Jerick's Blogging in Brussels

Revisiting Friendster: Best "testimonials"

2011-04-27T17:42:00.001+02:00

With Friendster closing its social media arm by 31st of May, I've exported all the old posts from my account for the past 8 years. I've read through most of my posts and messages, most of them are thoughtful, others are plain quirky. Here's a look back to the best Friendster "testimonials" over the past 8 years- thanks for the fond memories.

This was from my classmate in my Math 1 class written a short time after our report on Philippine ethno-mathematics. We did the report in full barong and even played sungka after - we got 1.0.

Jerick is another one of my potential actors in my future non-existent film career....If ever Jerick doesn't become a journalist or a lawyer or and economist, OR an actor (which he canpotentially could as I mentioned), he can always go back to being an ermitanyo-in-a-burka-whatever and continue being a good friend to all. (CG)

I can't remember that I have once thought of transferring to Ateneo or running for USC chair. Freshman years!

jerick parrone (pronounced pa-rown)hehe!.... siya po ay isang journ major sa unibersidad ng pilipinas, diliman! nakakalungkot nga lang kasi balak daw niyang magtransfer sa ateneo (pronounced arneo) :) naks naman! eneweyz, ka-course ko po siya at ka-bio pa (kabayo?! nyahaha!). masaya kasama yan kasi maraming kuwento at maraming alam sa maraming bagay. ang laki nga ng tulong niya sakin kasi lagi po akong clueless. hahay.... at ito pa! mr. congeniality itong si jerick! yep, balak ngang tumakbo niyan bilang isang USC chair eh... go! go! go!!! isang bagay lang ang di nakakatuwa sa kanya. ayaw niya kay BAMBOO! aaarrrggghh! hmph! bahala siya... rakista pa man din.hehehe! (D.I.)

Post from a childhood friend - good times!

naalala mo rin yung mga bahay bahay o resort resort o yung mga Happy Meal ng Mcdo o Sineskwela o origami at saranggola, lalong lalo na yung "Magandang pasko nga po?" Ang dami pa... kulang ang space. (MP)

A post from a good friend of mine right after I posted a bulletin note asking people to write me testimonial. Indeed, she was right - but I think without me asking for people to write me one, I wouldn't have good material for this post. ;-)

OMG. You are the last person I expect to -ask- for testimonials. (And it actually clicked!) I mean, come on. Do you really need people to clickie your website and tell you what a great guy you are? Just a thought.~ (BI)

What happened to Jeremy Marquez, is he still alive? LOL.

Naalaala ko si Jeremy Marquez na kamukha mo pero lamang pa rin siya ng sampung paligo! (RC)

One of the most thoughtful post on my account. Came from a person I once considered very special to me.

Thinking of Jerick reminds me
....of the first box of yummy brownies he shared with me during our 1st day as seatmates in Pol Sci 14 class.
....of the eccentric exchanges of shaggy dog stories and chuckles every time before discussions began.
....of the worried moments we spent reviewing for our an-hour-to-go exam or recitation maybe.
.... of the short but really fun walks down the hallways of Palma Hall after classes
.... of the sweet text messages and hearty conversations over lunch
.... of a reliable seatmate, a bright classmate, a thoughtful friend.
... of someone Ill miss fooling around with. Haha! :-D (VG)

HAHA. Post from 2005. She's still slim - and I'm not anymore.

jerick parrone. that's life. sometimes you get fat. sometimes you don't. we're both choco kiss adiks & we're both slim! wahaha! (KR)

I did compete in Judo on the 50kg category. But I still miss going to judo classes.

kahit di masyadong malaman e...keri ang judo...:P ahaha:P joke lng..kumain ka kasi..:P (MQ)

BEST. SUMMER. QUOTE.

JERRRICCKKKK!!!!! I MIIIIISSSS UUUUU!!!!! hehe *summer's a bummer but peepz lyk us keep gettin hotter!* (RS)

This ad is still available.

hear ye! hear ye! Calling all eligible women ages 18 to 100 y/o to take a freakin good look at this down right good lookin man here! lucky me! i met him.. (RS)

I took it out of context, but it's just funny this way.

mating partner ko to e (DV)

High school love. LOL.

Kakaiba rin itong magmahal - walang kapantay! kahit ginagago na siya, sige parin! (MM)

I mentioned to my friend, Rach, that our youth have grown in parallel with the evolution of social networks. All the awkwardness of our teenage years are imprinted online on social networks such as Friendster, Myspace, Twitter and Facebook.

Starting a travel blog: Deciding on the basics

2011-02-08T16:48:00.004+01:00

I’ve longed to build my own travel blog and now with more free time and motivation from other travel bloggers – I decided it’s about time to build a separate travel blog.

Photo from: Maria Reyes-McDavis

After a bit of reading – I summarised three key recommendations for starting bloggers like me:

Blog Concept: Figure out your focus. What will be your unique selling point and will make you different from other travel sites?
Title: Once the concept is ready, decide on the title and domain name. Make it catchy & SEO friendly. For Wordpress domain hosting, some suggested Hostgator.com (feel free to give others)
Look and Feel – This is crucial as it sets the tone of your blog. For beginners, I suggest using free themes first. Free themes from Wordpress.org or Woothemes are worth checking.

After this, you should be ready to blog. As for me, I hope to be ready by next week.

I would also recommend these links:

W3schools CSS tutorial (for CSS support)
Build your own Travel Blog ebook by Nomadic Matt - a good tutorial but you have to pay to download though it’s worth the download fee .

How I gained 40 pounds in Belgium? :-)

2011-01-24T13:53:00.000+01:00

I've recently been asked to write about my experience from my internship in Belgium. I decided to look at it from another angle and here's what I have written. You can view the original post from the AIESEC UPD site here.
-----------------------

We all heard of it. An AIESEC internship will bring you places, introduce new cultures, give your professional career a boost and allow you to meet new people. And after spending two unforgettable years in Belgium, I can confirm that all of them are true. But if there’s one thing that the brochures didn’t include was that there is a good chance that you’ll gain weight.

I left the Philippines for my internship in September 2008 roughly weighing 120 pounds and came back two years after with 40 pounds extra baggage.

It may just be my experience, given that I had my internship in Belgium, a country known for its fries, chocolates and beers. Belgium is a nation divided between the French-speaking region (Wallonia) and the Dutch-speaking region (Flanders). I lived in Brussels, the capital of Belgium , and despite dominated by the French way of life, I never had tasted the cliché French foods like escargot, coq a vin or ratatouille. But then again, it’s Belgium not France.

One lesson that I learned was that fries, actually should never be called “French”. The Belgians claim that it originated from Belgium and would correct you if you call it ‘French fries’. The best frites place in Brussels is in a place called Place Jourdan. The fries are huge and usually placed in a cornet (paper rolled into a cone). Plain frites is already delicious but what makes the frites more special is the sauce. Most fritkots (fries place) offer more than 20 kinds of sauces. There are the classics like ketchup & mayo, the uniquely Belgian sauce like andalouse, tartar, piquant, curry ketchup and the outrageously named yet interesting concoctions like sauce Brazilian and sauce Samurai.

Any good frites won’t be complete without drinks to drown it down. And AIESEC interns, your experience won’t be complete without the crazy nightouts, the never ending AIESEC parties and intern’s drinks. And Belgium’s diversed selection of beers, makes it a great place to be an intern! In the supermarket, there are aisles specifically dedicated for beers – and even a well-known bar in Brussels called Delirium that serves more than 2000+ kinds of beers. There are the fruit beers pêche (peach), kriek (cherry) and framboise (strawberry). There’s also the bière blanche (Hoeegarden), blondes (Duvel, Leffe Blonde), pales (Stella Artois, Jupiler) and the bruin (Triple Westmalle, Orval, Kasteel). Alcohol content level ranges from 4.3% to 12% and each beer has to be drank from its own specific glass. Going out for a drink is staple to most interns’ activity.

Finally, chocolates, the most known Belgian delicacy worldwide, is practically available anywhere. It comes with your coffee, your bread, and even outrageously in your beer (there is a chocolate flavoured beer, never tried it). I did my internship in Microsoft, and aside from the abundance of laptop PCs & Windows paraphernalia – the office pantry also has an overflowing chocolate supply. The Red Cote d’Or milk chocolates were my lifeline on those long meetings & strict project deadlines.

Those three foods plus the never ending social night outs and reliance on frozen food (since you work & party, hardly having time to cook) had made gaining weight fast and easy.

But despite gaining 40 pounds, I look down into my increased waistline not with a sad disposition but a consideration that the food I consumed came with memories. And perhaps a portion of this increased weight was just my mind getting heavier from the global professional mindset, key business learnings and of course the unforgettable internship memories that I have captured from probably the best years of my life. But then again, it may really be the food and alcohol – mais non, je ne regrette rien.

Good read: How Facebook redefined what we consider 'news'?

2010-09-10T08:46:00.003+02:00

I've recently stumbled into a course syllabus on social media for journalists from the Columbia School of Journalism from Vadim Lavrusik's twitter feed.

From that long list, which I have yet to review, I recently read an article from Harvard's Nieman foundation on how Facebook had redefined what we consider as news. The article mentions:

Zuckerberg (Facebook's founder)... realized that Facebook wasn’t a tool for keeping track of news made somewhere else. It was a tool for making news right there, on Facebook.

And indeed it has been. All the status updates, relationship status, likes, dislikes, birthdays, events, which prior to Facebook's existence were treated as common information, has been later transformed into news available on your very limited network (aka your Facebook contacts).

Facebook had introduced us to news in a very local level, much like having your own media organisation, and through the system of subscriptions, likes and feeds, it redefined how we work on a social network - transforming it from a mere collection of profile pages into an actual source of information.

Okay, I agree that facebook redefined what news now is - even someone putting as status message 'I'm eating a burger - in the era of facebook can be "news". But indeed, what makes something news doesn't necessary imply that it is newsworthy. And I think that has always been the role of media - to filter 'news' and come up with an outcome that will be deemed newsworthy. And facebook's feed, despite the attempt to filter through the news-feed algorithm, has still a long way to go. And the filtering function is often limited - only allowing source filtering - (aka hiding your contacts) and I feel lacks filtering by topic (for example, I want to hide any updates with Justin Bieber).

But despite that, credit still goes to facebook - and indeed it revolutionised what we deem as news. But what we need now is a better news filtering system.

What do you think of Facebook? Did it really redefined what we consider as news? In which way? Comment!

5 things to do in Manila shopping malls for travellers

2010-09-07T17:10:00.001+02:00

This is a cross-post of my contributed article at TravelDudes.org

Metro Manila, Philippines in known to host three out of the 10 biggest shopping malls in the world. Shopping malls may not be an ideal destination for any travellers to the Philippines, but it doesn’t mean that you have to miss it out. Aside from shopping of course, here are 5 things that you can do to make your trip to the mall more interesting.

1. Go on a gastronomic trip

Philippine shopping malls hosts a number of restaurants – with lots of food variants. You can sample Filipino, Brazilian, Chinese, Japanese, British, Spanish, Ethiopian, Jamaican, Thai, Indonesian, French food (the list goes on…) from one shopping mall alone. Prices are quite cheap with food choice starting at 100 PHP (1,5€).

TIP: If you want to sample some cheaper Filipino snacks, head down to the supermarket and sample some cheap food that can go as low as 15PHP (0,25€). These stalls can be found usually on SM shopping malls.

2. Enjoy some local music

Head down to a mall’s activity centre or food court and there’s a good chance that you’ll catch a performance from a local (or sometimes foreign) music band. Watching the performances are free of charge.

TIP: Performances are usually done in the late afternoon from 4-6PM

3. Watch the famous Manila sunset

Head down to SM Mall of Asia (the largest mall in the Philippines spanning 4.2 million square feet) and get a table with the view of the coast. On a clear day, it’s one of the best place to catch the sunset and enjoy a good dinner as well.

4. Do your souvenir shopping

The malls’ department stores & some specialty shops offers great choices for souvenirs – from wardrobes, postcards, shirts, food & liquor. Admit the price can be a bit higher than a local seller but lower than airport sellers, but if you are ever on a rush – the malls are the most reliable place to get them (Malls open usually from 10h00 – 22h00 – Monday to Sundays)

5. People watching

I admit this is my favourite activity from the list. Going to malls is one of the favourite past-times of Filipinos (instead of going to parks for example). So, malls are a good place to people-watch as you can see good facets of the people’s everyday activities. Be mindful though that the malls gets very crowded in the afternoon to the night – especially during Fridays, the weekend, and on the 15th or 30th of the month.

How to do you find the activities? Do you have an activity that you would like to add? Feel free to comment and add them below.

Social Media Thursday: Future of music videos - Arcade Fire

2010-09-02T16:57:00.000+02:00

I already posted this on my Facebook account, but for those who haven't seen the new interactive, HTML5 enabled Arcade Fire video for their new song 'The Wilderness Downtown'.

The 'video' or rather this new musical experience synchronizes it with Google Streetview technology which basically allows you to create a personalised video by placing the place where you grew up.Unfortunately, street view is not available in Quezon city, Philippines (where I grew up) nor in Brussels. So I placed an address in the US (which you can do, or put an address in Paris)

According to mashable, it is "more than just a one-off proof of concept, the end project (the video) shows just what is possible with HTML5 and emerging web standards,”. Indeed it is a good step and probably can challenge VEVO and Youtube. We'll see.

It works great in Chrome (and only Chrome). Check it out!
http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

Travel: Lille day trip

2010-07-30T10:18:00.000+02:00

I did update my travel blog doing a short entry on my day-trip to Lille, France. I haven't been in France since June 2009 so it was nice to see the red, white & blue French flag again. Though there's actually not much difference between Lille and Brussels - especially with the architecture & the food.

More stuff here - http://jerick.posterous.com/

Amsterdam for the World Cup finals

2010-07-25T14:00:00.000+02:00

I've written a short and very light entry on my trip to Amsterdam for the World Cup finals weekend. We ended up not seeing the finals in Amsterdam, though the weekend was still quite exciting. Read more on my travel blog - Jerick travels to.

Filipinos & the World Cup

2010-06-20T22:44:00.002+02:00

Living in Europe, you can’t help but feel ~~obliged~~ excited to watch the World Cup. And as this and this article mention, Filipinos are mostly absent from this football craze. Though for me, it's a different situation, It’s almost halfway through the games & I’m happy to say that I’ve been brainwashed into this football watching/screaming/vuvuzela-ing (?) supporter.

FILIPINOS FOOTBALL? We can draw inspiration from Paulino Alcantara, Spanish-Filipino striker of FC Barcelona and is the highest scorer in FC Barcelona's history. (horrible background music btw)

And I’m actually getting into it well and enjoying the experience (I’m watching Brazil v. Cote d’Ivoire while writing this entry). And I think more than the excitement of the actual games, the social aspect of watching one is what attracts me the most. Like last night, I spared the usual going out to party for some cookies, curacao and the Denmark v. Cameroon game at my friends’ place. And when you do game fixtures then watch the games with loads of people in pubs or in someone’s flat, it gets better. Though recently, I've been enjoying mocking the French team. J

Belgium is not playing, but expats in Brussels plus the Belgian francophones & néerlandophones cheering for France & Netherlands respectively have put the usual life into standstill. If you want to watch games in public places in Brussels, I would recommend to see it in Place Luxembourg or some pubs like The Old Oak or Hairy Canary in the Schuman area. Most are expat-filled places, though I'm interested to get the feel of watching with Belgians, so do write them up if you know one.

I’m ecstatic and for sure will be following the games up to the finals. People usually ask who I’m cheering for, at the moment, I don’t have any. I hope that one day – I can watch the games and actually support the Philippines. When it will happen, I don’t know – and I know it takes more than just training good players but probably re-shaping our sporting culture.

A toute!

So how do you think Belgian music sounds like?

2010-05-19T00:17:00.000+02:00

A concert in Botanique Nuit is a good way to enjoy Belgium’s and some of the world’s indie music scene. Staged on the beautiful glass building of Jardin Botanique, this 2 week event gathers indie bands (and some popular names) within Belgium & its neighbors.

I went last Saturday to see Absynthe Minded, a Belgian band that I recently just started listening. The concert was great. Absynthe Minded fused together classical instruments into pop-rock music. Bass Violin, violin, piano & trumpet are instruments that I have never seen since yesterday in a rock concert. However, I agree with a friend of mine who mentioned that their songs are somewhat a bit pop. Though, I don’t see anything wrong about it. Don’t know if this is how Belgian music generally sounds like.

It’s also nice to see a mainly Belgian crowd & actually watch my first only-Belgian band in concert. And what's ironic even is that the band somewhat reflected the current structure of Belgium – they’re a Ghent-based band (so they’re Flemish), who spoke to the audience in French & sang their songs in English. Only in Belgium, my friends.

See a video from the event (the video’s not mine)

Belgium: The second country I call home

2010-05-03T23:00:00.000+02:00

Living in Belgium for more than a year & a half, I have grown to love & enjoy this small yet wonderful country. And I can't summarize how thankful I am that I got lucky that I managed to get matched in Belgium. It may not be as touristic as France, as lively as Spain nor as charming as Italy - but Belgium for me is one of the countries I can truly and won't regret to call as home. :)

Longer version:

Here comes the sun

2010-04-20T00:58:00.001+02:00

In the immortal words of Paul, Ringo, John & George - 'Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter, little darling, it feels like years since it's been here".

And having survived 2 long winters, I became myself, like the dudes who made this song, a sun fan! I just love the sun. And this weekend was practically the sunniest weekend we had in months. The skies were so blue (partly due to the European airspace closure) that it would be a sin not to go out.

If the sun would have had a facebook fan page, everyone would have 'Liked' it, (I just checked - it actually does). And it would this weekend one of twitter's trending topic and would have kicked Justin Bieber's ass. However, as on everything, not everyone loves the sun.

I spent Saturday afternoon at the Woluwe Park, one of Brussels most beautiful park. And Sunday, I spent the entire afternoon on Brussels second most beautiful park, our garden. Everyone was outside, except my flatmate Simon, who spent his entire weekend at home. I already sent him an invite to the I hate the sun facebook fanpage.

And thanks to the sun, I manage to keep myself away from unproductive things like the internet. Aside from being with my friends, I was also with my new girlfriend - Lisbeth Salander. We spent so much time together. She kept me excited, and I can't deny that this weekend wouldn't be as fun without her.

The weekend like this should come more often. But as this is Belgium, I think it won't be the case. Ho-hum. And yes, tomorrow it's already going to be cloudy.

While we're at it. Make sure you read this article as well.

Benefits of moderate sun exposure

for the sake of updating

2010-04-14T21:52:00.001+02:00

there comes a time in every blogger, despite having lots of ideas what to blog, he becomes just lazy to do it. And then he stupidly comes up with a meaningless entries like this - with no additional value whatsoever.

Today's the time.

Perhaps this will motivate me more to update the blog.Well, just look at my cool new layout, ain't it sweet?

ON JOURNALISM: A good read: End of the world as we know it

2010-02-15T15:02:00.004+01:00

Following a journalist’s twitter account (@codybrown), I stumbled upon this commentary by Robert Thomson on what it is to be a ‘professional’ journalist in this digital age.

Quoting him – “Journalists have to be flexible, they have to understand that readers' lives have changed and that unless we are responsive to those changes, and tailor content for these new templates, journalists will have made themselves redundant.”

The advent of the so-called ‘citizen journalist’ and real time’ information sharing through online social networks like facebook, twitter challenges conventional journalists on speed of information sharing and on establishing a valuable (and real-time) dialogue to the audiences. So now that everyone can become the transmitter of news, and can be faster than how newspapers (even their online versions) publish their news, does this signal the end of the professional journalist?

It does not. – Robert Thomson says why and how we can make ourselves stand-out.

He explains that today’s journalists have the advantage, which is our knowledge of fundamentals: proper reporting & writing, copyediting, beat specialization & ethics. Though he emphasizes that practitioners should adapt to the digital age. And this is where, he mentions, journalists of today & tomorrow should invest. We need to be in a state of continuous learning – starting with the basics such as knowing how to do your own multimedia presentation, learning how to maximize tools such as facebook, twitter & linkedin, opening ourselves to new online trends and trying it out.

The technology is here (and ever growing) and it’s up to today’s journalist to maximize the use of these online tools.

Anyway, be sure to check out his article. A must read.

The next big thing

2010-02-02T23:38:00.000+01:00

Blogging About Rome

2010-01-26T15:38:00.000+01:00

You might not know but I'm also keeping a blog solely for my travel notes. Here's a recent entry about my trip to Rome last June. Be sure to also check out my other entries particularly on my big trip to Morocco.

Cheers!

Film Français et la musique

2009-11-08T23:41:00.000+01:00

Since I moved here in Belgium, I developed this tendency to like and enjoy movies and songs that are in French. I guess it's part of integration to the Belgian society. Though, it will still be a long shot before I start understanding what they mean and I at the moment I still have to rely on subtitles and translation.

We watched the movie La Vie En Rose (La Mome) earlier in a French channel. It was in French so I didn't understand the movie but I will definitely watch it soon. It's a story about Edith Piaf, a famous French singer in the 40s-50s. It was the first time I heard of her name but she's particularly gained worldwide acclaim from her song La Vie En Rose.

Here's a youtube link of her video, s'amuser et à toute à l'heure!

Jerick Travels to Essaouira

2009-11-08T23:29:00.000+01:00

I manage to quickly do a blog entry on Essaouira from our trip to Morocco last June. Click on the link below to check it out.

After a day in the hot and steaming desert, what better way to cool off than to go to the beach. So, of course, we thought and did something about it. READ MORE.

Fall in Brussels

2009-11-05T11:21:00.000+01:00

After almost 25 days of having no heating, we finally manage to have someone fix our heating problem and as of yesterday, we won't be freezing anymore!

Well, it's November, signalling mid-Autumn. Temperatures are back to something like 10C and rainclouds continue to hover over the sky. It's my second fall in Brussels and generally apart from the nice brownish leaves, I don't like the cold season.

Though, it does not mean that I have to be gloomy. For this time of the year, I think, it's a good time to chill-out inside the house and enjoy the night with a cup of tea. Of course, Friday and Saturday night are still for parties, but for the rest, it's going to be more into chill-out!

Jerick Travels to the Sahara Desert

2009-11-03T22:02:00.000+01:00

Check out my new travel post on the Sahara Desert!

We went there on June but it took me until November to finally finish the blog entry. Do check it out.

After a day and a half of travelling, we reached the Sahara. From afar, the Erg Chebbi sand dunes towers the skyline like a mountain without the brown and green color. It was glimmering in light orange. And the road to it was “ deserted” apart from the camel herds.... READ MORE

Do your AIESEC internship in the Philippines

2009-10-23T20:58:00.001+02:00

Hey guys,

I haven't blogged in a while, even though I promised that I will blog regularly. Anyway, but here I am.

Here's a cool video telling you more about the Philippines and why you should do your next internship there. Kudos to AIESEC Philippines for this cool vid!

My Oxford Photo on Schmap.com

2009-09-24T17:45:00.004+02:00

Cool news Thursday: I got an e-mail today on my flickr that one of the images that I uploaded before was selected to be part of an online map in Schmap.com.

http://www.schmap.com/oxford/sights_jericho/#p=128450&i=128450_76.jpg

It’s a photo that I took of Oxford University when we went there last April. It’s not a photo for the Time Magazine nor for the BBC. But at least, it’s something.

Reviving Le Blog

2009-09-22T09:35:00.000+02:00

I decided to update my blog again, which after 5 years is still running though not as frequent as before.

I have two blogs. This one - http://jerick.blogspot.com... is basically will be on short microblogs about my life in Brussels in general (and mostly random musings) and my nomadlife blog - Jerick's Travel Notes - http://jerick.nomadlife.org will be more on my travels.

Peace out, Tuesday is work day.

Filipinos in Brussels Tram 23

2009-09-22T00:47:00.001+02:00

I'm now taking Brussels Tram 23 now as part of route going to my new office. It's a 20 minute ride from my office to home. And as I am going back home today, I was seated with two Filipinos. It's quite rare to see Filipinos in Brussels but since I'm working near Bascule, where the Filipino community in concentrated, it's usually a common sight.

Anyway, seating next to them reminded me so much of the bus rides at home. They were gossiping about everything, from their live-in partners, other Filipinos here, and their dinner tonight. Though, it's nothing special, it was just a good reminder of home. :)

Moroccan Adventure: On our way to Sahara

2009-09-20T18:57:00.001+02:00

WANNA RIDE?. This is what I call public transportation

They say that what we should value more is not the destination itself but the road tackled to get into it.

Our 40-hour journey to Sahara was filled with breathtaking places, friendly people, and many unforgettable experiences. Though we had to suffer sitting in a van for the entire day in blistering heat. We left Marrakesh early morning to join the tour to Sahara. I and Danco joined 5 other people - 2 British ladies in their 30s-40s, a Brazilian guy and a girl who are the same age as we are and our tour guide, Hammid.

Our first trek was through the Atlas Mountains. As we stopped to take photos and our guide was telling us about the mountains, Danco asked Hammid "Why are the Atlas Mountains famous?", and he replied "Because they are HIGH.". ah. yes. of course. :-)

HIGH UP THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS. Danco and I behind a stunning view of the Atlas. Below is a sample of the Berber village

We also passed by some interesting Berber communities. The indigenous people of North Africa, they are primarily farmers living on the edges of the mountain slopes. Typically, you can identify them by wearing a pointed hood. We arrived around lunchtime at Kasbah Ait Benhaddou, a UNESCO heritage site made famous for being movie locations of Ben Hur, Gladiator and the upcoming Prince of Persia. The kasbah is a huge sand castle, glimmering in bright yellow. While at the site, we also had a taste of Moroccan cuisine - couscous and tangine with beef.

ALLADIN's CASTLE. The famous Kasbah of Ourzazate in Morocco.

DELICIOUS MOROCCO. Some tangine with beef.

After lunch, we drove through again through a bit of the Atlas mountains and through some towns. Sitting in a car for more than 5 hours, as you know, can be boring. Back in the Philippines, we used to just crank up the radio with some CDs. Our trip, on the other hand, we only have 2 CDs - Bob Marley hits and a CD with Arabic music. Bob Marley music is no doubt a driving music, but listening to it more than 8 times, it gets tiring. It was just too much "Three Little Birds".

By afternoon, we reached our end destination for that day, Dades Gorges. A gorge is a deep valley between cliffs usually carved by a river. You have to pass through winding roads to go the viewpoint. Upon reaching the top, both Danco and I had the "The world is amazingly beautiful" talk, well truly it is and it's only the beginning of our journey. We finished our day with some Moroccan music (with amateur drumming by yours truly) and a nice sleep in a hotel along the gorge.

ROAD TO HEAVEN. Perhaps one of the most stunning views ever, Dades Gorge. BELOW: LITTLE DRUMMER BOY. Enjoying the night with my drumming skills

We woke up the next day to continue our drive to Sahara. We stopped by Tondra Gorge, where instead of viewing the gorge from the top we walked from below. Again, it was breathtakingly amazing.

TONDRA GORGE. A nice view with one of your good friends. What couldn't be better than that.

A piece of advice though, be careful with your camera. I learned it the hard way. While I was crossing the river, I slipped with my camera on my hand. So, yeah, my 6 month camera went down into the water, never to work again. :(

Though I got pissed about my camera dropping into water, I didn't let it spoil my vacation cause after a few hours drive, we finally reached the Sahara..

Moroccan Adventure: City of Marrakesh

2009-08-18T15:40:00.002+02:00

Our Morocco adventure begins in the city of Marrakesh.

DJAAMA EL FNA. Marrakesh's main market square, where snakecharmers flock in the day.

Coming from 10 months of living and travelling across Europe, though I enjoyed most of it, it was nice to be out of the continent and taste yet again the feeling that I had when I first got into Belgium – the feeling of being lost.

TRAVEL BROTHER TO MOROCCO. My flatmate and friend Danco and I on our way to Paris Orly Airport

With hardly any plans and booked trains and hostels, Danco and I, took our flight from Paris Orly to Marrakesh. It took us 2 hours before we landed in Morocco. Dirtier than Paris (and less French), sunnier than Brussels, less smokey than Amsterdam, and far less Christian than Rome – Marrakesh is clearly not Europe.

We stayed in an amazing hostel – Riad Massine II, and I must say that I never received such accommodating response compare to what I received here.

PALAIS BADII. One of the ancient sites in Morocco.

Marrakesh screams with color, from the colors of the ceramics to the colors (and smells) of the spices. At the same time, we had fun looking at the arabic lettering and drinking Coca-cola with the label in Arabic.

ARABIC? I'LL STICK TO ENGLISH. I don't know what this sign says.

After lunch which was for 20 dirhams (€2), we met a fellow Canadian-Asian backpacker, Lawrence, to go around with. The sightseeing parts were tough because of the heat that's why we always kept a bottle of water handy.

SHOPPING, SHOPPING, MORE SHOPPING. (Top to Bottom) Colorful ceramic plates; Some local sweets made from different sundried berries, fruits etc; While in another ceramics shop, we promised him that we will recommend his shop and now I'm doing him free publicity.

After visiting the tourist sites, we decided to go to the souks or the marketplace, to do some shopping. They say that shopping on your first day is not advised because it's better to get a feel of the real price first, but we managed to buy a lot. I think it was only because we enjoyed haggling and bargaining (or bullshiting) and we always bargain the cheapest (starting at 5-10% of the original price). That's why they always ask - "how much would you pay for it?" so that we won't be able to bargain bad. Anyway, in the end, we bought a lot, which I think was fine since in the next days we didn't had much time to go around.

LIGHTS AT NIGHT. Djaama El Fna at night.

Marrakesh at night was also fantastic. Djaama El Fna, the main square, lits up at night. Food stalls, magicians, herbologists keeps the square busy. And for us, we decided to get "drunk" from the fresh orange juice (3 dirhams). After an exotic meal for dinner, we chilled out the rest of the night in a terrace where you get an overview of the square.

FIRST NIGHT. Danco, Lawrence and I chilled out in a terrace over looking the square; Brains for dinner? Yummy.

Polska Weekend

2009-05-10T20:42:00.006+02:00

AMAZING POLAND; The view of Vistula river from the Wawel Castle. That's us with the Polish flag.

APRIL 30, 2009 - MAY 3, 2009. I visited Kristine a friend from 8 years ago and currently doing an AIESEC internship in Poland.

It was also my first time to travel in Europe alone and without my friends from Belgium. For once, it's nice to be guided by your own set of priorities and also get more opportunities to meet people. And Poland was the perfect venue.

Kristine and her friend picked me up in Warsaw airport Thursday night then drove me to their place in Radom, a town 100 kms away from Warsaw. Seeing Kristine was like having my Filipino switch turned on. Kaboom!!!!!

ANGELICANS IN POLAND. Jerick and Kristine in Krakow. :)

Kristine and I met 8 years ago in Angelicum. Then after 7 years, I was able to convince her to join the AIESEC exchange program. Meeting her in Poland was like a warp to 8 years past then back. A testament to this was the 1 hour and a half drive to Radom filled with conversations in Tagalog, high school reminscing, and endless stories about the Philippines.

On Friday, all AIESEC interns in Radom and I took the train to Krakow to join other interns from Poland for the Krakow reception weekend. We arrived in Krakow four hours after. Since the official program is not yet starting, Kristine and I decided to visit Oswiechim for the Auschwitz Concentration Camp memorial, a 2 hour bus ride from Krakow.

Experience in Auschwitz

Auschwitz was the largest World War II concentration camp in Europe and the place where they persecuted more than 3 million victims. It was a site preserved for people of this generation to remember and honour the victims of the past and learn from that time's terror.

FLOWER AT THE AUSCHWITZ MEMORIAL. Hopefully, the memories won't wither.

Anyway, the site features most of the remnants from 70 years ago. There are many things around but the thing that bothered me the most was the collection of hairs from all the victims. Back then, they used to collect all the hairs to make as cloth. Also, one chilling moment was when we visited the gas chambers.

LEARNING FROM HISTORY. and no photos please.

As George Santayana said (and it is widely posted in the memorial) - "The one that does not remember history is bound to live through it again". And I agree. A site that you should definitely see in your life.

Krakow Reception Weekend

We got back from Auschwitz just in time for the start of the reception weekend. As I said earlier, it's nice to come with mostly by yourself as you get more chances of meeting new people. And that I did. I met so many interns in Poland. What surprised me though was the fact that the interns there were generally quite young (same age as me) compared to Belgium where I am considered one of the youngest.

(TOP) INTERNS IN POLAND. Haller! A photo taken Friday night as we are just to go out for a walk.
(BELOW) GOLDEN BUILDING Cloth Hall in the main market square.

Krakow captured its pristine on its main market square where you can find the St. Mary's Basilica, Cloth Hall, City Hall Tower and other beautiful buildings. Also, sites that you should visit are the Wawel Castle and the Barbican. After touring, I recommend that you sit along the Riverbanks of Vistula.

I really enjoyed my Krakow Weekend. The people, the AIESECers especially, are fantastic. I hope to see them again soon!

Radom and Warsaw

Saturday night we went back to Radom where we had a crazy vodka night. These Polish people can't get enough vodka. I also brought some Belgian beers but of course, they prefer their vodka. If they only knew what they are missing. :P

Next day, we went to meet Kristine's TN manager and Polish family. It was nice hearing how happy they are about Kristine and her internship in Poland especially since I'm her VP-OGX as well.

Then after Radom, we took the train to Warsaw to catch my plane. I was only in Warsaw for 1 hour, quite short. I wish I had more time to go around.

GOING BACK IS HARD. On my train to Warsaw from Radom on Sunday morning.

My trip to Poland was a nice escape. First, it was nice to meet Kristine here in Europe and just talk and listen to stories. Also, Poland is a country that I never expected I would love, but I did because of the people.

Dziekuje Polska!

POLISH JUMP. On the Krakow Main Market Square.

For more pictures, visit my Multiply website.

AIESEC UPd meets in Belgium

2009-04-29T11:02:00.000+02:00

Last weekend, Ruthie, one of my EPs when I was VP OGX (Vice President for Outgoing Exchange) of AIESEC UPd visited me here in Belgium. She did her internship in Finland then now went to an interrail trip across Europe.
She’s the first guest from the Philippines in my place.

I took her around Brussels, which I found later as challenging as I am just as clueless as her about the city. We ended up instead having frites in La Bourse (the only thing I know "Brussels-ish").

We also went to Antwerp last Saturday. I've been there thrice already but it was my first time in Antwerp with the sun still up.

Antwerp Castle

Antwerp is very appealing. I noticed immediately the difference between Brussels to Antwerp – the architecture, the people and the vibe. What I particularly like about Antwerp are its lively streets, interesting statues, classy architecture and shops. I also liked the part that I can practice my dutch in Antwerp. Ik ben spreek in Nederlands. But do I prefer Antwerp over Brussels? Well, that’s tough to answer but I think I’ll stick to where I live for now.

Anyway, what was fun about our trip to Antwerp were the RANDOM moments. Just to list a few:

1. Random Brides-to-be asking to write a wedding message in your own language - I wrote in Tagalog!
2. Random Grooms-to-be tied in a bowling ball selling green scissors.
3. Random Flemish people asking if we need tourist help (because we looked exotic, but it was nice)
4. Random people getting arrested in the train back for possession of Marijuana
5. Random AIESEC Belgium friends that you see. :-)
6. Random FREE HUGS people in Meir Straat. It's nice to get a hug really.:)

Ruthie in Antwerp. UPD unite!

Also, it was a nice opportunity to recconect and to hear that she enjoyed her internship. I saw that she had a wonderful experience during her AIESEC internship. And it's rewarding to hear that as her VP-OGX you played a part in making this opportunity happen. :-)

Spring Sensation

2009-04-29T11:01:00.002+02:00

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Keukenhof Flowers

I never felt the real essence of spring before I came here to Belgium. I had a vacation in the US in spring 2002 yet it was cold. My relatives said it was quite warm but coming from 30C summer in the Philippines, 15-20C isn't actually what we call "warm".

Yet after braving a cold winter here in Europe and seeing as time passes the changes that springtime brought, you can't help but thank that spring is here. :)

So, what better way to feel spring but to just lay in the sun and enjoy the colors. And that we did.
We made a weekend roadtrip see Keukenhof, a flower park an hour drive away from Amsterdam. And we went the right time when the sun was out and the flowers were in bloom.

Me playing with the digital macro feature of my camera

Aside from touring Keukenhof, we also went to Amsterdam the previous days. We went again to a free tour, the Sandeman's New Amsterdam Free Tour (two free tours in a week, the other one the Saturday before in London, call me "addicted") Again, it's very amusing. Our guide, Steve, was as crazy as Amsterdam is (honestly, he is like a cuckoo bird in turbo mode but he's very fun and informative).

Steve, the tourguide, explaining those things in the wall

It was nice to realize that if you really pay attention, you will see Amsterdam beyond the marijuana and the redlight district and marvel on its beauty and history then understand the reasons and moments in history it went through to reach what it is perceived today. And that tour opened my eyes to a new Amsterdam, an Amsterdam that I never saw in my past two visits here.

AMSTERDAM HUISEN. Do you ever wonder what those hooks on the top floors are for? Actually, they are for lifting things up to the roof since houses have no big stairs. impressive trivia!

I also learned why there are hooks on top of the houses in Amsterdam!

Easter 2009 in Britain

2009-04-20T16:11:00.000+02:00

For the past 20 years, I spent Easter with family with activities of going to church and eating lunch. And though I don't have that opportunity now, I'm happy to spend Easter with one of my families, AIESEC. Adding to that is a very good consolation, spending it in Britain.

Started our journey on Black Saturday in London. We were hosted by Csenge's friend, Albin, an AIESECer from Hungary. Then, we went to the centre after for a tour. It's not my first time in London. I was there last December and I only stayed for one night, that's why I went back again.

After joining the free tour by Sandemans' New London Tours (Try it, very well recommended). Carla, Csenge and I walked along River Thames where we saw everything that we feel is London - Big Ben, London Eye, Trafalgar Square, double decker bus, the tube and the London telephone booth.

After walking the entire afternoon, we gathered in Oxford Circus for some shopping then dinner at Garfunkel's. We went directly to Brixton (where Albin lives) after to get ready for the next day. :)

STONEHENGE, THEY ARE NOT JUST ROCKS!

Next day, we took the tour of Hampton Court, Stonehenge and Oxford. We were supposed to go to Windsor Castle but it was closed, so we went to Hampton Court instead. I went out with Csenge and Carla, along with Tina - FilAm and Microsoft Intern in Paris and also Dan, Tina's friend who was also an AIESECer in the UK.

First stopped at Hampton Court Palace, a royal palace south of London. It used to be the resident of King Henry VIII. The place was rich in history and we were lucky that when we were there, it was costume day so people around were dressed in their Tudor-time costumes. Particularly like Henry's kitchen, the fountain court, the labyrinth maze (seriously, you can get lost) and of course, the gardens. The weather was cloudy, but still manage to "play" in the garden. I also saw a swan, which was nice. :) CLICK HERE TO KNOW MORE - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampton_Court_Palace

After leaving Hampton Court, the bus went for a 1,5 hour drive to Stonehenge in the Wiltshire country. Everyone knows Stonehenge, but for those who don't know, it is these rocks, arranged in a circular shape, and believed to have been there for more 4,000 years ago. It was believed to be either a monument, a burial ground, a temple, or an alien landing pad (?). It's a UNESCO world heritage site.

Seeing stonehenge for me is a dream come true. I felt really blessed to see this place. There are some that say that these are just piles of rocks, but for me, it's more than that.

Two hours past, we went to see the city of Oxford - famous for its university. We were there for only short while though. It's just strange for me that a university can also be a tourist attraction, possibly thanks to its fame and its history. :)

Highlight of the tour was when we visited the outsides of ChristChurch, famous for our generation as one of the settings for Harry Potter movies. We didn't go inside though. Also in Oxford, I manage to taste a Cornish Pasty, or as I names it - English empanadas. :)

AIESEC DANCES TIL 4AM!

After the tour, we went back to London for Albin's Easter barbeque. Nice hefty food and chats with Hungarians and Polish. After the barbeque, we went out to the centre for a drink, but went back to Brixton as the bar that we were supposed to go to was closed. So, we went back to Brixton for some cocktails in this place called Mango Landin. not your typical english pub, but is very English still (at some point).

After drinks and mild drunkenness, we headed over to Albin's house for some drinks again. We were just chillin' in the house, talking about AIESEC, our experiences etc., and then we decided to do some AIESEC dances. From Tunak-Tunak, LeLe, Cotton-Eyed Joe, and even Life in a new Millenium (danced it last on NLDS 2006) and we were dancing til 4AM.

Next day, we continued our tour around London. We went to Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, St. Paul's, Camden Town then back to Oxford Circus. We also went back to Embankment to see the city at night (House of Parliament was nice!).

Unfortunately, we have to cut our trip short as we need to go back to work. :-( So early Tuesday morning, we went back to surprisingly sunny Brussels.

5 BEST MEMORIES OF MY BRITISH EASTER:

1. Topman - Shopping Galore!
2. AIESEC Dances til 4AM - It's nice to reminisce on AIESEC dances! Life in a New Millenium
3. Stonehenge, of course - a fantastic place
4. The Maze over at Hampton Court. I got lost actually, seriously. :)
5. London Buses - 2 to Marylebone. :)

I promised myself that I will be back in London or somewhere in the UK.

AIESEC: Spend your Summer in Indonesia or Malaysia!

2009-03-16T12:10:00.001+01:00

Experience Malaysia and Indonesia!

Don’t know what to do this summer? Looking for a new and exciting experience? Want to be immersed in a different culture? Want to make the world a better place?

If you are, then you are perfect for AIESEC’s summer internship program in Malaysia or Indonesia! Spend the summer as a Development or Management Trainee in one of these organizations and more.

Please see the attached excel file for the complete list of companies and organizations and other details. The AIESEC International Traineeship Exchange Program description is also attached with this post.

Organization/Company Name Business Type

Standard Chartered Bank - Banking and Finance
Enterprise Asia - Project Management
MIRACLE 2009 - Environment
Entrepreneurship Youth—A Learning Network - Entrepreneurship
Young Visionaries - Orphanage
SME Magazine - Marketing
Cultural Understanding Through Education (CUTE) - Education
PT Fortune PR - Public Relations
Bukit Jambul Hotel Development Sdn. Bhd - Hotel
The Youth Intelligence Sdn. Bhd - Marketing

Spend the summer honing your skills in Project Management, Development Studies, Human Resource, Marketing, and many more!

Pre-selection interview is on March 23, 2009. No sign-up fee required.

So what are you waiting for? Apply now! (Fill out the attached application form)

Contact persons:
Gabb Agapito (09167528546 || gabb.agapito@aiesec.net)
Judd Vitente (09178663185 || judd_willis.vitente@aiesec.net)

AIESEC: Spend your Summer in Indonesia or Malaysia!

2009-03-16T12:10:00.000+01:00

Backpacking in Bicol: Budget to Donsol

2008-06-01T09:50:00.002+02:00

For those who are planning to go to Donsol soon, here's a rough estimate of expenses:

TRANSPORTATION

Manila - Naga/Legaspi - P600-P800 (one way via bus)
Legaspi - Donsol - P60 (one-way van)
Donsol tricycle
to tourism office P30 (per trip)

TOTAL TRANSPORTATION: P1400-1700 round trip

FOOD (breakfast, lunch, dinner)

Budget Meals P100 per day
Medium Level meals P200 per day
Hotel Meals P350 per day

TOTAL FOOD - P 200-P700 for two days (overnight in Donsol)

ACCOMMODATION

Room 1 Double Bed P500-P1000
Room 2 Double Beds P1000-P1500

TOTAL ACCOMMODATION - P1000 (P250 per person) for one day

WHALE SHARK

Boat (7 Persons) P3500 (P500 per person at least)
Registration P100 (local)
P300 (foreigner)

Snorkel P150
Fins P150

Total: P900 (boat, registration, snorkel, fins) per trip

FIREFLIES

Boat (5 persons) P1250.00

Total: P250

ALL EXPENSES:

Transportation - P1400 P1700
Food: - P200 P350
Accommodation - P500 P1500
Whale Shark - P900
Fireflies* - P250

TOTAL BUDGET - at least P3000 (without fireflies)

*add some spare cash just in case you have to add money for paying the extra at the boat (sometimes, 7 people per boat is not filled so you have to pay extra)

BEST BET - P3500-P4000

c'mon! Let's Donsol na!

Backpacking in Bicol: Donsol

2008-05-28T19:33:00.003+02:00

May 18, 2008 - After a quick lunch at the Legazpi Bus Terminal, we rode a van to Donsol for roughly 1 and a half hours. We got there by 2 in the afternoon. Donsol is, by far, the farthest I’ve gone in South Luzon.

I am really happy on how tourist-friendly the town of Donsol is. Most of the food remains to be close to the prices in Manila, sometimes a lot cheaper (particularly in their seafood). Tricycles don’t trick tourist by charging higher than the normal fare. Even the tourism office are friendly to tourist (duh, it's their job.LOL).They helped us find accommodation and people who would join in our whale shark boat.

Anyway, we headed down to the Donsol Butanding Information Office to get a boat for the whale shark watching, but we were told to wait the next day since the sea was too rough. We instead went directly to our place, Amor Farm Beach Resort. It was a nice resort since we are the only one of two guests in that place (our group and a group of 5 brits). The feeling of being pampered and having the beach all by yourself is worth it.It was also quite affordable.

After a quick nap, we headed to Ogud River to see some fireflies. For P1250 a boat, you’ll get a two hour river cruise. It was relatively inexpensive since we were able to share it with a group of 3 Lolas (“Gorgeous Lolas” from now on) bringing the cost to P200. The night was illuminated because of the full moon and it was rather early at night (around 7PM), so the fireflies were not visible from the boat. You have to go near a tree and shake it. I was not disappointed though, since the cruise was relaxing.

We woke up early next day for our whale shark watching. By 6:30AM we were already at the tourism office, we were again joined by the Gorgeous Lolas (Tita Coney, Tita Helen and Tita Cely) and aBritish backpacker, Nathan, whom my tita picked up from the town center that morning.

We waited for almost four hours before we had our first sighting. Imagine, 6-7 boats swirling around Donsol sea without any sighting.

So while waiting, I spent time talking to Nathan, the british backpacker. He inspired me to do backpacking trips around the world. He’s only 25 but he has been in more than 70 countries. That’s a feat! He started his first backpacking trip at the age of 18 to Egypt and since then he has been to Africa, North and South America and Asia. He just went to Donsol from Thailand and will go to India in a week’s time. Man, if I have money for trips like that, I’ll be more than delighted. He works for construction and earns US$3000 per month then takes months off to continue backpacking around the world. Well, I promised myself, I’ll try backpacking around the world, but first I need to save money. But where will I get the money? I have to get a job, but I’m still in school. Waaah. Anyway, promise, I’ll do that. For now, backpacking around the Philippines is a great option (and relatively cheaper).

OK, after four hours of waiting, our butanding guide finally spotted one So we were alerted by our guide for a dive. We were divided into two groups, one group will stay at the boat, then the other one goes to the water. Then, when a butanding goes again, they’ll be the ones who will be allowed to dive.

I went on the first dive. I managed to get a peek of the whale shark, roughly 1-2 seconds before it dived down. The sea was rough and because of excitement, I wasn’t able to follow to it further, but hey 1-2 seconds of whale shark interaction was well deserved. As I got back to the boat, there was a second sighting of a whale shark. The second group was lucky since they were able to see the whale shark for a longer period time. It was disappointing not going down the water the second time around and be able to see it longer. If only I have broken the rules, I would have seen it again. Why did I follow the rules?!?! Anyway, no regrets. It was still worth it.

Hahaha, as we went back to the pier, I left a little souvenir of Tapsilog (my breakfast) to the whale sharks (in short, I was seasick). Remember not to take heavy breakfast before going on rough sea unless you want to cut your trip short.

After the butanding interaction, we headed back to the resort to change and have lunch. By 2PM, we already checked out of the resort then took a trike to the town center. Let me just say that it was not the best time to get back to Legaspi since all vans were out because of the Donsol town fiesta. So we were forced to ride a jeep to Daraga, Albay (next town of Legaspi). Beeing adventurous and the seemingly big crowd wanting to get out of Donsol, I was forced to ride at the top of a jeep. Honestly, it was scary sitting only a small area while the jeep kept on speeding up especially on those sharp turn. I think that made my skin bad since I was under the sun for 2 hours.

In the end, Donsol remains to be an image of rural Philippines. Apart from occasional sightings of foreigners, you can see that tourism hasn’t change the town much like overcommercialized Boracay and Puerto Galera. It remains to be a small town still filled with ricefields, trees and relatively quiet resorts. That’s the reason I think why the whale sharks visit Donsol every year.

Well, as for the whale sharks, I promised them (?) that I’ll go back to Donsol soon (April) . Hopefully by then, I’ll see more of them and on a longer time. Now, I need to practice to swim.

Update this soon

2008-04-19T20:31:00.000+02:00

I will update this blog soon...

Sarah made my day

2007-05-01T13:31:00.001+02:00

haha.

I saw Sarah Geronimo yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!! Waaah! I'm a secret fan of Sarah Geronimo, haha. She graduated along with my sister yesterday and Sarah was seating two pews away from my sister. COOL! haha. she has a picture nga with Sarah on the background... haha.

Even when I'm in Angelicum, alam ko na na nandun si Sarah, but never saw her. And I was glad when I heard that she's graduating with my sister. haha. She sang our school hymn pa. haha.

wala lang. starstruck. nakakainis lang, ang daming tao dun which made the grad ceremony magulo.

pero still, sarah made my day (and the dinner buffet after, haha)

Watsons beauty kit fit for a queen. (my article from Business Mirror)

2007-05-01T12:16:00.001+02:00

Haha. So OK, I have one week left prior to the end of my internship. And so far, things are going great. I will surely miss working with FH. Even riding the MRT too. But, I'll make the best out of my 1 week left.

Anyway, here's one of the articles that I wrote for them. It was published in Business Mirror last Wednesday. Then this article again was also published in Manila Standard Today. :)
Yee! haha. (I know, mayabang)

Of school and other ek-ek (posted 042107)

2007-05-01T12:15:00.000+02:00

I'm glad that I was able to maintain my standing. Promise, I thought I'm gonna be punished for being so lax last semester. But at least, some of my hard work paid off. haha.COM-RES is finally over! and by the way, I got my first 1.0!!! I mean, it's not really a big deal for some, but for me, I'm glad that I got one finally. haha. I'm too GC.

Anyway, with my internship and all. I'm practically. eat.travel.work.travel.eat.sleep.

That's about it basically, so I'm finding excuses just to have relax. Last week, I practically spent school days with my college friends eating and walking around SM. Boring pero I need them. I also want to go to Quiapo and hoard DVDs. Heroes, Prison Break and OTH seasons will be over, so I should get their DVDs na.

Anyway, I finally got a DVD copy of EMPIRE of the SUN! It's original, not that expensive. Pero, I'm glad that I got one!

***
Avril has a new CD, I haven't checked the stores yet. But I'll get one, for sure. Once I have my credit card bill cleaned (which is actually impossible, haha)

**
Ang corny ng ending ng Sana Maulit Muli - wala lang. I got a glimpse of the ending yesterday. Ang corny. May plug pa ng jolibee. haha.

**
I'm actually learning Italian thanks to Learn How To Speak Italian Podcast. While in the MRT or walking etc. I know how to count to 100 in italian. uno, due, tre...

**
I'm also reading Chronicles of Narnia. I'm done with the first book. (sorry, slow)

**
I actually miss traveling abroad during summer. After graduation nalang.

Internship Update (posted 042107)

2007-05-01T12:14:00.000+02:00

take back what I said about riding the MRT, it's HELL to ride the MRT every rush hour.

I'm almost two weeks in my internship andMore than half of the required hours needed in the course.

So how's work, you ask?

One word. STRENUOUS. Work load it's pretty much on the right terms. Work is actually what I've expected it to be. I'm normally in office from 8AM to 7PM everyday. Tasks are mostly on writing press releases, so far I did two and news monitoring. Their were some activities that involved going outside which I also enjoy. (sorry, medyo confidential yun iba)

Anyway, I enjoy working at Fleishman-Hillard. They really treat their interns well. We have nice bosses and practically a well-kept office. Food is overflowing plus we get to choose what food to pruchase. I enjoy the food, yun palang OK na.

They really offer challenging work which I really enjoy. So far, everything's OK.

The only think I don't like about this summer's internship is the travel to makati. I know, many of my friends express this sentiment. (check Vic's blog - http://www.bikoy.net) Travel time is 2 hours. I hate riding the MRT with lines that will take you 30 minutes just to move on the lines. Blessing ang STORED VALUE card. which actually cuts the time! Promise, for those who haven't one, GET ONE!

Basta, I'm considering taking the bus from Paseo to SM north, but it's not good naman. So, I'm pretty much stuck on the MRT for two weeks.

Haunting

2007-04-01T10:09:00.000+02:00

Last Saturday night, we were having our Ambassadors' Night (one of AIESEC's event) at a place in Marina Bay Homes in Paranaque. (It's near Manila Bay).

We were having our socials event at a lot at the back of a vacant house. Before that night, we went to the place with one of the homeowners' association member of the village and she told us that the place has been vacant for months and the owners rarely visit the place. That's why we were allowed to have our party at the back of the house assuming that there's no one there.

So, there we were, having fun and having our usual AIESEC socials activities. Then some of the people noticed that the lights went on at the house's second floor. No one reacted since most of the people didn't know that the house was vacant. For us, we assumed that someone was there.

Then, we saw a shadow of a man walking left to right from the window. Then we heard the windows banging as if someone was so angrily moving them to and fro. And when I say bang, Bang talaga!

Then after, we all heard a loud scream saying GET OUT!. and it's so loud that everyone was startled. Then, the daughter of the homeowner assoc member screamed and told everyone to leave the place.

As in it was really really spooky.

Later that night, eva, daniel and I went to that house and we saw that it was bare with no furnitures what so ever.

The next morning, we talked again to the homeowner officer and she verified that there was no one at that house that night.

Chilly.

It was my first haunting experience ever.

Superpowers

2007-02-23T00:44:00.000+01:00

iba na ang atmosphere sa school ngayon, elections na kasi. yup, pati sa UP, elections mode na rin. sa BA puno ng colorful pictures, iba talaga pag may funds. sa cmc, puro red at yellow naman. in fairness, di nalang isang party ngayon ang nasa CMC, dalawa na sila. dati parang yes or no votes lang at least ngayon pipili ka na talaga.

Pero ang dilemma, mahirap pumili. grabe, marami ako dun friends at marami din akong di kilala. haha. nga pala, dahil MCO ang hahawak ng meeting de avance, medyo dapat non-partisan ako. rule daw yun. kaya parang, yun mga orgmates ko di ko rin maikampanya, kasi nga dapat non-partisan. hirap kaya nun. bawal yun mga colored pins na corny na dinidikit pero natatanggal din. last year, puno yun bag ko ng mga kung ano-anong stickers. pero di ko naman sila binoto. haha. for design lang.

inisip ko tuloy kung tumakbo ba ako last year, ano na kaya nangyari sa akin? haha. baka tumatakbo na ako for chairperson ng CMC-SC ngayon or something. pero ayoko naman nun.

tapos ka-YM ko si wivi kanina, pinaguusapan namin kung paano kami magiiwan ng legacy sa UP

DISCLAIMER: Purely fictional lang po ito, haha. wag niyo gamitin evidence if ever na meron ngang mangyaring ganto.

Wivi: i have just one year left in UP....i have to leave a legacy!
Wivi: like i did angelicum
Jeck: maybe, someone will be shot sa council niyo
Jeck: or something
Wivi: if that happens it would be my doing

Grabe, tama bang i suggest ko yun? haha. It gets worse.

Jeck: only up student who snipered a council member
Wivi: now that's something!
Wivi: you gave me a great idea
Wivi: i'll leave my legacy in up years after i left it
Jeck: maybe you can
Wivi: death to UP!
Wivi: Wivi, a UP alumnus, caused the most embarassing demise of the University of the Philippines!

haha. so much for our love of our alma mater. oo na, evil na kami.

Grabe, i miss hanging with that guy. Iba pa rin talaga pag sa angelicum galing.

Speaking of angelicum, nakita ko si Paula Geron last thursday. Ang weird nga eh, yun hs friend ng college friend ko ay friend din ni paula.

Kim: Jerick, punta ka dito sa chocokiss, nandito classmate mo, section elizabeth
Jerick: Sino?
Kim: basta pumunta ka nalang...
Jerick: (calls Kim tapos sinagot ni pauie)
Pauie on phone: Jerick, di mo ako nakikilala, long lost friend mo ako?
Jerick: (clueless)

Pero, grabe na miss ko talaga si pauie and most of my hs friends. Grabe, nagusap kami the whole night. Na-OP nga namin yun mga barkada ni kim... Iba talaga pag taga-ange. Tapos naalala ko tuloy yun "past" ko. haha. aaaw. moving forward.

Ilang buwan nalang, tapos na ang second semester. Salamat naman.

Tapos internship na namin!

Mabuti naman ang paghahanap ng internship place. Medyo may dalawa ng nagreply. Dun sa isang diyaryo, medyo ok na, contract signing nalang. Tapos yun isang PR firm naman, may interview pa ako. Tapos dun sa mga iba kong pinasahan ko, medyo hinihintay ko na lang tumawag. Sigur, tawagan ko na sila. haha. sometime.

Pero, di muna ako tatatanggap unless sure na ako gusto ko dun.

Grabe, ang updated ko na sa heroes. thanks to mia and steph, napapanood ko na ang latest heroes episodes. So far, episode 16 na ako. hopefully mapapanood ko na siya. Grabe, dahil dun gusto ko ng magka-super powers.

shut up and listen

2007-01-21T03:50:00.001+01:00

Keeping the mouth shut and listening are the best things for everyone to do now.

Comelec Voter's Registration SUCKS!

2006-12-28T15:44:00.000+01:00

Based from the title, it's pretty clear that I'm fcuking pissed off! With all the "incompetencies" that the COMELEC had been battered with (Garci and the electronic poll scam), it's no surprise that they will once again fail. And yes I, along with almost 2,000 QUEZON CITY DISTRICT TWO "angry" and soon-to-be voters, were victims of mismanaged registration process.

I was in line from 8AM til 6PM and I didn't accomplish anything "Comelec". I was there last week to get me scheduled for the voter's form release but almost 8 hours had passed and let me just say that all I got were two tired feet,an empty stomach, pissed off grandma images that I think will last forever in my mind and a headache.

The COMELEC Voter's Registration is the most inefficient procedure that I've ever seen in my whole life ( passport and driver's license application were overshadowed by this). With only 2 computers working for 505,000+ people in my district, you get my point. Along with some untrained volunteers, this will definitely result to long lines, pissed mob, pre-stampede situation and many unregistered voters.

But I had my own share of mistakes since I joined the voter's rush with me being aware of the registration starting last our semestral break. But, I think, the dilemma goes with COMELEC as well since they were unable to prepare for the expected surge of registrants within the last few weeks.

While in line, I also saw how most of the masses see the media in these situations. Media was for them the "police" of the government. Often in the line, you can hear shouts saying "parating na ang media" and "kaya naayos yan ay dahil may media". It's quite positive that they see media as that but looking at the bigger picture, actions done based from media coverage is unacceptable.

I got my own taste of media frenzy as I was interviewed by a GMA reporter while in line. I pretty much stuttered on the interview and said a lot of useless comments. They didn't show any interviews nor my face but they were able to tackle my problem. But they did show my photocopied IDs as well as my Ipod and some people were able to recognize me from the feed. haha. sikat!

I wasn't able to register and I won't register this time. I know that I should vote in 2007 but with these incompetencies I won't be able to put my trust for my vote on a commission full of shit. I hope by the 2009 registration, everything will be well. for now, down with COMELEC. hehe.

On multiply

2006-11-27T09:55:00.000+01:00

I'm blogging temporarily on jeryk.multiply.com. It's much easier there. But I'll this link though.

25 Things I learned and XPrienced on our Cebu and AIESEC NLDS trip.

2006-11-04T17:28:00.000+01:00

Check out the slide show I made about my NLDS and Cebu Trip. So Fun, madaming new experiences and new friends. I'm game ulit sa next conference. Check it out!

back from cebu

2006-10-31T09:26:00.000+01:00

I just got back from cebu aiesec nlds. ang dami kong kuwento, i'll blog it later. and syempre, i'll post pictures (actually,hundreds of pictures).

later. sleep muna

Things I promise myself to do this semestral break

2006-10-22T16:31:00.000+02:00

What will I do this "two week" sem-break?

1. give more time for family
2. eat until I get fat (impossible!)
3. Go to Cebu for NLDS.
4. Stay in Cebu after NLDS
5. Mag-ipon ng pera
6. Fix our PC.
7. Constantly check my grades sa CRS
8. Watch DVDs. (Finish 3 seasons of One Tree Hill)
9. Read a book and actually finish a book
10. Read Harry Potter 6 (aside from number 8)
11.Visit some of my relatives
12. Sleep. Sleep long.
13. Learn something new.

Ayun, happy sem-break!

Lost in taxi-lation

2006-10-19T16:07:00.000+02:00

I lost my mobile phone Wednesday last week.

My MCO friends and I were on a taxi going to SM North. As we arrived at the mall, since I was in front, I decided to pay the fare. Since I was holding my phone, I placed it in my left pocket so that I would be able to get my wallet at the right. Ganito pa yun dialogue nun:

Jerick: Manong, eto ang bayad ( I pay P100)
Taxi Driver: (gets the money and gives me back P20)
Jerick: Manong, bakit po P20 lang ang sukli eh, 62.50 lang ang nasa metro
Taxi Driver: Eh, marami kayo eh!
Jerick: Di naman po ganun, kung ano po yun nasa metro, yun po yun ibabayad namin.
Taxi Driver: (nagagalit na)
Jerick: Anong plate number niyo?! TWU 707! I-rereport ko kayo sa LTFRB
Taxi Driver: (gives back the exact change)
Jerick: (went out and slammed the door)

Once that I was out, I was telling my friends what had happened. Then, I noticed na that I lost my phone. Ayun.

It was my phone for 2 years and my number for 5 years. Nakakainis. Some contacts gone. Some pictures poof-ed away. Tsk tsk.

Ganyan talaga ang buhay.

Don't worry, I already have a new phone.

Why do students fail in exams? (very good final exam joke!)

2006-10-10T17:40:00.000+02:00

Why do students fails in exams...?
It's not the fault of the student if he fails, because the year ONLY has 365' days.

Typical academic year for a student

1. Sundays-52, Sundays in a year, you know Sundays are for rest.
Days left 313.

2. Summer holidays-50 where weather is very hot and difficult to study.
Days left 263.

3. 8 hours daily sleep- 130 days GONE
Days left 141.

4. 1 hour for daily playing (good for health) means 15 days.
Days left 126.

5. 2 hours daily for food & other delicacies
(chewing properly & swallowing)- means 30days.
Days left 96.

6. 1 hour for talking (man is a social animal)- means 15 days
Days left 81.

7. Exam days- per year at least 35 days.
Days left 46.

8. Quarterly, Half yearly and festival (holidays)-40 days.
Balance 6 days.

9. For sickness- at least 3 days.
Remaining days =3.

10. Movies and functions- at least 2 days.
1 day left.

11. That 1 day is your birthday.
How can you study on your b?day??????

Balance = 0

___________________________

huhu.

The good, the bad and the ugly

2006-10-02T15:49:00.000+02:00

BOO:

These two weeks will really be hectic. The horror starts tomorrow!

October 3 - Film 110 (Photography) Final Exam -check-
October 6 - Journ 121 (Newsroom) Article Deadline
October 7-8 - Journ 121 (Newsroom) Layout
October 7 - Econ 100.2 (Microecon) Third Exam (and possibly our last exam)
October 9 - Journ 121 (Newsroom) Campus Paper submission
October 9- Comm 120 (Media Law) Final Exam
October 16 - Film 104 (Genre) Final Paper deadline
October 17 - Journ 152 (PR) PR plan presentation
October 18 - Last School Day. Comm141 (media and society) final exam

YEY!
I got tickets to cebu for AIESEC NLDS! Excited! I'll be staying there for a week!

MID LANG

UST won the UAAP basketball championship. hmmm. no comment.

Photo and Forge

2006-09-24T16:39:00.000+02:00

In the past six saturdays i've been doing volunteer math tutor work (or Project Forge) to elementary students. Sharing some of my time and knowledge to younger and less fortunate children is heart warming. It was fun and I want to do it again sometime.

Anyway, here are some pics that we did for our film 110 class. this time it's in full color. Oh yeah, we did some nude photography.... It was..well... a new experience. Mahirap at nakakatakot siya, But fun pa rin.

Mid-September Blogging

2006-09-16T15:59:00.000+02:00

30 days to go before sem break! Yey! I'm "so" tired of school!

Film 110 Quiapo Photos

2006-08-30T18:45:00.000+02:00

These are from our Film 110 Quiapo Exercise. We went there to "document" Quiapo's vibrant environment. Unfortunately, we over-developed our films causing almost all of the photos to turn black. These are 2 of the 6 photos that got developed. Too bad, marami pa naman sanang maganda dun.

Again, check out my multiply to see more pictures.

Film 110 Depth of Field and MotionExercise

2006-08-30T18:38:00.000+02:00

These are some of the pictures that I took for my Photography class exercise on depth of field and motion. Check out http://jeryk.multiply.com for more pictures.

*just a side note, as I was brushing through my blog's statistics I found out that I was linked into this weird site "www.filcomin.com/pinoy-call-boy.php". I don't have any idea why they linked me. Mukha ba akong call boy?. haha. Just wondering.

Breaking Free: Prison Break

2006-08-20T18:44:00.000+02:00

I'm officially a Prison Break Fan. I happened to watched an episode about a month ago in cable. And now I can get enough of it.

PLOT

One of the main characters, Lincoln Burrows, faces death penalty for allegedly being accused of murdering the Vice President's brother. Upon knowing that his brother was innocent, Michael Scofield, deviced a plan to get his brother out. He then willfully got himself into prison. But it was all part of a plan to get his brother out. With Michael, a structural engineer and designed the place (and having the blueprints tattooed on his body [really cool!]), he, his brother and a group of mixmatched convicts, hatched a carefully planned escape that no one had even dare imagined. But will this plan work?

Prison Break is a show that straps you in your chair and glues your eyes open that you wouldn't be able to blink for an hour. Enough said. I strongly recommend that you watch it!

Season Two starts tomorrow on Fox in US. Here in the Philippines, they are still airing Season One. Catch its back to back episode on Crime/Suspense every Monday 9pm. Or get a copy of Season One DVD from your suking Quiapo seller.

The MRT

2006-08-12T14:40:00.000+02:00

I remember my first MRT ride. It was back in 2000 when Jeka and Ernest, my high school friends, went to Shang to watch a theater performance. The trains were practically new, the walls were clean and the smell was pleasing. There were few people in the train which made the inside brighten up.

I don't frequent the MRT since I live in the North and school is at two jeep rides away.But I got to ride the MRT today and now it has turn to the worse.

"Gender Sensitive" Train

The train recently implemented separated trains for women and children. Even though I find the admin's reason for doing it valid, i still find it really impractical in the long-run. Yes, it can avoid women harrassments on the short run but I does not guarantee teaching abusive males proper conduct in the long run. Bringing them apart only creates bigger tension and on a personal note, bigger intention to do such malicious actions.

Photo from http://manila.metblogs.com/archives/images/2006/04/firstcar.jpg

Crowded Crows

With P15 per train ride from SM North Edsa to Taft Ave., who doesn't want to hop on the MRT? Its alternative - BUSES - apart from being more expensive (P20+ i think from SM north to Taft on an ordinary bus), travel time is longer and the exposure to pollution is far greater. I believe that all Pinoy share the same concept which made the MRT a lot crowded than before. At noontime, we are practically like sardines at the taft station, the 1st south station. Hay! Maybe they can add more trains or more train routes. Superregions GO!

MRT Anecdotes

I was in the MRT with Schatzi from UJP kanina. And while on our way to QUezon Ave., there were some "unforgettable moments" on the biyahe.

Unholy Lady

There were these two middle aged women talking in front of me at the train. They were debating about whose church pastors are better. The first woman said that their pastor didn't allow a woman to get into their church because she's wearing pants. And then the other woman replied saying that their pastor is far worse. And they keep on saying P****** I**. Christianity shouldn't be only inside the church but also on the outside.

Manong! Wait lang!

Haha. There were some ladies trying to get out of the train. But the train being crowded and all, the people outside keep on pushing inside. Then there was this woman who angrily shouted "HOY! Magpalabas naman kayo!" and said "Manong! Sandali lang". Haha. As if naman, it was a jeep that the driver is practically an earshot away. haha.

Know your directions

When we got into the Quezon Ave., there were people lining up on the outticket line. On my line, there was this man who instead of going left of the card puncher (the one where you insert the MRT card), instead went onto the right. (which shouldn't be the case!). And worse, there was this other man who inserted his card on that slot. The man intentionally or unintentionally used the card of this other man. Then this other man kept on shouting "Akin yan card na nagamit mo!". I don't how he got out. And the first man, practically just ignored him. Kawawa naman.

Five Short Films and a Roll of Kodak Film

2006-08-07T13:45:00.000+02:00

I've been preoccupied with two of my film classes lately. Yup, you can call me the pseudo-Econ and pseudo-Film major. haha.

Anyway, after our tiring Communication 120 Midterms (it was hard, but I did all right naman), I went into our Film 104 (Film Genre class), we were supposed to tackle progressive films but instead we went on watching 5 short films, 4 coming from the Cinemalaya shorts.

First was Aliwan Paradise (hope, i got the name right) by Mike De Leon. I think I know what Prof. Campos means when he said it was non-genre. Yeah, I find it really outside of the socially set film genres with its practically unnatural narrative.

Next, we went to the Film Center to see the winning Cinemalaya short films. All four shorts were different from each other in terms of narrative and approach. I like the short film "Orasyon". It is a story of an old woman, who alongside her noisy katulong, been routinely engaged her life to religious actions and lonely nights. It was a chilly story but true to what the cinemalaya jury, it really deserved its best film award. I don't want to give up more information, better catch on Wednesday at 5 PM.

My other film class, Film 110 or Photography, is a class that I reall enjoy. But on my last shoot for motion and depth of field, I had troubles on some of my shots. When, I shoot on high apertures and high shutter speed, my camera's shutter sometimes does not close. It happened on almost 1/3 of my film shots. Yay! Kinakabahan ako, I hope I can get at least 8 good shots.

Abstract (?) Photos from my Photography Class

2006-07-23T18:22:00.000+02:00

Do these images appear abstract to you?

Italy WINS!

2006-07-10T14:11:00.000+02:00

Oh yea! Oh yea! Italy won! It was a 5-3 penalty shoot out from a tied 1-1 fight between France. I'll wear blue tomorrow! Viva Italia!

One month in one entry

2006-07-09T14:41:00.000+02:00

I'll try to make my entry short. I don't want to put all the things that happened last June.

19th BIRTHDAY

I turned 19 last June 28. Oh yeah. It's a school day, so I was in school. I got to UP at around 12 and went directly to church to attend mass. Before starting my day (school day that is), I want to thank the Lord.

Then, I attended my class in CMC. I was greeted loudly by my MCO friends. Probably the whole masscomm heard them shouting.I attended my C141 class after. I despise that class and it's probably the longest 3 hours ever. I just can't wait to get out. Worst class I think this semester.

Then, I went to see my family at SM. We ate pizza. How I enjoy having a PALM CARD. Iba talaga,busog kung busog. Then we went to see Superman which opened also on that day.

I find the movie Superman Returns as probably one of the best and well-crafted superhero movies ever. I find it better than Spiderman and Xmen3. The plot was so intriguing and surprising that it really puts you into what is happening. And the special effects? need I say more. Of course it's stunning, the scenes were REALLY well done.

21 UNITS CRAP

Now, I feel how hard it is to be on 21 units. As I said before, Im taking 7 subjects this semester namely C141, C120, Econ100.2, J121, J152, Film110 and Film104. There are some good and very interesting subjects but there are those which I find really boring (refer to entry above). 3 months na lang!

I-POD

I got an Ipod Nano as a gift from my Tito. It was supposed to be a reward for me being CS last semester. But since I received it only this June as my tita got back from her Europe trip, it was also a pseudo-birthday gift.

It now has 401 songs compiled from my CDs and old MP3s.

WORLD CUP

The cup will come to an end today (tonight is the finals). The final round is between France and Italy. My two favorite world cup teams, Mexico and also Spain got eliminated in the quarter finals . Now, I'm rooting for Italy. I can't watch tonight's game since I have class tomorrow, dahil bawal magpuyat. I'll watch the replay na lang tomorrow at RPN 9.

Well, that's it for now.

Updates Later

2006-06-29T11:41:00.000+02:00

Yah! I have tons of things to write about but Im too busy. Sorry. Next time na lang.

Farewell, summer thee...

2006-06-12T11:03:00.000+02:00

This entry serves as a supposed goodbye to summer. I sure be missing those movie marathons.

SCHOOL

School will be starting tomorrow. (Pilit na Yay!). This semester I'm on 21 units which means I need to push myself again. I'll be taking 2 Communication classes, 2 Journalism classes, Photography, Film Genres class and Microeconomics. These subjects sound pretty damn serious.

Academics won't be my only concern next semester. I'm a part of three organizations, so I'll also be spending some time on fulfilling my delegated tasks on each organization. Hopefully, I can manage to do my academics and extra curricular activities at the same time.

GOAL!

The FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany had started! I'm not the stereotyped fan of football/soccer (No painted heads!) adding up that in the Philippines, soccer/football is virtually unknown. I am not even aware of the player's names (but my name list is now getting longer). But hey, you don't need to know their names to enjoy the game. I've been watching live feed of the games every early morning (games start at 9/10pm and end around 4/5am) which I think made my eyes really droopy. But since I'll be starting classes tomorrow morning, maybe I'll just get my football news in the internet.

My titas and tito are on a Western European tour now and I think Germany is on their itinerary. I hope I can at least get a world cup shirt. :P

Mexico's Ramon Morales with a header in their game yesterday versus Iran. Mexico wins 3-1.

Who's my bet in getting the cup? Mexico played a good game yesterday. But it's still early for assumptions since only half of the 32 teams had played. But now, I'm rooting for Mexico. Maybe it will change if I see Brazil's game.

Di ko na-enjoy ang bakasyon. :-(

2006-05-29T04:05:00.000+02:00

Malapit na magsimula ang klase at di ko pa rin naeenjoy ang bakasyon. Kasalanan ko rin yun siguro kasi nagpumilit ako magsummer classes. Ayun, di tuloy ako nakapag out-of-town. Tatlong places lang ang napuntahan ko for vacation, one was Baguio, then Lucena siguro I-add ko na rin yun Tagaytay. Nakakapanghinayang.

Di pa rin ako nakakapag-beach.

Oh, well. Babawi nalang ako sa next Summer.

AIESEC Year Planning Sem. (Part 2)

2006-05-24T11:49:00.000+02:00

After our cheering presentation, we went to dinner (or is it the other way around?) anyway. Then we went outside for ghosthunting/starry walk. It was so cool! I never saw that many stars since our bivouac in 2004. With only few houses in Southridge, grassy lots looks like a place where salvaged people are thrown into. Really spooky. But, we ended up running and laughing. Haha.

Spooky!

After the tired and sweaty walk.

We arrived back really tired and sweaty, so while the EBs are having their meeting, we went on to prepare ourselves and call it a night. But actually, even though we arrived at 9, we ended sleeping at around 2AM due to the following reasons:

1. Constant Chismisan
2. Pinoy Big Brother Eviction Night kasi
3. Eva's card hula which revealed who will marry whom. Yada.
4. Chismisan ulit.
5. Pusoy Dos.

Marlowe getting a good card ata.

We woke up at around 6/7 in the morning to cook breakfast. We again started on our semplanning serious stuff after breakfas. We were supposed to fix ourselves after breakfast but because Gab (grr! haha joke) accidentally locked our bedroom, we ended up finishing our semplanning on our sleepwear.

For this coming semester, I was asked to head an Acquaintance Party for the incoming applicants. Yeehee. I hope I can do it!

After finishing lunch, our bedroom door was finally opened and prepared for our ride back home. We went home at around 4PM.

Before leaving, picture muna.

Haay! I really enjoyed our YPS. An entry that deserves the 100th slot! ( I just reached my 100th post! Yipee!!!)

(anyway, thanks cara/aiesecupd multiply for the pictures)

Check my multiply for more pictures: http://jeryk.multiply.com

AIESEC Year Planning Sem. (Part I)

2006-05-24T11:24:00.000+02:00

In preparation of the coming school year, my org AIESEC held its Semplanning at the windy hills of Tagaytay. Ayun, medyo tinatamad ako magsulat. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

This is while we are waiting in BA. Haha. We were supposed to meet at around 6.30 but we ended up leaving an hour after.

Now as we got to Tagaytay at around 10. All of us (13+1[ayen who arrived in the afternoon]) started fixing our stuff, choosing on which bed we'll sleep. Yadiyada. Then, after fixing lunch, we went on to "official business".

Everyone's serious while looking on the presentation.

Now, after doing those serious semplanning stuff, we went to do a cheer for the coming DevCon (One of AIESEC's seminar). Haha. This was so funny. I was grouped with the EBs. Shoutout to Emman, Eva and Clarice. We made one of the most unique and probably the most creative cheer/tula ever. But it was fun and I hoped everyone enjoyed it. :D

Emman, Clarice, Jerick and Eva (on white cloth for ghost scene)

Aras Wins Survivor Exile Island

2006-05-19T15:37:00.000+02:00

Tagal ko na rin di nagpopost about Survivor.

(Aras is on the right)

Aras Baskauskas won Survivor: Exile Island. It's not one of my favorite seasons but this season really introduced some interesting characters. Wala lang, Im glad that Aras won. He was my bet ever since I watched the pilot episode.

**He reminds me of Lex in Survivor:Africa.

Freedom for The Da Vinci's Code.

2006-05-19T14:40:00.001+02:00

Yesterday, I went to see the film "The Da Vinci Code" along with Mom and Dad. I'm halfway through the book and many of friends discouraged me from watching it yesterday and that I should had finished reading the book first.

Apart from it's big blockbuster cast and special effects, the movie's story plot and claims proved to be far more controversial (Except for Tom Hanks' weird hair). Anyway, we all know from media hypes that the movie debunks the catholic church and Jesus himself. And with our conservative catholic country, i expected this reaction from our leaders.

But what bothered me was how naive our lifestyle and view on society is. I just feel somewhat deprived of my freedom of expression and religion. I know that 85% of our population is catholic, but that doesn't give us the right to suppress our right to know and look on the other side.

I am a practicing Catholic somewhat over from the usual simba-simba Catholic. I do go to church almost everyday, have my confessions regularly, attended rosaries sessions, novenas, feast etc. I am proud that I am Catholic. I am even a semi practicing Opus Dei (I go to Kapuluan Study Center which is run by Opus Dei). And I firmly believe that my faith on to the church was not swayed by a fictional claim.

I mean, maraming movies shown under a PG13/R13 rating possessing FAR TOO MANY VIOLENT SCENES. Bakit di yun ang istop nila.

Nakakainis lang talaga isipin.

Our leaders do not believe with the capacity of Filipino Catholics.

Sayang naman, marami na ang di makakita tuloy sa weird hair ni TOM HANKS. :P

I suggest you guys that if you can't go to the movies, get a pirata copy and watch it for yourself. I know that you are far more open minded and critical than what our leaders think.

I wish I'm in the beach...

2006-05-04T16:38:00.000+02:00

My decision on taking summer classes was that it was supposed to help lighten my 21-unit 3rd year or my thesis sem but I think I made the wrong decision.

When Weisa, Nelly and I had manually enlisted for EnvSci 1, we were so happy that we were able to enlist. (Yes, enlisting in UP can be dreadful, double the fact that it's a GE subject then triple the threat since it is under MST). We were 1000% lucky.

But EnvSci brought a "painful" way of understanding what UP life is. Hey, getting your first "over-bagsak" grades is a way to say that UP Life is really hard. Well, all of us three felt a mixture of pagsisi, sadness and inferiority.

Getting a 30/100 quiz and getting 48/100 midterms can be really painful especially for GE subjects. C'mon! Sabi nila noon, GE subjects are easy, but not this time.

My only consuelo is that there are people who are lower than my grade. Di ako nagiisa.

But even with those dreadful grades, I still find this class really informative. Now, I know how El Nino forms or the reasons why CFCs are bad. And I can compute it mathematically! Amazing!

We only have a few chances to redeem ourselves and one of it is through our report. I promise that it will be a SUPERMEGAOMEGA CAREER REPORT! I mean, bigatin-kung-bigatin. All for a good grade!

Haay! I can't wait for our vacation, again.

**Nga pala, with all those attention on our EnvSci subject, I seemed to have forgot that I have another class. Crap, exam pala namin tomorrow and I haven't start studying.

Nyorks

Big Bother

2006-04-27T18:04:00.000+02:00

With all that crap on local TV today, the new season of PBB adds on the long list of semi-crap to utterly stupid local TV shows. Hmmm. I'm so pissed that I can't write anything about it. Very disappointing.

I'm glad that no one from UP joined. (We'll I know someone from UP who should have been there but ended up not going, good for him.:))

Couch Jump

2006-04-19T10:39:00.000+02:00

I just got my grades last semester. For the first time, I captured the College Scholar mark that Ilonged been hoping for.

Also, I was removed from the probation list of our department.

It was really a blessing.

Economics 100.1 - 1.25
Broadcast 100 - 1.5
Film 100 - 1.5
Communication 140 - 1.5
Natural Science - 1.5
Journalism 102 - 2.0

PE Tap Dancing - 1.75

GWA - 1.54167

I feel like jumping! Couch jumping like Tom Cruise.

(Katie just gave birth to a baby girl, her name is Suri.)

Kudos! Magpapainom ako. :P

Erika's Debut

2006-04-14T14:55:00.000+02:00

These are not my JS Prom pictures rather pictures of Eka's debut party last March 31 at the Intercontinental. I was invited as one of the 18 treasures wherein you have to give a reason why you'll be giving her YOUR gift. No fancy soaps, lotions, necklaces, or those candles and teddy bear gifts that I commonly give to those debut parties I had attended to.

But I think I went too far back into "strange" gifts category. I gave her a Fighting fish in a bowl. Weird? Strange? or plain whatthe? I hope she had appreciated and probably will remember it years from now. I'm now... jerick the fish trainer.

It was really hard to carry and she told me that she had a hard time carrying it back home. Haha.

Well, all for a girl's (ehem. lady's) best night.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Bakit ang mga boys walang debut party?? Are we always the gift giver and not the gift-receiver? hehe. :P

Mainit

2006-04-09T17:51:00.000+02:00

Summer heat's really different here in Manila. I want to go somewhere cool. Haaay!

Summer enrollment starts tomorrow. My first manual enlisting of subjects (in my case, subject). Well, you won't experience the true UP without the pilas. haaay!

Random Post 1.2

2006-03-30T07:23:00.000+02:00

align="center">Advanced Global Personality Test Results

Extraversion	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	36%
Stability	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	53%
Orderliness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%
Accommodation	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Interdependence	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Intellectual	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Mystical	\|\|\|\|\|\|	30%
Artistic	\|\|\|\|\|\|	23%
Religious	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Hedonism	\|\|\|\|\|\|	30%
Materialism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Narcissism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Adventurousness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Work ethic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Self absorbed	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Conflict seeking	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Need to dominate	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%

Romantic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Avoidant	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	36%
Anti-authority	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Wealth	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Dependency	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Change averse	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Cautiousness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%
Individuality	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Sexuality	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%
Peter pan complex	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Physical security	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	76%
Physical Fitness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Histrionic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Paranoia	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Vanity	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Hypersensitivity	\|\|\|\|\|\|	30%
Female cliche	\|\|\|\|\|\|	23%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

I'm the Flash...

2006-03-26T18:35:00.000+02:00

I just finished school's second term last Wednesday. It's a relief that finally school is over (for now). But seems that most of my friends are still in school for their finals and papers! keep it up, guys. kaya yan!

Now, I had been savoring my vacation mode status. My family just went to Baguio last Friday and we got back just hours ago. It was really cool in Baguio and how I wish that the cool breeze can reach Manila. haaay! I'll upload pictures later.

Then, I'll be off to Lucena next Sunday for a week vacation before going to school summer enrollment. Hope I can get good subjects this time! I'll be taking either 2 GEs, GE + PI100, GE + electives or Math 11 or 14 (just in case i need to shift)

Anyway, this is series 1.1 of my SUMMER RANDOM INTERNET MUSINGS.

results:
You are The Flash

The Flash		65%
Green Lantern		65%
Spider-Man		55%
Iron Man		50%
Hulk		50%
Superman		50%
Robin		45%
Supergirl		40%
Catwoman		35%
Batman		25%
Wonder Woman		15%

Fast, athletic and flirtatious.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

I'm actually "the flash". Fast (check). Athletic (pretty much). Flirtatious (Hmmm). Haha

Fireworks

2006-03-22T01:55:00.000+01:00

What a nice way to end up AY 05 - 06.

Celebrate the end of classes with a bang!

AIESEC Experience

2006-03-18T12:41:00.000+01:00

I had been dwelling my extra time for the past few months in AIESEC activities. Cara invited me to join A'Day (orientation) a few months ago and since then I had been devoting my spare time to my third (or fourth) organization. Being a CBA based org and me coming from CMC, I find it complicated to go to the events but due to my eagerness I still find time to go.

We had gone to a lot of activities ranging from dinners and seminars to interviews and tarp designs. Holistic growth ei. There are also some new terms that I had learned from AIESEC:

1. Self-Pinduting - the manual slide changing feature of Microsoft Powerpoint

2. Brokeback - Showing actions (with or without gay intentions) of homosexuality. Refers to man to man "bonding moments". No gayness required.

Here are some pictures from AIESEC Culminight celebration last week. It was at Bossing Iara's place in Katips. It was another AIESEC bonding (full of singing, dancing, craziness, the color orange and blue, brokeback-ing, magic sing and EATING).
Also, there were some fireworks display in lieu with the AIESEC party. hehe.

Anyway, I just got home from our final interview in AIESEC. It was not the usual CMC INTERVIEWS that I had gone through. Hehe. I hope I can pass my application.

Truly enjoyed the application process and I (and my co-apps) am looking forward in fulfilling the AIESEC experience.

Case Paper = Party

2006-03-11T14:27:00.001+01:00

Who would have thought that doing a case study paper can be fun? If your topic focuses on partying all night would be a great example.

My Communication 140 Case Study Paper centered on the topic of Communication Aspects in a Club Environment. To make it short, we are to analyze behaviors inside a rave club. My groupmates (Weisa and Lea) and I went to Basement (a bar in Libis). It was my first time in a rave club (Oh yeah! I'm a big dork).

It feels really weird that amidst this party atmosphere, our group still thought of our paper. We just can't get the hang of it. But we did drink and dance until morning. It was a little awkward at first but once the beer gets into your body, haha, it did "wonders".

Anyway, we did some undercover works like dancing alone and letting people approach us. Weisa was able to have a conversation with some of the guys. Then while I was dancing alone, two fat and slut-looking ladies came closer and started grinding their bodies into mine. It was really awkward and I didn't feel like dancing with them, so I went out of the dance floor. Haha. But if it was somebody who looks like Angelina Jolie or my crush, I'll be willing to dance. Haha. I just don't like dancing with people whom I don't know and worst whom I don't even like.

We went home at around 4 in the morning. :-). I hope my research papers are always like that. :-P

Future film career?

2006-02-24T06:25:00.000+01:00

I went to Gateway last Tuesday for the CAM's Inyorai Video Festival. Laman-loob was selected as a finalist for the festival. It was Laman Loob's first recognition and my first recognition as a film actor. Film actor? Why you ask. I portrayed a supporting role for a short film last year. Check out my older entries.

C'mon, that acting stint was recognized by a film organization. I didn't expect that my small acting stint will bring me to an award show. It was not as big as the Oscar's nor the MMFF but awards are still awards. di ba?

Basically, I went there to see my face in the big screen in Gateway. My camwhoring days are over (?) and I was hoping that I'll see myself acting in front of a movie screen. I love my self, sobra. Pero normally, I don't like to see myself on that film and even worse acting. I watched Laman-loob only twice out of the endless screenings in family reunions etc.

But too bad it was not screened in Gateway dahil di pumayag ang MTRCB. There were some "sensitive" scenes kasi on the other nominees, so they scrapped all the films from the big screen.

But the awarding ceremony still kicked off. Laman-loob was nominated on all the awards on the Narrative Short Feature Category including Best performance and Best Short Film. We weren't able to scrap those two awards but still the film won two awards both from Best Screenplay and Best Director for Ate Liar. The funny thing was I was nominated in a way for best performance. WTF?

The good thing is that Laman-loob was recognized. So, what's next on my "supposed" film career? Wala. Haha.

That may be my first and last film award ceremony.But who knows? Oscars may come next.hehe.

Bureaucracy at its "finest"

2006-02-09T13:27:00.000+01:00

Last tuesday I was invited by Stand UP to run as journalism council representative with their party. I was really shock by that invitation. The idea of running in the student council election had longed been inside my mind. Ever since I got into UP, the idea of a student-leader has been one of my goals.

But I decided not to accept their invitation due to the following reasons. One, I was invited to run on the day which was also the last day of filing for candidacy. I was disappointed with the fact that they had only invited me due to sheer desperation. Their line up was not complete and they saw me only as a "fill-up" or a pandagdag. They didn't even bother to check who I am. Parang, they only went out to the street, picked a stranger and told him that he should serve the people. It was not about leadership but about beating the other party. It was really disappointing considering that most of the UP officials are from their party.

"Parang nakita ko tuloy na...they are not after serving the people and being good leaders but gaining the majority of the supposedly positions." For me, council elections is a big crap.

Two, I have been very busy these days. I've been very active in the pursuance of academic excellence which I think is really paying off. Also, I added AIESEC to my list as (possible, since I'm still applying) organizations.

AIESEC defines work really well. If you really want to work, AIESEC can be an option. But AIESEC works are really rewarding.

Yesterday, I, along with Cara, Iara, Jed and Tanya, went to the Bureau of Immigration for the apps' internship work. It was my first time to be in Bureau of Immigration and it was only then that I knew that their office was in Intramuros. In BI, it shows the current situation in Philippine bureaucracy. Even in the millenium age, government offices still lack computer sets for processing. And also, I noticed that in regular processing of visa, for example, will take you two weeks. But if you add like a thousand pesos, you can get it for 30 mins. Wala lang. Nakakalungkot lang isipin.

Random Postings

2006-01-27T10:07:00.000+01:00

I found this random post on Dana's blog. It looks nice.

Actually, number 1 is half true.

I've been busy this days. I don't want to blabber about how busy I am. It just makes me think on things that I still need to do.

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Jerick!

Jerick cannot swim.
The first Jerick was made in 1853, and had no pedals!
In 1982 Time Magazine named Jerick its 'Man of the Year'.
The pupil of an octopus's eye is shaped like Jerick.
The book of Esther in the Bible is the only book which does not mention Jerick!
Only fifty-five percent of men wash their hands after using Jerick.
The number one cause of blindness in the United States is Jerick.
An average beaver can cut down Jerick every year.
More than one million stray dogs and half a million stray cats live in Jerick.
During severe windstorms, Jerick may sway several feet to either side.

Chronicles of Narnia: The LazyBoy Experience

2006-01-12T12:50:00.000+01:00

It was really cool that I had watched The Chronicles of Narnia at the new Globe Platinum Cinema at the Gateway Cineplex last night. They have a big screen much like an IMAX screen and 40 lazy boy seats.

It was my first time to watch on the Globe Platinum Cinema and I really enjoyed watching there. It costs P300 ($6.00) for one time screening. It is expensive compared to the normal P120-150 ticket in other cinemas. But I mean, for unlimited popcorn and drinks and the comfy lazy boy seats, you don't want the movie to stop.

I had enjoyed watching Narnia. I think I'll read the other books.

Clean UP

2006-01-04T14:20:00.000+01:00

I've become a clean freak.

I started 2006 cleaning. I woke up on Jan.1 with the desire to clean our bathroom. This was the bathroom that me and my two sisters uses. The bathroom was really gross before. It has lots of cobwebs, some dirt that I didn't know how it get there, old toothbrushes, lots of half used papaya soaps, empty bottles etc.
It was wilder than the zoo.

I was challenge as I cleaned it up in 2 hours. hehe. But now, It's squeaky clean.

I targeted my computer next. It has lots of unused programs, spywares, adwares. Hehe. Now, it's clean (I think).

CAREER OPPORTUNITY:

Worker for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. hehe

All I want for Christmas

2005-12-17T17:47:00.000+01:00

All I want for Christmas are....

1. World Peace
2. I-pod
3. Political Stability
4. Excellent Grades in School
5. Love - Life
6. Digital Camera
7. Gifts for the poor
8. Portable DVD Player
9. Car
10.Better Health for me and my family.

and of course, you.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Remembering 2005

2005-12-12T13:09:00.000+01:00

Your 2005 Song Is

Since You've Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson

"But since you've been gone
I can breathe for the first time
I'm so moving on"

In 2005, you moved on.

What Hit Song of 2005 Are You?

Lost notebook

2005-12-08T15:49:00.000+01:00

I can't seem to find my notebook. The notebook contains all my lectures and my library card for this semester. I can't remember if I left it somewhere or somebody stole it from me. Why will people steal my notebook! Waaah!

_____________________________________
POST_SCRIPT

I already found my notebook. I left at the MCO tambayan. Errr.

Iba ang UP

2005-12-06T14:10:00.000+01:00

I just want to share the pics that we had taken for our comm140 report. Enjoy!

Academic Oval

Blue books: can't go to school without it.

Jerick, Lea and Eka

Thanks Eka for the pics.

*It has been a very busy week. Homeworks due everyday. Waah! I need rest.

High School

2005-11-30T15:55:00.000+01:00

I miss St. Elizabeth
I miss Batch 03-04
I miss the Royal Sapphires
I miss high school
I miss Angelicum.

Do you?

Futbol

2005-11-28T16:43:00.000+01:00

When I watched the SEAGames - soccer (football) game last Friday between the Philippines and Cambodia, I started remembering the times when I used to play soccer.

It is one of my favorite sport and the sport that I feel that I can excel (or just do good) into. I remember on the last minutes of soccer time, I usually feel bad that our soccer time was over.

SEAGames Soccer Match

SOCCER TIME - Angelicum College - 2003

And then, I left soccer when I moved into playing softball for our batch's intrams team. Then in college, I started engaging into martial arts.

But I want to pursue my first love, soccer.

I want to play soccer sometime. But due to time constraints, probably I will not.

Too bad.

(Anyway, I'm rooting for Team Philippines, Go for the Gold. One Team. One Nation. One Philippines)

Check 2005 SEAGames Website.

The Godfather

2005-11-20T11:36:00.002+01:00

It had been some time since I last posted. I was planning to change the template before making a new post. Now I got a new template.

I was to attend the UJP symposium Saturday morning and the photoshoot after. It was supposed to be my first activity in UJP as full member but I got caught up with my earlier plan.

At 7am Saturday morning, I had an appointment with my doctor for a lab exam. But unfortunately, I woke up late and arrived at the hospital at 8am. There were lots of people inside, it was a like the Harry Potter Movie line, too bad they won't like what they will about to see and hear. (It applies to both the real thing and the metaphor.hehe)

I got out of the hospital at around 10:00 in the morning and I planned to go on to the UJP event even though I'll be 2 1/2 hours late. But I decided not to since I don't want to make a grand entrance on the symposium. Next time na lang siguro.

S, I went back home. With nothing to planned to do (except for my economics HW), I went to our stash of DVDs and watched JUST MARRIED starring Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy.

I got a text from Daryl to attend the forum offered by Kapuluan. Kapuluan is this all male, Catholic driven organization in UP. I was planning to join the organization since last year, so I decided to went to the forum. After the mini forum, I was "oriented" by Daryl and some of the Kaps people about Kapuluan.After, they had this Latin meditation and I was invited to talk with the priest for spiritual direction. I t was a good thing because I want to be near with Lord that I felt I was got lost since I graduated from Angelicum. I did sign up with Kapuluan and I'm planning to go on with it. But the question arrives, How can I handle three organizations? hehe.

I got home at around 9pm and I dropped by Videocity to get "The Godfather: Part2" DVD. It was not as good as the first movie but it was better than the third. It seems ironic that after getting into a christian meditation and religious formation, I went to watch a violent film. And come to think, the title of the film is The GODfather.hehe

Heartbreaker

2005-10-12T18:24:00.000+02:00

Three Subjects. Three Heartbreakers

I got 3 1.75 for the final grade for 3 of my subjects. I mean the grade is quite OK but ang nakakainis lang ay ang kamalasan ko ngayon semester.

COMMUNICATIONS 100

I got a 1.75 in this subject. Not bad as what I have said. Pero ang nakakainis lang ay onting points na lang, 1.5 na sana ako. I got a 83.88 for my final raw grade computed from quizzes and exams and it gave me a 1.75. The bad thing is 84.66 will bring me sana a 1.5. Sayang, 1 more correct answer sana will bring my grade up sana.

COMMUNICATIONS 3

Isa pa to. My average was 1.755. Pag naka 1.749 sana ako it would be a a 1.5 for me sana. .006 lang sana.

POLITICAL SCIENCE 14

Sad. I got a raw grade of 87.75 and a 88 sana will bring me to a 1.5. An additional 2 correct exam answers lang sana yun! Waaaaa!

It simply means na I need to study more this coming semester.

* My Lovelife is ON. The challenge is on and I'm ready for it.

Breakfast Club

2005-10-10T13:40:00.000+02:00

Kakagaling ko lang kahapon sa induction ng UJP (Union of Journalists of the Philippines) - UP Diliman. Second org ko na ito sa UP at siguro I'll stop on that number na. My plans for training in Judo had been postponed kasi di ko na makakayanan!

Wala akong pwedeng sabihin sa induction kasi it's a secret. Ayoko ko ng i-elaborate yun details, para if ever kung may nagbabasa nito na magaapply ng UJP ay at least meron man lang "sensational" idea at para masurprise naman.

Congrats to myself and my batchmates.

Today, I got the chance to watch the movie, BREAKFAST CLUB. I had heard lots of good insights in this movie. I remember it was given a special award in the latest MTV Music Awards.

It was filmed in the 80s. A movie about a group of 5 teenagers coming from different backgrounds that were all placed in a school detention. There's a criminal, a jock, a basket case, a prom spoiled queen and a dork.

It was a movie of great impact. The setting was set on the 1980s so some of the lines mentioned were not familiar (I was asking who the hell is this person that they were mentioning?). It captured the essence of being youth with all the situations that encircles them (or us.). The way that the movie captured what the youth is really up to is revolutional maybe on that era, but still the movie never fails to reflect what the youth is upto today. It is a good way of understanding the past and maybe relate it to our present time.

A movie worth renting or waiting for in HBO.

4 out 5 stars.

* Then I went to watch The Day After Tomorrow. NO need to give a review on.

Long Overdue Post.

2005-10-03T19:49:00.000+02:00

Ang tagal ko na ring hinintay ang araw na ito (at marahil ang mga nagbabasa nito rin) na makapag post sa blog ko.

Ewan ko, I felt that blogging has become boring. Siguro nawala na ang drive ko for blogging but bumalik na siya. wahahaha.

I don't know if I'm doing this because of guilt or just of plain boredom (o, yeah, I'm waiting pala for this email to be sent.

So, what's up with Jerick ngayon.

SCHOOL LIFE

Kakatapos lang ng school ko kanina. School had been really rough for me. My schedule had torn me apart. wahaha. Nagutom, napagod, nalipasan...lahat nangyari na.

COMM 100
Di ko inexpect ang grade ko dito. I was expecting for a 2.0 or a 2.25 but I got a 1.75. wahaha! nakakatuwa. and besides yun. I was top 6 sa class namin. I jumped from number 17 to number 6. nakakatuwa lang. efforts paid off!

JOURN 101
As I had despised my Journ101 before for it being too boring. Ngayon, it's still boring and I still despise me. But, parang ang j101 ay galit din sa akin. I was not satisfied with my midterms grade. I just had my finals kanina. and it was OK (i hope pati kay ma'am ok din yun). I'm ready to be under probationary status next semester. Ngunit may pagasa pa!

COMM 3
Bwisit. I'm between two rivers. Nakakainis kasi, I'm running between a 1.5 and 1.75. If we will get a 1.5 on our report, I'll also get a 1.5 grade and if I'll get a lower grade, I'll be at 1.75. I'll check it tomorrow. PRAY.

POL SCI 14
Isa pa itong pahamak na subject. Again, computation based, I might get a 1.75 pero baka mag 1.5. sana ulit. pero kahit anong grade, I enjoyed this class and the knowledge it had imparted ang mas importante.

GEOGRAPHY 1
I took my geography 1 for granted. haha. but I hope I'll get a decent grade for it

ART STUDIES 2
At the latter part of the semester, I started to enjoy this subject. But it was too late. Sayang

PE JUDO
Enjoy ko tong PE ko na ito. I had many experiences in it. Sumali ako sa isang interclass Judo tournament at unfortunately, di ako nanalo. SAD but HAPPY. Iba pa rin ang binibigay ng experience. Again, baka ito nanaman ang highest grade ko ngayon semester. Hmmm.

PE CHEERLEADING
I had this subject dropped because I lost my attendance card. Haha. stupid me. Sayang ang P1000+ na gastos for watching UAAP games. Pero at least, namemorize ko ang UP Naming Mahal at lalo akong napamahal sa UP.

_______________________________

EXTRA CURRICULAR

UP MCO
Masaya pa rin ang MCO, as usual. Kakatapos lang ng Major last week. at I'm so delighted na maganda ang naging result nun. The speakers were impressed kahit medyo tabingi ang sympo. Marami pa kaming dapat matutunan sa pamamalakad ng isang org. Promise, next year, dapat flagship org na ang MCO.

UJP - UP

Malapit na ang induction namin. Madami na rin akong nagawa for UJP, I hope it will pay off.

___________________________

Yun muna ngayon, gabi na.

Till next time.

I don't know

2005-08-16T16:22:00.000+02:00

Di ko alam ang gagawin ko. ang daming kaguluhan, ang daming dapat gawin. parang di tumitigil ang kamalasan. puro na lang kamalasan.

+ i lost my cheerleading attendance. i'll try to talk to my prof. but i'm ready to drop that subject, pero sayang naman ang aking mga gastos dun

+ di ko pa naayos ang MAJOR ISSUE, putol-putol pa rin ang pagasenso nito at hello! sa sept. 1 na siya. waaah!

+ solo interview ko na sa UJP next week. good luck to me.

+ 2 lang ang nakuha ko sa 1st exam ko sa polsci. sayang. i'm really hoping for a much higher grade. much higher!..better luck next time

+ sorry, no time to update/upload/ek-ek. sa sem break na lang.

Super delayed updates

2005-08-05T18:53:00.000+02:00

School had been to busy for me to handle. 8 subjects, 2 organizations, tons of extra curricular activities and other small time social life escapes had been filling my life this first semester.

Just a big run through of events:

* I had my PolSci exam kanina which was very frustrating. I studied for almost a week for that exam hoping for a better grade but it do seem a little bit blurry. Pangasar lang kasi, I did review for the exam, but pagdating ko dun all went blank. Tapos, there were this pesky rallyista na nanggugulo sa class (who took at least 5 minutes of my precious exam time), which resulted to a crammed essay answers and unreadable penmanship.

* Also, I had my Comm100 exam last Thursday, it was not that hard nor that easy. Nakakalito lang talaga.

* We had our geography field trip last Saturday at Tagaytay and Taal Volcano...I'll upload pictures later.

* I hate my Art Stud class, it is boring, our prof gives us tons of useless readings and he discusses it in ther useless way possible. Kung di ko lang enjoy kasama yun mga classmates ko dun, I probably will cut class or drop it out.

* My comm3 class is like my "panira" class, alam mo yun, you do study for an exam, tapos biglang sisingit yun Comm3 activities..wahahaha!

* J101 ko? wala lang as in wala lang...no stories whatsoever. Boring.

* I had watched 5 games for my cheerleading ( I watched the UE game only during the first quarter) and kung andun ako, the UP team wins. (No joke, I completely watched the games VS DLSU, UST, AdU and NU and we won over those games while I watched the UE game til the first quarter and UP was leading by the time I left)...Lucky charm ng Maroons ako! (I won't be watching this Saturday's game with FEU..so?)

* Panakit-katawan ang judo class ko. Sore shoulders, arms and legs were the results of my almost 2 month's judo PE. but it's working ha, I can do more pushups and situps!

* I am applying in UJP-UP this semester, I don't know kung kaya ko lang because of my super dami kong commitmetns. Pero kaya yan because of the support from the caring members and my co-apps. Pero sana matapos ko siya...

* MCO had been under the radar for this sem. We had garnered lots of internal problems that I hope can be resolved.

* Na move ulit ang major issue, bwisit na speakers yan! I want to get through na nga ito, so that wala na akong trabaho masyado! Hehe

So yun muna, I'll put some pics later.

Not enough vitamins

2005-07-06T07:50:00.000+02:00

First week pa lang ng July and I'm exhausted. Too many works, too many commitments and too many tasks to do.

I have 8 subjects for this semester plus extra curricular activities (org and stuff). I had 3 major subjects, 3 General Electives and 2 PE subjects. I really hate my schedule. I do have nga this unhealthy lunches every tuesday and friday due to the fact na tuloy-tuloy ang class ko. It was my fault din since I arranged my sched myself but di ko naisip na ganito pala to kahirap.

Anyway,I love my PolSci 14 subject especially with this political crisis we're having, it's like having your personal adviser and political analyst. I love listening to our professor's comments, kasi he gives off this objective look on this issue, analysing both parties. This helped me understood what is really happening and maybe analyse what can happen next. Tamang-tama. I do strive sa subject na ito, because I want to excel, even at the expense of my other subjects. Sana nga lang, I can do best in this subject (kahit ng vitamin-deprived na ako).

This sem will truly be a very physically exhausting semester. Sana kaya ko to!

Happy Birthday to me!

2005-06-29T10:20:00.000+02:00

As of yesterday, I am officially 18 yrs old. Ang tanda ko na! This one is different, ito na ang transition from childhood to adulthood. Pwede na akong bumoto (finally!), I can enter bars (officially!) and many sorts of perks. But, I really miss my childhood, all those carefree days...shucks.

I just wanted to say thank you to all the people who had greeted me thru all channels of communication. (Meron pa nga nagsend ng PLDT Voice recording greeting sa akin through phone, Thanks)

For the people who had greeted me through text.

Jeka, Cara, Wivi, Weisa, Bev, L.J., Mark, Gino, Ivy, Anj, Kimbe, Tips, Dang, Ge, Reese, Con, Diana, Shiela.

For the Y!M greetings
Tita A. , Vic, Jon Mencias, Jon Ebido.

Thru Friendster
Wap, Ate Anarie, Manuel, Jobelle, Reji, Melai, Claud, Ritz, Missy, Jon, Marian, Nimrod, Ked.

My Comm3 groupmates (yup, considered secret yun), Geog1 classmates (tama bang i-announce sa buong room), Pol Sci 14 class (esp. Flau, congrats on your perfect recitation) and my art stud seatmates.

Of course sa akin mga relatives, thank you very much.

Sorry kung may nakalimutan akong name, it's the thought that counts naman.
And for all those who had offered their greetings thru prayers, salamat sa inyo.

We'll the greeting part is over. I hope this year will be a good one. (It rained almost the whole day yesterday, good omen kaya yun?)

MCO Media Tour

2005-06-22T15:03:00.000+02:00

To kick in, nangyari kanina ang first project ng RATT for this year, the FRESHIE MEDIA TOUR. Ang tagal din namin to inayos, mga 2 months din. at least it was over. sigh.

We went to Philippine Daily Inquirer and GMA Network. Kasama namin ang most of K2 at 1 CW and 1 Journ student. Pics na lang. tinatamad ako magsulat.

It was fun. really fun. Salamat sa mga sumama at sa MCO esp. sa RATT! Congrats! One activity down, millions to go...

On Rizal and Father's day

2005-06-19T10:06:00.000+02:00

Today is both Rizal's birthday and Father's day. It is a nice coincidence that two great events were placed on a single day. We could easily say that, Rizal did obviously served as a catalyst of change from the times before. He had, in some way, did aroused people's feelings on fighting for freedom and I think he had his goals accomplished.

It is too bad that, nowadays, we don't give any respect for the freedom our heroes had fought for. At least, show some consideration on honoring our great nation. Just stop when the Philippine Anthem is being played or at least show some respect. Let us put away all our greed and personal desires for the sake of the advancement of our country. No more politics, no more fighting please. I'm sick and tired of it (and I mean we all do I suppose)

Let us move forward.

Palawan: Part 3

2005-06-14T10:52:00.000+02:00

SUNDAY:

Naghanda na ako for my island hopping tour in Honda Tour. I had my breakfast at the hotel and after an hour left the hotel.

Tatlo lang kami sa tour, ako and a couple Mr. and Mrs. Dy. Ang ganda nga, coincidence lang kasi uncle and aunt siya ng classmate ko from high school. hehe. nakakatuwa.Also, we had a tour guide, si ate ana, na super kulit para siyang ate talaga.

We traveled by land to the Sabang Wharf for about an hour. It was a bumpy ride since medyo di pa ayos ang streets. We had reached the wharf and I borrowed some snorkeling stuff. I was really anticipating this snorkeling activity. First time ko lang mag-snorkeling and with my not so trustworthy swimming skills, it was really an experience that I will truly cherish.

We rode this boat (named Jollibee, haha) and started our island hopping. First we went into snake island. It was a 40-minute trip on a small boat. Nakakahilo kaya sa bangka, and when we got there I was not feeling that well. It was called snake island since there was this strip of sand that is curving on a shape of a snake. We fed some fishes. Nakakatuwa kaya to, you are in some 4 and 1/2 feet of water and colorful fishes. Then, I went snorkeling. It was a freaky snorkeling experience. I was on this water, 10 meters deep. Di talaga ako magaling sa swimming, so I had a life vest with me. It was a nice experience. Makakakita ka ng corals and different fishes there. Haha! I hope pwede yun camera ko dun so that nakakuha ako ng pics. Kaya nga lang, most of the corals are dead. Sayang nga lang, di talaga naalagaan. I hope that sana 20 years from now, that beauty will be improved... Sayang talaga.

An hour after, we had back to our boat and went on to Starfish island. Again, nakakahilo ang biyahe. Pagdating namin, we had lunch and I went into the water again.
Starfish island kasi starfish was abundant there before. Then after, I went for a walk in the beach far from the camp place. It was a soothing experience, there was this long stretch of white sand and ako lang yun nandon. I felt like walking, making footprints in the sand echos-echos and also taking pictures. It was also a nice place to relax and to think. Then after walking, I went for a swim. It was called starfish island so I was expect to be seeing starfishes.But ngayon, wala ka ng makikitang starfish (except for like 5 starfishes on shore). Because of man's abuse of nature, the once very spectacular island turned into a mismanaged place. Pag alis nga namin, there were this pinoy tourist na binabato yun starfish as if it was a ball. Grabe! Living thing yan! Di yan laruan!. Nakakainis lang talaga. I hope ma-karma sila. I hate yun mga turistang ganyan!

Then we went to this lu-li island. this was island was supposed to be non-existing on a high tide and since it was in lowe tide. Nakapaglakad-lakad kami sa beach. Again, white sand beach ang nandun and some good and clear waters.

As we went home, it started to rain. As in malakas na ulan. We were in the middle of the sea, on a not so sturdy boat with winds and waves splashing. Mas matindi pa siya sa ride sa Universal Studios. Nakakatakot kasi baka bigla tumaob yun bangka. Kasi, big waves talaga. Pero we returned to the port safely, kaya lang basang-basa ka nga lang.

Dumating na kami sa hotel ng mga 4pm and I just rested for a while and headed to the town proper para magsimba. After, I headed back to the hotel to have dinner. We had dinner with my malayong uncle and cousin. Yun palang uncle ko na yun was the former owner of the island that is now Club Noah Resort ( a first class resort in Palawan). Nakakatuwa lang.Then after dinner, balik hotel na kami, fixed my stuff and went to sleep.

I woke early the next morning to prepare for our flight. At breakfast at the hotel, we met this couple from Spain who was in Palawan for there honeymoon. Tinanong ko sila, why did chose Palawan instead of Bali etc. Sabi nila, mas gusto daw nila sa Palawan, since it was not crowded. Buti pa sila, naappreciate ang beauty ng Pilipinas. Bakit ang mga Pilipino magbabakasyon, they choose destinations outside of the country kahit na there are truly beautiful places here in the Philippines.

Yun ang natutunan ko from this trip, there are more places to discover in the country, more places much better and richer from other countries, marami tayong mga untouched locations that di pa nagagalaw ng modernisasyon. Tama nga na sabihin ni DOT, na "Tara Na! Biyahe Tayo". I'm planning tuloy to go into the places in the song. DISCOVER PHILIPPINES.

Palawan: Part 2

2005-06-12T09:10:00.000+02:00

I was supposed to go on to a Honda Bay Island Hopping tour on that Saturday. But our hotel moved our tour for the next day, so that it could meet its minimum number (6) of tour participants.

It was a bummed day for me, no activities planned whatsoever.... but di yun pipigil para sa akin na maglagalag at i-enjoy ang Palawan.

After eating breakfast, we decided to walk and I mean walk to the town proper (about 2 km ang layo nun), just to waste time.

We got into town and decided to watch the Asian Sepak Takraw Competition that was in town. I have never seen a Sepak Takraw live game, so medyo kakaiba ito. We rode a mini-cab (the jeep of Palawan) to the place.

The sepak takraw game was not your usual UAAP game. Apart from the small crowd inside the stadium, the game was a mix of volleyball and soccer. It was really fun to watch. Haha.

Then after, we headed at this vietnamese kainan. The place was not that appealing. It was much like a carinderia in Manila but the food is really great. They had mouth watering seafood and semi-spicy food. Yun nga lang talaga, di maganda yun place.

Nun hapon, we went to the city again to walk around and shop. Masaya sana kung pwede kaming bumili ng seafood dahil super abundant ng seafood nila dun. First time kong nakakita ng big lobster sa market. Even sa Rustans dito sa Manila, wala pa akong nakikitang lobster na ibinebenta.

After nun, we headed into the church. It was like the San Sebastian Church in Manila pati yung color pareho.

TO BE CONTINUED....