Hot Christmas

This year's Christmas feels different. Everybody was complaining of the unusual heat. Previous years saw me sporting jackets whenever we attend the misa de gallo but this year, I wore sleeveless tops most of the time because of the unbearable heat. Cold winds rose only a few days after Christmas, leaving me too weak to get up from bed. Turned out I was on the verge of suffering a viral attack. Good thing I still found the strength to make my own hot calamansi juice. And quickly consumed a number of ponkan and kiat kiat for added Vitamin C. Getting sick during the holidays suck coz one won't be able to eat as much. (Though on second thought maybe I should welcome that to make sure I don't gain weight... LOL)

Compared to Christmases the previous years, this year's Christmas seems to pass by without much ceremony so in a way I was happier. I just hate the commercialization of the holidays. I hate Christmas dinners (except at home of course) and not to mention silly exchange gifts, most especially since there are still those who buy stuffs which are pretty useless and just eat up space. I'd rather have food anytime rather than receive something I can't use. Better yet, I love Christmas cards and long letters. Group messages through Facebook and SMS are the norm now, which is sad. I've seen 18th-19th century letters and these are always full wise words, not to mention beautiful prose. We in this digital age have lost the art of writing beautifully. Sigh!

I remember way back in highschool when I tried to revive this old-fashioned custom, being quite the old-fashioned girl that I am who seem stuck in the Romantic Age. Not a week passes by without me sending letters to my close friends. And when December creeps in, I kept myself busy composing letters for my friends, each personalized, with real messages from me to them. But of course, the main point is wishing them happy holidays and to ask them to forget me not. Some would return the favor so I have accumulated quite a stack of letters. (Most are just about crushes with code names so reading them now transported me back to the time when I was a giddy highschool girl, always falling in and out of love, getting rejected and rejecting in turn. So I am reminded again of Honey and Clover, one of the two shoujo animé that I really liked for its realistic portrayals of characters in search of love and their own selves...)

劍雨 (Reign of Assassins) (2010)

Fans of the wuxia (武俠) genre will love "Reign of Assassins" which does not lack those superb fight scenes and sword play.

When a revered monk died, his remains were sought for its mystical powers. It is said that whoever possesses the halved body will gain extraordinary power and shall rule the martial arts world. Drizzle (細雨, played by Michelle Yeoh) and her companions in Dark Stone (黑石) assassin group were sent out to murder Prime Minister Zhang and steal the body.

After the incident, Drizzle meets Wisdom, an enlightened monk who tried to persuade her to change for the better. The two fight and the monk dies but not without making Drizzle see his visions for her. Drizzle decides to have a face surgery and live the life of a common woman.

Drizzle, now known as Ah Jing meets Ah Sheng, a messenger, who tries to court her. Confused and still guilty of her dark past, Drizzle seeks the help of another Buddhist monk. An enigmatic conversation ensues but Drizzle leaves enlightened and marries Ah Sheng.

阿靜: 人生可以重新來過嗎?

師父: 去! 死者乃為生者開眼. 過去心不得, 現在心不可得, 未來心不可得.
   
         未來已成現在, 現在已成過去,隨心而去吧! 看 能得否?

Just when Drizzle's life seems so ordinary, the Dark Stone gang moves again and finds out what became of Drizzle. She is recruited once again but in the end, the Dark Stone members fight one another. The plot is not that simple though as who would have thought that Drizzle's husband Ah Sheng who seemingly does not know anything about fighting, is actually Zhang Renfeng, son of Prime Minister Zhang and thought to be dead. In a painful confrontation, Drizzle asks Ah Sheng if he ever loved her and he said it was impossible. With tears in her eyes, Drizzle accepts and decides to pursue vengeance for Ah Sheng's murdered family. She fights her last battle with the Eunuch, also head of the Dark Stone gang, and wins but was injured. When Ah Sheng recovers from fake paralysis, he carries her in his arms and they seem to live happily ever after.

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I think this could very well be the perfect movie to watch since lately the past has been haunting me and telling me what a jerk I was, always shrugging off people and disregarding feelings. Looking back, I had a reputation for being brutally cruel to those who would try to court me. I think I'm now paying for my past crimes as heartbreaker. (LOL!) Not that I'm worried. In fact, it gave me lots of personal space, something I would definitely find hard to give up once I find the one I have been looking for.

Anyway, just where does " 劍雨" come in? Well the movie presents optimism for a troubled person in need of redemption through reformation. It's hard to swallow one's pride and accept one's mistakes but one's gotta do what one must to achieve peace and attain enlightenment.

Fujian Winter Trip 2012

Last year I participated in a week-long winter youth camp in Xiamen and its immediate neighboring city Quanzhou. Since it was an organized tour and everything happened so fast, I wasn't able to take down notes. Besides, we had a bus which took us to the places we visited and most of the time we were asleep. That's what I don't like about tours, everything is well-planned and you don't get to choose your destinations. However, it saves one from stress in commuting and struggling in an unfamiliar territory. I may speak their language but I am not at all confident in navigating through the area because I don't know about their transport system and I'm a bit afraid of the people. I've been to Xiamen and Beijing, my first time in China, in 2008, but like my 2012 trip, it was an organized tour. So I really wasn't motivated to learn about how things work there, a big mistake I learned later on. (I did redeem myself when I went to Shanghai early this year with my highschool friends.)

This post will not be helpful at all to anyone who is searching for a travel itinerary to Xiamen but I hope that whoever drops by this blog post will at least consider visiting the places I've been to. This post shall contain very few texts and will consist mostly of photos.

Departure from Manila

Arrival at Xiamen Airport in December

view from the top of a school in Xiamen

treats offered to guest: tea and mandarin oranges

carved wall depicting the history of Xiamen

sculptures in the park

九日山

Diamond Hotel's exotic seaworm in jelly and cucumber
(surprisingly, it tastes clean!)

鳳山寺 one of the highlights of the trip, for me

KFC-like restaurants are ubiquitous in Xiamen

bear in a park

artifacts in a musuem in Xiamen

Shrine of Koxinga (鄭成功廟)
Koxinga is widely venerated in Southern China as well as in Taiwan for  his military skills and his anti-invasion stance.

sculpture we saw while walking in the streets of Xiamen one fine night. It reads "war and peace"

cultural performance at a school

in 鼓浪嶼, one of Xiamen's top tourist destination

window shopping at night in Xiamen

 We went to many other places but most of these are schools where we interacted with some students. Missing Xiamen.
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composed this while listening to Baek Ah Yeon's "Introduction to Love", the theme song in the Korean drama series "When a Man Falls in Love". I don't watch the series though.

Reconnecting 2

It's been almost 8 years since I hang out with my high school friends. We used to wander in the mall near our school on weekends during highschool after we finish school projects. We used to have group photos taken afterwards. But now just about everybody owns a camera phone and still we failed to have photos taken. it could have been one ultra memorable night, a night when I fulfilled my promise to reconnect with those who matter to me. After many years of little or almost no interaction even on Facebook, I  realize last night just how much those people mean to me and how much I love them.

We didn't talk about our highschool past, save for some bitter memories of a friend E who had to repeat freshman level in highschool. I, too, still cannot get over that. I thought I would lose him forever, but I was still lucky to have been recruited into the soccer team so I still was able to hang out with my three male friends E, R, and J. Those three are some of the nicest boys I knew in my life. It's interesting to see that now we each have taken our separate paths, two engineers, two in the medical field, one (P who was absent last night) is in sales, and me, a drifter. It just feels so different being with these people now since I have known them for years, and at the same time, there's this warm feeling that envelops me, like what I feel when I go home after a long travel.

It all started with a dream. One day I dreamed of E. And a day after that, he "poked" me on Facebook, which really surprised me because our last online conversation was me congratulating him for passing the board exam. So I chatted him up and asked if he would be interested to have a mini reunion with our other friends. We were 7 initially but two didn't make it (P and Ro). 

At first everything was awkward. I was a bit nervous because what if they find me very different now from what I used to be? Apparently, they think Eu and I are still the same--- baby faces and all, LOL! It helps that J, who's always ready with his quick and witty retorts and funny jokes was around to break the ice. From their stories, I'm happy to know that at least those three boys are close as ever. I see in them what they say about how deep the bonds are in male friendship. I guess I'm a bit envious and I wish I were boy so I could partake of that innocent and carefree bliss. Eu, P, and I just dated earlier this year, but I still miss those two girl friends of mine. P and I are even planning a trip abroad next year and we already bought our plane tickets. (Needless to say, I am EXCITED!!!)

So last night I treated them to some Japanese food. And we hang out at Mezza Norte afterwards, eating isaw, barbeque, nachos, and takoyaki. While being with them, I thought of how cruel fate is. The first blow was in first year when we all leveled up to the next leaving E behind. The second was in our last year, when we all were separated from each other. At least, J, R, and D (he wasn't with us last night) were together in one class. I was with C but at that time he started to hang out with other people. Eu was in another section but she also had friends there. P was, well, you can put P anywhere and she easily gain friends. In retrospect, I did meet the boys' other friend "I" who sat beside me and who for a time, they suspected of being my crush. (Intrigues coming from boys are rather weird!) I did like the guy but only as a person. :P

Last night felt surreal. I hope we get to hang out more. After last night, I think I have found something I lost all these years since I began my studies in UP. And I am glad they stayed wholesome, they neither drink nor smoke. And I discovered they could be just the people to temper the wild child in me. And right now I'm missing them...

Read my initial post on Reconnecting and also this personal favorite of mine on how I acknowledged my faults

December Plans and Christmas Wishlist

We're now in December and only a few days to go before 2013 ends. Sound scary since I just turned 25. Suddenly feeling like a lost kid again. People tell me I've been getting addicted to Math. It's not that. Id like to think that Math is that thing that keeps me struggling in this mundane world. Most friends warn me that too much nerdiness will keep the guys away more. To which I retort, let them! I care not for insecure people and I do not subscribe to the idea of dumbing myself down just to get a boyfriend. @.@

Because I've been very busy these past few days, I'd like to somehow create plans for the last few days of 2013.
1. read at least 2 books
2. do more math exercises and read up on difficult topics
3. find more applications of calculus (relate to archaeology, business, life???)
4. clean our bedroom
5. watch some episodes of One Piece
6. start learning Vietnamese phrases and commonly used sentences
7. another out-of-town trip would be VERY NICE

And I just realized I haven't made any wishlist yet so here goes:
1. more kind people, more warmth (no to global warming though!!!)
2. free hotel accommodations
3. more time to learn something new and to do the things I want to do
4. travel buddies who can match my zeal and energy
5. books on history and science (I would love to have books by Richard Feynman...)
6. love, courage, and hope... and strength
7. salary increase

November

November is a rather gloomy month mainly because of Supertyphoon Yolanda leaving most of Visayas devastated. The deadly typhoon has now been confirmed to have taken more than 5000 lives and many are yet to be found. What's heartbreaking is that relief operations are chaotic and donations were not efficiently delivered to those in need. Many, including me, suspect that those in office are taking advantage of this tragedy to pocket money for themselves since donations by corporations and nations were not transparently announced. Nor will the public ever know if the funds will completely be used to deliver relief and aid in rebuilding houses and lives.

It just happened so soon, and barely a month after a major earthquake that destroyed most of Visayas' heritage structures in October. I could still remember the disgust I felt upon hearing someone (certainly not a friend of mine) say "This is it! It's our time to shine!" It felt so wrong, to take advantage of the situation to uplift one's self. At that moment, I was repulsed by the hypocrisy and by the shallowness of that person. How different is she from those politicians who added to the delay in relief delivery by demanding that donations go through their office first? Or how about those who, despite much criticism from the media, still resort to packing goods with their names on the bags? Printing those plastic bags means more resources spent, not just money but also time.

As an environmentalist, I cringe at how relief goods are packed using plastic bags. It's good if people reuse plastic bags or dispose of these properly. But in my observations, Filipinos are not very good at taking care of their surroundings and random disposal seems to be the norm. In soup kitchens, I wonder how many disposables are used and end up as trash afterwards? Sometimes I don't wanna think about these but they haunt my mind.

So instead of giving money as donation, I chose to give old clothes and volunteer at UP National Institute of Physics. The department initiated PROJECT LIGHTLINE, which aims to create portable cellphone chargers from old and broken ones. The concept behind this is joule thief. (I'm no scientist and I only got to work on circuits when I volunteered for this project so I'm in no position to talk about how to make a joule thief.) What I understood from my own research though is that a joule thief gets energy from seemingly drained batteries and then give energy to power something. (Just how vague was that???) Anyhow, I was glad to learn parts of a circuit--- diodes, transformers, transistors, capacitors, resistors, etc. I also learned how to solder and desolder. For a while I thought how cool it would be to take up some TESDA courses to be able to hone my skills. (But I already have my hands full with calculus alone... Poor brain of mine.)

Photo taken here
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectLightline

a circuit I assembled (a masters student coached me on what to put together)

Another highlight of my November is that I got to finally donate blood!!! I was once rejected because I was "anemic". Maybe I just lacked sleep at that time. It makes me happy to be able to pay it forward. I may not be able to pay back the person whose blood was transferred to me when I got dengue many many years back but I hope someone will benefit from my blood.

And just when I thought that Ilocos would be last of my trips this year, I found myself happily joining my two office friends and their friends to Baler. The end of the month saw me suddenly buying makeup and having the desire to learn how to properly put on makeup.

The last day of November, the 30th, and also Bonifacio Day, was spent with a very dear friend. We had a quick lunch at Sci Fi Cafe. (I was disappointed with the Aligue pasta but I LOVE their nachos!) We watched The Addams Family Musical at the Meralco Theater. Having watched the cartoon show in my childhood days, I am reminded of how both strange and adorable this eccentric family is. This time, my favorite character is Uncle Fester. I can't stop laughing at his solo number about his love for the moon! (Fellow lunatics unite!)

Hoping that in December I get to at least finish studying Calculus. Though of course it doesn't mean that learning will stop altogether since I haven't fully mastered everything. Integration and antiderivatives are driving me crazy... I wonder what I'll be studying next.

Holler Baler 1116172013

Just when I thought my post-rainy season would be boring and without any trips, I was invited by an office friend to join her and her friends to Baler, Aurora. I said yes without a second thought. Okay I did think twice because of the typhoons at that time. It was October then and consecutive typhoons have been visiting the eastern part of Luzon.

On November 15, Friday, we left the office at 8PM, my first time to do so since I am always trying to go home early to avoid the rush hour. But since we were bound to depart Manila at midnight, it was okay.

The Genesis bus was very strict with reservations so we opted to take ES Transport bus to Cabanatuan first (fare is P185) then take another bus to Baler. We got off at Cabanatuan terminal and the full was very full, very beautiful but I failed to take a photo because I was still sleepy and only wanted to resume sleeping. The second bus was non-airconditioned under D Liner (fare was P176) and it was a very uncomfortable ride. It felt like being on a ship during a storm. In the end, for terrible want of sleep, I ignored the bumpy ride and let myself lose consciousness.

On the morning of the 16th at around 6AM, we arrived at Baler Centro and were welcomed by tricycles contracted by Secret Spot Baler where we would be staying. Secret Spot Baler lives up to its name. It's located in a party secluded area in front of Sabang beach, perfect for those who seek peace and quiet.

We had buffet breakfast (P170) at Bay's Inn, a posh resort-like inn. Bay's Inn is where the surfing schools are. We had our fill of breakfast fare there and couldn't believe how cheap the buffet cost there in comparison to those in Manila.

After breakfast, we napped for a while at Secret Spot Baler and then proceeded to Balete tree. It's said to be 400 years old (but some would say 500 or 600) and is one of the oldest in Asia. I stumbled upon this interesting post about Baler's famous Balete tree. After that, we had lunch at a roadside eatery. Since all dishes were pork, I had no choice but to eat pinakbet and half an order of rice (P35).

We headed to the famous Ditumabo falls. I was more than excited because it's been a long time since I did some nature-tripping. Also, having experienced Ille's 14 waterfalls, I thoroughly thirsted for more waterfall adventures and am craving for ts cool, crystal clear waters. The trek to Ditumabo (aka Mother falls) was a difficult one though. The rocks were slippery and the currents were strong. I had a hard time moving in the rope part of the trek because of the strong current.

We spent a long time in the falls, enjoying the cool waters and marvelling at the beauty of Ditumabo falls. One must never skip this when visiting Baler!

It was already around 5PM when we got back to Sabang beach and we were offered an extra half hour if we avail of surfing lesson services at that time. We had second thoughts but proceeded anyway. It was a bad decision because I couldn't see a thing without my glasses and it was already getting dark. We were taught the basics of surfing. I was able to get up and experience some 5 seconds of surfing glory but I guess that was my limit. I had to remember to balance my feet once I get up the board. But after that glorious 5 seconds, the waves would always push me off my board. It happened thrice and the last had me washed ashore by consecutive waves and I was suddenly afraid I was going to die...

It was already dark when we quit and the waves were becoming more and more furious. We all washed up and prepared for buffet dinner at Gerry Shan's Place (P185). There were a lot of food to choose from and they even have leche flan!

After dinner, we hang out at the plaza near the church where they were having a public showing of This Guy's in Love with U Mare!. And then it was time to sleep.

The next day, Sunday, I failed to wake up at 5AM to catch the Sunday mass in Baler Church. So I just took photos of the dawn at the beach. We had free coffee (courtesy of Secret Spot Baler) and bread toast bought by one of our companions. So no hungry moment. We had early lunch at Carlito's, buffet style again. At P120, it was I think our most favorite. Most memorable was their fried chicken which I couldn't get enough of.

We did a quick city tour, visiting Museo Baler, Baler Church, and Doña Aurora´s house. I was rather surprised to find underwater archaeology as part of the exhibit in Museo Baler. Maybe there's a scuba training school there? I'd like to find out and see if I can enroll. (Note to self: learn how to swim properly first.)

We went back to Secret Spot Baler afterwards and just chilled there. We chatted with Auntie Rose, the owner of Secret Spot Baler, and were impressed by her knowledge of the history of Baler. Such a pity that I wasn't able to watch the film Baler. I could've asked around about the film's shooting places, etc.

Before boarding the bus to Cabanatuan, this time, with Aurora Lines (fare was P247), we shopped under pressure in just 15 minutes. I was able to buy only a small bottle of their famous Nanay Pacing's peanut butter (P140). When I got home and had a taste, I understood why it was expensive. Very creamy and smooth texture. So that settles it and I told myself, there are very very good reasons to go back to Baler:
1. learn to surf properly
2. go back to Carlito's and try out other food establishments.
3. see Dikasalarin beach and Tunayan falls
4. buy more of Nanay Pacing's peanut butter
5. Trek to Ditumabo falls again!
6. visit Artist Village
7. see Pag-asa tower
8. go island hopping
9. ride a boat to Ermita Hill
10. if with a companion that has the same level of audacity as me, take a boat to Pollilo Island then to Quezon Province...

one of the views in Castaneda on the way to Cabanatuan terminal. The water looks inviting and perfect for kayaking.