Category: Say Cheese!

Photos, and only photos.

Agyamanak la unay, Baguio!

Tina 3 Comments

Also known as: The weekend in Baguio City
Translation (from Ilocano, a Filipino dialect): Thank you very much, Baguio!
Note: Photo dump coming up.

My weekend was spent in the City of Pines, a trip that I had proposed to my friends at the start of the year when we were playing picnic.  I’ve been to Baguio City thrice, four counting the trip last weekend, but the only time I was really able to appreciate Baguio as a tourist was once when I was about seven and the last weekend. The other two times were for a Kids for Christ conference when I was 12, and last year for a strategic planning for work. Both times I didn’t go around Baguio at all, and all I could remember of it was being homesick and enjoying the cold weather.

So last weekend is a trip that made me a tourist in Baguio again. I wanted to go because I really just want to make the most out of the cold weather, and I wanted to get out of the city. It came to a point that I was so stressed at work and with other real life stuff that I just needed a break — a mental health day if you may. So it was done. With my friends who achieve, and a foreign “delegate”, we trekked up last weekend to the City of Pines for a well-deserved cold weekend.

Where I try to act tourist-y. Not my best picture, but the sign behind me is really more important. :P

And now in bullets!

  • Baguio is easy to get to if you’re coming from Manila…but it is wise to get bus tickets in advance especially if you want to reach Baguio early. We got to Victory Liner station thinking it would be easy to get a bus, but the next bus available is at 5:00am. :O We decided to buy tickets and then line up as chance passengers.The 3:00am bus was our lucky bus, and as soon as the bus started moving, we were all knocked out asleep. 6 hours later, hello Baguio!

    Waiting for the bus
  • We stayed in PNKY Home, a quaint little Bed & Breakfast along Leonard Wood Road. Toni discovered this place but he didn’t have a chance to stay here the last time he was in Baguio, so we decided to book the place.
    They’re doing a bit of renovating so there’s the steel bars behind Cookie. Oh, and Cookie’s the official mascot of the trip, at least until the animal hats came into the picture. :D

    Read More

Playing Picnic

Tina 2 Comments

Also known as: When Tina thinks about taking more pictures

So last Sunday afternoon, my friends and I had a last hurrah before we all went back to the daily grind. It was my friend Noel‘s “surprise” picnic party, which wasn’t really a surprise because he kind of knew that we had something up our sleeves.

My best friend, Toni, and I set out to UP early so we can set up, and I was particularly cheerful that day because it was so sunny. I love the sun, for obvious reasons, so yesterday’s weather was PERFECT. It was my first time to picnic at UP…wait. It was the first time I went to a picnic with my friends, period. I used to play picnic when I was a kid, with my favorite blanket and my current favorite tea set and pretend food with my dolls and all. When I grew up, we planned stuff, but never pushed through. Since 2011 is the year my friends and I are going to ACHIEVE! stuff, then anything is possible.

So a picnic it was, for the birthday boy.

It was a very fun picnic, despite everyone arriving late. I got the chance to enjoy the sun with my best friend while we shouted disclaimers that we were not on a date because it looked so much like it. :P I did not have the luxury of trees in my college campus, so being in UP was…well, different. I could have studied in UP in college, anyway, but I chose another path (no regrets, and that’s for another post. However, people do say I have a UP aura. :P), so being around that much ground and so many trees was really fun.

But the real point of this entry is (I’m sorry – I told you I ramble a lot!) is how it was so much fun to take photos that afternoon. I used to think I had the potential of being a photographer in college when I took that photography class, but as the years went on, I stopped taking photos and just let other people take it for me. Besides, if other people took the photo, then I’ll be in the photos. Right?

Vain.

But I kind of miss it. I think I don’t have the same eye in photography like my friends do, but I try. And yesterday’s picnic and photo shoot is so much fun that I now want to start taking photos again.

You know, like these:

Read More

Looking Back

Tina 4 Comments

Also known as: The 2010 recap that I thought I wouldn’t be doing

I really wasn’t planning to do this, for reasons that I do not know because I was really feeling lazy. But my sentimentality reared its head and I felt the need to do a recap of how 2010 was, even if I thought it was quiet for the most part. Perhaps this is the wise part of me saying that I need to do this, or maybe because I don’t feel like reading so I do the next best thing: write.

Anyway. Like I said, 2010 was mostly quiet. This is relative to 2009, which totally beat me up as it ended, so I’m pretty sure my definition of quiet in 2010 is not the same as others. Nevertheless, I do consider 2010 as a good year, even if it isn’t really as busy as 2008.

So what exactly happened in 2010?

A word of warning: this is a very long entry.

January

  • I started the year by attending my friend’s mom’s wake. :( I think I speak for all when I say wakes give you a chance to reevaluate your life and your relationships with other people. I never met my friend’s mom, but from the stories I hear from her, she seemed like an awesome woman. She’s doing a 365 days of Mom in her blog, so you may want to drop by and read about this woman who raised such a beautiful person.
  • And to further emphasize how life really is in the world, I attended a surprise birthday party for my friend the next day. It was the first of many, many surprises for the year, and it was fun! Plus I realized how much I love Grimace the mascot, especially when he (she? it?) looks like this:

    Grimace!!!
    Grimace!!!
  • I opened my book blog. Because books are awesome.
  • Met up with my thesismates, aka “the three most important guys in my college life.” Haha I can’t believe I called them that. :))
  • I got attacked by allergies…and then got sick for real. Then I had to go back on steroids.
  • Watched Legion and it bothered me so much that I just had to write about it.
  • My most favorite singer in the world, Dave Barnes, released a new single, God Gave Me You. I wouldn’t have included it here, but I love this song so much that I had to include it. :P
  • Ended the month by having a team building/planning with some office folks in Baguio. It was the first time I went to Baguio again after 11 years. Fun times and I love, love, loooove the cold weather. Friendships, can we go to Baguio again before January ends?

Read More