Sorry I haven’t been able to post lately. As usual, I’ve been ultra busy with school, but I finally finished the week as well as this week’s surgery and have a small break to write about things. I just had dinner and wanted to take a break from things so here’s what I did this past week.
This past weekend I was told about a senior vet med students wildlife field trip that they were doing for their wildlife elective. Since they had an extra seat available on the bus I was able to tag along!
We took a trip to Manila first and visited the Manila Zoo. The job that was assigned to the students in the class was to take a look at the the multiple animal enclosures in the zoos and characterize and rank them according to how effective they were in keeping the animals and also how good they were in making them comfortable. The Manila Zoo when I entered seemed like an alright place. The infrastructure of the zoo didn’t seem too nice when I first entered and although they had a wide variety of animals the zoo itself wasn’t that big. Me and the other seniors were able to cover the entire park in an hour. I was a little disappointed with the layout of the park, but it was a zoo so I had fun looking at all the animals. There was an amazing elephant that greeted me at the entrance and they had some great tiger and lion enclosures.
After that however, we ate some lunch at the zoo eatery and at around 11:30am we headed to the next zoo, Avilon which is located about an hour-and-a-half away from the Manila Zoo.
Avilon on the other hand was a zoo with a seemingly great infrastructure and layout with great organization. The zoo much reminded me of what I saw at the Singapore Zoo as the zoo was huge, but of course the Singapore Zoo was much nicer and had many more rare animals. However, out of all the zoos I have seen in the Philippines, Avilon seemed the best funded and best laid out in general.
The visit to that zoo took us about 4 hours but it was fun walking around and getting to see all the rare animals. They had a large aviary filled with many different types of raptors and other psittacine creatures. I really love birds, so it was nice to see a large variety of them in one place.
Overall, Avilon had a great layout with some great paths, but in general, the enclosures that kept the animals in were not up to par. It was quite surprising since Avilon seemed to have more funding, but in general the cages and containers that they kept the animals in were small and somewhat unkempt. The animals in some of them did not seem comfortable, but since the layout was nice I don’t think a lot of people thought much about it.
After the 4 hour trip through the zoo, we were totally exhausted. We had left at 6:30 that morning from Los Banos, so at around 5pm we were already pooped. Me and the wildlife class then headed home which took another 2 hours.
Me and my friend Chat had dinner that night after the trip and that was quite nice too. Since then though I’ve been bogged down with exams, classes and surgeries to worry about.
Today I just finished leading our surgical team in doing a femoral, tibial and joint capsule exposure. After dinner I came home and now I’m going to take a break. I think I might hit the sack soon though. And it’s only 10pm… haha.
Anyway, I hope you liked my short story. I’m feeling like I’m not that coherent right now and my eyelids are drooping. I think that means I should get to bed.
Catch you guys later!
So remember that I told you guys that I was an honorary member of the Lady Veterinarian (LV) organization at UPLB? (You may think that’s weird, but hey, the ladies love me… haha, joke :P ). Well they were nice enough to have a gathering today in Caliraya, Laguna. It’s about an hour and a half away from here in Los Banos, so the girls chartered a jeep and by 9:30 this morning we were off to have some fun.
My physiology teachers Dr. Amie Estacio and Dr. Rina de Luna are the advisers for LV and they helped set up this trip. The organization set up a place in Caliraya where we could spend the day to relax, eat lunch, go kayaking and fly some kites. I was the only guy on the trip besides the ones Doc Amie had with her (not sure if they’re her nephews or something), but regardless, I always feel comfortable with these girls. They’re a really nice bunch, and very warm and welcoming. I was honored to be asked if I could be one of their honorary members last year. I thought it was cool before, but it gets even better because I get to go to these LV-exclusive events. Lots of fun indeed.
Once we got there we set up camp… Doc Amie and Doc Rina had two tents we could set up so they made me in charge of setting them up and they assigned me LV minions to help me. Lots of them were very helpful actually… but of course they made me do all the hammering of the pegs. When I asked why I had to do it, Doc Rina said it was because I was a guy and that’s what guys are for. That kind of made me laugh.
After that some of the girls set up a grill to make some grilled liempo (which is basically pork chops with fat) and we had some salted eggs, rice, soy sauce with chopped onions and tomatoes and some grilled eggplant. We didn’t have enough forks and spoons so we just all ate with our hands. Really felt like we were living in the outdoors… But the food was delicious, let me tell you that. Good job to the girls who cooked it. :)
Shortly after the meal we washed up, got into our bathing suits and then tested out the beach. It was a little muddy, but a good temperature so we jumped right in. Eventually, the kids set up 2 kites which we played with for awhile and then we got a 2-person kayak to go around the lake. At the same time some of us also ventured around the area to see the scenery.
We did this until around 4pm and then we started to head home. We did a lot today and so many of us fell asleep on the jeep ride. I almost missed my stop actually!
Tonight I decided to try out a new place for dinner. In LB Square (a place where many bars and cafes are here in Los Banos), a new sandwich place popped up called the Submarine Sandwich Hut. They serve good quality Italian sausages and great sardine sandwiches (which is something I tried tonight). Pam, one of the owners, was someone I talked to tonight. It seems that the place is attracting a lot of foreigners since sandwich places are a staple in American culture. Heck, it’s the same reason why I decided to try it out. So if you happen to be in Los Banos and are near LB Square, I suggest that you try this place out. :)
Okay, I’m off to catch up with some friends before hitting the sack. I’ve got a lot of things to do tomorrow, as usual.
So I’ll catch you guys soon. See you later ya’ll!
So I told you guys that I had another story coming during my last blog post, and here it is. Today was a special day, just because we did so much. I honestly had a lot of fun these past two days just being on break and today was pretty cool.
After Belle and I got up this morning after recovering from last night’s BBQ I prepared a little breakfast for the two of us (nothing too much though, because we were still full from the night before) mostly consisting of green tea and donuts. After some talking Belle and I decided to go to the college at around 11am to check the results of our Parasitology class. Today was the day we found out if we either passed the course or didn’t. It had been nerve-wracking thinking about the exam since we took it last Friday. We both had our own feelings on how we did on the exam, but didn’t want to say anything about the results because we were afraid that if we did, it would jinx our chances of actually doing well. Silly right?
Belle went home to freshen up a bit before heading to the college and I took the time to do the same. After about an hour we headed to the college to find out our results. I first knocked on Dr. Baticado’s office and asked him if the Parasitology exam results were out. He told me that they were at the college secretary’s office and after that I asked him,
“Did I pass?”
Dr. Baticados shot me a strange look and said,
“Um… I think you’d better go and check the college secretary for yourself.”
That response did not sit right with me at all. So I rushed to the college secretary’s office on the other side of the CVM facility where I happened to crash into Belle. I told her the results were out in the secretary’s office and there we asked for our results. The secretary said in a high-toned voice, “Congratulations! You both passed!” That totally set us off. We were both ecstatic after hearing that. That’s all we’d been wanting to hear for the last 4 days. We started jumping up and down due to our excitement. What a relief! It was such a big weight off our shoulders, believe me…
After that, Belle and I decided to walk home and not take a jeepney and enjoy the feeling of being totally free from exams by just walking through campus. During the 20 minute walk we talked about how it was so nice to hear those words from the secretary’s mouth. We eventually found out that some of our classmates weren’t so lucky… but unfortunately that’s the way things go sometimes. 2nd year proper is nothing to joke about. Belle, me and my other friends worked harder this semester than any other previous semester and it was the time where students usually decided whether or not taking up a course in veterinary medicine was right for them. If one failed at this point, it might cause them to switch to another course or reconsider what they would do with their extra time.
While heading home, I texted everyone I knew about the results. Meanwhile, I invited my friends Jae and Elma again to have lunch with Belle and I. Unfortunately it was be the leftover BBQ from last night. On the bright side though, the food tasted so much better since Belle and I passed! Also, since the salad was allowed to chill in my fridge overnight, it came out tasting better today than it did last night. Jae and Elma eventually came over, helped me eat a little more of the food in my fridge and then we again talked, chilled and just relaxed for a bit.
Jae eventually showed us some interesting Korean music sites and told me of his love of
So Nyuh Shi Dae (SNSD or Girls’ Generation), a 9-member South Korean girl pop group that is immensely popular there. He also told me that he prefered
SNSD over the
Wonder Girls. (Shocking! I think I may have an issue with this… hahaha… joke lang!) The members of SNSD are all very talented and they are also very pretty. But I still prefer my 5-membered Wonder Girls. (A shoutout to
WGSpectacle! Woot! Hehehe…)
After that they all went home and we decided to text each other if we wanted to do something that night. Belle was interested in playing billiards with me later that day so that’s exactly what we did. After everyone left I had some time to myself which I just spent surfing the net. After that, Belle stopped over at my place again and then we headed to the university’s student union building to play some billiards. While there I introduced Belle to the game of 8-ball, which is a game that I traditionally played while in high school and college with friends at pool halls. After a few games I was able to lead for a bit, until she introduced me to the game of 9-ball which she is highly skilled at. (I wouldn’t take Belle’s skills for the game for granted. She may look small, but she’s very smooth when using that cue and insanely accurate. I don’t think I’ve ever played with a girl with that much finesse when playing billiards. I guess everyone has their own secret talents.) We only played for an hour because on the way to the billiard hall Jae texted me and asked if we wanted to go to Tagaytay for dinner. I of course said yes… I really wanted to eat anything but BBQ tonight… haha. Of course Belle was invited as well, so we just played for an hour and then headed back home.
During the last 9-ball game we played, we were both done to the last ball and Belle and I were not able to sink the final shot. We were getting a little frustrated so I said,
“Hey Belle. If you make this shot I’ll treat you to dinner.”
She said, “Really?”
I replied, “Of course!”
Belle then prepared for the shot and with an insane amount of power and accuracy smacked the cue ball into the 9-ball and sunk it in the corner pocket. My jaw kind of dropped since the cue ball was in an insane position on the table and I thought that it wasn’t possible to do it. Belle just smiled and I knew that I owed her dinner. I was glad to do so though, because I was thoroughly impressed with her billiard skills. And of course because we both passed Parasitology! Wooooo!
Later on we again split up to go home and freshen up. Tagaytay is cold, so we needed to pick up light jackets and fix ourselves up for the night. Jae and Elma picked me up from the apartment and we picked up Belle. Then we headed to Tagaytay! We reached a really great restaurant after about an hour-and-a-half of driving called
Leslie’s. It was a Filipino cuisine restaurant and it was insanely good. The restaurant itself was on a small cliff overlooking a lake and it was absolutely beautiful.
Jae and Elma recommended buying the a large family sized bowl of bulalo (which is a type of Filipino broth with bone marrow, pork and fresh vegetables) and also a large fried fish (I forget the name… sorry). I ordered an Ube shake to go along with the meal which turned out to be extremely yummy and was topped off with a scoop of Ube ice cream. We started off with the soup because like I said before, Tagaytay was pretty cold. And when I say cold, it was just extremely breezy and comfortable. It was the type of weather that I wish we had in Los Banos sometimes so that I wouldn’t have to use my air conditioner so much. The weather reminded me a lot of NY and then I started thinking back to how nice it would be to be back home again.
During the meal we had a good time talking and enjoying the food we ordered. There was a live band going around and when we first arrived at the restaurant the group that they were singing to requested
“Nobody” by the Wonder Girls. After hearing the first bars of the song I was surprised and immediately took out my camera to record them singing it. And they were quite good! I will post up the link to the video after I upload it.
(*EDIT — IT HAS BEEN UPLOADED! HERE IS THE VIDEO!) It’s was a pretty awesome performance (although in my opinion, Yubin’s rap could’ve used a little work… hehe).
The atmosphere was amazing and it was nice to have a great dinner at a nice restaurant with great weather… and with live music too! There weren’t many people at the restaurant at the time. I think that besides us a total of maybe 10 other people total were eating there. That’s really small considering that the restaurant seemed like it could hold about 300 people minimum. That left us with an intimate and also secluded place to eat, talk and chill.
After our awesome meal, we decided to walk around a little bit before heading off to get dessert. On top of the restaurant was a lookout point that was great for seeing the lake that was below the restaurant itself. There was a small wooden bridge that connected the lower floor of the restaurant to the roof of the building which allowed us to see the view. It was pretty amazing. Later on, everyone started to have fun on the bridge though. We acted like kids and took some wacky pictures, which you’ll see here. Hahaha…
Then we headed to get some dessert. What possessed us to even go and find some dessert after eating BBQ for the last 2 days and eating a huge dinner is beyond me. Jae ended up driving us to Santa Rosa to a little shopping center called
NUVALI. NUVALI consisted of a few, high-end stores, reminiscent of places you’d find in Makata, Fort Bonifacio, etc. While there we ended up at a Starbucks and ordered a couple of different flavored frappuccinos, which of course (for me at least), are always tasty and yummy. Coffee drinks are usually good after an amazing meal like the one we just had. Once we ordered, we plopped down on the couches on the second flood of the Starbucks and just started talking. Everything from how school was going, what we wanted to become in the future, what were looking forward to and not looking forward to in the coming semester and similar things like that. By around 11pm though we all started getting sleepy (most likely due to the immense amount of food we had eaten previously) and so Jae drove us all home.
I want to thank Jae, Elma and Belle for being such awesome friends these past few days. Doing things like this are more interesting to me and more fun for me than hanging out in say Manila and just lounging around at the malls. I had an awesome time thus far!
So here’s to the end of the semester and passing all our courses. Congratulations to everyone who has passed, and enjoy your semester break! I’ll see you all on the flip side!
