zoon-day!

currently listening to:



today was definitely not one of my usual sunday's.

i tagged along with my sister and her friends to the outskirts of montalban, rizal (far, far away!) in order to spend the morning at the extremely unknown and unappreciated avilon zoo.

here's rosanna the tiger...




and puma the leopard.




it was sooooo nice. for about P250 each (we were 11 in the group and split costs for a tour guide), we were able to walk around the 7.5 hectare zoo. although the tour isn't of the entire 7.5 hectares, i guarantee that it sure feels like it after 3 and a half hours under the scorching heat and 2 bottles of water =P.

i fell in love a lot today. i literally had tears streaming down my face after meeting albert--an orangutan--who i swear, was smiling the entire time we were "visiting" him. unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of the primates :(

there was orange, the sun bear, who was so, so, so adorable. although he was stinky, he was one of the friendliest (or hungriest) animals, sticking his tongue out and licking the lens' of the cameras.

orange, the sun bear.




there was horsey, (i named him that! creative eh?), who was an artista, because you had to pay P50 to have your picture taken with him. he can only carry up to about 110-150 lbs. because of his size... interesting eh? ;).

horsey, the horse.




i'll leave it up to you to visit the rest of the animals. there are so many of them to meet! the birds whose colors made them look like sapin-sapin, the gross albino snake i did NOT pay P50 to carry, the croc named annie batumbakal, (haha, i'm serious about that!)... i promise you, it's a great way to spend the day.

it's amazing how much there is to see if you only make an effort to look. the poultry shop called "farm to fork" for example. the day wouldn't have been complete without seeing that :).

rent.

currently listening to: take me or leave me/rent.






have you seen it? well, you should.

i saw the musical years ago, but maybe i was just young, i don't really know--but somehow, i understood the plot better--and appreciated the songs much, much more.

this broadway musical-turned-movie is much more than just where the popular song "seasons of love" came from. yes, the topics are extremely controversial, but hey, it's life. the problems the characters encounter in this film may seem shallow to others, but it's exactly what people go through every single day in the real world.

i don't care what reviews and my friends say. it's not too long, and it is definitely NOT dragging. it's now one of my favorite movies of all time, and the soundtrack is EXCELLENT! (although i admit that i had it memorized before i even saw the movie... you should too!!! :P).

you can check out the trailer to rent here, and the lyrics to their songs here :) .


Take me for what I am
Who I was meant to be
And if you give a damn
Take me baby or leave me.

goo.

currently listening to: #41 /DMB.


what's the best part about ripping songs off the net?

you never know what you're going to find.

unnoticed.

currently listening to: dahil sa ulan/soapdish.


life is pretty much composed of routines. there are the big routines, such as the holidays celebrated year after year--birthdays, anniversaries, and christmas for example. but there are also the little routines--the ones that compose our day, the ones that compose our week. the daily showering at 2:30am or similar ungodly hours, the wiggling of feet before sleeping, etc.

but sometimes, no matter how many times you do a certain thing or pass a certain place, you realize there are things you are seeing only for the first time. i've promised myself to actually LOOK around now, as opposed to just passing through.

lately, i've been riding the LRT and MRT a lot. it's the cheapest way to meet up with my dad so i can hitch a ride home from school. i've come up with my own little routine or habits to get there. i text my dad when i get to a certain store. each day i like to alternate the paths i choose when i get to a fork in the mall. and i like to count my steps and compare them from the day before. haha.

what's my point?

nothing really. i just wanted to share that in the 10 billion and one times that i've walked by the bridge that connects the LRT to the MRT station, last thursday, i saw it for the very first time.

the "rotonda hotel", it was called. the one thing that literally made me laugh out loud as i walked alone, in the middle of a rush-hour crowd. the facade of their wall boasted, in humongous red block letters, of their "special features".


Rotonda Hotel
Special Features:
* service with a smile
* rooms with showers
* spacious and clean rooms
* reasonable prices
* no brownout


wow. one day, i SHOULD go to this hotel! no other hotel offers such a fabulously complete set of "features"! i mean.. NO BROWNOUT?! service... with a SMILE?!? CLEAN rooms!?! PINCH ME NOW, PLEASE!!! amazing.

kablog.

currently listening to: tears and rain/james blunt.



i have the strongest, strongest, strongest urge to blog, but i also have absolutely nothing to blog about.

blogblogblogblogblog.

our house.

currently listening to: tears and rain/james blunt.

it's the end of an era.

brother andrew gonzales, FSC, passed away last sunday at age 65.

i have never had the opportunity to work with brother andrew, and the only words i have ever exchanged with him are probably "hello" and "good afternoon, brother." but i don't think it's possible to study in DLSU and not feel the grief of the entire community, or not see what a great person he was to those who did know him.

his wake is being held at the chapel, here in school. to walk by corridor after corridor after corridor crammed with mass cards and flowers of condolences is an extremely saddening and humbling experience.

may his soul rest in peace.

----------------------------

my mom and her siblings have recently decided to sell my lola's house, since she's now sick, and cannot live alone anymore. my lola has moved in with one of my aunts, where she also has a caretaker to be with her 24/7.

before going to school today, i dropped my mom off at my lola's house. as i was about to leave, she told me to pop in and say hello to her sisters and brothers, who were also inside.

as i went in the house, my aunts, uncles, and the buyer were all around the dining table, quietly signing the contracts of sale. i asked one of my tita's how she felt about selling the house, and she admitted that she cried the first time she heard the news. it had been her home for the past 44 years. when the buyer asked the question "how old is the house, by the way?", my tita tessie, the eldest of the siblings, turned to her husband and said, "well, when centee was courting me, we had just built the house. that makes it about 40 years old."

when i think of the many, many, many sundays my family and i visited my lolo and lola in that house, i am overwhelmed at the loss of my family. when lolo was still alive and healthy, he would give us 5 pesos if we were the first to find the country or state on his giant world map. when my lolo suffered from his stroke, we would visit him so that my dad could give him communion. when he died, we went to that house to keep my lola company.

i will miss going to my lola's bathroom and seeing the lifelong supply of deodorant, toilet paper and love's baby soft cologne. i will miss the piles and piles of crossword puzzles and word search books. i will miss the cases and cases of coke that they have under the table--the cases that never seem to go empty.

it's the end of an era, indeed.