Tonight

Meet The Clique

Exchange Students: Remembering the good times. I don’t think I need to indicate where these were taken – that’s the point. Haha. Random pictures taken during our semesters abroad. Since I’m not travelling around and I’m confined to studying in school and at home, I want to post pretty pictures of places around the world that my friends have been to (and me of course, yaay). Our batchmates are done with their junior year already while we are still in the middle of this grueling semester. Grueling is an understatement. They weren’t kidding when they said school would be hard once you get back. I remember this line from Big Fish where the author said something like time stops when you see the one but what they don’t tell you is that time catches up and everything fast forwards after. In a way, this semester is something like that I guess. Time stopped for us for four months, it was the most awesome four months but now those days are catching up to us. Everything is moving so quickly, it’s seriously crazy. But again, I just wanted to post these pictures to remind myself (or remind us) that even when it gets really tough, I think I can say this is still worth it. It was an awesome experience. Hands down. As for “The Clique”, it’s an inside joke. I love these people and we’re groupmates in a lot of things. I think this sem and the previous one would have been so much harder if I wasn’t with them. So yaay, thank you friends. Kaya natin to, let’s finish strong.

 We are young.

Happy Place

Camsur Watersports Complex. April 7 & 9, 2009 (and other forgotten dates). This is one of my most favorite places on Earth. I suddenly missed Bicol and this place so I chose it for my Flashback Friday! Chos. Before you judge me, I would like to state that I am far from being perfectly capable to wakeboard and I can only handle wakeboarding in the winge park (I forgot what it’s called, it sounds like that. Haha). It’s this tiny strip for beginners. I haven’t tried the big cable part but I hope I get to someday, that’s why I want to go back this summer! My mom is from Bicol and my grandparents are there so we come back pretty often but the last time was summer of 2010, I think.

The place is small but it’s pretty nice. There are very cheap accommodations too. Renting out stuff and paying for using the park is not expensive either. The only problem is that you have to line up for rentals during peak season, but if you have your own coolshizz, then you don’t need to line up. I also tried kneeboarding there but sooner or later you’re going to have to try wakeboarding. It’s awesome, they let you use the beginner stuff and there are really friendly teachers there who will teach you how to do it. You can stand up on the board just after a few tries. I got to do it though I really usually suck at these things. Well, so the point is, I love going to this place. It makes me feel very cool (pacool) and the atmosphere of the place is always awesome.

Find your happy place.

Open

White Beach, Puerto Galera. January 21-23, 2012. Melissa and Jihed came to visit us here in the Philippines! They pinky-promised us back in HK and they kept that promise. For the weekend, we decided to go to Puerto Galera since it is the nicest nearest beach (I think). Titi and Dom tagged along with us. Titi, a French exchange student in my university, is practically a local and he arranged the place for us since he’s been to White Beach already (and all the rest of the beaches in the Philippines!). Dom has just been here for a month since he’s part of a special foreign program which starts halfway through the semester. And so, together, we had a blast riding the banana boat (where Kathleen and Melissa fell before we were supposed to fall), island-hopping, snorkeling, taking pictures inside the cave, eating, swimming, stargazing on the shore, playing luksong-baka on the beach (I don’t know what they call it), and singing karaoke. Doing great things in a great place with the best company. What more is there?

United Colors of Benetton.  Before riding the banana boat, Jihed asked me “Is it okay that people are staring?” I told her, “Of course, they’re staring because you look different.” Then she said, “But they’re staring at you two.” I hadn’t really noticed but she was right. People were staring at us. And I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised because it was indeed an unusual sight – two Filipino girls who look like little kids (or so they say), with an Austrian guy with green eyes, a very tall Portuguese guy (who’s actually French), a Tunisian girl (who’s also actually French) with curly hair and a French girl with light brown hair. What could explain such different-looking people sticking together and having fun on the beach? I can’t really imagine what everyone who stared at us were thinking. But when we were island hopping, Manong asked us if we met in school and we explained our part. And I felt really happy explaining. I was hoping that while I shared, I could be a concrete example that yes,  people who look very different (Asians and Westerners) could very much like each other and get along well together. We were not tourist guides but we were friends.

 

My mom told me before that some guy told her that our society is converging into one big community – a world without borders. And I believe I like the idea of that. And if that’s the case, then we’re not heading to a such a bad place (maybe the place might have lesser trees, but we’re working on that as well). During my first two weeks in my exchange semester, I told Kathleen that it’s starting to sink in that cultural differences were indeed significant and it’s a little hard to talk to these different people. This completely dissolved away when I actually got to know these people (especially Jihed and Melissa), how their lives are back in HK and what they think about things. We don’t agree on everything (such as divorce and religion) but this never clouded our friendship. Not once. We shared our sides and views, respected them and sometimes just laugh at each other’s disbelief. These girls helped us a lot, I trust them completely and I know we’ll be friends forever (cheesy). I guess you can guess what I’m driving at. I believe in this world without borders because I have experienced it first hand. I know I’ve only met a very small fraction of the world outside my country, but this experience is still evidence that it is possible.

And so next time, when you see a diverse group of people (like my mom said we looked like an ad for United Colors of Benetton), maybe the first reason you should think is that they are just a group of friends having fun. It doesn’t matter that we don’t look alike and we probably didn’t grow up in the same place, because really, it doesn’t. They might call luksong baka in some other language and some other name that doesn’t involve cows but what simply matters is that we were enjoying doing it. Language, skin and eye colors don’t really matter. It is interesting , yes, but what matters, in the end, is that you respect each other’s differences and you appreciate this world even more because of them. And with that, world peace everyone!

On our last day while singing karaoke, Dom sang “Where the Streets Have No Name” by U2. He explained that the song is about the situation in Ireland (I think), where people discriminate against each other (based on religion, if I remember correctly). And he said, you will know which side one is on just knowing his street name. And so U2 writes and sings about a place where the streets have no name. I think the song is worth sharing. World peace na talaga ito.

I wish I could bake a cake at of rainbows and smiles.

 

 

Flashback Friday!

Coco Beach, Puerto Galera, Mindoro. March 29-31, 2006. I call this Flashback Fridays! Though this is a big commitment and I’m sure I won’t be able to keep this up. It’s hard to dig up old pictures, you know. Since I know I will be posting about our recent Puerto Galera long weekend trip, I wanted to post pictures taken the first time I’ve been to Mindoro. Our cameras sucked then and we only had a few pictures but it’s okay.

Puerto Galera is where I first fell in love with the sea. My favorite memory will always be the one where we were dragged by a small boat to see everything underwater. My breath was really taken away (as if breathing through the snorkeling gear wasn’t hard enough). I felt it was a whole different world down there, and it seemed like one huge garden underwater. Awesome. (Note: I must learn how to scuba dive very soon.) The resort we stayed in (Coco Beach) was very nice as well. We stayed in small nipa huts and as you can see the resort has a very nice pool. I remember they also have silent pools and some places where you can play different games.

Even arriving at the place was extra special. There were people with guitars welcoming you while singing and offering you nice shell necklaces and buko juice served in the actual buko. Haha. I loved the place and it’s just one among the many beaches in this awesome country. It’s more fun in the Philippines and I’m super proud of it! My family has this goal of going to all these beaches featured in one calendar. We’re still far from completing it but we’re working on it!

I’m so excited because really I’ve never been to like a paradise before. – Ilkka, before going to Coco Beach

Heigh Ho

Ng Tung Chai Waterfalls. November 26, 2011. Hidden somewhere in the New Territories. We joined the HKBU Mountaineering Association because our friend Mikee Lee told us it would be a good idea to join them on their hikes. Glad we followed his advice since we got to see this waterfall with them. It was a pretty long hike (maybe not for pro hikers but for lampa me, it was long and high). We went to the different points of the waterfall (bottom fall, middle fall, high fall?) The place was good, the water was cool and the falls were making loud but peaceful noises. It was nice to just sit down on a nice looking rock and watch the water fall.

Lamma Island. October 9, 2011. Our first trip with the mountaineering association but we ended up with Dong and Bernie (our favorite Austrians). We ran into them in the beach and decided to tag along with them. We hiked into this “path”. It really wasn’t a path. I remember we stopped at this viewing pavilion, saw the beach and Bernie said “Okay, I think we can go down here.” And so we did, and really fought against vines and tall grasses. Again, panicky me thought we were lost and we wanted to go back but a few more steps (made possible with Bernie’s determination), we found this quite strip of beach with few people. Wisdom earned. Haha. I was not prepared to swim, and there was no shade in that peaceful strip and so I stayed under Dong’s umbrella. Of course.A few weeks later, we came back with Jihed, Melissa, Chloe and Pierre. This time prepared with our swimsuits but I decided not to swim because there was something strange in the water. So, instead, I bought this bubble thing and spread bubbles in that beach and we played Uno cards. Three days well spent! 

P.S. Kathleen and I never got this hiking gear right. First time we hiked, we had our shoulder bags. Second time we hiked, we borrowed a backpack but the place turned out to be a beach, not really something you’d want a backpack for. In fact, a girl from the mountaineering club came wearing a long sheer skirt. Turned out she was more prepared than us. Plus, I didn’t get to bring a swimsuit because didn’t think I could swim. Third time, prepared but decided not to swim. Fourth time (waterfalls), we thought shoulder bags would be fine again. We were wrong. We thought maybe we would need swimsuits this time. We were wrong. Again. The place was cold and nobody planned to bathe in the river. So yeah. I’m pretty sure there’s a lesson there somewhere but I haven’t gotten to figuring that out yet. Hoho.

It’s the climb.

I ❤ BJ

Jade Museum (where we saw how jade is refined and were taught how to inspect real jade), Tiananmen Square (which seriously reminds me of Luneta), Beijing New World Shopping Center (after Kathleen and I got separated in the subway), Rickshaw (after Summer Palace), Bird’s Nest (with  other exchange students), Minzuyuan Road (near our hotel), with our tour guide whose name I forgot. So sad.. November 17-20, 2011. I love this city!

Day and Night

Yomahegong Lamma Temple and Summer Palace, Beijing. November 19, 2011. Photo album post! Lamma Temple at day and Summer Palace at night. We went to these places after Temple of Heaven. That day was very very cold. the Yonghegong Lamma Temple was nice and it had plenty of temples (again), and as you can see some of it resemble the ones in Temple of Heaven. As for Summer Palace, that was interesting. We were running out of time and we were supposed to meet some friends inside. It was almost night time and it was getting pretty dark but we went in anyway. The Summer Palace is impossible to finish in an hour, I think it’s also impossible to finish in half a day but still we tried and took pictures like crazy,  running around the place and looking for stuff to pose on. Haha. Varsity picture takers. The place was still beautiful even if we only got to see a small part of it. Someone told me always leave something to do for next time you come back. So, I’m coming back for you in the future Summer Palace!

Always

Untitled from timmy caparros on Vimeo.

San Fabian & Hundred Islands, Alaminos, Pangasinan. June 2011. An old video I made to document our last hurrah summer trip, courtesy of Cel‘s awesome family! (Be nice. I took this with a digital camera that’s pretty old, edited with moviemaker and just put stuff together. Haha.) I want to go back. It’s more fun in the Philippines!

We may not be in love, but we will always have each other.

Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven, Beijing, China. November 19, 2011. I didn’t know about this place until I arrived in Hong Kong. Apparently, this place was also built in the 1400s! The place is huge and there’s a park inside it. The temples where beautiful and so intricately designed. It deserved a photo album post.

Trivia. The circular building (which is the most photographed structure inside the complex I think) is called the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. According to wikipedia (again), it was built originally with just wood and no nails but wad destroyed so it was rebuilt. The one in the last two pictures are part of the Circular Mound Altar. It was usually used to pray for rain during drought and the structure and the smoothness of the altar cause the voices on this platform to be amplified. The emperor’s prayers would then be loud in the center of the altar, making his prayers heard by the heavens. Pretty cool. (Learning from wiki. ) Just to add, there’s another place that has an Echo Wall, where (from the name), when you talk on one side of the circular wall, you can clearly hear it on another point in the wall. Geometry physics stuff but still pretty awesome.

In love with the old

Bei-freaking-jing, babyyy!!! The highlight of my exchange experience, no not really. I’m not sure what the highlight is now. I’ve been blessed with so many experiences there. But still, when I left for Hong Kong, I could not wait to go to Beijing! Treasures in my heart. ❤

Juyongguan Great Wall, Beijing, China. November 18, 2011. I have been imagining myself walking on The Great Wall since I heard somewhere that it’s the only structure on Earth that can be seen from the moon. How awesome is that? To have something built in the old old days with no high tech machines, and ending up with something that massive and that resilient is something to marvel about, I think. That’s why inside the car (we had a car because our tour was awesome), I felt like Rapunzel waiting in the boat before the ‘floating lights’ appeared. Oo, cheesy ako. But, honestly, I was thinking what if it’s not as awesome as I’ve always imagined it to be? And with my imagination and excitement, it would be quite challenging to match. But as we drove nearer and nearer making the stone formations more visible, I was so in awe of everything that I saw. The thing is indeed looong and I couldn’t see the end of it (which should have been the case given the facts but still). My mind went blank for a while as I stared at the magnificent thing we were approaching.

I was extremely happy to see the place – but in a different way. I was happy that I was there and it looks exactly like what I’ve seen on the web and that I know I am standing on something historic. But I didn’t immediately feel the, um, “spirit” of the place as I expected (I can’t find a word to describe what I’m trying to say, so I settled with spirit. Haha.) The place was packed with people and for safety reasons, while climbing I was more concerned to look down on where I was stepping instead of looking around.The steps were not uniform, some were high, some narrow, some too wide. It was exhausting. I thought walking around Hong Kong would be enough training for it but I was wrong. I kept saying, just keep climbing til we reach this ‘tower’ but  no matter how high I climbed up, it still looked very far. So, Kathleen and I gave up somewhere along the middle, found a peaceful spot and took our pictures. This was where I appreciated it the most. I was just standing near the wall and looked out. It had a great view. It wasn’t the best view in the world (I think) but what makes it great is that wherever you looked, you could still see the wall spiraling towards someplace we were too tired to reach.

So my dreams for that place didn’t exactly jive with what I actually experienced but it was perfectly okay. Maybe this is one of those place (for me) which is most appreciated by taking a step back. It was perfect just enjoying what I was standing on, leaning on, and the view of what I’ve walked on and what I didn’t get to walk on. I guess it emphasized even more that this awesome structure is massive; which I know everyone knows but it was something I wanted to see it to believe it – and, most importantly, to bask in the feeling of seeing it.

Trivia. Apparently the Great Wall cannot be seen on the moon and is just a common misconception (but still it’s awesome). The Juyyongguan section is the nearest part of the Great Wall to Beijing and is one of the three greatest passes of the Great Wall (kinabaloo.com). Some tours offer trips to the untouched sections of The Great Wall with less people and of course the original stones and all. I would have loved to go there but our tour did not permit us and we had limited time (that one’s much farther I heard and you had to hike to reach it). Next time, baby, next time.

Forbidden City, Beijing, China. November 18, 2011. We visited The Forbidden City the same day. At this point, I was already pretty tired going through all the places but was still pretty excited. This would be another check in my list, after all. I wasn’t excited for this as I was for The Great Wall though. I’ve always thought the temples looked a lot like other temples in China whenever I saw pictures of it. But the size of the place was again overwhelming and unexpected. I thought when we entered this main square, I was already looking at the whole of it. I was so wrong. Apparently, it went on and on through the temples I could see from that plaza. So maybe my surprise came because of my lack of information on the place but I guess this worked to my advantage. I enjoyed the Forbidden City, maybe even more than the Great Wall. This is so ironic since we only got to see a small part of it and we spent a lot less time here than in the great wall. I guess what got me was when our tour guide said that the floor has never been renovated. These were the exact same stones since it was built – which was in the 1400s! 

That really fascinated me. After hearing that, I just stared at what I was walking on and imagined Chinese people walking on the exact same spots six centuries ago. Amazing. I think I fell in love with those stones more than anything that I saw in Beijing. The buildings in the Forbidden City were obviously repainted and all but those stones… so awesome. I sound strange now but doesn’t that give you goosebumps? It definitely gave me a lot. So again, life has surprised me by giving me the feeling I hoped for in the Great Wall, in the Forbidden City – and in its stones at that! Haha. Now, I’m even more convinced I should go back to the great wall just to see the un-restored part. I wonder, now, how that would feel.

Trivia. Forbidden City is called Forbidden City because no one was allowed to enter or leave the place without the emperor’s consent. It has 980 buildings and is the world’s largest surviving palace complex. Also, the layout of the complex as well as small details such as the roofs, are designed according to philosophical and religious principles. Interesting. (All from wikipedia, do not kill me.)

The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.