And There Goes My Last SemBreak

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As some of you may know, I went to France last year to study in ESC Rennes for exchange and I spent my whole Sembreak there in Italy and a few days in Paris. That thought really got me thinking how this Sembreak can top that. To be honest, I am not sure if it did, but I can say that I really enjoyed my last Sembreak in Ateneo.

I went to Singapore as early as the first Sunday of the break and stayed there for 5 days. Attended my cousin’s wedding the day after I arrived. Although enlistment was really crazy and got me panicking the whole time, I still got the schedule I wanted. I had a fun Fontana getaway with some CTM’13 JTAers (with the non-singles, significant others). Attended this AlumniFrance Home Coming for all who have studied in France where I felt out of place. Haha! Was able to be mighty productive for Blue Christmas 2012. Was able to watch “A Secret Affair”. Was able to read a lot.

I can pretty much say that this SemBreak didn’t go wasted. I made sure I’m always preoccupied with something while having loads of rest as well. You might be wondering how I made the most of my last SemBreak day and, well, it’s kinda funny.

You see, ever since the trailer of “Suddenly It’s Magic”, I told myself I will watch it no matter what. And that’s what I pretty much did today! I told my mom to bring me to Shang so I can do some supplies shopping as well. So I bought a ticket (yes, I watch movies by myself) and bought notebooks then went to Figaro to chill.

It was fun just sipping a cup of cappuccino while letting time pass because there was also wifi so I was able to message my brother.
The movie was really light and enjoyable. I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen! I found the chemistry of Mario Maurer and Erich Gonzales quite cute. The crowd wasn’t dull as well! And this was the only instance that I didn’t get annoyed of people talking because they kept on making remarks like “ang ganda ni Erich kahit tulog!” (Erich looks beautiful even when she’s asleep!). The Thai actors and actresses english weren’t as bad as people told me, too! They were good! And it was cute that Baifern Pimchanok aka “P’nam” in “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” was there! Totally didn’t expect it!
Mom fetched me then as I arrived home I quickly wrote on my ‘sticker-ed’ planner. Because I the stickers from the Esplanade were really cute and so fitting, I decided to stick them on my planner!

And I decided to write on my notebook/s as well this! Haha!

So yeah, suffice to say I’m pretty excited for tomorrow! Hoping my classmates will be fun and I hope to make a lot of new friends this week! I’m also hoping all the best for Blue Christmas! The next coming weeks will be busy as hell but things will really go fine, I bet! 🙂

PS.
The quality of the photos is such because my brother gave me his iTouch and yeah, I’ve been depending on it for taking photos lately. Not the most stellar quality but it’s convenient!

And There Goes My Last SemBreak

Hope This Won’t Be Goodbye

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Last day…I woke up early and left my brother’s flat before he did. I went to Toast Box to have breakfast and to read “What The Dog Saw” by Malcolm Gladwell and I brought along my brother’s book to help me decide what to do for my last day. I had a, what I would call “self-date”. It was calming and it felt nice to just feel good about myself being alone and simply just chilling.

I walked around and found my way going to the Fountain of Wealth. I made a wish of course and that is for me to keep…Really hoping that will come true! I swear, the infrastructure of Singapore is something that amazes me. I love the concept of the 5 buildings around it to be like 5 fingers and the center is the palm which is the fountain. Amazing!

I walked by the Esplanade where I amused myself with collecting ribbons each containing one “key value”. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get one for each of the 17 values. It was fun though! I looked like a mad kid trying to get all of the ribbons even when it was raining.

My brother and I met for lunch at a Kopitiam somewhere. I don’t know why but I really enjoy eating any food Singapore tosses at me. I got some noodle with a lot of good stuff in it. I was even able to sort of talk to someone who is deaf. So that’s a +!

I was off to be alone and I went to Orchard, I don’t know why exactly…but I went inside the Ngee Ann City to look for Kinokuniya. Sadly I wasn’t able to purchase a book because I couldn’t make up my mind which book is nice and will be helpful in life. Add to that I’m nowhere near halfway through “What The Dog Saw”. When I explored the place more, to my surprise. I saw Paul!!

I bought macarons and ate them right away. They still tasted as heavenly as they did in France! I bought a croissant for my brother before I left. I decided to go back to the empty ramp place hoping there would be people this time, and luckily, there were people skateboarding, spray painting and “scooter-ing”. My favorite one is the kick scooter kid because he’s friendly and he even asked me to take pictures of him and send to him…but he forgot to tell me his e-mail address before he just left. It was still fun shooting people because I really like taking pictures of inanimate objects and animals. It was different and quite refreshing! Add to that, the kid has some serious skill!

I met up with my brother for dinner after that. We had cereal prawns and it tasted really good! I think the prawns tasted better if you eat the shell, but my brother likes it without the shell. To each his own, I guess. We went back to my brother’s flat and we fixed our bags. We rested until around 10-ish then went to Changi. Our flight was at 2:20 AM so we just had so much time to kill.
At one point we got hungry so I we stayed in McDonald’s and I tried the samurai burger which tasted so good. Reminds me of the rice burgers we had here before!
+ side: it had much sauce so the burger was really full of flavor. – side: it was messy. Haha! Would love to have that burger here in the Philippines though!
More boredom so I decided to venture around and I saw this computer terminal place and what made it fun was the large touchscreen monitors that had multi touch functions. It’s like a gigantic iPad! It’s really safe to say that Changi is one of the best airports in the world. You can probably lock me in there and I wouldn’t even mind! Haha!

We went to the boarding gate at some point and just relaxed inside the airplane. Wanted to have a comfortable sleep but at one point a baby just started crying and he/she just woke up everyone! Haha! We arrived so late back in the Philippines, we were supposed to arrive at 5:45 AM but we ended up landing at 6:30 AM. What’s up with that? Haha! It was fun though!
I’m really looking forward to my next flight to Singapore! 🙂

Hope This Won’t Be Goodbye

The Unluckiest Day?

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I decided to do some suiting up because I wanted to pass by the National University of Singapore to inquire on their postgraduate studies program. I met up with my brother though for lunch because I was to meet my friend for dinner so instead of our daily dinner, we had lunch. I arrived a bit earlier than expected so I went around and saw ramps and other skating stuff. Sad though that it was empty. I went inside the mall and after a couple of minutes found my brother. We ate in The HandBurger. They serve really really good burgers. I can’t remember the name of the burger I got but it tasted amazing.
I also loved how quick their service is! Not much time that my brother and I got to spend taking pictures though!

Wish I wasn’t blurry. But it’s fine, i still look a bit snazzy, right? Haha! We had much time to spare so we went to Orchard and brother wanted to have a picture in front of H&M because he barely has pictures…so, fine, here’s your GPOY. Haha!

My brother went back to work and I was on my own. I decided to go to NUS but my stay wasn’t so pleasant just because I got lost, my phone died and my camera ran out of battery, so I’m sorry I don’t have pictures. Add to that, I wasn’t even able to reach the building I was supposed to go to. Oh well, next time.
I fixed myself then met up with my brother for a late afternoon snack then I met up with my friend, Kyo.

We just did some catching up. It felt good to do some actual catching up. It went on for around a couple of hours then he had to go because he’s tired and he still has some internship/work thing the following morning.
So yeah, in all, it wasn’t so much of an eventful day but I guess it was still fun, nonetheless.

The Unluckiest Day?

My Chinese Roots

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First year in college, several people weren’t able to guess (ever!!) that I’m from Ateneo High School. People would say I’m from La Salle Green Hills, St. Jude, and one time from Xavier School. I didn’t give off an Ateneo High School vibe (which I am not sure if it’s a good thing or not). Funny thing is when people think I’m from St. Jude. Apparently I look so Chinese! Haha! To be fair, my middle name is Lim. Both my great grandfathers (mother’s side) are pure Chinese after all. So for my third day in Singapore, I decided to connect to my Chinese roots. Haha!

I went to ION and ate lemon chicken for brunch then off I went to the Chinese Garden!

When I arrived there after around 30 minutes or probably more, I was surprised to see just a patch of grass. There was a path however so I just followed it and finally reached the Chinese Garden! This bridge was the “link” between the non Chinese Garden territory and the actual garden.
There were statues of guardians I think or some prominent people in history. My most favorite one, obviously, would have to be Mulan. Yes friends, Mulan really existed.
There were several pagodas and towers. I didn’t climb up to any though because there were just too much to cover and I planned to do an examen.

On my way to the bonsai garden I think, I encountered such lovely Asian architecture, and you know, I love love love Asian architecture for many obvious reasons. They just look so elegant!!
I also saw these people creating a wu shu video. It was nice really being able to see another form of wu shu since back in first year we were only able to use the stick.

I did an examen in one of those pagoda things up up up. It felt nice “meditating” but more than that, really just thanking for all the blessings and just feeling so much love and calmness.
I headed to City Link Mall for some afternoon snack. Kopi and Kaya toast will forever make me happy.

Met up with my brother and we headed to Clarke Quay.

And yes, being reflective on life after college. HA HA.
We had dinner with my brother’s friends at Lau Pa Sat (yes, again. but hey, really really good food!).
They both looked so cute together!!

We parted ways with my brother’s friend and after such a tiring day, we went back to the flat and I got to rest. That was day three.

My Chinese Roots

Experiencing Some Diversity

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What characterizes a true, 100% Singaporean? Do you have to be Chinese? Indian? Malay? Hmm…probably not. Chicken Rice? Satay? Kopi? Teh? Hmm…maybe not as well. Catholic? Hindu? Well, Singapore is very much diverse really, I bet you guys already knew that!
For my second day I spent time in Little India and Chinatown and a bit of the Botanic Gardens (where I just mainly stayed by the swans, ducks and other cute feathery cuties).

I started the day in Kopitiam. It took me forever to find it because my brother’s instructions weren’t so exact…or maybe I really just got lost. HAHAHA. OPS. There is always something with how they make their kopi so perfect such that I don’t have to add sugar anymore or cream or anything.

I took the Circle Line then transferred to the Red line to get to Little India! It was really so hot that time! But the moment I stepped out, I was greeted with really colorful decors! Apparently there was some Deepavali event. So, Happy Deepavali! Haha!

What can I say about Little India? It was different from the city center, obviously! I like how lively Indian music was playing in every corner and by that I mean EVERY CORNER. How I wish I was really hungry so I could’ve tasted their food but I was so full from my breakfast. People weren’t exactly friendly, but there were several who would smile. So that’s a +.

I got lost though at one point (yes, getting lost will be recurring theme in my whole trip). I strayed too far and I couldn’t find any MRT signs anywhere. And it was getting too hot already. At one point I wished a fountain would just appear and mist me with water…but something better showed up. A SIGN TO A MALL! (to think I told myself I will not step foot inside a mall in this trip because I didn’t want to be a tourist but it’s really inevitable).

After chilling inside the new mall I went out and asked for directions to go the MRT and off I went to Chinatown! A lot of lanterns were up and, as expected, many stalls were there selling all different types of stuff. I really loved it there. No music around the area but everything just seemed so appealing (this shows how much I like all things Chinese, I guess?)
I was able to enter several temples and I stopped in a certain one to experience what it’s like to “pray” and I even offered some “gifts”. The feeling was quite surreal actually. In a way, I felt refreshed after leaving the temple.

After going around, I went to the Botanic Gardens where I pretty much just stayed taking pictures of ducks and swans. My favorite is Natalie Portman the black swans!
Such a fierce creature!!!
I met with my brother to eat dinner in a hawker center by the Esplanade but we decided to go to a more famous one which is by Raffles. It has such a cute name, “Lau Pa Sat”!
We got there pretty early so it wasn’t very crowded yet.

Brother ordered 20++ sticks of satay and I bought some chicken rice thing. We both felt so bloated after! Haha!

We went back home and I got bad news on CTK..we had to come up with more proposals, meaning my entire stay in Singapore, I had acads to ruin my life. HAHA. and that’s it for day two!

Experiencing Some Diversity