Food Trip!

its my 17th day in the capital city of the Philippines. i'm learning a lot and trying a lot of new and different stuffs and that includes fooooooood! and God knows that i'm on a strict diet when it comes to my budget, so he sends the right people to bless me with good company, inspiring stories and good food. so brace yourself for i will go all out on sharing with you my food trips for the last 17 days. they may not be new to you, but they are to me. not all food chains are present in Cebu and Manila never seems to ran out of restos to choose from. way back home, i am totally faithful to my mama's recipes, plus the fact that we choose to get away with eating from restos because, well, we have mama and the budget for one resto would be our family's for a week. but my love for Jollibee and Hukad and my mama's varying recipes will be forever. (and yup, i've written them all down in my planner so as not to forget...haha.)

so here we go:

1. Persia Grill. Located in Ortigas. Date with ate Nina and ate Andy. ate Nina chose this place because she loves their food, especially the Persian rice, which is a little bit bigger that our rice. We also had an ox brain, and it doesn't taste like a brain at all. as if i knew what a brain really tasted. haha. ate Andy was being generous to the extremes that day. 

2. Chocolat. read as cho-ko-lah. with an H. Located at Mall of Asia. courtesy of Ate Andy of course. We ordered Death by Tablea, which tastes like, tantananan, tablea. makes me miss that chocolate drink. chocolatey and yummy!

3. Good Burger. Located at Katipunan. This street is indeed full of restos and food shops especially burger. They have chicken and veggie patty so I think it's healthier than the "baboy" patty. wrapped around on foil with your name top. love that too. la lang. haha. a must-try!

4.  Starbucks. I'm not new to this, but I had my first ever purchase in Starbucks a few days ago. An almond iced tea. and the day after that, a frappucino. i think the iced tea's not worth the price but the frap is a thumbs up, always. i'm not really much into coffee as they said it would make you "nerbyosa" and all and i'm already "nerbyosa", sometimes. but what can i do, the people around me just loooove coffee, especially in Cebu and for the love of these people, i won't mind forgetting about the "nerbyosa" thing. i ordered the chocolate chip one because it made me think of my bestfriend, who paid for my first Starbucks purchase years ago. :)

5. Hot Shots. Located at San Miguel Ave, Mandaluyong. Burger and fries. And made me think about my papa about ranting how unhealthy burger and fries and all other unhealthy foods and how it'll make us sick easily. but i blocked his voice on the back of my head and enjoyed the meal. he's not here anyway. mwahaha.

6. Big Burger. Located at Robinsons Galleria. A burger joint. and my papa's gonna kill me if he knows that i've been eating nothing but burgers. haha. had this before a movie night with the Oquinenas and the inspiring titos from Visayas and Mindanao. watched Date Night. the Kuyas were all laughing their hearts out in the movie and the titos go zzzzzzzzz and i go, "wow, this is my second time to watch this movie". haha.

7. Next Door. Located at San Miguel Ave, Mandaluyong. love the chicken with the lemon thing. and i found no photos of this resto and the two before these and i would want to share the visuals so you'll go drooling. darn! don't really know how to describe because i'm not that good with adjectives and synonyms. yummy , delicious and very good is all i can think of. 

8. S&R pizza. had this very big sliced-pizza at that imported grocery store in The Fort. had me full at just one slice. or maybe because i had dinner before that.

9. Chilis. Near Greenhills. love their fish thing which i forgot what its menu name was. and i love how they give their kid customers some paper and coloring materials so they'll get to do their thing with those and the nicest art goes to their art bulletin.

10. Krispy Kreme. This is not new at all. every Manila trip is not complete without having a taste of these donuts. even when i was in Cebu, friends would definitely look out for a Krispy Kreme pasalubong. it may have become a Manila delicacy to us.

11. Other food stores. which i get to eat in in ordinary days here. Sisig Hooray! which is yummy and baboy and my papa's gonna freak out again, in a subtle way. Bacolod Chicken Inasal. Mang Inasal. Mcdo. Aling Banang's which is nearest to our boarding house.  JOLLIBEE!!!! 

That's all for now folks! Hope you get inspired to have more friends so you can avail a lot of free food and of course, lots of inspiring stories to listen and learn from and good company to share with. 

Another Journey Begins.

our team with the rest of the teams from Visayas wasn't able to join the bayani challenge in Palawan. frustrated for a while but all along, that was a blessing in disguise.

why a blessing? first, been praying that i'll get to visit my mama's hometown in iloilo this year, right after i finish school, and tada, i did. spent a day and a half in iloilo with our team for the bayani challenge (supposedly). i realized i just miss the farm, and the carabaos, and the ducks and chickens and the "buhay- probinsiya" in a farm, but most especially my lola and my titos and their families. second, i get to spend the holy week with my family, especially with papa who travels a lot, going to church together, going easter egg- hunting and roadtrips. we just loooove roadtrips!. a blessing in disguise because a week after that i have to decide to pursue a dream that i've been praying and hoping for so long, work fulltime for GK. yey! supposedly, i have to leave on May pa. but then, calling calls! :) third, the funds my brother raised for me(aaaaawwwww) for Palawan was immediately transferred to my funds and allowance for the first few months of my fulltime work, of course with the permission of my sponsors. 

Embarking on another journey of my life, a new chapter in the story of my life which is actually not about me at all. Manila. New people. Old friends. MRT. LRT. Commuting on my own. Big and modern buildings. Colorful GK Houses. Campaign posters everywhere. Making a choice. Boarding house. Away from family. A family away from home. But  amidst all that is new and what is to come, I thank God for bringing me here and for sending the right people and the resources needed for this journey. As the light comes streaming in our room each morning, I constantly pray for strength, courage and inspiration necessitated for every challenge that comes my way. Excited to be working with inspiring people who are passionate on uplifting the lives of the poor and grounded in God's love. Allowing God to lead and drive me through the voyage that He has called me to travel. Blessed to be part of His army fighting this seemingly impossible battle against poverty. Yet, impossible is nothing when God is at work. Completely putting my trust in God' s promise that when you decide to live your life for Him, everything will fall into place.

...and i get to crush out two things from my bucket list: getting a degree and working in GK. yaaaay!

.

Test of Faith.

and the tests continue, even after college.

days filled with anxiety, doubts and questions. and to think school is officially over, no project and other school deadlines to beat, project thesis to thoroughly study, exams to cram, assignments to finish. on spiritual dryness at the moment. have to find the grace to really sit down and pray.  but when you think everything seems utterly hopeless, a light suddenly appears out of nowhere. just when you feel so down and say, "Lord, i surrender everything to you.", a sparkle of hope starts to slowly extinguish the darkness of doubt.  an act of surrender may not be a sign of weakness or an act of cowardice after all. it simply means that you did your part and gave your best, and when nothing of what you really wanted happens, step asides and say to the One who makes all things possible, " Lord, i did my part and already gave my all, thy will be done." and allow His amazing and greater plans to surprise and blow you away.

*just when i thought that our project thesis design will not be approved, our project adviser says that we did our part, and it's time to pass it on to the next batch of researchers.

*just when i thought that i won't be able to finish school on time, i was able to graduate last March 20

*just when i thought that i won't be able to join the 2010 GK Bayani Challenge, my brother decided to help me out with the transportation and other expenses.

*just when i thought that my dream of visiting Palawan be postponed because our trip got delayed, --> wait til my next blog. :)

ways to go GREEN.

not a campaign blog. cause im not even green. :)

would like to believe that someone out there is actually reading my blog. haha. so that's why im kinda y know. basta, haha.

"i think that i shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree." and that's the only line that i can recall from that poem.:)

a few months ago, together with my family, we decided to go and follow the green lifestyle. my papa, a fulltime worker for Gawad Kalinga, was then newly assigned to become a coordinator for Green Kalinga, the environment program of GK. so that was the start of our GREEN story. papa never fails to share and impart with us the importance of doing our part in saving mother earth. i remember the last time we had our christmas vacation in Bohol, he gathered us, me and siblings, and we had this short adventure to the forest parts of our place with short talks about the environment. our place in Bohol is really cool and nature-y. we have the beach and a rocky seaside a few meters in front of our white house and the mountains at the back. so that's where my love for everything green, the trees, mountains, and blue, the sky, the beach, around me started. 

the beach few meters away from our house.

some visitors having fun on the mini-pier located on the beach.

so would like to share with you some simple and do-able ways that my family are doing to go green. some may be on your list already.

• Turning and switching off unused lights and appliances. Best to unplug appliances when not in use. cause even if you turn them off and still NOT unplug them such as unused cellular phone chargers, TVs, radios, etc.,  you'll still be using a little of those energy. 
• Change your fluorescent lightbulbs to CFLs. converting your lights to these environment- friendly, twirling bulbs will not only conserve energy but lessen your electricity bill as well. trust me. these CFLs eats up waaaaay low power than those power- hungry fluorescents and they emit lesser heat too.
• Use glass in brushing water and minimize the use of shower in baths. self-explanatory.:)
• Minimize the use or disposing of plastics. if possible, bring your own plastic bags when purchasing in markets but haven't tried using those environment bags in purchasing from grocery stores. when eating in restaurants and using glass for drinking, plastic or not, is available, don't use straws anymore. small thing, but will surely have a big impact.
• Using second-hand stuffs. clothes, school supplies, household stuffs, and many others. don't buy things that you don't really need. we follow this strictly and mostly because we also don't have the luxury to buy a lot of stuffs. haha. we will only add to the trash that will be dumped if we keep buying, then use them, then throw after we don't need or want stuffs anymore. not only that, more buying means more production, more acquiring of raw materials from nature and the use of energy of producing these stuffs. get the bigger picture? learned this just a few weeks ago when papa showed us a video about the simple how-to's on conserving energy and power.
• Waste Segregation. some thinks it is a hassle to do this, but it's really simple. and you'll earn from your basura. we had this waste segregation inspiration 3 years ago. we have this yearly christmas party with the kids in our street in our subdivision. to pay for our prizes and goodies to be given away, the kids must do caroling days before the party, then we thought why not segregate our trash too and sell the cans, plastic bottles, metals/ steels and newspapers and earn money and add it to our christmas party's cash. and we added a culmination activity for our rosary month too so we have to earn and gather more. the kids are starting to be consciously aware of the need to preserve and save what is left of our mother earth and that no matter how young they are, they already are part of the solution of our environmental crisis. 

the signage.

the kids doing their part. segregating.

• Vermicomposting. if you are into gardening or planting, you may have heard of this. it's a process where you have these vermi worms eat up your biodegradable trash, banana peelings, paper, kitchen trash, etc., and their poop becomes the organic fertilizer that we put into our plants. really cool. too bad i don't have photos to show you. our plants are very, very healthy. it is a must for every household member of our house to know this as not to throw any necessary vermi food. and it's a challenge to find a way to lessen your trash that you need to dispose to the garbage truck. you have to see to it that they are not wet and if they are, sawdust and piles of paper are to be layered. the vermi worms die if there's too much moisture if it's too dry. we have a small space at home so my resourceful papa had this blue containers for this stuff. they smell cause it's garbage but we had this solvent from banana by PLANTEX that eliminates the bad odor instantly. to know and learn more, feel free to contact me. your dad, lolo or uncle might be interested and we are giving out free worms for now with free training. so avail while this service lasts.

the blue containers. inside those are hundreds of worms and their poop.

our healthy plants. that huge plant is an aloe vera. we have aloe vera juice for our daily supplements, aloe vera gel shaked and mixed with honey. the wonders of aloe vera are all over the net. very healthy.

• Go organic. we have switched to organic and it was not a difficult decision for us especially when we have found affordable and world-class organic products in the market and you get to help the poor communities that they are helping. Human Heart Nature and Plantex. totally addicting! two thumbs up. from our shampoos to hair gel, toothpaste to laundry powder, facial wash to lipbalm, all natural and super safe. separate blog for product reviews. bath time is never the same, leaving the bathroom scented with lemongrass and mandarin. can't imagine going back to those commercialized and chemical-full beauty and household products.  

our human heart nature stash. with the old packaging.

the new packaging. love, love it!

plantex stash. love how it easily eliminates bad odors.

• EARTH HOUR 2010: Switch off your lights. Be one with the rest of the world, as we turn off our lights on March 27, 2010, Saturday, 8:30 PM to show support for the movement of saving our environment. spread the word to your friends, families and neighbors. repost on your facebook and twitter.

that's all folks. hope you did get to learn a thing or two. share your green ways too. :)

grateful.

first entry for this month. yeeey!

after weeks of endless project deadlines, exams, and graduation requirements to accomplish, college is officially over, or just a few days more. wootwoot! graduation day will be this saturday. i am overwhelmingly grateful to everyone who has been part of my long, long journey in college and everything that God sends my way especially when i needed strength, hope and inspiration the most. excited and happy to start a new chapter of my life. i'm claiming that this is gonna be a BIG year for me and my God. will be blogging more in the next few days, but need to crash, pronto, tonight. early graduation practice tomorrow. just had some pizza and drinks with the wonderful people from my "tambayan" office in school and will surely miss them. aaaaawwww. would like to end this post with a very happy picture of me. vain much? nah. just want to share how amazingly happy and grateful i am that God has been faithful, always is, and has kept His promise to those who takes care of His people.

happy, blessed, inspired, loved. 

cheers to more blissful times ahead.