Making Changes

Before anything else, as we know, the Philippines was affected by Typhoon Ruby/Hagupit at this time more than a year after Yolanda/Haiyan. Many people had to go through the storms, especially in Visayas. It is good to pray for those who were affected by this calamity and whatever help we can give, let's give for them.

Now... After some time, I finally decided to change my blog's name. It will be known as "Mga Karanasan ng Isang Panganay" (Experiences of a First-born child), which is true since because not only am I blogging events already a part of my experience, I am the panganay between me and my brother. I won't post everything about my experiences though. I thought of another name before but I didn't go with it since someone already took it so it doesn't matter. I searched if there's blog with this name already, but since there's none, I may as well. :) So yeah, I'll be going under this name from now on... (unless of course I decide to change my name)

Now, with the name change, before you say anything, you'll notice in my previous posts that my pics have "ametromanilaguy.blogspot.com" on them. Don't worry about it, that's my old blog name. :)

Right now I'm enjoying my sembreak which will last until January next year, so I've got the holidays to enjoy. In the last few days though, in addition to the storm, I got under the weather with an irritated throat... Good thing that I'm getting better but because of everything, I wasn't able to go to the GMP in Intramuros last Sunday and wasn't able to go to church yesterday :(. Add to that, Paskuhan, which was supposed to be yesterday was moved to the 11th. Before the storm though, the last few weeks have been busy. Among them, my ninong who's been living in the US for a long time coming back here in our country with ninang and tita who went there and to Canada for a vacation.

Also, I'm now using a new laptop that my ninang got for me from the US. Getting used to it already, but I've got more to do with it and all. Thanks ninang. :)

Anyways, since it's the holiday's I've got a lot of things to do and want to do since this, for me and I'm sure many of us, is one of the busiest times of the year with many activities, like going to the mall or going around enjoying the Christmas ornaments all over. A week from now will be the start of the Simbang Gabi masses here in the Philippines and of course, once those are over, it's Christmas all over again. So yeah, pretty busy time. :)

And there, that's pretty much everything that I'll be saying. I've got a new blog name already but other than that, there's not much changes here, but that already major already. Time to start getting used to this change. Again, don't worry about seeing "ameteromanilaguy" since that used to be my blog's name until this moment. So that's all and thank you!:)

Christmas in UST

Finally, it's nice that I'm back here and blogging again after while... Been a busy week since it was finals period and had a lot of papers to submit, plus my thesis proposal. I know I've got a lot more to do but in the meantime, now that my exam's over, I can just relax and enjoy myself now that it's my Christmas sembreak. Yep, it is both my Christmas and sembreak and next time I'll be going back to class will be this January. Hopefully it's gonna be happy days ahead with Christmas in the air.

And speaking of Christmas, yesterday I went back to school to attend the lighting of the Campus decorations. I won't focus on the personal details, like hanging out with friends, just the lighting and the decors. Before the campus turned on its lights at about 6, there was this short program and blessing. Right after, there was a dance performance (by UST Salinggawi I assume) and a fireworks display. And then, the moment we all waited for, the campus lights turned on much to everyone's delight. Beautiful lights as always. UST really is a Christmas Wonderland, much like those that you see in pics. After the lighting, there was a mini concert at the Benavides park.

Plaza Mayor before the lighting

Fireworks display

 Now, behold UST's Christmas decors... (as seen from my good and not-so-good pics)

Lover's lane

"It's Christmas time in the city..."

Not much decors on the Main Building. Still nice though...

Concert at the Benavides park

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..." This is probably the closest thing to it. :)

I notice every year though, there seems to be less lights. Before there were a lot of lights everywhere. Now, not so much, most of it being concentrated at the lover's lane. Even the Main Building this year didn't have much lights on. Probably the biggest change though is the Christmas tree. Before, it was always next to the grandstand. Now, it's in a corner of the field near The Arch. Even with all that, it was an amazing sight. Hopefully I'll be heading to Paskuhan which will be celebrated this year on December 8, 2014. In the meantime, it's best that I enjoy my sembreak and the holidays...

With that, I'm done. Thanks for checking and happy holidays! :D

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! :)