Menthol-Guy

_{P.S.: This post is amazingly long, but I put pictures every now and often.}

If you’re wondering why I had toured Northern Luzon in the past weekend, it’s a requirement (we had two choices: Manila trip or the Ilocos trip; of course it’s obvious and it would be wise to choose the latter) for our Humanities 2 (Art and Society) class. In UPLB, it’s the much-awaited educational trip.

To tell you the truth, I wasn’t really that excited with the trip. For one, traveling from Laguna to Ilocos Sur is a solid ten hours, plus the traffic jams in Manila. Another is that it must have been a royal pain in the ass, knowing that you have to endure sitting on the same seat for ten hours straight (with two stop-overs, though it doesn’t really matter). It’s part of traveling, sure, I’ve been in and out of Bulacan for years, but this one could be the longest bus trip I have yet to experience.

Good thing, though, I slept for eight hours during the bus ride.

DAY 1: VIGAN

Vigan has this old school look with cobblestone streets and wooden houses built on top of stone foundations, like it was time-warped from the 19th century (a very suitable venue for Nick Joaquin’s “May Day Eve”, as how Lio puts it). Though I had been expecting Vigan to be entirely occupied by these kinds of houses, only a fraction of it was left upon the request of UNESCO as they declared Vigan’s Heritage Village as a world heritage.

Being the glutton that I am, the first thing that came to my mind was FOOD–and not just food, but Vigan food. So I went to the nearest store with some of my friends and tasted a much-prized delicacy: the Vigan Empanada.

I even caught a glimpse as to how they make their yummy empadanas! These empanadas are big, crispy and flavorful, and though they’re worth 30 pesos (which is pretty much expensive for an empanada, really), I’m sure it’s worth it for tourists. :D

By Night

Vigan’s enchanting look blooms during the night, where you can really see the antique street lamps lighten the road in its nostalgic orange and the silhouettes of kalesas and the white lights of the souvenir shops come into life.

DAY 2: LAOAG + PAGUDPUD

The first time I hear Laoag, I suddenly remember the Marcoses and the Crisologos and the political bloodshed they have had from the past decade (and probably until today). Also, my sister’s ex-boyfriend live there and she used to go there once in a while without my Dad’s permission, but that was a long time ago, when I was six.

We also went to Juan Luna’s house in Laoag.

Then we went to Cape Bojeador Lighthouse and the Bangui Windmills (which powers almost 70 percent of the province’s electricity! Imagine! Cheap electricity for everyone).

Aside from windmills, Cape Bojeador boasts its natural beauty with crabs and brittle stars and other marine organisms!

Lastly, we went to Pagudpud!

We get to play Amazing Race (which was pretty hard; one challenge requires you to put sand in a liter of Wilkins bottle without using anything but your body) and relax in the beach and eat food and lull ourselves around.

DAY 3: BAGUIO

We went to La Trinidad and Baguio shortly for a stop-over.

In La Trinidad where the strawberry farms are mostly situated, they have this Strawberry Taho sold in the streets for 15 pesos! It tastes acceptable, really, though the usual taho seems to be better-tasting than this one (or maybe my taste buds are the one at fault).

Strawberries everywhere!

In three days:

• took 884 pictures (deleted pictures not yet included)
• consumed four fully-charged Energizer rechargeable batteries
• also consumed four Energizer disposable batteries (the red-and-silver ones, with 50% longer life)
• ate all the Vigan delicacies I’ve known
• bought Havaianas in Vigan (!) after seeing a rustic-looking branch along Calle Crisologo
• bought keychains, necklaces, bracelets for pasalubong
• bought Bagnet, Vigan Longganisa (my favorite) and Bibingka for Dad and my friends as well
• drank once with busmates (the second time I told them I have to sleep; I almost threw up in the bus the morning after the boozefest)
• ate three straight meals provided by Cordillera Inn, where we stayed for three days
• tuned to Alapaap while crusing down the Kennon Road, which was timely since all we see were clouds here and there (it’s good that the bus driver also like Eraserheads a lot, even if he’s around his fifties)
• ate Ruffles, Roller Coaster, Piattos, among other junk foods which I abhor so much (I didn’t have any choice anyway–these are the so-called bus foods since they’re handy, flavorful and light enough in the baggage)
• drank at least eleven bottled drinking water
• collected pebbles and sand in Pagudpud for our aquarium at the apartment
• met at least twenty students from UPLB (and they’re so fun to be with)
• conversed with at least four vendors in Vigan (one even spoke in Ilokano first, and I told her I only speak Tagalog)
• smoked at least three Marlboro (golds) cases
• lost my Cricket lighter (a violet one)

I can’t pretty much sum things up even in bullets. I have so much to tell; my mind’s swarming with sentences and stories to tell, but for the lack of time and probably for the fear that you guys might just skip the paragraphs (like I always do) here are the pictures!

I’ve had my Canon PowerShot SX100 IS last May. It’s a bridge kind of a camera (the term “bridge” I got from Carlo and L.A. during the January 3 boozefest)–a point-and-shoot but with an expanding lens and some functions almost similar with that of a DSLR. I have no idea about technicalities but so far, that’s what I’ve understood about the “bridge camera” concept.

It’s a nice camera, though it’s bulkier than the usual point-and-shoot (but compared with DSLRs, this one’s more portable–a thing you can carry during party nights and stuff).

What pisses me off is this:

_{A picturesque lighthouse blotted by an unidentified optical mole
that can only be seen during zoomed-in shots.}

This “spot” only appears whenever I zoom-in something, say, this lighthouse near Pagudpud. No matter how miniscule or how mild this spot looks like, at this photo, it KILLS the entire lighthouse scene and the calmness of the skies.

As far as I could remember, my camera had this dot feature when I was at the Hoboken Arts and Music Festival with Mom and the rest of my family. We were taking pictures together when I’ve noticed a mole in my Mom’s face. While skimming other pictures, I’ve noticed that the dot also appears in other pictures–blotted in a tree, in my sister’s teeth, everything at the center of the picture.

What’s even insulting is that it appears at the center of the picture. Not at the sides or somewhere near the corner.

I had visited a blog from the past few months (around August, probably) and he was also wondering about the same thing–though in his case, the dots are more visible (like black dots), less insulting (miniscule particles) and has increased in number (four of them stained the picture). The dots appear while using his DSLR.

The comments said it was probably the dirty lens. Dust could still gather at the insides of the lens if not cleaned properly–or in his case, not cleaned at all. Lenses are vulnerable to damage, though, and the cleaning must be executed by some camera expert.

The thing about my camera is that I can’t remove its lens. It’s hammered to the entire body itself, knowing that mine is a hybrid point-and-shoot with a bigger lens.

_{Another case, though the dot sort-of diminished its intensity since I haven’t zoomed the picture.}

Now what do I do? I couldn’t just subsist to photoshopping pictures with a miraculous dot blotting the focus of my shots. Any suggestions? Hmm?

_{P.S.: I’ll be posting my Vigan shots sometime tomorrow. :) I dunno why but I sort of expecting some people to get excited with Vigan pictures.}

I look up to my seatmate-slash-groupmate in a certain subject who happened to introduce her daughter (through her desktop background). “She’s my daughter. Her name’s Nami.” She said this without hesitation, without any hint of remorse or regret or anything that’s close to disappointment. She said it like her daughter was the prettiest two-year old baby in the world that she was staring at her laptop screen for a couple of seconds–like she was enchanted and captivated by it. It wasn’t an awkward moment after all.

“Really? Was she?” I said, still dazed.
“Yup.”
“She looks really… darling and all,” I said with an out-of-words tone.
“I’ll show you other pictures! She recently celebrated her second birthday.”

To tell you the truth, I was blown away by her revelation, to think that she did it abruptly.

She had been my crush ever since we first met in the classroom but right after that moment, right after my knowing that she’s a mother-slash-student aged 21, I adored her. It made me think deeper and wiser about being a young parent. I sort of imagined her crying in front of her mom begging for financial assistance or something; I assumed it was shameful for her at first (though good thing her husband haven’t left her), that it was awful for her to be pregnant, but the fact that she chose to study right after giving birth to her baby made me develop a huge admiration towards her.

_{I should make this my creative work in my Literature class. As our final project, we are required to make a creative work (short stories, poems and the like) and read them aloud to the class. Developing a story out of this must be hard, though, considering that it was a second-hand experience.}

Anyway, I’ll be off to Vigan this Friday for a field trip. I’ll be staying there for three days and two nights, and I hope I could get my pictures processed (though storing the files in my 2 GB memory card should be hard. I can’t bring a busted laptop along the trip–it would just add to the bulk.

Maybe, for a couple of reasons, I could state my being depressed these days. (May I use the term “depressed” even if I have not yet been analyzed. In Filipino terms, being depressed equates to something huge and baffling; a problem that’s dismally associated to something MORE than the meaning of the word itself.)

1) Not enough diversions. I haven’t read anything decent for a month–the last would be “Running with Scissors” by Augusten Burroughs, a book Shari lent me during our 3rd of January boozefest (and both of which, the book review and the blogger’s meet-up I haven’t even written a POST, and I must mention my apologies to Rens and the rest of the gang who must have waited for the pictures I took that night, and to Ian for the trouble).

The last movie I’ve watched was about Houdini, entitled “Death Defying Acts” with Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones in it. It was good that it unraveled the flaw of the protagonist himself, that despite the rammed chains and the death-defying acts, he still had something maternally-related that scarred him for life. (Is that even true that he died from nothing but a fatal punch? Wow.)

Aside from the February Fair and the Valentines date I’ve had last Sunday at the Enchanted Kingdom together with my orgmates (which I should be posting right now), nothing else breaks the monotony.

Also, I’ve never malled that much these past few weeks. That should be number two: the lack of money, but almost everyone’s depressed with that, and that it’s a given thing to be depressed of.

2) Academics. I think I’m flunking my Algebra again. Goddamnit, UPLB’s so stringent with teaching Mathematics! (Or is it my lenient High School teachers to blame?) I know, I know, Math is an indelible birthmark I have to face, but for the love of Buddha, could you just please let me pass this course!

Good thing, though, I got a 1.0 in my Literature exam (oh, the geek!). It’s such a fascinating course about Comparative Literature. Maybe I aced the exam since it’s an essay type. It’s still an achievement, anyway.

3) Family-related problems. Shallow problems, I must admit, since I’m open-minded and stuff but I still can’t help but consider it a problem than just a passing fart.

4) Uncertainties. I’m planning things I wouldn’t want to spill right now (clue: I’m shifting to Diliman) since it might just make my hopes false. Also, it’s still tentative.

Also, I was wondering if my Dad would allow me to throw a birthday bash in our house in Bulacan. I haven’t had anything close to a birthday celebration since sixth grade, and I wish he would fund it. (Plus, I was wondering if Mom would buy me an iPod Touch.)

I was also wondering if I could still buy canvas curtains for my room. LOL I know, shallow.

If there’s a quote I would want to remark in this post, it’s the poem I remember back at third grade. Third grade taught me that poem, entitled “The Wheel” or something like it, which says that in life, “we’re sometimes up, we’re sometimes down.” It’s a shallow read, the way I could remember it vividly–the kind of a third grade poem–but it somewhat left an imprint on me with my perspective in life, or the way I publish insights about things.

I think I’m on the down phase these past few weeks, but I hope the fog’s clear for the next few weeks. So much for optimism! Woohoo.

_{P.S.: I’m excited with my field trip to Vigan (for Art class) for three days and two nights!!! I wish I could get my laptop fixed, though, so that I could at least bring it and plug my earphones on it and enjoy the night away. (Also, drinking and smoking is allowed in the hotel room! WOW.)}