THAT. *bitter animal-lover mode*)

- Both of us had the opportunity to touch a starfish or two at the "petting area". We also had to tolerate people pushing around, especially little children. (Yes, Sunday + Holiday, not a good thing when going to places like this one.)

- When we got into the tunnel, we were able to see the latter half of the mermaid show. Yes, mermaids exist. YEY!! :D:D:D:D

- We were done with the main attraction around 3:30pm. Since the stairs led to the glass-bottom boat ride, we decided to pay an extra 150 each for that attraction. We grabbed a number from the stressed out dude in the counter, and paid at the cashier. The number being called was "103", and out number was a whopping "190". We waited like the good customers we are. Each of the boats could only carry 10-11 passengers + 1 personnel.

- Tina and I were astounded (in a bad way), when we saw all the people pushing each other, and insisting that they be let inside. The system was simple. Grab a number, pay, then wait for your turn. Period. It's that simple. The waiting period was long, true, but that's the system. Live with it. You'll get your turn. *bitter good-customer mode*

- Tina and I even felt really sorry for the stressed out dude, since some people were angry at him, even though it wasn't his fault that the waiting time was so darn long. "Please talk to me in a nice manner." He even said calmly to one flustered lady. We could see that he wanted to shout back at the lady though. We understood clearly why he felt that way.

- For some reason, the stressed out dude asked for our number, and felt sorry that we had to wait for 12344952347979078 more people. He even asked us if there were no more chairs for us to sit on. We said there were none. Being the good guy that he was, he let both of us in, and let us sit on two chairs on the waiting area. The waiting area inside was for people who were about to ride the glass-bottom boats. He told us that he only let us sit there, but we still needed to wait for our turn. We agreed, since it was only proper. I told Tina, "this is what we get for being not-annoying customers. He even let us sit, and he even let you in even though you're still chomping on your nachos. (Food wasn't allowed in the waiting area)." I even teased Tina that the stressed out dude might have a crush on her, that's why he treated us super nicely. Tina denied, but I said it was possible. HAHAHAHA.

- Around the number "150", we were still sitting on our seats in the waiting area. They said that the people inside were the last batch to go in before the mermaid show. During the mermaid show, the boats halted their operations because the same area would be used by the "mermaids" like the ones we saw earlier.

- Tina and I went out of the waiting area, and decided to go with the neon colored jellyfish and the Zoocology area first, before returning to the glass-bottom boat area.

- We started off with the "dancing sea fairies". This was similar to Hong Kong's Ocean Park, when people would be led into a dark room, and clear or lightly-colored jellyfishes were in different aquariums with changing neon-colored lights. The colors would be "absorbed" by the jellyfishes, making the jellyfishes look like they have changed colors.

- After seeing the "dancing fairies", we went ahead to the Zoocology area, located beside the jellyfish area. The Zoocology area was simply a zoo....but with a catch. All animals are dead and stuffed. HAHA. It was kinda traumatic, since I felt like walking through a big animal cemetery. Haha. It' not as scary though, and it's a nice way to appreciate the worlds' animals too. Pictures weren't allowed inside (ergo, we had no pictures), because there was an official photographer inside. It's the type when they would take people's pictures, and people had to pay for their pictures at the cashier if they decide to have a hard copy of their pictures. Hahahaha.

- After the short trip, Tina and I went upstairs again to get the boat thing over with. We still had to wait though, but at least we needed to wait for fewer people. We saw stressed out dude again, and it seemed like the 15-minute break he had due to the mermaid show really gave him a nice head-cooling from all the annoying customers.

- He saw us again, and wished that we could already ride the boat, since he saw our faces the whole afternoon, not making a sound, and not annoying his butt off. He sometimes even joked around with us. He seemed like a really really nice guy.

- FINALLY, after eternity nearly ended, he shouted "190" through his megaphone, and looked at us. He smiled, and even joke with us for a last time. "Ops, closed na yung boat ride." We laughed, since we knew he was playing around, but I told Tina that if ever they really closed the glass-bottom boats, I would really knock his head off. (Hey, if that happened, then the whole afternoon of waiting-for-out-turn-till-sundown ended up in nothing, right??)

- Tina and I put our orange life jackets on. As Dora would say, "Life jackets, so we could be safe." :D:D:D:D To our surprise, stressed out dude was the one who drove our boat (our = Tina, I, and 8 other people + stressed out dude). We went around the large pool and saw all the fishies underneath. It was terribly awesome when one giant sting ray flew right below our boat. Stressed out dude was also able to explain what the fishies were, how the water was purified, etc etc etc etc. He was also very dynamic and open to questions. The best fishies we saw were human-fishies. They were fish that looked really like humans. They even had cellphones. (The human fishies are actually the people in the glass-top tunnel below. It was the tunnel where Tina and I saw the mermaid show earlier. And if it's still now clear, they are not fish at all. They're real live humans. :) :) :) :) )

- After we got out of the boat, the sky was already dark. Both of us decided to have a meal in Makansutra before heading home.

- The Makansutra, like I said earlier, is a full-airconditioned restaurant that has a Singaporean-hawker theme. It was sort of like a food court, with each stall serving a specific type of Southeast Asian food (example, Singaporean, Indian, Thai, Malay, Chinese). It was pretty much what hawker stands in Singapore sold. Again, the prices were playing somewhere in the 100+ pesos area, and the serving were quite big, good enough for 1 to 2 people. Aside from that, MY GOODNESS. The dishes were not only reasonably prices, but the food themselves were very authentic. Definitely a must-try-again-with-more-friends.

- Tina and I even stumbled upon Sharmaine and Jade, two good friends of mine. :D:D:D:D

- The two of us had curry laxa (a Singaporean noodle-soup dish with curry and coconut milk as the primary ingredients for the broth), onion-chicken something (that's what Tina told me. She forgot the name of the dish. It's basically a dish with rice, chicken fillet, and an onion-ginger sauce.) We also had roti prata with curry dip (South Indian flat bread with dark curry dip), and pad thai (the most "basic" Thai noodle dish with peanuts, shimp and beansroupts.)

- I was really impressed by the amount and taste of the food. I'm sorry I really have to say this over and over again. I am encouraging everyone with a taste for (Southeast) Asian food to try Makansutra. I highly praise this restaurant for giving the dishes the authenticity they deserve. It's really hard to find authentic foreign food in a commercial environment.

- With food all gone and bellies full, we rolled, I mean walked towards the exit. Good thing a cab was already at the cab stand. How convenient. We told the driver to drive us to the UN Ave. LRT Station. He even told us it was near. Hahahaha. (Yes it's near, but not as near when traveled by foot. Besides, it was dark, and the way to the LRT station is not a good place to walk to at night.)

- We arrived at the Doroteo Jose Station around 7:30. Since the Ocean Park until the Doroteo Jose Station, I couldn't text to my mom that I wasn't going to eat dinner at home. Well, I figured out soon enough that Globe was acting crazy again. Tsk tsk.

- I arrived home around quarter to eight after a long, tiresome, fun, happy, amusing and most of all RANDOM trip. The Ocean Park did change a whole lot since the first time I went there last 2008, when it newly opened, and when there was absolutely nothing inside.

- I want to go here again, obviously. I just hope that the next time I go here, it would be a weekday, and it shouldn't be a holiday. That would immediately cut the number of people down....especially the annoying and pushy ones. :D:D:D:D

My Neighbor Has Returned!! (Hong Kong Edition)

- December 23, 2009, Wednesday

- My neighbor has recently returned from her 4-month JTA (Junior Term Abroad) trip in Hong Kong.

- Today, we decided to go out for two reasons:
1. She needs to return her locker keys to Hong Kong Baptist University. She forgot to give her keys back when she was still in Hong Kong. Luckily, her roommate Inna would be going back to Hong Kong with her family soon.

2. We need to bond as neighbors!! :)) :)) :)) :))

- I went to Charmaine's house, a floor above ours, around 9am. She gave me a Tajik doll won by her little sister, because her little sister, as well as her whole family, were freaked out by the doll. I adopted the doll because it was nice and, um, cultural.

- We went ahead to Megamall via MRT, and hailed a cab to Inna's house nearby. We arrived shortly and I met Inna. I think she was freaked out by my hyperness. I introduced myself as the person with the big fat caterpillar (Heimlich from "The Bugs' Life"), because that was how Inna knew me when they were both in Hong Kong with my neighbor.

- I also met Andy, their American friend from Hong Kong, because he went to the Philippines to tour around. Inna was his host. He seemed like a nice guy.

- After our less-than-10-minute stay in Inna's house, we hailed another cab to Megamall. It was harder to hail a cab back, since a few cabs passed by that area, and those that did were usually occupied. I sang the "Happy Working Song" nonstop until we were able to get a cab.

- Now, back at Megamall, we ate a semi-early lunch at El Pollo Loco. I missed that place. Their chicken always brings back childhood memories.

- After lunch, we had an odyssey around the mall in search for a new hair dryer. Their old one broke down.

- We got hungry (again), after luckily finding a reasonably-priced hair dryer at the department store, and decided to have some frozen yogurt somewhere at the basement.

- We walked again and again after realizing we had nothing else to do. I told Charmaine that since we were about to head home, we might as well head home in an unusual way. Yes, I proposed to go home via the Pasig River Ferry.

- We went out of the mall and rode the MRT to Guadalupe. We simply walked to the nearby Pasig River's Guadalupe Station and waited for around half an hour for the next boat to Escolta. Charmaine pulled her cellphone out and listened to some Korean songs. We were both bored, so I semi-danced SNSD's Genie and Gee. (I simply moved my hands a little, while sitting down. I couldn't dance fully at the station. It was full of people.)

- The boat came around 3:35pm. Luckily, we got on a nice boat (complete with aircon, flat screen tv, and nice movies.) We went out the deck after two stations and looked around. She got bored, so we went in after two stations more.

- We arrived at Escolta around an hour later, and walked towards Golden Fortune Soler for discounted dimsum. Who doesn't like discounted dimsum??

- We ordered a lot of dimsum, though not as much as the time Marga and I ate dimsum, and managed to finish them all. I just treated her since I wasn't able to treat her during my birthday a few months ago.

- We went home around 6, as the sun was about to set.


**Dear neihgbor, thank you for letting me adopt the Tajik doll. I don't know what name to give her, but for now, I'll just call her "Tajik Doll". By the way, your family isn't the only one that was freaked out by the doll. My mom was freaked out by the doll as well. Haha. I still want to keep the culture-ish doll anyway. Haha.

(January 1, 2011: Hello old blog post!! Just to update you, I have named the Tajik doll "Arafan" several days ago!! That's all!!)

Emptying Our Pockets: Sofitel's Spiral With Random CKSC People

- December 21, 2009, Monday, 6:30pm.

- I went to Lalaine's house around 5:40 via LRT, and hung out with Lalaine and Jack for a while before Joanna told us that she had arrived. Joanna, together with her mom and little sister Kim, had a hard time looking for Lalaine's house, to Lalaine's surprise, since Joanna had been to Lalaine's house before.

- Due to traffic, we arrived around 30 minutes later than our 6:30 reservation. Gladly, Marie went ahead of us and was able to sit on our table. We would've lost our table had Marie not been there, due to the 15 minute grace period.

- Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted by a choir performing on the grand stairs of the restaurant. They were really good singers. A lot of people stopped eating, and took pictures or videos of the choir.

- As expected, the buffet was filled with international dishes. My goal was to conquer every continent of the long buffet table.

- We ate, ate, ate, ate, ate, and ate some more. We took short breaks in between to let our digestive juices work with the food in our tummy. We became hyper and weird. Maybe that was just me. Marie also arrived a bit late. She was in a very elegant summer dress. Kim on the other hand went to and fro from her table with her mom and ours. Her mom, together with another friend, were talking about grown up stuff, as Kim said, so she'd rather be in our table instead. It was fun. She divulged some of Joanna's deepest darkest random and embarrassing moments. Ah, sisterly love.

- I also discovered that Marie took up French 1 to 4 in the University of Asia and the Pacific. I was extremely happy because it was my chance to practice and improve (even just a bit) my not-so-good French. The others just stared at us. Haha.

- After eating, we went for a short walk in the pool area, and took interest in the large Christmas tree. Since Kim and her mom were on the other side of the big pool, no one was available to take a group picture of us with the Christmas tree. Another group of people had the same problem. One of the people approached us and made a deal. One of us would take a picture of them, and one of them would take a picture of us. We accepted at once.

- After a few more vain shots with the Christmas tree and its gold and red ornaments, we went to the playground side at the other side of the big pool. We took more shots there, before Joanna's mom told us that it was time to go home. I was around 11:30pm.

- We all rode Joanna's car home, and shared more random stories. We went home with murdered wallets, because the restaurant was obviously expensive. And yes, until now, we still blame Joanna. It was her idea. Haha. Good thing she had discount cards, so at least we only paid around a teeny tiny bit more than half the original price per person. :)) :)) :)) :))

- I wasn't able to use my camera much, and mostly relied on Joanna and Lalaine's cameras. :D:D:D:D

- I hope that random dinners/trips/adventures would happen in the future. These are just the things that I need to unwind....or my intestine to untangle....Well, I guess Christmas is one of the best reasons to get together, sit down, bond, maybe spend a little more than usual (HIGHLY OPTIONAL), and eat!! :D:D:D:D

The Orange And White Christmas: Cinq's Christmas Reunion - The Dream Come True

- December 19, 2009, Saturday, Darren's Birthday, Dwight's and Mark's Belated, Crisselle's Advanced Birthday, 6pm, Dwight's House

- I arrived at CKSC around quarter to 5 to meet up with people. I met Nellie and all the other scouts that were preparing for their event. If I weren't going to our reunion tonight, I would be the emcee and the judge for the scout event thing in CKSC.

- Nellie and I walked around a bit in CKSC while waiting for Erlyn and Nathalie.

- Nathalie texted us a few minutes later that she was in the waiting room, so we waited for Erlyn with Nathalie. Erlyn came shortly afterwards.

- The four of us rode Erlyn's car to Dwight's house. For some reason, my hyperness and chatterbox gland started to tingle, and I kept talking about random stuff in Erlyn's car. I think if we were to have a longer car ride, Erlyn's dad could have thrown me out of the car. Hahahaha.

- We arrived at Dwight's house around 6pm; we were the most "punctual" people. I was also happy to see Dwight's dad and his "future brother-in-law" helping out with the dishes and stuff.

- While waiting for the people of the world to arrive, The four of us noticed the big PLDT tower beside Dwight's house. I sorta looked like the Eiffel Tower, so we took pictures with the giant tower.

- As the night grew dimmer, the people came one by one. We ate as soon as there were more or less 12 people. At the end of the night, we were 18. It's not a bad number for a class of 41 students, since this was the LARGEST Cinq gathering since prom. Haha. Some were not able to attend because of "parental concerns", and "out-of-town concerns".

- I gotta say, Dwight really did go a few extra miles to make this reunion a success. Not only did he volunteer his place for the venue, but he also prepared the food for us. (Take note: Dwight graduated from a prestigious culinary school in the country)

- Like most reunions, catching up with one another is a must, especially for our class. If it's not too obvious, our class color is orange, secondary color white, minor colors are black and blue. Therefore, my combination of my orange + white shirt, white pants, and blue Chuck's was not a coincidence, aside from the orange and white streamers Dwight made as a simple decoration.

- After eating and resting our bellies, Kim and Adrian came up with games for us to play. YEY. Haha. We played 7-Up which is a sort of a game of "speed and confusion". It's a bit hard to explain the rules here. To experience it is a must. Haha. Oh "jouissance", as our philo class would say. The 5 who were eliminated from the game had to dance "Nobody" by the Wondergirls. The five were "a bit shy" to dance, aside from Chabert.

- The next game we played was "Trip to Jerusalem", with a twist. The first round had the guys sit on the chairs, and the girls would go around the guys. When the music stops, the girls would have to sit on the guys' laps. I warned the girls to sit carefully; they could "sit on something, break it, and the guys' futures would be shattered".

- The second round was similar, but the guys had to sit on the girls this time. Haha.

- After the two rounds of Trip to Jerusalem, we had an awkward pause before the next game. Suddenly, Jean and Kimberly came back with the props and all for out next game. It was called "Werewolves".

- To explain it briefly, Werewolves is a role-playing game that required a lot of persuasion. Each person had a chance to be the God/Omnipotent Being, Little Girl who peeps during the night, the Hunters who would kill the werewolves, the Sorcerer who had the right to look at another person's card (where the role was written), the Healer who was able to heal one person per night, Villagers who had no abilities at all, and of course, the Werewolves who had the luxury to kill anyone they wanted.

- It was quite a mysterious and "scary" game, since I was able to image the scenes in my head (deep dark woods, werewolves eating people, etc etc.). It was, however, extremely fun. If only we had started the game earlier, then a few more rounds could have made the night more exciting.

- Some time during the event, something happened to Ryan's fingernail. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but he was rushed to the hospital along with Adrian, and I think Dwight's sister and dad. They came back around 11 something with Ryan. He was fine, gladly.

- We continued playing Werewolves until Erlyn's dad came to pick us up around 1am. The others who were left still continued with their game. Right now, as I am writing this blog at 2:36am, for all I know, the other "strong ones" are still on Dwight's roof deck persuading each other which character to kill, which ones not to kill, and which one is the "Little Girl". Haha. (I talked to Dwight just now, he said they left around 3am. HARHAR)



****
- As I have written in the yearbook years ago (AND YES OUR YEARBOOK IS NOT YET FINISHED....WHY OH WHY), I stated that although our class isn't as united as many people wanted or expected us to be, I firmly believe that all our paths will cross in the future. I think this is one of those times, wherein the Omnipotent Being allowed our paths to cross. We might not have been the complete set of 41 tonight, but it's already a milestone to usher in this much people, especially knowing our "diverse" class.

- Today (or yesterday??), we celebrated birthdays, Christmas, welcome-backs (Nellie and Darren from Singapore), and temporary goodbye's (Eric's going to Singapore this January for an exchange student program). For me, I think that the most important thing we celebrated today (or yesterday....) was the gift of unity despite all that we've been through, despite all forms of separation. Now that this has happened, foreshadowed by the epic reunion last sem break organized by dear Elaine, my faith has become stronger that we can still make things like this happen in the future.





** Merry Christmas Cinq. :) :) :) :) **

Performance and Presentation Christmas Performances

- December 14, 2009, Monday, 7:30-10:30 (Com143.16 - Performance and Presentation, under Mrs. Boots Anson-Roa)

- The day started out with a short sensitivity exercise, a short review, and a short quiz. Everything seemed short, but they took up a lot of time, which I think is not the best thing that could happen when there are presentations in store, as well as a supposed Christmas "party".

- After the short short 15 minute break, we had our chance to shine. The sequence of presentations were based on the alphabetical order of our surnames.

- Gino sang an original Christmas song, fused with "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas". Innovative.

- Chrissy Ang had a slideshow of pictures of Christmas around the world, as well as some personal Christmas pictures, specifically of her nephew as well. It was a really heart warming presentation.

- Joe and Nica had a tandem. They mixed the songs "Sa Ihip Ng Hangin" (I hope I got the title right), and "Pasko Na, Sinta Ko." Their performance really hit the spot. Nice arrangements and everything else.

- Krissie Drilon sang an a capella version of Silent Night, and Gab sang "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" with a really "heartfelt" strumming of the guitar.

- Nikki had a really nice game using a "Christmas hat" and " Christmas scarf." We were asked to form a circle and pass the hat and scarf around. Whoever gets both items at the same time will be out of the game. After rounds and rounds of craziness, Joe won.

- Paoie and Leana sang Christmas songs. They really have nice voices. Come to think of it, most of my classmates in my performance class were really good singers (excluding me of course). While realizing that we didn't have much time, some of the food were served, including the chocolate cake I brought.

- Charisse sang the Cebuano and Tagalog version of "Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit." It was fun to listen to a familiar song into a language unknown to me. :D:D:D:D

- Then came my turn. EPIC. Haha. I attempted to do a Bharatanatyam performance. It is a dance from Tamil Nadu, South India. The music I used was Bethlahemi, from the Shree Yeshurajan (O Jesus the King) album. It was sang in Malayalam. I gave a short short introduction in Hindi, then later in English.

- I got a bit more conscious since the class at the room across ours was about to start. Some people from the class next to ours were also waiting outside. With the big crowd outside, a lot of them watched my really crazy performance. I was a bit surprised, or not, to see my friend Danica watching as well. The class she sat in was the class across our room.

- After my epic crazy performance, Teresa, our German classmate, told us a Christmas story. She's really proficient in the English language.

- Mrs. Roa also had a little Christmas surprise of her own. She told Paoie to write our names and fold them into little pieces for a raffle. The winner would get a "gift" from her.

- Coincidentally, Paoie was the one chosen. (We might have teased her that she "did something illegal" so she'd be chosen, but all was fair.)

- It was revealed that Paoie got a nice bag with an embroidered "Best Wishes from Boots Anson-Roa" on the lower right corner of the bag. Nice. :) :) :) :)

- We planned to continue our small Christmas gathering at the SocSci foyer, since most of us didn't have classes after the performance class. Since we were dismissed late, and I still wanted to eat more food, I decided to cut my Portuguese class, though it was really against my will. I just sat in that class anyway; I'm not a "formal" student in Sir Capili's class. Haha.

- I forced everyone to finish the chocolate cake at least. Haha. I can still take the unopened box Dulce de Leche cake home.

- Since I realized that I didn't have decent pictures of me in my improvised Bharatanatyam costume, I took the effort to dress up again and hostaged Paoie to take vain pictures of me. Haha. Reminded of the time I hostage Kaz to take pictures of me in my Thai outfit. :D:D:D:D

- Half of the day ends here. The other half, my Feature Writing class, is another story. Haha.

How Ervina Saved Me From Boredom: Shooting of Mano Po 6 and Ervina's Belated 19th

- December 5, Saturday, 7am (DAW....but 10:30 in reality) to around 11pm.

- I was lucky to be given permission to watch/attend today's shoot of Mano Po 6 in my beloved alma mater. :D:D:D:D Since I don't have my school uniform anymore, I dressed to be one of the parents (odiba parent na daw ako)....or should I say, one of the "young and casual" people in the audience. Haha.

- I met some friends there who became my sons and daughters for the day (since I took care of their stuff; they weren't allowed to have bags and stuff in front).

- Overall, I really can't say much, since the shoot was honestly a bit boring. For some reason, I liked the shoot of Mano Po 3 better. *To think that was already 5 years ago."

- Heart was difficult to find because she was petite, but really really pretty. Unlike Angel Locsin or Dennis Trillo in the CKSC uniform in Mano Po 3, Heart didn't look awkward, or "too old", for the uniform. Zsa Zsa Padilla was stunning as always, and Mega, well, it was REALLY DIFFICULT to take pictures of her because she moves around A LOT.

- We had a really tiny amount of food for lunch provided by the set. Seriously. I shall not describe it anymore. I liked the hard boiled egg though. Haha. White and round like Onew hyung from SHINee. :D:D:D:D

- After the auditorium scene, many selected students were asked to stay to do another scene in the ground floor. The director told them to have bags or books with them so they'd look more like students. Kenny didn't have a bag, so he borrowed mine. Haha. I had to wait for around an hour for him. Haha.

- I guess waiting for Kenny was a BIG BLESSING IN DISGUISE. I met scout friends who finished their scouting in the Narra campus of CKSC, and came to the main campus for meetings. Some batchmate scouts were there as well.

- Ervina soon invited me to dinner with a few other former classmates for her belated birthday. I was really really relieved.

- Ervina attended her scout meeting, tagging me along. I had a nice time semi-bonding with batchmate scout friends.

- Ervina and I started to head towards Don Henrico's Ermita around 7pm. We rode the train to Pedro Gil.

- When we arrived, Erlyn, Mark, Eric and Chabert were there, as well as a few of Ervina's La Sallian friends (Deanne, VK, and Rachel Quema). We had a really really nice time talking about random stuff. *Definition of random: let's just say I discovered how repressed my friends are. HAHA.*

- I hitched a ride home with Erlyn's car. Talked nonstop in Erlyn's car. Haha. Hope her dad didn't find me annoying. Hahahaha. Her dad sorta knows me though. Haha.

Is It A Chinese Or A Korean Night??: Margarette Lim's Cozy 19th

- December 4, 2009, Friday, Golden Fortune Soler

- I arrived around 8 something in the evening, and immediately sad at the reserved table for Marga. Since I was bored while waiting for Marga and Grace to arrive, I just played games from my cellphone.

Random conversation:

Waiter: "Sir ilan po sila??"
Gilbert: "Ay sorry wala pa po yung nagpareserve ng table eh."
Waiter (while pouring my tea): "Oh. I guess you'll just have to wait."
Gilbert (to myself): "Wow....never expected that reply."

- A few moments later, Marga and MG arrived from DLSU, and ordered some siomai and hakaw before the others arrive.

- Venus and her sister Diane arrived shortly. To our surprise, Venus took a long time to order our entrees. As expected, the amount of food ordered was fit for I think 20 people....to think there was going to be 7 of us.

- Marga's sister and er boyfriend arrived while we were in the middle of our main course.

- While eating, we had a fun time discussing about everything Korean. As always. Haha. We feasted on more hakaws later since we always associate SHINee's Onew with hakaw. :D:D:D:D I even made a face on the last hakaw with the black sesame seeds from my butchi.

- After eating, and yes, we were sort of able to eat the for-20-people-amount-of-food, we headed to Starbucks Binondo, while Marga's sister went ahead and drove her boyfriend home.

- Venus and Diane were the only ones who had tummy spaces for coffee, so they were the only ones who bought coffee. Marga, MG and I rested our tummies. We also enjoyed our brief Starbucks stay by watching random youtube clips (thanks to Grace's laptop) of SHINee and 2AM's Jokwon (and his ssanti (cheap) dance of everything and anything.)

- We headed home afterwards. Marga drove us home. Since my tummy was a bit ok, my hyper-drunk mode switched on. Take note: I DID NOT drink, and I DON NOT drink at all, but there are just moments wherein I act drunk for some reason. Wow, a "drunk" guy in his sorta right hyper mind. Hahahaha.

- Time flies when people have fun....but for some reason, this "brief" night wasn't so brief as I expected. Wow, if only fun moments can extend itself like this one. :D:D:D:D

SHINee LIVE IN MANILA (In Celebration of the Philippine-Korean Friendship's 60th Anniversary)

- November 27, 2009, Friday, 5PM (but it started around 5:30 or 6. Haha)

- The tickets were FREE. (yes, I died of happiness. Haha. It was also a pain in the behind to get the ticket, since NBN was really far from my house.)

- Today, I met MG at DLSU around 1pm, and went to CCP to check if the staff would still give out extra tickets. Of course we wanted Marga to be able to see the concert as well (she wasn't able to get a ticket).

- Upon arrival, a Korean volunteer told us that there was a line for people who are going to get the extra tickets, and there was a line for people who had tickets. Since we had tickets (our seats were nice enough btw), we lined up in the extra tickets line, so we could hopefully ask for another ticket for Marga.

- SHINee World (SHINee's fans club) came later with their sky blue shirts. I recognized some of them since they're my friends from Ateneo :D:D:D:D YEY ATENEO. :D:D:D:D

- Marga came moments later, and MG and I went to our people-who-have-tickets line. It was a bit difficult to contact Marga since her cellphone battery was nearly running out of juice (mins ran out of juice moments later as well). We later found out that Marga wasn't able to get a ticket, since the staff only gave out around 30 more tickets. Boooo Epic Fail moment.

- Our people-who-have-tickets line was really really long, but it moved fast, since people already had tickets. Hahahaha. The guards also attempted to speak to us in "Korean" and "Korean-accent-English" because they thought MG and I were Koreans. I quickly talked to the guards in Tagalog so they'd let us in faster. (And yes, they did let us in faster. Haha)

- Our seats were located at Balcony 1. It's nice enough since we could see the whole stage in a very nice angle. The people on the stage were a bit tiny though....but I guess not too tiny like how I saw David Archuleta from my seat in MOA last May (yes I miss David Archuleta. Haha)

- So before SHINee (obviously they were placed at the end), there were a few performances from various performers, both Filipinos and Koreans. The event was hosted by Luis Manzano and Isak, a Korean VJ (I hope I got this correct.)

- First, Teatro Miguel opened the event with their variety of colorful, graceful, and impressive Filipino dances. Speeches were made afterwards by the Korean Ambassador and Hon. Alberto Romula from the DFA.

- Gabriela "Avii" Pineda, a Miriam College student who won various Korean singing contests here in the Philippines, performed Wonder Girls' Nobody with her posee. On the other hand, Yang Sang Heon, a 13-year-old Korean who's studying here in Manila and a resident of the country for about 1.5 years, sang Freddie Aguilar's Anak. He did an impressive job with the song. No one knew he was only here for 1.5 years. He was made to perform because he won Filipino singing contests here as well. A few members from the Aritangtown-Philippines danced to various famous Kpop songs (like songs from SHINee, Suju, SNSD....etc)

- To end the first part of the concert, our very own Brownman Revival sang three songs.

- During the intermission, a video was shown about the Korean-Filipino relationship through time, and a few messages to the Filipinos from various KPop groups. Of course, Sandara might have had the most appealing message since she spoke in Filipino.

- The second part started with Isak singing a Kelly Clarkson song. Later on, Lucky and Isak introduced Mighty Mouth.

- After Mighty Mouth's 2 songs, Winterplay had their turn. I particularly like their Gypsy Girl song, since I like gypsy sounds. :D:D:D:D It was their last song. (They're promoting their album btw, their album will be released in the Philippines around Feb 2010)

- NOW...........................................


SHINee'S TURN TO PERFORM!!!! (Too bad Taemin got the swine flu "in such a short notice". So it was basically "SHINee - 1". Taemin wants people to know that he's ok. Hahahaha. GOOD.)

- SHINee performed 3 songs: Stand By Me (from Boys Over Flowers), Juliette, and Ring Ding Dong.

- I took relatively few photos of SHINee because I WAS TOO BUSY VIDEO-ING THEM (I uploaded the videos in the videos section). I guess the videos are better. I really feel sorry for friends who weren't able to watch the concert. I greeted some of them during the Juliette video. Hahahaha.

- When SHINee was done performing, they rushed off the stage, and the audience rushed out to stalk SHINee. Haha. SHINee was in a hurry to catch their flight back to Korea. (Awwwwwwww. :( :( :( :( )

- MG and I went out around 8pm, and searched for Marga. We couldn't contact her properly because her phone died, my phone died, and MG's phone was the only one alive. It was just like the seach for the holy grail. HAHA. (Ma-flatter ka naman Marga. Holy Grail ka daw.) It was also like playing hide-and-seek. Two "it"s and one person "hiding".

- MG and I search every corner of Harbor Square, and did not come out successful. Many fans were still at the CCP complex waiting for SHINee to come of from the tiny door at the back. MG and I assumed Marga was there.... and yes she was.

- We saw her walk to Harbor Square after SHINee's bus left. She only saw Minho's hair, a "possible Onew". Haha. We went to Korean Village to eat our late-much dinner.

- In Korean Village, we had free appetizers, free soup, bibimbap, grilled beef, kimchi chige (a sort of SUPER HOT soup), and kimbap. I ate too much too quickly, that I felt like I was about to explode. I went to the restroom afterwards. Thankfully I didn't puke (puking: one of the strangest, most comfortable sensations the world has ever known). I also adjusted my belt from the third hole to the first hole. HAHAHAHA. I felt better afterwards, thank God.

- We went home around 10:50. I rode Marga's car now, since my house was on the way anyway. :D:D:D:D

- Marga and Grace, thanks for a wonderful SHINee day. The best might not have turned out (Marga not being able to watch, and Taemin not being able to come here in our nice littly country), but it is a day worth remembering.


*The sun is bright....and SHINee*

*I am a happy happy boy. A very happy and fat one.*




*SHINee looks the same in person and on video. Hahahaha.*



****RIP to my black mailman bag. A part of it was badly ripped (by accident), good thing it somewhere in the top part, not below. At least I was able to use it for a last time.

Itty-GOETHE Love :D:D:D:D Goethe Institut's Open House

- November 20, 2009, Friday, 1pm

- I saw a memo in the Ateneo's Modern Languages bulletin board that the Goethe Institut ( the German language and culture center) would be having an open house today with lot's of freebies and such. I was also greatly attracted to the "Win a Free Trip to Germany" scavenger hunt and raffle.

- I asked my mom to come with me, since most of the people I know had classes today, or had internship shifts.

- We arrived at Goethe around 1:15pm, and went to explore the Institut.

- We first came to the Battle of the Brains. Obviously, all the questions were about Germany. Since there was an ongoing game, we were asked to sit at the back as part of the audience, and could only play (if ever) at the next batch. We didn't find the game very interesting so we left and checked out the other activities.

- We went to another room that had a sort of contest. We were supposed to search for 18 questions posted randomly inside the room, and mark our answers on the answer sheet. In fairness, I realized that I sorta knew something about Germany (although I didn't win. Haha) The pretty German lady named Ilka also gave my mom and me free Ritter Sport chocolate squares.

- We went to the fifth floor of the building to look for other activities. I played pop the "luftballon" (balloon in short). The person was supposed to ask a question, and the contestant should use a dart to pop a balloon containing the answer. Boo me, I popped the wrong balloon. Haha. (Hey, darts are difficult to handle noh.)

- With time to spare before the "epic" scavenger hunt (yes, keeping in mind that the winner will get to go to Germany for free....), we went to the second floor to make art out of "my favorite German word/s". I went inside and draw "Ich liebe Deutschland (I love Germany)." I loved this activity place because I get to have free stuff just because I drew something. Haha.

- We went upstairs to the fourth floor and waited a bit until the scavenger hunt commenced.

- A lady came after a few minutes and announced that the scavenger hunt would begin. After reading the mechanics, I immediately knew that I didn't have a butt's chance to even play the scavenger hunt. Boo epic fail. This was because:

1. The questions were in German.

2. I don't know much German.

- If ever I get to answer all the questions, assuming I knew German and my answers were correct, my entry, together with other entries (that had all correct answers), would be raffled. The runner ups would have free German lessons in the Goethe Institut Manila, and the grand prize winner would get to go to study German in the Goethe Institut Germany (all expenses paid). If ever, I wouldn't be able to go to Germany as well, even if I won....blame school. Hahahaha.

- For some reason, I didn't really feel bitter, and I can't really blame myself for not knowing German.

- My mom and I went downstairs at the ground floor to get our free merienda. To our surprise, the free merienda was a buffet. My mom and I ate a lot. (Oh wait....I eat a lot all the time anyway HAHAHAHA).

- The Institut had two buffet tables. One catered by Vanilla Bean, and the other by 121 Grill and Restaurant. We had more food at the Vanilla Bean since the food there were a bit international and fun.

- We also visited the newly inagurated library at the ground floor. I played an "info-hunt" contest, where I was supposed to get a task from a fishbowl, and find the answers to the task in the library (example: Give 3 names of German musicians. *then I just had to go around the library, look through books, and submit my answer to the person in charge*) For that contest, I got a free notebook thing. Yeyyyy.

- At around 4pm, my mom and I went to the second floor to attend our 30-minute German crash course. We were in a room with some students from Lyceum, and a few other random people. *Who can't say no to a free language course?!?! (especially for language buffs like me)*

- We learned the German alphabet, a few German sentences (my name is....blah blah), and German numbers.

- I had a fun time teaching the German pronunciation to my mom. My mom had a terrible time. HAHA. I understood her, since German pronunciations don't really go well with the Chinese tongue (or any other tongue I suppose....)

- We also had a sort of contest, where we had to match the names of the numbers to the figures of the numbers. Haha. My mom and I were the first ones who finished. Hahahaha. We finished within 10 seconds, I think. (Boo, no prize, but still, I was happy. Haha. I realized I wasn't purely German-illiterate after all. Haha.)

- After the language course, we hurried to the fifth floor to see if we could still see the cooking class. We arrived and the German people were halfway through the recipe. I think it was sort of a salad (Kartoffelsalat I think). Haha. I liked the smell.

- Sadly, my mom wasn't able to attend the Bauernmadel dancing class she wanted to go to. I wanted to attend the dancing class as well, but we weren't able to attend since it was in conflict with the language class and the cooking class.

- Since we more or less did most of the nice activities, we both decided to go home. It was around 5:15 I think.

- Well, I may not have had the chance to go to a free trip to Germany and learn German in Germany, but I had a lot of free things, and learned German things today. Yes, I'll study German on my own, like I do with all the other languages I'm learning, but I scheduled it after Italian (I'm studying Italian now. Haha).

- I guess today's experience was also different from my experience in Instituto Cervantes' Dia del Libro last May -> In the Instituto, I understood Spanish. In the Institut, I didn't understand German (except for a few words or so). Haha.

- Hopefully, I would have the chance to visit the Institut or the Instituto again soon for whatever event. Maybe next time, I could also attend a sort of open house at the Alliance Francaise. Hahahaha. :D:D:D:D





**** Ich heisse Gilbert. Ich spreche keine Deutsche. Ich liebe Deutsche und Deutscheland. HAHAHAHA.

Gilli And Oli's Belated Much Birthday At MOA

- November 7, 2009, Saturday

- Met Jessica, Nathalie, and Berna at CKSC around 9:45, and went to fetch Oli at his place.

- As usual, we rode the train and the shuttle to MOA. Oliver wasn't able to ride the train with us, so he had to catch the next one.

- We arrived at MOA around 11 something and walked to Italianni's for an sort-of early lunch. Along the way, we decided to watch Jennifer's Body, and grabbed tickets for the 3:10 movie.

-In Italianni's, we had calamari, salmon pizza, and pasta Alfredo. Of yeah, we also had fun with the bottomless bread, plus the olive oil + balsamic vinegar sauce.

- After lunch, and a good amount of time to waste before the movie, we went to Razon's for dessert. We ate their nice and inexpensive halo-halo. Good thing there weren't many people in Razon's a while ago, and that Oliver paid for all our halo-halo.

- We decided to play billiards after dessert. We played for an hour, and had 2 games of 8-ball. The girls won the first round, and nobody won the second round, since the cue ball kept going into the holes. Joketime match.

- Since we had a good 45 minutes before the movie, we also decided to go to Timezone and play around a bit. Good thing I brought my Timezone card.

- Around 2:50, we went to the cinema-place and bought some popcorn. I saw Isen and company (one of which included a neighbor of mine who also happened to be Blessilda's cousin.) Guess what, they were going to watch the same movie as we were.

- The movie was really really weird and not as scary as I thought it would be. It was sorta thrilling at some point, and the rest either gross or sexual. Haha.

- We played a bit more in Timezone after the movie, and decide to go home after we got bored. We passed by Folded and Hung, and decided to look at red clothes, since my closet lacks red clothes (a big no-no for Chinese people, especially when relatives celebrate random events a lot.)

- I found a nice plain collared shirt that was on sale, but sadly, it didn't have my size. I was sorta pissed, because all the sizes were available except my size. (Plus, I felt a bit guilty since I just bought two clothes yesterday at Greenhills.)

- We went home around 6, and rode the train home. I was really glad I was able to go out again today since we planned today's trip since around two-three weeks ago. Some might not have been able to come, like Karel (had class), Erlyn (school thing), Miguel (somewhere in Antipolo), and Bless (ehem, in France for her JTA), and Fajj (um....something), but it was truly a nice and fulfilling trip....though maybe I'm not really fulfilled with my red-shirt hunting. Hahahaha. :D:D:D:D

Epic Journey To Greenhills (And Around Manila As Well....) :| :| :| :|

- November 6, 2009, Friday

- Lala, Marnie and I went to Greenhills to do my favorite sport: shopping (and eating.)

- Upon arriving at Greenhills after a light LRT-MRT trip, we went straight to Penang Hill to eat lunch. We ordered so much food that a couple of trips to the restroom helped clear the pipe. I enjoyed lunch though, the food was great.

- After lunch, we strolled around and around and around Greenhills Shopping Centre. I was able to find two shirts for myself, both from Venetta. Yey. (Boo for my wallet.) Lala and Marnie also searched for their things.

- We decided to go home around 4:30, so we would arrive, assuming, in Manila around an hour later.

- We rode a Quiapo bus home, but did not think of getting off somewhere in Pureza, where it could have been a much easier and faster way to go home.

- We decided to stay inside the bus, since Quiapo is quite near our place. Little did we know that the bus would take ONE BIG CIRCLE around Manila, making the trip WAY LONGER than it should have been. We arrived somewhere in Quiapo around 6:00 and braved through the crowd that was almost acted like the waves of the ocean. We swam through the crowd and finally got to Odeon a few moments later. We rode a Divisoria jeep home.

- Our butts were sore from the long long bus ride, and our legs are way tired from from shopping and swimming through the Quiapo crowd. We got home after around 2 ~ 2.5 hours of travel. :| :| :| :|

- Lesson learned: 1. Get off at Pureza, 2. Learn to drive, 3. Earn money so my wallet won't suffer, 4. Greenhills is love. :D:D:D:D

Epic Reunion: Vocal Chord Code Red, The Fake Birthday, Food Galore

- November 5, 2009, Thursday

- Today was almost too good to be true. Never thought we'd have a random reunion ever. Elaine, you're one hell of an organizer. Good job!! :D:D:D:D

- I met Abe at CKSC around 10:30 and walked towards LRT1's Doroteo Jose station (or as Chabert would like to say "DJ Station"). I also noticed Abi's highlights, which we all soon found out was just fake extension hair.

- We met Josh, Elaine and Danielle at the station and decided to split up since there were tooooooooo many people on the platform. The girls went to the "girl's side", while Josh and I remained at the "regular" side. The girls were able to catch one of the earlier trains. Josh and I, however, had to wait for several more trains due to the overflowing population of people on the platform.

- While waiting for the train until the time we arrived at Gil Puyat Station, Josh was able to tell me his autobiography and vice versa. We were able to practice a bit of French, had primary and secondary reflection, tried to be in the world with others, deciphered the mystery of the chicken and the egg, etc etc. (Though this is partially true, most are exagge, I guess it can be inferred how long it took us to get to Gil Puyat.)

- We rode the shuttle to MOA and waited for Carmela and Eric to arrive. Ian told us to go ahead since he would be really really really really late.

- We decided to eat at Burgoo's and had a free dish courtesy of my credit card. Hahahaha.

- Knowing that Burgoo had the birthday-special thingie if someone were celebrating his birthday, Elaine to me to ask the waitress about it about it. The waitress told us that the birthday person would have a special Sunday. Since Ian was nowhere to be found, we decided to pull a prank on him. Haha. Yes, he was the "birthday boy".

- Ian texted us and said that his dad wanted him to go back home for something, but was able to come around the time we almost finished our lunch. Good thing he was able to eat something....including his "free birthday sundae." :D:D:D:D

- We decided to go to Timezone and have some karaoke funtime next. By the way, we were able to meet Cristina and Marc along the way. How random. Hahahaha. :D:D:D:D

- I think they regretted the karaoke idea when I decided to almost-explode the whole mall with my voice. HAHA. Good thing Josh was there to balance things out with his rather nice voice. Woohoo Ateneo College Glee Club powers. Hahahaha.

- Since Josh and I were the only once hogging the mic, we played "maalis-alis" to see who the "next singer" will be. Coincidentally, I was the one left. Ian said: "Tadhana talaga. May calling."

- Chabert was able to make it to MOA after his classes in DLSU. He met us at the karaoke place inside Timezone.

- After Josh's voice and mine were nearly gone, we decided to go somewhere and eat. While walking around and deciding where to eat, Abe's flip flops (or flip flop??) broke. We brisk walked towards the near Surplus store so Abe can buy a new pair.

- We walked towards the fairly near Icebergs to munch on something sweet. Ervina later called Chabert's cellphone, and all of us found out that Ervina was with Erlyn. Since Ervina and Erlyn's presence were faily acknowledged, I guess that makes them part of the reunion too. :D:D:D:D

- Going back home was more than half of the Odyssey. We rode on a shuttle to the LRT station. Since my body size is "above normal", I had a hard time squeezing in. I even sat on the thigh of the person next to me. I soon told Josh to sit on my lap, since he had nowhere to sit. Haha.

- Upon arriving at EDSA, the platform had too many people. We could barely breathe. We waited for a few more trains before we were able to ride home.

- Some things never change. After 3 years of college, some high school things still live on. It was really nice to catch up with one another, and a great time bonding together. I really hope occasions like this one would continue to happen for a very very long time. Tralalalalaaaaaa....

Autumn Evenings, My Belated Birthday, Downtown Chinatown :) :) :) :)

- November 3, 2009, Tuesday, celebrated my birthday for the third time. Haha.

- Earlier today, the wind was blowing like crazy; things around the house started to fly and walk around. I didn't even have to open the electric fan because it was THAT windy.

- This was an adventure (err....more of a calm sit down dinner I guess) that I never thought would push through, but luckily, it did. Like what Jane told me a few minutes ago, "time was not enough for this day". I share the same sentiments.

- I went to Cristina's house around 5:20pm, and walked towards Chinatown. After arriving at Tasty Dumplings Ongpin around 5:40, Jane and Tal were already able to reserve a seat for the four of us. Jane and Tal surprised me with 3 birthday cupcakes that tasted totally awesome.

- We ordered dinner and started to chat like we haven't talked to each other for years.True enough, this was one of the memorable dinners of my life, since the four of us were able to go somewhere together - something we haven't done before, and something I thought was almost impossible to happen (a long and confidential story.)

- After dinner, we went to Cafe Mezzanine a few steps away and shared a banana split for dessert. We talked until the restaurant closed around 8pm.

- Tina and I walked home together, since our houses were near. Along the way, we were able to see Pei Mei and her brother. I guess this was one of today's surprises. I am so glad to have seen Pei Mei, because I haven't seen or talked her for a long long time. Sadly, she refused to take a photo of me in the middle of the street. Haha. She said she wasn't dressed up, and the street was dark.

- I arrived home after a few more minutes, and yes, I'm in poverty mode again. (Oh yeah, I still have another belated thing this Saturday. Hopefully, it will push through.)

Spending Halloween Afternoon In Chinatown. :D:D:D:D

- Oct. 31, 2009, Saturday, Halloween

- We were supposed to have a "Halloween costume party" with Grace and Marga's sister today, but it didn't push through because of the weird storm that couldn't decide if it would like to splash everything out or not. (At least it's not Ondoy. Whew.) The theme was supposed to be "dress up like your favorite kpop idol/group". Of course I'd (try my best to) dress up as SHINee. Haha.

- Since MG and Marga's sister backed out, Marga and I still decided to meet and walk around Chinatown, simply because we wanted to eat hakaw. (Yes Mary Grace and other people who I share kpop with, Onew looks like one big hakaw. Ring Ding Dong Ring Ding Dong....)

- We met around 3:45 in Abad Santos, and walked towards 168 to look at some things.

- While Marga was looking for earrings to buy, I stumbled upon Abun, Ampe, their mom, and Lennie. (Too bad I wasn't able to take a picture of us. Huhu.)

- Seeing that we couldn't find anything else to buy, we headed towards Ongpin to find Marga's ma-pa (a sort of beef jerky). We marched towards Bee Tin but they ran out of ma-pa. We also saw a random family - the mom was Chinese, the dad was Spanish/Mexican, and the son was obviously a mixture of the two. The family talked to each other in Spanish (but the mom was able to converse in Chinese as well). Hahahaha.

- Since we ran out of ideas as to where ma-pa can be bought, we went to Shirby's store nearby and asked Shirby. We weren't able to talk much with Shirby since she and her mom were very very busy.

- We checked some nearby Chinese grocery stores, but the ma-pa they were selling were too much commercialized.

- Depressed, we decided to go to Golden Fortune and grab ourselves some dimsum. Lucky, we arrived at the promo period; all the dishes were almost half the price (Soler branch: 2:30pm(??) - 5:30pm, 9pm-1am, Kalaw branch: 9pm-1am)

- We ordered SO MUCH DIMSUM, that we looked almost like the siopaos we ate. Lesson learned: DON'T ORDER TOO MUCH DIMSUM....EVEN DURING THE PROMO PERIOD. The lower the cost, the more demands will sky rocket. OMG law of supply and demand. (Goodbye Eco102, I shall not miss you ever.)

- I also got my copies of SNSD and SHINee's minialbum. They're so cute. Haha. Sowoneul Malhebwa a a a a....Juriet aowhh.... Hahahaha.

- We went home around 6:30. We were supposed to ride a pedicab each, but there was only one pedicab at the corner. I let Marga have the pedicab, and I just walked home. I really liked today's weather. It's cold, not humid (or not too humid), and NOT RAINY. :D:D:D:D



**Even if the costume thing didn't push through, I still think I wore a SHINee inspired outfit today -> bright yellow shirt, black pants, bright orange shoes, and the light blue Ateneo ORSEM bag. Haha.

KFC - Koreatown, Ferry, Chinatown Adventure

- October 24, 2009, Saturday

- I had a last minute adventure planning last night with Tina and Jane through YM, since we haven't gone out for an adventure in a while. Cheers to sembreak.

- We met at Tina's house around 9am, and rode the LRT, MRT and jeep to Rockwell. Like before, we "marched" towards MaSan Restaurant. We arrived at MaSan so early that not only were we the first customers there, but the staff weren't in their proper uniforms as well. (Their customers usually come during dinnertime. Lunchtime is usually a slow time for them.) They were a bit surprised to see 3 random customers come in around 11:30am.

- We ate much, had free/bottomless appetizers, bowls of seaweed soup, and pineapple wedges. Aside from that, the service was superb as always, making me give them a generous tip. By the way, Ms. Lee (the manager in a hanbok) wasn't around because she was in Korea :| :| :| :|

- We stopped by a Wang Mart and bought some Korean ice cream. We had a fun time talking to the staff there; there were very friendly. Jane even made a "special" friend. HAHAHAHA.

- Before going to the other Korean stores, we saw a tiny frog on the street. It didn't look like a common frog, so we took pictures of it. The other people around us looked a bit strangely at us, and later found the frog "amusing" as well.

- We visited the other Korean stores, but we couldn't really but anything because the things were really expensive.

- We stopped over at Rockwell and saw food stalls giving out free samples at the ground floor. We had a little detour in our adventure itinerary and stuffed ourselves with free food samples.

- After eating and commenting on the samples, we rode a jeep towards the Guadalupe Ferry station, bought tickets, and waited a short while before the next boat to Escolta came.

- After getting off at Escolta, we walked towards Cafe Mezzanine, and had our afternoon merienda. We stayed there for a good 2 to 3 hours chatting away until the sun went down.

- Marc came around 5 something and accompanied us. We told him to order something for himself so we'd have a reason to stay there longer. Hahahaha.

- On the way home, we paid Shirby a short short visit at her store, and surprisingly saw another batchmate - Jenesa. :D:D:D:D

- We passed by Wai Ying, and surprisingly (again), I saw Bea Lao, a friend from Ateneo. She was with her brother. I guess her brother was very surprised (there's that word again) to see me; he doesn't know me. HAHA.

- I had a great first-sembreak-adventure. I hope to have more adventures in the following days. I don't want to be imprisoned at home again, and do nothing but eat, eat, cook, eat, cook again, and be fat(ter). Haha.

"I Stopped By To Have Dinner" With Jessica and Karlene (After the CKSC Fair) :) :) :) :)

- October 16, 2009, Friday, first day of the CKSC 70th Anniversary School Fair (Octobliss)

- I didn't have pictures of me during the fair because I was too busy talking to people, walking around, eating, eating, eating, eating, and avoiding myself from being stamped or handcuffed.

- I was on my way home around 5:20 and saw some familiar faces when I passed by Shakey's - Jessica and Karlene.

- I went in the restaurant just to say a quick hello and have a few conversations before heading home. Karlene and Jessica insisted on having dinner with them, so I did.

- We had a marvelous time catching up on each other and pretty much people from our batch. During the conversations, I then realized that the gate towards the "real outside world" is also near....Oh well. :D:D:D:D

- I was supposed to pay the bill, but then Jessica insisted that she should pay the bill, since her birthday came a few days ago, but Karlene had a marathon run towards the counter and paid the bill. (Karlene....next time....we'll pay the bill. Haha.)

- We went home around 7, after chomping down on food and talking almost endlessly about everything. Thanks for paying the bill Karlene. We really owe you. :) :) :) :)

Big Day Day 2: Poseidon's Weather Game and India

- September 26, 2009, Saturday, day after my big day

- I had to celebrate my big day with Clarisse and Marga (again), so we decided to go out today. Of course, the rain disagreed.

- This morning, the rain was not really that hard, so we decided to push through with the Glorietta thing.

- We arrived at Glorietta around 11 and had lunch at New Bombay. We had fish tikka masala, rogan jhosh, chicken tandoori, chapatis, and mango lassis. Gladly, we were the only customers there. Since the restaurant played bhangra music, I just had to dance. And yes, I did. Haha.

- New Bombay is an awesome restaurant from the ambiance down to the food itself. I don't think, however, that it can still beat Assad's Cafe in Little India, UN Avenue. Hehe.

- Clarisse gave me my present, and pretended to be surprised (Clarisse asked me to pretend to be surprised as well. Haha.). Backstory: Clarisse texted me ago to verify if I had the book that she wanted to give me. Since I didn't have that book, she decided to buy and give it to me. It was a book about India. Hahahaha.

- We moved around Glorietta and Greenbelt for a short while, and decided to go home early since Clarisse's dad was calling her, and my mom was worried as well. Marga's dad and sister gave Marga feedbacks about the flood in some places.

- Half of Glorietta had a blackout, and half of it had electricity. By "half", I mean one half as the left side of the hall, and the other half as the right side of the hall. So the time we were walking along the hall to SM Makati, we felt that we were in Purgatory.

- By the time we got to the MRT station, the lines were terribly long. The ticket vendors did not sell tickets, since a lot of people were crowded in the platform below. The platform was decongested, the lines started to move.

- By the time I got off at Bambang station, the streets below were flooded as well. I had no choice but to take a pedicab. The person charged me 80php for the usual 20php ride from the LRT station to my house. I had no smaller bills, so I gave the person a hundred. Hey, he did push the little pedicab all the way to my house, and I was feeling generous (sour grape mode. Haha.)

- I've never seen the streets in my neighborhood flooded like that (even the small street below our condo was flooded too). While I was in the pedicab, I had to squat on the chair, since the pedicab driver told me that my big butt might get wet (he didn't actually say that though....he just told me that I would get wet. Haha)

- By the time we got to the "elevated" area in Masangkay, I was able to sit on the chair. Squatting was really difficult because of the tiny width of the chair, and the occasional uneven-road-caused-bumps. I prayed hard that I would not fall. If I do, maybe the flood water will eat me aliveeeee.

- I got home around 4pm, and was super thankful that I got home safely with minimal wetness.

- I was also happy to know that Marga and Clarisse got home safely as well.

- I need to go out with Marga and Clarisse as soon as the rain goes away. Huhu, and I bet that will be a very long time from now, due to acads, sudden weather menstruation, and stuffies.

- Poseidon is mad. He might send out the Kracken. Woohoo.

**Travel time = twice (or thrice) the time we were at Glorietta

Fat Orange Orange Fanboy Big Day :D :D :D :D

- Sept. 25, 2009, Friday,my big day. :D:D:D:D

- I first went to Ateneo to check out the booths for the French Embassy and the Italian Embassy in Jumpstart.

- Upon arrival, I ate breakfast, as always, and met Jayce. We ate together in the caf.

- I headed towards the CSR around 9 to give Kat her cake (she celebrated her birthday yesterday), and so I could mess with other people's AdMan lives. Haha.

- I went to the Jumpstart Fair after Mrs. Diyco arrived. Turned out, the Italian Embassy was M.I.A. Haha. Well France was there, so at least I got a few more brochures. Hehe.

- I met some people, and headed towards DLSU around 11am.

- I arrived at McDonald's Taft around 12noon, and waited for Marga and Mary Grace. Since MG was on her way and Marga had to do something in school before going to McDo, I wandered inside McDo to see if I knew someone there. Well, I didn't find anyone. I went to next door KFC, and saw Charles and Jayson. :D:D:D:D

- After a short while, Marga and I met, and went to MG's car. We drove towards Korean Village to eat lunch.

- We had a nice lunch aside from catching up on each other about everything (as if we don't talk almost every night). Hahahaha.

- We rode to RP after, and bought movie tickets for Yaya and Angelina: The Spoiled Brat Movie. Since we had around an hour before the movie, we headed towards Da Mul and the Walnut Cookie House in Adriatico.

- We bought ice cream in Da Mul and went off to buy walnut cookies. Upon arrival at the Walnut Cookie House, it was evident that the owner and "kuya" (who knew how to speak Korean even if he is a Filipino) knew me already. Kuya had a nice time commenting about me being "ponkan na ponkan" today. Hahahaha.

- Each of us bought two dozen cookies. At one point, I told Marga in Hokkien that she should not buy the cookies with box, because the box was worth around 30 pesos more. (two dozen = 160, but two dozen with a box = 190).

Conversation:

Gil: Marga, di mang ho i ke le box le, kasi na bo box ka shiok
(Gil: Marga, wag mo na ipalagay sa kanya sa box, kasi mas mura pag walang box)

-kuya interrupts-

Kuya: Hindi po CASHEW ito. Walnut po. (Kuya understood "ka shiok", meaning "less expensive" in Hokkien as CASHEW)

- The three of us wanted to laugh, but we can't. It wasn't his fault that he didn't know Hokkien. We wanted to tell him what the statement meant, but it would only defeat the purpose of saying it in Hokkien. We had our little laugh after we went out. :D:D:D:D

- We went back to Da Mul, so I could buy more ice cream. YEY. :D:D:D:D

- We ran towards the theater and arrived just in time.

- After a few minutes, a group of noisy people entered the movie theater. "What the frickin hell", I said. "Que barbaridad!!" I said again. After the movie, I found out that they were high school students from CKSC. What a shame. At least they weren't in their school uniform or something. CKSC celebrated the teacher's day luncheon today.

- We walked out of the movie theater and ate at Rai Rai Ken for some Japanese food. I suddenly remembered to get Charmaine's Super Junior copy (yes Charmaine, the one with the poster). Haha.

- We went home riding MG's car, while listening (and occasionally watching videos, through iPod) to kpop. Hahahaha. :D:D:D:D

- I am currently fatter. Hahahaha. Ate too many things today. Haha. Oh wait....eating too many things is normal in my case. HAHA. :D:D:D:D

- Love you all :D:D:D:D Thanks for making this day special :D:D:D:D Same goes to everyone else who remembered :D:D:D:D






****Btw, Marga's fan girl mode has gone to a whole new level. Terms for the day: "su eopseo" and "ottohke ottohke" HAHAHAHA.



SHINee :D:D:D:D Hahahaha.

I Went To School Just Because. Haha. The Day Before the Big Day.

- Sept. 24, 2009, Thursday. I didn't have classes again today. Haha.

- I forced myself to go to school because of the Jumpstart Study Abroad Fair. I wanted to look at what other countries have to offer. Well, if I'm extremely lucky (and extremely rich, which is far from what I am right now), I might hopefully be able to go after I graduate from Ateneo.

- I made sure that I would use my flaggy ID strap and flaggy bag, since I'm a very multicultural person. Haha. Tralalalalalalalalaaaa.

- I wore black today because I recently found out that our adviser in 4th year Chinese, our Chinese Math teacher Zhuang Mei Mei Lao Shi, a.k.a. Robot, passed away recently. Now, a moment of silence.




(moment of silence)




- I went to school with the usual carpool people. They were strangely silent today. They were studying.

- I got bored, so I tried to take pictures of people in the car.

- I arrived at school, and went to the library to photocopy Danica's readings, so she wouldn't have to photocopy it after her class, meaning the earlier we could go home.

- I tried to learn Russian in the library for 30 minutes while the xerox lady was photocopying the thick readings. I can speak a bit of Russian now. HAHA. Just a bit.

- After the photocopy session, I went to buy Macmac's Ms. Coo trading card from Celadon in the doghouse. I wonder why he's shy to buy a Ms. Coo card. WE HEART MISS COO :D:D:D:D

- I met Leslie, who didn't have class as well, but needed to sell stuff for Celadon.

- I also met Jackie Tanliao, my Feature Writing class classmate. She was eating a banana. :D:D:D:D I like bananas, but I like pigs more. We both like orange.

- After minutes of confusing Leslie's life in the Celadon booth, I decided to check out the Jumpstart Study Abroad Fair, since by that time, they were already set up.

- Foreigners from their respective embassies went there. I was also able to get a big bunch of brochures. I was also able to talk to some of them in their native languages....again, just a bit of whatever languages. This is why I like foreigners. :D:D:D:D

- I went back to Leslie's booth and confused her life once more. Macmac texted me about an hour later, and told me to meet up in the LS Bookstore, so I can give him his Ms. Coo trading card.

- It was such fun seeing Mac. I don't get to see him often because of my thrice a week classes. I usually get to talk to him online though. Haha. We really miss history with Ms. Coo, though some people may beg to differ. HAHAHAHAHA.

- After Mac's episode, I went back to Leslie's booth, and confused her life for a third time. Danica later called me, so I headed towards Macci.

- We met along the way, and headed home. I bought an ice cream in JGSOM while waiting for her car. They ran out of chocolate after a short squirt of it into my cone. I told them I wanted vanilla instead, so they squirted vanilla over the tiny tiny drop of chocolate. Hahahaha. :D:D:D:D

- That ended my half day. Currently, I'm glad I'm done with my part in ComRes (my tedious but fun research class). I am ready to parteii tomorrow. Haha.

- By the way. I'm going to school again tomorrow, since the people from the French Embassy/Italian Embassy would be visiting Ateneo, since they weren't around today. Yeyyyyyyy. Snooze.

WE MEET AGAIN.........DIONE!!!!

- Sept. 21, 2009, Monday, Eid-ul-Fitr

- Dorenett told me to go to their house around 4pm, since Dione, her niece, was already awake. I've been dying to see Dione again, since the last time I saw her a few months ago.

- I stopped by at Goldilocks to buy a Dulce de Leche cake for Dorenett, so we can share my first birthday cake for the year.

- I arrived at Dor's house a few minutes later, and was happy to see a now 9-month Dione on her walker. She has two lower front teeth, longer hair, bigger cheeks, and a more....um...."powerful voice".

- As always, she cried when she saw me. She cried as loud as she could. (This is where the "powerful voice" thing comes in.)

- Dor's mother gave me a glass of juice, which I later found out was made out of broccoli. Funny, because it didn't taste like broccoli at all. She also gave me, and Dorenett, each a hotdog in a hotdog bun (I'm not really sure how to call the elongated bread.)

- I had a little chat with Dorenett about everything, while we shared my birthday cake. Dorenett gave me a MASSIVE slice of cake, and gave herself a paper thin slice of cake. She wasn't in to sweets, she told me.

- We attempted to play around with the baby as well, but she kept on crying and crying. Poor baby, poor me.

- Finally, I carried her, though she was still crying, and had a picture taken with a very sad and disturbed Dione. Again, poor baby, poor me.

- I went home around 6:15pm, just about the time the sun was about to set.

- I really had a short, but fun afternoon, not to mention the big slice of birthday cake, the hotdog, and the brocolli juice. Hahahaha. I really hope I can still see Dione in the near future. I can't wait until the time I can pinch her cheeks. Haha. She has allergies now on her cheeks. Hahahaha.

Japanese Week Culminating Activity Day :D:D:D:D

- Sept, 11, 2009, Friday

- I didn't wanna go to school just because I didn't have any classes today (I think that's a logical reason). I had to just because it was the day of the Japanese Week culminating activity....where the awarding for the photo-haiku contest would be held.

- I was in Danica's car trying on the Charmaine mask I made a few days ago due to ennui. :D:D:D:D No one wanted to wear it, except me. HAHAHAHA. How sad. :D:D:D:D

- I went to school, had my philo readings photocopied, and decided to go to the CSR to mess with people in Mrs. Diycos' AdMan class. It was fun seeing advertising people again together....ah, Com160 memories (good....or bad??).

- After Mrs. Diyco's driver came to deliver her things, it was an obvious sign for me to leave the room. Haha. Well, I didn't get to see Mrs. Diyco though. I went to Matteo instead, and watched random videos on youtube, and chatted through meebo.

- At around 12:30, I went back to the CSR to invite people to have lunch with me. In the end, around 4 of us ate together at the caf. We also met Macky and Diana, and sat with them.

- We had fun taking pictures of "Leslie". Hahahaha.

- After lunch, Leslie and I headed towards the MVP Roofdeck for the Onigiri class. Onigiri is a type of Japanese food much like a bigger version of maki. They're usually rice balls (or triangles), with fillings inside such as tuna, pickled plum, or whatever fillings. The rice balls (or triangles) would later be wrapped by nori (seaweed).

- After the onigiri class, I changed into my Japanese attire and attended the culminating activity of the Jap Week in the same location, but a different area.

- Before the awarding, there were cosplay contests, Japanese karaoke finals, and many special performances.

- After around 2 hours(??), awarding time came. I was very very very very nervous. I really hoped that one of my three entries would win the contest. The emcee later informed the audience that the 3 places were won by the same person, but obviously, different entries (each person was allowed to submit a max of 3 entries). It was either me, or another person, who happens to be a girl. Only the two of us submitted three entries. The emcee explained how it came to be, so that no one would question the judges' decision. The criteria: 40% students' votes, 60% judges' votes. If ever, the most a contestant could do was to "tell all his friends, blockmates, and classmates to vote for one of the entries" :D:D:D:D Haha.

- So to cut the long dramatic narrative short, I won all three places. Haha. Yes, I was surprised, since I never though it was possible. (I only hoped for one to win. Haha)

- I won....1: Japanese postcards, 2: Japanese chopsticks with a cute chopstick holder, 3: Japanese toothpicks :D:D:D:D They're nice Japanese things that I may never use just because I wanna keep them in their "original packages". Haha.

- First place: the butterfly photo, Second place: the lilies photo, Third place: the cicada shell photo :D:D:D:D




** To all Atenean friends, classmates, and blockmates, thank you very much for supporting my photo-haiku entries. I don't think they will win (at least the 40% part) without you people :D:D:D:D You're the bestest!! I can't really express my sincerest gratitude through words (or haikus....or photos for that matter), so I'll just give you piggy back bear hugs :D:D:D:D



** BEA MANDAC: CONGRATULATIONS SA ATEN!!!! (She won third place in the karaoke competition)

** PHYLLIS: CONGRATULATIONS MUCH!!!! (She and her partner won second place in the karaoke competition)

SHINee DAY: Fangirls and a Fanboy with Cold Hot Kimchi and Wiiii :D:D:D:D

- Sept, 9, 2009 (09-09-09), Wednesday

- Met Marg around 11:45 at the Pedro Gil LRT station. We braved the rain to Adriatico and bought some walnut cookies and a big bag of kimchi for Clarisse. (Clarisse: Wag kayong pupunta sa bahay ko na walang pagkain. Di ko kayo papapasukin!!)

- We walked towards the Korean Village restaurant and had lunch. As always, we had loads and loads of free appetizers,clear seaweed soup, and of course, pineapple wedges. We had grilled beef (we grilled them ourselves), and bibimbap. :D:D:D:D

- Marga was the first one who gave me my birthday present (which is two weeks and two days from now, cough cough....haha).

- I told Marga to grab my camera and take a picture or my reaction, since she hinted that I would really really like what she was about to give me.

- She went to Thailand a few weeks ago for a conference, and came back with SHINee'S ALBUM WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....(still can't get over my fanboy-ness. Hahahaha)

- After lunch and SHINee, we had a war with the flood and the rain towards the LRT Station. Figuring we couldn't cross over to the other side, we decided to have a procession towards the UN Station. We successfully got in the train after splashes and splashes of whatever, and rode towards the Tayuman LRT station.

- We got off the train soon after, and had another procession towards Clarisse' house. Since we had food, we were allowed to enter. HAHAHAHA.

- Before playing Wii, we had a few fanboy-fangirl moments, Gee-dancing, conversations about the departure of 2PM's Jaebeom.

- Marga made me open the SHINee CD and examined it together with Clarisse. As usual, they were pointing out which ones were cute or weird, and which ones look like people they know. Hahahaha. Marga wanted to have the CD back because "cute sila eh!!" :D:D:D:D

- We had veggie loaf pieces (baked by Clarisse' katulong....super yummy :D:D:D:D), walnut cookies, and cold hot kimchi (the spiciest kimchi I've had in my whole entire life so far. :D:D:D:D

- We played Wii around 4:30pm until around 6pm. Good think Kevin didn't have afternoon classes, at least he was able to play with us. Hahahaha. :D:D:D:D

- Though a short and wet day, I was, and still, very very happy, because Marga and Clarisse rescued me from boredom, and of course, because of my SHINee present. Hahahaha, sorry Marga, you can't have it back. HAHAHAHA. Peace!!!! Thank you very very very very muchhhhh :D:D:D:D







**** I'm currently listening to SHINee's CD. HAHAHAHA :D:D:D:D

DEBBIE DAY: Spent The Day With The Long Lost Cinq Member :D:D:D:D

- August 31, 2009, Monday, National Heroes' Day

- We've been planning this get together thing for a few months now. Haha. At long last, I was able to see Debbie again after 5 years (??) or so. (I last saw her last 2004) Debbie was one of the top students from our batch in elementary. Obviously, she was supposed to be part of our class, but she moved to Canada before high school started, so we weren't able to be with her for a long long time (until the time we saw her in CKSC when she visited last 2004).

ANYWAY....

- I was picked up at around 9:15 by their driver, and stopped by at Debbie's house before going to MOA.

- I met Debbie and her mom at the elevator, and went up to their house. Awesome view of the bay :) :) :) :) Debbie and I talked for a while before going to MOA. I needed to catch up with quite a few (by a few I mean a lot) of things.

- We headed towards MOA around 10 something, and did a bit of shopping for Debbie's pasalubongs to her friends abroad. We checked out the movie soon after, and decided to watch Time Traveller's Wife.

- After buying movie tickets, we strolled along the bayside part of the mall until we reached Italianni's. Knowing that we won't make it to the movie (or at least be late), I ran back to the ticket seller and asked her if it was ok to change our tickets to the next showing. Apparently they weren't allowed to do that. Haha.

- Italianni's service was unusually slower today. I really don't know why.... we had great food still the same.

- Of course, more catching up during lunch.

- We ran towards the theater and was able to catch the most part of the film. The movie was not that good; "shallow" as Debbie would put it. (The movie was shallow, not the story) Haha.

- After the movie, we went around the mall to shop for Debbie's clothes. I really had a nice time shopping with her. Haha!!

- To have a short break, I invited her to merienda, and introduced her to the wonderful halo halo of Razon's. It was also a good way to cool down a bit....the sun was getting hotter by the minute.

- We met up with Debbie's sister and her group at Haagen-Dazs and waited until they finished their fondue.

- All of us headed towards the Hypermart exit and waited for Debbie's car to drop us off wherever. Most of us were dropped off at CKSC.

- It was technically a really really short day, but it was a really really memorable one. I'm really glad I had the time to go out with Debbie today. She'll by leaving again tomorrow afternoon to Canada. Awwww. Debs, if you're reading this, thanks so much for the Sumi stuffed toy and bookmark. It's really really soft. I'm teaching the stuffed animal spirit how to fly. Gonna let you know when it learns how to. Hahahaha. Thank you also for lunch. Hehe. I hope you're enjoying the last two slices of salmon pizza. :D:D:D:D I hope you bring halo-halo to Canada. Hahahaha. YEYYYY. I really really hope to see you in the future. Hehe. :D:D:D:D Take care, have a safe flight.

QC Day(Long) Adventure: Koreatown, Rockwell, Serendra/Boni High, Short Stop at Gateway :D:D:D:D

- August 19, 2009, Wednesday, Happy Quezon City Day!!

- Went to the SSHS parish with Charmaine and Zach to meet Danica (and her car) there. Danica arrived around 10am.

- Danica brought Acy along. :D:D:D:D

- We went to Rockwell first to get tickets for Up before going to Koreatown to eat.

- We went to eat at Ma San, as always. Sadly, Ms. Lee wasn't around....aww....no woman in a pretty hanbok. Haha.

- We had a LOT of food....not to mention the free gyoza the manager/owner gave us. Haha.

- After lunch, we headed to Wang Mart to grab some Korean dairy products (milk, ice cream, etc. Hahahaha.)

- We walked all the way to the OK! CD Store, but the owner wasn't around, so we weren't able to go in and have a look. We walked to Rockwell instead.

- We hung out in Fully Booked for a while before going in the movie theater just beside Fully Booked.

- Up, as always, is, was, and will forever be, awesome, and cute. RUSSELL IS THE NICEST FATTEST BOY I'VE SEEN. Hahahaha.

- After the movie, Danica decided to go to Serendra for Krispy Kreme. We arrived at Boni High around 5:25pm, and went in the famous 4 storey Fully Booked. I had a shot with Miley Cyrus. O inggit kayo noh?? Haha. Joke. Hahahaha. I'm not much of a Miley fan anyway. Haha.

- Zach, Charm, and I went to Krispy Kreme first and ordered our stuff. Danica and Acy arrived shortly and stayed in Krispy Kreme for around half an hour.

- We decided to have dinner in Serendra, so we strolled around, looking for nice places to eat. We ended up in Italianni's (YEY) :D:D:D:D

- We had a sort of light dinner, considering the number of items we consumed that today (especially the number of items I CONSUMED....)

- With heavy heavy stomachs, we went to the parking lot and hopped on Danica's car, the best car in town. We had a really really long ride to Gateway (where the Cubao LRT is), since that's where Acy was supposed to be dropped off. We all went to the restroom. Haha. That's the only thing we did there....aside from seeing Acy go her own way. (High School Musical nga ba??)

- We had a really REALLY sabaw ride home. :D:D:D:D YEY. With Charlie the Unicorn, Economics and Philosophy, nothing could stop us from being sabaw. Hahahaha.

- We really had a looooooooooong but great day. It was fun getting to know Acy, since Danica was the only one who knew her. Hehe. :D:D:D:D We were surprised that she knew her KPop. Haha. Best of all, Acy knew who SHINee was. YEY!!!! :D:D:D:D EPIC VICTORY :D:D:D:D

- :D:D:D:D Gotta study Eco now. Midterms tomorrow. HAHAHAHA. :D:D:D:D




** Gilbert joking with Danica

Gilbert: I will demand you!!!!

Danica: Sorry wala akong supply eh.

Gilbert: *thinks*

Gilbert: OMG. I can't believe you just said that!!!!!!!

(sige pagbigyan, after all, Danica is an Eco major. Hahahaha. The demand will always go with the supply whenever, wherever. Ceteris Paribus. Hahahaha.)