Color Manila Run 2017

From the title you can probably tell that this post is obviously late. But then again, when have I ever posted on time?

Back in January 2017 (more than a year ago, oops) Dustin and I joined the Color Manila Run. We’ve been dreaming of being part of the Color Run for a while now, so when the opportunity came up, we decided to sign up for it. We did it on impulse, without considering other factors, such as how we would get to MOA by 4am that day, and the fact that we signed up for a 10k run when we hardly exercised over the holidays. Thankfully Raf opened his home to us (and even gave us a ride to MOA early that morning), and the run wasn’t that intense since people were more concerned about taking photos than actually running.

This was my first 10k run (and Dustin’s too I think). I remember we were so nervous days before that we ended up over training and giving ourselves mild electrolyte imbalance. We both had to spend an entire day in bed and almost missed the race. Thankfully we recovered in time and we had a great experience.

I posted a few photos from the race on my January 2017 INSTABITS, as well as my Week 1/52 of my 2017 project, and this weekend I finally finished editing a very short vlog from that day. Enjoy 😀

 

(Silly me forgot to change my GoPro housing so it was covered in colorful dust after this race… Fortunately it still works)

Phuket (Thailand) 2017 : Diamond Princess Cruise

My last entry for our Singapore – Malaysia – Thailand cruise last February. It’s been more than a year so I should probably finish uploading all of these.

After Penang, our next stop was Phuket, Thailand. The port was small so we had to take a tender to go ashore:

It was Ezra’s first time going on the tender. She was pretty excited.

Our first stop was the Thai Cultural Village:

We were greeted by performers wearing Thai national outfits:

We were ushered into the theater for the performance:

They performed various traditional dances that showed off the rich Thai culture

INSTABITS : January 2018

My first Instabits entry for 2018 is over a month a late – not a good start XD  Things have been a bit busy here lately. Big changes are coming in the upcoming months and I’ve been doing my best to prepare for them. It’s a little stressful, but extremely exciting as well. I’ve been going through a rollercoaster of emotions these past few weeks, and I expect it will get even worse once April is here. A new chapter is coming guys! I’m excited and scared at the same time 😀

I started the year off by buying a new vlogging camera : the Canon G7x mark 2. For the past 2 years I’ve used my Canon Vixia Mini X to vlog, but it’s been having problems these past few months and it finally gave out in January.  I may have only used it for two years, but it has served me well. It went with me to Thailand, Greece, Spain, Italy, Montenegro, Gibraltar, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea and the USA. If I could I would repurchase the same camera, unfortunately Canon doesn’t make them anymore. However I’ve heard great things about the G7x so hopefully I’ll end up loving this camera too 😊 So far I’ve been impressed with the picture and video quality, but I do miss the wide angle the Vixia Mini has, as well its amazing audio.

My relatives in the US are addicted to Ocean Star Dimsum. They go there practically every other weekend. I got the chance to eat there twice during our visit and I can see why they love it so much.

Usually after dimsum they would go downstairs to get some Half and Half (it’s a popular milk tea place there). Here’s a group photo we took while we waited for everyone to finish their drink.

Since Raffy has never played in the snow, my aunt took us to Big Bear Snow Play. I’ve only been here once before, back in 2012 (blog entry HERE). We had a blast spending the afternoon sliding down the snowy hill.

We also found Olaf (or a haggard version of him)

I don’t own any winter clothes but fortunately I have a sister that’s the same size as me (more or less :p)

For our last few days in the US, my parents book a 3-day cruise that would take us to Catalina Island and Mexico. Unfortunately Ezra wasn’t able to join us because she had to work.

On our first day we docked at Catalina Island. It’s tiny but beautiful.

It rained most of the day but we still had a good time

I ran into this fella while we were there. According to Ezra and Kurt I’m a seal (don’t ask why 😣). They found this statue back in 2015 during their honeymoon and named it “Sealmela”. Finally got the chance to see it in person 😂

Since Catalina Island is tiny, the best way to explore it is with these golf carts that you can rent near the port. We rented one for 1 and 1/2 hrs and got to see a lot of the island. First time driving in America whooo 😂 (If you don’t count the time I drove around my Aunt’s neighborhood for a video shoot with Kurt and Ezra)

Diamond Princess takes us to Malaysia (Kelang & Penang)

Hallu everyone! Finally an update on our Singapore trip/cruise which took place last February. Yes, this entry is almost a year late XD

If I remember correctly, we left off after our had just arrived in Singapore and we spent our day wandering around the Cloud Forest at the Gardens By The Bay (blog entry here). The following morning, we headed to the Cruise terminal to board the Diamond Princess

After 5 cruises, I finally made it to Platinum Card status 😀

This basically means I get preferred boarding (goodbye long lines) and free internet on the ship (hooray!)

Ezra was really excited about being back on the Diamond Princess, since her last cruise was also on this same ship (Japan cruise blog entry here)

She was most excited about the buffet

Her goal on the cruise was to fatten up (since she lost a lot of weight in the US), while my goal was to not eat too much XD

After lunch we took a nap, attended the safety drill then checked out the sail-away party that was happening on the pool deck:

Ezra with her ice cream – still trying to gain weight

*Near~ Far~ Wherever you are~*

We spent our first day on the ship relaxing and eating. That evening my parents and I went back to the pool deck to watch Dr. Strange on the big screen.

(The vlog for this day can be found at the end of this entry)

The following day the Diamond Princess docked in Kelang, Malaysia:

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 : 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

Singapore 2017 : Lost in the cloud

Ezra visited the Philippines last February so we grabbed the opportunity to go on a cruise with her. The last time we went on a cruise together as a family was back in 2015, for our Japan-Korea cruise. This time my parents signed us up for a cruise that would take us around Thailand and Malaysia. It begins (and ends) in Singapore so we had to fly there. We wanted to explore Singapore as well so we decided to arrive a day before the ship was scheduled to leave.

We took an early flight so we were all pretty much half awake at the airport. And it didn’t help that Ezra set her alarm to go off at 1am that morning, and just kept snoozing it for the next hour.

We found this giant golden chicken at the airport because 2017 is the year of the rooster. (This was in February so the Lunar New Year had just ended.)

My parents managed to get hold of Singapore Airline’s promo fare, which included free entrance to Gardens by the Bay. We had to claim our tickets to the park  at the airport when we arrived in Singapore:

Just like all our previous visits to Singapore, we stayed at the Strand Hotel in Bencoolen Street.

We used to get the family room but this time Ezra and I shared a room and my parents stayed next door

One thing we love about this place is that it’s located right across the street from a Kopitiam/food court. This year we learned that it’s now called Food Republic.

Naturally that’s where we decided to have lunch

The place was packed, we had to wait a while before securing a table

I ordered my favorite – roast duck and char siew. We also got some sugar cane juice to wash things down

After this we looked for a taxi to take us to Gardens by the Bay:

Just like the airport, the place was decorated for Lunar New Year:

One-day tour of Taiwan (Goodbye Golden Princess)

This entry is about the last day of our Japan-Taiwan cruise last September 2016. It’s over a year late, but I can only edit and sort photos during my free time, which I don’t get often.

We spent most of our last morning on the Golden Princess packing to go home. We had to be off the ship by 8am, so we were up bright and early. We were in a rush trying to make it on time so naturally I wasn’t able to take photos, but here’s two from when we were waiting at the Wheelhouse Bar for our turn to disembark.

Since our flight wasn’t until the evening, we booked an independent tour around Taiwan. Our guide picked us up at the port and took us to Yehliu Geopark, where we saw lots of interesting rock formations near the sea:

The place was beautiful, but it was also extremely hot! We were sweating buckets by the end of our visit here. In the photo above I was barely able to keep my hand on the rail for the shot because it felt like molten lava.

Week 31/52 : The earth has music for those who listen

It’s almost Halloween! Just a few more weeks till the end of the year and I’m just about halfway through this project, eeek!

This was taken in Gibraltar during our cruise last July (see, I do take photos, I just can’t find the time to edit and post them T__T). We went to the botanical gardens and looked around for a bit. It was pretty, but extremely hot, so we didn’t stay too long.

Thanks to my mom for taking the photo!

(Quote in the title is by George Santayana)

Week 30/52 : Someday I will be queen, but I will always be myself

I just came back from a glorious 1-week trip to Korea. It was amazing, very much like a dream come true. I started really getting into K-dramas and K-pop back in 2010 (during my MS days), and since then I’ve always wanted to visit Korea. I visited Busan for a few hours back in 2015 (as part of our Japan-Korea cruise), but it was hardly enough time for me to really experience the culture. This past week has been one of the most memorable weeks of my life 🙂

One of my favorite part of the trip was when I got to wear a hanbok (the traditional Korean outfit). During our first few days in Korea we saw several people wearing them and I knew I had to experience it myself. We had the perfect opportunity during our visit to the Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was only two hours but I loved every minute of it. Definitely something I recommend everyone to do 🙂

Thanks to Amie for this shot!

(Quote in the title is by Garnet Til Alexandros XVII from Final Fantasy 9)