INSTABITS : December 2014

First of all, let me start this entry by greeting everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR!  It’s about a week late and I’ve already posted two entries on my blog this year, but it’s still the first week of the year so I want to wish everyone a joyous 2015.

I meant to have this as my first post for 2015 but I decided to get the Christmas party blogs out of the way first since some people were waiting for me to post the pictures from those.

December 1 was Joybel’s birthday and as a treat, she bought two GIANT pizzas to share with us.  Thanks Joy!

Red velvet cupcake and iced tea from Cocina.  I needed a break from all the checking so I asked Eden and Thea to come with me for a quick afternoon snack.

OOTD. Polka dots and lace. Two of my favorite things 🙂

I know I usually share the books I read at the end of the month, but this one is so amazing that I couldn’t wait 🙂  I posted a review of this which you can read HERE.

Another random OOTD

I received this adorable Charles Darwin coaster as pasalubong from Dustin when he went to Thailand for a conference.  I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to put a mug on that face.  I’ll probably just use this as decoration since it’s too cute 😀

Alex called this my “pang-binyag outfit”

December’s arrival  meant that it was time for our family’s annual visit to the churches in Kalayaan and Santa Cruz.  Ezra and I passed the long car ride by sleeping in the backseat and occasionally taking selfies XD

I was craving cheesecake one afternoon so my roommates and I went to Dalcielo for merienda.

The girls of C208, taken during IMSP’s Christmas party

INSTABITS : November 2014

I meant to post this earlier but it was our last week of classes and  I barely had time to sleep, let alone blog.  We have finals coming up next week too, although Typhoon Hagupit/Ruby’s supposed to make landfall this weekend so I’m not sure what will happen to our schedule.  All we can do is hope and pray that it won’t be too devastating.

I watched the K-drama Doctor Stranger last month and developed a mild obsession with Park Hae Jin.  I’ve always liked him in Family Outing and I thought he was great in You Who Came From The Stars, but I especially loved him in this drama.  C’mon, a brilliant and hot doctor with a great sense of fashion? Who can resist that?

My  cousin visited me on campus one day and dropped off these brownies for our family.  Thanks Grace!

And later that week Ckloy brought me a dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme. Diet? What diet?

Grabbed this photo from Brinky doodle. We had a very brief meet up at St. Therese one afternoon.

This is why my roommates shouldn’t leave me alone at the office.  I get extremely vain and end up taking lots of selfies.

Posted this for Throwback Thursday.  I found this while browsing some old photos on my laptop. Poor Ezra XD  This was taken back in 2010 when we had our little shoot at the National Art Center (blog entry HERE).

I bought this key cover at the IRRI bazaar.  The only problem is the “strawberry” is so large that sometimes I have a hard time unlocking my door.  It’s a small price to pay for having an adorable key 😀

Satur-date with Ckloy.  (He’s wearing huge shades because he didn’t sleep at all that night.)  I think this was the only time I went to SM Calamba last month.  I used to go practically every weekend, but lately I’ve been avoiding the traffic in Pansol (it gets especially bad during the holidays and summer).  I’m hoping they finish construction soon so that the roads won’t be as congested.

Ckloy and I watched Big Hero 6.  I loved it.  It was super cute and heartwarming 🙂  I want my own Baymax! (Ckloy fell asleep halfway through the movie, lol.)

INSTABITS : October 2014

Finally found some time to sit down and put this entry together.  All my free time this past week has gone into watching this K-drama called Doctor Stranger.  I actually finished it a few days ago but I’m watching it for the second time this week.  (Honestly the story isn’t that great, but I love seeing Park Hae Jin on screen.)

My mom attended a party last month and came home with this pink balloon for Ezra and me. We didn’t think that a rubber bag filled with helium can still entertain us, but it actually made us feel really happy.

This past month, Sir Marvs, Sir Taps and Ma’am Chrys have been helping Amie, Joybel and me edit our thesis for journal submissions.  I’m very grateful because I know that they’re all very busy but they’ve taken the time to sit with us and go through our papers to give feedback.

A student of mine dropped by the office to give me this little guy for World Teacher’s Day 🙂 Thanks Aimee!

Saturday dinner with Ckloy at Seoul Kitchen 🙂

My room renovations continued throughout October and now it’s finally finished.  After almost 3 months I can relax in my own bed again 🙂

Don’t you hate it when Windows decides to update when you’re in a hurry?  This particular update took over 2 hours to finish!  I was already in a rush because I was late for my class, and when I shut my laptop off it started updating!  Naturally I couldn’t turn it off so I had to drive to the office with my laptop open next to me on the passenger’s seat.  And of course I couldn’t use it during my lecture since it was updating, so I had to resort to the whole “chalk and talk” thing.

UPLB celebrated its 96th Loyalty Day on October 10.  We joined in on the parade and the salu salu.

My parents went on a Japanese cruise last month and Ezra and I asked them to bring me back a magazine with Satoh Takeru on the cover.  My mom got confused and we ended up with Ryo-chan instead. Not that we’re complaining 🙂

Some of their other pasalubong. I really like the green tea chocolate daifuku and the furikake. Thanks Mom and Dad 😀

INSTABITS : September 2014

October already?? I feel like September just flew by! But at the same time, so much has happened that I can’t believe that only a month had passed.

Rurouni Kenshin : Kyoto Inferno came out around the end of August.  Ezra and I were excited to see it but we waited a bit for the crowd to die down before heading to the cinema.  The movie was amazing! Satoh Takeru is the perfect actor to play Kenshin, and the director did a great job translating the manga/anime to film.  The fight scenes were so intense that they had me on the edge of my seat.

I was on a Kenshin high after the movie, and I couldn’t get enough of Satoh Takeru.  After 6 months of having Kim Soo Hyun as my lock screen, he’s now been replaced by Himura Battousai XD

One reason I love September is because it’s my birth month 😀 I had a simple celebration (blog entry HERE), but I still got a few pleasant surprises from friends and family – like this note that Davies left on my office door while I was out for lunch.

I also received a rose and a sweet note from Amie

And my favorite Sans Rival cake from the family 🙂

I was most surprised when I opened my email that evening and found an animated e-card from Princess Cruises 🙂 I love that they give their guests special treatment even months after their cruise ends.  (My parents are going on another Princess Cruise this weekend – I’m so jealous!)

Our dear friend Kat moved to Sweden this month to pursue her PhD.  It’ll be a while since we see each other again so we scheduled a shopping date at Festival Mall to spend some quality time with each other. We miss you Kat! 🙂

UPLB held its annual SyenSaya Science Fair this month.  I helped out as an exhibitor for one morning.  Our exhibit was “The Physics and Math in Origami” 🙂

I had fun at the event, and I even learned how to make these adorable origami bows

Borrowed Sir Taps’s Luffy during the exhibit

INSTABITS : August 2014

We’re down to the last few months of the year.  September has arrived, so I expect that I will be hearing Christmas carols on the radio soon 🙂  I love this time of the year.

On the first day of August, Amie and I went UPD to visit Ma’am Cherry.  While walking around, we encountered several groups of freshman students on a campus tour.  Amie said I blended right in with the freshies and took these pictures to prove it.  What do you think? XD

 

After catching up for a bit, Ma’am Cherry took us to have lunch at ROC (Thanks Ma’am!).  I ordered their creamy pesto pasta, which was yummy~

These days, I’ve been playing around a lot with my Eyes on the 60’s make up palette from BH Cosmetics.  I love all the bright and fun colors.  Here I used pink and purple eyeshadow to match my dress 🙂

Random picture of Ckloy and me while waiting for our order at JCo.  We were celebrating our 8th year and 8th month together this day.

In my last INSTABITs entry, I mentioned that my iPod dove into a bucket of water while I was showering.  After burying it in rice for a few days, I checked to see if it would work again – and it did!  Yaaay~ Good as new 😀

Amie asked me to help out with the students’ assisted enlistment during registration this semester.  It was my first time as an enlistor.  I thought it would be chaotic, but it was actually pretty organized.

Our first day of classes was on August 11.  I try to look presentable and wear heels when I teach, but I’ve gotten so used to wearing flats and sneakers over the last four months that my feet hurt like crazy by the end of the day.  I have to train myself how to walk in heels again.

Ezra decided to start her PhD this semester.  I can’t believe that my little sister might get her degree before me!

INSTABITS : July 2014

It’s a brand new month, which means it’s time for my July Instagram dump 🙂

This was Ckloy’s pasalubong from Texas 😀  Most of my free time has gone into making good use of this baby. I’m currently playing Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends.  Ezra and I have loved that game since Bam introduced it to us almost a decade ago.

Date outfit for when Ckloy and I watched Transformers: Age Of Extinction

Brinks has been complaining that she never sees mocha ice cream at the grocery anymore, so when I found this,  I had to share it with her XD

My hair got some much needed TLC this month.  I used to go for treatments every month back when I had colored hair, but ever since I went back to my natural color my hair has been healthier and I haven’t needed it as much.

This is what my bedroom ceiling currently looks like thanks to Glenda. Read more about it in this entry.

Glenda aftermath at our house

There wasn’t much to do without electricity so I spent most of my free time reading ebooks.  This was one of the ones I finished this month, and I loved it!  It reminded me a lot of the Sea of Tranquility, which was my favorite book of 2013 🙂  I wrote a review for it which you can read HERE.  (This was the first book in the More series. I tried reading the others but so far I don’t like them that much)

Since it took a week for electricity to be restored at our house, we would occasionally invade my uncle’s house in San Pablo so we can charge our devices and go online.

INSTABITS : June 2014

Hello hello!  I can’t believe that the first half of 2014 is officially over!  One more month before classes start again.

Anyway, July has arrived, which means it’s time for my Instagram dump for June.

Quick snapshot with our airport send off committee at LAX.  Every time we visit California, they’re the ones who take the time to pick us up and drop us off at the airport 😀 Thanks guys! Hope to see everyone again soon.

Raffy and Tio Ben spent a week with us this month and they visited me at my office one day (along with Ezra).

Ezra and I took them to see the Torii

Since it can get extremely hot and humid at our house during the day, Ezra would sometimes come with me to the office to enjoy our airconditioning.  There are usually 3 empty desks in my office and yet she insists on sharing my table. Tsk tsk…

I asked Ezra to take some pictures of me with the Space Needle when we were there last month, and this is what happened.

My BH cosmetics haul. I was only planning on getting the itsjudytime pallete (I love her!) but there was a sale and I ended up with a bunch of other great deals 🙂

Look who I found waiting to greet me at Taipei airport.  Kim Soo Hyun! ❤

INSTABITS : May 2014

I finally mustered enough will power to sit down and edit this entry.  I’m still on a vacation-high from our California trip and all I want to do these days is lock myself in an air-conditioned room and daydream about the places we visited.  I haven’t even finished unpacking my stuff.  I’ve gotten most of my things out of the balikbayan boxes, and I’m almost done emptying out my suitcase, but everything is just scattered all over the place.  It’s been a week and my room still looks like my luggage threw up in it.  I’m hoping that this little burst of kasipagan will last me all day and I’ll have enough resolve to tidy up a bit later.

Anyway, here’s May’s Instagram dump.  Most of these were taken during our vacation 🙂

Kurt had just gotten his April paycheck so he took Ezra and me out for dinner at Pizza Hut Wing Street.  Ezra loves their boneless BBQ chicken wings.  I used to hate them, but they grew on me and now I’m addicted as well.  I love the checkered tables they have there.  A few customers (they must be regulars) brought their chess pieces and had a match as they ate their food.

Madame Tussauds! Ever since I saw a documentary about Madame Tussauds on the History Channel, I’ve wanted to see what the fuss was all about. We were here last year too, but we didn’t go inside because we didn’t have that much time.  This year we scheduled a trip to actually go and explore the museum.

There were a lot of celebrity wax figures there.  And the cool thing was you can go up to them and touch them!  I’ve only been to one other wax museum before this, and all the displays were behind velvet ropes so we couldn’t get close to them.  At Madame Tussauds they encourage the visitors to interact with the displays.

We found this psychedelic wall there

Later that evening, we went to this Korean BBQ place called Tahoe Galbi.  Everything was so yummy and I definitely ate way more than I should have.  Diet? What diet?

It’s our summer vacation, so of course we had to visit the beach.  Kurt took us to Zuma Beach in Malibu.  The place was lovely, but the water was too cold to go swimming so we mostly played around in the sand.  We tried dipping our toes and they went numb from the cold, brrrr~  Also, we think we saw a whale off in the distance. (I only saw its back and the water coming out from its blowhole.)

*TOUCH*

Hello Paradise Pier!  As a late birthday gift to Ezra, and as an early birthday treat to me, Kurt got us tickets to Disney’s California Adventure 🙂  Thanks Kurt!

Ezra and I were always jealous of the little girls we saw wearing these Minnie Mouse ears in Disneyland when we were younger, but of course our parents said they were too expensive and refused to get them for us.  Now that we’ve both got jobs and are earning our own money, we finally got our childhood wish fulfilled.  Dreams do come true 😀

We went on Mickey’s Fun Wheel.  It’s like a regular Ferris Wheel, but some of the cars inside have their own track, so aside from moving around in a huge circle, we were also moving along this track during the ride.  We went on a bunch of rides that some would consider “scary”, but this was the only ride in the park that made me dizzy! I wanted to get off halfway through.

We were surprised to discover that a lot of people aren’t that used to seeing GoPros or monopods yet. We got a lot of weird looks and curious strangers coming up to us to ask questions. (Most of them were more interested to know about the monopod.) One of them even joined us for a selfie XD  We only saw two other people inside the park with a monopod, and one of them was a Filipina too.  I guess we Filipinos really love selfies.

Old photo of my parents.  They celebrated their 30th anniversary this year so Ezra and I decided to surprise them with a slideshow of their photos through the years.  This was one of their many photos I found in our attic.

For their anniversary, they decided to take us on an Alaskan cruise!  Weeee~  Ezra and I have never been on a cruise before, so we were extremely excited.  Our ship was the Golden Princess , and it was beautiful!

INSTABITS : April 2014

I opened my YouTube account this morning to find that I’ve been been flooded with “April favorites” videos from my favorite beauty gurus, which only meant that another month has come to an end.  I often lose track of time I’m on vacation, I didn’t realize that it was May already.  So here’s my photo dump for April.

Green smoothie time!  I mentioned in my February INSTABITS that I’ve been loving these lately.  I’ve been trying to eat healthier and this is just a great way to incorporate more fruits and veggies to your diet.

Meet my lunch/lamon-mates.  I always end up eating a lot when I’m with them 😀

Happy selfie 🙂  This was taken on they day of my two advisees’ theses defense.  I’m happy both of them passed – I think I was more nervous than them.

Hahriz, Eden and I went to Copeland Gym one afternoon to  unwind after a loooong week of thesis defenses panels and checking.

Some guys lowered the basketball ring after using it, so we took these pictures and pretended to be tall.  A girl can dream.

My creepy, deserted office hallway on a weekend morning.  The Aphy 104 final exam was held on a Saturday at 7am, and I was one of the first ones to arrive.

After finals week, I spent an entire weekend checking all my students’s exams and lab reports.  One of the benefits of having a mom who’s also a teacher is that I have someone to share these moments with.

It was so hot in the Philippines that this actually happened to my iPod!

Had a musical merienda with my lamon-mates 😀  Thanks Kat for the treat!

Then later that evening, my lamon-mates and I had an early dinner at Seoul Kitchen.  (It was more like a first dinner for me because I ate again with the family once I got home…)

Posted this for National Sibling’s Day.  This was taken last December during our riverboat cruise in Thailand (blog entry to follow)

I’m still really hooked on the TV show Elementary (read my initial review HERE).  I love it more and more each week.  I missed out several episodes towards the end of the school year because there was so much work to be done, so as soon as I submitted my students’s final grades I locked myself in my room to catch up on the show.  (“I’d do the same for you if you lost all your teeth in a prison fight” is Sherlock’s way of telling Joan he loves her, kyaaaah~ <3)

Colorful people at the office.  My GoPro has been hibernating on my desk since the end of January, so I decided to take it with me to the office to get some practice.  I plan on using it a lot this summer 🙂

INSTABITS : March 2014

Now that thesis defense period is over, I have a little bit of free time.  I’ve still got loads of reports to check but I think I can finally squeeze this entry in. It’s already late as it is.

Started the month off by being vain, as usual.  These days, I normally wear my hair curly, so I haven’t really noticed how long it’s getting.  I wore it straight this one time and was surprised 😀

Ezra has this annoying habit of stealing my phone and sending mushy messages to herself.  Or sometimes when we get into one of our petty arguments and she wants to me apologize she just goes ahead and sends herself these messages. (Yes, she’s crazy.)  So I guess I should stop being surprised to find messages like this sent to her whenever I open Viber.  (One time she accidentally sent the messages to Karrie instead of herself!  Poor Karrie must have been so weirded out.)

I ordered fake bangs from eBay and they finally arrived.  I like having side swept bangs so I’ve been letting them grow out.  But there are times when I want blunt bangs for my SP and I figured this was a good solution.   I need to give it a little trim so it looks more natural though.

I made Sir Taps try my fake bangs on. I told him it made him look like Fukunaga from The Liar Game.  What do you think? XD

Merienda from 7-11 one afternoon. It was my first time trying their hot pot meal. I liked it.  I’ll probably get it again next time.

I was OBSESSED with this drama last month.  As soon as I finished the last episode I actually went back to watch the entire thing all over again.  I made a review about it, which you can read HERE .  (Warning : it contains lots of SPOILERS.)

I even managed to get my hands on some You Who Came From The Stars sheet music and started trying to learn them on the piano 🙂 Weeee~

And I changed my phone’s lock screen to a picture of Kim Soo Hyun!   I think the last time I used an idol’s/actor’s photo as my phone background was back in 2010.

Our adorable little furballs 🙂 *squeeeeee*  I miss them 😦  Their new owners picked them up this month.

 Aww, happy little Moon Moon

I grabbed this photo from Amie’s Instagram account.  We had merienda with our beloved BS advisers at IRRI one afternoon.  Sir Marvs and Sir Taps are two people I highly respect and look up to 🙂  Not just for their vast knowledge in the field of Physics and Material Science, but also for their positive outlook in life.  I can only hope to be as optimistic as them one day.