Tuesday, April 27, 2010

office drama

I've been ranting about work a lot lately. I haven't really posted it here on my blog but I've been complaining about how bad the situation is at my office with my mom and with a couple of friends. My mom's sick of it, actually. I'm actually getting tired of complaining already. I feel like a total hypocrite since I don't really like it when people complain a lot. Then I realized I'm doing the exact thing I hate. So yeah, I'm a bit pissed with myself for being such a negative person lately. It's not that I hate what I do. I just don't like how things are being managed in my office. Specifically, I don't like our boss. No one in the office likes her, actually. But, we do have to deal with her everyday. And I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that my brewing resentment is making it difficult for me to even stay in the same room with my boss. That's tough, considering I report directly to her. Being a young professional, and since this is my first job, I'm learning that there really are people that you'd have to deal with who will really just frustrate you. But there's no use with being so affected by them because in the end, you're still colleagues and you'd have to learn to overlook those glitches in their personality so that you'll be able to work together effectively. And I guess I'm learning humility as well through this difficulty of mine. I've been in this industry for only 2 years, and of course my boss has far more experience than I do.

It's hard, but I am slowly learning to just stop complaining and just let things fall into place. Ranting about things aren't really doing anything to improve the situation, so it's quite obvious I should just shut up about it. I'm hoping my officemates will do the same thing. It really can be quite hard to keep mum when everyone starts talking about stuff. Oh well...I should start being more positive about things. I think things will lighten up in the workplace if we'd all just start practicing patience and grace towards each other.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Best Birthday...so far :) Day 2

Finally posting about Day 2 of my Sagada trip. As I mentioned in my previous entry, I sprained my ankle while inside the Lumiang Cave. Stupid accident, really. It would've been more understandable if I sprained it while spelunking or while going down into the deep holes in the cave. But no! I stepped on an unstable rock and ended up breaking my fall and twisting my right ankle. Hurt like hell, good thing the guides were quick to respond and twisted it back in place and bandaged it. So basically, what we did on the second day was spend the entire morning until mid-afternoon INSIDE the cave no thanks to human traffic. It was a long holiday weekend so there were really a lot of people in Sagada. It was okay, considering there were just a few tour groups that actually did the difficult cave connection. Can't help but be proud :)

Basically, I'll be posting pictures of our trek to the cave, inside the cave, and my birthday "salubong", which is sort a party/get-together to wait for one's birthday and everyone will just shout "Happy Birthday!" at the strike of 12, although we weren't able to make it. We were all just so tired we drank a bit and decided to sleep...at 11:30!

I have more group pictures on the third day so watch out for that :) And lots of food pictures from that day as well, haha!

Our jeep




Coffins in the cave...the locals believe that people can choose where they are to be buried. Usually, women who've died giving birth are buried in caves' entrances. I forgot the complete explanation..


On our way to Lumiang Cave's entrance...










At the cave's entrance


Our group's "before" picture. We were still all clean and guano-free.


The coffins up-close


This is it! We're starting our spelunking deep into the cave










I have no idea where we were in this part of the cave, but I think we were already about...umm...less than 1/4 of the way. Haha! Keep in mind we were inside the cave for 6 1/2 hours!




Group shot again


We were in the "dance hall" of the cave. It's a huge flat area overlooking this deep drop (scary, I tell you!). But we could also see the bats above us. The cave's ceiling was so high and we could only see the bats' shadows from our flashlights. And we could hear them, so creepy.
After I tripped. Aaargh! And this happened before our 30 ft. rappel down. Bad timing.


...so instead of tying a rope around me and harnessing me down, the guide had a better idea. He carried me on his back and he rappelled down with me. Hahaha! I was so scared because if I accidentally let go, I'd either be dead or I would've suffered even more serious injuries. I think I almost choked him with how tight I was holding on, hahaha! And yes, someone was kind enough to take this very dignified picture of me, hahaha!

Although my ankle was really killing me, I tried to smile for the camera



For my birthday "salubong". Our travel consultant bought a bit of booze and snacks. Alas, we lasted only until 11:30 and had to go to sleep.




Tired, a bit buzzed, but I was very, very, very happy :)


Day 3 will be posted soon (hopefully). I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Best Birthday...so far :) Sagada Day 1

Okay, I'll do my entry first about Sagada before the one about my Holy Week vacation at Bukidnon. I'm too lazy to get up and get my flashdisk where the Bukidnon pictures are saved sooo...k.

Anyway, yes I spent my birthday in Sagada which is in Mt. Province waaaaaay up north. Like, way waaaaaay up. Think 9 hours on the bus then 3 hours in a jeepney. I joined a Sagada tour group organized by Travel Factor. I signed up about a month before the trip, deciding that I'd go on the trip alone. I figured it'd be a milestone/independence trip for my 23rd birthday. And yes, I am proud to say that I'm 23. Some of my friends seem to think that's old. I dunno...I've never been afraid of getting old because each year you get to experience more things and you learn so much about the world and about yourself. That's why I don't get why age is such an issue. Well that's just me.

What I love about my birthday this year is that I was able to meet lots of new friends and I got to go on an awesome adventure. I went out of my comfort zone by going somewhere new alone. I learned that there are still good people in this world. You see, I sprained my right ankle while spelunking in the cave. Stupid accident, really...made my birthday even more memorable! I sprained it just in time before the 30-ft rappel down. Great! You won't believe how I got down. Keep in mind we didn't have harnesses. One of our guides carried me on his back and he was the one how rappelled down, hahaha! I was a bit scared because if I accidentally let go that could possibly be the end of me, or I'd end up suffering worse injuries. Too bad I missed the best part of the cave...the crystal rock formations deeper in! Argh...oh well, I have a reason to go back to Sagada :p

So here's how my trip went on the first day...We left for Banaue at 10 p.m last April 8 and arrived there before 7 a.m the next day. After eating breakfast, we took a 3-hr jeepney ride from Banaue to Sagada. The trip was actually quite nice because of the great view.




Somehow, this reminded me of Brazil...

Took this during one of our stopovers..

When we arrived at Sagada, we settled in our inn then had lunch before heading to our trek to Bomod-ok Waterfall. The trek was really cool because we walking through the Banaue Rice Terraces, as in THE Banaue Rice Terraces--part of the 7 Wonders of the World!!!

Our inn: ALIBAMA INN, haha!

This old bathtub outside the inn fascinated me a lot...I dunno why

With 5 out of the 22 new people I met in this trip!






The entire walk to the waterfalls took us about an hour and a half. Not bad. It wasn't that hot so the trek was okay. There wasn't a lot of water falling because it's El Nino here...too bad. I've seen pictures of Bomod-ok and I was expecting it to be really spectacular. It wasn't bad, considering it's the dry season here.




I'll post days 2 and 3 later this week...am supposed to get up early tomorrow for work so I have to get some shut eye now. I hope y'all enjoy the day 1 pictures!

Monday, April 19, 2010

before anything else

Before I post about Bukidnon and Sagada.
Before I write about how happy I am that I was finally able to host a tea party for my birthday.

LET ME JUST SAY...

To you.
You wanna know why I'm upset with you? It's because you're rude. If you didn't want to talk to me, you shouldn't have answered the phone. You should've just let it ring until I hung up. You shouldn't have answered and wasted those 2 minutes. You just said a bunch of stuff that in the end, really didn't make sense.
Then you're suddenly MIA. Or maybe you're just hiding. I actually know you are, which I really don't get. It's not as if we talk anymore.
If you're mad at me, I don't understand why...because it's not as if I did anything to you, and you act like the entire world's against you. That's about it.



AAAAARGH I don't know why I am so affected by this person. Okay, breathe in, breathe out...relax...hay...tomorrow will be a better day.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

sagada preview....

Just this one shot says how amazing my trip was...



photo taken...by moi, of course :)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

backlog of posts (again)

...because I'm leaving tomorrow night (again) for....(drumroll)...


SAGADA!!!

image taken from pinoyexchange

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Malaybalay preview...

Am still too tired to post my entry about my recent vacation in Malaybalay...so here's a glimpse at the beautiful things I saw there...


Thursday, April 1, 2010

will be back Monday

Just so y'all know, I'm in Malaybalay, a city in the mountains here in Southern Philippines. My parents moved here about 9 years ago from Manila because they'd already gotten tired of all the stress of the Metropolis. Can't blame them, really. Anyway, I arrived here yesterday afternoon first via my flight to Cagayan de Oro then land trip--about 2 hours.

It's so relaxing here and you really don't notice the time. I haven't even checked my phone yet! I was also just able to check my email and facebook tonight because we had guests for lunch today. After lunch here at our house, we brought them to the Monastery of the Benedictine monks then to our farm. And I also cooked almost the entire afternoon because my parents had some friends over. My mom was raving to them last night about my lasagna and my baked orange herbed chicken so of course I was slaving away in our kitchen today.

Okay, I'll post about my Holy Week vacation maybe next Monday or Tuesday when I get back. I don't think I'll be able to post another entry until next week. I hope y'alll enjoy the weekend! :)