TATAK BIO

So, I decided to run for the home org/student council type of thing for my course here in college, Biology. Apparently, their original candidate dropped out and my friend Tisha (who is also running) asked me if I wanted to run. As someone who was active in extra-curricular activities in high school, I immediately jumped on the chance to be active again. I can't even express how much I've missed extra-curricular activities this year. I also found this as an opportunity to widen my circle of friends and break out of my shyness shell as a freshman.

So for three days, we spent our breaks (and sometimes during our own classes) to campaign to the different bio blocks that are eligible to vote. I honestly felt good with my speech, but I was more confident about it after I added the 'tweeting' part. I'm honestly still scared about the elections on wednesday, even though I'm running unopposed. I think running unopposed is riskier than running against an opponent. Think of it this way. Let's say there are 1000 voters. If I ran against an opponent, an it ended up 200 for me, 199 for my opponent, and the rest abstained, I'd still be the winner. If I ran unopposed, I would need 501 votes for me to be considered the winner. No less.

So, if there's anyone from UST Bio here reading this, I hope you guys vote me and my party :)

TATAK-BIO: Tapat, Totoo, at Aktibong Kabataan ng Bio!

Service for All, kay CHINO ROBENIOL

BIO will go far, with ABBY ESCOBAR

JANE GALAMITON dahil sa serbisyong on na on, siguradong ikay' matuturn on

Kay JONA VASQUEZ, serbisyo'y at it's finest

Dahil kay TISHA, IN ka

Kay KRISTINE, walang pondong mabibiTIN. Level up!

You're gonna like, like a VIRGIL, running for the very first time

CASSANDRA DELA VEGA, ang inyong CASSama, CASSanga, at CASSandalan sa kwentahan

MELO MELO MELO MELO, ang inyong INTERNAL PRO

Hatid ni HO HO HO, information on the GO!

Always ready ang serbisyo, basta kay IVY BULESCO

Serbisyong walang palya, basta't kay ANGEL ESTELLA

DARLS ALOYA, ang DARLEN ng buhay niyo

Dito ka na sa BIBO, AKTIBO, TAPAT, At KARAPAT DAPAT

Keep Dreaming.

Subic Bay Venezia Hotel

Happy 2013 everybody!

So last week, my family and I decided to go to Subic for some R and R, and we decided to check in at the Venezia. So... I decided to make a short review about our stay at the hotel :)

Masks 1

Masks 2

Okay, so when I walked it, the first thing I noticed was the wall of masks. Well, it wasn't just a single wall. It was a whole baffle of masks, extending up to the near bedroom area. I personally loved the whole mask theme that the hotel had, because it reminded me of the old school carnivale that I used to hear about in Italy (Venezia, better known as Venice, is in Italy). 

On the first floor (I think there are only 3 floors), if you look forward, you'll see the front desk. To your right, you'd see a small waiting lounge, as well as a mini-bar. I don't know if they serve drinks, but I do know they serve dessert. Since it was Christmas time, they had a small faux fireplace near the lounge area where a lot of guests had their picture taken. 

Fireplace

Lounge

Beyond the lounge was their partner restaurant, The New Feng Huang Restaurant. As you can tell by the name, it's a chinese restaurant. We only at there for breakfast because we were out for most of the day. During our 3 day-2 night trip, I had their Bangus and Bacon with egg combos respectively. In my opinion, the Bangus was alright (I still prefer the Bangus dish we prepare at home). The Bacon and Eggs dish, however, was actually pretty good. I don't mind it if my bacon is soft or crispy (Bacon is Bacon). The bacon was the right mix of soft and crispy, and together with the eggs and sinangag, it made the perfect breakfast.

The New Feng Huang Restaurant

On the left side of the first floor was a mini store. I'm not sure exactly what they sold, all I know is they were selling a bunch of foreign alcohol. If you go forward, you'd encounter the first set of bedrooms, as well as a stairway leading to the upper floors. Our room was actually kinda nice. I loved the whole, old school, victorian feel that our room had. One concern though, for me, was the bathroom.

First of, there's no divider between them, except that the bathroom is a little more elevated. And it's not even a room. Like when you get to the platform, to your right is the toilet and to the left is the shower, with a vanity mirror/sink in the middle (thank God at least the toilet had a door). Next, the shower door would not lock. As in it wouldn't even close, there'd be a small space where the door would be open. The shower, I don't if this is true for all rooms, has a bipolarity problem. Once you find the perfect temperature, the shower would tip over. Like from your desired temperature, it would become scorching hot, then it would become freezing cold.

Another comment I had was the air conditioning. It's one of those hotels with centralized air conditioning, so there really wasn't anything we could do to control the temperature. We felt that their coldest temperature wasn't really that cold. I mean, sure if you put your hand infront of the aircon, you'd feel a little bit cold. However, in general, the temperature was pretty normal. Though I guess this could also be a positive thing since I usually get cold as well.

Overall, I enjoyed my stay. I think my favorite part of the hotel was the free wifi that it offered, since it allowed me to keep in touch with all my friends back in Manila. I'd say that Subic Bay Venezia Hotel was worth going to. I also enjoyed how friendly and hospitable the staff were to its guests. Each time we'd encounter one of the employees, they'd always to stop to acknowledge us, and even greet us good morning/evening when they saw us.

The revolving Christmas tree outside the main entrance

The casino outside the main entrance

The roof over the driveway infront of the main entrance

Rating: 4/5

Keep Dreaming.

Happy Holidays 2012

Throwback

Luke 2:8-14

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Keep Dreaming.

Paskuhan 2012

So last night, I experienced my first EVER Paskuhan! It was so fun, you can't even imagine. I'm glad that my best friend Louis was able to convince me to go! Lemme narrate how my day went :)

So yesterday, I had to take a taxi from QC going to UST because my dad was using the driver. I left the house at around 12 noon because I supposedly had a 2 o'clock Biology class. Turns out my professor decided to bail on us, as well as the rest of the block, so there was a little less than 10 of us waiting in one of the classrooms (because another block used our classroom for their christmas party). So while waiting, we decided to become artists and drew little, chibi-like drawings of everyone in our block on the board :)

At around 3, we left the main building and went to the car park to get something to eat. While they went to Ate Eva's, I asked Louis to come with me to the bathroom, afterwhich I bought samkak. We rejoined with my blockmates at Ate Eva's.

After eating our merienda, we went over to Plaza Mayor and decided to chill on one of the benches there. Soon after, I accompanied Louis back to his dorm where he left his backpack. We came back just in time to see the parade. This year's theme was Disney. I already got a hint about what the theme would be from the music that was playing all over campus. The floats were okay, I don't know, maybe because I'm just used to the Disney floats you see in Disneyland, but everyone who worked on them did a great job.

After the parade, the block and I went over to the field to secure a spot for the night's concert. Initially, we ended up sitting on the grass, using umbrellas to protect us from the heat of the sun. Luckily, Zhey and some of my other blockmates left to go buy some Manila paper that we used as a banig to sit on. As the sun set and the concert started, I found myself a little bit out of place, only because I am not familiar with OPM bands, and because some of the college bands were very painful to my ears.

The main event that I was waiting for were the Fireworks. When it finally came, Kuya Ron and I were separated from the block because I asked him to come with me to buy food with me. I had heard that the fireworks were going to go off at 10, but looks like they decided to set them off an hour earlier. It was okay because I still had a great view of the show. I can honestly say that I enjoyed the fireworks because it was my first time to attend Paskuhan.

I'm so glad I decided to go to Paskuhan and spend some time with my blockmates :)

Some tips I would give for future Paskuhans

• Bring something to sit on for the field (Banig, Manila Paper, newspapers etc)
• Bring food as well because if you sit in the field, you're gonna have a bad time walking all the way to the back just to buy food
• Meet up with friends/blockmates before Paskuhan starts. Cellphone signal is impossible inside UST during Paskuhan
• Take care of your belongings. With all the outsiders that come in, it's hard to find lost items.

Keep Dreaming.

A day in my life (12.07.12)

I'm not doing much tonight so I thought I'd share how my day went.

So since today was Game 3 of the Finals for the PCCL, my school (The University of Santo Tomas) decided to declare it yellow day (which means that instead of coming to school in our normal uniforms, we come in casual attire, but the catch is that our top needs to be yellow).

Anyway, I had to go to school earlier than usual. My classes start at 12 on MWF, so I usually leave the house so I get there around 11. But today, I had to leave the house by 9-ish because I had to submit my sister's friend's application form (no fucking idea why she volunteered me to submit it just because I go to UST). So anyways I was there at around 10:20, and I had to wait about half an hour in line. The line reached up to the 2nd floor. Though I'll admit that when I got to the front of the line, the girl who was handling me (wanky) was hot. I wish I knew who she was. All I know is she was wearing an MC Seniors '12 jacket, though when I showed her to my MC friends, they didn't know who she was. I got a picture of her though!! Anyways, after I submitted the form, they sent me and the other people over to a hot, un-airconditioned/electric fan-ed room to wait while they processed the forms. It took me about 10-15 minutes before they gave me back the form. I went straight to the hospital lobby where my driver was waiting for me so that he could take it back to my sister.

Before I went to class, I decided to go to the car park and buy that new iPhone case I was eyeing the day before. It was the similar style to the most recent one I'd purchased (hard, color blocking) except the color scheme was different! I was please to get it because the one I bought before was already coming apart (which is sad because I loved that case).

When I got to the main building, it was practically a ghost town. The once hallowed halls turned into hollowed halls that day. When I got to the main building, it was emptier than my wallet on a friday. I'm glad I saw Sir Reyes looking at one of the billboards near the faculty room (He was always one of my favorite profs). When I got to the front of the room, my blockmate JC was outside, sitting on the floor, studying for bio. We both noticed how the hallways were really empty and wondered why. Turns out there was a mass earlier which is why everyone was there. Later when more of my blockmates turned up, we decided to go into the room since the ones there weren't even having class. But then when more of their blockmates arrived, we decided to head back out.

Our first class for today was Fil, and ma'am was surprisingly in a good mood. She made us laugh, and wasn't bitchy at all during the presentation. Afterwards, we had Psych which was really boring (this current lesson is boring enough). Then, we didn't have BioLec because there weren't any teachers in the sciences faculty room. We decided to go up and buy burgers instead since we were hungry. We stayed in the room while majority of the block went out to eat lunch together... AGAIN.

Anyways, today was a good day. Kinda wasted a school day though :)

Keep Dreaming.

Boo to Camayan Beach Resort!

A report from Clarice (I just wanted to let you guys know about this)


As told by Mommy Emily, whose son, Enzo was attacked by jellyfish* while at Camayan Beach Resort & Hotel. 
*some say it was a portuguese man of war because of the unusually large welts and stings

1. Camayan Beach Resort and Hotel knows about the presence of jellyfish in their beach but they dont inform their guests about precautionary measures. 
2. Their oxygen tank was not ready for the emergency. 
3. They did not have a vehicle ready to transport us. As the COO of Camayan Beach Resort and Hotel told me – when you bring your kids to the beach, you know there is a risk. You could imagine how I freaked out with her statement! It was tantamount to saying that I am responsible for the accident of Enzo. More to come on the softskills of their manager and COO.

Camayan Beach Resort and Hotel oxygen tank was not ready. First Aiders had to fill out the little container with water. When asked why it wasnt ready, Camayan Beach Resort, Subic Bay Freeport, said that water in that container cannot be kept long. I say that they should replace the water once they think it is not “good” anymore.

Camayan Beach Resort and Hotel gave one complimentary night for us to recover from our shock …

We were expecting that before we check out, the general manager would come and visit us – check on Enzo. Apparently this wasn’t part of his schedule. I had to ask the receptionist to inform the GM that we would like to see him. He instead called us and explained that he is in a meeting with their COO and CFO.

To cut the story short, Toni, the GM passed me to their COO, Ruby Co .
I spoke to her about the accident and how we were let down by the way they handle it as well as the post-accident. She acknowledged my story with OK. And another cold OK and she went on like this until I stopped talking.

She then said to me “So tell me, what do you still want from us?!”

There was no sympathy in her voice. She talked to me like I was part of Camayan Beach Resort’s operations – that I was reporting to her metrics!

I was offended, shocked with the way she talked with me.

I became very emotional and hysterical. And she kept on talking over me and didn’t acknowledge my pain.

I told the COO of Camayan Beach Resort and Hotel that I want (1) that guests be informed about the presence of jellyfish in the beach – this sinformation on how to protect oneself and the first aid intervention. (2) that their first aid be more reliable and responsive.

And yes, I forgot to share with you, after the accident, Camayan Beach Resort, Subic Bay Freeport did not inform the guests of the presence of a jellyfish in the protected swimming area.

Looking at the pictures makes my heart break. I cannot imagine what friend went through.

If this happens to my kids and then someone asks me “So tell me, what do you still want from us?!”, I just might lose it. I probably would have hit her, with a right hook, right on the face!

I will never, ever bring my families and friends to Camayan Beach Resort and Hotel. Please share this so people will know that they should keep away from that place!

Keep Dreaming.

Happy December!! (12.01.12)

Christmas 2011

Happy December everyone!!

I know a lot of people would agree with me when I say December is one of my favorite months of the year. I don't know why though. I think it's probably because of the Christmas season and because of everything the Christmas season stands for (Love, Peace on Earth etc). 

Ever since I was a kid, Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. I think it's because December is the one time of the year where people come together, jolly, and just celebrate life and birth of our savior Jesus Christ.

Hope to have more posts this month!!

Keep Dreaming.