A Special Date: A Recap

Hey everybody!

I thought I’d fill you guys in on what’s been happening with me these last few weeks, as I haven’t been around the last month to really say anything here. I’ve kind of been on a hiatus of sorts during that time, and wherever I used to be active online I wasn’t for that time period (sorry to all my readers and to those at WGSpectacle — mianhe)

As you all probably know, I ended my summer classes in UPLB in the middle of May and I subsequently left for my home in NYC for a short (but well-deserved) vacation. There I met up with my family, my girlfriend Jeannie and also my good friends Danny and Marlo.

I did a lot of things while I was at home, but most of it consisted of me eating lots of good food. When you realize what you have in America and the variety of things you can eat and how good things taste at home, it can’t be helped. I lost a lot of weight while I spent the summer in the Philippines, mostly because of the crazy heat and all the extra walking I did (just because I could), but I’m pretty sure that I gained it all back within a week because my girlfriend, her family and my family took me out to really good restaurants. I got a good taste of Chinese food (from my girlfriend’s side), tons of great homemade Filipino food (from my family), BBQ (courtesy of my aunt, uncle and me) and even a taste of Cajun (from a new restaurant that opened on my street).

One of the first things I did when I got to NYC was to take my girlfriend out on a date. Since I missed actually celebrating our 3-year anniversary together (which is at the beginning of May), I had to make it up. Romantic? Yes. Overly cheesy? Maybe. But considering that it was the first time in about 6 months that I had got to spend time with her, it was well worth it I think.

We first took a trip to Chelsea Piers, where I told her to dress up and look nice. She didn’t know why we were there or where we were going so I took her for a walk in Manhattan near the Chelsea Piers Sports Center. I ended up surprising her to a lunch cruise on Spirit Cruises, where my little brother works as a singing waiter. Yes, you heard right, “singing” waiter. I had arranged some things with him beforehand and by the time we got there she was shocked. She had no idea we were getting on a boat for lunch, and of course with a full tour of some of NYC’s coast line along the Hudson River. During the lunch cruise, my brother and some of the other waiters danced, sang and served amazingly well. Jeannie was satisfied… :)

Next, we took a walk to the Museum of Sex. Interesting place we always thought we should visit together. When you walk in, it’s a gift shop which is open to everyone. When you want to go into the actual museum you have to pay a fee–something we did. They have three floors of exhibits, with each one specializing in a different topic. During our visit the first floor dealt with sex in movies (e.g. straight, gay, and celebrity porn genres). The second floor focused on condoms and different fetishes of people. The third floor (which was my favorite) was about how animals have sex. The place had amazing papermache models of elk and pandas doing it. While it was quite interesting to see these animals doing that, we had fun looking around and learning about how different animals mated. Definitely a cool place to be.

After that, we ended up in Times Square. Since what was next was a surprise, I took her to a nearby area and we sat down to rest a bit. I pointed to a tall building and asked her,

“Do you know what that building is?”

She answered, “No, not really, but I think it’s a hotel… it seems to have the same layout in each room.”

Later on when I told her it was time to have dinner, she followed and I lead her to the entrance to the hotel. The hotel was the Marriott Marquis. The Marriott Marquis is one of the biggest hotels in Times Square and a pretty fancy one at that. On the 50th floor is a special restaurant, called The View. It’s special because it revolves around the top of the hotel slowly, allowing one to see the many attractions of the NYC skyline. Once there, she was shocked again. There was a buffet table full of good fresh salad, fruits, entrees and such and also a separate dessert table with different breads, cheeses, cakes and even a chocolate fountain. I sat her down at our table, ordered a bottle of white wine and we decided to eat and enjoy the view together.

All in all, I had a nice time with her during our special date. Afterwards, I spent the weekend at my girlfriend’s house where her family brought me to awesome restaurants filled with Szechuan and dim sum dishes.

During the rest of my 2 weeks at home I spent it with my family, helping to cook up some BBQ I had learned while I was in the Philippines. I also got to visit my friends’ place in Sunnyside, Queens. Both of my best friends Danny and Marlo had moved in together as a couple and for the first time are independently living together. Getting my own place is something that I hope to do in the future as well. Both of them are doing well and they have a nice apartment in an interesting part of Queens which I’ve never really gotten the chance to explore. Danny and Marlo gave me a tour of their apartment and their new neighborhood, which was really charming to say the least. Unfortunately, I was only able to spend one day with them during my two-week vacation, but it was a nice time.

All in all, my vacation consisted of a lot of family, friend and girlfriend time and I think I spent it wisely. I really needed to unwind from the schooling that I had done. It was something that I hadn’t been able to do since my week trip to Singapore earlier in April.

Now I’m back in the Philippines, getting back into the groove of things. And since it’s almost 10:30pm here I think I’m going to say goodnight. I have my first Pathology III laboratory tomorrow and I have to bring in my dog Whitey to examine his blood. It should be a short exercise, but I’ve still got to get up at 6am to prepare.

Oh, and before I forget I want to wish all of the 1st year proper students who are new to the UPLB Veterinary Program a great start to the semester. I had one reader of mine originally from Nepal tell me awhile ago that he/she was starting up at UPLB as a new 1st year proper student. (So if you’re reading this, then know that if you need help I may be of assistance.) Things will certainly be different once you start the proper subjects and if you guys are new and need some guidance don’t hesitate to hit me up with questions. You can use the “Contact Me” form here on the web-site to send me questions and/or comments. I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Okay everyone, I think it’s time for me to get some shut-eye. Talk with you all soon. :D

Thoughts on Singapore

There were a lot of things I’ve done in Singapore during my week there. From April 7-11th I had the pleasure of flying over to Singapore to visit some friends, explore a new country and eat some delicious native delicacies. There was a lot I did and so I’ll try to cover a brief overview of what I did each day.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

During this day I flew out from Ninoy Aquino Airport Terminal 3 to Singapore direct from Manila and arrived in Singapore around 5pm. I had to wait a long time at customs but once I got out of the airport and exchanged my money and got myself a new SIM card with a new Singapore cell number I was able to head to my hostel which was the Drop Inn located on Lavender street. I located a shuttle to take me directly to the Drop Inn where I checked in. It was a backpacking hostel and my first time staying in a place like that so it was an interesting experience. A lot of international travelers were there in the living area just watching TV or on the internet just chilling out. The caretaker who was Singaporean welcomed me and I have to say she was pretty cute! She gave me my keys to my room and I was set. I placed all my things down and then went out to meet my friend Elsie for dinner.

I headed to the nearest MRT station which happened to be Boon Keng station where I met my friend Elsie. Elsie took me to the East Lagoon Food Village which was a hawker centre near the water. It was a pretty nice place and she let me experience first hand what kind of food Singapore offered. There was a healthy mix of everything, including Indian, Malasian and Chinese cuisine all put together. The food I tried included Rojak, Tulang, and different types of Satae which were accompanied by two large cups of sugarcane juice. Everything was quite scrumptious! She then drove me around the city to take in the sights at night for a bit and I even explored what a local 7-11 and McDonald’s was like. They were all updated and very modern looking. And the best part is that they had free wireless internet at every important restaurant around Singapore! It was useful to keep in touch with friends during that time since Singapore was connected to the net almost everywhere I went. Around 1am I returned to the Drop Inn where Elsie helped me plan my next day, which turned out to be the Singapore Zoo.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

I planned for this day to visit the Singapore Zoo. This time a few Singapore Wonderfuls decided to accompany me and so I had a great time. The Singlish they used was very daunting at first, especially since I was only able to understand 2/3 of what they were saying when they spoke it. However, it was very fun to hang out with them. They toured me around and were my escort around the zoo while I oogled the animals. We walked, ate at a local KFC at the northern part of the zoo and covered every exhibit within about 5 hours.

That night I met up with Elsie again to explore the Night Safari, which turned out to be a somewhat nice experience. The night safari was interesting, but I couldn’t take many good pictures mostly because no flash photography was allowed. There was a tram ride which I took half of the way around the park which was also interesting for a good 20-30 minutes but it was just okay. Some of the animals in the exhibits couldn’t be seen which was disappointing, especially since I paid extra for the park. There was also an animal show which lasted about 30 minutes which was also okay. Some of the animals weren’t cooperative that night and didn’t want to come out so some of the show didn’t work out. The host was very enthusiastic though, so that made the show worth it. I found out that a huge boa constrictor was present just in the row in front of me which freaked me out a little, but it was a great experience to see the animals up close like that.

Later on my friend took me out to a place that sold Roti Prata, which is a famous and simple Indian dish made up of specially cooked Indian bread. There were many things to choose from in terms of filling or the way it was made but I ended up with a Roti Prata filled with mushroom and also one that was just plain. It was served with a side of curry to dip the bread in which was a great accompaniment. Elsie on the other hand ordered a Tissue Plaster which was this huge tower of Indian bread with the inside filled with a layer of sugar and the entire cone shape covered in chocolate sauce. It was a great sweet snack! Later on that night I also ended up visiting the local university which was an amazing place in general. I’d never seen such a modern university with so many facilities inside it before. They had their own hospital, dentist facilities and enough hostels for most of the students. Their library and performing arts center was awesome too! It reminded me of the New York City University campus except more compact and more accessible. Also that night we also hit up a local supermarket where I bought some Hainanese Chicken Rice mix and Elsie bought me some chili sauce to accompany the meal. I will definitely try out the recipe soon and let you know how it goes. :)

Friday, April 9, 2010

During this day I decided to go off on my own and see the local city sights. I also aimed to go to Sentosa which is a separate island to the south of the Singaporean country. I went off to take the Boon Keng MRT to Bugis to see what it would be like there. I explored the place and there was a huge open market full of Chinese goodies and I even found a hawker centre there as well! After buying some souvenirs I ended up at that hawker centre looking to try the famous Hainanese Chicken Rice dish that people here have been raving about. I found a stall that sold it and found that it was delicious! I paired it with a fresh banana shake and the meal was just fantastic. As simple as it was with just a plate of bok choy, chili sauce, boiled chicken and rice infused with chicken flavor as well as a small bowl of soup, it was definitely filling and quite delicious! I know there are different versions, but the one I found there was just awesome. I can’t wait to try the other kinds next time.

I visited Sentosa which every Singaporean says is a tourist trap, which I have to say is pretty much correct. I paid about $36 SGD for a package to ride on 4 attractions and also had to pay an extra $3 SGD to get onto the island. I got to visit their version of the Merlion which is much larger than the one found near the Esplanade and you could look over the top of it and through the mouth. I ended up buying pictures of myself there so I could have a little souvenir. Later on I visited the Images of Singapore exhibit which was basically a large walking museum of how Singapore developed as a country. It was pretty interesting, but I could see it being very boring for kids and people who don’t like to read. I also went on an attraction they called CineBlast, which was basically a 3D movie you watched while on a moving contraption. Their theme at that time was for an “extreme log ride” and that it was… but I couldn’t really see what it had to do with Singapore other than just being another ride at a park. After that I hit up my last attraction which was the Tiger SkyRide which was a great experience (although it was only for about 15 minutes). The ride went up extremely high so that I could see a lot of the Singapore city line from more then 50 stories. It was the highest point in Singapore so I could see a lot, but I could also see that Sentosa itself was under major construction. I think about 1/3 of it was still being renovated or built. I eventually left Sentosa with a little bit of a bad feeling in my mouth just because I didn’t think it was worth much money and it seemed relatively boring. But as my friend Elsie says, SENTOSA stands for “So Expensive, Nothing TO See Also”. Haha, it’s funny and it’s correct!

Later that night I met up with Elsie again to go to dinner at an interesting Indian restaurnat called Annalakshmi. It was a vegetarian restaurant where you could eat as much as you wanted and also pay as much as you wanted. It was definitely an interesting place and the food was great, but I wondered how people could make money on such a concept. The restaurant was really nice though and the food was amazing so I left a good amount I think.

Later on we tried hitting up a jazz bar. Unfortunately the jazz bar wasn’t playing any jazz so we ended up at the Max Brenner Chocolate Bar where we chose a chocolate waffle covered with ice cream and topped with hazelnut. It was really yummy. Although it was a little expensive it was a great dessert to talk over. We ended up not going to the jazz bar later on and decided to take some pictures at the Esplanade and at the Signaporean famous Merlion which is a symbol of Singapore. It’s a statue of a lion’s head on a mermaid’s body. Interesting though, so I took a picture with it! After that I had to go home because I was extremely tired and since it was my last night seeing Elsie, I said good-byes before heading to the Drop Inn for my last night there before my Sunday flight.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

This day I checked out of the Drop Inn and said good-bye to many of the new people that I had met there. For my last night in Singapore I was going to meet up with my friend Calli from Indonesia who was staying over her friend’s apartment in Singapore. It was an empty apartment and so she said I could stay over for my last night in SG. Calli was only going to be in Singapore until Sunday as well, so we shared it for awhile. I took a cab to her place which turned out to be really nice! We then head to Orchard Road together to grab some little lunch at ION the large, up-scale mall there. After that we split to meet our other group of friends. I met up with Emma, Ming, Darren, Hao, Shanel and Amanda since they wanted to take me ice-skating. They took me to the Singapore stadium which happened to be another mall with an ice-skating rink, bowling alley and other facilities as well. I went ice-skating for 2 hours which turned out to be fun, but my friends Emma and Ming who also accompanied me didn’t know how to really skate, so I taught them!

Later on they would take me to Raffles Place where I met another friend, Hui Yi who was gracious enough to take me and my other friends (including Calli) to dinner. We initially thought we were going to be eating at the hawker centre near Raffles Place, but Shanel and the others decided to head over to Suntec City which was another high-class mall with some great eating options. We ended up meeting Calli there and eating at a Chinese venue, which was nice. We had a wonderful gathering there and talked about random things–everything from Wonder Girls to our upcoming future plans. The food was alright, albeit a little expensive and the service was really mediocre. I really would’ve enjoyed more a big dinner at a hawker centre since it would’ve been cheaper and we could’ve tried more native delicacies but the dinner was good nonetheless. Later on we headed on over to explore Suntec City and see if we could go bowling or play billiards. We couldn’t do either and settled on going to McDonald’s for Shanel to buy me, Calli and Huiyi some ice cream for dessert. It was extremely sweet of her to do so, and after that we parted ways and said our good-byes. Calli and I headed back to the apartment for our final night in Singapore.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

At this point in time I didn’t do anymore exploring since I was to take my flight from Singapore back to Manila at 10am. Around 8am I said my good-byes to Calli and took a cab to the Changi airport where I took my flight back to Manila. I met up with my cousin’s family to have a late lunch and then headed on home by bus with all my stuff back to Los Banos.

All in all, I had a great time in Singapore. I still missed a few things and didn’t get to go clubbing or taste any alcohol there! That was a little disappointing, but after a few years I will visit Singapore again to taste all the dishes that I missed and visit all the places that I didn’t get to see. Thanks to all my friends over in Singapore for making my week there a blast. I had a lot of fun and when I visit again I’ll definitely be hitting you guys up.

Now I have to deal with more summer class registration problems and everything like that. Ugh, I guess back to the grind for me!

I had a lot of fun… now it’s time to take care of more things for school. Let me know if there’s anything I should visit next time I go! Until next time, peace out!

My 24th Surprise Birthday Bash

So another year has come and gone. As the cliche goes, I’m another year older and another year wiser. I look back on the past year and realize that my birthday is just another regular day. I didn’t ask for much and really didn’t want people to make it a big deal since it was just another day, but in the end everything turned out nicely. Let me explain.



Last Friday, was a pretty long day. I had a parasitology lab as well as my first surgery lab which was quite fun. I learned how to wrap surgical packs and organize my surgery tools! I was quite excited to bring my tool kit filled with things from Bambang (an area in Manila where there is a large contingency of medical supply stores). The trip to Bambang itself which we took the week before was hellish, mostly because we had to canvas all the stores we could, compare prices and then seek out those items. We also had to deal with about 13 other group mates in our batch who were doing the same thing, and with different lists of items people wanted we had a hard time sorting out things. But that’s over and done with and we started our first surgery lab last Friday. Although it was the first step in finally getting some training done for surgery, it was really fun. You’d think that wrapping items for surgery to put into sterilization isn’t fun, but when you’re as excited to get into an operating room gown as I am, then you’d understand.



Afterwards, I said good-bye to my friends, went home and then relaxed for a little. I started class that day at 9am and then came home around 6pm. I honestly was pooped, and just wanted some time to chill and reflect on the day of my birthday. But of course that didn’t happen.



My friend James crashed my place with a bag of marinated meat and told me to “Fire up the grill.” I asked him why, and he just told me to do it. He wouldn’t answer any of my questions and of course I knew he wanted to surprise me with a meal or something so I set up the grill on my balcony. After getting the charcoals started my friends Jae and Elma came in bringing in more food. Then I really started getting suspicious. They told me that they found the salad on the street and that they thought they’d stop by and share it. Yeah right, I thought.



Then just as I thought more friends started appearing. Some of my other friends, Faye, Belle, Cha, Riel and Pam showed up at my door. James started grilling outside on my balcony with Jae and the girls started helping to set up the rest of the food. They brought me a lot of yummy desserts including a black forest ice cream cake and a full brownie platter. After all the food was cooked and done, we watched “City Hunter” an old Jackie Chan film from 1993. Afterwards, they took me out for some drinks at a local cafe which had an awesome live guitarist. Riel and James ended up singing some duets with him and that ended my surprise birthday bash!

All in all I had a great time, so thanks to everyone who came out. I have to really say thanks to James for organizing the whole thing. I had a lot of fun!

I’ll be posting more about my week and my classes thus far in other posts. Right now I gotta take care of some other errands! Take care guys!