101Years, 4 Days and Counting

Last Friday, we celebrated the closing of DLSU's centennial celebration. There were performances in the new Henry Sy Sr. Building, a bazaar in the Yuchengco lobby and of course, the day ended with fireworks. It's time like these that you can really see the love La Sallians have for their school. As cheesy as it seems, I really do believe that school become homes. La Sallians have formed families with their schoolmates and professors. It's kind of amazing that La Salle schools have been able to provide such an environment for 101 years, and I bet, will continue to do so for many more years to come.


First steps into Henry Sy Sr. Building with Star.

Extremely long drumming and cheering sequence before the fireworks.

The fireworks. Finally. What everyone was waiting for. And it was definitely worth the wait. So for those of you who missed it, here it is.

Show of La Salle pride ended the night aside from the L-A-S-A-L-L-I-A-N! song which got stuck in everyone head.

Can't wait for the next celebration that'll be like this.
ANIMO!

Insomnia, Illegal Car Rides and Monster Pet Shops

Fun car ride with Laura after welcoming the CCS and SOE froshies with some of my orgmates to DLSU during the first round of welcoming for the LPEP week. Don't feel like writing much today so I hope you have as much fun watching the video as I did recording it.

Backtracking at Bratpack: The JanSport Story

I remember my first JanSport backpack...

I got it sometime when I was in 7th grade, my dad had bought it for me. I loved it. It was this abstract designed thing with faces in different shades of blue. I used it everyday after that, my mom would get mad because it almost never got washed. Some pretty good memories with that bag. After a few years though, my mom gave it to one of my cousins. I was pretty bummed out when I found out so said she'd just get me a new one.

Later, me and my mom headed over to Robinsons Galleria. Just to chill a bit. To my delight, there was a store selling JanSport backpacks. The store was Bratpack.

I dragged my mom into the store and did the smug face, complete with the wiggling eyebrows. She just sighed and let me take my pick of which one I wanted.

There were so many choices, it's impossible to not find a JanSport backpack to fit your personality and style. I took forever to pick and I pulled so many bags of the rack, at some point I was afraid the guard would kick me out of the store! But the clerks were nice and assisted me the whole time, they even commented on which bag colors and designs were more popular and which styles would better suit my needs.

So many s-backpack-ular (corny! haha) backpacks to choose from!

Eventually, I settled on the JanSport with different colored patches on it. I use it quite a bit, at school to carry all my books and things, to pack my stuff for sleepovers and even for my overnight trips when I go hiking!

Even my friend brought a JanSport backpack!

I love the fact that all the JanSport bags have a LIFETIME guarantee and that they're all so affordable! Not to mention durable. My backpack has been on so many hiking trips with me, it's hard for me to believe that there isn't even a single tear or loose thread on it yet.
I've been to different branches of Bratpack, and although the one in Robinsons Galleria isn't the biggest, I've got to say that I can't seem to bring myself to buy anything from the other branches. It's probably because of some kind of gratitude I have to the Galleria branch staff for making my crucial hours of backpack choosing fun. And honestly, they haven't let me down yet.

Me, at the Bratpack Robinsons Galleria branch with the JanSport Centennial backpacks!

Recently, I went back to Bratpack Galleria to take pictures and again, I took forever taking the pictures, but as usual the staff was patient and helpful. They even let us move the lights so we could adjust the lighting. (Me and my sister still need to work on our lighting skills though. Obviously.) I wish all the employees of all stores were like this.

Anyway, as I was roaming around the store, checking out the new JanSport bags, I came across these goodies:

Different bags for all your different needs!

There were so many new additions to the JanSport family! I was itching to get my hands on all of them.

First, we've got the Inner Beast Duffle bag. Isn't it just a-roar-able? It's great for the gym or overnight trips with friends! I know that if I had this, I'd be a total gym rat just to show off this bag!

Then, we've got the mini Superbreak and the Wheeled Superbreak. I think these two go together for smart travelers. We've got the super chic rainbow reptile print on the stroller for those trips abroad and the mini backpack to store your passports, wallets and other necessities. Traveling is exciting, but how much better would the experience be with the perfect traveling partners? Your JanSport duo! It's huge and lightweight so you can pack more outfits for the trip or pasalubongs for your loved ones! In fact, I think you can do both. Booyah!

Finally, we've got a classic from the Superbreak line, my favorite. The all-purpose backpack and really, how could you go wrong with that? I love the Alien Green color, but no matter what color or design you get, it's just the right size for everyday use. In fact instead of getting paper or plastic bags for your purchases, you could put your items right into your backpack! More convenient for shoppers (not to mention eco-friendly), especially if you love eating on-the-go since you won't have to juggle your food and the shopping bags.

I feel like, no matter what JanSport bag you're sporting, you're a winner. Why? JanSport isn't just about the bag, it's about the memories you make with it.

The Turnover (Long Overdue)

It's been awhile since I've posted anything so I'm gonna make up for it this week posting about what's been happening in my ever-so-interesting (I wish) life.


Last March 20, 2012 - Tuesday, was DLSU Outdoor Club's turnover dinner! For those of you who don't know what a turnover is, it's an event where those in charge pass their responsibilities onto juniors who they think deserve the honor. So yeah, we had our turnover and it was fun, old officers and current officers, our faculty adviser, and of course the incoming officers were present.
None of the junior officer actually knew what their positions on the org would actually be so we could be "surprised" at the turnover.
The old officers gave speeches and wished us luck on the responsibilities and challenges we will be taking on.
As you all have probably figured out, I am dedicated to all the orgs I take an active part in and DLSU OC is one of them. I don't know if this'll make me sound cocky, but I was pretty sure that I'd become an officer... Ok, it does sound cocky, but that's not how I mean for it to sound.
Anyway, so yeah, I am now VP for Membership Development. And I just want to take this time to say thank you to the officers who gave me this position and felt that I was deserving. I will do my best. I promise. So yeah. 
Here's the list of DLSU Outdoor Club's officers for AY 2012-2013:

Jason Sim, New President beside Lance Dy, Old President
(c)Victor Chan

Tob Castaneda, Old EVP beside Vlad Alcasid, New EVP
(c)Victor Chan

Mem Dev Team: Gerard Buenalor, Old AVP beside Aimee Chua, Old VP beside Me, New VP beside  Justine Ragos and Ryuta Murakami, New AVPs beside Bea del Rosario
(c) Victor Chan

Activities Team: Iris Ang, New AVP beside Ram Manipol, Old VP beside Victor Chan, New VP
(c)Victor Chan 

Finance Team: Crisha Bolisay, Old AVP beside Cz Santos, New VP beside Jason Sim, old VP
(c)Victor Chan

Logistics Team: Jerome Alcasid, Old VP beside Abi Dolon, New VP beside Benj Tuason, New AVP
(c)Victor Chan

Publicity Team: Mico Lorenzo, Old AVP beside Apa Azores, Old AVP beside Eileen Robles, Old and New VP beside Steph Bernardo, New AVP
(c)Victor Chan

Documentation Team: Vlad Alcasid, Old VP beside Laura Cua, New VP
(c)Victor Chan

Socio-Civic Team: Abby Manawat, Old VP beside Larry Sze, Old AVP beside Jodelle Cuanan, New VP
(c)Victor Chan

I think this is still missing a few AVPs and I'll update you when I know for sure. But for the moment, there you go.
Thank you so much old officers for all the guidance you have given us and for all the memories you have been a part of. I hope all of you will still be part of many memories to come and I hope that so many of you reading this will be making new memories with me and the rest of DLSU OC!

The entire crew. I made the Lion, by the way, in 1.5hrs!

Happy Thursdays!

Happy Thursdays are making a comeback in DLSU! So here's another vlog. This time it's with my friend, Ken Vergara. We made it on his Samsung s2 with the Paper Camera app. Pretty cool. Made us look like we had rotten teeth though. Oh well, papel (paper in English). Camera people were Jen See, Nica Villanueva and Albert Uy. At some point Nica and Jen forget that they can be heard on the video, too even if they aren't seen. Sorry for that.
Drumroll please! Now presenting KEN "THE FACE VALUE" VERGARA'S DEBUT ON MY BLOG!

End of Installment

The last vlog installment for Zambales! It's pretty much just me talking to the camera, Apa making a few comments and Cz washing her clothes in the ocean.
Enjoy!

The Totem Pole

Here's part2 of the Zambales trip video installments. This one is of Gerard climbing this tree trunk thing that the Crystal Beach people really meant for the visitors to climb. Cz and Apa were talking about Gerard's intelligence/stupidity as he was coming down.

So there you go. 

The third and last installment, the one that makes the most sense, I think, will be up tomorrow.

175 Degrees!

Spent the weekend in Zambales! The waves were awesome for surfing, but we passed on it and just enjoyed swimming in the ocean. We got eaten by the waves... sounds better in Filipino: Kinain kami ng alon. But I'm too lazy to blog, so I decided to make a vlog on the beach... With Cz, Apa and Gerard. I've blogged about them before if you read the past OC posts. On the way home, we stopped in Pampanga and ate at the original Branch1 of Razon's! Their leche flan on top of the halo-halo were bricks compared to the paper thin slices they serve here in Manila. Don't have pictures of our Pampanga side trip though... Sorry.

My favorite shot from the trip. (c) Isbog
More pictures to come.

So here is one of the videos, I'm gonna post them throughout the week since they take forever to upload. Sorry for the crappy audio, the wind was blowing and all. And for the fact that we're all kinda weird in the video, we're always that way, but more so in this one since we were feeling the beach vibe. Plus, we were kinda high from all the chillin' we got to do.

Follow DLSU OC on Twitter or like us on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter too!

Two Hundred Forty Six

It's been half a month since my last blog post so I'll catch you up slowly since I don't think I've got the energy to blog about everything right now.
Let's start with my Anawangin trip last Feb.11-12, 2012 brought to you by none other than DLSU Outdoor Club.
Kudos to Abi Dolon and Laura Cua on the first activity they were in charge of.
To say it was a success is an understatement. It being a beach trip pretty much meant that everyone would have fun without being too exhausted to enjoy the place. Not to say that I'm not able to appreciate the view when I go on climbs. It's just that I'm too exhausted to do anything about it.
We took a boat ride to the cove. Took about an hour? But I loved it. There was a cool breeze and you could see all the shorelines and the endless expanse of blue. Lord, I'm in love with the ocean.
The first few hours after setting up camp-sandy with pine trees, how awesome is that?- we spent swimming, playing volleyball and taking pictures on the beach. After a while we went up some mountain at the edge of the beach. Simple climb, pretty effortless hike, actually.

Chillin on the boat ride. (c)Rod Calzado

View from the boat (c)JR Altarejos

Boats on the shore (c)Ryuta Murakami

Beach in the late afternoon (c)Ryuta Murakami

View from the mini-climb (c)Ryuta Murakami

Campsite (c)Ryuta Murakami

Sari-sari store near the campsite. Where we bought additional "supplies" (c)Rod Calzado

The weekend was fun, spent with old friends and a few new ones, as per usual when you go on OC trips. At night, we had a campfire and a ton of food. It was fun. We played games and all. Even had s'mores... they did, anyway. I'm not exactly a fan of marshmallows.

Laura and Lester, first timer. Siblings heating up s'mores over the campfire. (c)Ryuta Murakami 

There was even a group of guys sexy dancing for each other a few sapces over, lights and music and all. Extremely funny. No pictures though, sorry to deprive you all.

First time anyone went missing on a trip. EhemRamManipolEhem and EhemRyutaMurakamiEhem. Just for a few hours though. Didn't tell anyone they were heading off to wherever. Made Abi cry. Shame on you.

Apparently the lovebirds consummated their love on a night trek up the mountain we hiked in the afternoon, but this time by moonlight... Kidding about the lovebirds and consummation of love, by the way. The idiots didn't even bring flashlights.

View of the campsite from the idiots' evening trek. (c)Ryuta Murakami

Their excuse: "The moonlight was bright enough to guide us anyway".

I wanna smack their heads together.

Deep breaths. Moving on.

Next day, got up, had breakfast, packed up the camp and headed back to the boats for our visit to Pundaquit.

Rise and shiiiine! (c)Ryuta Murakami

An island with a lighthouse. It was... fun? The stairs we had to climb were rickety and rusty and it was pretty nerve-wracking having to climb them. I'm afraid of heights, so I wasn't able to enjoy the view from the lighthouse much. But from my vantage point, it was serene.

The rickety staircase, Gerard and Apa. (c) Ryuta Murakami

Lilai, first timer, and the view from the light house. (c)Ram Manipol 

The group at the Lighthouse.

It was located past a huge deserted house which would have been perfect for fashion photo shoots, if you didn't mind transporting all your clothes and letting your makeup melt before the shoot began, but whatever.

The house (c)Ram Manipol

The hallway (c)Ram Manipol

View behind the house (c)JR Altarejos

So yeah, took the boat over to Zambales took showers, took the bus back to Manila and finished off the awesome weekend. And I'm finally done with the blog post. It's kinda long, but I wanted to make up for the long absence.

By the way, the waves were awesome that weekend, extreme bummer I wasn't able to surf. Oh well. Surfing weekend coming up soon! Awoo awoo awoo!

Another blog post will come within the week. Honest.

Manggasm vs. Orange Jiss

Haven't been posting lately. I'm sorry. Been extremely busy with school work and the usual org activities. Especially this week. The junior officers of JEMA are competing in a juice race. The team that earns the most by the end of the week wins so we're all going into overdrive selling as many juice cups as we can. I'm the leader of Manggasm, naturally. So yeah. I'll just post some picture of our supporters and hopefully, if you come visit us during University week, you'll become one of our supporters, too! GO MANGGASM!

Martin Reyes and Aiki Herrera! DLSU Archers.

Top: Paolo Gallardo
Bottom: Loye Clamor
DLSU DRAGONBOAT TEAM!

PEP SQUAD!

PEP SQUAD DRUMMERS!

PIGLET AND BATGIRL!

SIR ARIES!

DANCE FEST ORGANIZERS! 

LA SALLIAN LEADERS!

LSDC STREET!

Hope to see you guys soon!


P.S. I'll post about DLSU OC's Anawangin weekend and the LEAP Class I headed yesterday soon.

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.