Emilio Aguinaldo Museum @Baguio City

It was Philippine Independence Day when we went to Baguio and that was a holiday. But it was funny that we didn't have anything included in our itinerary to commemorate the day. It so happen that the night of our arrival, when we were all ready to sleep, two of our comrades saw the news about the old Philippine Flag found in Emilio Aguinaldo Museum in Baguio. That was a very interesting info to know, so we decided to grab the opportunity to visit the museum - only to see the flag. But it took us long there. :D

Our driver had a hard time looking for the museum cause he hasn't been there himself . But after 10 minutes of seeking for the right way and place, we found the sign imprinted with the name Emilio Aguinaldo.

There was a front door but they directed us to the first floor for the entrance and start of the history tour. Old pictures are everywhere.

This is the area where we signed up for the entrance. And all those pictures hanged are Emilio Aguinaldo himself with his friends, wife and comrades. It was obviously old pictures considering the black and white prints.

Written in this newspaper is the declaration of the Philippine Independence Day in 1898.

Picture of Filipinos dressed in suits.

We actually didn't know that we're going to a sort of History Tour cause we just came for the flag. There were other people waiting as well, so we thought they might be letting people to come in to just solely see the flag. But it turned out to be a very proper tour for us, felt like we need to pay for it, and it was free because it was Holiday. In normal days, people need to pay 95 pesos up.

And a plus of that is, a special person even toured us around, I'll tell his name later. He is our tour guide that day, he was talking about the old picture of Filipinos gathered during the declaration of Philippine Independence Day. That picture was damn old,  those  dresses worn that time is now inexistent, or can be probably seen in Museums. They have clothes of Aguinaldo kept in this museum as well. He said something about this picture that Philippines where the first to build its own Republic than China and that even Sun Yat Yen (the father of the Republic of China, dunno if I spelled it right) took the idea of building a Republic from the Filipinos, the Chinese leader even read the works of Rizal and somewhat related to Aguinaldo's lineage because  of intermarried.

Picture above are the collection of Aguinaldo's family pictures, from his children, wife and son-in-laws. It was said that the museum was owned by Aguinaldo's daughter Christina.

Our tour guide told us that we are going to have some sort of 'time travel'. We went inside (which looks like a tunnel) and our first stop was Magellan discovering the Philippines. He gave a brief overview of Magellan's expedition and how he was defeated by Lapu-lapu. He even told us to call Lapu-lapu as Calipulapu. Well, it was pretty interesting to me since I've been fond of History before, it's like reminiscing everything that has been buried in my head for so long.

In a moment I felt like I was one of those elementary students at tour, I can't help but be in front listening. Hahaha

These mini figures portray Aguinaldo's oath as the first president of the Republic of the Philippines. But it was said that he wasn't even there during the election and was just forced to take the presidency by the people around him. This was also the day his brother died in the battle field.

A nice mural painting of the battle of Filipinos against Spain where they won. He said that we Filipinos were witty when it comes to battle.

Spanish swords given during their defeat.

This is the music piece of the Philippine National Anthem, they were only notes then no lyrics as it was composed to be a march music for soldiers before.

The weaving of the Philippine flag was done in Hongkong by Marcela Agoncillo, it was said that a niece of Rizal helped in weaving it.

We also passed through the declaration of Philippine Independence presented in miniatures, the mock battle at Manila Bay posed by Americans and Spanish, that also started American's benevolent assimilation.

So there were a series of battles and figures we passed through, including the picture above, which is the battle at Tirad Pass headed by Gen. Gregorio del Pilar. But obviously, he died, since they were outnumbered by Americans who has snipers. But the battle was considered remarkable since it served its purpose of delaying Americans from chasing Aguinaldo's troups.

Beside is the flag used by del Pilar.

This is the one of the most interesting thing we saw in the museum, the 'Battle Flag'. Blood stains and gun powders are still evident on the flag (which means they didn’t wash it?LOL). Seriously, that indicates  how authentic this flag is. It is even longer than what we saw since they folded it. there weren't printers that time so the sun moon and stars where just drawn. Trivia: this flag wasn't really in our possession until it was given to Aguinaldo on the Philippine Independence Day in 1957.

From the battle flag, we went to the real flag itself. Well picture above is just a random shot, but just facing-down that artificial sun is the first ever Philippine flag of the Philippines.

Well, this is the nicest close up look taken, not me, but one of my travel buddy. The tears are really not visible but they really just put this flag altogether for it to be viewed by many Filipinos. By looking closer at it in person, you'll see the sewing designs made by Marcela Agoncillo. Trivia: we're lucky that we still have our first Philippine flag, United States lost theirs when it was burned to ashes.

The tour took us an hour to finish. The one that we are looking for was even at the end of the tour. But it was all worth it revisiting the past. Thanks to them we are experiencing the freedom that is now a right of every Filipinos. 

But it wasn't just the flag that made the museum interesting for me, meeting the tour guide who is the grandson of Emilio Aguinaldo felt like meeting him in person. It was the greatest Philippine Independence Day I've ever had. 

Kukai Ichiban

Last February, I heard about a Japanese restaurant here.  My boardmate and I have agreed to go there and treat ourselves on Valentine's day but that never happened. Sometimes it never happen as planned. Might as well not plan everything right? and go right then and there! Planning makes me overthink things and I end up changing my mind. But since some people I knew from the office are going to this restaurant I'm talking about, I decided to join in. That made it easier for me than going alone myself. :D

Call me ignorant, yet honestly this is officially my first time to eat with chopsticks in a restaurant. I tried using  it before but in our house. It is so fulfilling for me to finally make it happen since I've been wanting to go to an Asian restaurant. :D You'll probably understand this kind of feeling if you are a fan of any Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese Series. You won't just be liking what you see on TV but you feel like embracing their culture as well. :D I call it bliss everytime I have a taste of their culture. And there's only a few people who can relate to me when it comes to that kind of feeling.

So the sole purpose of going to that restaurant is to try Japanese cuisine, we ordered this big bowl of soup (forgot what it's called hehehe) and we cooked all meat and ingredients. We were given a small cooking stove to do this.  I can't say that we had a great soup or what, but it would definitely taste good for first timers.  

These are the meat and ingredients of the soup placed on a very nice plate. Using that long chopsticks is a lot easier than the ones we had. One of our companion almost lost the appetite of eating because she can't have a good hold of her chopsticks, but she was able to survive though.

Aside from the big bowl of soup, I had my own individual order. I ordered this Yakiudon to which my taste buds still need to get used to the unique taste of the noodle. It wasn't actually that delish, I just need to eat the whole lot cause I paid 250 pesos for it (huh). It has small green powdered leaves on it, which probably what made it a bit strange in taste. I don't know how to describe it but I won't order it again when I go back to that resto.

 I took a picture of one of my friend's order, hers is more delish that mine. The noodles are thinner and easier to digest, it doesn’t have the after taste like the one I had.

Their menu is full of noodles (as expected for Japanese) but I forgot to take a photo of their menu. :(. If you are in Nueva Ecija and somewhere in Munoz, try eating in this resto it's where most of the people go to. It is located at the back of Japan Home Center along the highway going to San Jose. 

The people that I went with. :D

Baguio City

I've got a lot of things to share having just visited Baguio City recently. We had a full-packed one day schedule in a rainy season. Yes, it was raining when we went there but that didn't stop us from going.

Baguio City is my first planned travel here in Luzon so it's very significant for me. Who wouldn't go to the City of Pines when it's just three hours away.  Yes, that's near and I can't miss that opportunity.

Of course, I didn't just plan this myself. In fact I probably just made minimum contribution since one of our buddy made all the arrangements. That was a big relief! He made everything fun and convenient for us. We are so glad we had him to travel. We almost visited all the places except for those that can't operate during rainy season. I planned our lunch to a Korean Restaurant (which is a fulfillment for me). We also went to eat at 50's Diner that serves huge burgers. I've got a lot of photos to share soon and highlight posts of my visit to places in Baguio. I'm definitely going back there again. :D

Reminder!!!

One reminder for me: Surround yourself with positive people, and you'll see what change they can bring.

I've been really negative and has been surrounded by negative people  - and the result, I felt like I'm crippled who can't do something I want. So in the end I was really frustrated, I could've done this, that and those if I was just positive enough to push it through and not easily influenced by thoughts of people around. All I wanted was just a person who could say "Yeah, you can do it" and everything might have been realized. Yet no one made me feel that. Anyway, I've learned a lot from it. Reflection from all those experiences is just the great way to improve myself somehow. :D  And I don't regret I felt that way.

Hear Me (2009)

Just a deviation from my usual posts.. I guess I should try posting something here from my other blog. :D
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First and foremost, I think everyone especially deaf advocates will love this movie cause it makes normal people understand how and what they feel. Though there are lots of dead air because they don't talk, you will appreciate all the sign language and facial expressions of the actors. I am personally intrigue with deaf people before since I happen to have a cousin which we don't usually see and have a conversation with. Until one day, at our family reunion, I realized that she must have sometimes felt left out because our cousins seldom approach her. I tried to approach her since then and start to converse using our cellphones. And then I went to volunteer and right at our debrief met deaf volunteers who were very enthusiastic and hopeful people. All of them were just really optimistic. I felt like they have overpowered my timidity that I realized why can't I be confident like them. And that was start of it - they've become my inspiration to draw my own confidence from, they've inspired me even more to be myself and to do what I love doing. When I went home after my placement, I tried to visit my cousin again. This time I already know how to do a few  sign language. I've even discovered that she is more avid to korean series than me. :D

Hear Me

Taiwanese Movie

Cast: Yuan Yang, Jackie Chen

Director: Cheng Fen Fen

Genre: Romance, comedy, drama

Rating: 8/10

Quick Review:

Yang-yang (Ivy Chen) has been very supportive of her older sister Xiao Peng (Yanxi Chen) . She considers her sister's dream as hers that she lets her sister train hard for the deaflympics while she works her butt-off to cover their expenses. Then Tian Kuo (Eddie Pend), a meal delivery guy , comes into the picture, who breaks their silent life as sisters. Yang-yang must learn to know her dreams and give her self a priority as her sister demands for it.

Movie Highlights:

Now I'm a fan of Yuan Yang, he's just so good with facial expression that I can't help but laugh - if some of you watched any of his movie you might really appreciate his acting. Keep track as he uses sign language it's hilarious! And also, how's being a tree in front of Yang-yang's house with that 'tree' phrase that he come out with?

And definitely the good-all twist towards the end. I don't want you to guess or pre-empt anything so I won’t be telling it. :D

Remarks:

Here's a quote from the movie itself: "Love and dreams are miraculous. They don’t need to be heard, to be said, or translated "

My First Run

Running was never my thing, but suddenly I realized I needed to expand my horizon at certain point or be boxed-in my own shell. So there's this "Run for Women's Education" event that was announced at the office intended for the 'Women's Month Celebration', which I didn’t think twice of registering regardless of whether I'll have company or not. But I did have people I knew who came which is a relief hahahahaha since I realized that running with friends is much fun.

We were first given this kit two days before the event, inclusive of the shirt, number and registration form. And that's my running number and I will run for 3 kilometers which they say is not that far.

We arrived an hour early. I didn't have much sleep since we need to depart at 1am..argh,, Well, 10K need to start at 5:30, 5K- 5:45 and 3K-6am.

This is how dark it was when we arrived - but city lights brighten it up.

There were lots of yellow people all over the place… hahahahaha.. And that is the Quirino grandstand on the background. This is actually a very spacious place, such a miss that I wasn't able to take a picture of the whole ground. :(

Race is already done around this time, and people are now going back to their vehicles. I don't think people are so competitive cause most of them during the race tend to be left behind. Well, most of the people we're with were oldies though  coming from different government agencies. Hahahahahahaha.

It was a very nice blue sky, and good that it didn’t rain.

Got our certificate along with the blue cap after running 3K. Yey!

We haven't caught ourselves running, so we just did a mock up picture. And this guy suggested if we could do a picture of ourselves running hahahahaha. We haven't even  done it right,  see, we are running towards the starting line.hahahahahhaha. Whatta staged photo :D I took this photo which is quite nice, but mine looks like……

….. This, I was such a lazy girl running with full smile…

Photo with the rest of the people, but I don't think these three people would want to show their faces. Haven’t had their consent. Hehehehehe

Another picture with a friend of mine with the certificate :)

The person who organized our travel all the way from Nueva Ecija- is the person on the left. He ran for 5K and was the 4th person to finish, he almost got into the top 3. But the third place though came from us, they were together with this guy on the left, he was just steps behind.

And finally, our group picture with the third prize winner. :)

PCC: Milka Krem

I plan to go to this place for sometime, but they say it's good not to plan or else it won’t push through. And I guess for now, I'll take credit for that. My boardmate just picked me up from my office to go to church, and we just decided to go to Milka Krem right after seeing her friend at church who's working at Philippine Carabao Center. I've always wanted to buy their chocomilk and get a discount, which we can have since along with us is an employee of PCC. A perfect timing isn’t it?

Well, Milka Krem is like the business center of PCC, where all the dairy produce are sold. They got plenty of dairy products to choose from, from carabao's milk (with different flavors) to pastries. It is also one way of promoting the nutrient factor of carabao's milk which they say is more nutritious than cow's milk.

So this is their logo which speaks for itself, I even took a picture of the description of each color but it was really blur. Let me just explain it, Purple stands for high standard quality, white for purity, and gold for the wealth of good health.

Glad I managed to take a clear picture of the logo's explanation. :)

So this is it from the outside, but don't mind those tricycles :)

This is just the café' part where all products are also displayed. But the building extends further to the right side where all the machineries are transparent from the outside - they got huge machines. :)

Interior-wise, it looked like fast food chains -like McDo and Jollibee. And they got this artistic picture inside. :)

Chairs and tables- aren't they nice? This is the newly done extension, it's easy to take pictures cause people are not around. :)

 

A slight glimpse of their milk products - different colors in different flavors. But I still like the chocomilk, nothing can beat it. :) I wanted to take some pictures of their pastries but employees gather there, I don't want them to glare at me. :)

They have this collection of carabao figures inside maybe to make people  know it's carabao's milk? Hahahahaha.  But I bet it's mainly for accent and design. :)

This figure is what I liked most. :) Experienced riding that bamboo-carriage, which is the bumpiest ride I had. I tried riding on carabao's back too, and I tell you it pays to hold tight on its horn or else you'll slide off everytime it swings from left to right. :)

I did get the choco milk I wanted. And it's free. I'm suppose to pay for it but Kuya Jeff, paid for all.

Had this vanilla ice cream too, it is so sticky/creamy like the dairy queen. It didn't melt easily in my mouth plus yum, yum, yum!!!

How's that pose from a friend of mine?

This is the nearest I could get from the camera cause I'm not much of a selfie person. :)

And our group picture.. :)

Got this one great pose for the finale. :)

My Hangul Class

Who have thought that working here will fulfill one of the items on my life's checklist- going to Korean Class.

Working back in Manila, I remember myself going to Korean Cultural Center to see the possibility of enrolling to their Hangul lessons. But it didn't happen, my work shift never permitted me to. But the thought never faded, and it so happen when I'm already here they are doing it for free (I was like, OMG!!! I could've paid a thousand when I was in Manila and here its for free) I was in a totally EXCITED MODE(my mind was repeatedly saying, "YOU SHOULD ATTEND!"). A week after that I found myself asking a Korean Intern "Is this the Korean Class?" I was so early that time.

Our class picture (not all were present though). From left to right: Cathy, Juvy, Kuya, DJ, Heather (Hyekyung), Me, Woody, Daisy (Suhee), Joko

Then my Wednesdays end at 7pm, (I don't intend to OT for work on this very day). And I go home pronouncing the words I learned to my boardmates. Hahaha. They think I'm weird sometimes but it doesn't matter, I love doing it.

I asked, "How do you pose in Korean?" and they taught us this.  Korean pose, everyone..!

But, apparently, the class started November last year and I have just attended their January classes. I am way to late, right?? But those Korean Interns understood that, so after our last class, they emailed us with the previous lessons to study on.

 I had so much fun learning and meeting new people!! :D