Day 25 — Your day, in great detail

Welp, today wasn't anything exceptional, but I feel like blogging. :)

Today's Thursday, July 29, and I had no work, so I got to sleep in. I slept til about 940am, got up and made myself a yummy breakfast of hot dogs, eggs, and rice (kinda typical Filipino breakfast :P). I ate said breakfast in front of the tube watching America's Next Top Model. I watched two or three and a half episodes of Cycle 5 yesterday on Oxygen, and there was only another episode and a half left until the finale, but I had to leave for Ultimate Frisbee, so I recorded it. The show's kind of addicting, I have to admit, haha.

After breakfast, I spent a bit of time on my laptop, checking my typical email and Facebook. Took a shower, and then spent a good amount of time deciding what to pack for my weekend trip to Virginia Beach. I've never been to Virginia Beach before, and I'm going with my boyfriend and a couple of our friends, so hopefully it'll be a good, relaxing time :) I checked the weather, and it looks like it's going to rain on Sunday (just 40% chance tho), and it's raining now, which is unfortunate, but okay b/c we're leaving Sunday and I think tomorrow and Saturday will be okay.

After getting pretty much all of my packing done, my sister and I headed out. First stop was the dry cleaner's to pick up some of Fields' stuff for him because he had a crazy amount of stuff to do for work before our weekend trip because of the travel for work he's got coming up (I'm not even sure if he's home yet, and it's half past eight! Ridiculous.). After that we stopped by Kohl's because I thought Mom had said they had backpacks there and my sis has been looking for a new one, but we didn't see any there. So we trotted off to the clothes section instead, where we ran into my math buddy Katie (Of course we would run into each other at Kohl's, we both love that store and actually went there on our last day of classes, haha), so that was pretty cool to catch up with her for a bit :) I got myself two new shirts, one to match a brown skirt I have that needed a solid top, and this other shirt that I just found hilarious:

Lol, I love it. :P

It looks like the same design style as this other shirt I saw at JCPenney a long while ago that I really wanted, but I didn't see any other sizes that would fit me :( I got a picture of that one on my phone too, though, so I can at least still view it for my own amusement :P

After Kohl's, we headed for the library, which was my sister's reason for even coming out with me in the first place, haha. Three movies that she had put on hold came in, so we picked those up. She's on a Miyazaki fix right now, so she got Princess Mononoke and The Cat Returns, as well as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time from the creators of Digimon (I think that's what she told me). I hadn't seen The Girl Who Leapt Through Time before, but I'd heard of it (still can't remember where), so we watched that in our basement after we got home. I really liked it! It was funny and quirky and cute, although the ending to me left more to be desired. It wasn't an unhappy ending, but I always like my romantic happily ever after type endings, haha. Basically, he should have kissed her and then stuck around. I even painted a picture in my head of what my preferred ending should have looked like and described it all out to my sister, who seemed quite amused by my ranting and raving. All in all, though, it was a really enjoyable movie with relatable characters and beautiful imagery, and I'd definitely recommend seeing it, especially if you're into anime :)

 

After the movie, my sister and I came upstairs and went into our separate bedrooms, and I've pretty much just been chilling on my computer since. The plan for the rest of the night I guess is to chill on the World Wide Web for a bit longer, check and make sure I've packed everything I need for the weekend, watch some tv or another movie, and then read some of my bible before heading to sleep.

Like I said, today wasn't exceptional, but it wasn't a bad day by any means. It's been pretty enjoyable :)

Day 24 — Whatever tickles your fancy

I wants me some crazy maki.

I'm not a big sushi person, but this sushi that we tried at a restaurant called Misato the last night we were in the Philippines was absolutely delectable. The rice was coated with crunchy tempura bits and it was all topped off with a bunch of crab meat. It might have been more crab meat actually inside the roll with the seaweed and all, buuuut I don't actually know since I just ate each sushi piece in one go. It was quite a mouthful.

Nom nom nom.. I wants sooome.

Why do I always get hungry right before it's time to sleep? -_-

Right now I'm thinking I may try to brave some Chipotle after work tomorrow. I haven't had any since I've been back from the PI because my stomach just hasn't worked up a big enough appetite yet. I guess I'll have to see tomorrow if tummy's up for the tasty challenge... :]

| edit - Thurs, July 29 | 

Just in case you were wondering, my stomach totally lived up to the Chipotle challenge the next day. :P

Days 20-23

I'm kind of tired of dragging out this 30-day blog thing, so here's a four-in-one! :)

Day 20 — A hobby of yours
In my spare time, I obviously spend quite a bit of time on the internet. Facebook is checked quite regularly, I'll admit, but more often than not it's more of a distraction from something I'm supposed to be doing rather than something I just lounge on all day and night long. Nah, my time on the internet is often spent watching videos on YouTube or something of the like - it's kind of ridiculous how quickly time passes when watching video after video after random video. I also watch episodes of Supernatural (other shows too, if I want to catch up, but right now I'm on Supernatural :] ).

Other hobbies? I've been a bookworm ever since I was a kid. Heck, reading Nancy Drew by flashlight in the third grade is the reason I have glasses, I'm pretty sure. While I don't read as often as I used to, I still enjoy it just as much, and if I find a really good book/series, I can still probably finish one book in a few days to a week. There's just something about getting lost in another world with awesome characters that is so engrossing :)

Day 21 — A recipe
Step 1: Take a box of your favorite cereal from the pantry.
Step 2: Pour some into a bowl.
Step 3: Add milk.
Step 4: Enjoy. They're grrrrreat! :P

I was going to try my hand at learning to cook this summer, but it's just been so much busier than I anticipated :( I do know how to make some things, like shrimp alfredo & breakfast burritos, but it doesn't stretch much further than that.

Day 22 — A website
Wong Fu Productions. These guys are genius! I always love their videos. Most of them are funny, but there are also some touching ones and awesome music videos mixed in, too. They're creative, cute, and clever. Check them out! :)

Day 23 — A YouTube video
A cute face and a random decisive click on YouTube led me to this music video, which I find fairly adorable :) ["Superman" - Joe Brooks]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otx0Bnru0dY

A couple steps closer..

I am getting ever closer to crossing the Atlantic Ocean and setting foot in Europe for the first time in my life! If you'll notice, I now have a countdown at the top of my page for the day I leave for my study abroad experience in Alba, Italy. Currently it says "It is 1 month, 2 weeks, & 2 days until I venture out for adventures across the ocean!" So exciting! :)

I've known for a while already when my departure date would be due to the schedule that the school's International Education has more or less in place for us, but I didn't want to put up a countdown until there was more.. official-ness. :P So what makes it more official today? Well, my plane ticket was secured about a week and a half ago, and today I now have my visa!

The visa was considerably easier to get than I expected. My boyfriend and I left this past Friday afternoon to go find the Italian embassy in DC, which was a mini-adventure (not exactly the fun kind) in and of itself. As a side note, I would never want to live in Washington DC - or any city, really, not my scene.. too busy and bustling and generally more polluted and crowded, with a higher risk of getting mugged - but anyway, DC is just so confusing. Whoever decided the layout of the streets and how to name them had extremely poor organizational skills. Most cities I think have pretty square layouts, right? If you look at a map, I imagine for other cities you'd see sensible blocks and straight streets with straightforward names like 1st St., 2nd St., etc, that follow a sensible order. DC had numbered streets, sure, that followed a somewhat logical order, and then it had roads like the one we needed to follow called Massachusetts Avenue, which we saw started as New York Avenue, changed back to Massachusetts, cut a corner through Mt. Vernon, then back to Massachusetts. Who does that?!? Just because Massachusetts takes a slight turn does not mean you need to rename it New York Ave. Mapquest should not be telling me that "Mt. Vernon Pl NW becomes Massachusetts Ave NW."  Roads should not have multiple identities! I declare that streets should not be permitted to have schizophrenia. And how does making a right turn off of Massachusetts, then an immediate left, and a turn around a roundabout take you back to the "same" road? Ridiculous. DC is completely ridiculous. If Fields hadn't taken me to get my visa, I might never have gotten to the embassy. I'd prolly have just gotten hopelessly and completely, frustratingly lost.

Anyway. After trickily navigating through the labyrinthine DC streets, we made it to the embassy. We got a pass from the guys at the gate and pushed buttons to open the doors (weird) to the consulate/visa office. It wasn't at all what I pictured it might look like. I imagined a nice classy open room with fancy desks where I could talk to a friendly person and get what I needed done. This looked more like a clinic waiting room. Very bare room, 3 counters with glass windows and little trays to slide documents from one side to the other. It kind of made me feel like I was in prison, not allowed to have any contact with the person on the other side of the glass (not that I wanted to anyway, but still, it wasn't very friendly feeling).

So I stepped up to the first free counter, and the guy behind the glass is still shuffling some stuff around his counter space, so I waited. Then he looked up at me and said nothing, so after a pause I asked what he needed, unsure of whether I should give him all the documents at once or if he wanted some certain thing first. I asked very politely, and it's not like I was taking a long time, but he responded, "Just give me everything!" quite impatiently. I was taken aback a bit, so I start rifling through my folders to get out what I knew was needed. As I'm doing so, he repeats "Everything, just give me everything," and I'm like okayy, I'm getting to it, just hold your horses buddy, you don't need my entire folder filled with everything the school's given us for the study abroad program. It was just like, my goodness. He's only working 2.5 hours every. other. day, what the heck is his problem? (That's another thing, the Visa office is only open MWF from 10am-1230pm, and they only take calls from 2pm-4pm. What?) So it was just like okay, here you go. Then he tells me I don't have bank statements that I need, and I'm like Crap. I forgot. , which just served to add to the feeling of incompetency his tone of voice and bored stare was giving me. Thankfully though, I didn't have to go back to the embassy to get it to them, I could fax them. So I faxed those in yesterday morning (Might I add that I think the fax number he gave me was wrong, because I tried like 3 times with it and it kept saying there was no response, so I had to use the one on the Italian Embassy website that was different).

And then today, upon arriving home from my dental appointment, I see on my bed the familiar pre-paid express mail envelope that I had to get ($18.30  just for an over-sized envelope! Agh. But that's what they required -_-) so they could mail my passport and such back to me. So this leads me to think Maybe the visa office isn't so bad after all. Regardless of their ridiculous hours and less than hospitable clerks, I have my visa! So I theoretically shouldn't have to deal with those or DC's insanity-inspired roads anymore. Hooray!

This means that I am pretty set to go to Italy aside from, you know, packing. :P There are also some other things I want to check up on, like the banking situation, voltage differences for the electronics I want to use, and possibly getting an International SIM card or whatever it's called for my phone. But still, the time-sensitive required stuff is good to go!

It still feels pretty surreal that I've got less than 2 months til I'll be in Italy. I'm starting to feel the excitement and anticipation build, along with some anxiousness. I don't know anybody in the group that's going, but hopefully that changes fast, cuz I need travel buddies! That's another thing: Where should I plan to go while I'm abroad? Hopefully I will have lots of travel opportunities while I'm there! And there's also the matter of getting a feel for the Italian language (we'll have a class there, but I've heard it's not the most efficient at getting realistically acclimated).. So much to do and think about in the next six and a half weeks! :)

Mabuhay!

[Wikipedia:]
"Mabuhay (pronunciation: mah-BOO-high) is a Tagalog word used to exclaim "long live". Comparable to the Romance language expression “Vive, Viva”, the salute associated with this exclamation; in which both arms are raised above the head in unison three times, is similar to that used in the Banzai. The expression is most often used at toasts (cheers!) during gatherings and parties, at rallies, political conferences, or for praising notable individuals. It is also an expression used in welcoming guests and a way of showing hospitality.
The root word buhay means life."

So my family and I just returned from a 3 and a half week long trip to the Philippines, where I gave my tagalog a good workout, haha. I wouldn't call myself entirely fluent, but I know enough to converse and get by, thanks to a 6-week stay there when I was 7 years old and had to pick up the language so my cousins would talk to me (they said I spoke English too fast for them to understand, so naturally, I had to conform, considering they outnumbered me :P). 

It was a pretty great trip, I hadn't been back to the PI since 2005 so it was really nice to see family again and all that. Some of my younger cousins have gotten so grown up, I can't get over it! We also got a lot of shopping done, plus we took a trip down to Boracay, which is basically the Hawaii of the Philippines, so it was amazing. We were there for I think about four days, and it was just so gorgeous. White sand all along the beach and into the water; no rocks or coral reefs to watch out for when swimming or anything! We also got to watch a show called ASAP (I don't know why it's called that, I'm pretty sure it doesn't stand for As Soon As Possible), which involves a bunch of the Filipino celebrities singing and dancing to mostly songs that are popular here in America. My parents watch it here in the states on TFC (The Filipino Channel), & usually I'm not really into it cuz I'm of the opinion where songs are most often best when sung by the original singers, but this particular show we went to I actually really enjoyed. They started with "Play that Funky Music," so it was really upbeat and got us all into the show, they did another Michael Jackson tribute including a slower version of "Thriller," which was interesting and actually sounded pretty good. Overall, I think there was more dancing and performances of songs from Filipino artists, which made the whole show more entertaining to watch for me. We have it recorded here on TFC at home, but still have yet to watch it. Our cousins and friends told us they focused on us several times (probably because we're considerably taller than the average Filipino :P), so that'll be cool to see ourselves on TV, haha.

 I have a bit over 1000 pictures/videos from the whole trip just on my camera, and then there are more from Dad's camera, so I've still gotta sort thru all of that and pick out the best ones and post some on FB. Dad has some cool panoramic shots on his cam as well as shots of fish-feeding and helmet diving in Boracay, but here's a sneak peek at some of our PI adventures from my batch of photos :)

Taal volcano as seen from a restaurant in Tagaytay

 Sunset in Boracay :]

Cousins :P

All in all, it was a fun trip, but it definitely feels good to be home sweet home. :)