paul and sara's wedding

finally!
the moment we've all been waiting for...
the biggest event of the year...
Paul and Sara's wedding day!!!

the wedding mass was at Nuestra Senora de Gracia Parish.
that's the church in Guadalupe, near Loyola Memorial.
uber nice.

it was really old looking so i love it.
and there were only 2 columns
so although the church wasn't that big,
the aisle was relatively long.
it was the perfect church.
and if sara and paul hadn't gotten married there, i would have.

the bride and groom with their parents.

the reception naman was at The Loft.
It was on the 38th floor of the Manansala in Rockwell.
Mejo na-confused lang ako kasi sabi ng driver "sa ter-ti-et"
So hindi ko lam kung 30th or 38...

the bride and her maids

sara! kami rin penge!

second dance nalang to.
first kasi yung footloose nung gradeschool sila

ready... set...

go!

oh no!

after the reception, we - mari, shel, joel and i
went to the hotel suite with the newlyweds.
ang epal namin no?
well... ganun talaga... we're that close.



so na-postpone ang honeymoon till we had mcdonald's dinner,
and until matapos ang bubble gang on tv.

oh! the suite in makati-shang was really nice.
it even had an office.
it was so nice, we couldn't help it...

congressman pagkatipunan

congressman pagkatipunan at work

congressman pagkatipunan on the phone with the president

congressman and his 'sexy'tary

but my favorite part is the photo booth.
coz i'm really annoyed with photographers who force you to buy your pictures.
so here, they have this booth na mag-pose ka lang 4 times tas they'll print it instantly.
astig!
tas ok pa kasi unlimited pictures.
so pila ka lang ng pila for the pictures!

Solo Flight

This was my first time ever to fly alone. Naturally, i was scared.
So I took every precaution to make the flight bearable, if not comfortable.
First, I made it a point that my flight schedule did not involve 5 hours waiting time in any airport.
Second, I brought books, magazines and sudoku puzzles.
And third, I only have a handbag as my carry-on.

But no amount of precaution could prepare me for this trip.

The day before I left, my travel agent informed me that flight was moved.
I had to leave 5 hours earlier than scheduled.
This meant that I have to wait for 8 hours in Vancouver airport for my connecting flight.

When I got to Calgary Airport, I found out that I have excess baggage.
The lady at the check-in counter was nice enought to allow me to put away some of my stuff and carry it with me.
So now, I have my handbag and a relatively heavy paper bag.

But all that did not break my spirit. I have my books to keep me entertained.
And my carry-on isn't that much still. I just looked like I went shopping.



But I was sad. I was leaving my family and the city I've fallen in love with.
To keep my emotions intact, I went to the bathroom.
I planned to cry a little there - atleast no one would see me.
While I was inside the cubicle, and tears where ready to fall,
the lady in the next cubicle gave out a nasty fart.
It completely broke my 'emo' moment.
And I had to run out of the bathroom (just in case it's smell is as nasty as it sounded)

I had the most comfortable seat in the plane.
It was on an aisle seat just after the bathroom so I had plenty of legroom.
I love it!

When I arrived in Vancouver, I met a Filipina.
It was her first time in 10 years to go back to the Philippines.
2 minutes after that, we found out that our flight's delayed.
our wait will extend to 9 hours.

We couldn't sleep for the fear of losing our things.
And we couldn't find coffee coz it's midnight and everything is closed.
Good thing that the Twilight book is so entertaining. (yes... plugging...)

with my new friend Wenny

the flight to hongkong was the worst.
it was a 13 hour flight and i sat between a fat smelly caucasian guy
and a really tall asian guy who was blocking the aisle.
intense personal space violation. i barely slept.

The last leg of my trip, in fairness, was better.
Although I had to walk a mile in the hongkong airport (i went out in gate 72 and my connecting flight is at gate3)
I barely felt the wait. (2 hours max)
And i finished Twilight.
In the plane i had legroom again. Plus, the seat beside me was empty.

The flight to Manila was turbulent though.
I had to let out a scream once. Super humiliating!

Anyway, I got through the baggage claiming conveyor and through the immigration unscathe,
It was nice to hear everyone speak in tagalog. Astig!

payless last day

since i'm coming back to the Philippines,
i had to say goodbye to my second home here in canada:
the Payless ShoeSource store at Southcentre mall.

the people there have been great to me.
as a retail newbie, they were very patient,
teaching me all there is to know working in a store,
making my first few weeks in a foreign country as bearable as possible.
and though most of them are way younger than me,
they made me, the foreign girl, feel like she belonged.

the store

lauren, jenn, mike

with kris and steph

with amber

closing time

The Canadian Hottie

It is summer here in calgary so it can be really warm sometimes.
(though not as warm as the in the Philippines, and not as humid...)
When temperature reaches 28celsius you can expect to see a lot of meat outside.
Particularly white meat, coz they LOVE to bathe in the sun.

We don't have beaches here, so people sunbathe wherever.
You'll see half-naked people everywhere. Even downtown!
I remember seeing 2 blondes walking down the street in bikini tops and pek-pek shorts.

But it is not always a pretty sight.
One time, our neighor, an old lady, was watering her plants in a t-shirt and a bikini bottom.
Susmaryosep.

ANYWAY, come to think of it, it has never been a pretty sight for me.
(I did not consider the bikini blondes sight mainly because i'm a girl.)

Until this one:

He is cute. He is lean. He has nice abs...


And he reads! Awww...

(no. i did not talk to him. i just sat across him and stalker-ishly took his picture. sorry girls. i don't know his name, nor will i recognize him next time i see him with his shirt on.)

The C-Train

i don't know why, but my sister and i always enjoyed riding trains. in the philippines, we rode the new mrt from quiapo to cubao and then the old mrt from cubao to ayala, just for fun. and we even planned to ride the really old north rail transit from tutuban to... ummm... wherever it leads.

but then, we're in canada now. (plus the fact that i'm not really sure if the north rail transit actually operates for real live passengers) so our new dream is to ride it's transcontinental railway, the Canadian Pacific Railway.

some say that it's expensive. i visited it's site and i think they're mainly for freight now. so since we can't do that in the near future, we decided to ride the C-Train instead.

the C-train is the local LRT here in calgary. it's the train i ride everyday to work. anyway, since we've only rode it from our place to downtown, we decided to ride it from end to end: somerset to dalhousie, city center to mcknight.

the ride to dalhousie took about 1 hour and 21 stops. we got off and walked a little bit. mejo nahilo ako dun eh. we were supposed to wait for another train, para maiba naman, but the train we rode took so much time to leave, so dun nalang din kami sumakay, we just got in another car.

anyway, for the trip to mcknight, we had to transfer to another train. kaso, halfway along, we felt tired na. faye was hungry, i was dizzy and i needed to pee. so we decided to head back. next time nalang.

total: we rode the train for about 2 hours and went through 53 stops. nakakapagod din pala.

however, tiring it may be, the sites we saw were amazing! we took as much pictures as we could, but no amount of pictures can give justice to all the places and things that we've seen.

tracks of the canadian pacific railway

the mall where i work
i just walk from the train station, towards that mall

39th ave. station

erlton stampede station

on cemetery tunnel
creepy coz yung taas ng tunnel is an actual cemetery

downtown

view from the dalhousie station

the calgary tower

notice the mountains
sayang, snowcapped dapat sila eh. it must be the lighting, or cloudy lang siguro.

Not Destined for Stampede Yet

on thursday, July 10, it was my day off so i decided to go to the stampede park. it'll be over on monday and i won't have any more day off till then. so that will probably be my only time to go to the ever-famous stampede.

but then it was cloudy all day.
and it rained.
nevertheless, i met up with my sister in DQ (where she worked) as planned.

before leaving the house, i was seriously contemplating about whether or not to bring the cowboy hats. this almost made me late for the bus.
so i was hurrying to get to the stop on time, then i realized i forgot to bring the camera. (but i did bring my cellphone and it has a camera so i thought: ayos lang no need to go back for it...)

anyway, the driver forgot my stop so i got off a little farther than i was supposed to. it was there when i realized i might be having a bad day..
but i shrugged it off so i would not further attract any negativities. (as i have learned by watching "the secret")

so i finally met my sister, we rode the train and headed to the stampede.
by the way, rain has started to pour. and we were really hungry.
so the thought of going to the mall instead, has occurred to us.

but i wansn't losing hope. this might be the only chance i have to go this year.
so when we got to the erlton stampede, we got out.
we were standing on the entrance, it was raining, we were so cold...
and paying $13 for something we wouldn't enjoy anyway didn't sound good to me at all.
so we turned back and headed to the nearest mall.

my parents were lucky enough to go to the stampede, on a sunny day, free of charge.
here are some of their pictures to show you what it's like:

there are rides, which of course, they didn't try.

my folks in cowboy hats

a rodeo show

ps: i asked one of my co-workers why the horses and bulls on rodeos go berserk. and she said that: "their testicles are tied, plus they have someone riding their back. so basically it's just an animal having a bad day."

Close encounter with a shoplifter

so i was working at the till (aka cash register. i only discovered that after 2 weeks of working here in canada...) and this tall gangsta' looking guy comes up and asks how much these (he was holding a pair of black airwalk dots) shoes are. i did a price lookup in the register/till and told him it was $49.99. he asked me if they were on sale and i said no. then his wife, who was beside him, gave him the 'no-it's-too-expensive-we're-not-getting-that' kind of look (apparently she wears the pants in the relationship) and handed me a dora-the-explorer flip-flops (presumably for their kid) i rung it in, and told her that it was $12.99. and then she goes: "but there's a sale tag on it for $3.00". the sale tag was kinda loose so i kinda was doubting it. but then again, tagging has been a mess lately so what the heck, i decided to change the price.and then i asked if that was all they were buying. she said yes while giving her husband an annoyed look.

so she paid for it with a credit card, i had her sign the receipt, put the dora flipflops in a bag, put her copy with it and put the store copy in the drawer.

when i looked up. the husband was 10 feet away from the store holding the airwalks.
i was stunned and confused. is he taking those shoes away?
he looked back at me and we stared at each other for like 2 seconds and he walked away.

he was already gone when i realized what actually happened.
i didn't even considered running after him. (well he was 2x my size so i guess deep down inside i knew that running after him by myself wouldn't do me any good.)

but, anyways, i did tell the manager what happened. and he didn't suggest that we run after him either. (though i think we should have. the manager was a tall guy and he could probably take that moth@$f#$k@r down.)

i couldn't believe what happened. minutes after, i still feel so bad. maybe i should've said something instead of staring at him. or maybe i should've chased him (but keeping a good distance...) but the manager told me not to worry much about it.

hope kharma will get to that a#@h$#e

Calgary Stampede Parade

it's time to get all westerned up! calgary stampede is here!
unlike the "ultra stampede", nobody dies in this one.
and it's actually a happy occasion!
they call it the greatest outdoor show on earth.
with the rodeo, carnivals, concerts etc.

so on the start of the stampede: july 4th,
there's a parade downtown.
it's a good thing it was my scheduled off day.
si faye naman, nag-absent talaga.

so we took a train, and dun palang, dami ng tao.
they were all in their cowboy hats and western attire.
i know, we might consider it baduy,
but they all look so happy getting "westerned up" na parang nakakahawa ang energy nila. gusto ko na tuloy mag cowboy boots.

syempre we saw a number of marching bands:


cute vintage cars and weird vehicles:


first nations people (what we know as native indians like pocahontas):


and of course: lots of horses and cowboys:


because there's a lot of horses participating in the parade, we can't avoid the presence of horse poop in the streets.
in fact, isa sa mga inaabangan namin ay kung sino sa mga marching band ang mamalasin na makaapak ng tae.
kasi diba, their in a line so parang ang hirap umiwas. plus, if they're playing an instrument, mas mahirap mag pay attention sa nilalakaran.
but in fairness, onti lang sa kanila ang minalas.
hmmm... mukang alert ang karamihan sa kanila.

here's the sweepers cleaning up the poop

but ang pinakanabilib ako is with the army as seen in this video:

ang galing no?

anyway, the parade lasted for almost 4 hours.
well, di naman sila as in sunod sunod like the parades in the philippines.
may mga interval between entries and floats so you appreciate each of them.

and it wasn't that crowded.
not like in manila na nararamdaman mo na yung hininga ng nasa likod mo sa sobrang siksikan. here, everyone maintains a reasonable distance. plus it wasn't that warm, kaya presko parin. walang bumaho sa crowd. ehehehe...

Filipino Store

maraming pinoy dito sa calgary. AS IN.
everywhere you go, may pinoy.
di pa ko nakakasakay ng bus na wala akong nakakasabay na pinoy.
and sa foodcourt, sa department store, sa grocery...
well, nagkalat tayo.

and as expected, meron din ditong filipino store.
actually, dalawa pa nga eh, one sa south and another sa north.
yung pinuntahan namin is sa south, mas malapit eh.

anyway, you have everything filipino there:
knorr chicken sopas,
lucky me pancit canton,
mang tomas,
bagoong balayan,
sunsilk,
eskinol,
curly tops,
flat tops,
chocolate mallows,
chocnut,
chippy,
clover chips,
turones, etc...
oh! and goldilocks cakes and mamon!

and may mga posters and ad na everything pinoy.
it's like a pinoy headquarters.
they have ads for homes for sale and for rent na filipino yung landlord.
tas may mga job ads din.
may mga announcement ng pinoy radio and tv. (yes merong pinoy radio station pero weekends lang.)
and mga concerts ni basil valdez, zsa zsa padilla, gary v... atbp.

eto sample: parokya in calgary

at saka pala pwede ka rin magpadala ng package to the philippines.
pati narin pera.
ehehehe....

so mejo natuwa talaga kami sa place na yun.
we bought mang tomas, sangkatutak na lucky-me instant noodles, chippy at v-cut.
at si mommy, di pinalagpas ang eskinol.

right:Philippines, left: Calgary

First Canadian Job: Sales Associate at Payless

oh yes indeed!
hehehe...

that's my pin for work. we don't have uniforms. just a dress code and a declaration of love for shoes. well, i'd probably wear that pin even if i didn't work at payless.

yes. that's my first job here in canada. i'm a sales associate (aka: saleslady) sa Payless Shoe Source. our store is located in a mall here in Calgary, so mas fun unlike in a detached store in the middle of nowhere. before i time-in for work, i go window shopping. and minsan after work din. hihi...

you read that right. i am having fun!
it's a no-brainer work. once you've memorized the rack plan (yun yung arrangement ng shoes sa store) and some customer service protocols, you're good to go. i've been to law school so memorization is a piece-a-cake.

so what do i do there? syempre sell shoes. ehehehe. which is easy coz it's a payless store. the concept behind it is, it's a selfservice shoe store. the shoes are displayed according to size and if you want to buy a pair, you just take it from the shelf and bring it to the counter. so mas madali dito. you can just leave everyone there to find everything for themselves. unlike in the philippines na nakatago lahat ng left shoe so you have no choice but to call a saleslady.

anyway, for the past few days, i've been memorizing the rack plan. (kids, womens, men... dress, sandals, casuals, sandals, athletics... dexter, predictions, fioni, airwalk...) so incidentally, i do stocks narin, which i like to do. i clean the shoes up, meaning, take the unnecessary pieces of paper sa box (yung mga nakasuksok sa sapatos na bago...) and then i put them in their proper places in the rack. simple! you don't need a law degree to do that. ehehehe...

and just recently i've been taught how to till (aka work the cash register) i like this one too except when they pay for cash. kasi naman up to now, nalilito parin ako sa mga coins. at suklian. (dahil nabobobo ka sa math sa law school... bigla tuloy ako na-bilib sa mga jeepney drivers ah...) so fave ko when they use their debit or credit card, which is a lot more often naman than cash payments. so ok narin.

nga lang, when i do the till, i hate doing returns. dun din kasi yun tas it is a more complicated transaction. (eh diba nga ang goal nga is minimal mental activity?) and they have such a lenient return policy so sa isang araw, you can't help but do 5 returns sa 2 hours mo sa register.

anyway, what i love the most is breaking down shipments. so may dadating na boxes from the supplier, i'll open them up and arrange the shoes according to gender and size. i like it coz sa backroom ginagawa yun. it's quiet and you get a break from the customers. plus nakikita ko yung bagong dating na shoes so nagsusukat narin ako. ehehehe...

so aside from it being a no brainer job, it pays me a decent wage. interestingly, mas malaki ang sweldo ko dito sa payless kesa sa mga lawyers sa pilipinas. but syempre naman, mas malaki naman ang gastos dito. a friend in the states once said, we earn in dollars but we spend in dollars too.

so what happens to my legal profession? honestly, i don't know...
for more than four years i've been trying to become a lawyer in the Philippines. i don't want to spend another couple of years trying to become a lawyer in Canada.
parang i'm just tired of studying and trying to become...
for a change, i just want to BE someone.
right now: a sales associate in Payless.
and soon: a lawyer in the Philippines.