sea games
View about 20 steps outside my apartment.
A little farther to the coast of this sea is
Busan.
South East Asian (SEA) Games are ongoing farther out to sea,
The Philippines 
the first guest blog
blue hue of petals over you"I am not familiar with different species of flowers. I'm just amazed by how they attract one's eyes. Like this one. This is called
hydrangea.
Hydrangea macrophylla, also called
bigleaf or
French hydrangea, has either pink or blue flowers. Flower color is determined indirectly by the soil pH, which affects the availability of aluminum in the soil. In acid soils the flowers will be blue, in alkaline soils the flowers will be pink. Aluminum is available to the plant in acid soils. Research has determined that the actual mechanism of color variation is due to the presence or absence of aluminum compounds in the flowers,"
Gretel Muhi, Blogger of the Year semifinalist, Philippine blog awards.
Photo courtesy of
Cris Manahan, whose blog is a semifinalist for the Photoblog of the Year category.
Coincidentally, my two friend bloggers have a
blog history.
viva Che
Now meet
Che, a white-skinned Filipina who could be mistaken for a Korean. This was taken about a year ago in a bus on our way to
Baguio City, the coldest place in the
Philippines. Che used to be my best buddy over
yahoo messenger. But now, our careers bar us for having
ym in the office.
Hmm, maybe
Google Talk will work...
brown skin girl
Meet
Lu, the head English teacher in our company. Born to Filipino parents in
Bohol, Philippines, their family moved to
Australia when she was a little kid.
For Filipinos to teach English in
Korea is illegal. You have to be a citizen of a native English-speaking country like Australia; hence,
Lu is Australian.
someone loves your life
Here's a picture of my parents, sister and her youngest daughter in our home in the Phillipines. This was taken by my mobile phone using the function that highlights the
red color.
water shows the hidden heart
Puerto Galera, Mindoro, The Philippines
long long journey
Meet
YK Shin, my teammate in the company. This is on a long long subway of
Busan. Currently he has gone a real long long way to
Oslo, Netherlands for a business trip.
I hope he gets to buy me my scarf or bonnet now that winter is already here!
if i could be where you are
Meet
Alex and
Daisy, my eldest
hyeong nim (brother) and most beatiful
nuna (sister).
Kuya Alex is celebrating his birthday next week and I surely miss these guys a lot. A simple trip to local fast food chain
Jollibee would be so fine with them and their cute little angels.
sometimes, news from the Philippines can make me happy
"Play hard but also study hard." -
Paolo Antonio Carlos Castro, Asia Pacific champion in
Midtown Madness 3 Mobile in the World Cyber Games Mobile Tournament and a friend from the university dormitory.
Read
Ace's breakthrough here.
L O S T
No, this is not
Hawaii, where
LOST, is being shot. This is
Maemuldo (Memul island), down south
Koje island (Koje
do). We hiked this island with Carlo and his teammate Mr Lee. Today is Carlo's birthday by the way.
In just a couple of weeks, I was able to finish all available
LOST episodes. Thanks to a local Korean channel, torrent downloads, and regular internet download. Did I mention Korean internet connection is uber speedy?
Now, I always look forward to Friday nights watching not just
LOST, but
Desperate Housewives as well.
What shows are you tuning in besides
Pinoy Big Brother*?
*
Pinoy Big Brother or PBB is the local version of Swedish Big Brother; PBB is the current craze in Philippine tv, even one of the Pinoy apartments here have online subscription of the show. Talk bout fast Korean internet connection.
i need to be comfy here for some time
I have been staying late lately in the office trying to meet all requirements of our project. This will be the case until my contract ends soon.
The stuff to go with me by: jazz music from a co-worker,
Daniel Powter and
Tracy Chapman mp3s, hot chocolate, and carpool from
JH Choi, who I am waiting for now.
lil, Lille, and Lily
This an update of
a blog entry as commented by one of its subjects.
How could I miss on the juicy part after the wedding?!
After their wedding,
Vlad and Sheela cruised to
Singapore,
Malaysia and
Thailand for their honeymoon and then flew here to
Korea, where Vlad is working.
Now they are in
Lille, France. Because Vlad is just a
lil guy, hehehe.
Coincidentally, I just met an officemate nicknamed
Lily this afternoon.
be and be not afraid to reach for heaven
Set your goals high and work hard for it. In Korean terms,
aja aja! Fighting! Or,
whiting! (as they do not have a letter
F)
will i be seeing them here in the future?
Our company will be hiring more Filipino engineers. This weekend,
Tong (pictured above) will be one of the 60+ hopefuls who will be interviewed in Dusit Hotel, Makati, Philippines.
Joa, who shares my birthday with Hitler, is the ever-supportive girlfriend. Unfortunately for her, she was denied a US visa last month.
Let us pray that this time it works out for Tong, my gradeschool and highschool classmate.
This is the story of the Filipino people. Leaving home for better opportunities outside.
a pack of world leaders gather in Busan for APEC
This year's
Asia Pacific Economic Conference will begin this weekend.
South Korea is a peace-loving nation. I pray no terrorism to occur anytime soon.
Wondering what
APEC has in store for ordinary citizens like me....
orenji, anyone?
On this
peyji (page), you will see
orenjis (oranges). This is
Sujin (
see this entry),
eyji (age) 23.
Hope you learned how to pronounce words ending in -age the Korean way!
Paris is in riots but they will still go to France
Sheela and Vlad got married last August while I was in Mindanao,
Philippines. After the wedding, the couple flew here to
Korea, where Vlad is working. Come Monday, they will be going to the nation where cinema was born,
France.
Who thought a
norebang (nore is song
; bang is room
) could be such a sweet place?
sul, Su Jin, & soju
The spring photo below was taken by
Su Jin, a sassy new friend I met who closely resembles a college major crush. I fondly call
Su Jin soju, the Korean gin. See green bottles above.
Tonight is another
hwaeshik or dinner party (
hwae means outside;
shik is food). And that also means drinking
sul (alcohol).
i am sure they have grown now
Listening to
Buble's Christmas CD in the office is not a very good idea especially when you know you are spending Christmas overseas, away from family.
I will surely miss gatherings like this one: our family reunion on my dad's side, first day of this year.
Howell...
i wish autumn is much longer
Winter is just around the corner. Temperature drops gradually everyday.
Last Sunday, we hiked
Naejangsan in
Jeollabukdo, not
Jeollanamdo as I previously said.
Nam is south, so Jeollanamdo is down south of Jeollabukdo.
We posed and posed to pics until eternity so we did not have time to climb the peak.
Well, I got something to come back to, in case. ",)
