So. At the loft of Bubble Tea this afternoon, this bespectacled girl gave me and my sis the evil eye when she saw us taking the table across from where she and her boyfriend sat. Naging malaking hadlang yata kami sa kung ano mang binabalak nilang dalawa. Pero kebs, we're paying customers, too, at wala ng empty tables sa baba! Besides, I think we did the world a favor by preventing an ugly couple from polluting the earth with another ugly baby. JOKE LANG GOD! Joke lang talaga! =) 

"Just for a few months of one's life, is it so awful to travel through time with no greater ambition than to find the next lovely meal? Or to learn how to speak a language for no higher purpose than that it pleases your ear to hear it? Or to nap in a garden, in a patch of sunlight, in the middle of the day, right next to your favorite fountain? And then to do it again the next day?"
(from Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling book "Eat Pray Love")

My Saturday was all Asian (well, almost). From my Chinese class in the morning, I went straight to The Block to have lunch with my friend Christine. Since we promised ourselves we'd go back to Gloria Maris (back story here), we synched our schedules just for that.

As usual, I got there first. When I called her on the phone, a groggy Christine answered. "Kakagising mo lang?," I asked. Oo daw. If this were between 2004-2008, I would have thrown a fit. But our more than four years of friendship has taught me that Christine simply cannot be hurried. The girl marches to her own beat. And of course, I like that.



So I went to Break Talk for a bite to eat. You know, I don't think they'll ever sell again the naan bread, which I love very much. Every time I go there, the naan isn't there. I'm not sure if you'll understand. But not seeing naan makes me feel sad.

BUT, I spotted a new bread which I might like. It's a fat, long-ish bread with some melted cheese on top. One end is wrapped in pandan, which reminded me of pandan-wrapped chicken. And when I bit into it, lo and behold, it had chicken which tasted sort of like pandan-wrapped chicken! Coolness! If I remember right, it's called nonya bread. Gawd, I hope I'm right. It's the bread at the bottom of the pic.

So anyway, I ate my bread at one of the couches at The Block while reading the stuff I need to read for my class. A nerd's idea of time management: Sneak in some reading time for class whenever you can!  Hahaha!     

When Christine finally arrived, wala nang patumpik-tumpik pa, dumiretso na kami sa Gloria Maris.


I had mixed seafood congee because I wanted something light. I already ate some bread, remember?

Weird, but the mixed seafood congee that Christine had the first time we ate there tasted so much better. The flavor tasted weak. I had to put lots of chili sauce to satisfy my taste buds. Na-satisfy naman. Sort of. On a brighter note, the seafood my bowl had--fish fillet and prawns--was plentiful. 


Christine had the Gloria Maris congee, which seemed like a promising choice. However, since we forgot that it had some pork innards in it, it suddenly seemed like the wrong choice. Christine doesn't eat innards (and pork). She ate it anyway, except for the pork parts. May seafood naman eh. 


What we really loved about our trip there, though, was the taro puff. Sobrang sarap! Very tasty. Sa sobrang sarap, we ordered two. =)

After more than two hours of good food and great conversation, Christine suggested dessert. At dahil marami na ako nakain, sabi ko sa Annex na kami mag-dessert. But not without passing by The Soap Factory first.


I first used their soap January of this year, courtesy of Christine. I think she gave me the peppermint soap, which I liked very much. Very refreshing. After that, I went to The Soap Factory myself.  Pero kahapon ko lang na-realize na kilala na pala ng mga sales people dun ang mukha ko. The minute I set foot on the store, one of the girls greeted me with "Ma'am nandito na naman kayo" (Smile, smile).  Napangiti na lang ako. Ganun na yata ako ka-obsessed ma-try lahat ng sabon nila, hehe.

Nga pala, sabon yung nasa pic sa taas, hindi cake. Pero hindi ko binili yan.


Ito ulit, mga sabon na mukhang little cakes. Reminds me of the torte at Mister Donut. Nga pala, masarap yung ganun sa Mr. Donut. Pero hindi ko ulit binili yan. I left the store with the Geisha Soap and the Lavender soap. Na-try ko na yung peppermint, olive, and beer suds.

After that, Annex na. But before we got to dessert, we saw this little kiosk selling Chinese combs and mirrors and stuff. We spent considerable time there oohing and aahing at the pretty mirrors and combs. The combs, especially. They reminded us of that pretty comb Zhang Ziyi's character had in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. We want one, too! But since we have no money for it yet (the comb was kinda expensive), we resisted the urge.


And finally, dessert. To relieve ourselves of guilt over consuming a huge bowl of congee, two plates of tarot puffs, and nonya bread (me only), we had some 98% fat-free yogurt with fruit at The White Hat. Christine had blueberry topping while I had kiwi. The yogurt actually tasted good. Medyo pricey nga lang, but that's okay. Basta masarap! =)

After dessert, we walked some more. After debating with ourselves if we should pass by Bestsellers or not, we gave in to the call of books on sale. BUT (and I mean BUT!), we promised each other that we won't leave the store with plastic bags of books. We are on a budget, remember?

Bestsellers was where I came across this wonderful poem by Laura Cronk called "Sestina for the newly married". I also saw this interesting book called "Starbucked" which I guess is the "updated version" of the McDonaldization of society concept. But I didn't buy any book, which was what I promised myself anyway. Christine didn't buy any book, too. Yay!

Tas ayun. Pagod na kami. So umuwi na kami. Yun lang. =) 



 
  

I'm supposed to blog about my "Asian Saturday" with Christine but I can't get the poem "Sestina for the Newly Married" by Laura Cronk off my head. It's something I discovered today while browsing books with Christine at Bestsellers (SM City Annex).

So I was there, idly browsing and idly looking for THE book with the magical yellow sticker (it means the book is 75% off--It's sale season. Well, for books, anyway.) that will make me deliriously happy. I saw none. BUT, I saw this book called "The Best American Poetry 2006", flipped through the pages, and chanced upon "Sestina for the Newly Married"---to which I got hooked! I kept reading it for some time. It spoke to me.

But since the book didn't have the magical yellow sticker, I had to say goodbye to it. I vowed to google it when I get home, which I did. But I didn't find it. Instead, I found other poems by Laura Cronk. This, I like:

Toward the waterfront

To be too at the mercy of human interactions makes it difficult to be a student of human interactions.  I want to be the soft hand of Marlon Brando, heartbroken, softly pushing the gun away.   Because I want to be that much man and that much woman all together- I need to have the power to punch through the window to unlock the door and also to be able to softly, softly push the gun away.   He would be as I would be - someone's pet - but I mean dangerous pet – exotic, a lion in the house.   When you turn and give a dirty look, I'm too at the mercy I've been all my life too petalish not lionish enough.   I've got to become in part that part of Marlon Brando that is so hard as I feel right now the part of Marlon Brando that is so heartbroken, so terribly soft.

(http://realpoetik.blogspot.com/2007/08/laura-cronk.html)

     

To feel poor and sad is a deadly combination of feelings for a city girl to feel. And that's how I've been feeling since Thursday.

Last Thursday, I went to the Loyola Schools Bookstore to browse books from the big universities abroad (i.e., THE United States of America). I saw three that I liked. But I was (and still am) too poor to buy any of them. Each book costs anywhere in between Php1,200 - Php2,000---way, way, waaayyyyyy over my usual budget for books.

The first book that caught my eye was Krazy by Bruce Grenville. I want it because it talks about comic books and VIDEO GAMES and all the visual art I'm interested in right now. In a nutshell, Krazy is, according to its book summary, "a dizzying introduction to the art forms that will dominate the new century."


The second book that caught my eye was Beijing Time by Michael Dutton because it talks about one of my dream cities. The premise of a city that is both mystical and modern is hard to resist. My Basic Chinese 4 teacher loves talking about the city in detail, and every time he does, I get even more excited to go.


The third book that I am salivating after is also about China, in particular, Changing Clothes in China by Antonia Finnane. From the title alone, the book obviously talks about clothes. And because I am a girl, of course I am interested.

 
As soon as I realized that these books are kind of impossible to buy without a big, big discount, I resolved to look these books up at the Rizal Library, but sadly, the books aren't there.

The only book I was able to buy this week was Cult of the Mouse by Henry Caroselli, which talks about how creativity and innovation is being destroyed by corporate America's greed. I bought it at National Bookstore for Php200. It's original price was Php1,200 or so. And I bought it because I can relate to it, somewhat (Don't ask).


This week, I also have to buy a new book for my Public Relations class. A book about power. And it costs Php1,000+++. Talk about feeling powerless...a powerless purchaser! Huhuhu.

Then yesterday after work, I took a little side trip to the Japan Home Store near my house, and found little things I'd want for my "imaginary home": a clay pot for cooking, some beautifully designed chopsticks, a decorative scroll, some pots and pans...and the list goes on.

In my Ilocos trip with friends last year, I also bought some home stuff for this "imaginary house" and they're just in my room, gathering dust, waiting for a nice warm home to live in.

Obviously, I still don't have the funds for a downpayment for an apartment...but I'm working on it. It just feels sad to be in your late 20s and still be homeless. Yes, even if technically, I am not homeless because I still live with my parents. But you hopefully know what I mean.

It's just that, I am techically poor, you know. I read somewhere that to be part of the middle class, you should be earning about Php42,000 or thereabouts. And my salary range isn't anywhere near that amount!

What made this feeling even worse was that while walking, a woman handing over real estate flyers actually stopped me in my tracks and said, "Invest in your future while you're young."

"No, thanks," I said. Doesn't she think I already know THAT?!

So there. Don't get me started at the sheer impossibility of building a decent life alone in this country. I'll end this post here.

Note that the operative word is ALMOST. I almost hated my Chinese class. But thankfully, I did not.

Well, actually, it was not my Chinese class that I ALMOST hated. Rather, it was my teacher. I ALMOST hated my teacher. But thankfully, I did not.

I almost hated my teacher for the bored and condescending look he gave me in response to my feelings of confusion over some terms. He spoke most of the time in Chinese. Fast Chinese. And I couldn't catch much.

I almost hated my teacher for letting out a long sigh when it took me too long to read and answer drills in the book. I must have seemed like an illiterate person learning my ABCs for the first time. Which is, of course, partly true since Chinese is neither my first nor my second language.

I almost hated my teacher for using traditional Chinese characters one Saturday (one Saturday lang naman, thank God!). I did not understand a thing. I could only make sense of simplified Hanzi. I got rattled. I began to wonder if I'll ever go through Cycle 10 with my ego intact.

But I got over it.  I got over the negativity once I realized a few things:

One, my listening skills lagged against my progress in reading and writing in Chinese simply because I neglected to learn that skill. I placed it at the bottom of my to-learn list because I thought it wasn't going to be very useful for me. But I was wrong. Listening and speaking are important skills in learning a foreign language!

So once I realized that, I started listening to my Chinese language CD, I searched for a Mandarin learning channel in Youtube (THIS is a good one), and I borrowed other CDs from my classmate.

Now I can somewhat understand and catch key words in conversations. I may not understand all of it, but I can at least make sense of it a bit.

Two, the drills and practices my teacher uses are all in the book. All I have to do is read and answer it before the class starts, so that I'll have a good grasp of what the chapter is all about. Once I realized that, I made sure I went to class prepared. You have no idea how relieved I felt when he stopped sighing so loud. =)

As for the traditional Chinese characters, it will really take me a while to learn that. I really am more comfortable with simplified Hanzi. I think I'll stick with that. =)

BUT (and I mean But!) the most stress-releasing thing about the class was when my teacher began to smile and crack little jokes. I think that eased my tension a bit. At least I now know that he's a normal person capable of cracking jokes. He can be laidback after all.

My theory is that somewhere along the way, something nice and warm and fuzzy happened in his personal life which made him smile and see the sunshine in the world. Thank God for that. Now I enjoy Chinese class again. =)   

According to Mark Flanagan, there's a new Haruki Murakami novel called 1Q84. It supposedly contains murder and historical references narrated by two characters, a man and a woman. I have a feeling that it's going to be another fun mindf_ck like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.  Therefore...

I. Must. Get. One. 

After a fun family trip to Batangas, I got great news when I checked my email:

Dear Contributors

As you may or may not know, our book, Crowns and Oranges, has already come out of Anvil and are now being sold in bookstores. Thank you for your patience through these two years.

The book launch is still in question as of the moment but when the details get ironed out, I will be calling on you all to participate. Thank you for your time and your support of the project.

Sincerely yours,

Ken Ishikawa


So there. I feel like an artist again. I hope I can disappear from the workaday world to write more. There's more where that angst came from. LOL!

Time to go for a retreat again. I must say that this is the most excited I've ever been. I have a very important question to ask from God between 5:00 PM today and 2:00 PM on Sunday in Caleruega, Batangas. A part of me is very pressured to nail it (I want the answer now!), while another part of me is telling me to relax (I will get my answer soon).

Around this time last year, at another retreat, I asked something from God, too. And I left the retreat assured that God will give me what's best for me. And He did. Things fell into place on the day of my family's visa interview at the US Embassy, and the finiteness of my mind could not have imagined that what happened could ever happen. My thoughts truly do not compare to God's.

So I am hopeful that this year will be the same...and maybe even better.

Apparently, Chinese people have their own Internet shortcuts, just like the way we say LOL for "laughing out loud" or the way we use =) to show that we are happy. These are the Chinese chat shortcuts I've learned from my new friends thus far:

1. "88" means "bye"
2. 囧 means sad
3. 555555 means the person is crying

I know I learned more. I just can't remember them right now. LOL. Anyway, I'm having fun. So. Much. Fun. Byeee!

So. By the constant prodding of my classmate at Confucius Institute, I finally pimped my profile at this language exchange website (I won't tell you which, so don't bother asking! LOL) because I desperately need to practice. There's obviously no one I can practice here with. And going to Chinatown is not an option, since it's too far away from where I am.

So anyway, since joining last Wednesday, I've managed to gain three constant language exchange partners who go by the following (strange) English names: Mag, Dan, and Pray, as well as one language exchange partner who goes by her Chinese name Qiao Ling.

Today I got an email from Qiao Ling which goes:

hi Mitzie i send some the characters to you do you undersand them?

面包 牛奶 火腿肠 牙膏 毛巾 洗衣粉 铅笔 尺子 茄子 辣椒 黄瓜 豆角 萝卜 南瓜 白菜 西红柿 土豆 公元 鲜花 森林 明天 灭火 天空 长城 再见 广场 这里

I got nauseated upon seeing all those strange words, as I always do. But of course, upon closer inspection, I calmed down, certain with the premise that I already know some words by heart.

So I replied back saying:

Hi Qiao Ling!

I only understand a few characters.

面 = noodles
火 = fire
子 = zi
白 = bai
西 = west
红 = red
土 = soil
林 = lin
明天 = tomorrow
天 = day
再 = again
这 = zhe (this)

I will study the other characters. I will find out the meaning of the characters that I do not know.

Thank you, Qiao Ling!


But boy, was I wrong. Just now, I got a reply back from her. And this is what she said:

面包(mian  bao ) bread                            

土豆(tu  dou)  potato

鲜花(xian  hua ) fresh  flowers

森林(sen  lin)  forest

明天(ming  tian ) tomorrow

灭火(mie huo）put out a  fire

天空 (tian  kong)   the  sky

长城 (chang  cheng) the Great Wall

再见 (zai jian)bye-bye   see  you

广场 (guang  chang）square

这里 (zhe li )  here

牛奶 (niu nai)  milk

火腿肠 (huo  tui chang） sausage

牙膏  （ya  gao ) tooth paste\dentifrice

毛巾 (mao jin)  towel

洗衣粉(xi yi fen) washing powder

 铅笔(qian bi ) pencil

尺子(chi zi ) ruler

茄子 (qie  zi) eggplant

辣椒  (la jiao) hot pepper

黄瓜(huang gua) cucumber

豆角(dou  jiao) bean

萝卜(luo bo ) radish

南瓜(nan gua ) pumpkin

白菜(bai cai) Chinese cabbage

西红柿(xi hong shi) tomato

Oh man, I don't know anything! So many Chinese words to memorize, too few brain cells...LOL!

I think I'm back and ready to resurrect myself. I was gone from Multiply for a while since I chose to bury myself in school. Before the second semester ended, I did my best to pull myself together and do:

• the film requirements for my Documentary Film class
• the social marketing plan for my Social Marketing class
• major work (my officemates and close friends know this)
  
• my Basic Chinese 3 class
  
• a personal project that will make or break my planned trip to China 

So now that those things are over and done with, all I have to do is to wait patiently for the fruits of my labor. In the meantime, I will resume my life and live as if I didn't slave over those things. Life is better that way.

1. I was worried that the traffic jam will make us miss our flight, but we got there just in time. Upon checking in, we were informed that our flight would be delayed by two hours. Something about the plane stopping by Naga City. What luck.

2. The new airport rocks! Well, it's not as nice as the other ones I've been in, but it's certainly more serviceable than the other crap terminal we have.

3. The 80-peso hotdog at the airport tastes like cardboard. Don't--unless you're really, really hungry--eat it. You've been warned.

4. I found a passionate anti-poverty advocate in the person of Ed Lim, and I feel lucky to have met him. He acts as consultant at the AusAid-funded coconut processing plant in Oroquieta. That plant is the model plant. If all goes well, there is a good chance that it will be replicated in the whole Philippines. Which brings me to number 5.

5. I saw miles and miles of coconut trees, as our plane descended. I didn't realize that Mindanao had THAT much coconut, and that the Philippines could really be rich if we play our cards right. You know, sort of like the Middle East and their crude oil, I imagine.

6. In Oroquieta, my classmate Ace and I went to a cafe called Our Town to drink coffee. We both ordered a drink called Choco Loco simply because we love chocolate and the description seemed good. When my coffee arrived, I realized it tasted like Nescafe--the variant with Hazelnut. When I finished drinking, I asked the server what coffee they use. And with all innocence, the girl said "Ito po o," then waved a box of (surprise! surprise!) Nescafe with Hazelnut.

7. People over there spend their leisure time in videoke. That's their equivalent of "clubbing." Well, not really. Most people are asleep by 8:00.

8. Php700 is a big deal for farmers. When they need money, they borrow from the traders. One farmer borrowed Php700 because someone in the family got sick. Now, the farmer considers himself deep in debt. A farmer earns only about Php 2000 per year. That's per year!

9. At the Ozamis airport, I was delighted to discover that people are allowed to go outside to buy a bite to eat after checking in. My group and I did just that, since Air Philippines does not serve snacks nor drinks. The downside: You'll realize later on, while happily chewing on your 35-peso siopao, that a pack of dogs have encircled you, hungrily eyeing your siopao.

10. For some strange reason, I started craving for McDonald's cheeseburger and fries since I arrived home.

1. I want to spend New Year (2010) in New York. Jemima!!!!! Anna!!!!!!!

2. Autumn is my favorite season.

3. Oroquieta City in Misamis Occidental is my first trip for this year. It's for my Social Marketing class.

4. I want to study Mandarin Chinese in either Taiwan or Beijing, China.

5. Amici serves the best pasta.

6. Bellinis is overrated.

7. El Nido is the best beach in the Philippines.

8. My best shopping experience is in Bangkok.

9. My childhood memories of summer are in Baguio.

10. Ireland will always be a dream destination.

11. Someday, I will tour Europe.

12. After going to Puerto Galera once in 2004, I vowed never to set foot in there again. Too many hustlers and drunk brats walking.

13. Ilocos surprised me. In a good way, of course. It's very beautiful. But it's not in everybody else's travel radar.

14. Learning Japanese in Japan would be very, very awesome, God.

15. I scrimp on everything else for the joy of traveling. I hate it when people think I swim in piles of money. I just know what my priority is, and that's where my money goes. *$#&%&#!!!!!

16. There's a very good reason why I always aim for A's in my classes.

17. I have recently found my ultimate language study buddy: Hidei. Next on our list, after Mandarin, is Spanish.

18. I would love to have a multi-racial family in the future.

19. Manila is not my home.

20. Universal Studios is the happiest place on earth.

I thought Sagada with Xtine and Mean will be my first trip for the year. That's supposed to be some time in the summer, after my second semester as a grad student. But no. My teacher in my Social Marketing class had the bright idea of bringing his class to Oroquieta City in Misamis Occidental this February. And yes, I am excited. This is going to be my first field trip since my senior year in high school!

But unlike my senior year in high school where our class sang along to Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears as the bus cruised along the highway (you can imagine how long ago that was--panahon pa ng one-time crush kong si Nick Carter ito!), this time around, I am guessing that my fellow grad students will just stick iPod earphones on their ears while I weasel my way to the airplane's window seat and watch the clouds go by.

I am anticipating that very likely scene since my classmates and I only see each other once a week in a three-hour class. Hence, we're not that close. After class, we pretty much live our own lives.

But I am hopeful that this trip will be a fun one. I am hoping to know my classmates better. Come to think of it, this will be a very good networking practice! Which will hopefully lead me to more people in the industry, and which will hopefully land me to bigger and better places.

So what will we do in Oroquieta City, exactly? We're supposed to visit a coconut processing plant which exports copra. According to Mr. Lim, our resource person, copra is actually a very big industry in the Philippines. And that the Philippines is actually a big player in this industry. So coconut farmers are actually very significant people in the world. Cool, huh?

But the problem is, coconut farmers lack support, even if they comprise a significant number of the Philippine population. They earn very little and thus stay within the poverty line. A coconut processing plant in Oroquieta was created, through the funding of AusAid and other funders, to help farmers. This project is supposed to be replicated to other parts of the Philippines in the hopes of lifting coconut farmers from the poverty line and into the middle class. Yey!

So where do we come in? As social marketing students, we're supposed to get to know the coconut farmers' situation and formulate a social marketing plan for them. We will help them in the best way we can--by using our communication and social marketing know-how. Through our social marketing plan, we hope to convince more farmers to participate in the project, and to convince more funders to fund it. More things will become clear to me once my class lands at Oroquieta.

Wish us luck!    

This January I got just what I wanted: For the Basic Chinese 3 class I enrolled in to NOT get dissolved. There were enough people who enrolled so the class pushed through.

Today was my second Saturday of lessons, and I enjoyed it a lot. As you may well know, my dream is to go to a Chinese restaurant and be able to order something from a menu written in Chinese characters. Today was definitely a sign that I'm slowly but surely getting ever closer to that dream.

I remember walking around Macau with my friend Xtine, looking forlornly at the food lists of the very many restaurants around us. Of course we couldn't order anything because we couldn't read anything. We ended up at a Portugeuse restaurant with a menu written in English. Which was just as well because the food was one of the best we ever tasted in our entire lives. The place was Cafe Lisboa, a little cafe tucked somewhere in Macau...

Food is also the reason why I'm trying to learn Japanese. So far, I can order anything as long as it's written in hiragana and katakana. Sumida-sensei taught our class how to order food from a McDonald's branch in Japan. I already know how to read numbers so I'll definitely know how much to pay. I guess I'll survive. But what I really, really, really want is authentic sushi.

Japanese...Chinese...Yes, that's how serious I am about my food. I will go to great lengths for the most authentic eating experience... 

Every year, my goal is to have at least one domestic destination and one international. In 2008, I went to Bohol (thanks to the travel magazine I write for) and Ilocos for my domestic destination, and to Florida and Chicago for my international destination.

I've been doing a lot of thinking and have narrowed down my choices to the following:

Domestic:

1. Sagada and Baguio with Mean and Xtine
(http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/Philippines/Mountain_Province/Sagada-1384548/TravelGuide-Sagada.html)
We envision this to be a one week trip. About four days in Sagada and three days in Baguio. Mean wants to go hiking around the waterfalls and caves. I want to eat yogurt and fresh greens. I also want to visit the pottery place and the weaving place. Xtine wants to...ewan. I should ask her. LOL.   If I miraculously become physically fit by summer, I might go hiking too. But that's a big IF.

2. Batanes
I've been wanting to go to this Ireland-like place since 2005, but the plane fare is just too steep! IF I manage to snag a promo fare from Asian Spirit, I'll be able to fulfill my dream of going here. It's soooo pretty in pictures. I know I have little chance of actually going to Ireland and Scotland, since I doubt I'll become rich by the age of 30, so Batanes is the next best thing.

My fascination with Ireland actually dates back to my high school days, when I was a big fan of that once-hot boyband called Boyzone. I even went to their concert here in Manila years ago. Diba Jen and M-cris? Hehehe. 

International:
1. New York
Ito talaga ang isinisigaw ng puso ko: Museums, Broadway, and autumn. But I doubt I'll amass the plane fare and pocket money needed to make this trip happen by October. Urgh.

2. Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
(http://www.lonelyplanet.com/vietnam/ho-chi-minh-city)
There is so much culture to be imbibed and cuisine to be devoured in this place. This was where I was supposed to go in 2007, but hotels were too hard to book! So I ended up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I shall give Vietnam another try in 2009.

3. Penang, Malaysia or Chiang Mai, Thailand 
These are my alternatives if ever I don't get to book early in Vietnam. Penang's cuisine excites my palate. I've been seeing this place in travel shows and I drool everytime the camera zooms in on the food! Chiang Mai, meanwhile, I want to experience for the rich culture and...the shopping!!!

So those are my travel options for 2009. Wish me luck. Friends who want to join me in my international choices, I'm just an email/PM/call/chat/text away!

So. Thank God for serendipitous trips. My friends Anna, Lucia, Jen and I are heading to Laoag tomorrow night. This will be the New-York-trip-that-did-not-materialize-but-instead-turned-into-a-trip-up-north-the-Philippines.

Rewind to October of this year: I was supposed to go meet Anna and Lucia in New York, but circumstances led me to Chicago, which is a beautiful city, too. It's one of my favorites, right now, despite the cold.

So now it's Laoag and Vigan for us. Which is just as well. Lucia and Anna are on vacation in the Philippines. And it's not often that they get the chance to come back here. So now's our opportunity! Plus I've always wanted to see Vigan--the old houses, the architecture, the cobblestone streets, and the food! Empanada, bagnet, and more empanada! Yum, yum, yum!

As for Laoag, I don't know what to expect. It wasn't in my travel radar. But since Jen thinks it's an interesting place to visit, I guess it's worth a shot.

Must start packing tonight. Will travel light. Of course.

At my friend K. and her new husband E.'s Laguna wedding last Friday, I almost got the bouquet. But I had second thoughts.

First of all, it involved all single girls walking around a seated and blindfolded P. (E.'s best friend), with a prettily ribboned plastic bottle lodged between his thighs. It was like a Trip to Jerusalem kind of thing. We girls had to dance around him (Which we didn't--Yuck), and when the music stopped, the first girl to get the bottle triumphs. Meaning, the first girl to get the bottle gets booted out, but in a good way. BECAUSE, this meant the girl who got the bottle avoided the "embarrassment" of being the next to marry. This was actually the first time I've seen girls not compete to get the bouquet (a sign of future marriage). We actually competed to, well, not get the bouquet.

It was quite easy to get the bouquet, as you can probably see. If you wanted to be the next to marry, you could just...not make the effort get the bottle.

I don't know what the other girls' reasons were, but me, I knew something questionable about P. (as to what it is--it's a secret, hahaha!), so I felt that getting the bouquet was not a good sign. Baka maudlot pa ang kasal ko! Haha!

But more than "superstition," I also felt that it's not yet the right time to get that symbolic bouquet. I still have hopes and dreams to reach--which are only possible to reach in my unmarried state. Although I would want to marry ___ in the near future, it's not the right time yet. And I mean YET.

***

The church in Pila, Laguna was soooo beautiful. It's like a hidden treasure. I don't hear of many couples scrambling to marry there, but, oh, it's so purrtttyy!!!!

But I did not take a picture.

I bought this book at the bargain section of Borders in Florida. Now I read a page or two of it every morning to inspire me. I'd like to know more about art history and to know what the landmark paintings and artworks of the world are. This way, I can write about art--a subject I am passionate about--with more authority.

A few months ago, I borrowed a book on Philippine modern art at the Rizal Library, which I enjoyed immensely. It made me realize how rich our country's art scene is, and how intelligent and enigmatic Filipino artists are. It is a book on interviews with modern artists. The interviews explored Filipino artists' take on what Philippine modern art is, and their responses are just pure...genius. I learned a lot from that book. It made me realize how valuable Ateneo Art Gallery, the premiere museum of Philippine modern art, really is.

So I'm devouring Craughwell's "Book of Art" with gusto. My current favorite is a sculpture titled "Sarcophagus of the Spouses." Something in that work gets me. It's very tender, romantic, and loving--everything a married couple in love should be.

I connect it with another sculpture I saw at the Art Institute of Chicago when I went there just this October. It's my favorite art piece among the hundreds (or even thousands?) of works on exhibit: "The Solitude of the Soul" by Lorado Taft. Basically, it's a marble sculpture depicting four people (2 girls, 2 boys, from what I remember--correct me if I'm wrong!) who are connected physically but not so emotionally and spiritually, based from the expressions on their faces. I like it because it shows us the human condition perfectly. That no matter how seemingly connected we are to our loved ones, there is still that part of us that will forever remain unreachable. Looking back, I guess that sculpture got to me while I was in the museum because of my own feelings of isolation from someone, despite the compelling pull of my strong feelings for this person.

In Taft's statement, he says "The thought is the eternally present fact that however closely we may be thrown together by circumstances...we are unknown to each other."

I know this is a 180-degree turn from why I like "Sarcophagus of the Spouses." It seems like I even contradict myself. I like "Sarcophagus" for the way it shows a loving, tender connection between two people. It is a hopeful piece of what could be. I like "Solitude" for the way it shows emotional disconnection despite physical connection. It is a cynical piece on what is.

Am I a study in contrasts?