the perils of

      This week was wonderful partly because it was punctuated with two holidays. You know how, when you're driving in the middle of a crazy downpour and the rain is just so noisy on the roof of your car that you can barely hear yourself think, when you go into a tunnel everything just becomes so suddenly still and quiet? And when you drive out the end of the tunnel, the rain comes crashing down again on your roof. Those two days were like being in the tunnel: sudden, temporary, silence.       And thank God that there isn't an exam to study for on Monday, because now I can spend my weekend gathering my bearings instead of scrambling to memorize names of enzymes and co-enzymes.        Not that the workload this week has been particularly hectic. I mean it is, of course, but it's also very fun. On Friday, we had small group discussions (SGD) about the case of a young 12-year-old male named JVC. When the case came out on ...

Oh no. Looks like I'm beginning to fall short on my promise to update regularly. I am regressing into a state of blogging coma. But as much as I'd like to return to the regularity of my blogging back in first year, I guess that I've realized since then that there actually are far more important things on this earth than my blog. Like thesis. Or a social life. Or white chocolate macadamia cookies. Mmm. Anyway, I'll make this quick since it's 12 AM now and I have made an appointment with Rap to go jogging at 6. Ugh. Last Friday was ARSAfest (AKA Sinulog in Ateneo)! A much-needed break from all the work we had to do that week. And yes, that is water I'm holding. Leo vlogged about the party  here . Last Saturday after our Physio exams, Anton, Rap, and I drove to the Yuchengco Museum in Makati to pick up some photos from Jacob Maentz , a photographer dedicated to documenting the lives of indigenous peoples in the Philippines. He's a really nice p...

I had to put my blogging spree on hold because of today's Physiology exam. The exam covered the respiratory and renal systems. In short, I've spent the past three days holed up in my condo and the past three nights in Matteo Ricci trying to cram all the information I can into my decreasing supply of brain cells. I've been eating a lot of junk food too, which is what I tend to do when I study Physio, and I try to rationalize this by telling myself that I'll burn off all the calories anyway because of all the brainwork I'll be doing. But nope. Three days ago I went to Rustan's to buy myself some study food. After a long debate with myself about the best type of chocolate to purchase (nuts or no nuts? milk or dark?) In the end, the winner proved to be a bar of hazeulnut Lindt. It was pretty big (and, at P98, was kind of expensive) so I thought it would last me a week or two. Who the hell was I trying to kid? I finished it in a day. Mmmm. . . . Monday was m...

(click to play) It was a hot afternoon (a rare occurrence this time of year) when we found ourselves somewhere along Jasmine Street. Sweating in the quaint home of a nice lady named Baby, we waited until the last of our five respondents had left to pack up our things and leave. Our next destination would be some area along Saint Vincent street that Kuya Fernan, a barangay worker who was helping us with our thesis, had picked out himself. The five of us, including Kuya Fernan himself, piled into Rap's car. Rap backed up the car as we prepared to exit onto San Simon. As the tail of the car neared a wall, it let out a series of high-pitched beeps. "Ano yan?" inquired Kuya Fernan. "Wala yan, Kuya," we assured him. "Ah, akala ko yung katulad ng LRT. Na-overload." We laughed. Cheryl added, "Parang nasa elevator lang din." Only half an hour later, we were in a house along Saint Vincent street, scrambling to assist the nice people who had ...

Last night I went to the launching of Manila Noir , an anthology of stories told against the backdrop of (yup you guessed it) a dark and sinister Metro Manila. The book is the result of a collaboration between various Filipino writers, the most easily recognized one probably being the likes of Lourd de Veyra. And it was edited by  the  Jessica Hagedorn. Jessica Hagedorn isn't one of my favorite authors of all time, but when I received word that she would be coming to Ateneo, I just had to be there to have my three-year-old copy of Gangster of Love signed. I had read the book to fulfill a requirement for Lit class under Max Pulan, and I loved it. It was all sorts of twisted and funny, and after reading it I was certain of one thing: Jessica Hagedorn is one weird chick. Anyway, at the end of the talk I was lucky enough to go home with a freshly-autographed old copy of  Gangster as well as a pre-autographed and newly bought Manila Noir. National Bookstore was selling c...

I don't really have anything to write about, but I just feel like I should say something because I don't want my most recent post to be about something that happened more than a month ago. So what's been happening in my life? Well, for starters... Leyte happened. I went on a five-day immersion with a bunch of other Health Sci batchmates. I don't really want to talk about what happened there. And I probably never will post online about it. So, yeah. Sorry. On a lighter note, Rap and I are now two years old. Well, two years and a month, to be exact. We celebrated at A Veneto Pizzeria, an Italian restaurant along Visayas Ave. It's a really fancy name for such a normal-looking store. The food was A+ though. We got some pizza and a sinfully cheesy lasagna, pictured above.  Delizioso! The pictures above were taken on a day where 140 farmers from Casiguran came to Ateneo for a forum or something. The night before, the organizers noticed that a few of...

Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. It's happening again. It's that confusing time of the semester when you're so extremely close to the end but not quite there yet, and you still have the energy to study some more but it's becoming increasingly more difficult to pack any more knowledge into your goddamn summer-soaked brain. What little room in there that you had reserved for thesis statements and formulas and stupid philosophical statements is now slowly filling up with thoughts of seawater, sand castles, and cities that start with the letter B (Batangas, Boracay... Seriously guys, there are other vacation spots out there !). Yes. It's that time of the year. My next (and last) exam is happening on Thursday, which means I have one and a half days to prepare for it.  So now I'm looking at my notes and trying to read them, and I'm telling myself, "It's just a review of what you already know!" But in my mind, no more gears are shifting. No more whee...

I know I haven't been posting as often as I did when I was a freshman. I guess it's because I've actually made some friends now, and am less of a self-absorbed loser. (Yeah, right.) . . . Interesting Thing #1 SPONTANEOUS SHOOTING Last Wednesday, I tagged along with Vito, Diane, Rap, and Andy for an impromptu filming of a top-secret project (you'll know what it is soon). We had to wait until 6 at night to shoot, because we wanted some darkness. I brought my camera so that I could practice using it (I still haven't gotten the hang of it after a year). Here are some pictures (unedited because I'm too lazy). Rap with a Blizzard (and an ice cream sandwich for me). He looks so dangerous. Night classes JSEC at night A little part of Katipunan (taken from the back of Vito's pickup). A behind-the-scenes of the actual filming It was a pretty cool experience, even if the shoot ended a little early. I'm still a really bad phot...