Day 1: Greetings and Characters

I was up early for today since it's my first day of class. My parents and sister were very supportive of me and even wished me luck before I left. My father accompanied me to the terminal, as well as our dog. I accidentally rode a different jeepney (I was supposed to ride a Cubao-bound jeepney but instead I rode a LRT-Santolan one) but I managed to get on one with the correct route. Upon arriving at Katipunan, I rode another jeepney, UP Loob Campus and alighted at Palma Hall, to where the class will be held. 

My room assignment is Rm. 428 which is located at the fourth floor and at the very end of the east side of the building. Fifteen minutes before time, we entered the room which amazed me because it is airconditioned. I am seatmates with my classmate, Annie, an accountant who works somewhere in Makati and her friend. It was not long when our sensei came. His name is Mr. Cristopher Dofitas. He is cool since he said he has the same reason why he chose to study Nihongo: to watch anime without subtitles. I learned that he is jolly and quite an anime otaku.

He gave us our modules and discussed today's topics. What I learned on my first day were: 

1. 1. Basic Greetings in Japanese (which I'm quite familiar with) 
2. 2. The first five lines of Hiragana writing system (a, k-line, s-line, t-line and n-line) 

We also have an assignment on writing and he even gave us practice sheets to which we will submit next meeting. Little did I know that it was already 11:00 AM. Time really flies when you're having fun eh? Gambatte Pau-chan for the assignments and the meetings to come!

THE すごい PROJECT: The Making

I was browsing the net one awful afternoon and I came across my e-mails. The messages I sent to the Nihongo learning centers throughout Philippines appeared in front of me; one of them was from UP Department of Linguistics. I opened it and I found myself in their blog and there it is: the announcement of the January to March Cycle of Asian Languages Extramural Classes. 

Photo from UP Linguistics website

At first I am very much eager to go since I know I can do it. It will only be held on Saturdays, I said to myself. But when I read the instructions on how to enroll, it requires the student or some representative to go to UP to pay for the tuition. The cashier's office is only open during weekdays so it's a little bit impossible for me to go. But with motivation and my passionate interest to the language, I went to UP and paid for it. 

For more information regarding UP Diliman's Extramural Classes, you can check out their website here.

Soshified PH Into The New World Screening

It's been a while since Ray and I became Sones. Sones are the fans of So Nyeo Shi Dae (SNSD) aka Girls' Generation. I don't know what happened we just happened to like the Girls so much when we saw them in the videos. My bias is Choi Soo Young; while Ray's is Seohyun.

Last December 30, Soshified PH posted in their Facebook page that there will be a screening of Into The New World: The First Asian Concert of SNSD to be held at the Korean Cultural Center today. The post said that there are limited seats for the event so they'll be posting a registration page and it will be in first-come-first-served basis. Once the link was posted, Ray and I signed up for it immediately.

Earlier today, we went to the screening in Taguig. The screening didn't start at exactly 1:00 PM since the music video of The Boys was still played and they conducted games. Our shop, A! Shop, was also promoted in the event by giving out bookmarks and photo prints of SNSD.

As soon as the screening started, the fans went wild. They're fanchanting and screaming as they see their bias' face. That's normal but when I realized that they were really into fan service, I felt kind of awkward. Maybe because it was my first time to attend a fans club event. We headed out early since we still have other plans to do.

Despite our early departure, the screening was fun. It brought out the Sone in everyone inside that room. I can feel their love for the girls and that made me one proud Sone.

The Mann Hann Experience

Now I'm back to work. After a week of vacation, I gained weight. *sighs* I am off once again to the weight loss regimen. Despite that, the A! Shop co-owners (me, Ray, Sienna and Maye) along with Jasper, decided to take a lunch out at Mann Hann in SM Megamall, Bldg. A.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, we were asked on how many are we. When the guard found out that we were more than four, we were transferred to Mannang, which I believe is a substore of Mann Hann. It was proven when we looked at the menu; there was Mann Hann on the front, and Mannang on the back. Mannang specializes in Filipino cuisine while Mann Hann offers Chinese food.

We ordered nothing from the Mannang menu since it's the typical food we eat. What we got from the Mann Hann menu are:

Garlic Rice (Php 145.00)

Seafood Special (Php 265.00)

Spicy Spareribs (Php 250.00)

Mixed Vegetables (Php 210.00)

We just had service water for our drinks and of course, since it's a Chinese restaurant, they serve unlimited house tea. Serving time is around 15 minutes which I can say is really accurate.

Our food, in my opinion, was superb. I was craving for vegetables, so maybe that's why I enjoyed our lunch. I can taste the authenticity of the dishes and how crisp the vegetables were. The only down side (but not really), was that the spareribs were not spicy at all. I am really fond of spicy food, so I don't know if I am already immune. It was just my friends who justified that it's not spicy.

Mann Hann definitely has value for money. It cost us less than a thousand for our lunch. Remember, there were five of us and the authentic taste the dishes have. We left the restaurant full and our pockets intact.

Have you eaten at Mann Hann? I believe we have the same experience! :)

MANN HANN

Basement, SM Megamall, Bldg. A

Budget: Php 200 - Php 500

Rating: 9/10

A New Year's Resolution

It's the first day of year 2013! :) Yayayay! I'm thinking about compiling all my pictures in 2012 to have a year-end recap but ended up not doing it. I tried to upload my first video blog (vlog) of the year, also to no good. What I did for today was just lie on my bed and watch We Got Married.

My mom and sister are cleaning our kitchen but since I'm no kitchen pro, I just decided to spend the day in front of my computer like usual. I had a glimpse of my planner and just decided to create some new year resolutions which are as follows:

1. Maintain my blog.

2. Be more productive at work.

3. Do well in my businesses (A! Shop and Lynque Prints).

4. Be less moody.

5. Weigh at least 110 lbs.

6. Give more to those in need.

7. Spend more time with my family.

8. Capture each moment.

9. Enhance my skills.

10. Be closer to God.

11. Be frugal.

Those are my resolutions for the year. I know there are others but it's way too many. I just took the liberty of writing the generic ones first. Well I believe everyone of us has our own resolutions. What's yours?