mY jApAn AdVeNtUrE wItH mY fAmILy (07.09.29~10.04)

September 29
first thing i looked for.. does it smell like japan? it does. it is japan. After getting off the bus, we got a taxi and went straight to my mansion. we had dinner at the most expensive Sushi place i've ever eaten.. PhP11,200.00 just to feed 6 people. we all went to the hotel at Shinagawa (40minutes away from my place). and later, my mom, my sister and i went to the mansion to sleep there.

September 30
we woke up and find out we had no heater. so, the three of us went to the hotel to shower. haha :P we had lunch at one of the top floors of the hotel.. and then karaoke! my dad got super drunk that he had to go sleep at 5 in the afternoon. so, my mom, my sister and i went to akihabara to get home supplies but eventually ended up back in shinjuku. my mom left us there.. so it was just me and my sister :P we went to Don Quijote that night with Mr. Ando.

October 01
when we all met up at the hotel, my dad had business at Yokohama and the three of us left for shopping. we went to discount stores, then, dinner was at the hotel again, with my aunt Kimie. since my sister had stuff to attend to, i went home alone. first time i spend alone at the mansion.

October 02
i went to school with Papa to meet up with the sensei who's been helping me. my mom waited for a Tokyo Gas representative to fix the heater. we went to Don Quijote again. When my mom and sister left, I bought my ref and oven range.

October 03
placement day has arrived. they sent me to room 301 and i waited for 1.5 hours. no one came. what happened is they assigned me to the wrong room. haha anyway, the actual exam started after lunch and i was assigned to the wrong room. in the end, i was redirected to the interview section. luckily enough.. he told me i didn't have to take the test! *yey* that night, we all went for yakiniku. that night, i got 7 hugs from papa.

October 04
my family was set to leave for the Philippines today. my classes were in the afternoon so i was able to get to the hotel with 3 hours to spend with my family. we had Nagasaki food - Champon and Sara Udon. :P later that day.. i had my first Japanese-style mcdo haha. oh, at school, i was reassigned to the wrong class again. to the wrong room. again. when the reassigned me, *surprise* the guy who interviewed me was my adviser. small world. :P

mY bIrThDaY tReAt (09.28.07)

after a day of failed attempts.. we still didn't get to leave. so.. on the 28th of september..

i started my day by rebooking our flight. i got home and found marj with backup copies of my surprise videos *thank youuu! i still haven't watched them huhu no pc >.<* later, after a no-go sign from immigration, my dad and i ended up in a ramen house. haha

on the way home.. i texted people for my first real birthday treat in my life. hihi and i found out from queenie that elliot yamin was coming to Alabang Town Center that night. and so.. i crashed at marj's and coerced her to coming with me and set off for ATC. it was the best mini-concert ever. we met with queenie, quina and meggy. myrella came afterwards. we decided to go to California Pizza Kitchen for my birthday treat. and behold.. jomel stops by! and so.. kain kain kain kami. 2 pizzas.. 2 salads.. 1 pasta.. and 2 desserts later.. we're full to bursting. haha

we all went our separate ways. and come midnight, i didnt have a cake left in the fridge so i just took two slices of watermelons and plopped by birthday candles from my 12th birthday celebration. i kept it all these years, and i guess there are some childhood thoughts that really do come true. :)

i want to thank everyone who came. elliot, thank you for singing to me. jomel, thank you for flashing me those brilliant dimples. marj, thank you for staying sane for me for the past 3 months. queenie, thank you for keeping my faith alive. xanne and nhai, thank you for giving me the chance to experience the positive in my life before i left and sharing that experience with both of you- dancing. my, thank you for being very supportive and being so preppy that having you around is always a joy. and, thank you quina and meggy for just being there on my special day. :)

mY bIrThDaY dEsPeDiDa tAkE 5 (09.26.07)

my fifth despedida started with a mistaken one. haha :P

monday.
on the ride home the office called. ate shie told me to go straight to the steak house near our house. i had the driver so we went to the office first to pickup the accounting staff and proceeded to the restaurant. when we got there, we weren't sure why. we really did just go there to eat. here, i was thinking, pretty simple despedida huh.

wednesday.
i told my dad that id be going to the office around lunch time. he said that i better eat first before i go to the office for lunch. and on the way to the office, i even joked with our driver that "sayang kuya, mukhang walang pakain si papa sa office no?". he said, "meron yan, may pancit na nga't kung anu-anong hinanda sa office." so, when i entered, i expected food on the table but there wasn't any. bummer.

the surprise kicked in when my dad was apparently not in his office, skipping lunch as always. he was in the company restaurant. and i was really touched that we had max's for lunch :) and so, i was really happy about the birthday/despedida because i got to eat kare-kare and i had two cakes haha. *labo*

it kept me thinking how lucky i am to have so many people care about me, leaving. and i was really really touched that God blessed me with remarkable people in my life - people who've known me while i was growing up and people whoi hope will be there when i get back. *sighs*

mY bIrThDaY dEsPeDiDa tAkE 4 (09.25.07)

this is the birthday despedida i never expected to get.

it started out with me, paying for a P500.00 loan i had with ate juday. i went to mama's office to pay off the loan. both my mom and ate juday were at our house so i was interviewed by their officemates about going away. so we ended up joking about me - giving them a blow out celebration as a parting experience with them. ever the vigilant and penniless, i said i had no real budget to speak of for blowouts since i spent my money on the last three birthday despedida's i had. they jokingly told me that despedida's should be given by the friends and not by the person who's going away. they asked me what food i'll miss when i leave, the kind where the only available place i can find it is in the Philippines. i told them, i loved the ice cream from Starmall - the TsokoPinipig flavor ice cream being sold there and i left their office with a skeptic feeling that they wouldn't actually go through with it.

behold, 4pm came and i have evidence that i can be very stupid sometimes.

waiting for me was a bilao of the third most delicious pancit i've had (the most delicious pancit is sold in North Park. ang sarap talaga nun T-T and the second most delicious pancit is the one made at our house.), a coffee-crunch roll cake from Goldilocks (awww! pangatlong birthday cake ko na to!), and my most favorite ice cream in the world - Tsoko Pinipig ice cream. no diet to the people here.

mY bIrThDaY dEsPeDiDa tAkE 3 (09.20.07)

the first person who gave me a networked social life is miss treena paula bauca . i enjoyed spending my time outside during high school because of her. i also met a lot of people from IRC and terence raymundo (a.k.a. troy) is one of those people. and because of troy, i also got to know mao. anyway, treena and i would always hang out at her home and we'd play billiards or i'd watch her play ragnarok. she was also the first person who took me skating :) a lot of things happened since high school. the last time i saw treena was 3 years ago. the last time i saw troy and mao was 2 years ago. and as i look back, they were really important people in the formation of who i am today. so as i leave, i took part in troy's effort to reconnect us all again. :)

here we are, thursday night at the SM Mall of Asia Ice Skating Rink. we were supposed to meet up at 6PM. treena arrived *drum roll please!* at 7.30PM haha (pero seryosong ok lang sa amin talaga yun ^-^ we like waiting for you.) she was the only person (kuno troy, kuno) who could skate. turns out nanay mao learned really *as in really* fast. troy could *apparently* skate backwards. and treena could skated well *enough to be able to drag me across the skating rink* haha :)

treena was also injured because of the skates, plus, we had to leave the rink by 8.30PM since there was a competition rehearsal afterwards. so, we decided early on to have dinner. we ended up eating at Toscano's because treena wanted to eat chicken (andami naming nadaanang resto kasi chicken gusto ni treena, tas wala rin naman ding nag-order ng chicken sa amin sa toscano! :P) when 9:55 came, troy finally took us home in his Innova. i keep seeing that car, and i finally got to ride in one! *clap* *clap*

thank you sa inyong tatlo. you took my blues away, kahit sandali lang :) >:D<

mY bIrThDaY dEsPeDiDa tAkE 2 (09.15-16.07)

the burgundy girls are considerably the people who know me best right now. they've seen my worse and my best days for the last 4.5 years of my life. and im so very thankful that they took the time to celebrate my birthday and my despedida at our house last saturday. so drama ha. pero sa totoo lang, tatlo lang kami! :P

it started off with supposedly meeting first at Greenbelt for Marjorie's derma. everyone was supposed to rendezvous there except queenie. sadly, marjorie was the only one arriving from the north. bes and my had an EcoSoc party to attend. Abby was being nerdy and was being traumatized by her thesis. Joanini was stuck in law school and said she'd try to still go on Sunday. Eswhy was still the restaurant all-around-girl a.k.a. slave that day. so, it was just me.. marjorie.. and queenie. :)

all is not lost. we still had a lot of fun. we ate the take-out i brought home from our restaurant (the fish is for you marj! :P yung tempura kay queenie :)). and marjorie was taking so many pictures of racquel and i that we were (kinda) immune to it. :P great pictures as always marjorie! the food setting is amazing (napa-wow pa ate mo! :P). aside from the japanese take-out.. *tada* the second most delicious cheesecake in the world! ton's homemade cheesecake!

we talked ourself to sleepiness until the wee hours of 4am.

we woke up at 10. i called joanna to see if she's still coming. tulog pa. tawa na lang kaming tatlo :) we had breakfast, and devoured lansones, watermelon and queenie's peaches *we love peaches!* in the end, i was really happy that joanna and myrella still came. sobrang sarap nilang lahat kausap. :) i sat there, silently taking 200+ pictures of them. it was such a joy to be a part of their company. walang kapalit na happiness ang may mga kaibigang tulad nila. :)

p.s. thank you marjorie for the wonderful picture frame :) and the wonderful green pendant/charm :)

mY bIrThDaY dEsPeDiDa tAkE 1 (09.08-09.07)

this saturday, mcube planned a nursing-board-passers party (congrats iwi and nhai! *hugs* *hugs*) and im-not-sure-if-this-includes-my-despedida despedida party.

Theme: United Nations.
Meeting Time was 4.30PM *yeah right haha*
Venue: This should have been at queenie's house in alabang, but tita matet had guests over so it was jampacked there (this turned out na gusto lang pala talaga nila sa bahay ko mag-celebrate :P).

so nakaligo na ko't galing pang QC from evert's (3-round lunch that lasted two hours.. thank you, girlfriend! awww! no pictures pala tayo huhu T-T) at wala pa sila. haha they arrived just before 6PM. haha and they were all wearing green for me. as for me, the UN theme was a hoax (but pinanindigan ko na yung Vietnam look ko. haha). They sang me a happy birthday and I had a cake and candle. i was really touched *awwwww* (akala ko wala na talaga akong cake! thank you! *tear* :P)

we went upstairs and settled down. since everyone was already hungry.. we ate at our restaurant, which was 5 minutes away. no pictures for that though. nobody remembered to bring a cam. haha

when we got back.. the pictures say it all. dami :P