Perfect Birthday

I'm officially 20!!! I had the best 20th birthday celebration today because I was able to spend it with all my loved ones and I was reminded of how I am loved and so #blessed as well.

Started my birthday off with a birthday salubong on my birthday eve. On the night of the 29th, my closest friends came over for dinner and drinks and they all stayed up with me till midnight to celebrate my coming of age into the twenties! It was a good night with only the best company I could ever have :-)
 

The next morning was my actual BIRTHDAY! I was greeted by my entire family and my little sister came in with a gift... it was the Smashbox Photo Op Eyeshadow ICON Palette!!!! I've been super wanting this palette since around 2 months ago and since I'm always out shopping with my sis I told her that this is one of the things that I wanted. Its actually very expensive for eyeshadow so when I found a cheaper alternative, I asked her for that instead but then the shop ran out of stocks so she got me this. My sister is so awesome, I swear. (She's like 10x cooler than me no joke!!)

After getting ready, we headed to Makati Shang for lunch at Circles. God I swear I love food. Please dont judge me when you see me back in school next year huhu I've gained millions. 

There were actually a LOT of food but I ended up only eating the fresh selections simply because I was craving and damn, sushi is just hella good. I had a bit of beef and cheese assortment as well but I had more of the seafood. I ate 10x more than whats photographed of course.

Oddly, I didnt have much dessert (yes, hindi pa "much dessert" yan lol). I usually sample each cake on the buffet table and I have an entire plate full of desserts (there was a cake with macarons on top...) but for some reason my stomach just couldnt handle anymore and I just had these.

Mango Crepe, Raspberry Sorbet, Molten Chocolate Cake.

After which I opened my parents birthday gift for me which was a Pandora bracelet. I actually had the hardest time thinking of what to ask for this Christmas and my birthday and it eventually boiled down to a Pandora bracelet or a new bag.. I chose the Pandora. 

I read about Pandora before deciding that this was what I was going to ask for and I realized that this was going to be a timeless, classic piece that would hold my memories (thus the Pandora's tagline 'Unforgettable Moments'). Pandora is a charm bracelet that offers a variety of charms from sterling silver, gold, two-toned, sterling silver with gemstones, and Murano glass beads. With the price of the charms, one may need to collect the charms little by little before completing the actual bracelet. This adds value to your bracelet though because each charm that you add would then have a significant meaning to your bracelet as you build it up along the way.

For my bracelet, I started with two clips: the Flower clip (leftmost) and S clip (right). I then chose the two-toned Queen Bee charm w 14k gold, the Cool Breeze Blue Topaz charm, and the two-toned Cupcake charm w 14k gold. I chose these because I thought they represented me, plus they were cute!! Their gold is non-plated btw so the smallest dot of gold in the charm can really increase the price. 

The bracelet was pre-bought before Christmas so we already had it but I just opened it today. Today though, dad offered to buy me another bead!! The Love Me Black Mother of Pearl charm. This is a topper in my favorite beads (and its actually in my wishlist) so I was so happy when dad said he'd get it for me. It's also very unique and pretty much love at first sight. 

Since dad got me this bead today, I named it my 'birthday bead' because I got it on my birthday and now it'll hold the memories that I spent with everyone on this very special day of mine. 

Finally, as I was in Makati with my family to celebrate, my friend Desa from my college circle of friends dropped by to give me this! She and Binky, another really close friend of mine, made me this birthday card with photos of us and some other close friends. I love getting things like these and theres probably nothing that can make me happier. In fact, upon opening gifts, its really the dedication I look for first. A meaningful dedication, no matter whats inside the giftbox, already means so much to the receiver. One dedication can carry an entire gift! :-) 

In the end, this day was all very heartwarming. Love came from everywhere. From my highschool friends, college friends, and from my family. My birthday this year was definitely filled with love. Hoping for the next few ones to be the same as well. Thank you to everyone who greeted and made this day so very special for me! :-)

In The Spirit of Christmas

Long time no blog. I actually still have two more entries for that Japan trip I had last summer but we'll save that for another time. I'm blogging right now cause I'm home early, on a FRIDAY night, the night of UP's Lantern Parade, and supposedly our last day of seeing all our college friends before the awaited Christmas break. I decided to blog because of my new found 'maturity' or as how i call it, 'retirement' lol. I just couldnt feel Christmas this year. The Lantern Parade this year was way different from how it was last. I remember last year's parade like it was just yesterday. It was so fun. Smiles and laughter everywhere. It was so different this year. I guess most of us just went our separate ways. And since we're getting older, not much of us join the Lantern Parade anymore. I call my status 'retirement' because I went home early today, and I just really wanted more than anything, to be home on my bed while watching some TV series. Its not like me. I was always that girl who stayed up in all the parties, always thirsty for alchohol. I was that girl who snuck out of the dorm numerous times just to go return to parties if I wanted to go home late. But now, I'm home at 8:30pm and feeling more enjoyment than I had earlier at our college which had free flowing pizza and beer. Yes, I chose my bed and tv series over pizza and beer.

I dont know. Maybe it comes with age, or maybe its because of all the work I've been doing both academics and org-wise. I guess in the end you could probably say I'm burned out. After being in position for some time, you get tired of it too. I'm a Director for External Affairs in one of my organizations, and I'm also part of the Externals team in my other org so my job really consists of external relations. I was perfect for those positions because socializing with others has always been my thing. I guess when it actually becomes your job to socialize, you get tired of it that when you have luxury time, you just want to be by yourself. Makes sense, doesnt it?

But ah well, atleast we could say that I'm maturing at the right time. I'm definitely starting to love staying in more. I'm turning 20 in fifteen days and wow how time flies. This is probably my body starting to adjust to the new year that I am about to seize.

Before I go, a little quote which captured the essence of my current feelings, from Danielle's blog, TrustMe-ItsParadise.blogspot.com:

"Following a recent exceptionally harrowing fever, and an extended trip to the island I call home, days of self-imposed detox and lots and lots of sleep, I felt emotionally drained and surprisingly nostalgic and anti-social. I am like a lost baby bear constantly fighting off the un-ignorable desire to fall into a permanent winter slumber.."


Goodnight.

The Structural Side

 

What I Wore: Topshop sweater, Giordano basic longsleeve, Zara jeans, Forever 21 boots, Chanel bag.

 This day consisted more of just going around different cities in Japan. God, the trains there are the worst to get used to. So confusing! We probably got lost a billion times during this trip. Its hard to get used to the trains in Japan cause they have more train lines than the ones in NY or HK plus not everything has an English translation so its really hard to get around especially with the fast-paced lifestyle of everyone there. In my honest opinion, it was even more fast-paced in Japan than in New York (considering NY is known to be such a fast-paced city). In Japan, there was never a time when it was just all peace and quiet in the subway. Okay, maybe when it gets late at around 10pm.. but any time before that? Not a chance.

So on this day we did a lot of sight-seeing. We visited Odaiba where we caught a glimpse of the Fuji TV Headquarters (being an Archi student I got all starstruck upon seeing the the building). We went on a tour around Odaiba and dropped by this mall for some genuine Japanese Tonkatsu, followed by a trip to this other mall where there was a showcase of Toyota cars. Here we also realized how expensive dogs are in Japan as we saw dogs being sold in the mall for a hundred thousand PESOS. Yes, dogs here in the Philippines can cost around twenty thousand pesos at most but back there, a hundred thousand was the base cost --and this wasnt even for labradors or any big dogs, they were for teacup sized dogs like chiuauas and terriers.

Anyhoo, we ended the day with a trip to the Tokyo Tower in Minato. Did you know that the Tokyo Tower is even taller than the Eiffel Tower? Its the world's tallest self-supporting steel tower at 333 meters compared to Eiffel Tower's 320 meter height. We spent the night at the viewing deck of the Tokyo Tower to marvel at Tokyo's skyline while a band, Sapatos, played in the background. Add some Baskin Robbins icecream to that, and the night ended perfectly well.

 

Omotesando Hills

What I Wore: Mango tube top, H&M Blazer, Forever 21 sequined shorts and boots, Marks&Spencer tights, Chanel bag.

Hey guys! So it's been more than 7 months since this trip and yet I'm only able to post again now. School's been killer. It is seriously no joke studying in UP. Especially Architecture, at that. I have honestly not crawled this much in my entire life. Haha.

Anyhoo, so this was another day over at Japan. I pretty much dont remember the names of all the places we visited anymore except that on this day we went to Shibuya, Omotesando Hills (the 'Beverly Hills' of Japan), and Akihabara (Capital city for anime!). We basically just shopped on this day and bought pasalubong in this traditional souvenir shop in Omotesando Hills. Shibuya was jampacked with shops as well. There was the 109 Department Store which was so.. nice!! A department store just FULL of girl stuff on each floor. Could've probably spent the entire day there if not for my parents rushing. Our last stop was Akihabara since my sister wanted to look for the anime figurine that she wanted there (she goes crazy for these things). That place is crazy wild as well. A ton of buildings with endless floors overflowing with toys! We werent able to find the exact figurine that she wanted and it was getting late so we ended up going back the following day.

That's about it for now! I'm preparing more posts for you guys soon. Oh and did you notice my new blog layout? It's so pretty now! Took me till 5am the other day just fixing the blog. Thought it needed a fresh change :-)

DisneySea

Late post if late, but here it goes! Our trip to Tokyo DisneySea last summer. I actually wrote an entire blog for this while we were on our trip (so I wouldnt have to come up with something to write again when I got back), but its at home in the South and I'm here at my dorm with nothing to do so I've decided to finally update this blog and just come up with a new post instead. It'll be short though since I've probably forgotten a lot of details I wanna say about this day.

 
What I Wore: Forever 21 sweater and skort, Marks and Spencer tights, Rustan's shoes, Zara bag. 

 So, all I can say is that DisneySea was amazing. Everytime we're abroad we always visit a certain Disney and this is probably our 4th/5th time in a Disney park. This trip was something really different though because it was to DisneySea! MOST AMAZING DISNEY PARK EVER. I love it there!!!! DisneySea was probably the most enjoyable Disney park I've been to. The scenery, the rides, the SHOWS. Everything! The rides and Disney characters that they featured in DisneySea were so fresh and new. Since its DisneySea, their parades were on water!!! It was AMAZING. When we came that day, we were able to watch 2 parades, one in the afternoon and another at night. Each featured a bunch of floats on water with a ton of different DisneySea characters. It was definitely an experience. Now this is one Disney park I'd go back to again and again and again :-)