We were just having a great time singing Karaoke last Friday. A few of my colleagues and I were celebrating the third year since we all met at the programming boot camp, and I was also anticipating the arrival of my baby nephew from the province the next day. It was a rainy week but I was oblivious of any storm coming. My older brother w/ his family, an aunt w/ my little cousin, and another cousin w/ her family arrived on a plane on Saturday morning telling us about a pretty bad turbulence and swore that they felt their plane fall a few feet down when they were still on flight. One of my cousins even said that she thought she was gonna die that day. Since I stayed very late the previous night, I ... read more

It was warm and humid just like the previous days…I reluctantly got up from bed, took a bath, and sluggishly ate my breakfast. Though I woke up feeling a little bit down, I definitely don’t want to spend my last day moping around. I spent most of the morning lounging at the reception area, thinking of which places I could still manage to visit before my flight later in the evening. I was awakened a few times during the night ... or maybe dawn … by noises of roommates packing and people chatting at the reception area, but the place was fairly quiet and empty when I went out to get my breakfast later in the morning. Yesterday, I was to see my Aunt who I haven’t seen in two (or three?) years so we can ... read more

Pre-Travel Blues This might become one of "many" future solo trips or this might turn out to be an experience that will make me forget about the idea of traveling alone. I’ve been trying to motivate myself in the past days to make myself an itinerary or plan a more organized trip … in vain. I had been feeling too down to even want to do anything and I even thought of just cancelling the trip. The past days have not been great but aside from personal stuff going on, this usually happens days prior to a trip. It’s the time again when I would keep asking myself why am I doing this? Why do I have to go? What’s there to see anyway? Why do I have to wake up at dawn to go to ... read more

Happy Independence Day! The Philippines still got a long long way to go to know the real meaning of nationalism. Don’t worry, I won’t be writing anything about my frustrations and all that, I just wanted to say that I’m proud to be a Filipino anyway … always will be. And besides, the public holiday gave us this long weekend which we intend to spend away from the chaotic city living & the H1N1 scare! We boarded the Legaspi bound plane at 6:00 in the Morning; Ger, Ren, Mark and I will be the first ones to arrive in Legaspi and four more people will be on their way later on. It was starting to rain in Manila when we left but it was bright and sunny when we arrived in Legaspi (surprisingly on time after ... read more

I loved attending kindergarten because I get to eat free champorado(sweet chocolate rice porridge), adored wearing our pink uniform, take afternoon naps, do fun activities, sleep during lessons and skip classes whenever I want to. The crayons fascinated me most. My parents couldn’t afford luxury so they could only buy me the 8 pieces Crayola set. I would see my classmates owning 16 pcs. or the 24 pcs. set or even more, and I remember looking in jealousy every time they parade their bright, multi-colored crayons. One day I decided that I wanted to have as much and brought home the ones owned by the school. Until now, I still couldn't figure out how my kindergarten teacher found out that it was me who took them (or maybe she didn't, I vaguely remember the complete details). ... read more