It's Books And Roses Time Once Again!!: El Dia del Libro 2011 (And A Rather Food-Filled After-Event)

- April 16, 2011, Saturday.

- Once again, Spain and Instituto Cervantes centers around the world are celebrating the annual book fair. As a tradition, roses are given for each purchase of books. Aside from the book selling, other Spanish/Instituto-related stuff are being offered.

- Today, I went to Instituto with Charmaine and Abi. Upon arriving at the Instituto around 10:30am, I was a bit surprised at the rather quiet ambiance despite the big number of people there. We immediately signed up for the guided tour around the Instituto grounds, and a 30-minute Spanish demo class in the early afternoon.

- We soon proceeded to the main patio, where the book fair was. While Abi and Charmaine were looking for (English) books, I ran around trying to look for people I worked with last year for my OJT. I'm happy that they remembered me. Haha.

- At around 11am, our guided tour of the Instituto started. Our guide so no other than TJ, the journalist of the Instituto. I used to work with him. He's nice and funny. :D:D:D:D

- The short tour ended with grumbling stomachs, so we decided to have lunch. We bought food from the Alba's stall, since it was not as expensive as the other stalls, but people could still have high-quality and authentic Spanish dishes.

- After lunch, we went around the book fair once again, where I was able to buy two books. I was also able to see some Ateneans I knew, and a lot more Ateneans who I didn't know. Haha. We also witnessed a percussion exhibition. Although no one was dancing while the exhibition went on, I could tell that most if not all, were really itching to dance - including me.

- We waited and waited for our 1:30 Spanish class, but we found out that the class was "overbooked." Knowing this, Charmaine just told Abi that I'll teach her basic Spanish. Haha.

- The three of us journeyed to the Manila Museum (Museo ng Maynila,) which is located beside the Seafood Wharf (near the Ocean Park.) We thought the museum was closed since the gates were closed, but we soon found out from a government official who passed by that the museum was condemned. Tsk tsk tsk tsk. Shame shame.

- Instead of having long faces, I invited my companions to eat at Manila Ocean Park's Makan Makan. Makan Makan used to be the Singapore franchised Makansutra, but I'm not sure why the name was changed. The dishes served were still the same, the personnel, as well as the prices of the dishes. On the way to the restaurant, we stopped by at the Asian Food Museum. There was no entrance fee, and seemed to have nothing much inside, but we enjoyed learning and playing around with some stuff.

- The three of us had a refreshing Asian snack at Makan Makan, since we all ordered stuff from the dessert page. While eating, we also talked about hopefully future adventure plans, as well as other random things that suddenly popped out of our tired brains. Pretty soon, we all decided to go home instead.

- The Extension Trip: While my day was supposed to be pretty much over, I still had to drop by at my friend Clarisse' house to pick up a box of cupcakes she made. Clarisse has been baking A LOT recently, and I was fortunate that she chose me as one of the people (apart from her family) who'd get to try her pastries.

- I wasn't surprised when I saw Clarisse and her youngest brother Wilbert baking when I arrived at her house. I sat beside the kitchen table, and chatted with her while she mixed, whipped, folded, and kneaded. After baking pastries, she also took great efforts to take artsy shorts of her pastries for her food blog. I assisted her during the photoshoot by blocking out the sun. Here's to being fat. HAHA.

- While later munching on her pastries, we also got to talk about too many things. I haven't gotten in touch with Clarisse for some time now, aside from Twitter, since she was busy with work. At least I got to see her today, and got to take home a box of cupcakes and a small bag of cookies. YAY FOR PASTRIES!!

- Overall, I thought that this year's Dia was still awesome despite the rather unusual un-busy-ness of the people in the event. Yey for more elbow space though. Aside from that, I am also glad that I was able to have some private time with my two comapanions, and ultimately, a pastry-loaded late afternoon with my friend Clarisse. Yey to more Dias, friends, and pastries!! :D:D:D:D

HOP-ping in Greenhills :) :) :) :)

- April 7, 2011, Thursday.

- I was fortunate enough to have another opportunity to visit Greenhills. I needed to buy summer clothes for my trip in two weeks. Even if I do not need to buy clothes, it's always nice to find fashion inspirations and finds in Greenhills. Because Grace wanted to watch Hop so badly, we opted to go to Greenhills to watch the movie.

- After my interview in UP Diliman this morning (LORD PLEASE LET THEM ACCEPT ME,) I couldn't find a decent jeep back to Katipunan, so I took a cab (one that conveniently parked in front of me) to Greenhills.

- I arrived earlier than our meeting time, so I went around Theater Mall, and shopped for clothes. Grace soon called me up that she, together with Lala, her siblings, and Marnie, just arrived at Promenade. I met them there, went back to Theater Mall, bought tickets for Hop, and had lunch.

- I was surprised that Grace suggested Arya, since I never knew Grace sometimes had exotic tastes in food. Since one of my two new shirts was Indian - but seemed to suit the feel of Arya's distinct Persian ambiance, I opted to wear my new shirt just for lunch. I was also glad that my other friends enjoyed the rather foreign smell/taste of Persian food.

- Before rushing back to Theater Mall, Lala and my friends stopped by at Happy Lemon to buy some fancy tea drinks. I found the place interesting, almost like a tea-version of Starbucks (but not so much for the ambiance.) I got to try their drinks soon; I wasn't able to buy because I was still too full from lunch. Haha. We walked quickly to Theater Mall after buying drinks, and promptly entered the theater.

- I found Hop a really interesting movie - a twist on the usual Easter Bunny story. I found the (fat) yellow chicks cuter than the E.B., the leading bunny of the story. I did find parts of the movie rather corny, but the whole movie was light, fluffy, entertaining, and squishy.

- After the movie, we decided to walk around Theater Mall and go home afterwards. On the way to Grace's car, we came across Crystal Jade, the restaurant famous for its mouth-watering xiaolongbao. Xiaolongbaos are dumplings that have soup inside. How do they do it?? I don't know. I ain't a dimsum master - but I wished I were. Haha.

- We ordered three servings of xiaolongbao of the six of us, and one order of wanton soup for us. The tea wasn't free, unlike most Chinese restaurants, but we just had to add 50 pesos for a bottomless tea pot of jasmine tea. When it comes to the xiaolongbaos, I was surprised that the hot soup inside was heated just right - it doesn't burn people's tongues.

Random: I noticed that one of the managers (??) came from my high school alma mater. I just don't know from which batch she came from, or what her name was. I hope that she's who I think she is though. Hahahaha.

- We later found ourselves in Grace's car. Grace would drop off Marnie and me in the 5th Avenue Station of LRT 1, and after that Grace would drop off Lala and her sisters at their house, which happened to be along Grace's route home. The ride to the LRT station ( at least for Marnie and me) was musically fun. Lala, who sat in front with Grace, was checking out Grace's iPod. Around 90% of the songs played were not finished, since Lalaine would choose another song she found interesting. Haha.

- After Marnie and I got off at the LRT station, we stopped over at the Korean thrift store where I bought my jokki and mageoja set. Although the store was not able to have stocks of second-hand Korean traditional outfits, I was able to buy a nice pencil case with a music-piano design. Love it. Haha.

- Overall, today's trip was light and fluffy just like Hop itself. However, I felt good about the day because I think (and I hope) I "entertained" the panel during my interview, and I was able to hang out with Lala and friends after a long time. I hope that we'd be able to hang out again after we all come back from our Holy Week trips. :D:D:D:D

Yet Another Around-UST "Adventure" With Friends :) :) :) :)

- April 2, 2011, Saturday.

- Finally, my high school friends and I were able to "formally" see each other again after the "emergency dinner" with Bless and a few around a month ago. We decided to have another Rockband session near UST, and have dinner around there afterwards.

- Bless and I met up with Erlyn and Karel in CKSC, and left there around 3pm. We stopped by at McDonald's Masangkay to have some food taken out, rode a trike to UST, and waited for Berna at the nearby Jollibee.

- After Berna arrived, we walked to the new Rockband place at P. Noval Street, where we played for three hours. During that three hours, other friends came one by one. We ended up having nine people in the group - a really good number of people!!

- We left the Rockband place at around 7pm - funny when we went in the sun was still up - and decided to have dinner at SR Thai. The SR Thai in P. Noval did not suit Marvinson's taste, because all he wanted to order were out of stock. We felt a bit suspicious about the place too, because the name of the restaurant, as claimed by the menu, was "Rouz Thai Restaurant" (or something like that.) The waitress told us that the SR Thai there was "still" SR Thai, but that specific branch was converted to "Rouz." Errrrr, maybe that explained why the menu still had items from SR Thai, but many other items were Filipino/Chinese-like food.

- We decided to leave that branch, and go to the original branch in Dapitan. I guess the slightly long walk inside UST and around UST were all worth the effort. All nine of us were welcomed by the distinct Thai pictures that hung on the walls, as well as the owners of the restaurant. The owners were having dinner with a few other people at the back table, and they were speaking in Thai.

- It was funny how we joined two tables together so we could sit as a big group, but the group ended up with the guys talking amongst themselves, and the girls had their own conversation. We also had an authentic-but-light-on-the-pocket Thai dinner. That's what I like about SR Thai. (I have only tasted the branch in Katipunan, until today.) By the way, I was able to say some Thai phrases to the owner. Hahahaha. Yay for Thai. ( I really want to learn the language seriously in the future, after learning all the languages I'm learning right now.)

- As we were preparing to leave the restuarant, we thought of going to a dessert place, where we can extend our night. While Marvinson and Bernadette were discussing where it would be nice to have an inexpensive dessert (sorry California Berry, you ain't cheap,) Jessica and Oliver announced that they needed to go home.

- Marvinson directed us to Cerealicious, but we later found out that it was close. Coincidentally, Berna lived in the building where Cerealicious was, and invided us to hang out in her house, until we wanted to go home.

- Most of us were first-timers in Berna's home-during-schooldays (it's not really Berna's "house," she just stays there when she has school, or school-related stuff.) We found her small unit cute, simple, colorful, and unique. We had much excitement in having small photo sessions with my new camera. We also played simple card games, simple enough for me to understand. (I don't pick up card games well, so I'm one of the rare post-modern teenagers who can't play cards, except for the insanely simple ones.) I guess what made the "simple" games exciting was adding slight variations to them. We played until around 11pm, when Erlyn's dad came to fetch us, and drove us home.

- I am really thankful that today's events happened. There were a lot of us today, which meant more fun, but what I treasured most about this day was the privacy we had in all three places we settled in (especially in Berna's house.) I hope that we would have more chances to go out this summer, despite some of us reviewing for board exams, having trips abroad, or even work. Also, I hope that we'd get to go farther next time, so we can discover - and conquer - more places. :D:D:D:D