Instituto Cervantes Week 3 (Days 5, 6 and 7)

- March 29, 30, 31 (Monday - Wednesday)

- Since it's the Holy Week, things have gone quite slow for a while. I came to the Instituto on Monday, and automatically headed for the box of envelopes and stickers that I was supposed to do last Friday. (My boss gave the task to me just as I was about to go home. He told me to do it this Monday instead.)

- It was fun to see that some of the stickers had names of Atenean persona on; some of them are even my professors. After lunch, the Yunji, the La Sallian Korean intern, went ahead and finished my sticker-envelope job. I was given a list of poets, and my boss asked me to write the summaries of the poets' lives to be placed in the 2010 European verses booklet for the Dia. I managed to finish them in an afternoon.

- Since I heard that my boss, along with some people from the other departments, would be leaving for vacation, I asked him if I needed to go yesterday and today. He said yes, and told me to "help around" with stuff.

- Tuesday and Wednesday (today,) turned out to be the most unproductive days of my stay in the Instituto so far. My Spanish boss is currently in Laos, and everything I needed to do was already done. Many of my co-workers were a bit bored already, though they still needed to do something. I ended up eating up by watching Skins. Haha. I finished the whole 4th season in 2 days. Hahahaha.

- Then again, I became a teeny bit productive when we needed to pick pictures of Julio Iglesias' visit to the Instituto to be given to the newspapers. :D:D:D:D

The Pilgrimage: The Loooooooooong Chinatown Walk

- March 27, 2010, Saturday

- Today was the first time I met Michael Sang Weon Lee, a Korean from Ateneo who was introduced to me a few weeks ago by me friend Bea. Since I had nothing to do today, it was the perfect time to have an adventure.

- We decided through YM conversations that our first destination (among hopefully future adventures) would be Chinatown.

- Today, I woke up earlier that I should have, so I could eat breakfast at Cafe Mezzanine, and have some peace ad quiet before I meet Bea, Sang, and neighbor Charmaine in the Binondo Church.

- Upon arriving at Cafe Mezzanine, half of the restaurant was packed with Filipino and foreign tourists that belonged to Ivan Dy's walking tours. I didn't even have a place to sit at first, since the other half was occupied by other customers. Gladly, people from one table left, and they called me to occupy their table. (God bless those people.)

- I had a chicken longganisa meal, served with egg, garlic rice, a banana, and bottomless coffee. Aside from that, I had the opportunity of listening to Ivan Dy, while he explained some things to his walking tour group.

- As the morning went on, noise pollution started to build up. Ivan was talking, some tourists were talking amongst themselves, the old men at the nearby table were talking LOUDLY, the middle-aged Chinese couple behind me were talking loudly as well (not as loud as the two old men,) and there was classical music playing in the background. So much for a peaceful morning.

- Ivan's group left moments later, and the noise lessened....sort of. The two old men were still talking loudly...especially since they were seated far from each other. (Why won't they sit closer so they won't disturb other diners? Hay.) At least, I was able to review my Italian notes as I waited for the clock to strike 11.

- Charmaine texted me that she was already in the church at around eleven, so I went ahead after paying my bill. Sang was also nearby, and was looking for a place to park his car. Bea was on her way.

- Charmaine informed me that our friend Willy would be joining us for lunch, and that he suggested to eat at Lanzhou Lamien. Honestly, I'm not really a big fan of Lanzhou Lamien, but I agreed, since I like the restaurant's dumplings.

- Bea came fifteen minutes later, and we all walked towards Lanzhou's San Fernando branch, and met up with Willy.

- After lunch, I decided to drag my companions to a pilgrimage to the Sengguan Temple (Seng Guan Si,) so that they, especially Sang, could see the big Buddha statues, and the other nice things about the majestic Buddhist temple. Since it was a REALLY LONG WALK, I was concerned with Willy, who wasn't used to walking great distances, especially under the hot summer sun.

- We managed to arrive at Sengguan alive, and toured them around the temple. The big Buddhas at the third floor still amazed me, even if I had seen the big statues quite a few times before.

- After the short temple visit, we walked towards Masangkay, and back to Chinatown. In short, we walked a big big circle.

- We proceeded to Sta. Cruz to see the Sta. Cruz Church, and to rest a bit. Just as we were headed to Escolta, Willy told us that he needed to go leave and pick up his mom from somewhere. The four of us however, proceeded to Escolta, and marvel the once high-end area of Manila.

- We stopped by at Shopper's Mart to buy Bea's stuff, and we walked - dragged rather - ourselves to Golden Fortune to my favorite part of the walking tour: DIMSUM!!

- All of us were relieved to take our seats, and rest our tired legs. We....I mean I, ordered a lot of dimsum, so we can feast on a lot while killing time. It was just around 2:30 in the afternoon.

- We ate and talked a lot, exchanging cultural and linguistic backgrounds....as well as corny jokes. We even had the idea of going to Koreatown and have a noraebang (karaoke) session soon. :D:D:D:D

- Sang was nice enough to pay the dimsum bill, although he really didn't have to. The most important thing is that we all had fun, despite tired legs and such. I hope this is just the start of many adventures for the last "real" summer "vacation" of my undergraduate life. Hahahaha. :D:D:D:D

Instituto Cervantes Week 2 (Days 3 and 4)

- March 24,26, 2010 (Wednesday and Friday)

- My second week in the Instituto went well, gladly. I was tasked by mg Spanish boss to edit my Wikipedia article on the Instituto's annual film festival called "Pelicula," as well as the Chinese article about Dia del Libro that I am about to send to the newspaper companies in a couple of days. (Just in case you're wondering, my boss edited the English translation of the Chinese article I wrote. Hehe.)

- I also had the opportunity to meet a Korean intern from DLSU named Yunji, aka Tina. She was initially confused when I attempted to talk to her in Korean. Then again, she was nice enough to teach me some Korean things. Yey!!

- Our department tried to come up with something short and catchy to be places behind the Dia el Libro invites. :D:D:D:D

- Friday (today) wasn't too bad either. I called up the participants for the Dia and confirmed those who haven't confirmed if they would be going to the event and sell their books. Aside from that, I also helped Tina with the volunteers for the Dia. By the way, I met Ea too, the other La Sallian intern.

- We had lunch at the Cafe de las Letras, the restaurant/coffee shop inside the Instituto. I was surprised that the dishes weren't as expensive as I thought hey were. The prices were around 100+, the dishes were filling, and they were also perfectly made. The Cafe served pasta dishes, pizzas, sandwiches, sausages, and other small dishes. Not too Spanish-y though, but still worth a try. :D:D:D:D

- My afternoon was pretty much boring, since my boss can't think of anything for me to do. By the time he had thought of something (sticking stickers for envelopes to be sent elsewhere,) it was already time for me to go home. Hahahaha.

- Oh yeah, I also made my first actual phone call....in Spanish. HAHAHAHA. I frantically searched for words in my noggin. :|:|:|:|

Binondo Starbucks With Tina :D:D:D:D

- March 22, 2010, Monday, the afternoon after my final performance in Boots Anson-Roa's class.

- Tina invited me through YM to meet up in Starbucks and study for our finals. I had not seen her in a while, and I decided to go, even if my legs were still a bit tired from the epic-long dance I did this morning.

- Like most of the time, I walked to Binondo's Chinatown, and saw Cristina inside with her thick pharmacy book. Hahahaha. I brought along my theo book and notes, since I'd be having my theo finals tomorrow afternoon (God bless me.)

- Of course, aside from studying, we talked a bit....OK, more than a bit....until around 7:20 in the evening. Well, I think I managed to study something in theo during my stay in Starbucks. I guess the epic oral exam I had two weeks ago for theo helped me review a bit easier. (Then again, I still hope things turn out well tomorrowwwww.)

Performance And Presentation -> THE LAST STRETCH.

- March 22, 2010, Monday -> Last day of Boots Anson-Roa's class.

- Like before, we had to perform individually (though it was OK if we merged, or if we asked help from people not in our class.) The performances served as our final exam....and I think this is the most unique final "exam" I ever had in my life so far.

- I decided to do a Chinese dance, deviating from the usual Indian (or Indian related) dances that I did in previous performances. (Then again there was that flamenco thing that I did for our Lit14 play in summer 2008.)

-My dance was made up of two parts. The first part was a pre-choreographed Kang Ding Liu Liu dance. (Videos of many dance troupes that did the same routine can be found on youtube.) I did change some parts though, since this dance wasn't made to be a solo dance.

- The second part of my dance was a combination of many Chinese dances from the 56 tribes of China. The background music used was Vanessa Mae's Happy Valley. (This song was dubbed as the Reunification Overture.) The dances that were shown in this portion were the Dai Peacock Dance, Miao (Hmong) Dance, Mongolian Dance, Uyghur Dance, Long Cloth Dance, Fan Dance, and the Korean Drum Dance (yes, Koreans form an official minorty group in China, and China has its version of the drum dance too.) I just hoped I was able to execute them nice enough.

- Joe did a Spanish-English version of Go the Distance, which I think was unique, Nica and her awesome violinist friend did a cover of Ugoy ng Duyan, Paoie sang with her *ehem* friend Anton, Chrissy sang Smile a capella, and Leana did a broadway-like performance of the song Home, from the broadway Beauty and the Beast.

- I was surprised since blockmates, and a few other friends, joined the class as an impromptu audience. I'm not sure if Nica gave them the idea to watch our performances, since they were all together in Fr. Arcilla's finals. (Nica came in late, which we all knew beforehand, since her histo finals was in conflict with our performance class. Good thing her finals ended an hour before our class ended.)

- My blockmates, and friends, who suddenly came to watch the performances immediately reminded me of HSM 1's last Breaking Free number, when everyone started to barge in the auditorium as Tory and Gabriella were singing. (Yack, I'm not an HSM fan.)

- We had a small gathering after our superty duperty extended class. Of course, we wouldn't miss taking a group picture of Ma'am Boots. Sadly, the seniors who left earlier, as well as our German exchange student who went back to Germany already, weren't included in the picture. Oh well. The group picture we had was a la Mano Po. Hahahaha. :D:D:D:D


**Ma'am Boots' comment when she first saw me in my costume: "Alam mo, puwede ka nang maging mascot ng Chowking!!" Hahahaha.

Instituto Cervantes Week 1 (Days 1 and 2)

- March 17, 19, 2010 (Wednesday and Friday)

- I went to the Instituto on March 17 - the first day of my OJT. I was welcomed warmly by the staff, including my boss in the Cultural Affairs Department. I was not told beforehand that I needed a laptop, even if I asked them in previous emails if I needed to bring anything. "This is a problem.." My boss said.

- My Spanish boss simply asked me to open some boxes of books donated to the Instituto from Spain, sort the books, and count how many of each kind were there. He asked me to type the items on his computer, since I didn't have my own.

- For two hours, I was able to do the things he asked me to do, and had lunch with my co-workers in the cultural department. They're a bit older than me, but I so far, they're nice to be with. (THEY'RE TALKATIVE....hahahaha)

- After lunch, my boss asked me to write something about the Instituto's annual Spanish film festival, and post it on Wikipedia. We were able to borrow a laptop from the technical room, but the laptop gave me a major headache. It wasn't functioning very well, and wouldn't connect to the internet even when the internet cord was plugged in. *Hurray unproductivity*

- Four o'clock came swiftly, and I was more than glad to go home and study for my philo orals (that I think I didn't do too well in.)

- The day after (Thursday,) my parents and I bought a laptop. Here's the thing. I was already canvassing for laptops prior to my internship, since my dad would be needing the desktop in the province. I never knew that I needed to have a new laptop at once. Good thing I was able to get a nice one.

- Come Friday, as I entered my boss' office, I told him at once that I had my laptop. I could sense an invisible sign of relief from him, and asked me to write a Chinese article about the Instituto's upcoming major event, the Dia del Libro (International Book and Copyright Day.) The article would be sent to the Chinese newspaper houses, and hopefully, they'll publish my article. The Instituto wanted to reach the Chinese people, since the Instituto is not well known to the Chinese community (for obvious reasons.)

- I TOILED on my article for 5 hours, luckily having my English-Chinese dictionary beside me for more technical terms that I couldn't translate on my own. I managed to finish my article, though I immediately asked my mom to edit it for me (as well as my neighbor's mom who happened to be a Chinese teacher.) God. I think I gave them major headaches as well.

- Currently, I'm waiting for my boss' go signal before I have it sent to the Chinese newspaper houses. I do hope to have a better second week, until my OJT ends. :D:D:D:D


** Dear Charmaine's (my neighbor) Mom. THANK YOU!!!! :D:D:D:D

REMEDY: The Supposedly Nice Turned Epic Fail Turned Nice Adventue!!

- March 13, 2010, Saturday, Neighbor Charmaine's Birthday

- I had been excited since the day I saw the poster for the Fete de la Langue Francaise (Festival of the French Language) to be held in the Alliance Francaise de Manille building in Makati.

- I thought of inviting Charmaine because it was her birthday, and I wanted to have an adventure for both of us. Both of us had some stuff to do at school this morning, and we promptly headed towards Alliance Francaise around 11:45 in the morning.

- After the almost hour and a half trip to Alliance Francaise, I found the building to be unlit and empty, which reminded me of what Ms. Clavel in Madeline would say: "Something is not right."

- We went inside the building and asked one of the staff about the supposed language fest. We found out however, that the Alliance Francaise building caught fire last Friday, and obviously, they had to cancel today's event. They didn't have electricity, and gladly the phone lines were fixed. At least the whole building didn't burn down though, but still, it was a surprising bad news.

- With all our hopes down, both of us visited the building across Alliance Francaise. It was a building that had many art galleries, high-class furniture shops, and a few cafes or so. Some classrooms of the Alliance Francaise can also be found in that building.

- Since I hadn't eaten lunch then (Charmaine ate lunch while she waited for me earlier in school,) I decided to try Caruso Cafe located at the ground floor.

- The moment I saw the menu, I nearly fainted. The dishes were as expensive as hell. Then again, I tried their penne all'arrabiata, and it was indeed filling, and "molto delizioso!!" Of course I have to commend their great staff, as well as the complimentary free bread and olive-oil-balsamic-vinegar-and-cheese dip. I think Charmaine also enjoyed her mocha frap.

- Thinking of places to go before we come home, I realized that Greenbelt wasn't too far away. Some coursemates had told me about their "event" in Greenbelt's Gelatone for their Events Management class, under our awesome department chair, Sir Sev Sarmenta. They would be selling gelato like they always do, but part of their earnings would be given to charity.

- Charmaine and I rode a jeep to Greenbelt, and hurriedly went to Gelatone to grab some gelato - the perfect thing on an EXTREMELY HOT summer day.

- Charmaine and I walked around Greenbelt after getting our gelato. We even went to Greenbelt 5 and introduced Charmaine to Royce chocolates. We tasted some of their best selling chocolates. That made my day a little more sweeter.

- We went home around an hour of walking around Greenbelt, tired from the sun's heat and all the walking. (We even napped inside the LRT.)

- I would be lying if I said that I'm still very happy about not being able to attend the event in Alliance Francaise. Then again, no one wanted what happened to the building. At least I had a nice time with Charmaine, and I hoped she liked her tiring birthday adventure. The gelato scoops did make me happier, as well as meeting friends (and Sir Sev) during the event. I hope that if ever the Fete de la Langue Francaise would be postponed, it would be on a day when I'll be available. I'll be starting my internship soon, and I might not have much time to entertain my social life. Howell. :|:|:|:|

After-School Adventure With Margarette!!

- March 11, 2010, Thursday

- Marga asked me two nights ago if I would be able to accompany her to Quiapo's Alexan, since she needed to buy stuff for one of her engineering classes. Obviously, my adventure senses tingled again, and agreed at once to accompany her.

- After school today, I rushed to meet Marga at the Recto-Doroteo Jose LRT border. I, however, had to wait for Margarette around thirty minutes after I arrived at the border; Margarette needed to fix some things in DLSU before she could finally come and meet me.

- I just decided to fetch her in the Doroteo Jose LRT Station by passing through the overpass that connected the two LRT lines. At last, she got off the train at around 1:30, and was surprised to see me at the Doroteo Jose Station.

- We walked quickly to Alexan, so we could finally have lunch and go for a (shopping) adventure.

- There were plenty of people, mostly students, waiting to be served in Alexan. We were holding a number 16 ticket, while the "Now Serving" screen flashed a number 235 I think. (The next cycle would begin after 250.) Since we couldn't leave the store, as we needed to get another number if ever we leave and come back, we just stayed in the store and talked to kill time. By the way, we also saw Hensly - an old friend from high school.

- We finally finished our first and most important agenda for the day around an hour later, and walked straight to Hidalgo to eat at Mofara's Halal Food Haus - the nice casual dining place in Quiapo serving Muslim food. (I first ate here last July, when I had my first adventure on my own, the Wednesday after my solo piano recital.)

- I was glad to see Margarette enjoying our Muslim food (except for my fried chicken thigh - which is not really "Muslim.") The beef rendang now was a lot softer and not as spicy as the first time I ate here. Well, Marga thought it was still hot.

- After lunch, we went straight to the Golden Mosque. Many bamboo poles were present, and I immediately became happy for the mosque - it was being renovated to its former luster and grandeur. I covered Marga's head with my black cloth, which I used as her hijab, although the guy in the information booth said that she was allowed to not cover her hair already. "Let's just cover your hair, to be sure." I told Marga. (Before, we were strictly told that all women who enter the mosque should have their heads covered.)

- The short visit ended with a Slovak couple wanting to enter the mosque, just as we got out of the small door. I thought they were French, and asked if they were in French. "Oh, we're Slovak." The woman said. Assumption fail. :)) :)) :)) :)) (Well, their Slovak sounded a bit French, so I thought they were speaking French. Oh well.) I badly wanted to tour the couple around, but of course, Marga and I were supposed to be on the go.

- The bulk of our afternoon after the visiting the mosque was devoted to shopping in Quiapo. Sad to say, I couldn't find anything I wanted, but Marga had a stroke of luck and was able to buy a nice purple dress for herself.

- We walked straight to Golden Fortune (Soler) after our shopping trip, and had some dimsum. Dimsum is always love. :) :) :) :)

- While walking home after our nice little adventure, I couldn't even remember going to school this morning. I thought that my philo and histo classes a while ago were parts of a mere distant dream or illusion. If I "did" go to school this morning, it didn't seem to be connected to my fun-filled afternoon. This morning and this afternoon seemed to be two different days. Oh well, whatever. At least I got to go around again with a good friend.

- *And again, both of us felt like the clouds were about to pour on us. As always and forever, I kept telling Marga that "the sun is bright and SHINee"* :) :) :) :)

Selamat Datang Ke Manila, Edi Saputra!!

- March 3, 2010, Wednesday.

- Theo and histo might have gotten in the way of today's adventure, but preparing for both classes in an OC manner might have given me enough time to take my mind off school for once. Things had been a bit hectic lately, and cramming isn't in my vocabulary.

- ANYWAY, today's adventure was special, because Danica's friend from Singapore (who happened to be an exchange student from Indonesia) came to Manila for an Economics conference. His name is Edi Saputra. :) :) :) :)

- Danica informed me a few days before about today, and I just had to say "yes" before my schoolwork completely devours me.

- I met Danica today at the LRT1 Gil Puyat Station around 5pm. Danica picked me up a few minutes after I had arrived in Gil Puyat, and promptly rode to Edi's hotel.

- Danica laughed at my batik polo, and told me that she was supposed to tour an Indonesian around Manila, not two. I on the other hand told Danica how I had a crash course in Bahasa Indonesia the night before, so I could at least say a few words or phrases to Edi in Bahasa.

- Edi's hotel, Orchid Garden Suites, wasn't too far away. Traffic only made the car ride a bit longer.

- We arrived at Edi's cozy hotel minutes later, and we were introduced to each other formally by Danica. Edi initially thought I was Indonesian because I spoke my first few phrases to him in Bahasa. "No no, he's from the Philippines." Danica explained.

- Edi prepared his things, while Danica and I sat at a nice spot in the lobby. If Sonya's Garden in Tagaytay were to be made into a hotel, I think it would look something like Orchid Garden Suites.

- Edi came back to the lobby a few moments later, and we rode off to MOA to see the sunset. While we were stuck in slightly heavy traffic, the three of us were able to talk to each other more. Aside from that, Danica and I explained some of the things and landmarks we saw while on the way to MOA. Obvsiouly, CCP, Star City and PICC were part of the list.

- Upon arrival, we were dropped off at the Manila Bay side of MOA, so we were able to catch the sunset a few minutes before it waved goodbye at us. After a few pictures, we headed towards the Hypermarket to get a few things Edi needed during his stay in the Philippines.

- Shopping for Edi's things was fun, seriously. At least I got to push the tiny apply-green pushcart, and arranged Edi's items in the cart. Talk about my sudden OC attack again.

- After shopping, we met Danica's mom at the mall's entrance, and rode to Dampa for dinner.

- Danica's mom was extremely talented in picking out the freshest and the fattes shrimps, tuna bellies, oysters, and seaweeds (that "looked like grapes," as Edi would put it.) While buying things in the wet market, there was this random kid who pulled a roped crab. I think it was his, um, pet?? I don't know.

- While having our big big "banquet-like" dinner, Danica's mom and I bombarded Edi with more questions. We exchanged a lot of stories, while we filled our tummies with cholesterol and love.

- We left around 9 something in the evening, and I did wish that I had more time to tour Edi around Manila while messing with Danica, before both of them go back to Singapore this weekend to continue their exchange program. I'll be left here, and be made to suffer theo and histo more. Oh well.

- This was my first adventure after 2 months and a few days. At least I can assure myself that part of my sanity had been given back to me from the forces that stole it from me recently (aka, my core subjects.)

- Hopefully, I could go to Indonesia some day, and revisit Singapore. :) :) :) :)