Semester Break

So… semester break is here. And I’m not sure if I can celebrate yet… haha.

So I’ve passed all my classes so far… but still waiting for Parasitology results. They will be coming soon, but then again I will check on that tomorrow.

I spent the weekend in Manila and I just came home this afternoon. James took me down to his cousin’s place in Manila and we had a fun time hanging around Festival mall in Alabang, going to the pool, the golf driving range and eating at a ton of cool places. Our Korean friend Jae even came down and spent two days with us. We all had a fun time and needed some time to relax and chill for a bit since the semester was over.

In the past week, I’ve had my Parasitology final and like I said before, I’m still waiting on results. Not sure if I have to take a removal exam for that class yet, but we’ll see. Even while I was in Manila I took some time to look over my notes and go over things that I wasn’t too sure on during the final. Hopefully I won’t have to use any of it, but we’ll just have to see. After the Parasitology final this past Wednesday, James, me and my other friends Jae, Elma, Rosebelle and Faye held a small barbeque and gathering to celebrate the end of the semester. James cooked some chili and cheese to make a batch of nachos and also prepared some meat for marinating. The beef he got was supposedly imported from the US but all of it looked like thick slabs of bacon. It was all really good though. In my fridge I had some pieces of bread and some cheese slices so we made some grilled cheese sandwiches off the grill as well. Along with the nachos and such, it all turned out to be a great barbeque. We ended up finishing the all the food between the 6 of us.

After that we watched Wonder Bakery, a show about the Wonder Girls pairing up individually with an aspiring patissier (i.e. pastry chef) who was in their early 20s. It was an interesting show and since the series only spanned 8 episodes at 22 minutes per episode, we watched the entire thing in about 2 hours and 40 minutes. It was just like watching a long movie. The missions were really interesting. Most included making a special cake, but others included selling their a specific pastry that they had to come up with and make themselves. During the competition some of the patissiers were eliminated which brought in even more talented chefs to pair up with the now lone Wonder Girl. The winner of the competition won 10,000,000 South Korean won (which is about $8500 USD I believe). The competition towards the end was fierce, but in the end it ended favorably. I don’t want to tell you who won because I don’t want to ruin the surprise. If you ever want to watch the series, you can check out their Wonder Girls International Forum Spectacle and look under the Wonder Subbers section for the downloads.

So after a good BBQ, some more Parasitology studying and other things this weekend, I’m fully rested and willing to see what tomorrow will bring. Will it bring good news? Who knows. I can only cross my fingers and hope for the best.

Tests and Fun Times

Whew, the week is over! Gosh, if I haven’t said this before, this past week has gone by so quickly! I just took a test for my Ruminant Production lab and it was a little tricky. My professor asked some questions about grasses and legumes that I could not for the life of me remember the details of! I know that I screwed up a little bit, but I hope that in the end I’ll get exempt from the final.

This past week I also took a Pharmacology exam, which went alright. It was also tricky (but what test I take isn’t) but I think I did pretty okay for the most part. I didn’t walk out there thinking I perfected it, but I do hope at the very least I did better than average. I don’t want to say much until I get my grade back, but let’s hope that I did okay!

In the last few days I’ve had some people come over to chill. Since I have a pretty big loft on the 3rd floor of a building with a balcony and also have a laptop with a 17 inch monitor my place is usually the place to hang out when my friends are tired from exams and just want to watch a movie or two. On Wednesday my friends came over for a Zombie Movie Night, where we watched Evil Dead 2. James, Rosebelle and my Korean friend Jae and his girlfriend Elma came over and it was a lot of fun. We were going to watch Evil Dead 3, but since Rosebelle thought that Evil Dead 2 was really corny (which, if you ever watched it, is true) we ended up watching another movie I had on my hard-drive: 27 Dresses. So much for Zombie Movie Night huh? Haha…

Anyway, after that we ended up watching some Wonder Girls videos from my drive (I’ve been downloading more and more each day… it gives me something to do while I study), and then Jae decided to show us some really sad Korean music videos online. It was already around 1am the next day, and we had just watched 2 movies straight, so we were a little tired but we watched them anyway. I think James is traumatized and surprised at how sad some Korean videos are. (Get used to it! It’s always been that way! Hahaha….) If you haven’t watched sad, Korean music videos before I suggest you click here, to get started. It’s KISS – Because I’m A Girl, the music video. It’s a very old music video from early 2000 I believe. It’s about 10 minutes long, but hey, that was the trend back then. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Today after our Ruminant Production test, our Immunology class was canceled since Dr. Sanchez was out sick so James, Belle and I decided to head to a local Chinese restaurant called Ding Hao. We tried their Peking Chicken dish, along with some braised pork and some crispy noodle special they had. The food ended up being alright–I guess after eating at my girlfriend Jeannie’s place with her family (she’s pure Chinese), nothing really beats that, so I was a little disappointed. I haven’t really had any kind of real authentic Chinese food here in the Philippines as of yet. I’m super surprised that there aren’t any good restaurants around, but maybe I’m just not looking hard enough. In New York and New Jersey, you can find tons of good places and most of them are not that expensive. If you’re in the Philippines and know of a good place to check out please let me know! I’d love to find a good Chinese place to eat at.

Right now, I’m in the midst of studying for my Parasitology laboratory test and final, both of which are taking place next week. There is just under a month left to the end of this semester, so I’m a little anxious to see how it all will end. I will most likely be taking some finals, but I hope that I’ll be alright in the end. I’ve been keeping my head above water for the most part though, so I know I’ll pull through.

I just gotta keep on truckin’. That’s my motto until I end this semester. Let the ending spiral begin!

P.S. — I’m downloading a series featuring the Wonder Girls working with some upcoming patissiers. It was done a year or two ago, but I think it’s really interesting that they were all competing against each other for the $10,000 prize. They basically have to complete missions to come up with the best cakes for gifts to people who need them. I’ve only seen the first episode, but it’s pretty cool! You guys should check it out!