DIY Fish Broccoli Casserole

I did say I would try to cook up some chicken and broccoli, right? But instead of using chicken (and frying it again like we always do), I decided to use fish fillet instead. And since I don't have an oven, I put it in the microwave instead because you can cook stuff there too haha. It's pretty easy to make and it turned out quite well, so feel free to try it yourself.

Ingredients
2 slabs fish fillet, cubed
2 bunches broccoli
1 cup mayonnaise
Juice of 1 lemon (can be substituted with calamansi)
2 egg yolks
salt and pepper
2 cups cheese, grated

Procedure
1. Saute fish fillet until it changes color and is around 3/4 cooked while steaming the broccoli until it is likewise, 3/4 cooked.
2. In a bowl, mix 1 cup mayo with lemon juice, 2 egg yolks, and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Put the broccoli at the bottom of the casserole, and the fish on top of it. Pour in the mayo mixture and sprinkle with grated cheese.
4.  Place in the microwave oven and cook for 10 minutes.

Wonder-ful!

(Pardon the title, please. I was watching the Stevie Wonder week episode of Glee last night, and it came to mind right now.)

For an utter lack of better things to do, I am randomly searching my laptop for interesting games or programs or other accessories and whatnots. I stumbled upon this potentially amazing program, Windows Live Writer, on my Windows 8 which will hopefully allow me to post directly from my desktop to this blog. I say hopefully because I have yet to configure it so that it is linked to my account, and actually try it. I guess it's pretty convenient, especially if I can type up blog entries and save them as drafts for the mean time; it would save me from forgetting my light bulb moment ideas without even having to access the internet to draft it here.

Something else that's potentially wonderful is me learning how to drive. I FINALLY got my student's permit after 2 weeks of endless waiting through offlines and errors and power shortages at the LTO Office in Iligan. I got through 5 hours of simulation driving, where you don't do anything but train you feet to step on the pedals, which is more painful and tiring than it sounds, before I was allowed to actually drive. It was hella scary the first time, but I didn't bump into anything or run over a living thing, so it was all good. After another 5 hours of actual driving, I'm done! My uncle let me drive the other day to and from the place we always swim at, and I was able to bring him and my brother home in one piece, so I think I can safely say I know how to drive now. I'm actually pretty stoked about it, even if I don't technically have anything to drive yet. But it's going to come in handy, I'm sure, because it's an important life skill. In fact, it's up there in my list of life skills along with cooking and knowing how to shoot a gun. Also, it gives me all the more reason to want to purchase a car once I'm working.

Anti-Summer Heat = Homemade Choco Shake

I love summer, but I loathe the scorching temperatures. The minute I'm out of the shower or out of the reach of a source of air, I start seeing bullets of sweat on my skin again (it certainly doesn't help that my sweat glands are more hyperactive than others' are). The summer heat has just been extremely uncooperative these days, and it doesn't get any worse than when we have 4 hour rotating brownouts here in our province. So to battle the heat, I made some good old chocolate shake for myself and my brother the other day.

I don't have an exact recipe for it, because I basically just put in a few spoons of Starbucks Cocoa and white sugar, poured milk and water, added a few tiny cubes of ice (I was afraid the blender would break if I put too much) and blended it until it was frothy and sweet. I wanted to top it with whipped cream, but we didn't have any of that, so I had to settle with sprinkling a little bit of coffee on top of my drink instead, just to give it a bit of a cappuccino taste.

So that's the extent of my culinary adventures for now. But I'm going to try and make some chicken casserole I found online. Maybe I can tweak it a bit. :)
 

35 Degrees

I forgot to check back in right when my summer officially started the other Saturday. I was too busy...well, being a bum. I'm not even kidding; everyday except for Sunday, I wake up at 10, eat breakfast, go back to my room and lie in bed, eat lunch, watch some TV if I can even get the antenna to cooperate, read a little while listening to music, and lounge around some more doing nothing in particular.

And guess how I spent my birthday? Yep, asleep with the rest of my family after having a very filling lunch. HAHAHA :) This is probably just me catching up on all the sleep I lost throughout the school year (although technically, that really isn't possible).

But on the bright side, I have indulged myself on fun and productive activities here and there. For instance, I went to the beach with my friends! We went to Hamilo Coast, Pico de Loro Cove in Nasugbu, Batangas. It's a huge, serene place consisting of 13 beautiful coves, Pico de Loro being the largest and the only one that's completely developed - resort, country club, and all. We took a speedboat around and they let us off in one of the other coves where we went semi-snorkeling with some pretty interesting fish. I'd never done this before, so I was really excited to just jump in and start sightseeing under water. The experience was breathtaking! I didn't even have time to feel scared that I was in really deep salty waters which I've never dared wander across because there were freaking neon-colored fish at my feet! After which, we moved on to the white-ish sand beach which was perfectly isolated save for the lifeguard stationed there (it must be a pretty lonely job). When we went to the pool in the country club, we had it all to ourselves as well. I loved the solitude; it made us feel like a bunch of VIPs in a remote island off the coast of Maldives or some exotic place like that.

When I get a better internet connection, I will for sure post some pictures with this blog entry 'cause it isn't enough to just read about how nice a place is, right? :)

Anyway, I'm headed off for a month-long staycation in my province again very early tomorrow morning. While I'm there, I hope I can keep everyone updated, and stick to my be-productive-it's-your-last-real-summer-before-summer-classes plan. If I'm hardworking enough, I might just post some DIY projects I intend to do and recipes I'll try over this summer.

I'm just going to put it out there: this is going to be a great, amazeballs summer!! WOO SUMMER 2013!!!

Counting down to Summer...

I AM LITERALLY TWO DAYS AWAY FROM SUMMER. I. CANNOT. WAIT.
To say that I'm sooo lazy to do anything anymore is an understatement, and I honestly just want to get everything I have to do over and done with. I'm just hanging on, one last push, 'til my freshman year is over (it went by so fast!!) and 'til I can retire to being a professional couch potato for the next few months. Hooray for no summer classes!

Anyway, I've been doing A LOT of writing this past school year and I guess I just wanted to share one of the bajillion papers I've had to conjure for my classes. This one's a critical essay for English class, which I decided to write in satire because 1. it seemed a more effective way of getting the message across, 2. my brain cells couldn't come up with anything smarter and more serious, and 3. I just felt like doing something fun(ny) for my last submission. Again, it's a satire; don't take it too seriously.

[I didn't expect my writing to improve much, or at all, just because I was taking English 101: Advanced Expository Writing and had a writing buddy who was supposed to peer review my works. But in all honesty, I feel like it has, and I'm grateful for it. So, thank you Sir Oca for being great and chill and sensual (just 'cause it's his favorite adjective HAHA) and for letting us develop our skills at our own pace, without the pressure that comes along with being in Advanced English like all the other Merit sections. I am going to miss attending your lectures next year.]

Do You Ride Your Carabaos to School?

A Critique on the Modern Bourgeoisie

Sickening bright fluorescent lights flood my mind even as I keep my eyelids tightly shut. My joints are stiff and my back cracks as I straighten up on this chair that is as hard as bricks. I decide I have been sitting in the library for far too long, trying to do what I was supposed to have been done with hours ago, and I desperately need a break. There is only one place in Ateneo I know I can always count on to provide some much needed rest and relaxation, so I head on over to MVP 207. I get in the elevator just in time and mentally prepare myself for the awkward silence that ensues when a bunch of strangers are stuck in a 2x2 meter box of metal. Once the doors close though, one of the girls starts furiously fanning herself with one hand while talking a mile a minute on her iPhone about something I am all too familiar with:

“Oh my goodness, I cannot believe how unusually hot it is today. I can literally feel the heat seeping through this sheer H&M top and the sunlight glaring through my RayBans. Of course, of all the days my yaya chooses to be inefficient, it's today. She forgot to make baon the bottle of SPF 90 sunscreen with my kikay kit and forgot my umbrella too! She's so engrossed with her stupid teleseryes at night to even pay attention to my needs, because hello, she could have totally watched the news and predicted what the weather today would be like. She's sooo getting a full-on b**ch fit when she fetches me later.”

I look at the girl and sort of feel bad for her, especially when someone at the back starts to snicker. Doesn't he know that a) he is being impossibly rude and impolite, and b) what the girl is going through is a very legitimate crisis, a cause for concern? There is absolutely nothing funny about an inefficient yaya who forgets your essentials at the most inopportune times, but whose salary you never forget to pay on schedule. Not that I can relate to this girl, because I personally don't have my own yaya picking up after my mess and fixing everything from my clothes to my homework, but I had enough rich high school friends who complained about similar situations back then to understand her predicament.

I guess she's the typical Atenean people would refer to as “burgis.” Just listening to her impeccably straight English and looking at how poised she is – handbag at the crook of her elbow, perfectly polished nails – makes it a dead giveaway, really. They are nothing of a rarity, especially here in school, and sometimes when they pass you by in the hallways, they literally make you stop and think why you aren't as posh and classy as they all are. They're the kind of people you look at and admire because they're living such a privileged, high class life, away from all the distractions and hassles of living normally. They are those who have never had to ride the train, or worse, the jeepney, to go places, so they've never gone through the horror of squishing beside a sweaty, old man in a stuffy public vehicle while simultaneously trying to avoid the poor, dirty kid handing out wrinkled envelopes and wiping your feet with an even dirtier washcloth. I guess they're obviously the lucky ones.

I remember learning in Filipino 11 last semester that back then, burgis referred to a totally different concept altogether. It was the “social order dominated by the so-called middle class, connoting a certain hostility or indifference to cultural values and intellectual pursuits, and contentedness with commonplace ideas and tastes. In Marxist theory, the bourgeoisie plays a heroic role by revolutionizing industry and modernizing society. However, it also seeks to monopolize the benefits of this modernization by exploiting the propertyless proletariat and thereby creating revolutionary tensions. The end result, according to Marx, will be a final revolution in which the property of the bourgeoisie is expropriated and class conflict, exploitation, and the state are abolished.” Today, I realize that amidst the modernization, this social construct has taken on a new meaning. Though the 21st century bourgeoisie still retains its air of materialism and its striving concern for respectability, I believe it has also evolved into a class of its own, sitting on a higher – more entitled – pedestal looking down at the rest of society with so much pity and sympathy because really, money can only do so much and there isn't anything else they can do about the poor state others are in aside from feel bad for them.

I get off at the second floor, walk through the hallway, and as soon as I enter the room, I am greeted by a roar of laughter coupled with the increasingly unnerving sound of someone addictively playing 2Fuse on an iPad. I settle into the messy stack of comforters and bean bags in the corner and notice what seems like a copy of the Guidon in one of the pigeonholes beside me. I yank it out and see the seal of the University of Santo Tomas inscribed within letters spelling out “TANGANGLAWIN” instead. At the bottom of the front page, there is an article entitled “Canteen-uh Nagsara, Artenista Nagluksa,” and I have to stifle a snort and my horrible witch laugh because of the absurdity of it all. It was ridiculously naïve and childish of whoever wrote the piece to make fun of how majority of his schoolmates speak. I just don't understand what the big deal is with people being so conyo or at times, elitist. I mean, everyone is entitled to his personal quirks and bragging rights, especially if he really does have a lot to feel superior about. I wonder how that writer would feel if he was put in their position, and was criticized for something he had no control over. It would probably be a repeat of the whole mess with that burgis girl who wrote for the Philippine Daily Inquirer about her first ever jeepney ride through the busy stretch of Katipunan to Ateneo's neighboring college, the University of the Philippines.

Publishing an article on a national broadsheet about the most important life lessons she gained as she rode that jeep was a very bold move, and instead, what did the poor girl get out of it? Definitely not praise and admiration, but parodies, endless snide remarks, and ill wishes for her to get held up the next time she commutes from many of the article's readers. I don't understand how that can be the case when in fact, she had a lot of significant and valid realizations to impart. She genuinely learned a new kind of language from the “seemingly interesting human beings” she was surrounded and felt a sudden connection with. We are given so many opportunities to go out into the real world, immerse ourselves in different cultures, know more, be aware, and experience what life is like for a vast majority of people, and that was the author giving it a shot. Unlike the rest of the bourgeoisie, she should actually be commended for being willing to do something so risky, something that most others would find unthinkable because they're too good and vulnerable to do things normal people do.

Sometimes, I'm so surrounded with burgis friends who stare at me wide-eyed when I tell them that I ride the LRT to and from school everyday, that I cannot possibly imagine a society without them. In fact, I am slowly beginning to be convinced that their social existence is positively beneficial for everyone in the long run. Where exactly would we find ourselves without their excessive self-respect and ambition, their capitalism and detachment from reality? With the 99% of the world's population camping out on various Occupy protests against the wealth due to the rich through their birthright? If you think about it, without them, we would all be on such equal footing, living with no social hierarchies, that it would start to feel like one big communist nation around here.

We need the burgis to employ the less fortunate into their households, bossing them around like it's nobody's business and treating these maids and drivers like personal slaves they can demand anything from, so that these people can have decent jobs and provide for their own families. We need them to be regular customers at boutiques and department stores, flustering and demanding salesladies to get them this and that item in all sizes and colors available. We need them to build and buy more houses than they can possibly need so that contractual construction workers and other blue-collared workers continuously have a job inhaling cement and siphoning their wastes. They are, after all, more financially capable than the rest of us, and since the basis of meritocracy these days is money, the members of the bourgeoisie are generally better and ultimately more entitled to things others can only hope to have easy access to as well (i.e. good education, luxury cars, etc).

Sure, appreciating the role and the importance of the burgis takes a lot of getting used to, but focusing on this has greatly helped me ignore the disparity and the stark difference between the social standing of my friends and I. Eventually, I just came to terms with the fact that the farthest away these people could step out of their comfort zones, in an attempt to live simply not only out of sympathy, but also empathy and solidarity with the less fortunate or the regular working class that make up our population, is to stoop down to my jologs or jeje level. At least they're not apathetic.

I return the Tanganglawin issue to its place, because my short break from schoolwork is over and I realize I have to go back to the library immediately. But just before I manage to step out of the room, I hear a genius asking our self-proclaimed emperor in a genuinely inquisitive and ignorant tone, “Pedro*, did you use to ride your carabaos to go to school?” And everybody doubles over with laughter.

* - real name and identity of this friend is withheld at my own discretion

idk. where have my creative juices gone??

I haven't written anything in this blog for so darn long, and I honestly miss it. There's a different sense of freedom, of liberation, that comes with being able to speak your mind the way you want to (sans grammar Nazis or professors who require you to write argumentatively or with an expository purpose, etc etc). I've missed writing for the sake of expressing, of sharing, of just putting a piece of me out there for no one in particular (maybe just myself, actually) to read.

It's taken me the longest time to do this again, although I don't know why because this is honestly therapeutic if you don't think about the fact that this kind of also counts as talking to yourself or to thin air (aka kinda cray cray). Not that my life hasn't been as eventful as during the summer or the first few months of college, but quite the contrary, and I think school has kept me busy long enough to lose touch with my eagerly-writing-for-leisure self.

In fact, perhaps the only reason I'm actually writing something here now is because I ought to be writing something completely different for English 'Advanced Expository Writing' class. Thing is, I just don't know what to write and argue for in my essay about the “lack of genuine political involvement in Ateneo.” I can't seem to organize my thoughts in such a way that would succinctly describe what I think and how I feel about the school's political organization. (I mean, I want to convey that the blame shouldn't solely be put on the student government's structure or officials, but on the general student population as well, for devolving into constituents who are or who pretend to be so damn indifferent even though they always have something to say about global and local politics or the way things are run in school. It's like they're involved and aware, but not really, because they don't act upon it.) It's so frustrating, I don't how to word this essay properly! And it doesn't help that my writing buddy slash peer reviewer is absolutely amazing and is so good at writing, he makes me feel so unsure of my work every time I have to submit a copy to him for comments and approval (often even more so than when I only have to give it to my professor). I mean, for crying out loud, he can make a solid, cold, heart-shaped piece of gray boring rock sound so profound and significant, so next to him I have zero writing potential, or for the sake of my pride and dignity, I give myself 0.00074804 writing prowess points.

Enough babble, I should get my head back into serious writing. It's barely two months until it's summer again, so 'til then, I'll have to bury my nose in my books, finish writing these somewhat uninspired essays, keep myself out of trouble, and pull myself through my first year of college. No biggie. ;)

For Starters...

I did say I was going to catch up on my music discoveries, so here's for starters. I actually found these during the semester, and they've kept me good, well-needed company on my all-nighters. Great stuff to listen to while writing papers, if you ask me.

Gabrielle Aplin - Please Don't Say You Love Me

Carly Rae Jepsen & Justin Bieber - Beautiful

The Strokes - Under Cover of Darkness

IT'S SEMBREAK, BABY!!!

Sweet, sweet sembreak! After almost five months of slaving away in my first semester of college, I am finally freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Today was the first day of my three-week long semestral break, and boy, did I accomplish what I set out to do: catch up on sleep. And I mean lots and lots of it. :) Although technically, I know people can never make up for lost sleep, I still tried anyway, and it felt so darn good to just laze around knowing I didn't have anything to cram or write or read.

There are some things I need and plan to do over the break though. My Project Sembreak 2012 consists mainly of planning important events for next semester, enlisting for 2nd sem classes, picking my brother up from school everyday (and maybe dropping by my school as well), hanging out with my high school friends, writing and sending out letters to my friends studying abroad, watching movies and TV, and discovering more music.

Here's to a memorable, productive first college sembreak spent wisely!

I'm Still Here!

Well, hello there. Yes, I'm still here; I'm alive and kickin' and still taking the Ateneo by storm.

I know I haven't written anything in here for probably more than a month now, but that's only because I've been pretty swamped with schoolwork and life. Between oral presentations, papers, meetings, and a semi-barely-there social life, I haven't really been able to find the time to just sit down...start writing...and let my thoughts flow. Today's no exception, actually, and I'm supposed to be writing an extra credit paper for Environmental Science, but I have a six-hour break anyway, so I'm taking my time. :)

I also went under the radar because I kind of had some unwanted visitors... :( I mean, don't get me wrong, I appreciate my page being viewed and read by completely unknown people because that was my goal in the first place - to be able to identify with others through my blog posts - but just please not in a predatory way. I have big personal issues with that, unfortunately. So now my blog is exclusively for other bloggers to read, but that pretty much equates to all of my two loyal followers and myself...so this is just like me talking to myself through writing. I'm so weird sometimes HAHA.

For a moment I thought about giving up this blog altogether and deleting everything in it because I felt that my privacy and security was invaded/violated. But hey, I'm still here, and I have my English 12 project to thank for that. For my final paper, I am to write 11-12 pages of creative nonfiction...on what? Well, myself.

Yes, MYSELF. I am talking autobiographical-hello-world-this-is-my-life text here.
And I have no idea what to write in it; I don't know where to start, which parts of my life to focus on... I don't even think my life is worth writing (much less reading!) about as of now.

But my professor requires us to undertake such tedious processes of self-awareness and self-celebration, so I don't really have a choice. He says we should take a tickler with us everywhere so that in the event we recall something relevant and noteworthy about our life, we will be able to write it down. He says we can and should be as creative as we can in portraying our lives. He says there is something really significant and notable and poignant in each of our young lives. You know what I think? I think we should just be able to participate - to actively live out our lives and be part of the goings-on and not just a bystander watching what everyone else is doing and enjoying. (Yes, if you were wondering, I'm currently reading and loving Perks of Being A Wallflower.) I think that simply being able to do so is enough.

SURVIVOR

Just a quick (super hyper) post: OH MY GOODNESS I FREAKING SURVIVED MY MATH MIDTERMS!!!! I can now rest peacefully and enjoy my semi-long weekend. :)

At least before I have to start studying for my Environmental Science long test and Literature midterms again. Ohwell....

Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major

Just taking a little breather from my research proposal, which is due tomorrow, but I'm only halfway done with. Well, three-fourths, maybe. But then again, I left the bloodiest parts out for last, so that I could do them in the quieter hours of the night. Strangely enough, I am trying to listen actually listening to classical, Mozart-y music, desperately trying to get my IQ level to go up even just a little. Just enough for me to survive this research paper, the Math long test on Thursday, and the Math midterms on Friday. Which isn't asking much, really.

Well, there's nothing I can really talk about right now that won't sound like I'm spilling s*&% out of my brain... so instead, here's a little inspirational thing I stumbled upon. It was written by my fourth year math teacher specifically for us, her little math nerd of a class. It's nostalgia and inspiration at its best:

My Dearest Math Geniuses, 

If there is one thought I had at the end of our regular meetings (I know I wasn't there, forgive me --- for the nth time), it was, time does fly whenever one is having fun. At the beginning of the year, I did not expect I would be thinking something along those lines. After all, I have always claimed that H4 Math would not be easy, but you would learn. 

The goal has always been to impart something to all of you. So it was a very pleasant surprise to find myself looking forward to our meetings. I mean, I look forward to each meeting because it's a chance to share wonderful math concepts, but because each of you contributed so much into making sure that you learned something everyday, and each of you went out of your way to produce interesting solutions and generalizations.  

Add to that your infinite patience in enduring my math nerd tendencies and "interesting" examples (not to mention quizzes), and I was truly enamored by your class.
Galileo Galilei once said, "The universe cannot be read until we have learnt the language and become familiar with the characters in which it is written. It is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word. With them, one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth." 

When Galileo wrote these words ages ago, they were particularly about geometry, but I think that he was able to touch what mathematics is all about. Mathematics is a tool used to solve problems. Sometimes the problems are direct, like the ones we've discussed in class about functions, or volume problems, et cetera. Sometimes, however, it is the skills or practices we have learned in mathematics that helps us solve problems --- thinking logically, exhausting all means to solve something, spotting errors and the like.  

I might have always been going about telling you how wonderful math is, and how interesting the patterns we see in mathematics are, but at the end of the school year, it is my fervent hope that I have, at the very least, imparted ways in which you can be better thinkers and problem solvers.  

Our world needs people who go out there and try to solve problems; it is my firm belief that no matter where your passion lies, you can be good thinkers and great problem solvers.
You all are talented, that much I am sure of. Your path may not be leaning towards the wonderful world of mathematics (hahaha!), but I know that you each have the capability to go out there and contribute in solving our world's problems. That may not happen in the near future, but it is my belief that you will each change the world for the better.  

Know that each one of you is in my prayers. I wish you all joy wherever life leads you, perseverance for whatever challenges you might face, and the courage to excel in whatever mathematics course you may encounter in college. ;) Never forget that your brains are the best things you can offer to the world, and that it would be a wonderful thing to share what you have (intellectually or otherwise) to those around you.  

I shall miss you all, and I shall always remain your nerdy math teacher.

Indulgence ♥

I miss these guys so much! :) Don't judge, but I absolutely love Nick Jonas ohmygoodness. ♥♥♥ (I literally can't stop smiling/spazzing right now eeeeeeeee) Allow me to indulge in a little nostalgia and fangirling for just a moment, please. 

So here are my favorite, never-gets-old Jonas Brothers tracks: Fly With Me and When You Look Me in the Eyes. Enjoy!

Rainy Day Playlist

I can't let this day pass without sharing my love for alternative, "chill", bed weather songs. I don't really have a word to describe my kind of music, so it'd be best if you just listen and get swept away by the amazing melodies and lyrics. Perfect sound for this weather. :)

   1. The Paper Kites - Featherstone

2. The Paper Kites - Bloom

3. Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson - Winter Song

4. Daughter - Youth

rain, rain go awayyy...

I wish it were that easy - that I only needed to sing a simple, kiddy song - to make the rains stop. Normally, I would be jumping up and down at the first few signs of strong rains because for me (and I suppose I speak for the rest of my fellow students as well), this meant the suspension of classes. Now that I'm in college, classes don't get suspended unless the storm signal is at 3, thus the common logic: the stronger the rains and winds, the better.

But it's a whole different story right now. It's been raining really hard for around 4 straight days; so many places are flooded, leaving families stranded on their roofs or in evacuation centers, and they don't look like they're about to subside anytime soon; people are stuck indoors, and although some are safe from the floods, they're running low on food. All these because of monsoon rains. No storm whatsoever, just freaking monsoon rains. :(

So I thought I'd spread some important information as my way of helping out, since I can't go out and help with relief operations currently ongoing in my university.

Emergency Numbers:


Philippine Red Cross hotline - 143, (02)911-1876; HQ - 527-0856

National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) - (02) 911-1406/ 912-2665/ 9125668

National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) - (02) 911-1406/ 911-1873/ 911-1906

Meralco - 16211/ 16220/ 09175592824/ 09209292824

Manila Water - 1627
Maynilad - 1626

For rubber boat/4x4 truck requests - National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) - (02) 8383203/8383354
For rescue dump trucks, text - 09174226800/09276751981
Philippine National Police (PNP) Hotline Patrol - 117 or send TXT PNP to 2920
Bureau of Fire Protection (NCR) - (02) 729-5166, 410-6254, 431-8859, 407-1230
Philippine Coast Guard - (02) 527-3877, (02) 527-8481, 0917-724-3682, 0917-PCG-DOTC

Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) - 136
Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) hotline - 7890 or 0918-8848484
Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) - (02) 304-3713

North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) hotlines - (02) 3-5000 and (02) 580-8910
Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) hotlines - 0920-96-SCTEX (72839)
Skyway System Hotline - (02) 776-7777, 0915-6256231, 0939-5006910
South Luzon Expressway (SLEx) hotline - 0908-8807539

Quezon City Rescue - (02) 927-5914
Quezon City General Hospital - (02) 920-5002
Marikina Rescue - (02) 646-2436
Pasig Rescue - (02) 631-0099
Taguig Emergency Hotline - 1623
Manila Traffic Hotline – (02) 527-3087
Cainta Traffic Hotline – (02) 646-0044, 655-7368 loc. 164
Las Piñas Traffic – (02) 874-5756, 874-3957, 874-3927
Mandaluyong Hotline – 534-2993
Taguig Traffic – (02) 838-4301 loc. 7112
Marikina STOC – (02) 646-1651
Pasig Traffic – (02) 643-0000, 724-5813
Makati Public Safety Dept – (02) 844-3146, 819-3270

Ateneo DReaM Team Operations are at the Loyola Schools Covered Courts. Please DONATE!

Or check out: http://mylittleways.com/typhoons/info-relief-ops-how-to-help/ for more information on how to assist in relief operations nearest you.

Keep safe and dry, everyone. Pray for everyone affected by these rains. Stay strong, Philippines.

Snow Patrol - New York

I'm stopping myself from saying so much sappy stuff about this song. So now all I can say is that I love how haunting this song is, and that the world needs more beautiful lyrics like these. I wish I could also say that I'm excited to see Snow Patrol perform live in Manila.

Oh, New York... :(

Shooting Rainbows

When you study sooo hard for a test in your worst subject until it feels like your brain can't take in any more information, then finishing the test with time to review your answers and still more time to spare, then finally getting your corrected paper back the next day and screaming for utter happiness at the 97 you got (and never ever got in high school). Best. Feeling. Ever.

Working out for your Physical Fitness class and sweating out about a gallon of water (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but it sure felt that way) after doing 10 rounds of grueling circuits in 20 minutes, then heading over to the Cafe Azul and sharing a large (although accidental) chocolate parfait with your best friend even if it takes so much effort to lift your spoon to your mouth 'cause your arms hurt too much. Greaaaat feeling.

Basking in the coldness of the library and abusing the fast internet connection (which I paid for in my tuition anyway) while listening to good, chill, newly discovered, my brand music. Feels so good.

Ahh, life is good. Even if it hasn't been completely so, I just felt like spreading some happiness and putting out there how much I appreciate the things around me. :)

WOAH workload

It's the fourth (?) week of college, and I'm already down with cough and colds and sleeping as late as 4 am. If you haven't already noticed, I've been quiet for the past few weeks. I haven't written a thing in forever 'cause college is sucking the life out of me! I'm probably even writing this now half asleep.

College is fun and all, with loads of free time during breaks and a whole lot more freedom than what I am used to. The only problem seems to be that, while it's chill in the campus during school hours, it is quite frankly the exact opposite once you go home and realize all the work that has to be done for the next few days. Take what I'm doing (or supposed to be doing, at least) right now: a 20-25 source preliminary bibliography with at least 10 annotations for a research proposal we're making for English 12. Of course it doesn't help that all my other classmates in this subject are mindblowingly smart and deep (and most probably not procrastinating on said project like I am). They all have American accents too, for crying out loud!

But while the college load has caught up on me and my weird sleeping habits, I've found that my complaints from the previous week have somewhat gone away. Not completely, but close enough. I've been laughing freely and crazily in the company of my few, but amazingly good friends, who are convinced that my laugh is utterly weird (surprise, surprise; never gets old). I've had really decent conversations with them, and I can't stress enough how really glad I am for the diversity I find in college. It's refreshing, and to say the least, very interesting. I get so much insights and opinions everyday to last me until the academic year ends (this is what I get for surrounding myself with debaters. Side note: I...don't really consider myself one anymore.)

Now, I look forward to days spent in school, especially since I've started joining organizations already. I have three orgs at the moment, which, hopefully, will not take too much of my time. And I'm a Junior Officer in one of them (Ateneo Project for Asian and International Relations), yay! :) I'm a freshie with a title; how cool is that? HAHA I am suuuuch an org junkie.

Feeling a little...homesick

No, I am not in a foreign country yet. I'm still in Manila, in Ateneo, but not in ICA.

Forgive the nostalgic and sentimental content that this blog entry might will contain; I just can't help but feel "homesick". What with all these people around me saying how much they miss our class (Fidelity), our CAT group, and everything else ICA-related that they otherwise thought they had left behind for good...

I don't think there are words to describe how different it is in college now. Sure, I'm happy, I feel quite free and independent, and I've made a lot of new friends...but somehow, when I find myself staring blankly into space during a group conversation, I feel the loneliness, the sheer difference of the company I'm with. The separation anxiety, if you may. Maybe it's because I haven't quite settled into college just yet (I mean, what's two weeks compared to three or four years, right?). Maybe not.

I miss laughing like there's no tomorrow. I haven't laughed my signature "witch" laugh in college yet, because nobody has the same crazy sense of humor I do. I miss acting crazy and completely weird, without fear of judgement. I don't think I can do that with my blockmates yet; I'm afraid they'll think I really am nuts. I miss singing aloud to no one in particular. I miss hugging all my friends as if we haven't seen each other in a looong time. I miss hanging out in the Fidelity classroom or in the DM and doing nothing...nothing productive. I miss eating recess and lunch with my friends. I miss walking along the corridors and the HSCC feeling like you own it. I miss talking to our manongs and manangs and the ever-friendly guards. I miss the garden in Gate 5 that doesn't have much grass. Heck, I even miss the cats that love climbing up the garbage cans and scaring the living wits out of me when I come near.

I just miss everything. :( And I sincerely wish hope that if I give it time, Ateneo will grow on me too.

"Who's your block crush?"

I'm just gonna put it out there and say that I really hate despise this question.

Ever since I started college, and  started hanging out with my block, this seems to be the never-gets-old conversation starter. I mean, I don't get it. It seems so imposing and pushy to force someone to answer the question and choose a blockmate he or she's "crushing" on for the sake of small talk. I mean, really? Has conversation been so scarce and difficult that this kind of thing is necessary?

I'm not anti-social or anything of the sort, quite the opposite actually, but it just unnerves me that this has to be asked over and over and over again. Isn't it suffice to say once that you don't take a particular liking to anyone in your block? It gets tiring...and....weird to have someone ask you if you like this and that person. One by one.

Okay, hahaha. I feel better now that I've let this one out. I guess I'll get used to it sooner or later, but if I hear this question in the next few days, I will...bite someone's head off.

Yo, frosh.

Say hello to Block II, the one and only AB-MA Political Science/ AB-MPM class in town! :) Haha.

Pretty awesome bunch of people right here who have made my first few days of college completely amazing. (Well, technically, I've only been in college for a day, but it feels wayy longer than that.) I was supposed to wait until the end of the week to write about my experiences on being a freshie in the Ateneo, but I couldn't wait any longer. Either I'm a) too bored at home right now, b) too dang talkative, or c) too excited, but whichever it is, I'm blogging about this...right now.

So, on my first day as a college freshman, I got to attend my Math 11, English 12 (Merit), and Literature 13 classes. I have to say, I was pretty hesitant to go into Math first thing in the morning, but I'm still glad I did. My professor wasn't so bad, but he seems really young and does not want to be called 'Sir', which is a really foreign and bizarre concept to me. So...Allen geez, so informal I can't do it. Sir Allen goes ahead and starts a freaking lesson on what must have been the fifth minute he was in class! Good thing it was on radicals and exponents only, so my wee little brain could still handle it...which hopefully, will be true for the next few lessons/reviews for the diagnostic exam (to determine whether or not some of us will be demoted to Basic Math for first sem).

I had a three hour break after that, and I did nothing but walk and walk, eat and eat, and chill and talk. Some three hours that was. The highlight would probably be my waffle discovery, oozing with whipped cream. YES, WHIPPED FATTENING CREAM!! :) Then I burned all those calories walking to my next building in the scorching "post-summer" heat. And I got to English and Lit class, which, by far, are the two most favorite subjects I have right now. I love my professor!! He's gay, and American-liberal, and amazingly smart (Brown University for MA and PhD, girlies), and sooooo overall cool (as long as you don't piss him off, I hear). I cannot wait for his classes to start for real because I can already tell it's going to be fun. And challenging, maybe. But fun!!
Of course, it's a plus that the cutest guy ever is just a few meters away from me. Hihi.