buti na lang maganda ako ngayong araw (pls don't take this too seriously...)

Translation: It's a good thing I looked good today.

Hayayay, today was quite upsetting. Got so mad at my staff, plus all the not-so-good news I've been receiving about a few field people I had a semi-meltdown. Of course I didn't let anyone see me. Still, rough day. Good thing I even bothered to dress up for work today even if I wasn't feeling well (and still).

dress: thrifted

belt: Zara

Just to share, I've had this fascination with locally crafted bags for the longest time. Thanks to a Tita Angie, a good friend of my mom, I was able to get this nice, big sturdy bag from Bukidnon. It's made by the Binukid tribe (I think), and from what I know is that they also make other types of bags like purses, laptop bags, etc. These aren't cheap, though. I think they're made to be exported. Not cheap, but definitely worth every penny :)

Bukidnon 2011

I don't remember in which post I mentioned that I was going to Bukidnon for the Kaamulan Festival. Anyway, the festival was last month and I went home to Bukidnon to join in the festivities. It was way more fun this time because my good friend Val joined me in this trip! This post will cover our first two days in Bukidnon :)

on our way up to Malaybalay, we had to take a few shots of the beautiful scenery and the alalum waterfalls

after resting, we walked around the festival grounds...

lovely local handicrafts

...decided to just chill out on our first night and have coffee at my family's cafe (which is right in front of our house!)

day 2 was spent visiting our family's rubber tree farm...

...and the Transfiguration Monastery of the Benedictine Monks

I have a lot of things to share about our 3rd day because that was the day of the Street Theater/Dancing. So fun! Watch out for my entry on that ;)

If you're interested to visit Bukidnon, it is going to be quite a long trip. The fastest way is to take a plane from Manila to Cagayan de Oro City, then either rent a van or take a bus to Malaybalay City (which is the capital of Bukidnon). But if you really want to go on an adventure, you can take the Super Ferry and the ship will dock in CDO ummm...after 4 days. Hahahaha! I have yet to gather information on where to stay because I'm not familiar with the hotels and bed & breakfast inns there, but I will definitely try to get as much info from my friends there. Bukidnon is a place you go to if you just want to relax and get away from the city. Main objective of the trip is to REST. Believe me, that's what Val and I mostly did in this trip, haha! After every activity we'd take a nap and feel so rested and rejuvenated after even if we only had like an hour or two of shut eye. Yup, our sleep was that deep.

untitled

I'm sleepy, but I can't get myself to go to bed. I feel like there are still tons of things to do and I haven't started on anything yet. Aaaack I'm stressing out on something that's not even supposed to be stressful...at all. I can't elaborate further and as I mentioned in my previous entry, I can explain everything after the 15th....and that's 5 days from now.

Anyway, to brighten the mood a bit I'd like to share with you a picture of me that my friend Val took while we were in my family's rubber tree farm in Bukidnon. As usual, I have backlog entries and the Bukidnon 2011 trip is one of those posts.

Bukidnon, My Home

I was neither born nor raised in Bukidnon, but I consider it my home--my second home, that is. Almost 10 years ago, my dad moved there to make use of the farmland my maternal grandmother's family owned but never bothered to use until we had problems with illegal tenants who were claiming that the land was theirs. So, despite having no experience in farming and having been raised in the city, my dad moved to Malaybalay to start a new career as a farmer. Well, as a businessman/farmer. It wasn't an easy decision to make because that meant he'd have to leave my mom and me and my brothers here while he was there staying with my grandmother's relatives. Fast forward to 2010, my dad would rather stay there than go back to Manila I kid you not. I'd like to think that my dad has always been a 'probinsyano' at heart. He wasn't your typical Manileno. Adjusting to the provincial life wasn't as difficult for my dad, and the major adjustment was just not having us with him there. Well, my mom and brothers followed after 3 years and they're feeling the same way about Manila. It was their home almost their entire lives, but they'd rather live out the rest up in the cool mountains of Bukidnon. Even if I never moved to Bukidnon, I consider it as my second home. I get excited whenever I find the chance to leave Manila and visit my family there. I don't really need to adjust that much.

I spent Holy Week this year in Malaybalay with my family. My grandmother was in the US visiting my uncles, while my other brother spent it here in Manila because he still had work. I've gotten used to going there alone so I didn't mind.

As usual, I'm not going to dwell so much on narrating every little detail about what I did there. I'd rather show it to you through pictures (with the help of captions, of course :p).

Our coffee shop--Bukidnon Brew Cafe

Our home

Living Room

Dining Room Mirror

Dining Room (with a view of the kitchen)

Our long parking area/'runway'

Dahilayan Outdoor Park (with Asia's longest zipline!)

Dinner at La Vetta, Cagayan de Oro. I treated my family :)

just...lazy

Hallooo everyone, I'm still not quite up to writing all my backlog entries because I'm lazy like that--haha! Please understand, this is a process. I can't just spew out articles like invectives to ___ (which can come out quite easily). But I do hope that this weekend will prove to be inspiring/motivating so that I can finally post those entries. What I'll do now is share with you guys a few pictures from my Holy Week weekend in Bukidnon, my English Tea Birthday Party, and my recent Pahiyas Festival day trip. Enjoy!

HOLY WEEK 2010, BUKIDNON

MY ENGLISH TEA BIRTHDAY PARTY

PAHIYAS FESTIVAL 2010