I’m alive! (Life updates)

What’s this? An update?? After over 2 years of complete silence??? Is this for real????

Believe it or not, I’m still around and this blog is still alive, albeit barely. I thought for sure that WordPress would have shut this blog down by now due to inactivity, but thankfully it’s still up. These past few days I’ve been enjoying reading through my old entries and reminiscing about the good old days. I never thought that this blog would see another entry, but I realized that I really liked reading (and even writing) about things I did in the past, and if I want to continue to have something to look back on in the future, then I should probably start updating more.

I may have dropped the ball on this blog, but that was only because of how crazy things got over the past two years. If you look at the last entry I made, it was dated February 29, 2020. I guess I don’t need to elaborate what happened around March 2020 for you to understand what I mean when I say things got “crazy”. Sure, Japan didn’t have it as bad as other parts of the world, but it was still a very unstable time for all of us. These past 2 years had been a whirlwind of emotions as I worked to finish my PhD in the middle of the pandemic, but things are starting to settle down (or at least I hope they are) and I finally earned my degree, which means I now have some time to breathe and get back to some of my old hobbies.

However weird it may be, I plan to continue my whole “Instabits” series, picking up where I left off in my last entry (June 2019). I think this series is the closest thing I have to a diary since it documents my monthly milestones. I already started editing the video compilations of my IG stories for the series, but it seemed strange to just pick up the blog right where I left off after I’ve been gone for so long, so I figured that before I do that I should probably give you guys a general update of what has been happening in my life these past 2 years. Don’t worry, I won’t talk about everything that happened, but I want to share some of my major life updates:

(There’s only six in total, so hopefully this entry won’t be too long.)

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1. Ray and I got married!

I am officially a married woman! Ray and I decided to tie the knot on our 2nd anniversary as boyfriend-girlfriend, which was on May 3, 2021. We always talked about getting married after I finished my PhD, so this was a bit of a surprise for both of us. I always pictured us moving back to the Philippines together after I graduated, and having our wedding there. However, after talking about it and consulting with our friends and loved ones, we figured “why wait?”, especially in these uncertain times. We were together most of the time anyway, and we definitely knew we wanted to marry each other, so there’s really no reason for us to put it off. The only thing we really needed to postpone was starting a family, since I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle being pregnant while doing my PhD experiments. Plus it would be very dangerous for the fetus to be exposed to the many chemicals and X-rays that I frequently handle in my lab. Aside from that, we realized that there was nothing stopping us from getting married while I was still a student.

Our wedding took place in the middle of the pandemic. We just had a small ceremony at our house because Kyoto was in a State-of-Emergency during that time and large gatherings were discouraged. Japan’s borders were closed to outsiders which meant that none of our family members were able to attend our wedding physically. Naturally they were sad about not being able to help us with the wedding preparations, but fortunately we had a lovely group of friends who helped us with everything. And thanks to Zoom, they were still able to attend the ceremony virtually. We were worried that they would be upset that we decided to have a wedding which they could not attend physically, but they were all very supportive and extremely happy that we were finally getting married. (But we did have to promise that we would have another ceremony/wedding reception in the Philippines once this was possible.)

Our small wedding party at home

I made a vlog about how we prepared for our wedding, so you can just watch that:

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2. We’re pregnant!

Like I mentioned in #1, Ray and I really want to start our family but we had to wait until I finished my PhD because there was no way my mental health could handle the stress of being a PhD student and being pregnant at the same time. Also, we didn’t want to risk our baby’s health as I did my experiments around harmful substances. But once I passed my dissertation defense and was cleared to graduate then we were good to go!

Maybe I’ll make a separate entry about my experiences so far of being pregnant, but for now I’m just happy to announce that we’re expecting our baby bunny next year.

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3. I finished my PhD

I mentioned it several times already, but obviously I had to include it in this list since this had been my big goal for the past 4 years. It was the whole reason I came to Japan in the first place. My PhD started off great, but just like most PhDs, it became the source of many sleepless nights, anxiety attacks and tears. This was definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my entire life (well, so far…). Doing my PhD in the middle of the pandemic was not fun at all. There were so many times that I wanted to give up. I definitely struggled A LOT. I won’t talk about everything I went through here, maybe I’ll write about it in a future blog entry if I feel like it. But just know that my mental health was at an all time low during the last year of my PhD and Ray had to talk me through several panic attacks. If it weren’t for the support and constant prayers of Ray, my family, and friends, I probably would have broken down and gone back to the Philippines. I’m just so thankful that I had that support system to pick me up and remind me of God’s plans during my darkest days.

(Just to be clear, my struggles were not a reflection of how my professors and labmates treated me. They were all very kind and supportive. I struggled mostly because of my pride and refusal to relinquish control of my life. I didn’t go through any “abuse” that many PhD students go through, but the journey is just really difficult because you feel like most of what’s happening are out of your control and things don’t always go according to plan. I think any PhD student can relate to this.)

But despite all the challenges, I finally got my degree and I’m free from both academic life and my mental health struggles ❤

My dream of wearing a hakama for my graduation was finally fulfilled

Had to represent UP too so I wore a sablay the following day for some photos

2018 Highlights

Happy 2019 everyone! I hope everyone is looking forward to what this new year has to offer. My social media has been flooded with 2018 highlights, and I figured since I had no plans to leave the house today I might as well do one myself. I used to make a blog entry like this every year, but these past few years have been so busy that I gave up. I’m glad I have some time this year to write another one.

Here are some of the things that made my 2018 incredible (in no particular order)

1. Awarded the MEXT Scholarship and moved to Japan to pursue my PhD at Kyoto University

Being a MEXT scholar is a long time dream I didn’t think was possible. For those who don’t know, I actually applied in 2016 but I didn’t make it. Of course my confidence took a huge blow and I started to believe that my dream of studying in Japan was not going to happen, that it wasn’t meant for me. But support from family/friends and God’s promises kept me strong and I tried again in 2017. I received my notice of acceptance around the end of January 2018 and things took off from there 🙂

Living in Japan has been something I wanted to do ever since I was young. I think I was heavily influenced by my uncle, who was also a MEXT scholar. He always had wonderful stories about his experiences in Japan, and I think that’s what started everything. Also, both my BS and MS advisers were MEXT scholars, so my desire to study in Japan grew as I was mentored by them during my student years.

Right now I’m a D1 student at Kyoto University. I never imagined I would be studying here – one of the top universities in Japan. I’ve only been there for 9 months, but so far it’s been an incredible experience.

2. Got baptized and strengthened my personal relationship with God and other Christians.

One of the best things that happened to me this year was strengthening my relationship with God. I actually started attending bible study in 2017, but I didn’t get baptized until early 2018. Believe it or not, what drove me to truly seek God during this time was when I failed to receive the MEXT scholarship. As mentioned earlier, it really shattered my self confidence and got me thinking about a lot of things – like my purpose in life. It was then that several people encouraged me to read the bible. I had a hard time understanding it at first so Amie offered to be my bible study leader. Through her guidance I started to get to know God personally and it’s been an incredible journey. This experience showed me that He has great plans for us. If I had been accepted into the MEXT scholarship when I first applied, my life would be so different, and mostly likely not for the better. Moving to a different country was extremely difficult, and graduate school is no walk in the park. The only thing that keeps me going at times is my faith.

Also, becoming a Christian really opened up my world. I met so many incredible people on the same journey as me, and together we push each other to grow spiritually.

Of course one of the first things I did after I became a Christian was to look for a church in Japan. With God’s guidance I found the Assembly Kyoto Church (AKC). I am forever thankful that I was lead to this church and I met so many people here who has become my family in Japan.

3. Travelled + explored new places with friends and family

This year was extremely busy but I still managed to travel and go sightseeing with loved ones:

In January my mom and I went to Big Bear Mountain with Ezra, Ninang and Raffy, where we had fun sliding down a snowy hill over and over again.

Also in January my parents and I went on a cruise around Mexico and Catalina Island.

In February I went to Ilocos with my parents and Dustin. We explored Vigan, Paoay, Laoag, Batac and Pagudpud.

Dustin and I also went to the Dessert Museum in February. I know it’s not anywhere far and doesn’t really count as “travel”, but I really wanted to go here and I’m so glad we got that chance.

Staycation at Cintai Corito’s Garden

These pictures were taken during my mom’s birthday back in 2015. I haven’t had much time to blog so I have entries that are over a year late T__T

For my mom’s birthday we decided to have a staycation at Cintai Corito’s Garden in Batangas. According to their website, “cintai” is the Indonesian word for “love”. The resort was originally a rest house that the owners liked to visit occasionally. The mother (Corito) had a terminal disease and her family often brought her to the garden because it relaxed her. After she died, her family decided to open the place up to the public and share its beauty with the world.

The whole place is Bali-inspired, so if you don’t have the time (or budget) to go to Bali, this is a pretty good alternative. The gardens are beautiful and oftentimes I found myself forgetting that I’m still in the Philippines because it truly felt like I was transported to Bali. Also, I don’t know if the place is just really big or because there was a storm that day, but we barely saw other guests in the resort. But we knew they were there because we would see them in the restaurant during meal time.

Anyway, here are some photos we took during our short stay there:

The entrance

The “lobby” where guests check in

The Elephant Bar where they serve complimentary drinks

The movie room. Guests can call the staff to schedule a film showing here during their stay.

I forgot what this place was called, but if I remember correctly, it’s a function hall

Massage cabanas

Another huge hall – this one is open air

Week 52/52: If you never try, you’ll never know

Ta-dah! I made it! Another buzzer beater before 2016 ends 🙂 I actually had this photo ready for about two weeks now. It was taken by Jason right after our office Christmas party. I really like it so I decided I would make it my last self portrait for the year. For some reason it gives me the feeling of hope, which is exactly what I want for the upcoming year.

I know that a lot of people have said that 2016 was a terrible year, but personally it was one of the most amazing and memorable years of my life. We had our share of unfortunate events (we lost two members of our family during the first quarter of 2016), but we were also showered with plenty of blessings. This was the year that I forced myself to be more adventurous and experience new things, and I have so much to show because of it. I learned so much about myself these past few months and I believe I’ve grown a lot as a person. I also met some amazing people this year, and for that I’m very grateful. 2016 – you had your ups and downs, but overall I am a better person because of you and for that I thank you.

Vlog : Holidays 2015 + Canon Vixia Mini X

I just realized that I never shared this video here on my blog. Probably because things were a little crazy during the holidays. Anyway, these are just random clips I took over the Christmas break using my new Canon Vixia Mini X. I decided I needed a vlogging camera with a screen and better audio, so I asked Ezra and Kurt to buy this for me. Luckily Ninang was scheduled to visit the Philippines so she was able to bring it with her just in time for our family’s Thailand trip.

You’ll also see lots of footage with my bunny, Mochi in this video. I got him around November so he was still pretty new to the family in this video. (And back then we thought he was a girl, so I kept referring to him as “she”.)

Hello perfect vision! (Getting my first contact lenses)

After years of harboring a fear of touching my eyeballs, I finally decided that it was time for me to try wearing contacts.  I’ve had glasses for almost 20 years now and I’ve always been curious about contacts, but the thought of placing a piece of glass directly on my cornea made me shudder. I’ve been told that it was painless and once you get used to it, you won’t even realize that it’s there – but there’s still the issue of having to touch my eyeball to put it on and take it out. I’ve always imagined myself trying out contacts and having to go to the hospital to get them removed because I’d be too scared to pinch them out myself. The thought of anything touching my eyes bothers me so much that I can’t even put eye drops on properly. I need to use at least 3 drops in each eye because 80% of it runs down my face. And although I’ve conquered my fear of applying eyeliner and mascara on myself (who knew vanity could be such a great motivator) I still can’t handle other people putting eye makeup on me. I would flinch and turn away whenever a hand (that’s not mine) comes close to my eyeball. I’ve been scolded several times by makeup artists at events because it’s so hard for me to keep my eyes open while they line my waterline or do anything with my lashes.

New blog layout : Adelle

After two years, I decided to update my blog layout again.  I really liked my old one, but the space allotted for the actual text was way too small.  I never noticed it before when I was using my Sony Vaio laptop, but ever since I upgraded to my Dell laptop (which has a much larger screen and resolution), you can really see how much space is being wasted:

Notice how most of the screen is occupied by just my background.  The space where the blog entry actually goes is only about a quarter of the width of the screen (since I have a sidebar).

But like I said, I didn’t have that issue when I was using my old laptop.  I posted this screencap back in November 2013 when I first started using my old blog layout:

This is what my blog looked like when I was using my old laptop. The text occupied most of the screen and the background was only there to add some color to the site.

My Diamond Princess Experience

Our family went on a cruise around Japan and Korea last month, and it was so amazing that I had to make an entry about it right away. I’ll be posting detailed entries about each day we spent there, but this is just a quick summary of our experience on the ship.  I did something similar for when we went on the Golden Princess last year (read blog entry HERE).  We had such a magical time back then that my parents immediately booked another cruise with them again last October.  Unfortunately, Ezra and I couldn’t come with them because of classes, so they booked another one this May for the entire family.  Both the Golden Princess and Diamond Princess are owned by Princess Cruises, so there were a lot of similarities between the two.

Our cruise started in Yokohama, at the Osanbashi Pier

Ezra and I were so excited to be going on another Princess Cruise.  This year, Princess is celebrating its 50th anniversary, yay!

Since we already had our luggage tags prepared, we just headed over to the luggage drop off counter and left our bags there.  After this we sat down and waited for the ship to start boarding.

Bags at the pier waiting to be delivered to the guests’ rooms

Ezra and I were assigned to stateroom C724, which was the room my parents had when we went on our Alaskan Cruise – though that was a different ship of course.  But still, we thought it was a funny coincidence.

Our room looked pretty much identical to the one we had last year.

Since this was our second cruise with them, Princess upgraded us to gold card status 🙂

(The blue card at the bottom is from last year’s cruise)

We also found this “Welcome Back” card in our room

Aren’t they sweet?  Since we are now repeat passengers, we were invited to the Captain’s Circle Membership Event

It’s a simple event with cocktails and a raffle draw.  The ship’s captain thanked everyone for choosing Princess Cruises again.  They also gave recognition to people on board that have spent the most days with them.  The winning couple spent over 1000 days at sea already!  I can’t imagine how they did that.  That’s over 3 years of cruising!  So far Ezra and I have a total of 15 days with Princess.  We’ve got a looooong way to go.

This year, my parents got a room with a balcony, so we hung out there a few times during our stay

This trip was meant to celebrate my parent’s 31st wedding anniversary, as well as Ezra’s birthday.  When you book your cruise, they ask you if there are any special events they should be aware of, so they can prepare a special gift for you.  You can specify the date you want that event celebrated, in case you are celebrating late or early.  In our case, my parents chose to celebrate their anniversary 4 days late, and Ezra celebrated her birthday exactly 1 month later.

The wonderful crew at the Sta. Fe dining hall presented my parents with a cake on their “anniversary”

And gave them this card

Ezra also received a card in our room on the morning of her “birthday”

As well as a cake and birthday song during dinner (again from the Sta. Fe crew)

The staff also decorates your stateroom door with balloons on your special day.  This is what ours looked like since my parents’s room and our room were facing each other:

(Ezra and I decided to wear matching dresses for her “birthday”)

Our cruise consisted of 4 shore excursions and 2 sea days.  We maximized our sea days (as well as our nights on the ship) by participating in various events and watching shows at the Atrium or Princess Theater.

On our first sea day, the ship organized a $1000 treasure hunt.  To participate, you had to go to different areas of the ship and have your card stamped before dropping it off at the Atrium for a chance to win.

Books Read in 2014

In this post I have compiled all the books I read in 2014. This took a while to put together because I’m terrible at summarizing and rating books.

Roomies (Sara Zarr, Tara Altebrando) – A story about two girls who was assigned to be roomates in college and how they got to know each other through email.  I couldn’t relate to them that much since I never had the dorm experience, but it was still a nice read. 3.5 out of 5 stars

If You Find Me (Emily Murdoch) – About two girls who grew up in the woods after their mother hid them there.  Their father eventually found them and brought them back to civilization where they struggled to adapt to regular society. 3 out of 5 stars

Some Girls Are (Courtney Summers) – Highschool life and drama. A popular girl loses her popularity and had to turn to the people she used to bully for comfort. 3 out of 5 stars

Falling for the Ghost of You (Nicole Christie) – Generic story of a playboy and an innocent girl who try to fight the odds. 2.8 out of 5 stars

Split (Swati Avasthi) – A story about domestic violence and how two brothers manage to escape their abusive father.  4.3 out of 5 stars

Cruel Beauty (Rosamund Hodge) – Goodreads describes it as “Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast” so I had high hopes for this.  Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped.  I skipped a lot of parts that confused me. 2.6 out of 5 stars.

Better off Friends (Elizabeth Eulberg) – Macallan and Levi became friends instantly when Levi transferred to her school. Everyone knows they should be together, but they’re too scared to ruin their friendship.  A light and fluffy read.  I enjoyed this a lot. 4.5 out of 5 stars

My Favorite Mistake (Chelsea M. Cameron) – This had a high rating on Goodreads but it was just another generic college romance story. 2 out of 5 stars

Wonder (R.J. Palacio) – This is one of my favorite books for 2014.  It took me a while to get through it because it’s not the typical love stories I like to read, but once I got into it I couldn’t put it down.  It’s about a little boy with a disfigured face, and how he touches the lives of people around him.  It was such a heartwarming story and it made me cry more times than I could count. I wrote a short review which you can read HERE. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Making Faces (Amy Harmon) – This is a story about a girl who was in love with the town’s resident pretty boy, but things changed when he left and returned with a different face than what people remembered.  I abandoned this book halfway through – not because it was horrible, but simply because I didn’t enjoy it that much and I didn’t want to waste my time on it.  I give it 2 out of 5 stars.

Me Before You (Jojo Moyes) – Lou Clark gets a job taking care of Will Traynor, a cynical paraplegic who lost his desire to live.  It took me a while to get through the first part of this book because it dealt with some heavy issues, but once I reached the halfway point I just couldn’t put it down.  Like Wonder, this book made me shed so many tears.  I had to lock myself in my room to finish the last few chapters in peace, and by the time I came out my eyes were puffy and swollen.  I give this 4.7 out of 5 stars.

We Were Liars (E. Lockhart) – This book was pretty popular on Goodreads and I see it a lot in the Bestsellers section of National Bookstore.  I wasn’t as impressed with it though.  I was bored for the majority of the story and only started to enjoy it towards the end. There was too much mystery and I felt confused for the most part.  Although I gotta say, the last part of the book was pretty interesting.  3.5 out of 5 stars

Playing for Keeps (R.L. Mathewson ) – The ratings for this book on Goodreads is incredibly high, so I was shocked to discover that this book read like a poorly written fanfic.  It was funny, fluffy and (in some parts) ridiculous.  I couldn’t believe that the characters in the story were adults because they behaved like children most of the time.  1.5 out of 5 stars.

Like Gravity (Julie Johnson) – I remember reading this book, but I couldn’t remember what it was about until I read the reviews from other people.  I guess that’s a clear sign of how unmemorable this was.  Considering how much I love NA romance, this didn’t do it for me at all. 1.5 out of 5 stars.

There is No Light in Darkness (Claire Contreras) – Another book that I remember reading but can’t recall the story unless I read  other people’s reviews. But I do remember that this ended on a cliffhanger and I didn’t even bother looking up the next book in the series because I didn’t really care about the story that much.  1.4 out of 5 stars.

Almost Home (Joan Bauer) – I normally really enjoy pre-teen stories because they’re light and fun to read, but this one dealt with some serious issues.  I think the main reason I picked this book up was because of the cute dog on the cover. It’s not something I enjoyed, but I do admire Sugar for her strength and wisdom. 3 out of 5 stars

Divergent Series (Veronica Roth) – I think most people have seen the movie by now and are familiar with the story.  I LOVED the first book (and the movie adaptation).  The idea of the 4 factions and the choosing ceremony was awesome.  I’ve been wondering what faction I’ll be in and I’m guessing it would either be Erudite or Amity.  I give the first book a definite 5 out of 5 stars. But the 2nd and 3rd book wasn’t that great. I give both 3 out of 5 stars.

Looking back on 2014

I’m finally posting this.  As some of you may know, I write a wrap up entry every year here on my blog.  I do it so I can look back on the important and memorable events which took place in those 12 months.  Here’s my entry for 2014.  Some of the items on my list are linked to blog entries I posted previously.  I’m still catching up on blogging so some of the later events don’t have entries yet.

January

• Explored Luneta Park with Raffy and Ezra (and afterwards we dropped by Alphaland to pick up my GoPro, yaaay~)
• Went to Baguio and Dagupan with the family to visit NIFTDC.  I learned a lot about my mom’s research on this trip.
• PLAN A
• Celebrated the Lunar New Year (and Tita Son’s birthday) with the family

March

• My highschool friends, Eugene and Cherry, were visiting the Philippines at the time and I was able to have dinner with them 😀
• IMSP held the first IMSP All Stars Concert to celebrate our 30th foundation day. I’m not much of a dancer but I had a lot of fun performing with the people I work with.

April

• My first two thesis advisees successfully defended their work and passed, yay 😀
• Celebrated April’s birthday by having lunch at Baan Thai
• Celebrated Ezra and Kurt’s birthday
• Went to California for the summer.  Kurt took us to Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica and Little Tokyo on our first weekend there

May

• Played with some wax figures at Madame Tussauds in Hollywood, and ate some yummy Korean BBQ afterwards
• Enjoyed frolicking in the sun at Zuma Beach in Malibu
• Had a magical day at Disney’s California Adventure 😀
• Celebrated our parent’s 30th anniversary with an 8-day Alaskan Cruise
• Saw some amazing art at LACMA
• Played around at the California Science Center
• Saw a bunch of adorable animals at the LA Zoo
• Played frisbee at Playa Del Rey Beach