oh god, you are so hysterical, god!
HEY BITCHES. SWEARING AT WORK BOOSTS MORALE. Wonderful! However, does that mean that with a mouth like mine, I'm supposed to be much happier than I think I am? Well. Fuck.
With today, apparently God heard my plans. It just wasn't the day I had- hoped for.
I didn't know that there would be so much to see at Quiapo (fruit stalls and vendors and pirated shit and really bitchy women and things I was dying to take pictures of, like I never see them everyday anyway in other places, but still), and all I had was my dad's Canon 20D body with a pitiful kit lens I gave up on because its range was like, one foot of zoom and nothing more covering about a stamp-sized window of my eyesight. So no pictures.
And then I found my old lens in one of the Hidalgo Street shops. It was a wonderful wonderful Sigma lens which could zoom up someone's pores but still take landscape shots when it had to (pores! trees! tree pores! ooh la la), and after a little asking around and speaking Chinese to the right people, I found it. It cost 15k, which translates (thanks to the pussy-assed dollar, thank god for that) into around 340 dollars, which is kind of cheap, and by kind of cheap, I mean an absolute steal. And then I remembered that I didn't bring cash.
And then all these other camera models and lens models started unwrapping themselves enticingly on the shelves and it was like being a broke fat kid in a pastry store; it was incredible but devastating. I didn't know what to do.
Seanners, my lovely virgin photographer friend, was with me, along with Bong who did absolutely nothing, and Moki, who gently reminded me that credit cards were useless in the brave cash-driven world of Quiapo, thank you. So I didn't buy anything. And I didn't take any pictures.
Then for some reason, I was the de facto leader of the group? Even though I have the brain of an indecisive nine-year old girl? Which means I can't possibly make any decisions on my own once my mind shuts down because of the pressure to make a decision? Because I'm a girl like that? Jesus christ. We were standing in the middle of the plaza where we had ended up for forever, all of us looking at each other going "hm, where do we go next" and waiting for someone else to go "OH MY STARS I HAVE A WONDERFUL IDEA!" but no one did.
Finally, Sean, Moki and I went to Gateway, the most flamingly gay mall-shaped cruising spot in the city, which was a train ride away from us and another train ride from Sean and my houses, while Bong disappeared.
So that was it, Sean and I talked about cameras over some really fake Japanese food (which was still yummy, just the way California Rolls are called "sushi", which is an absolutely enormous LIE), while Moki and Sean talked about Desperate Housewives and The Sopranos, both utterly foreign concepts for me because I am a TV PHILISTINE.
I got home where my father told me that suprise! the Really Evangelical But Masquerading as "Youth" Camp Retreat wasn't an overnight thing, but two night worship extravaganza, so that dented my mood a little more.
At least I got to go out today with great people, so the day wasn't too bad. I just had hopes a bit too high for today.
On the plus side, the haircut I got in the morning from Hektor The Senior Stylist Whose Romantic Advances Towards Me Consist Of Sneakily Brushing His Fingers Across My Face When He Cuts My Hair And Sticking His Ass Out When He Knows I'm Watching (Which Is Always Anyway) To Flash His Fire Engine Red Briefs was really fieeeeeerce. I love it. I had asked for something slightly different, which Moki said looked slightly gayer than usual, which I thought was impossible for me, but there you go.
I guess I'll see you all in a few days? I just realized: I don't have a good camera for the Tagaytay trip and Singapore. Life tests me so.
With today, apparently God heard my plans. It just wasn't the day I had- hoped for.
I didn't know that there would be so much to see at Quiapo (fruit stalls and vendors and pirated shit and really bitchy women and things I was dying to take pictures of, like I never see them everyday anyway in other places, but still), and all I had was my dad's Canon 20D body with a pitiful kit lens I gave up on because its range was like, one foot of zoom and nothing more covering about a stamp-sized window of my eyesight. So no pictures.
And then I found my old lens in one of the Hidalgo Street shops. It was a wonderful wonderful Sigma lens which could zoom up someone's pores but still take landscape shots when it had to (pores! trees! tree pores! ooh la la), and after a little asking around and speaking Chinese to the right people, I found it. It cost 15k, which translates (thanks to the pussy-assed dollar, thank god for that) into around 340 dollars, which is kind of cheap, and by kind of cheap, I mean an absolute steal. And then I remembered that I didn't bring cash.
And then all these other camera models and lens models started unwrapping themselves enticingly on the shelves and it was like being a broke fat kid in a pastry store; it was incredible but devastating. I didn't know what to do.
Seanners, my lovely virgin photographer friend, was with me, along with Bong who did absolutely nothing, and Moki, who gently reminded me that credit cards were useless in the brave cash-driven world of Quiapo, thank you. So I didn't buy anything. And I didn't take any pictures.
Then for some reason, I was the de facto leader of the group? Even though I have the brain of an indecisive nine-year old girl? Which means I can't possibly make any decisions on my own once my mind shuts down because of the pressure to make a decision? Because I'm a girl like that? Jesus christ. We were standing in the middle of the plaza where we had ended up for forever, all of us looking at each other going "hm, where do we go next" and waiting for someone else to go "OH MY STARS I HAVE A WONDERFUL IDEA!" but no one did.
Finally, Sean, Moki and I went to Gateway, the most flamingly gay mall-shaped cruising spot in the city, which was a train ride away from us and another train ride from Sean and my houses, while Bong disappeared.
So that was it, Sean and I talked about cameras over some really fake Japanese food (which was still yummy, just the way California Rolls are called "sushi", which is an absolutely enormous LIE), while Moki and Sean talked about Desperate Housewives and The Sopranos, both utterly foreign concepts for me because I am a TV PHILISTINE.
I got home where my father told me that suprise! the Really Evangelical But Masquerading as "Youth" Camp Retreat wasn't an overnight thing, but two night worship extravaganza, so that dented my mood a little more.
At least I got to go out today with great people, so the day wasn't too bad. I just had hopes a bit too high for today.
On the plus side, the haircut I got in the morning from Hektor The Senior Stylist Whose Romantic Advances Towards Me Consist Of Sneakily Brushing His Fingers Across My Face When He Cuts My Hair And Sticking His Ass Out When He Knows I'm Watching (Which Is Always Anyway) To Flash His Fire Engine Red Briefs was really fieeeeeerce. I love it. I had asked for something slightly different, which Moki said looked slightly gayer than usual, which I thought was impossible for me, but there you go.
I guess I'll see you all in a few days? I just realized: I don't have a good camera for the Tagaytay trip and Singapore. Life tests me so.