Infinity pools. I only see them on MTV Cribs.

But someday, when I am filthy rich, I shall have one too!

Of course, a pool can’t really be infinite by itself (can it?). It needs the help of a larger body of water, like the ocean, so you can pretend your pool extends all the way to the horizon and beyond.

Well I can say I finally have bathed in an infinity pool! Yay me!

After getting all sweaty and smelly (of bat poo) at the Hinagdanan Cave, Gim and I badly needed some refreshment! We had two choices. Bohol Beach Club or Panglao Island Beach Resort. We were only in Bohol for a day, so we couldn’t choose both. Panglao Resort was right beside Hinagdanan, so that made the choice much easier. (I recently saw some pictures of Bohol Beach Club and it’s amazing, so we’re definitely reserving that for next year.)

Panglao Island Beach Resort looks very ordinary from the outside. We weren’t planning to go inside, we just stopped by to take a picture before we headed on to Hinagdanan, so I could post it on my blog and say I’d been there but I really hadn’t.

I know. I am awful blogger. I was gonna lie to you all.

Thankfully, Nards, our guide from the cave, told us Panglao was a very nice resort, with an infinity pool.

I was sold. By these very words. And because it was cheap, too. The entrance cost P350 ($8) per person, very cheap! P200 of that was consumable. So the entrance was really just P150.

There was a shoot going on when we got there. There was this very pretty girl with a skimpy two-piece bikini on, lying on the edge of the pool against a backdrop of infinite water and she was oiled and slutting it up for the camera. And NO, I did NOT take a picture of her.

There was a large tripod and a huge camera pointed at her, and a director barking orders at the crew. At the same time placating the star.

I was quite disappointed they were there, because I didn’t want to ruin the shoot by jumping into the pool or anything. *Heh* It was tempting. Very very tempting. So Gim and I just sat on the bamboo benches and laid out our stuff.

Then we changed into our swimwear… Hee. It was my first time to wear swimwear. And even then, well, it wasn’t exactly swimwear. I wore shorts and a sports top. Heh. (Trust me, you don’t want to see me reveal anything!!!)

Thank you, water, for enveloping me very nicely. Anyways by the time we’d finished changing, the shoot had wrapped up so we were free to splash and play and jump into the pool! But shower first, of course! And then — yipee!!! Splash, splash, splash!

Here’s the breathtaking view. Click the pics for bigger resolutions!

Beautiful, huh? And the great thing was that we had the place ALL to ourselves! Nobody was there but us! (Since the shoot people were done.) It was so much fun just lying around and playing in the pool! There were these little jets of water that shot from holes on the pool wall, they were soooo much fun…. And NO it was not THAT strong.

Then I asked Gim to pose like that girl in the shoot. Hee hee hee hee!!!! So he did.

Isn’t he the cutest???? LOL!!!

He’s gonna kill me for posting these. Hehehe!! So I’ll pose one he likes. He thinks he looks very sexy and “manly” here. Hee hee hee!!

Some more pics of him trying to look “manly”.

Hehehehe!!! And then we have the “clambering-up-over-pools” pics. Just because. Haha.

Oh and the pool is made up of smaller pools but they all share the same water. I like the parts that are right beside the plants, like these:

Oh and now it’s my turn for picture-taking! Humor me while I hide underneath the water.

And since I duly embarassed Gim in the pictures above, I will allow a bit of embarrassment for myself. Hee. (Gim made me do it!!!!)

And since I cannot swim, nor float in freshwater, well, er… this is the way I enjoyed myself.

Whee! Hahahaha.

Oh and another thing that’s cute about the resort is that it has a snack bar right at the edge of the pool, where the bar stools are cemented right inside the pool! How fun! Loved the concept! :-)

Unfortunately forgot to take a picture of the seats. But we did get the snack bar girl to take a pic of us! Don’t we look cute? Hahahaha!

More?

Hehehehe. We wanted to have lunch at the snack bar but we couldn’t. It was only for snacks daw. Hmph. We had to go to the second floor to eat lunch. But we were so hungry we didn’t mind.

Here’s what we ordered.

Fried chicken! Mmm!

Mmm, pasta with clams and garlic, and garlic bread! And mango shakes! It was a great meal!

Here’s my Gim!

And then there’s me!

Then afterwards we went right back to the pool again!

And I’ll not say the part where I wanted to pee so much I almost ran towards the toilet which I thought was a shower but it wasn’t, it was just a toilet, and there wasn’t any place to put my clean clothes anywhere and I was soooo in need I peed all over myself but there was no water (which is so kainis, hello it was a toilet!) so I gingerly sneaked out, made sure nobody was looking, carefully closed the door behind me so no one would smell anything and then, head help up unnaturally high, walked steadily to the shower room.

The end.

Read the other Bohol posts…
Bohol Tour Part IV: Hinagdanan Cave
Bohol Tour Part VI: Philippine Tarsiers
Bohol Tour Part VII: Statues and Churches
Bohol Tour Part VIII: Snakes and Flying Lemurs

Yes I have got myself a new phone. Does the happy dance!

It’s the Sony Ericsson Walkman phone, W960i. Not my first choice, but I couldn’t afford the W980, hehehe.

It’s my first high-end phone, and I am very excited to start making Java applications for it! :-) (Thesis, thesis…)

This unit cost me P18,000 (about $400) at 168 COMM, Greenhills and comes with a year’s store warranty. I better take care of this then hahaha, and sell it right before a year happens. (Gadgets seem to always fail in my hands after a year’s handling, or sometimes even less!)

It’s a very sleek model, it has a very glossy finish. It looks a lot, lot better in actuality than on this image I got from the SE website. This is my first SE phone also, by the way. I’m a Nokia fan, but I was using the extremely ugly-looking Samsung E250 for almost a year now (my boyfriend stole my pretty Nokia 6151 in exchange for his crappy phone, what could I do, I love him! His phone envy was seriously threatening our relationship, so I gave in. Hekhekhek. He’s lucky I’m not phone-crazy.)

I needed a Walkman series phone because my thesis deals with mobile sound, and everyone seems to concur, SE delivers the best audio among mobile phones. I was in love with the W760i for its GPS and accelerometer, gosh my Java brain was drooling with the potential applications I could create for it hehehe. It was cheap, too, at only P14,000 or $312. But when I saw the actual unit on sale, it was pretty darn ugly. Like a bumble bee radio. That’s what it looked like. So I gave it a pass. Anyways my thesis doesn’t really need neither the GPS nor the accelerometer. But damn I am gonna buy it later this year or right after I finish my thesis, ‘coz I wanna play with that ugly bug!! Heheheh.

Ended up buying the SE W960i for its wifi capabilities. I was drooling over that too, hehehe. Thinking of being able to freely surf on all the hotspots in Manila, ooooh, it’s making my skin tingle with anticipation. And I can make it into a modem, as well. So when I am somewhere there’s no hotspot (like Gim’s room in Dapitan), I can just surf via Smart 3G and let my laptop receive my phone’s wifi signal! Yay! No need for the overpriced prepaid SmartBro Plug and Play device (P3,800 or $85).

So. Had a bit of difficulty setting up wifi on my W960i today. The Internet wasn’t very helpful, no tutorials around. So for anyone’s who’s wondering how I got my WLAN to work, here’s how I did it.

Firstly, I have the WRT54GC Linksys router. My security settings were WPA 2 Personal, encryption AES. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get my W960i to connect to my router. It would be able to sense the presence of my router (shows up when I scan for wifi networks) but it would always ask me for the WEP key. Of course I didn’t have a WEP key since I was using WPA.

I tried to change my router settings from WPA to WEP, but my phone still wouldn’t connect even with the new settings, so if you’re thinking of trying this, just don’t. It won’t work.

What did work was for me to totally disable the security settings on my router, meaning no authentication whatsoever. It became a hotspot, everyone could connect to it. Once I had done that, my W960i was successfully able to connect to the WLAN and surf normally.

Now of course I couldn’t keep my router unsecure like that forever. So I returned it to it’s original settings, WPA 2 Personal, AES encryption. Once that was done, of course the W960i couldn’t connect again. By this time, the unsecure wireless connection had already been saved as the default WLAN connection on the W960i. All I had to do was create a new account, using the original (scanned) SSID, via the Internet account wizard, and there I was able to specify that this account used WPA instead of WEP and I was able to key in my AES encrypted passkey instead of the nonexistent WEP key.

And from then on, I’ve just been using this new account to securely connect to the Linksys WRT54GC router and surf on the W960i.

Okay, recap:

1. Disable security settings on your router. Open it, no authentication.
2. On your W960i, go to Menu –> Tools –> Control Panel –> Connections –> WLAN
3. Tap on Scan
4. Select your newly opened wifi connection and tap on connect (this will be saved as DefaultWifiAccount)
5. Your W960i should now be connected to the WLAN and be able to browse the Internet
6. Go back to your router and replace the new settings with the original settings (mine were WPA 2 Personal, AES encryption)
7. On your W960i, go to Menu –> Tools –> Control Panel –> Connections –> WLAN
8. Tap on More
9. Tap on New Account
10. Create Account Name (any name you like)
11. Select Network Name or SSID (just tap on the find button to locate your wifi connection and then select it)
12. Edit the Security field (WPA Personal)
13. Leave Infrastructure as Network Mode
13. Press Next
14. Choose Data Encryption (mine was AES)
15. Enter Passphrase (whatever your key on the router)
16. Save it!
17. Now when you want to use your WLAN, go to Menu –> Tools –> Control Panel –> Connections –> WLAN
18. Tap on Connect
19. Select your new account (not the DefaultWifiAccount)
20. Start surfing on your W960i!

P.S. Your PC should be connected to your router via cable while configuring the router settings so you won’t lose your wireless connection.

Hope this is helpful for anyone struggling with the WLAN on the W960i. Happy surfing!

The first time Gim and I ate at Big Joe’s in Dipolog City, we only snuck in for a quick snack of siomai before embarking on the bus that would take us to Dapitan pier where we were to take the ferry bound for Cebu. We ordered milkshakes for take out, and enjoyed them thoroughly on the bus.

That was 2007. The ambiance of Big Joe’s stuck with me though, so I was determined to eat a meal there this time round. And eat we did, many many times. :-)

Big Joe’s menu lists a lot of shakes. They have a bar (not the one pictured) solely for the shakes, but they’re a bit pricey. Around P80 or $2 on the average per shake I would say. I love shakes but not with meals because shakes make me thirsty, and so do meals.

I love iced tea with my meals. I didn’t use to, I used to think iced tea tasted like flavored water, which I abhor. But Gim was able to change my mind later on after diluting me with iced tea after iced tea, hahaha. I grew to like the concoction, but only certain brands like Nestea and Lipton. (Other versions like red tea at Tokyo Tokyo, I hate!)

We ordered two jumbo iced teas in Big Joe’s and it became our staple drink whenever we went there. It didn’t cost much, only P36 or less than a dollar, equal to or even cheaper than the cost of an iced tea glass in a Manila restaurant, yet Big Joe’s Jumbo Iced Tea is around 3 times bigger.

My first meal in Big Joe’s was Pork Steak. It cost me only P150 or $3. The serving was so big I was overwhelmed. The waitress told us it weighed around 250-300 grams. Wow.

It tasted soooo good. Succulent pork. Very soft and juicy inside and nicely seared on the outside. (I’m salivating right now, remembering, hahaha!)

Gim ordered the menu special, sizzling steak served in tomato sauce and mushrooms. It looked very nice, tasted okay, but I did not really like it all that much.

Gim was very hungry that day and his meat arrived first. We took a few bites of his meat but had to wait quite a bit before mine arrived.

Here we are doing nothing but taking pictures while we wait! I am not on the photos… I was the photographer! Hehehehe. Gimmi loves his photo opps.

He’s happy at first… and then my food arrives… and look at his face!!! Priceless!!! Hehehehehe!

He blanched when he saw my meal. Hehehehehe. Not out of disgust — but out of pure envy!! He was actually very moody the whole time we ate! Hehehe. Wolfed down his food while glaring at mine (I think he was wishing he was chewing my pork steak hehehehe!).

Here’s how he really feels about his food:

“Meh.” Hehehehe! Why??? Because my food looks like this:

And it tastes exactly the way it looks! Delicious! Heaven! Hehehehe! (I am so carnivorous.)

I had to later appease Gim by grudgingly giving him around 1/4 of my steak. I know, I know, it was so big and there was lots to share but I was soooo real-food-starved that I forgot until later on when I had eated half of my steak already and Gimmi was already smoldering at me while I ate hehehehe. (In Manila, I eat only fast food, cold cuts and canned goods. I only get to eat in good restaurants when my mom comes over to foot the bill, so I hope you understand the state of starvation I was in.)

After lunch, we ordered siomai, our favorite after-lunch snack. Very yum but still nothing beats the siomai in Zamboanga City (grrr, I forget the name of the restaurant, I am sooo forgetful!).

And after that he’s happy again. Look! Oh and there I am. :-)

Before leaving we tried to get the waitress to take a nice shot of us both. TRIED is the operative term. But, er, it seems she had never held a camera before in her life. She kind of stood, in a tilted, crooked way, and then said, “Ma’am, is it okay if I cannot fit your whole body in the shot?“

I was puzzled but nodded away, thinking she would just get me from the shoulders up. I didn’t realize she meant this:

Ah, eh… Pinugot mo naman ulo ko, miss!!! One more take, heh. *weak smile* I try to motion to her that maybe she should step back from the table a bit, just a wee bit, so she could take us both. Here’s the result:

Much better. Heh. Except Gim says he cannot paint the expression on my face. Whatevs. He doesn’t know to paint, anyways!

We went back to Big Joe’s three more times after. (That’s one visit for every week that I stayed in Dapitan hehehe!) The second time I ordered lengua estofado, which was very very tasty, loved it. Gim belligerently ordered the pork steak, and this time I was the envious one hehehe.

The last two times we both ordered pork steak, hahaha. Trust me, it was that good. On our last visit, Gim wanted a rarer taste from his steak so he asked for medium rare and got it. I tasted it and it was good, a lot juicier. But I still liked my steak well done better. :-) Didn’t take a pic of his steak, mine looked healthier. Hahaha.

Here are pictures from our third visit. We ordered steamed chicken rice this time, instead of siomai. It was very, very good. Tasted garlicky and gingery, much like arroz caldo. We liked it so much we ordered it again on our last visit.

The steak (his and hers):

The steamed rice:

Our sumptious meal.

My Gim looking fattened and happy. Hehehehehe.

I can’t recommend Big Joe’s enough. The food is great, service is fast (for a restaurant). If you pass by Dipolog City, you have got to try it. It’s a wifi zone, too, so you can bring your laptop over and surf (and plug in!) for free. :-)

I thought üMobile had forgotten about me. I applied for it over a month ago but never received word back until a few days ago, when someone texted me she would be delivering my SIM on my doorstep.

üMobile is a new mobile service in the Philippines, capital of mobile text messaging. It’s free for the first six months of usage. üMobile will give you P100 ($2) worth of text credits a month for their right to send you sponsored text messages. A peso is worth a text message so that’s a hundred free messages a month.

Personally, I think the mobile user pays too big a price for free load here, especially with another competing carrier Sun Cellular giving unlimited text and calls (Sun-to-Sun only though) for less than P500 a month ($11), no ads of course. I really hate advertisements coming though my email, and I probably will appreciate them less on my mobile phone.

But obviously there’s a market that’s willing to try this, and I’m sure people will want to use it, maybe as their third line. It’s free and that’s always an attractive option. Many people here already have at least two lines, with their main line being either Globe or Smart, and their second line Sun. Some people have all three. So they’ll probably adopt this line too when it goes on the market.

What can I say, Filipinos just love to communicate! Hehehe.

Anyway, I had to try this service, see how many ads I get and how reliable the system is. Here are some pics of the SIM package I received yesterday.  

 

  

  

  

The first message I got from this SIM was a welcome message. The second was an offer to receive their MMS (multimedia messages) settings, which I promptly replied to with a YES. Recieved the settings and installed them.

The third message was the WAP settings, and I installed those too. Got a couple of help messages too. So far, no ads yet. Will use it for a few days and I’ll update you on whatever ads I get. :-)

I’ve got 9 invites to give away. All it takes is a blogroll link on your blog (Please? I need to build up some rank here hehe!). Then comment here with your email address, mobile phone number and I’ll give them to you. If you want the codes for free, go do a search, I’m sure there are still lots of invites available. :-)

So. If you’re a Pinoy aged 15-35 (or even not), I’m sure you’ve heard of üMobile. It’s a newly launched cellular service in the Philippines, world capital of text messaging. Everyone’s scrambling to get the service, but it’s still in the invite-only phase.

In the Philippines we already have 3 competing carriers, Smart (in the lead), Globe and Sun (current favorite of telebabad-ers). So why’s everyone so excited about üMobile? Well, it’s free. Or more appropriately, ad-funded.

Users have to agree to receive mobile ads, and in return for that, they get free load. Specifically, it’s P100 worth of load per month for the first 6 months. Viewing each ad will gain you P0.50, and one SMS is worth P1 (usually) so you can send one message for every two ads you view. You could also save up your credits and use them for calls. (Yugatech has a breakdown of ads versus credits.)

So how do you get an invite? Many ways.

1. If you know someone’s who already has the SIM, chances are they’re also giving away invite codes, so might wanna ask them for one.
2. Technobiography‘s trick was to email his full name to üMobile’s customer service and he got an invite code.
3. The third way is to go to the üMobile secret invite page, drop your full name and email address, then wait for the invite to show up in your email.
4. And the final way is to go straight to the üMobile web site and click on the limited offer of free invites. Hehehe. That just showed up recently, so when it’s gone you can go back to Option #3 (there’s still 300+ invites last I visited).

Once you get an invite code, plug it in the website and answer all their questions. They’re holding some kind of raffle so the more questions you answer, the higher your chances of winning.

That is, if you get approved. Yeah. Your application will still be processed, for how long I have no idea, since *my* application is still being processed and it’s already been two weeks now. That’s kinda the reason I held off writing about this for so long, I was hoping to give you more info about the actual usage and all. They do say that the application period is from June 1 to August 31, so I guess I still have seven more weeks of waiting if I’m super unlucky. Let’s hope not. Heh.

In any case, go try your luck and tell me how it goes. :-)

I know two people who have just received the 2008 Monbusho Award, and they both are now in Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), the very same gakko (school) I visited just last March.

One is my former professor from the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, Ms. Erlyn Manguilimotan. I remember she was applying for the Monbusho award last year just as I was applying for my Masters in Ateneo de Manila University. I am so happy that she finally got her dream, she was accepted at NAIST (Computational Linguistics Lab, wow!) and is now undergoing Japanese language training at Osaka before heading on to her PhD at NAIST.

The other person is Eng (I forgot her last name) from the Ateneo de Manila University. I met her very briefly a few months back when I was visiting the Engineering department because I was interested in doing a collaboration with them for my thesis project. She is also at NAIST, under Professor Minato (Biomedical Imaging and Informatics).

The Monbusho Scholarship is again open for Filipino applicants. There are 6 kinds of scholarships:

• Teacher Training Scholarship
• open to teachers (elementary / high school) or academic staff/members at a teacher training institution
• must be under 35 years of age and have at least 5 years of experience
• Japanese Studies Scholarship
• 1-year period of studying Japanese language, life and culture
• must be between 18 to 29 years of age and at least in their 3rd year of majoring in Japanese Studies
• Undergraduate Scholarship
• undergraduate-level studies in humanities, natural sciences or social sciences
• must be between 17 to 21 years of age (as of April 1, 2009)
• Research Scholarship (may lead to a Master’s degree or a Ph.D.)
• research in a field related to what was previously studied within the scope of humanities, natural sciences or social sciences
• must be under 35 years of age
• Professional Training School (Senshu-Gakko) Scholarship
• 3-year non-degree program at a Japanese vocational school in the following fields: Civil Engineering, Architecture, Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Telecommunications, Nutrition, Infant Education, Secretarial Studies, Hotel Management, Tourism, Fashion / Dressmaking, Design, Photography, etc.
• must be between 17 to 21 years of age
• College of Technology Scholarship
• 4-year non-degree program at a Japanese school in one of the following fields: Mechanical Engineering; Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Information, Communication and Network Engineering; Materials Engineering; Architecture and Civil Engineering; Maritime Engineering; etc.
• must be between 17 to 21 years of age

Like I said in my last blog post, I am out of a laptop. I am having it repaired by HP, thank goodness it’s still under warranty. But I have been advised that it might take up to 8 weeks before I can get it back. OMG, in my programming world, that is utter and complete disaster! That’s 3 weeks longer than my summer class! *cry*

But. I am trying to keep my head up, trying to think positive. I bought a 2GB flash drive from CDRKing for P380 ($10). Yes, I’m such a cheapie haha. They have 4GB (P700 or $18) 8GB (P1,280 or $32) drives but I’m so poor couldn’t afford the extra thousand pesos, hehehe. Oh but if you want to buy me a present, I’d love the 16gb flash disk at P2,480 or $62, hehe!

Anyways, 2GB is totally fine for me. It’ll hold my data fine and with room to spare. The next prob I encountered in my laptop-free state is finding a computer to start some surfing. The Rizal library is the best place, in my opinion, it’s cool (sometimes too cold!), comfortable (plushy seats) and free (and there are many desktops available)! There’s even a private lounge for graduate students. There’s wifi, too, but oh darn, why do I keep reminding myself I do NOT have a laptop?? Urgh.

So it’s free, the RL desktops. But security is tight. There are very few installed applications, the only available browser is an old copy of Internet Explorer, and flash isn’t even installed. And you can’t install anything else. Have I mentioned I hate IE?? I like the new tabbed version but I’m a Firefox fan!

Thank goodness I remembered about PortableApps.com, I once downloaded one of their suites, just because the installs were clean and small. But I forgot later on when I started using the normal installers again. Portable applications do what they say, they are meant to run on your USB flash drive, you can choose whichever computer you want to use, and you don’t have to install anything. That’s really useful for me, like right now, I’m using Firefox and everyone else is stuck using IE. Heheheh.

Using Firefox from my flash drive is very convenient. I can move from one computer to the other without losing my settings or cookies. I can also save my passwords in Firefox so I don’t have to keep typing in my passwords. I am paranoid about keyloggers, hehe, we’ve already had a few instances where students got to infiltrate our professors’ account through keylogging. But actually I don’t save passwords in Firefox (though I can, that’s the point) because I am also paranoid about losing my USB drive and having somebody pick it up and see all my passwords in Firefox (I hope you know that saving your passwords in Firefox is very risky because anyone who uses Firefox next will be able to view it). So I use another portable app, KeePass. I’ve got one master password to log in to KeePass, and then I have there all my encrypted entries of all my passwords from my different accounts. All I have to do is copy the password to the clipboard and paste it onto the password field. No typing involved. :-) Of course, that’s *still* not hacker-proof, someone who REALLY REALLY wants your password can sniff it off the network using many freely available programs, but I’m not *that* paranoid, hehehe.

Yesterday I was happily browsing with Firefox but I encountered another problem. No flash! I tried to get the flash plugin, but alas, it asks to be installed, and the desktop I was using would not let me. Grr. Today I searched for a solution, and yay, I found one!

Following a commenter’s advice on AcidLabs, I downloaded the Adobe Flash installer, then downloaded the Universal Extractor, then extracted the files from the Adobe Flash installer. I got two files from there: flashplayer.xpt and NPSWF32.dll, and copied them to this directory: F:\FirefoxPortable\Data\plugins and restarted my browser.

Voila! Now I can happily browse flash-based websites in my lovely Firefox browser! Hehehehe. Hopefully this will help some of you out there who might be experiencing the same problems, I know a lot of my fellow (financially-challenged) graduate students are. Hehe. Happy (safe) browsing!

Detox Tip #9: Dream, and dream big.

Ever since I’ve come back from Japan, I’ve been thinking of ways to get back there. I really did fall in love with the country and its people, in such a short time. I guess you could call it love at first sight. ;-)

It’s weird because I’ve never really dreamt of going to Japan before. It was always my anime-freak of a sister who kept yapping over and over about Japan ever since… hmm, Sailor Moon, probably. Hehe. She collected everything Japanese, actively participated in anime fanclubs, watched anime channels 24/7 and formally enrolled herself in Japanese studies. I just could not relate.

A bitbefore Christmas last year, a mass email was sent to my department promoting a two-week internship over at NAIST, Japan. I was very interested — anything free appeals to me greatly, hehe. The next mass email was an application form, but in the excitement and rush of the season, I kinda forgot about it, until a day before the deadline, my professor sent me an email asking if I was still interested.

I briefly thought not to apply anymore, as I didn’t feel good enough to be accepted. Me? An intern in Japan? It was better for my heart not to hope. But Flishi-sense won over, the part of me that has always insisted on never ever EVER submitting an exam sheet with even just one blank answer, because even if my grow-up-get-over-it brain told me the answer was uselessly wrong, my hopeful joyful heart always believed there was an off chance it was right, or maybe an intsy bitsy part of it. I never let a chance pass me by. :-) So I hurriedly composed my application form and emailed it off within the hour.

I mailed it shushing my squealing heart to forget, and I really tried my best for almost two months. In February, the results came in. I was in!! I was in!! I was gonna go to Japan! For two weeks! For free! OMG!! OMFG!!! I actually jumped in joy for about two minutes, shrieking and laughing and at the same feeling oh-so-scared it wouldn’t actually come to pass. Good thing I was alone. I’d have freaked out anyone who saw me. I called up Gim immediately and told him, and we both jumped up and down a bit more. I told my mom, too, and my sister. But nobody else yet. I didn’t want to tell, just yet, because maybe it wouldn’t come true, ‘coz I had so many documents to process in such a short time – my passport, my Visa, the lifting of my travel ban (I’m a government scholar) , my final exams and requirements…

Long story short, I actually got to finish up everything just in time. I was even able to squeeze a weekend trip to Baguio with my friends (but that’s another story), hehe, to the distraught of my laboratory partner Chris, hehe, because we were on a deadline to pass our mobile application. He was chosen to come to NAIST, too. But we did it, and got a perfect grade, too. Hehe. Go team!

Anyways, we left for Japan on March 9, thoroughly enjoyed our two-week Japanese immersion (more of that on later posts) and came back on March 22. During our time there, we met a lot of really nice people. Topping my list are organizers and tourguides Edison, Albert and CC. Hehe. I also got to know our fellow interns Clare, Emarc, Ma’am No and Ma’am Cathy, all from the Engineering Department.

One exciting thing accomplished during our trip was an agreement between ADMU and NAIST to have a student-exchange program for the next few years. It was such uplifting news to me, because it means I could have another chance at going back to Japan to study as an exchange student. I’m not setting my heart on this, though, because it’s a university-wide program, so there will be many students vying for the chance, and only 3 slots open. Also, financial assistance will not be given by either universities, so that kinda rules out any chance of me going there. I can’t even afford a one-way ticket to Japan, let alone a whole year of board and lodging. So *sigh* there.

But one thing I can do is hope, hehe. I’m full of that. And try to do everything in my power to inch myself closer to my dream. I’ve been scouring for possible scholarships, but so far, no luck. It seems I should have done that a long time ago, all the scholarships for the next school year have far passed their deadlines. I’m trying to make a bit of money, who knows, maybe blog ads could actually work for me heheh (sorry for the eyesores). Anyways, even if I don’t get in this year, maybe in a few years I will.

For now, I’m setting my sights on learning the Japanese language.

Ateneo de Manila University currently offers a Japanese language course, Nihongo for Everyone. It’s from April 19 – June 21, 9:00 – 4:00 PM every Saturday and costs P5,000 (P4,500 for Ateneo students and employees). At the end of the course, the student is expected to be able to express and understand simple Japanese as well as recogize basic Japanese characters.

The University of the Philippines Diliman also offers Japanese courses. I recently browsed their site and found a PDF stating their special summer courses. They have the Beginner’s Regular 1, 2, 3 and 4 from April 5 to June 14, each costing P7,200. They also offer a short course, much like Ateneo’s, with 3 schedules: April 21- May 3, May 5-May 16, or May 19-30. The course lasts 40 hours and costs P4,000.

But what I’m most interested in is UP’s Beginner’s Short Intensive, lasting 180 hours from April 21-May 30, 5 days a week, 7 hours per day, with the objective of passing the Japanese Language Profienciency Test 4. It costs P16,000. Hopefully I’ll be able to afford it, haha.

I don’t know if I’ll really make it back to Japan. I hope I will. But if I won’t, at least I can tell myself it was not for lack of trying. :-)

Three days before Christmas, my best friends and I reunited over lunch and chocolate cake. Raquel, Jotie, Chris and I enjoyed a buffet at Lantaka, a restaurant with a very beautiful sea view. I was unchaperoned by Gim, who had doctor duties at General Hospital, but managed to escape for a 30-minute lunch break, showing up unannounced and leaving me to take care of his bill. Hmmmpfff! He did not get any pictures. Haha.

I did not know there was an eat-all-you-can buffet at Lantaka every Sunday – it was Raquel who suggested the place. For only P175, it is quite inexpensive, but maybe my views have been affected by Manila prices. Hehe. I would have wanted to eat more than just one serving (it’s an EAYC affair, after all) but Gim’s arrival surprised me and I forgot. Hehehe.

After lunch, we decided to go visit Brian – as he had suddenly decided to pull out of our meeting with a terse text message the night before (“Something came up.”) – and force him to come with us visit Donnel, who was reportedly sick. Raquel drove us over to Brian’s boarding house whereupon Chris all but manhandled Brian to come with us. Hehe. It took a while, but then we were all set to visit Donnel. Unfortunately, he texted us that he was not at home but with his relatives. Hmmmppfff. How can he he sick but not at home???

Anyways, we decided not to go all the way up to Cabaluay anymore. What was the point? So we thought of having dessert, and we went to Antonio’s, an always-favorite restaurant with the young people of Zamboanga, and certainly Gim and I have had more than a few dates there. :) Antonio’s Restaurant has a very fresh ambience – open, wooden cottages amidst lots of trees and hills, and it has one of the best menus in town, with affordable prices at that. And free music. Can’t beat that. :)

We did a lot of catching up and taking photos. It’s always so much fun being with my friends. :) Here are a few photos, for more visit this link.

Me and Chris and Brian. On Raquel’s family’s van. (Thank you for the ride, Raq!)

Chris and Brian, accessorized to the max. Hehehe.

Jotie and Chris sitting in the front bench at Antonio’s Restaurant. That’s good lighting.

Me at the steps leading out of Antonio’s. Hmm, that’s bad lighting. Have to be more mindful of my choice photo backgrounds.

Raquel and me – awww, we’re missing Katrina!

Chris and Brian. Brian, you’ve lost a lotta weight. But you’ve upped your fashion sense. Heheh. Chris makes the best faces. Hehehe.

See what I mean? Hehehe. Jotie and Chris kinda look like a couple here, don’t they? Hehehe, joke lang. We all know you’re the best frenemies. :-)

Jotie and his headphones. Ahh, I think I know who Brian is starting to resemble. Hehehe, joke lang!

Raquel and me again. Who’s making you mad, Raq??

Brian and his peace sign. I’m with you for world peace!

Looking good there, Chris. Don’t make any more faces, okay? Hehehe.

Aww, the day is over… We’re going back to our respective homes. ‘Till next time!

Urgh I’ve had a rash of bad luck lately.

Right before coming home from Manila I broke my eyeglasses so I’ve been abusing my contact lenses by wearing them all day resulting in eye strain and headaches.

Last week I attended a Christmas party and ended up losing my ATM along with P1000 worth of cash. Ouch.

Today I’m down with the flu. I wasn’t able to attend my high school reunion last night at Antonio’s and I probably won’t be able to make it to Sta. Cruz Island tomorrow. Huhuhu.

But I’m trying to cheer myself up by posting this pic of me on the 24th, busily unwrapping presents from Gim and putting on my new bracelets. :-) He gave me three bracelets, a shoulder bag and a pair of earphones to replace the ones that recently broke. He’s such a sweetie. :-)

I’m hoping my streak of bad luck has ended, beginning with my recent P300 win at Auction.ph. They’ve got another giveaway, this time the prizes are these:

• Creative 2.1 Subwoofer System
• Php2,000 Gift Certificate on any Nokia Stores
• Shell-Ferrari Model Cars
• Apacer USB 2.0 Drive
• 20 pcs. Auction.PH T-Shirts
• 2 accounts for 1-year Free 1GB Hosting and Domain

I definitely want that Nokia gift certificate! :-) I’ve been meaning to buy a new cellphone, since a Sun Cellular cell site has just been built right beside our house! Yay, a good signal from Sun, finally! :-)

So what are you waiting for? Go join that contest!