weird, wonderful, whatnot...

...in starbucks rockwell (the usual place). i was facebook-ing to kill time. i actually had better things to do (like check papers) but opted to procrastinate (yet again). 2 girls and a guy sat beside on the table (actually on the chairs) beside mine, then i overheard this conversation:

girl (looking at the guy's drink): ano yan?

guy: chocolate...

girl: ah...

guy: bakit ano ba yang drink mo?

girl: mocha frap. hindi na kasi ako nagcho-chocolate eh...

# posted by ryan quan @ 1:42 PM 0 comments

"Art. 299. Robbery in an inhabited house or public building or edifice devoted to worship. x x x

(a) The malefactors shall enter the house or building in which the robbery was committed, by any of the following means:

1. Through a opening not intended for entrance or egress. x x x"

the morning of 08 january 2009 -- the morning i planned on catching up with snooze time -- i woke up to the voice of my brother, shouting, "ico, yung laptop mo wala!" then followed by my sister-in-law's voices saying "pinasok tayo kagabi!" those 3 words resounded in my head for a good few seconds before i heard "pati camera mo nawawala!" with that, i suddenly stood up from bed then went out of the room. the empty sofa in the living room is probably the most ghastly scene in my mind.

we live in a compond with a security guard supposedly keeping the place safe (the guard probably fell asleep). upon checking the other rooms, we discovered that the robbers came in thru an unlocked window in a room located in the ground floor. they then went to the upper floor.

i usually leave my things in the living room located in the second floor, just outside our bedrooms. my routine every morning after the bar exams was to sit in that sofa and go online for the whole day. so i would just leave my laptop and camera there in the sofa when i go to bed. every morning, the my black hp laptop would be the first thing one would notice in the living room. now it's gone, along with my canon dslr. with the laptop were tons of photos i've taken using the camera as well as all my personal files and records and the forum 2008 (ateneo law yearbook) files. (the yearbook, by the way, is almost done... see endnote (1) below)

then i saw the room where my brother and i keep our clothes. it was ransacked! (as in parang dinaanan ng bagyo!) we later on found out that the burglars even got some of the rosaries and an image of the madonna and child which were part of my late mom's collection. (imagine, pati mga rosaryo at poon!)

if there's one good thing, the burglars didn't enter the rooms where we were. for whatever reason. god knows what could have happened if they got into our rooms. at least only material things were taken. but of course, i can't help but be sad. people who know me, would know how well i take care of my things. plus the thought that the laptop was a graduation gift from my aunt and the camera was a gift from my brother and sister-in-law. so it has lots of sentimental value. (oo, talagang senti ako) then everything in the laptop! i don't know where to start recontructing them. oh, my presentation for my monday class is there. then i remembered placing some IDs in my camera bag. things just really get worse.

i spent the entire day thinking (and well, sulking), praying, and hoping.

thinking how this could have happened. i've been living in this place for the whole 26 years of my life. and i always felt very, very secure when i'm home. now that this security has been breached, i don't know where and when i could find that security again. i'm also thinking how long i could stand by my word that i would not leave the philippines, no matter what.

praying and hoping that i get my things back. i literally stormed the heavens with prayers. more than being my most prized worldly possessions, these things, as i said, have lots of sentimental value for me.

praying and hoping that things would get better after this. it's not really a good way to start the new year. with god's grace, i/we hope to get by this.

thank you to those who texted to check on me/us. we're ok and safe. thanks. it's very much appreciated.

- - - - -

(1) dear ateneo law 2008 batchmates, i would like to apologize and ask for your patience for this delay in the yearbook production process. rest assured that the layout team and all of the forum 2008 editors and staff would exert our best efforts to redo the entire yearbook and have the yearbook printed as soon as possible. thank you very much for understanding.

# posted by ryan quan @ 1:35 PM 0 comments

My Lakbayan grade is C+!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

# posted by ryan quan @ 8:45 AM 0 comments

people who know could attest that i rarely arrive very early or anything. normally, i would arrive either on time, or a bit late, or sometimes really late.

well, last tuesday (october 28) i arrived at the mactan international airport in cebu around 11:30am, a little more than 2 hours before my flight to tacloban. this was something new, considering our rockstar entrance in the NAIA terminal 3 for our manila-tagbilaran flight a few days before.

to cut the long story short, the cebu pacific flight was (super) delayed. i stayed in the airport for 5 hours. while aren, cathy, binkki, kq and zoe were touring mactan, ginawa kong tourist destination ang airport. waw. at eto ka, wala man lang pagkain. so i had to content myself with dunkin donuts bunwich.

at hindi pa natapos dyan...

october 30. cebu pacific flight from tacloban to manila was supposed to be at 1:50pm. we arrived at the airport around 11:45am. later still, the PA system sounded. delayed! (again!) "at least" this time they served meals. hmm... 1-piece chicken joy na may fun chum juice sa loob. at ang fun chum ay hindi lang "hindi malamig," mainit sya, as in hot. at yung juice ko ay walang straw. ano yun, ngangatngatin ko para mainom?!? total waiting hours at the airport: 4 hours.

2 flights in a row. swerte talaga ako no? laging nasa lucky 1% na delayed flights. (remember, 99% flights on time?)

(conversations with cebu pacific staff intentionally omitted. haha!)

# posted by ryan quan @ 7:58 PM 0 comments

i kinda forgot about this. good thing kq reminded me when we were in bohol.

again, it's krizna talking to one of our guides. this time while going down sumaguing cave.

kriz: kuya, may signal ba ang cellphone dito?

giude: ah, oo.

kriz: ah talaga? smart o globe?

guide: globe.

kriz: ang galing ah... pano yun eh parang ang lalim na nito.

guide: eh kasi minsan dadalhin nila yung cellphone. tapos mahuhulog sa tubig, ayun... globe, globe, globe.

(ayon...)

# posted by ryan quan @ 7:10 PM 0 comments

(asking about cave exploration / spelunking. i can't remember the exact conversation. but it went something like this.)

kriz: kuya, delikado po ba dun? (referring to the cave connection, where you have to swim underwater to reach the next cave)

guide: ah, oo.

kriz: may mga namamatay?

guide: ay marami.

kriz: saan?

guide: sa sumaguing.

kriz: sa sumaguing? pano sila namamatay?

guide: nahuhulog sila eh, tapos namamatay.

kriz: maraming tao ang nahulog at namatay?

guide: hindi.

kriz: eh sino yung namatay?

guide: yung bats.

(kuya, anlabo ah!)

# posted by ryan quan @ 8:06 PM 0 comments

the next day was packed with activities. we woke up early (3:30am) to catch the sunrise at mt. kiltipan. while waiting for the sun to rise, we partook of our hearty breakfast - jjampong (noodles) with rice and hard-boiled egg. (once again, pagkaing intern. haha!) it was a foggy morning so we didn't get to see the actual rising of the sun. yet, when the sky cleared up a bit, the view of the terraces from kiltipan was just wonderful. we took lots of photos before we proceeded to the sumaguing cave to do some spelunking and rapeling.

sumaguing cave was something else. i was awe-struck with the gigantic rock and limestone formations inside the cave. we had to climb rocks and wade through the ice-cold waters. getting through the small passageways was quite an effort. after less than 2 hours, we emerged from the dark cave.

we had a hearty lunch at the yogurt house. i think this is a must-try when one goes to sagada. great food. i love the pasta. and their yogurt is the best. the place is quite pricey compared to the other restaurants in the area, but the food is really worth the price.

we then went to bokong falls for another round of wading/swimming through cold waters. bokong falls, also known as small falls, can be reached by going down the slope of a mountain. which means that we needed to go up the same slope in going back. haha!

rockclimbing was up next. but the ahrc oldies (a.k.a. tanders) were to tired. so mark, ona, lea, mars and myself decided to go back to george's guest house to wash up and then proceeded to cafe st. jo for a round of coffee and some bread while doing some usapang-tanders. you know, life questions and all.

dinner time came, we went to the log cabin for our much-awaited french buffet. just 3 words: GRABE, ANG SARAP! one should not miss this. they have the buffet on saturday nights and prior reservations must be made as the place really gets packed.

the following day (sunday), we had a sort-of picnic breakfast at lake danum. (we didn't have water! haha!) we didn't stay long as the sun was getting hotter. before lunchtime, we headed back to banaue. lunch again at tchayapan. (masarap talaga) we dropped by several viewpoints and saw the view of the terraces as depicted behind the 1000-peso bill. afterwards, we walked around the town while waiting to hear mass.

after the mass, we went back to the bus station. with roughly 500 pesos in our common fund, we again had a "hearty" dinner of cup noodles and tasty bread with fresca tuna (the ones which were not served during the sardinas feast. haha!). ipe was kind enough to buy another loaf of bread and mark treated us with coke. grabe, mga poor na talaga after the entire trip. haha!

what made this trip more enjoyable is the great company. sobrang laughtrip. pag walang pagkain, busugin ang sarili sa tawa. kwento. picture. tulog. kain. lakad. akyat ng bundok. at marami pang iba. to ona, kriz, pia, dema, lea, mars, tonton, mark, ipe, pedro, mike, cj, and kq, maraming salamat and til our next adventure! (let us make sure na hindi si my-ta ang gagawa ng itinerary para hindi tayo mamatay! haha!)

# posted by ryan quan @ 6:52 PM 0 comments

it was sometime in the middle of the bar month when krizna invited me to go to banaue and sagada. i didn't give it much thought until probably a week after the bar exams were over. before i finally said yes, i recalled krizna's invitation. she said we were going to banaue, do some TREKKING in batad then go to sagada.

a few days before 15 october 2008, i confirmed with kriz about who were going to the trip. it turns out that a bunch of ateneo human rights center (ahrc) interns finally decided to relive their immersion experiences (and, well, hardships) with a couple of friends.

so on our scheduled departure date, we boarded a florida bus bound for banaue (florida has only one trip daily to banaue at 10:45pm) and arrived in banaue the following day. the entire trip lasted for approximately 8 hours, including around 3-4 stop-overs. upon arrival, we had breakfast at the halfway lodge and then proceeded to brgy. batad for our supposed and much-awaited TREK. from banaue town proper, the bumpy ride to batad took roughly an hour and a few minutes. once in the batad saddle (the jump-off point to go down the batad village and further down to go to the tappiyah falls), we had a few pictures taken and ate irene (our guide) proceeded to lead us in going down the mountain. after 20 minutes of walking we started to see glimpses of rice terraces. we reached batad village (where we ordered lunch) after less than 2 hours. we continued the supposed trek, this time actually walking IN the majestic rice terraces. the view of the rice terraces and the lush mountains was simply breath-taking. after a few more hours (i stopped asking/checking the time at this point) of going down the slippery trail and countless stops to breathe, we finally reached the end point - tappiyah falls. this was not without any risk. at some point, ate irene instructed us to go in pairs. then pointing to a part were rocks supposedly fell, she told us to cross that part by pairs and as quick as possible. thank god, no rocks were due to fall when we were all crossing. anyway, we got to the falls and swam/waded in its icy-cold waters. the currents were quite strong and we were careful enough not to fall down lest we would follow ona's disposable camera which got washed away. haha!

after 45 minutes or so, we decided to go back. and that meant going up the mountain. so much for trekking. hahaha! we went through almost the same path going back. and while going through the terraces, it rained. we were quick to put our valuables inside ziploc's and plastic bags. the rain was refreshing, to say the least. when we finally reached batad village, we had our lunch. this was around 3pm. an hour after, ate irene told us to get ready to go up again. we were apparently only halfway to the saddle. with heavy stomachs, we started our hike back (read: hike). each time we looked at our destination (the batad saddle), it seemed so far up the mountain. i'm not sure how to accurately describe the entire hike. hmm... eto na lang, mark asked for a piece paper for a number of times so that he could write his holographic will. hahaha!

once back at the saddle around 6pm, we headed back to the halfway lodge to get our things and to have dinner. we then proceeded to the banaue ethnic village where we finally called it a (long) day.

despite a blister in my right foot and the aching muscles after the hike, i must that the hike was well worth it and i enjoyed. i would love to go back there to hike again when i'm more fit for the whole thing. (oo na, krizna, nag-enjoy ako. haha!) this ended part 1 of our banaue-sagada trip.

---

end note: ona got hold of a brochure, which described the hike up and down the batad terraces and tappiyah falls as "recommended only for strong hikers" (to kriz: TREKKING pala ah. hahaha!). and oh, according to ate irene, the mountain was 1,800 km above sea level. ayan, sige, mag-trekking tayo! haha!

# posted by ryan quan @ 3:50 PM 0 comments

since my late college years and all throughtout my law school life, i always studied in coffee shops. for two reasons. one, i fall asleep in the library. two, i falll asleep at home. this, though, does not mean that i don't fall asleep in a coffee shop. but at least the "sleeping time" is limited.

during the times that i study in a coffee shop, i always envied the people who came in to sit down and read a good book. (READ: non-law books) i was all too excited to be one of them. to enter starbucks without any law books and to just sit down, relax and read.

after a hearty lunch with sarj yesterday, i went to starbucks in binondo. as if going through my old routine, i went up and saw that someone was studying in my favorite study spot. so i got a drink and comfortably settled in the nearby table and started reading a book. this i haven't done for more than 4 years. at least now, i have my life back. :)

---

force of habit: i took out my orange marker to highlight the lines i liked. old habits are indeed hard to break. hehe!

# posted by ryan quan @ 8:00 PM 0 comments