INSTABITS : December 2017

Happy 2018! This entry’s almost a month late but I was still on a vacation high up until a few days ago so I haven’t had time to blog (plus my laptop crashed the other day and I had to reformat it). Things seem to be in order now, and I’ve finally accepted that my vacation has ended, so I can finally finish writing my last Instabits entry for 2017.

WARNING : Photo-heavy post ahead :p

I ordered these Nestea Milk Tea powders from Lazada last month because milk tea is life ❤ My favorite is the Hokkaido milk tea, probably because it’s the sweetest of the three XD

I watched Coco last month (if you haven’t seen it I totally recommend you go and watch it because it’s a beautiful movie) and I wanted to do a Coco-inspired self portrait for my 52 week project, but I didn’t like how it turned out. Since I spent a lot of time doing my makeup I figured I should at least use it for an IG photo.

I won this adorable mug from our clan’s Christmas party 😀

I received a post card from Sir Taps last month. Thanks Sir! have Brunei in my collection now ❤

My Virtual Race entitlements arrived 😊 This is the first time they came in the mail (I used to get them through Raf). This was the first Virtual Race that I had a hard time finishing on time because a) I was super busy with the SFRC and didn’t have time to run and b) when I finally found time to run I injured my knee and had to finish the rest of the race by walking.

The following four photos are from our cell’s sem-ender/Christmas party which was held at our house:

Thanks for a fun night girls! Sa uulitin! My Wii is working again now, so we can have game night at my place soon 😀

Surface Interface Research Group sem ender 🙂

Seoul Kitchen recently started serving these adorable hot chocolates  so of course I had to try it  ☃☕

Starbucks with C201 roomies (minus Maam Ianne). I drank a lot of Starbucks last month because people keep inviting me for stickers for their planner (since they know I don’t collect them). Then when I got to LA I ended up drinking even more because Ezra wanted me to taste all the holiday flavors so she kept buying them for me ❤

INSTABITS : November 2017

Hallu everyone! December is upon us! Once again, it is snowing on my blog 🙂 I hope you don’t find it distracting because I really love this WordPress feature. It only lasts a month, so please bear with me.

Here are my IG posts for November:

I have a few polaroid photos with my colleagues displayed in my cubicle. Sir Taps was complaining why his photo wasn’t up there, so I brought my Instax to the office one day to fix that :p

We even took a bonus polaroid with Jorge that evening. We had dinner and went to Starbucks to unwind because Dustin, Jorge and I all had an extremely stressful day. This past month I realized that my body craves sugar whenever I’m stressed.  This was also the day I realized that I can order decaf drinks in Starbucks, so I can finally try the holiday drinks. (My body can’t handle a lot of caffeine so I normally just order tea.)

Offices in the NCR were suspended for on November 13 to 15 because of the Asean Summit, so UPLB had a lot of alumni visitors that week. One of them was Brinky who I ran into while she was taking care of some errands around campus.

The following day Brinks, Camille and I had lunch at Crossover. It’s been a while since we’ve had lunch together on a weekday. It made me miss our college days.

I bought a bunch of these tea bags in Rome last August and forgot all about them. I found them hiding in the bottom of my bag other day. I’ve been drinking the peach one and I love it.

 

This year I was tasked to chair the CAS Research Committee. Our biggest challenge this semester was organizing the 10th UPLB CAS Student Faculty Research Conference. It took a lot of hard work (and prayers :p) but we were able to put together a successful event. Congratulations team!

Physics people after the conference 😊 Thanks for all your submissions!

My postcard from Korea arrived yay! I had to look for a post office on our last day there to mail my postcards because all the post boxes I saw were only for local mail. I was worried this would get lost (just like my post cards from Barcelona and Pisa T__T) but it made it safe and sound. And this time we managed to bring it into the house before the rain destroyed it. I don’t understand our mailman, we have a mail box at our house but he refuses to use it and prefers to stick our mail in between the railings of our gate (and he sometimes folds them!! Which is annoying because the post cards sometimes get this ugly crease in the middle). So if we don’t notice that he left something there (and it’s not like he rings the doorbell or anything) and it starts to rain, our mail gets soaked. Maybe next time I should start sending my postcards to the office instead…

INSTABITS : October 2017

Hallu everyone! This entry is late, as usual, but work responsibilities are piling up. Whenever I do manage to get some free time, I rarely have enough energy left to do anything that requires me to think. Most of the time I just binge-watch Youtube videos until I fall asleep.  Anyway, the semester is about to end, and my other work responsibilities are going to reduce significantly in a couple of days. I’ll definitely be celebrating next week.

Most of October’s INSTABITS were taken during our trip to Korea last month. We were there for a conference but of course we did our best to squeeze in as many touristy things that we could do. My skin broke out so badly because sleep became my least priority while we were there. We were only there for a few days so naturally we wanted to make the most of it. I  only got about 4-5 hrs of sleep each night, which is way less than usual. And trust me, having bad skin in Korea (where everyone is pretty much flawless) was not something I wanted.

 

My first post for October was a groupie with Sir Taps, Sir Marvs and Jorge at Kimbop.

Sir Taps pointed out that we were wearing similar shirts so he wanted to take photos for fun. He was trying to get me to laugh for the photo so here he is showing me a bunch of weird stuff on his phone

Raf and I went to Nuvali one weekend and we decided to have brunch at The Morning After.

I ordered chicken and waffles,  but they didn’t have waffles so they replaced it with pancakes.  The chicken was good, but the pancakes were a little dry.

We also had lunch at Silantro. It was my first time there so of course I had to try their popular beef nachos.

Eugene visited the Philippines this month so Aprille and I met up with him at Seoul Kitchen for dinner. It’s been 3 years since we last saw each other!

The 99th UPLB Loyalty Day was held on October 10. This was the CAS float for the parade.

Sir Taps, Jorge and I bought matching shirts this month. We planned on buying one for Dustin too but we weren’t sure if he’d wear it. But at least he agreed to wear stripes with us.

My baby Mochi celebrated his 2nd birthday this month. He’s such a fat and naughty bunny, but I love him ❤

 

My mom’s birthday is on the 17th and my parents and I flew to Korea to celebrate. (Sir Marvs, Amie and Ava followed shortly with a later flight).

Our first stop in Korea was non other than Myeongdong. As a K-beauty lover, this was definitely something I couldn’t miss.

Amie and I had a great time looking for our favorite Korean celebrities (well, their standees and posters) while we were there

INSTABITS : September 2017

My favorite month of the year – because it’s my birth month ❤  September always tends to be busy for some reason, but I love it because I always end up reconnecting with friends when they greet me on my birthday 😀 A lot of the people I know have very limited free time, so I’m thankful whenever they remember me 🙂

Most of my IG posts this month are from my El Nido trip with my parents. I couldn’t help it, El Nido is just so beautiful. I actually had to exercise self control so I wouldn’t spam my IG friends with posts from my trip. (But I did spam them with IG stories, sorry guise :p)

On the first day of September my parents and I went to San Pablo to have lunch with Tito Vergel’s family. Viel had just passed the Occupational Therapist Licensure Exam so we wanted to celebrate. Congrats Viel!

After lunch I met up with the gang at SM San Pablo. I kidnapped Deus since he told me he was planning on just sleeping at home that afternoon anyway.

Starbucks released their green tea yogurt frap that day so of course we had to try it

We ended up watching “Love You To the Stars and Back”, which was beautifully sad (and funny at the same time). My parents watched a movie too but I can’t remember the title. Here’s a group photo before we headed home.

The following day my parents and I flew to El Nido to celebrate my birthday 😀 We stayed at El Nido Resorts Miniloc, which was beautiful ❤

Check out that view. And the surrounding area had beautiful corals so we didn’t have to go far to go snorkelling

This is what we woke up to every morning for 3 days

The resort’s staff were extremely accommodating and knew how to make their guests feel special. We definitely recommend staying there.

One fun thing that you can do exclusively at El Nido Resorts Miniloc is swim with these jacks 🐟 They’re huge! We were told that each one weighs about 30-40kg. The staff feeds them everyday at 10:30am so they appear only around that time.

One of the places we visited was the Small Lagoon. The entrance is really small so the only way to get there is to take a kayak. In this photo you can see JP and PJ – friends we met during our trip.

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.

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!

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~

x

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.

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.

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.

INSTABITS : April 2017

We’re in our last few weeks of classes here in the university, which means lots of work for all of us. As a result, I haven’t been updating my IG as much, so this entry’s going to be shorter than usual.

The postcards I’ve been waiting for finally arrived last month. The Vancouver one is from Brinks (from her one-month visit to Canada) and the one from Malaysia is from me, I sent it to myself during our trip there last March (blog entry here).

Aprille celebrated her birthday this month so I posted this picture of us from a few years back

I ordered this clay mask from Althea back in January but I was only able to test it this month. (Watch my IG stories below if you’re curious to see how it looks :p)

I went for a medical this month and one of the tests required me to fast for three days. No red meat, chocolates, raw fruits and veggies allowed. Before I got started I decided to have one last sinful meal at Seoul Kitchen

Ezra had her birthday on the 18th so I posted this picture of us from our cruise last February (blog/vlog here)

My favorite brother-in-law also celebrated his birthday this month. Welcome to your 30’s Kurt!

Camille and I had merienda at Boards Up one afternoon. They have a wide selection of board games you can play while you’re there. We decided to try Exploding Kittens. It would have been a fun game if there were more people playing with us.

INSTABITS : March 2017

Hallu everyone! We’ve entered the second quarter of 2017, where did the weeks go? Anyway, it’s time for my monthly Instagram dump. I’m proud to say that I’m posting this earlier than usual 🙂

On the first day of March, I received a text from Dustin telling me to wear black to the office #ootdbeshies

We were craving Greek salad so we decided to get some takeout from Chubby Habbi’s

Amie, Dustin and I went to SM San Pablo to watch a movie and discovered that The Face Shop was having a 5+5 sale on face masks. Of course Amie and I took advantage of it.

Ma’am Ivy invited us to their house for dinner one evening. Her husband is a great cook and they prepared spaghetti aux crevettes and boeuf bourguignon for us. So so so yummy! Thanks Ma’am Ivy and Sir Junjun!

For International Women’s Day one of my students gave me this balloon  😙🎈🎉 Thank you!!

Some colleagues and I went to Malaysia for a conference last month (blog entry HERE). Dustin took this photo of me at NAIA. We had to leave our house at 2am so most of us had less than an hour of sleep.

This was the view from our Airbnb in Penang ❤

On our first night there we had dinner at the food court in Queensbay Mall. It was called Queen’s Hall.

The next day we somehow all found ourselves wearing black. This time it wasn’t planned.

We rented bikes to explore Georgetown. Of course I chose a pink one :p