Paskuhan 2014 - My Last Paskuhan (For Now at Least)

This year's celebrations were just awesome... The other day, UST held Paskuhan festivities. Probably the biggest Christmas party out there, this is an event that the Thomasian community highly anticipates and since it's so huge of an event, people from other schools come to be part of it. Definitely this is one of those events that marks the most wonderful time of the year; Christmas. If you're a Thomasian and/or if you've attended this event at least once, you know what I mean and know how it feels like to be there. :)

As always, people came in droves. All over the campus, there were fun activities such as games, food, merrymaking and of course, the concert where bands and DJs performed much to the delight of the community. Highlighting the events, other than the concert, were a High Mass before the festivities began and a grand fireworks display at 9 PM. In fact, seems like the fireworks display is the most anticipated part of the event (at least as far as I know :) ), and it's no wonder why. Adding color to the festivities were the Christmas lights all around (go here for more pics). With everything and the number of people that were there, no doubt it is one of the biggest events during 'tis season to be jolly :). For sure, everyone had a merry time, meeting others, taking part in the activities and going around the campus.

Here's some of my pics

That sign over the grandstand was a recent addition. Never seen it before until that moment.

 Panunuluyan

A Mass started the night's festivities.

Singing "We are All God's Children" (Theme song of the upcoming Papal Visit) after the mass.

One of the performers

Paskuhan concert

Now, here's the fireworks display (sorry, pics aren't good)

On my part, I was with my classmates, some friends from the Campus Ministry and later, met some friends from the Light of Jesus Community (they're the one's who run The Feast with Bo Sanchez every Sunday at the PICC. I recently attended one of them), both familiar and new. For the a good part, I was hanging out with others at the Campus Ministry office. Though it wasn't loud unlike it is outside, still the atmosphere of the place was comfortable and people there had a good time with all the food (mostly from Max's) and being with each other. All in all a great time enjoying the event.

Also, personally, this is my last Paskuhan in my four year stay at UST, since I'll be (hopefully) graduating next year (hence the title). With everything that happened that night, was it all worth it? Definitely. :) Meeting new friends, being with other people, having a good time, seeing those fireworks and many other things, it all made up for a good time. Even after I graduate, maybe I'll be able to attend this again next year, and the years to come while I can. You may not know, but I might study again in UST... Whatever happens, we'll see. 'Till then. :)

And with that, I finish off this post. Of course, since were still in this season, I'm sure there's more to come. Thanks for checking and Merry Christmas! :)

Check more pics here

Searching the City for the Needed Books

It's not easy when school asks a lot from you. Be it for homeworks, papers, exams or stuff like that. You've got a lot of requirements to fulfill in order for you to get good grades or at the very least, pass the subject... or at least make an effort to do so. Once you have schoolworks, you've gotta do it eventually... even if the deadline's far off.

Now, in my case, I'm a college student majoring in literature, meaning I deal with books, writing and more than just that, theories and stuff pertaining to history, philosophy and issues in our world today. In relation to this, as per requirements, I've been going all over the city last weekend to find certain books that I need for schoolwork; 1) graphic novels/comics (locally made ones) for my thesis and 2) another novel for a paper in one of my subjects. I know that it's not gonna be an easy task since it's finding a few needles in a haystack known as Metro Manila. (speaking of which, I think I should change my blog title. Maybe on my blog anniversary... Weird how I'm not good with titles and I'm majoring what I'm in. OK, I'm already going off topic.)

So let the search.... begin!

It began last Friday with my first stop being Araneta Center in Cubao. The place was suggested to me by my dad because the National Bookstore branch there was big. Since Cubao's a commercialized area, seemed like a good place to start. Before going there, I went to school at first but the teachers I had to meet weren't there so I left immediately. I headed first to the National Bookstore branch along Quezon ave, since it's along the way. Didn't get anything good there, though I've seen stuff I remembered from the Manila International Book Fair (wow, it's been over a month already). From there, I went to Cubao. I spent a while at the NBS brach there, next to Gateway. Again, nothing good. Although, there was one comic that I've been seeing a lot and checked it out but I decided not to buy it yet... until I bought in on Sunday in TriNoma. There were other comics I could've used, but sadly, the other volumes weren't available. After that, I got lost in Araneta and checked out some Christmas decors near Farmer's Market. I went to SM and TriNoma after but didn't find what I needed. All in all, the Cubao trip ended up with getting nothing. :(

Christmas decors in Araneta

Next day, Saturday, I stayed within Manila. Saturday's a class day for me, but it's only one subject and it's an hour long. Before getting to the books, I searched some places where to get books and since Recto is a place to go, I decided to go there first. After class, I changed clothes and headed to Quiapo. Man, Recto sure did have a lot of books. I haven't seen that many in one place since the MIBF. In the end, despite the number of books, I didn't get a thing. After walking around Recto, I headed to the City Hall since I read there was a book shop in the underpass that sold some books (Books from Underground. Check their page). Since it seemed promising, there I went. Sure enough, it has some things that I was looking for and it was there where I finally got the novel for my paper. With that done, only the comics were left. My next destination for the day was Robinsons Manila. Didn't see much there really... :/ All I did was have dinner, checked their NBS branch, wandered around and that's it. Before going home I headed to SM Manila... Again, nothing, though it had more variety than the other malls I went to so far. At least I was able to get something at the end of the day

Fountain at Robinsons Manila

Sunday was probably (if not definitely) the most promising day. This time, I headed to Greenhills, SM Megamall and Robinsons Galleria. Good thing this time I only had to look for the comics since the other's done. Since there were comic book stores in all three locations, I'm sure I'd get something out of it. I thought that if things went well, I'd get at least 3 novels when I finished searching. First, I went to Greenhills and the first place I went was Fully Booked. The place looked amazing and in addition, there was a Comic Odyssey branch there, which sells comics, both local and international. After being there for a bit, I headed for the main mall. Finally found a good comic that I could use at the NBS branch there. By the way, it was the last one and it was by Francisco Coching, a national artist whom I recently just learned about... (Maybe I should familiarize myself with these people more...). Before leaving Greenhills, I made one last stop at Fully Booked/Comic Odyssey before heading to my next stop which was SM Megamall. Nothing too special there but the Filbars branch had some locally made comics that I've seen back at, again, the MIBF (It's like it's coming back to haunt me... o_o). I just went around SM and headed to Robinsons Galleria since there's another Comic Odyssey there. The one at Galleria is bigger so chances are, I'll definitely get something, which I did. Even Galleria had some titles I saw from the Bookfair and since I bought the first two volumes of a title back then and the last ones were already at the store, I may as well. With that, it makes it two titles down. After that, I went back to Megamall and just went around, but I did check the bookstores before heading back to TriNoma. Just saying, there were cosplayers at Megamall since there was an event (didn't attend, though I knew about it...). I decided to buy the first part of another graphic novel in TriNoma. Sunday ended good.

Some pics from Sunday.

At Greenhills.

Greenhills, San Juan.

At Robinsons Galleria. Comic Odyssey is right there next to Trust Trade.

Po from Kung Fu Panda at SM Megamall. This wasn't the cosplay event I was referring to though...

So, all in all, I found the novel I needed near Manila City Hall. As for the comics, I found one at Greenhills, more volumes at Galleria and bought the last at TriNoma (though it's just part 1, part 2 is always available and I've seen it and I can buy it anytime, hehehe...). That makes it three. Good thing the teachers were fine with them. I'm steps closer to getting the goal. :)

But once all my school stuff's done, not sure what will happen since, chances are, I'll not be needing the books anymore. Maybe I could keep them for myself as good entertainment. Or maybe I could give them away. No good wasting books, right? :)

School ain't easy... but I sure hope I can pass... ^_^

With that, I'm done. Thanks for checking! :)

Manila International Book Fair 2014 - After the Storm

Part 2 of my post on the Manila International Book Fair 2014. Since a lot happened, I decided to divide my posts on the event. Check part one of my coverage here.

Now, on to the Manila International Book Fair 2014...

After checking out the Marian exhibit at the mall, I returned to SMX for the book fair. The number of books and people was overwhelming. The place was congested, siksikan talaga. The book fair covered the entire hall on the ground floor. There, you could see many books from different exhibitors, including two of the biggest bookstores in the country, National Bookstore and Fully Booked (they I think were the biggest exhibitors). Leading publishers in the country also came in. It's almost not an exaggeration to say that one could see books about almost everything under the sun. There's religious books, bibles, textbooks, theoretical books, comics, mangas, novels... name it, chances are it's there. Most of the time I've wandered around, taking pics, looking at some stores and going out of the hall and in again. There's also a stage area for performances at one of the far ends of the massive hall.

Go USTe! (^o^)/

Events stage

Lines build up

Selfies... the trend's still going strong...

One of the less congested areas

Crowd at around 3 PM. Pretty much the crowd was at it's peak from that time onwards

Good that people are reading...

Book signing outside the halls.

 Left: Book signings at the MIBF.  Right: Cosplayers among the people.

Books, books everywhere...

In addition to the MIBF, there was also the Best of Anime 2014, which happened in the upper floor. This was my first ever cosplay event because I attended last year's. This year though, I didn't attend and the tickets for that were at the hefty price of 300 pesos. Yes, that expensive. Though I wasn't there, I was able to see the cosplayers gracing this event (and the bookfair. Some cosplayers entered the book fair too). I had to take pics of them when they came down the escalator and when they stayed near the entrances of the book fair. Good to see them as always. They brought more color to the place with their costumes and their talent. Not only the cosplayers, even from downstairs outside the hall, I could hear the performances taking place at BOA. 

BOA upstairs. By the way, those without tickets to that can't go up due to some new policies for the events.

One booth that I went to often was the Komikon booth. The main reason why is that it has something to do with my thesis project. I made about two visits here, first, I canvassed and checked out some of their titles, especially those that could help me in my thesis, plus I talked about it with the guys in charge of the booth. After that, I left it to think about what to buy. When I returned, I checked out some of their titles again and bought a few of 'em. I even had them signed since one of the artists was there. Hopefully though, they could help me for my thesis project. Good luck to me on that. :)
Also, I've been going to the religious stores. I was thinking of buying something, but in the end, I didn't. I might buy something from those stores some other time at one of their branches (like at St. Pauls to say one place).

Aside from books, there were more attractions all over the place. At the REX bookstore, they featured the world's smallest book. There were also booths that featured gadgets and robots. The event was even attended by famous personalities, other than just authors. Two big names I saw were Marian Rivera and Juluis Babao.

The Bookfair was also an opportunity for me to meet up with my classmates. I was able to meet some of them. Good to see them there. :) During the event, I looked for  my other classmates that probably attended. I guess I didn't see 'em. :(

Around 4 PM I left SMX to have merienda somewhere but later on, I decided against it.

Here's some more pics:

@ the Komikon store

Robots on display. This booth was near the stage.

The smallest book in the world on display at the Rex store.

Marian Rivera's in this pic...

Religious sisters were a common sight at the book fair.

News anchor Julius Babao

At the religious stores. Note the standfie of Pope Francis.

I left SMX at about 6:30 PM. At a jeepney I took on the way to the LRT, SM MOA had a fireworks display. It was tough to see it from the jeep and only saw some parts of it. Nonetheless, it was good to see it as I was leaving the place.

In the end, it was a really tiring experience. Though tiring, it was undoubtedly a fun event after the storms and at least I was able to do some things I had to do. The experience was worth it, though there more things I could've done (...maybe). Next time though to avoid that feeling of wishing I could've done this or that, I gotta learn to make the best out of everything. It felt strange after the event's over. There's always that weird feeling that comes after a big event like the MIBF... :/
Also, I'd like to say that the event was a pre-bday celebration. Last Wednesday, I celebrated my Bday and I thank God for all the blessings that He has given me. I do hope that I will realize more of them and may He help me in everything that I do in the days and years to come. I also hope to be more responsible for my actions and be able to go through everything that I face in life.

And that's that. Thanks for checking! :D \(^o^)/