Me

OMG! I was just about to sleep but then I was suddenly tempted to check how much a flight to Abu Dhabi from here through Air Asia, and then a flight from Abu Dhabi to Egypt, would cost in total. So I went to the Air Asia website and I was a bit impatient, it was taking a while to load or something. It is customary for me to visit many airline sites at once.. so I typed in www.cebupacificair.com and oh my Gawwwwdddd! They had the piso (P1) fare thing going on! You buy tickets now and fly from mid-June to September end next year and it's non-refundable and non-rebookable. Sucks, but that's how they make it so cheap. The risk is worth it!! Anyway, it's not really P1 ($0.02). It's P101 ($2.10) .. but that's still amazingly cheap.

I was sooo excited. I've been dying to see cherry blossoms lately so I immediately thought of Korea and Japan.. both fares were really low!! I was shocked and so excited! My heart was beating, I couldn't type so well.. I was quivering with excitement!! Haha well eventually, I chose Korea. I thought Japan might be a bit harder to get a visa for, plus I have many Korean classmates so I'm curious about what it's really like there. It only cost me $30 (with the airport tax for the Korean airport)!!! The flight's scheduled for September 3 and I return on the 10th. I should get a term break around that time. And I'll be going when it's autumn in Korea! I've never seen autumn before and I've always wanted to!

After a while of checking for other destinations and fares, I found out that Taipei would only cost $17.50 if I go on June 23 and return on June 27. Hahaha.. well isn't it obvious already.. I booked it again. The 24th, a Thursday, is a holiday.. and I usually don't have classes from Fridays to Sundays so yeah. :)) Yayyyy!! If anything comes up, I'll just try to find a way around it!

My dad has no idea. He'll probably freak out if he knew. Well I'll tell him next year.. hahaha. And I'm gonna save and spend my own money.

Yipee!! An hour or so ago, I was just dreaming of places I could go to! Now, I already have 3 places I am confirmed for: Malaysia, Taiwan and Korea! And no, I haven't forgotten about Abu Dhabi and Egypt! That's for summer!

Ah, what would I do without these dear budget airlines and their crazy promotions? I'll probably hardly go anywhere. Full service flights cost too damn much.. although these days, even they're bringing their fares down, in response to the competition brought on by these budget / low-cost airlines. They're still too expensive for me though. :)

I LOVE budget airlines!

I went out with my Korean friend, David, today. We were gonna watch Italian movies.. I thought there was a mini film festival going on.. but apparently, it ended last Friday. Ah well. So we watched 500 Days of Summer. I enjoyed it even though I've already watched it twice. Hehe well, I don't LOVE the movie.. I just enjoy it a lot.

Afterward, we just walked around and ended up having coffee (and a doughnut for me). Then we just talked and talked. It's not that easy to communicate though. He's not that good at English. Also, it's not just that.. it's the cultural ideas that go with the language.. those are difficult to explain. Well, I still enjoyed it. We met near the university and had lunch in KFC and then took two trains to the mall. I love going around (Metro) Manila with someone who doesn't know it well. I was pointing out where all my previous houses were in the city while we were in the train. Anyway, tomorrow, I am taking him to an Indian / Pakistani grocery near the university. It's actually the best one we have here. They have so many things -- Limca, Thumbs-up, plain lassi, many different kinds of mithai (Indian sweets), samosa, Amul rose milk.. and lots of other spices and Indian / Pakistani (I'm trying to be politically correct here, haha. The grocery is owned by a Pakistani but most of the customers are Indian, so yeah). Haha I am so excited! I can't wait to see the look on his face. Hopefully he likes some of it.. Indian food is so different from Korean food and many people don't appreciate it. We are gonna walk there. No taxis, jeepneys. It's not a very pretty area but it's part of the adventure, right?

Okay. I have to stop babbling on and on and do my accounting work. :)

I had to go to Marikina, another city within Metro Manila, a while ago for some community service orientation (I'm required to do community service for that Filipino in a Changing World spirituality class). Now, even though it's within Metro Manila, it's a city far, far away (okay, not really). It took me about 1 1/2 hour to get there, and I took a train (of normal speed) for half the way.. I was late.. but it was okay. Well I could've chosen to do community service elsewhere, but I wanted to do it there because this one had to do with waste management and all that. I was especially interested in composting. And I really care about the environment. The center collects garbage from their own community, cleans their own -- the center's -- grounds (it's a 3000+ square meter lot with lots of plants -- many of which are medicinal -- a tiny zoo, a tiny creek, a segregation area, composting area, livelihood area, etc.), segregate the garbage, compost the biodegradable waste to create organic -- not chemical -- fertilizer that they use for planting (maybe they give some of it away too, I'm not sure). They sell a lot of the non-biodegradable waste to junk shops, but with some of it, they create baskets, hats, etc. <-- "livelihood". Problem with these things they create is hardly anyone would use them. For example, the hats -- no one wears the kinds they made these days.. it was like a hat from the 1920s or something. So doing it in a larger scale to help the garbage problem is not feasible. But, through all their efforts, they reduce the garbage by 60 - 70%! Can you imagine?? That's amazing! All the communities -- barangays -- in the Philippines are supposed to have a center like this but not many do. Imagine the amount of garbage that will be reduced if this is done.. There are huge landfills around Metro Manila now and they just keep getting huge-r and huge-r. Scavengers -- I'm talking about people here -- help the situation though; they collect different items from the garbage and sell them to junk shops. It's the way they earn a living. They get anywhere from P15 to P50 a day I heard.. Because of them, at present, Metro Manila's garbage gets reduced by 15%.. I guess it's better than nothing.

Anyway, us students had to be divided into five groups to perform the specific tasks: cleaning, segregating, composting, planting and livelihood. At first, I thought I was in the livelihood group and I was extremely disappointed, I couldn't believe it. I hate doing crafts. But I was wrong. We drew lots after a few minutes and I got COMPOSTING!!! I was so glad! Haha. Well, the orientation ended. I hadn't had lunch or a proper breakfast yet and it was 5pm so my head was aching and I was a bit irritated. Well, after a while of looking for cheap healthy food to no avail, I gave up and began my commute home. As I walking towards my house, I saw a Filipino restaurant. I remembered the halo-halo -- a Filipino dessert -- I had with Dhivya in a mall the other week.. so yeah, I went in and ordered myself some halo-halo. It was gooood. I love halo-halo. It has beans, nata de coco (coconut jelly in English, I think), pieces of jackfruit and saba banana, coconut strips, evaporated milk, lots of ice and other things. I got mine with ube (purple yam) ice cream.. haha it's a Filipino thing.

Because my mom was born and raised here, I have learned to like many Filipino foods (mostly the snacks and desserts though.. not so much the main courses). A memory I have is of my mom, dad, brother and me -- my sister was not born yet -- always having delicious halo-halo after going swimming. Hehe, well it's just a little thing, I know, but I'm glad my mom taught me to enjoy halo-halo, taho, biko, ginataan, kuchinta, banana-q, cassava cake..

I had a sudden urge to write an entry but now I should really get back to my school work. :) Ooo.. here's a picture of halo-halo:

I was in school today and I had a sudden urge for a Coke (not Coke Zero or Coke Light, COKE!).. I remembered that there was a vending machine nearby and went to it. I saw another student standing around it, like he had a problem with the machine. I inserted a twenty bill into the bill pulling thingy anyway and nothing came out.. no Coke, no nothing. This irritated me of course -- I lost P20 and I wanted Coke! -- but it hardly fazed me. On the contrary, it made me more determined to get a Coke. Well I had to meet some of my Introduction to Art classmates and I remembered there was a Coca-Cola vending machine near our meeting place. I was late for the meeting already, but I just had to have a Coke, if only for the sake of fulfilling what I set out to do -- to have a Coke. So I inserted another P20 bill into the bill pulling thingy. The machine didn't want to accept the bill. This only increased my determination. I tried a few times and then decided to insert P10 worth of coins even though I didn't have enough for P20. The coins were accepted! Great! Then I decided to try inserting the bill into the machine. It worked after a few tries. Now I had P30 in the machine and I pressed the button for Coke. Hallelujah! A can of Coke fell out.. a WARM can of Coke! What the hell. I tried to collect my P10 change but nothing came out of the machine when I pressed the button makes the coins come out. I decided to give up since I actually did get a Coke, one that cost me P50. I kept the can in my bag and decided to save it for later. When I got home, I put it in the freezer and totally forgot about it.. until a few minutes ago when I felt hungry and opened the fridge. So here I am, it's 4.15am and I am finally having this (ice cold) long overdue can of Coke.

Have I mentioned that I love Coke? There was a day last week when I craved it for at least three hours. I didn't give in to the temptation though cause I was having cravings for Coke a few times a day, everyday.. bad, very bad. Yup, so this can is my first in days. I love carbonated drinks.. love the refreshing feeling of the bubbly gas-iness running down my throat. There's just nothing like it. :)

I watched 500 Days of Summer after my classes today.. I've been wanting to watch that movie for a while now and I was in the mood for something romantic.. :) I never like the typical romantic shit though.

Well it was a nice movie but I can't love or really like any movie unless I like / love one of the characters. But all the characters in this movie were just okay. I didn't like the girl too much though. She was upfront with the guy about not wanting anything serious, but I still think she was quite insensitive. She didn't even bother to explain her suddenly getting married to someone else to the guy. I felt really sorry for him, he really loved her. Oh well,.. Anyway, watching the movie, I saw again the magic of falling in love unfold before my eyes. Hehe, it is so sweet. Well, I wasn't the only romantic in the theater. I looked around and saw this young woman close to me smiling a big smile. Haha I guess I was smiling that same way too, in some parts of the movie.

Anyway, I really liked the music they played in the movie. Lots of indie / alternative stuff.

Ooo I love Oreo's when they're still crunchy and fresh.. dipping them in milk makes them taste even better.

Ah well I still have stuff to do for my Introductory to Accounting (Part 2) class later on. I'll also be having Business Math and umm.. my spirituality class.. it's formally titled "The Filipino Christian in a Changing World". Hahaha. If you're wondering why I'm taking it, it's because it's required -- my university is a Catholic one. I'd never take it if I didn't have to. :)

I'm watching Six Feet Under for the second time. I'm falling in love with it all over again. I think I understand it so much better now too. :) Nate is still amazing. Claire is annoying. Dave is conflicted, lost. Brenda is messed up. Ruth is.. extremely strange.

Ooo.. today I suddenly got super interested in soap making! I dunno why. I already told Dhivya and her cousin, Chucha (haha no, this isn't her real name) that we are gonna make some together soon. I'm so excited, I can't wait. We are probably gonna do it on November 1 or 2, because all of us will be busy before that. Since this is a Catholic country, both days are holidays (November 1 - All Saints' Day, November 2 - All Souls' Day -- or maybe it's the other way around, dunno). The 1st is a Sunday though so it doesn't count. Anyway I'm looking at recipes online and ahh, I wanna make all kinds! Oatmeal and brown sugar soap, tea tree oil soap, lavender soap, rose soap,.. sandalwood soap, cinnamon soap.. haha the list goes on and on! I wanna have a different soap to use every time I take a shower! I find showers really boring these days so maybe this'll perk them up a bit for me. :) Ohh but I'm gonna do it the easy way. I'm buying a melt and pour soap base (pre-made soap) so all I'll have to do is melt it and add stuff. I don't want to deal with lye or whatever. Haha, so I'm cheating! Big deal.

I value my education but really.. ugh.. it can be so boring and unmotivating.. going to (some) of my classes is okay, but coming home and having to do so much for them--not that I do all or even most of it--is disgusting. I like having a lot of time to myself. I am aware that this makes me a less productive person and I used to hate this part of me, but it's just the way I am. Anyway, I don't think I should appreciate / value myself based on how productive I am.. (although there's a limit to how lazy and UNproductive I should be).

Okay I should go sleep now. Have class later -- Introductory Microeconomics, Introduction to Art (it isn't really what it sounds like) and Personal Effectiveness 2.. <-- extremely useless class.

61 more days till I leave for Malaysia! :-O!