Tiwala Lang (Have a Little Faith)

I'm baaaaack!
So I haven't posted for more than a week, I'm sorry. I've been busy and tired with school and all. I was supposed to post about my Cristobal climb as soon as I came back last Sunday, but to no one's surprise (I'm sure), I was exhausted.
So here it is, a quick review of my weekend.

Got up early to pick up my cousin, Cait, before heading to the meet-up place. It was her first climb, so my aunt bought her a new tent and sleeping bag. She bought herself a new bag. So, she was pretty ready for the climb.

Achie Cait, all geared up and ready to go! (c) Iris Ang

There was a total of ten of us, some of them I've just met and others I haven't seen in a while. Our guide, Kuya Christian, was the same person who guided us the first time DLSU OC went up Cristobal. He actually remembered those of us who were there last time. Me, Benj and JR. Kudos to the first timers who were able to climb the Devil's Mountain - Ken and Cait.
As usual, I was the last up the mountain. But give me a break, my bag was heavier than usual, it was my first time to carry my own tent on top of everything I normally bring.
Anyway, it wasn't as cold as the first time we went up, which was a bit of a bummer. It was still fun though. We played cards in the tents and mostly just bonded with everyone while waiting for dinner to be ready. DINNER WAS SINIGANG! Extremely happy tummy.

(L-R) Abi, Cait and Iris while we were playing Monopoly Deal.

JR, Benj and Renz

Bonded in the tent for a few more hours. Right before we went to bed, my "friends" decided it would be a good idea to narrate Insidious in deatil and proceed to scare the s*** out of me for the rest of the night. F***ers. 

So anyway, we woke up the next day and went to the mountain's peak. Didn't have much a view though, a pity since they that the scenery is awesome. The fog killed any chance of that though.

(Start top L, clockwise) Godfrey, Rod, JR, Me, Renz, Benj, Kevin, Iris, Abi and Cait.

So we pretty much just took a few pictures at the peak and headed down the mountain. In fairness, I was one of the first of us down. Snaps for me?

So yeah, we went into the town where Kuya Christian lives and washed ourselves off in the lake before we took a proper shower at his house. The lake was freezing cold, but pretty fun.

Chillin at the lake.

So yeah. After we all showered, we headed back to Manila. Exhausted but happy. Cheesy, but it's true.
I'll post something else tomorrow to make up for my extremely long absence. Night!

Mountain Air. (Mountaineer. Get it?)

Right now, I'm supposed to be on Mt.Maculot, but because of my hair fall, and the cause of it, my dad wouldn't let me go. He said that my trekking activities are a source of stress and should thus be eliminated from my life for the time being. I don't understand how my parents can believe that a weekend with friends, fresh air and exercise are the cause of my alopecia.
I mean, I get that maybe, the packing stresses me out a bit, but compare that to the good a trek does for my body and mind. Besides, I asked the doctor if my condition could have been caused by the environment I spend my weekends in (beaches and mountains, mostly), and she said no. So I am currently frustrated at the fact that I have the opportunity to blog about this current speed bump in my life.
Imagine, blogging about this is stressing me out. If I were up on the mountain with my friends, I'd be de-stressing from the hectic week that I'd just had.
Luckily, next week, I'll be going up Mt.Cristobal with DLSU OC again! Maybe another paranormal occurrence will happen... again. And I just thought I'd invite you to our second trek up the Devil's mountain.

Click here for more details.

This'll be 'training' for the Mt. Pulag, the highest peak in Luzon, trek in February, which I'll just invite you to, as well. It's the most anticipated climb of the year!

Click here for more details.

Mostly, the Cristobal climb will prepare you for the freezing cold of Pulag, so if you plan on coming with us to either, BE PREPARED. We sure weren't on our first trek up Cristobal and we could barely feel our fingers by the end of the night. Lesson learned. A bajillion blankets for me on the next trek.

Hope you can join us! The mountain air will do anyone good.

Friday the 13th

I don't get what people have against Friday the 13th. It's just the last weekday on the 13th day of a given month, but people relate bad luck to it.
Honestly, I had a pretty good week, including Friday the 13th. The most eventful was actually Wednesday and Friday.
I had a photoshoot for The Marketer, a JEMA publication for DLSU. Super fun. Thanks to Jica Coronel for making me look pretty and Kashka Tobias for taking the pictures.

Prep time. Photo taken by Kashka Tobias. (More photos soon.)

I got promoted, my lips are sealed about where though. We had our first JE meeting of the year, as well as the first OC meeting of the year. It was super fun hanging out with everyone again. And it's finally crunch time for all the orgs I want to run for officer in. We're down to the last cut by the end of the term, so fingers crossed. This was all on Wednesday.
On Friday was the Oh See What's In Store, which I hosted with Cz Santos, one of the many good friends I have made since joining DLSU OC. It was a lot of fun, even if there was just 25 of us. We actually turned it into a teambuilding seminar, what with all the games we played that inspired cooperation and communication. Even our faculty adviser, Sir Migs, joined in. 

(From top, L-R) Apa, Ryan, Justine, Kean, Larry, Ryu, and ... I can't remember who. Fulfilling requirements for the game, On The Ground.

Just to kill time, we even had Ryuta Murakami make a speech in Japanese and had Ram Manipol translate... kind of. It just ended with us having a laugh and still not understanding anything.

We got Ryu to say 'Outdoor Club' in Japanese.

After everything, OC President, Lance Dy, even treated us to dinner at McDonald's.
Not a bad way to spend the week of Friday the 13th, I'd say.

Oh See What's In Store.

In case you didn't know, I'm part of the DLSU Outdoor Club, DLSU OC, for short.
I have never been athletic or even remotely outdoorsy so it kinda puzzled my friends as to why I would join the org. Mostly, for me, it was because I was bored and wanted to be a part of as many orgs as possible.
However dismal my reasons for joining the org are, after attending the 1st official OC off-campus activity of the year, the Gulugod Baboy Climb, I could not stop myself from wanting to be at every single activity and hanging out with the people I met on the trips everyday at school.

A group shot from the Gulugod climb.

Us, chilling before bedtime at the Reef Check activity. Sleeping indoors. A special occasion.

Learning to surf on the 2nd OC surf trip of the year!

Our usual camping set-up. This one was on Mt.Cristobal.

I just thought I'd share my experiences with this AWESOME org and invite you guys to the 3rd general assembly, in case you were interested. We welcome both members and non-members alike to our activities.

It's gonna be on January 13, 2012 from 6pm-8pm at Y507! I'm one of the hosts by the way, so it's gonna be fun.

See you there!

Beachin' Good Vibes

Just got home from my weekend trip to Les Caraibes in Laiya, Batangas. It was a pretty awesome weekend of chilling and bonding with friends. This is probably the best spent first-weekend-of-the-year of my entire life.
Friends. Beach. Drinks. NO HOMEWORK. How could you go wrong?
Just the fact that we were on the beach meant that my weekend couldn't. I love the beach. The sand between my toes, sun shining, waves kissing the shoreline.

The beach makes me happy. I don't care that when I have to come back to reality, there's a chance of me being sun burnt and aching. Not to mention the fact that no matter how many times I take a shower, there still seems to be sand somewhere on me.
There's something about beaches that make me feel like life is perfect... I dunno.
Well, that's all folks. I'll post more about my trip when I can. Right now, my hands are tied.

Sinigang Suppers and Proofs in the Pudding

Here's the vlog I was supposed to put up last night. Sorry for the delay.
Mostly, I'm rambling about whatever popped into my head at the moment. I need to learn to filter my thoughts and all.

So ta-dah! 

I'll get better at this... hopefully.

Leave comments on things I need to improve on! Seriously.

P.S. Might not be able to post anything over the weekend since I'm gonna be out of town. Happy weekend, guys!

Conventional Cancer

No, I don't have cancer. But since I've shaved my head, it seems like everyone has assumed that I do. I wear beanies and scarves on my head to keep my blindingly white scalp from burning under the sun, and I take them off during classes since a lot of professors don't allow them in class.
On the rare occasions that I do keep them on though (so far, it's only been due to the fact that the air conditioner is blowing directly at my head), the professors never say anything. I'm not exactly sure if it's because they really don't mind, or if it's because they don't want to offend me.
There's this whole preconceived notion about baldness and straight women in society. 
It is never by choice. 
There's always some kind deadly disease-related reason behind a straight woman totally shaving off all her hair. I mean, ok, I get the fact that a lot of women don't have their luscious locks shaved off on whim, but it doesn't necessarily mean that those that do are sick or dying.
There are some women that rock the locks, or lack of them, just because.

Just one of the women on the list. My favorite, by far.

Here is a list of someone's top ten. And I pretty much agree.
What say you?

Computer Crashes and Cups of Cocoa

I just missed my 12mn deadline for the daily post. Crap.
The streak was fun while it lasted though (a measly 5 days).
I was supposed to post a vlog tonight. Which I will as soon as I finish editing it. The video would have been posted by now if my laptop didn't crash. *sigh* It's the only computer I can edit videos on.
So now, I'm downloading a video converter and editor on my dad's PC while drinking a cup of cocoa, texting and fiddling with my sister's iTouch.

Here's to hoping he doesn't catch me because I'm not allowed to download anything on here.


P.S. Sorry guys, looks like I won't be able to post the vlog tonight. Have to get some shut eye if I plan on being awake for classes in the morning. I'll do all I can to get it up and posted by tomorrow, though.

3hour Breaks and a PMS-ing Flake

So, first day back on school campus today since break started. First day flaunting my bald head, too. I was supposed to make a vlog, but then I decided tomorrow might be better since the actual start of my classes aren't until then.
Wrong. I missed recording some of the most hilarious comments and conversations I've had with some of my friends. That means I can't share them with you either. I'm sorry.
Anyway, last time, I talked about reserving my adjustment pass and all. And today was the day I'd get to use it, in a 30min period. Starting at 8:30am.
My back hurt like hell last night- imagine trying to stretch hard, day-old, chewed up gum. That's pretty much what the muscles at the base of back felt like when I applies a hot compress to it. This meant I wasn't able to get much sleep. So I got out of bed and was ready to leave by 6am.
Despite having to hitch a ride with my siblings, I actually got to school by 8am.
I've got everything ready for my adjustment, the schedule revisions I wanted to make, alternatives. Everything was ready. The freaking forever PMS-ing secretary of the vice dean wouldn't allow me to transfer into any of the classes because they were already full. Even when I said it was because it was in conflict with my treatments (I didn't say for what, though. Still, this makes me a bad person, I know. I'm sorry. I was desperate.)
So I got up early and went to school for absolutely nothing.
I didn't even get to take videos of the JEMA people's reactions to my baldness. Such a waste.
Bright side though, I was able to spend a few hours with my JEMA friends. And an hour or two talking with, and mostly laughing at Nads.
Oh. I've got news about something else. Which I will reserve for another blog post. Keeping you in suspense is pointless since the intro to it isn't even that interesting but whatever.
I'll try to post a vlog tomorrow!
Before I forget though, here's my class schedule in case you wanna bum around with me.

P.S. I'm so proud of myself for posting for 4 days in a row. It'll probably lessen when classes seriously start though. Just sayin'.

Crash and Burn

Good morning!
It's the first time this Christmas break that I'm up early in the morning after a complete night's sleep. Yay for me. The purpose of my getting up early was to secure an adjustment pass online for my courses, which I was able to do successfully and quite easily.
For those non-La Sallians reading, we accomplish this by logging into MLS (My.Lasalle) and proceed to do whatever we need to do there.
I can't say the same for quite a number of my friends though. The MLS servers crashed on them during the tense moments of securing their own before the allotted number of passes ran out. No surprise there - about MLS crashing, I mean.
It has been a sore spot with La Sallian students that the MLS servers always seem to crash at the most inconvenient moments (i.e. enlistment of classes, adjustment of classes and securing of adjustment passes).
At one point, MLS started to trend on people's Facebook. The social network thought that the 'MLS' we were talking (mostly ranting) about was Major League Soccer.

Just a few of today's rants about "Major League Soccer"

It's extremely annoying for us students to have to deal with the site crashes AT LEAST once a school year at the moments we need it to work the most. If the university is going to have us manage a part of our academic lives online, they should do everything possible to keep the servers from crashing... which they are probably trying to do.

But could you guys please try harder?

Sincerely,

A La Sallian student

New Year. No Hair.

I just thought that some of you would like to know that I got my head shaved today. And when I say shaved, I mean all of it.
I am now a skinhead and it's actually kinda cool. Literally. Just a slight breeze hitting my scalp actually feels like someone's rubbing ice up against my skin.
If you know me, you know that I change my hairstyle a lot. I dyed my hair around 5 times this year. Red to light brown which turned blonde to reddish brown which turned to blonde again to dark brown which again turned blonde then finally jet black. I also got an undercut sometime in October. 

Just a few of my hair choices from 2011

Now, even if you don't know me, you get the idea that I take risks with my hair. The thing is though, I have never ever had no hair at all on my head... at least by my own volition.
I have thought about it at some points. Scratch that, I've actually thought about it quite a lot, I've just never gone through with it.
So now your question is: Why cut it all off now?
Answer: Stress.
Yes, stress. My hair was falling due to extreme stress. I didn't notice the hairfall until my mom pointed out that I had a bald spot the size of a thumbnail near the front of my scalp the night before my final exams (thanks so much, mom). At first we were laughing about it. Then I started to panic. At the time, of course, I had absolutely no idea why my hair was falling so I jumped to all kinds of conclusions.
So anyway, I went to the doctor a day after my final exam and she explained that my case was fairly common. She gave me medications and injected the affected area.
Next few days, I noticed the rate of my hairfall was rapidly increasing. And I don't mean like above the average 50 strands of hair per day, I mean like chunks of hair that I could roll into mini balls of yarn. Everyday. After a shower. While I sleep. Running my hands through my hair. Chunks of hair.
Out of frustration and probably a dose of panic, I decided that I was going to shave my head.
So I did.
And now here we are, you reading about why I shaved my head, and me wearing a beanie to keep my head warm.

For some reason, I'm not as weirded out by my baldness as much as I'm weirded out by the normalcy of it. And ok, the pictures I posted are in black and white... kind of. I'm not ready to show you how pale my scalp is yet.

What do you think about my new found hairlessness? Bang or bust?

Being Charlie

Happy New Year, everyone! And as new year tradition dictates, I've come up with my new year's resolutions which I will hopefully see through til the end of 2012. So, for those of you who are curious about my resolutions, or are just bored enough to take an interest, here they, or rather, it is:

BE CHARLIE.

Most of you are probably scratching your heads wondering what 'Be Charlie' means. So let me explain.

Earlier in 2011, one of my professors asked us to give her a name that we'd like to be called and known as in class. I chose the name Charlie. Not because I wasn't happy with my real name, it was more like, this was a chance to be known as someone else, at the very least by name. As the term passed, I noticed that Charlie was someone I wish I were in my everyday life. Someone who was confident in everything she did and did everything she set her mind to doing. She wasn't afraid of failure, of trying new things, of doing things that scared her.
As Steph, I'm loud and outgoing, but I'm not determined enough. I lose my focus and give up as soon as the going gets tough. My goals aren't set high enough-mediocrity is acceptable. 
That's not to say that Steph doesn't have good qualities, it's just that I, as Steph, have shortcomings too, just like every normal person.
Long story short, I want to become a better version of me. A 'me' I can be proud of.
Now to be more specific, a 'me' I can be proud of includes:
1. Getting a GPA of at least 3.0 for the whole year.
2. Living a healthier lifestyle.
3. Getting a job, at the very least for the summer.
4. Trying something new at least once a month.
5. Overcoming at least one fear for the year.
That's all I can really think of right now.

May the year be an everlasting bang for all of us.
Any suggestions for my list? Or better yet, what are your resolutions for 2012? Care to share?