12 Days of Christmas (Days 1-10)
Happy Christmas Everyone!
I didn’t intentionally do it, but for some strange reason, I haven’t blogged for the past twenty-four days even with the onslaught of the much-coveted Christmas break. Well, here I am now, about to recap the Twelve Days of Celeni Christmas Excluding Actual Christmas, and lo and behold, I’m doing it during actual Christmas day. So might as well blog the whole sh-bang! Yaaay!
Day 1: Papa’s Birthday
(13 December)
This is an annual thing, but there were two highlights for the event. First, and the most shallow but very important, was the fact that my mom hired a cook from the Japanese bakery she used to manage to cook us two things tempura and California maki. I was literally eating the entire day. But seriously, I was in my happy place I was willing not to eat an entire week for that feast. My mother is a genius!! And my dad is still fantastically young.
Second, was my tito (my dad’s brother), tita and cousin from New Zealand flew in for the holidays. We went totally gaga when they got in, we were screaming like major fangirls. We are a tight-knit cult of cousins especially considering there’s only eight of us, not seeing one for two years is rather long.
First Complete Family Photo After Two Years!
(With two of my maternal aunts, and our neighbour Abijah =P)
After the photoshoots and the catching-ups, we decided to watch the fall finalé of Glee. How awesomer can the start of my Christmas season get? (=
Glee!!! Why do you have to take such a long break???
Day 2: Last Monday of the Year
(14 December)
I wore my sister’s awesome (ly painful to wear) shiny headband to my only class that day, Labor 2. I was almost late, but I made it to the calling of the roll. My professor was awesome when he told us that all our recitation and attendance records will be tabula rasa for the New Year, which was rather generous and very Christmassy! I spent the rest of the day preparing for my report the next day.
Day 3: Interesting Report on Interests
(15 December)
I still ended up cutting my 8:00 am class since I was still preparing for my report. I gave in to the irresistible urge to procrastinate so I was STILL typing out my handout two-hours before the class, and finalising my keynote an hour before. I know, it’s not healthy, but it’s not as if I can control when I’ll end up being in “the zone”. Fine, I sound like a crazy person. Anyway, the report was really fun. It was for Credit Transactions, and I reported on the legally inexistent Usury Law and the Truth In Lending Act. While reporting for the Truth In Lending Act, my professor and I engaged in an interesting conversation:
Me: (talking about protecting business interests of the borrower/debtor) ... and to quote our agency professor, he said that ‘the essence of life is profit’... (explains how profit of the debtor diminishes when he doesn’t have complete information)
Prof: That’s really interesting because I always thought the essence of life is love.
Me: Well, I can’t argue with that. But I guess the essence of life varies from one person to another. I personally think the essence of life is truth, that’s why we have the Truth in Lending Act.
ANG TIE BACK. I'm glad my classmates liked my report. I love interest rates. And I love my professor. I seriously want to be like her when I grow up. She's super pretty, with nice classy taste in lawyer fashion, plus, to match her aesthetics she's super brilliant also. I mean she's not a full-time faculty and a practitioner, but she has a perfect balance of relating practical insights with theoretical logical extensions. Usually, practitioners tend to stick with what is done in practice, but she takes the effort to criticise Supreme Court decisions with strict legal construction. Gosh, I'm babbling. Plus, by virtue of eavesdropped implication, she can sing. Oh! Oh! And she was Chief Legal Counsel of ABS-CBN. I really really really want to be like her when I grow up!!! Hahaha. Plus the essence of life is love thing was classic. =P
This is also the day I felt was when the Holidays started also. The LSG had a week-long Malcolm Christmas Week, so we started off with a cleaner Student Lounge (the un-clean Student Lounge was like a pig's sty, but people stayed there because you could plug, wi-fi and eat all at the same time). Charivari performed, and there was free lunch so that was fun. Hehehehe.
Relaunch of the Student Launch! I'm somewhere near the stair.
Photo taken from Richard Beltran [fb]
Day 4: Super WOWed by WOW Cranium
(16 December)
With four classes left, I was already giddy for this day. When the second class for the day ended, I was picking up stuff from my locker, which was near the LSG office, and it was, well, LSG Open Office! So when I checked it out, they were playing with Chingkay Martinez's WOW Cranium, and WOW, it was SUPER FUN. As in super fun is such an understatement. I didn't know what a PEZ DISPENSER was, but somehow, Chris Fernandez was able to guess it by virtue of my drawing of a cat and a water dispenser. GALING TALAGA. Oh, oh, and I never EVER thought that I'd EVER be impersonating David Hasselhoff with Gen Jusi, but I'm so glad Chingkay was able to figure it out. IT WAS SO FUNNY. It was even funnier when I started humming "Since U Been Gone" of Kelly Clarkson and Mai Suarez guessed it as BECAUSE OF YOU. Winner talaga. Well, we really won, but the winning wasn't the fun of that game. It's just the craziness of the categories, and it's pure love. ♥ I tried asking it from Santa for Christmas, but then it’s super expensive in the Philippines, lagpas sa reservation price ko, and apparently, hindi rin kinaya ni Santa. =P
Day 5: A2012 Christmas Party
(17 December)
The LSG decided to have GLEE MARATHON! Pero OMG, may Civil Procedure class pa, plus, after that was our Christmas Party. I saw the first two episodes and lo and behold, walang CivPro! Happy Christmas talaga! But instead of continually watching Glee, my blockmates and I decided to hop around town "prepping" for the Christmas Party. Then it was Christmas Party at Juno's house!
Juno's super kawaii puppy, Frisbee!
Photo courtesy of Juno Gonong [fb]
Of course, we can't miss out on crazy Videoke Diva Showdown!
Jessa brings it.
Photo via Celine Europa [multiply]
We also had a crazy Game care of PINOYGOSSIPBOY. The game was called Stroke Stroke Grab. I don't even want to explain the game, but you get it. =P
Photo via Juno [fb]
The shock after that...
Photo via Cels [multiply]
It's just soooo nice to see the entire block come together, the block we knew since first year. It's the bonds that make law school life possible, and our youth intact. Yuck! May ganun. Hahahahahaha.
Photo via Cels [multiply]
Day 6: UP Christmas Traditions
(18 December)
Well, we still had CLASS, but it was just reporting of Sen Cabahug for Warehouse Receipts. Then it was the last block lunch of the year with my credit classmates.
Photo via Eva God [fb]
On my way back to Malcolm, I bumped into Diana Dy and Joel Santos. We chilled muna sa Student Lounge, watching... WOWWOWWEE. Hahahaha. And then, it was Lantern Parade time!!! It was my first time to march on my 6th Lantern Parade (technically 5th, kasi I didn't go to the one in second year undergrad). It was soooo fun! Tiring, but fun. Diana and I, along with Cams and Vams were carrying the UP Law banner.
Photos courtesy of Cams Maranan [fb]
And well, our lantern was a major socio-political-environmental statement. There was a mural of Andal Ampatuan (with the unmistakeable red putong), carrying a chain saw and guns over a lush green landscape. Then there was a sculpture thingum of the scale of justice being tilted by life-size dolls of massacred cadavers.
Photo taken from Joshua Dalupang [www]
I know, it wasn't very Christmassy, but it had a very strong message. With matching chanting led by Alain Baguisi and the immortalised cheerleader, Professor Lumba:
"UP! UP! UP Law!
(UP! UP! UP Law!)
UP! UP! UP Law!
(UP! UP! UP Law!)
Sinong "No to Martial Law?"
(Sinong "No to Martial Law?")
UP! UP! UP Law!
(UP! UP! UP Law!)"
CLASSIC. Wala akong masabi. I was laughing half the time, kahit dapat performance-level sa may AS, Engineering at Amphitheatre. Plus, plus, the free shirt this year looked fabulous. Such a bubbly happy way to start Christmas. As usual, Fine Arts took it away. But contrary to popular sentiment, my favourite was the white elephant that opened up to be a lotus (instead of the Manny/Dionisia floats). Tim Medrano had nice photos of the event here.
After the parade, since Nikko Briguera was Markprof valedictorian, there was dinner after!
It's so amazingly comforting to be at CBTL and not stressing over school!!
When I got home (at around 11ish) my brother was still up! :O He doesn't stay up later than 9-ish even on Saturdays, so it was rather shocking. So he, my cousin, and I bonded and we played Taboo while my sister and her friends were about to have an SO (that's Nash's favourite word for sleep-over). But I retired right before 2ish because I was so effing tired. x__X
Day 7: Winter Hibernation
(19 December)
Literally, slept all day, and the only thing that dragged me out of bed was when we had to attend anticipated mass.
Oh, and when I watched 2012 with my dad and brother (but in the comfort of our living room). STRESSFUL yung movie!!!
Day 8: “Out of Town” - venturing outside Quezon City
(20 December)
Our maid was out so we had breakfast in Burger King. My dad's new wide-angled lens was ♥
I took that shot, but I was inggit so I made my sister take the same shot of me!
I love BK because they have Hi-C Apple. If anyone knows where else this could be obtained in this country, please tell me about it.
To pass some time and inhale sea breeze (my sister was always sick and her skin was a little funky), we went to SM Mall of Asia's Backyard. We were supposed to go to Anvaya Cove in Morong, Bataan, but my tito got sick. =( But anyway, the sea wall made for a nice photo op location.
I went home, had a peaceful afternoon and went to Fort Bonifacio with Nash for Nash and Diana's Birthday Dinner at Zong. Great food! And... cake!!! All unpleasantness filtered out and forgiven. And, I have learned that Serendra is just three blocks away from the Fort Strip. Yaaaaay!!! Photos with Nash and Diana.
Day 9: OH MY EYWA, TAKE ME TO PANDORA
(21 December)
Mall hopped with my brother. It was family christmas shopping but it was rather difficult because I hate crowds, and my brother hated walking. Oh well. We did our best.
But! The best part of the day was when Kriz shifted to normalcy after being a Wise Man the entire day and brought me and Tey Clamor to watch Avatar on 3D IMAX! WOW!!! Amazing talaga. As in speechless, wala akong masabi. Even if the stereotype was true: that it was a blue, Alien Pocahontas, it was still SPECTACULAR. It's a movie experience no one should miss.
Visually, I just love EVERYTHING. I love how the human beings and their station were so dull and grey and well, violent. But Pandora, everything was bioluminescent. Parang ang saya saya mag-Christmas dun even if I'm not a nature person. Their animals and plants looked so inventive and just... pretty! And the blue aliens were also in a pretty shade!!! Basta, eye candy talaga yung movie. I don't know how many times I said "wow", para akong batang first time pumunta ng Disneyland.
But personally, the best part for me was the message of the film. I kept thinking about La Bugal B'laan and the Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements and the Constitutional protection of natural resources. It's the crazed conflict about capitalism and environmental concerns. And there was even an explicit conflict on the methods to approach that conflict: diplomacy or arms. And to fit that much tension in 2 hours 41 minutes, was just AMAZING. And, it was rather timely to have a largely environmental bias on something as big as this film, mainstream especially during the Copenhagen accord. It also gives a greater sense of humanity that transcends regard for the human race, but more of a regard to life, as James Cameron’s universe adopted a Gaianist theme that I was personally amused with, as much as Sigourney Weaver’s character (Grace) was when he explained to Parker that the trees were networked like the synapses of the brain. It was simply AAAAAAAH-MAZING. I couldn’t take my eyes off the humongous screen even if it was last full showing. I didn’t even feel the time pass me by. It’s really worth a second watch!
Day 10: The Lost Day
(22 December)
I have NO IDEA what I did on this day. I remotely remember going to the grocery with my mother, but I don’t know what I was doing before that, or after that. Obviously, I probably slept the entire morning out, that’s why I don’t remember anything. Anyway, end of the day, to honour the passing of a charming actress, I watched The Dead Girl, wherein Brittany Murphy, without premonition, actually played the dead girl.
It was a really good film, especially since I’m fond of short stories. It was a beautiful anthology of unrelated women and the different roles of womanhood they take, carefully woven together with the “dead girl” on the backdrop until we are engaged with the final narrative of the dead girl. It was rather crafty and Brittany Murphy was really good in this film. May her soul rest in peace.
(To Be Continued…)