Daytripper~

December 28th marked a day of true spontaneity! (^o^)/

Well, I'd barely been out of the house anyway, so i'm glad my mom allowed me to visit my friend Jamie's house. She'd invited me to come over and check out a game, Dragon Age: Origins. It was my first time going there, and i'm glad we were able to drag our friend Gus into it. We took the train, and i spotted this interesting advertisement for KFC. (o_o)

It may not be eye level, but i guess it gets some people's attention by their being forced to grab onto them as the train goes. Pretty good way to take advantage of the market of train commuters. (>_<) May as well keep this in mind during my classes.

It was a pretty amusing time at Jamie's house, playing Dragon Age for the first time and actually pondering getting it for myself. well, needless to say, i'm pretty interested in the game, even though admittedly, i suck at most games. (>o<) I'll have to get through it, first.

On the way back, I spotted a takoyaki stand at the station. (^o^)/ I know that whatever it is that we've got here for takoyaki probably isn't too true to the real one, but this is all i've got. LOL. I make it a point to try every single takoyaki stand i come across, since it's very rare that i come across one.

it was pretty good, actually, the takoyaki stand at V. Mapa station. (^^) They also had an interesting variant, a beef takoyaki, but it wasn't available at the time. (>o<)

Though to be honest, i still can't find the stand where i had my first taste of takoyaki. It was really, really good--and from what i remember, it had ketchup and wasabi mayo for sauce, and nori powder. It was a very interesting taste and i don't think I'll forget it anytime soon. (^^) It once set up shop in Miriam during one of those random bazaars a couple of years back, but i never found it again. This feels like such an impossible quest. (>o<)

I'm craving for Japanese food now. waaah! Perhaps i will make some onigiri tomorrow.

Ah, and it's New Year's Eve! Some of the fireworks have already gone off here (^^) but it'll be a big celebration much much later!

Food~

Fireworks~

Have a happy new year, yeah? (^^)

Reunion Aftermath

The parties are over! I am recovering from the Christmas aftermath. (>o<)

My Christmas day was spent among relatives from a certain side of the family, at our annual Christmas reunion. Most of the time my generation takes the chance to put on a bit of a show, after which we get money and gifts as rewards. This year i played the violin for them for the first time, earning me a lot of awed expressions. (>_<)

Considering that i learned these Christmas carols only by ear and practiced for only two days before Christmas, I'd say I did pretty well. I've only had 4 violin lessons my whole life and that wasn't enough to learn the finer points of playing. in addition, I haven't picked up the instrument in a while. (^^;)

Christmas eve, on the other hand, is normally spent with yet another side of the family. we went to a cousin's house for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner, where we had an unusual combination of food. Sure, we had creamy seafood pasta, roast pork and mashed potatoes (normal), but it kind of got weird when the tuna sashimi came out. (O_o) I certainly raised an eyebrow to that. My mother and i posed next to their Christmas tree later on--if you'll notice, it's decorated with a LOT of stuffed bears. (^^)

I was still tired from my reunion with my friends, so i kind of conked out sometime after dinner. thankfully my auntie allowed me to stay in a quiet room to rest. I woke up after gifts had been distributed--and i discovered a box of Earl Grey tea among some of our spoils. (^o^)/

slightly less pleasing was the pair of M&M patterned boxers that somehow made its way into my pile of gifts. No matter--they are comfortable for sleepwear or house clothes, albeit embarrassing. (^^;)

It always feels nice to lie down after a tiring day. I'm glad the holidays are over--I can finally have a good night of uninterrupted sleep! That is, unless my brain decides to creep me out with a weird dream. (>_<)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE! I hope your Christmases have been as fulfilling as mine. (^o^)/

CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!

December 23rd marked our usual "Seigaku Reunion", our Christmas party. It got slightly sentimental as One of us pointed out that it would be our last Christmas party. (>o<)/

I actually wanted to protest. Just because all of them were going to graduate (Except me, since i transferred) didn't mean we'd have to stop the tradition of seeing each other on Christmas (^^;) What's the point of being friends then? (>_<) I felt slightly bad about that notion.

Took this photo with my camera just before we started eating and all. (^^) I'm glad i got to play the Fuji one more time this year, and I'm hoping to keep my role as the Fuji for years to come. Sometimes i wonder how we'll ever outgrow and live our "roles"?

Well, the evening progressed with karaoke singing (We even sang the Ghost Fighter theme song in Japanese), eating pizza (of course), and like every reunion --DRINKING.

I'm not much of a drinker--in fact i only had, what, three shots? But i think it was all good nonetheless, everyone stayed in a happy drift for a while. (^^;)

I think I'll spare everyone any details of actual drunkenness. (>o>)


Last shot at the end of the day, before taking Ochibi home.

Again, MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!

Some missed events, haha (^^;)

The other day, We finally made it to Shangrila, where our friend Maita has kind of been pressuring us to go, and here was why--they'd just opened up a new CEREALICIOUS cafe!! Its all colorful and right next to the carousel, you can't really miss it...plus it's right next to California Pizza Kitchen. (^^)

The place is awesome, honestly. I'd actually recommend some of their sweet stuff for dessert (^^) Their different combinations of cereal are named after popular movies, a theme i really liked. My favorite is their "Pirates of the Cadbury-ean" bowl, which has Koko Crunch Duo, Cadbury zip, and Oreo cookies. I am in heaven.

Yesterday, however, was a day of chaos in the household--and this was the result. (>o<)

I slipped on a pillow and crashed my knee against a box corner, which basically carved out a huge chunk of my skin. (>_<) It bled like mad. Thankfully it stopped bleeding after a couple of hours--i can only hope that it clotted properly. :/

On a random note, i tried to make a little Christmas tree on the Bulletin Board in front of the Theology Department. this was a couple of days before vacation started.

Evil!Martin says I should have left a note on it that read, "To Father Dacanay". LOL.

Anyway, this afternoon I have a party with my "Seigaku" group. I can't wait to see them again!!

OCHIBI! I AM STILL WAITING FOR YOU!

Tennis~!

So, today I *attempted* to play tennis.

Again. (>_<)

After a long period (again) of not playing. (^^;) Kae invited me to try out the tennis court in Marquinton.

Problems that we didn't anticipate, though: the net wasn't secure, and a basketball hoop (WTF?) was consuming nearly one side of the tennis court. I take it that the court is barely used at all. (^^;)

Nonetheless, we tried. (^^;)

tried being the key word (^^;;)

No, really, i tried to stretch. and this is the only way i can touch my toes. LOL.

(...Stop laughing at my shirt okai >_<)

We ended up hitting tennis balls against the wall, and this was the result:

This happened THREE times. (^^;)

And the first time (the above picture) the ball was caught so deep in the chain links that we had to ask a guard to use a stick and prod it out. we couldn't reach it as the wall was twice our height.

The other two times, the ball wasn't caught so deep, but it was still stuck. Enter my genius plan:

Yes, it is a Haro. In my bag. Don't ask me--he wanted to see the tennis court. (>_<)

You guessed it.

...I used the Haro with my tennis racket in order to get the chain link fence to release my tennis ball. (^^;)

And it worked, mind you.

Yay for Haro~!! He saved my tennis balls (^o^)/

tiring~

EDIT: I can't believe I posted PAST MIDNIGHT. *adds date here for clarification*

December 5, 2009:

So, today my groupmates and I went to Trinoma so we could take a look at events going on there and criticize them. discreetly, of course. (^^;)

We chose to focus on Cartoon Network's "Who's Under the Snow" Christmas event (kinda lame, i know, but we kinda didn't have a choice), so we watched it happen from the second floor of the mall. admittedly, we had quite a lot to say about it, so i guess we did our job. (^^;)

Raizza and I stayed behind to take a spin around Trinoma looking for possible gift items (I did need to browse as well), and when we got back to Katipunan, we ran into groupmates again at Mcdonald's. LOL. (>o<)/

So in the end, it was almost as though we were stuck with each other, HAHA.

Well, considering that my mom's friend was gonna treat us to dinner, my mom dragged me off to Eastwood, where we had dinner at a place called Uncle Cheffy's. I got turned off by the lack of variety on the menu though, even if the food we got was pretty good.(^^)

Took random pictures by this giant football... (>o<)

And near this display about the Eastwood Walk of Fame. I feel like a star under this sign. (^^)

I also had to run around after my auntie's nephew--he's so adorable! (^o^)

and really smart too--this kid is like 4 years old and can communicate pretty well! He's also strangely observant. I'm so amused. He's a tiring little thing to watch though--he keeps running around looking at stuff, and won't stop asking questions either. Inquisitive child is inquisitive. We just had to take this photo under the big Christmas tree. (^^)

in the end i learned two things--don't eat directly before someone promises to treat you dinner, and second: WEAR COMFORTABLE SHOES IF YOU'RE GONNA BE RUNNING AFTER KIDS. (T_T)

I'm so tired--i guess i really do have to conk out now. baibai! (^o^)

LOL~

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIOU MASAHARU!

It's the first time I've actually celebrated your birthday! (^^) If only i was able to have yakiniku today, LOL. Gomen, gomen! (^^;) I forgot to bring candles to school today, so I couldn't even buy a cupcake...boo...

I promise i will make a drawing dedicated to you! (>o<)/

Well, today was an amusing day spent with some friends criticizing the Hollywood version of AVATAR, and of course, criticizing New Moon and the rest of its franchise. Its shocking what some fans will do. we went through a list online and the events are just...ugh. (>_<)

Still, at the end of the day, I went out with some other groupmates to Mcdonald's (^o^)/

Took some random shots with Raizza--

We're going out tomorrow for a group project--we have an event to attend and criticize (lol, today is full of criticism) for our Events Management class. Well, it's also an excuse to go out and have fun, so I hope i get some good photographs from tomorrow. Till then, see you!

Hectic?

24 days before Christmas!! (^o^)

So today i was late for Philosophy class, but well. I tried to get the gist anyway. At least i have the book and can read and review. Its weird, still trying to settle in after several weeks of school already. (>_<)

This was today's dessert--it's a taiyaki! Well, kind of. There's bean paste and ice cream inside! Well, for me it was nothing THAT spectacular though. taste-wise, it was average. (>_<) I would rather have gotten some other ice cream from that Korean place. But people are raving about it, so i tried it for the first time today. (._.)

Today's epic purchase that my mom would probably kill me for--I finally got myself a copy of The Art of War by Sun Tsu! (^^) There was a used book sale at the Dela Costa Hall today, so i checked it out--darn my weakness for books! (>o<)/

(And also, darn Sanada for being so traditional--he was the reason behind this purchase and my copy of the Confucian Analects as well. gah!)

It's a really nice copy too, hardcover, with a ribbon bookmark, and a nice jacket cover. plus the pages...they look as though they were rough-cut. it's a really interesting effect. it cost me 300, but...(>_<) IT'S A CLASSIC OKAY (>o<) !!!

Thankfully i was able to submit the portions of a group paper that i was part of, though i'll be honest, i feel like i barely did anything (T_T) I promise i will read the material better now that I have it, and i will study before coming to class. (>_<) and that i will do all my homework. and stuff. and uh. idk. (>_<)

GANBATTEEEEEEEEEEE~ (/dies lol)