INSTABITS : June 2017

Now that midyear classes are finally over, and I’ve finished computing my students’ grades, I have some free time to update my blog. I can’t believe it’s already the middle of July. The first half of 2017 went by in a blink of an eye.

I started the month off by going to UPD to pick up some documents. Afterwards I went to Eastwood to meet Raf for dinner. Since I had a few hours to kill before he got off work, I decided to try the famous black froyo from BLK513. They had so many flavors of syrup and toppings to choose from that I had a hard time picking one, but in the end I went with the strawberry cheesecake which was pretty good.

Raf and I went to Tagaytay one weekend and we decided to check out Museo Orlina. There were lots of intricate glass sculptures and interesting pieces inside (you can see some of them in my IG stories video at the end of this entry).

Beautiful view from Tagaytay

Wall art at The Lake District where we had lunch. We need more of this in our lives 🙂

Spiced fries with ice cream and chocolate. It’s like appetizer and dessert mixed together

Tio Ben passed away last month. He went very quickly and quietly so we’re thankful that he didn’t suffer. The wake was held at my aunt’s place in Tanauan and his funeral mass was at St.John The Evangelist Parish. Goodbye Tio Ben, we will miss you.

Week 21/52 : Morning musings

I’m so behind on this project – gah! I promise I’ll catch up!

This was taken about two weeks ago when our family went to Stilts in Calatagan (Batangas) for my dad’s birthday. The place was beautiful and we enjoyed our 3-day stay there. My parents got us a cottage on the water, which gave us a great view of the beach. In our spare time we liked to just sit outside and enjoy the breeze while admiring the scenery. My mom helped me take this photo one morning during one of our relaxed moments. I was still wearing my PJs so I just threw on a hat and a cardigan to dress it up a little.

Thanks Ma for the photo!

Birthday Cruise : Keelung, Taiwan

For my birthday last year my parents decided to go on a short cruise around Japan/Taiwan, and as a special treat they told me I could invite a friend to come with us! As soon as they told me, I contacted Brinky who immediately jumped on board. Princess Cruises had a “Buy 2 Get 2 Free” promo during this period, so it was perfect. My parents booked their trips at a regular rate and Brinks and I were the “Get 2 Free“. (Of course there were still taxes and plane tickets to be paid, but the cruise fares were waived :D)

The cruise begins in Keelung, Taiwan so we took an early flight to get there.

Kupos in pink

Hello Taiwan!

We booked a shuttle to pick us up from the airport and take us to the port

During our last cruise my parents were finally upgraded to Platinum status, so we were able to skip the long check in lines this time around, yay!

The ship we would be sailing on is the Golden Princess, which is actually the same ship we were on during our Alaskan cruise (you can find my blog entries about that by clicking HERE). That was my very first cruise, so this ship holds a special place in my heart. Being back on board made us feel really happy, and we even met a few crew members who were there with us during our Alaskan cruise – and some of them actually remembered us! Pretty amazing considering that was two years ago and they usually have about 2000 passengers on board for each voyage.

Ceiling shot while waiting for the elevators

The crew was setting up for the champagne waterfall to be held that evening

Pretty~

Europe 2016 : Montenegro and Sicily

Finally writing the last entry from our trip last year. I can’t believe it took me almost an entire year to finish everything!

After leaving Corfu, the Royal Princess took us back to Kotor (Montenegro). Since it’s our second visit, we decided not to sign up for a tour and just explore Old Town. We were able to see it last time, but we didn’t spend that much time looking around since we wanted to get back on the ship immediately to have lunch. As I mentioned in my last entry about Kotor’s Old Town, I really love how it makes me feel like I traveled back in time:

I loved all the stone bricks and the cobblestone roads ❤

However, seeing all the cafes around the area will remind you that we’re in the 21st century

We mostly walked around and checked out the many gift shops in the area.

Week 20/52 : When in doubt wear red

My mom took this photo of me during our stay at Estrella in Laiya. It’s the last out of four self portraits I managed to squeeze in that weekend. I thought I would finally be able to catch up after this, but life and responsibilities caught up with me.

While we were packing for the trip I saw that my mom had this red hat at home. I convinced her to bring it so I could pair it with my red dress. I wanted some nice portraits with the sunny shore and blue water behind me, unfortunately we fell asleep and woke up just before sunset. Then, when we got to the beach we discovered that it was low tide, so the water was gone (well, way off in the distance). In the end we still pushed through with the photos and I still ended up liking them, despite the fact that they didn’t come out the way I expected them to.

(Quote in title is by Bill Blass)

INSTABITS : May 2017

It’s almost the end of June so I should probably finish this entry that’s been sitting in my drafts. May was a pretty eventful month, but this entry’s not too long since I’ve mostly been posting on IG stories these days. You can still see what I posted there since I compiled them all into a video (which you can find at the end of this entry).

I ended my last INSTABITS with photos from our office workshop in Camp Benjamin, which took place on the last day of April. Here are two more photos from that event:

Before leaving the resort, we took advantage of our free time to explore the farm. We had to cross this pretty bridge to get there. This was also where my week 14 self portait was taken.

On our way back to LB we dropped by Nuvali to have lunch at Wing Stop.

Amie and I went to UPD to request and pick up some documents on May 10. The last time I was in UPD was about a year ago, so I felt a little nostalgic. We passed by NIGS, which was where we spent a huge part of our MS life.

After finishing all our errands we went to UP Town Center to grab a late lunch at Ramen Nagi. It was my first time in UP Town, so I was pretty excited.

After a long day of walking around UPD, Amie and I rewarded ourselves with some ice cream.

We met Jason in UP Town and we decided to do a bit of shopping before we head back home

I ended up buying a new pair of running shoes. I still love my bright pink ones, but these were on sale and they were too comfortable to pass up :p

My parents celebrated their anniversary this month. I posted this cute photo of them pretending to be captains 😀

As part of their celebration, we went to Estrella de Mendoza in Laiya for a quick beach resort getaway

Since I’m so behind on my 52-week project, I grabbed this opportunity to shoot several self portraits at the resort. I packed about 5 outfits for our 2 days there :p I wore this one for week 16/52.

Week 18/52 : See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me~

This photo was from my first beach trip this year. I have my mom to thank once again for this shot, and my parents to thank for the vacation. I tagged along on their wedding anniversary celebration and grabbed the chance to take lots of photos. I asked my mom to take a few pictures of me playing in the water. I felt a little awkward at first becauses there were lots of people at the beach (there was some sort of team building event happening), but the sun and the water felt so good that I ended up not caring after a while.