My Life in a Nutshell

Philippines Trip: August 15th, 2012

Weird how flying over the International Date Line screws with your schedule!  We leave the US on the 13th, fly 13 hours, then land 2 days later! 10:10AM on August 15th to be exact.. still can’t get over it!

Once we landed, it was all coming back to me now: I literally am halfway across the globe.  It’s amazing how technology can get you places now.. think about it: a metal tube that flies 7 miles above the earth for 12 hours and lands without anyone dying? Thank You to the Wright brothers!

The first thing we do is jump right into a van.  It wasn’t just any fan, it was a 2012 Turbocharged Toyota passenger van!  It wasn’t like the passenger vans here in the states.  It’s about half the size, and fits almost 16 people.  We crammed 18 from the airport to the house.. I wish I had a picture, it was definitely a really comfortable ride to the house!

But before the house, we decided to go get something to eat.  My parents knew of a place called JJ’s Seafood a little way from the airport.  It was our first meal in the Philippines. It was funny because everyone was pronouncing it as “JiJi’s” until Irene, Randy and I saw the sign.  It was a good chuckle for awhile because we forgot about the Filipino accents.. lol

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After lunch, we dropped everyone off at our house in Bool District.  The house’s nickname in the neighborhood is called “Biasong.”  Don’t ask me why. I still don’t know why, and when I ask, no one does either!  It’ll be a mystery for all eternity.

My mom decided that it was a good idea to stay at a hotel for the night so we can shower and clean up after our long commute here.  Apparently, when someone dies, the body is preserved and kept in the coffin at the house until the day of the funeral.  During that time, no one is allowed to shower/bathe in the house until the person is finally laid to rest.  Luckily for us, our family has houses all over the city, so we quickly got around that little speed bump.

MetroCentre is a 4-star hotel right in the middle of the city.  For it being in a third-world country, it had all the amenities any hotel in the states had: clean bed, TV, refrigerator, toilet, and a nice shower.  You don’t get that very often.  We paid P2700 for the night. That is roughly ~$70.  We had some time to kill, so we decided to check out the pool.

When they said that it was on the 7th floor, I thought it was going to be some crazy nice infinity pool, overlooking the city and the shore.  Turns out it turned into a mediocre pool, sitting in the shade, surrounded by some ghetto bamboo fence.  That was definitely a fail. lol.  Luckily, next to the pool was a workout room/gym so we definitely will be using those fine facilities tomorrow morning.

We ended up back a Biasong for the night to catch up with family and friends who we haven’t seen in over 14 years! (The last time I made it back to the islands was 1998.)  It was good to see familiar faces and to meet new ones!

After being sleep deprived for 2+ days, we finally ended up back at the hotel around 11PM and knocked out to get some much needed sleep.

Philippines Trip: August 13th, 2012

You ever have one of those trips that happen so unexpected that you don’t know where you are until you are actually there? 

Yup.. that happened to me.  I ended up in Tagbilaran City, Bohol, Philippines on a 3-day notice.  I left on such a whim because my Grandma (Lola) Lydia passed away.  RIP Lola Lydia Acdal Pahang Hansen. You will be missed.

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I left Vegas Monday afternoon, and spent the whole day flying.  I left for Manila that night at 10:30PM out of San Francisco.  It actually was more like 1AM because the flight was late.  Turns out that we were supposed to stop in Guam for a brief, technical refuel before we went to Manila, but for some reason we decided to skip that and fly straight to Manila.  I was wondering if we were gonna run out of gas! 

After over 16 hours of flying, we finally ended up in Bohol. Mabuhay!

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nevergoingtosink-deactivated201 asked: But of course! whats your facebook? :P and sorry took so long again ahaha was on vacation! lol omg july is so close yet so far but yes!

Ayyo, I’m at the Biltmore too! Hit me up! 907-821-8862

Assumptions

“We don’t see things as they are…

                         …we see them as we are.”     - Anias Nin

It is very seldom a thing called absolute truth.  No one really knows what really is. 

Everything we see and hear are a conclusion of what we assume is from our own personal observations and experiences.  One can entertain a crowd by presenting a different angle of a perception.  The audience can be in awe with a “magical trick” while the magician already knows the truth.  One can say the man that is dating that woman is a horrible person because of his past, while the other can say he is the best man in the world.  It is all about perception that allow us to believe what we want or think is right. 

No one will ever know the complete truth…  One can only assume the truth, and continue on. That is the essence of life—you will never know the absolute truth..

..until?

 

Be Proactive

“One who wants to do something will find a way; one who doesn’t, will find an excuse.”

- Confucious

Perception

“Enjoying life around you is a direct result of how positive you perceive the world to be.”

- me

LEAD!

“Sometimes you can’t teach people where to go if you don’t step out in front.”  

- Frannie Morgan, from the TV Series GRΣΣK!

Solidarity

“To stand out is to relinquish what much of society teachers, and to stand tall with your own convictions; To me remarkable is to adhere to them, even if you stand alone.”

- Kelly Nims

Lambda Chi ‘till I die!

Rushing Lambda Chi Alpha my freshman year of college (Fall ‘09) was the best decision I have ever made in my life.  I love how these group of guys can help mold you into the person you are today. Because of Lambda Chi, I am stronger, more confident, passionate, and have reason to do the things I do today.  I have grown so much these past three years that I feel Lambda Chi has made me ready and eager to take on the world.

- Delta Lambda Zeta, UNLV, Fall 2011

          I love Lambda Chi.

live(d).

“Some people are old at 18 and some are young at 90… Time is a concept that humans created.”

        Which way do you live?

"Self love is not so vile a sin as self neglecting."

William Shakespeare

LONDON! Day 28: July 16, 2011

Well this is it.

$6000 program done, $1500 plane ticket, probably over $1000 spent, this is the culmination of life changing events taking place in London.  This past month has been nothing but awesome experiences with a great group of people.  This definitely was a trip where you wake up every morning and you’re just excited to wake up and be in an awesome city!  It’s hard to believe that it’s already been 28 days since the day we arrived.  I strong remember getting off at Russell Square, taking the Picadilly Line from London Heathrow.  I remember sitting on the train, not knowing what to expect—- are we going to be partying our asses off, or be really studious, getting good grades on our two classes.  How the social dynamic of the group is going to be, how chill the professors are going to be, how the dorms we are staying at are going to be… Now all I have left are the memories.

This was the culmination of 28 days of drinking in my room alone.  Oh and mind you, we all had single rooms.. So imagine how much more we really drank. lol

Let me tell you, everything exceeded my expectations.

Our group of 14 definitely had the perfect balance.  There were some partiers, some bookworms, and some in between.  (I definitely would like to consider myself one of the in-betweeners.)  But in the end, we all had a chance to experience things that are out of our comfort level.  We all got to see what the club scene was like, cafes, restaurants, museums, tourist attractions.  We all got the experience the rich culture that London and the UK has. 1500+ years of civilization here is unreal in the US.  I feel like we got to have a rich cultural experience.  It definitely allowed myself to see how much different other civilized countries can be.  Although everyone here still spoke English, you can definitely see the culture change that Americans and other English speaking countries differ from one another. 

I had such an awesome time during my stay in London. I will always have and cherish the memories we all made as our Nevada Group.  We did our damage in London, now it’s time to go home!

LONDON! Day 27: July 15, 2011

Today was the last day.  Finals are pretty much finished, people in our group have already left. There is just one more day to seize the day in London.  This trip has definitely opened my eyes to what there is it to see in the world.  There is much more to see in the world than to just stay in our own country.  I unfortunately only had the chance to visit only London but I definitely got the best of it!  

Our last day in London consisted of us trying to jam all of our favorite places to eat in one day.  That was an epic fail. But the last cafe we did eat at was Pret a Manger.  That is definitely one of my favorite cafes of all time.   When I think of London eats, I will also have Pret pop up in my mind.

With the last bit of our night left, Jenna really wanted us to go to a Lesbian Bar with her.  Supposedly we went to the world-famous Lesbian Bar in the world!  This bar was called Candy Bar. Boy was it an experience! ..or should I say Girl was it an experience! lol bad joke.

It was definitely awkward at first because I’ve never seen such a girl:guy ratio. More like 98 girls to 1 guy.  I had the pleasure to be on the guys in the bar.  That was a definitely a fun time, watching lesbians point and laugh at you wondering why I was in there… moral support damn it!  It was definitely a lot of fun; I just remember dancing the night away with the girls!

It was definitely a night to remember, with it also being our last night in London.  We didn’t actually get home until like 5AM.  We have an 8AM wake up call to pack all of our stuff and get to the cabs to the airport.  Boo, leaving is the most bittersweet feeling to an awesome month living life in another country!

London! Day 26: July 14, 2011

One more day at summer school left. There was no class for Business Law anymore, but our final is due tomorrow before 11PM.  It once again is essay styled, which makes it a lot harder to study because you can input as much or as little as you want!  It does make it a little more difficult to start, but you start, it shouldn’t be that bad.  Instead of Law in the morning, we decided to push up our Finance class up so we can have more time to take his final.  I thought we were all going to be ready to kill the final, but lemme tell you: The FIN301 Final is one of the hardest EFFING tests I’ve ever taken before!  I bet if I had all semester to properly prepare for the class, I would have been fine, but trying to compress all the semester’s material down into 17 days is rediculously hard… especially when you want to experience London in the afternoons and weekends! 

I scraped by with the Final, but I did indeed keep at A in the course. WHOOP!

I attempted to start working on the Law Final afterwards, but my brain was fried from the Finance class.  By then it was dinner time, and since it was going to the be last night of everyone together, we decided to go and have our “Last Supper” at our favorite Italian Restaurant on Goodge Street: La Trattoria Mondello!

I love the friendly environment in there.  The servers are authentically Italian. (they all speak Italian to everyone) The owners of the restaurant are always there as well. They all know us by name now!  But the food is amazing, and their House Wine, as I was told grown and created by relatives in Italy, is the best wine I’ve tasted so far! I definitely had almost a full liter to myself. :)  

But I had i Spaghetti alla Carbonara. It was so delicious, I ended up finishing my whole plate, not only to have the Orange Marnier Dessert, I’d say the dinner was a success!

Going to dinner with a group is (not gonna lie) a royal pain in the arse, but if you’re with a group whom you thoroughly enjoy each and everyone’s company, eating together isn’t at all that bad! We’ve definitely had some great conversation, as we dined and wined! That’s for sure!

We decided to stay in the dorms for the night and relax. We ended up playing some BP downstairs in the Lounge with the Ping Pong Table. It was a good time. 

One more full day to go, and it’s back to the states… Let’s live it up! 

London! Day 25: July 13, 2011

Wednesday.  We just completed our last day of Business Law.  Professor Mason actually made it so today would be our last day, to where we can take our final in our room, and write the essay style final there.  I actually kinda of like being flexible when taking the exam, especially since it’s in an essay-style format.  His teaching style is very laid back, but at the same time, we comprehend his material, and we take the exam at our own pace.  I love it.  Tomorrow we get our final, and have all day to write the exam. 

Professor Thistle has one more day planned, and he is allowing the Final Exam to be taken right after our last class tomorrow.  Because of the brevity of our class lectures, all of our homework and exams have been online using the MyFinance Lab.  Tomorrow is the day where all of our classes are wrapping up, and the reality of our trip coming to a close creeps closer and closer..

Diverting away from school… I actually finally had the time to sit down and write out my postcards to send back in the states.  I apologize in advance for people who I didn’t get to write a postcard too; sending postcards here is rediculous expensive, and you didn’t reply to my status on Facebook for me to send you one! lol  But after it was all said and done, I spent over £11 and 45 minutes to write all to all my 14 postcards to people!

I then needed to find a way to get rid of all of my change that I had accrued in my room over the past month.  I decided to take all my change to the Tube station, and add it to my credit!  Turns out you’re only allowed to put it a certain amount at a time, so after putting 80% of my coins in, I get a message on the screen, followed by a complete DUMP of all my coins back in the coin receptable!

I found a way around that stupid screen, so I now ended up having £10 more to my Tube card!

On the way back, I was walking back to my dorm, when I saw the smallest of the smallest cars parading behind a red double-decker bus. I’m surprised that lady fit in there!

By then it was around dinner time, so back to the cafeteria food I go!  They had an OK spaghetti with some fondant potatoes that I thought were mozzarella sticks! They were definitely a let down when I bit into them. lol

I needed to find a place to get a way for a while to get caught up on my blogs.  There are over 100 different restaurants within a 1 mile radius from my dorm, so I figured I would pay a visit to on and relax with some wine and blog away!  I meandered around and found myself at a nice little French Restaurant: Le Pain Quotidien: The Daily Bread.

I ordered myself a nice glass of Bordeaux and a tray of cheeses. The ambiance is great in here! It is very laid back, and relaxing.

This place is definitely a place where you can unwind after a hard day’s work.

After going to these places, I know for a fact that I’m going to miss these when I get back to Vegas. Day after day, I start picturing myself living here in the city.  I definitely wouldn’t mind that at all.