INSTABITS : August 2017

Hello everyone! The -ber months are now upon us! How many Christmas carols have you heard so far? I haven’t been going to a lot of malls lately so I haven’t actually been exposed to that many, but I expect I’ll be hearing more of them in the upcoming weeks.

Anyway, August has ended (um, this entry’s about 3 weeks late), which means it’s time for another Instabits post, yay!  Our family was still in Rome when the month started, so that’s where we’ll begin this entry:

On the first day of August my parents and I visited their friends at the FAO office (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) in Rome. It was walking distance to the Bocca della Verita – the “Mouth of Truth”. Legend says that if a liar places their hand inside it would bite their fingers off. I was already nervous walking up to it, and the moment I placed my hand inside the mischievous guard screamed really loudly, which of course resulted to me screaming really loudly as well! My heart jumped but everyone had a good laugh afterwards. And I’m happy to report that I still have all my fingers.

Our last full day in Rome was spent exploring the Colosseum. We saw it from afar last year so we’re glad to finally be able to see it up close (and even walk around inside) this time. It was EXTREMELY hot that day though. Our guide told us that there was a heat wave moving across the country. Our tour also included the Roman Forums, the Pantheon and Piazza Navona.

Back in the Philippines, classes had resumed. Here’s a picture with my C201 roomies. We have a new roommate this year – welcome back to IMSP Sir Allan!

I ran low on some of my serums while we were in Europe so I immediately ordered more from Althea as soon as I arrived. I love these!

I started wearing contacts again last month after taking about an 8-month break from them. I stopped because it got to the point that my eyes were constantly irritated even when I use new contacts so I decided to quit wearing them. But I figured I’d give them another try. I decided to get colored ones this time. These are from a brand called Galaxy, which I got from Sarabia. Honestly I don’t really like them because they look too unnatural. Eventually I replaced them with some Flexwear contacts which I bought from EO. Those look a lot more natural.

 

Cute little boomerang of the roomies during Dustin’s advanced) birthday celebration.

Leni dropped by UPLB for an event that her sorority/fraternity was having. I ran into her at the parking lot just as I was about to go home. It was quite a surprise 😀

I met up one evening with Camille and Aprille. We got our nails done (well, Camille and I did) then we had dinner at Kimbop. The two of them (along with Brinks) are going to be visiting Korea in November and Aprille has been preparing by training herself to eat spicy food.

For even more spicy food training, Camille decided to celebrate her birthday by taking us out to have Korean BBQ at Matgalne. I love Korean BBQ so I’m happy that she chose this place.

Hearts for everyone ❤ Thanks Camille (and JR) for the birthday treat!

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Exploring Okinawa (Shuri Castle and Kokusai Street)

Day 2 of my birthday cruise from last year (Day 1 blog here). Since Brinks justified her expenses for this trip by telling herself that it was a birthday present to herself, my parents told the staff that she was also celebrating her birthday. Which explains why we woke up to two sets of balloons and greeting cards on our door that morning.

“Birthday” Kupos~

Hello Okinawa!

We didn’t plan on leaving the ship until later that afternoon so we spent our morning walking around and watching a culinary show at the Princess Theater:

The culinary show is usually very funny, unfortunately we couldn’t understand it this time because it was all in Mandarin

After the show Brinks and I went to the pool deck to take some photos

Week 25/52 : She breathes in dirt and exhales flowers

This was shot in June when our family went to Calatagan for my dad’s birthday. They had a lot of beautiful flowers at the resort so naturally I had to take a few photos with them. It’s a little overdue but once again I’ve been swamped with work and haven’t had time to edit photos.

Thanks to my mom for taking the photo, and to my dad for acting as a stand in model when I was showing my mom what kind of shot I wanted 😀

Week 24/52 : May every sunrise hold more promise and every sunset hold more peace

It’s my birthdaaaaaay~ For my present this year, my parents booked a trip to El Nido for the three of us. We’ve always wanted to visit this place so I’m happy that we were finally able to go. Tomorrow is our last day here and I’m not ready to leave paradise just yet to go back to work T__T

I normally hate getting up early but since it’s my birthday I convinced my parents to watch the sunrise with me 🙂 Our guide told us we were lucky because it was very clear today. We were worried we wouldn’t be able to see anything since it rained quite hard the night before, but fortunately the sun shone really brightly the following day 😀

Hooray for another wonderful and blessed year! Thanks Mama and Daddy for this amazing birthday gift! And thank you to our guide (I think his name was Ping) for taking this photo.

The quote in the title is by Umair Siddiqui. To end this entry I would like to share this prayer I found online. Unfortunately I don’t know who wrote it, but I thought it was beautiful:

Birthday Prayer
– Author Unknown

Thank you, God, for giving me another year of life.
Thank you for all the people who remembered me today
by sending cards, and letters, gifts and good wishes.

Thank you for all the experience of this past year;
for times of success which will always be happy memories,
for times of failure which reminded me of my own weakness and of my need for you,
for times of joy when the sun was shining,
for times of sadness which drove me to you.

Forgive me
for the hours I wasted,
for the chances I failed to take,
for the opportunities I missed this past year.
Help me in the days ahead to make this the best year yet,
and through it to bring good credit to myself,
happiness and pride to my loved ones,
and joy to you. Amen.

Week 23/52 : Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air

Another self portrait taken at Stilts (Calatagan) when we went there for my dad’s birthday. This time it truly is a self portrait because I used my tripod and remote. Most of my recent photos were taken with the help of friends or my parents, so it feels a little weird uploading something I shot myself. I think this is only my 5th portrait this year that wasn’t taken by someone else 🙂

(Quote in the title is by Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Week 22/52 : Dusky pink

So much for my plan of catching up. I’m almost 3 months behind! Things have gotten extremely busy around here, especially now that the first semester has started and I’ve been assigned to teach a lecture class. But I still believe that I’ll be able to finish this project in time. Hopefully …

This was taken in June during my dad’s birthday celebration at Stilts in Calatagan. The place was beautiful and I’m glad my aunt was able to join us. We had a great time swimming and admiring the view.

INSTABITS : July 2017

Just like last year, my July was quite eventful. It’s safe to say that it’s one of the (if not *the*) most exciting month I’ve had all year. I attended a cosplay convention, went to a bazaar, celebrated a friend’s birthday, and visited three European countries. As a result, this entry is going to be a little photo-heavy, please bear with me.

Kicked the month off by going to Toycon 2017 (this was my outfit). The last time I attended Toycon was back in 2014, so I was pretty excited. Ever since Ezra moved to the US I haven’t been going to conventions because I didn’t know anyone else who would go with me.

Thank goodness Marco and Don (both avid con-goers) invited me to go with them this year, yay!

Random vain selfie in the car. Check out those false lashes yo!

At the event, Marco, Don, and I stayed together at first, but after lunch we decided to go our own ways because we were looking for different things. They wanted to see action figures and toys, while I was on the lookout for cute clothes and merchandise 😀 This was my Toycon haul. I love the Pusheen shirt 😀

 

Although I found some cute clothes at Toycon, I still decided to drop by the Trendsetter’s Bazaar a week later. I’ve never been to one of these bazaars and Arianne has been telling me about all the affordable clothes they have there, so I decided to check it out.

This was my haul 😀 I found loads of cute clothes, and most of them were very affordable indeed! I think the most expensive outfit I bought was a 450-peso romper. (Although my most expensive item was the Beauty Blender.)

Brinky turned 32 this month and she held a tea-party at her place for us to celebrate

Look at this Pinterest-worthy setup! So cuuuuuute~

Raffy visited the Philippines this month and he came with me to the office one morning since he didn’t want to be left at home

Around mid-July, our family flew to Barcelona to begin our Europe adventure 🙂 We had a layover at Abu Dhabi, where I found this camel waiting for me 🙂 I’ve always wanted to ride a real camel, but this metal one will have to do for now.