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From my sweet Dud today, it's a poem from Tita Bun's Book Of Roses which he wanted to share with us:
"Of all the days that's in the year
The 10th of June I love most dear.
When Sweet white roses do appear
For the sake of James the rover.
Maybe James is an English King, but our Via is our white Rose and our white pearl!"
Here are a few photos of our day in Milan thanks to Ben who didn't forget to bring his camera. It was a fun day. And it started out with a presentation I had to do in the morning for the faculty. We then rushed off to catch the train, had a quick lunch at McDonalds in Milan to watch Harry Potter. The photos are in a nice japanese restaurant we ate in that night which resulted in us missing our train back home. So we had to take a cab from Chivasso train station which is 30mins away. (click on image to see the album)
What is the most frightening thing about failure? Is it the fact that we've all been there at one point or other in our lives and will return there? Is it the possibility of having to face an "I-told-you-so" or more than one at that? Is it realizing that we're not much wiser than we had been in that original state, drawing a series of mental blocks wherein similar scenarios play themselves over and over in our heads in slow-motion? Is it the immoblizing fear of it that sometimes overcomes us and prevents from trying all together?
I just finished reading Kitchen (which I borrowed from Noel's school library) by a very talented writer, Banana Yoshimoto, apparently hailed as "the voice of young Japan". One the characters, Urara says to her newfound friend Satsuki: "You could take the negative view and live in fear: Will it happen again? But it won't hurt so much if you just accept it as a part of life." I suppose it is this acceptance that we all must learn, allowing our egos many bruises as we try to find ourselves, silently committing to motivate one another along the way. And when we sometimes feel dry and meaningless , reminding ourselves that it is not on ourselves that we must rely solely but upon He who gave us the freedom to choose in the first place.
We just arrived last night from Barcelona, which was my full-blown birthday treat. :) We stayed at a cute little hotel, Medium Prisma that was quite clean and neat, despite the fact that it was just a humble 2-star and quite a walk from the main Barcelona center which is Las Ramblas. In fact, this was probably the most walking we did ever! My blisters and corns can attest to that!
Hitting the beach was a major thing for us, as the last time we went was last January 2003 back in the Philippines, when we did our northern roadtrip up to Ilocos. Sitges, which was only a 20 minute train ride from Barcelona, was a pleasant experience. Even though the sand was nowhere near our almost powder-like Philippine sands, it was quite clean and the beach wasn't too packed. Lots of barely clothed people were really frying themselves in the sun. We later on found out that it is a popular spot for gay/lesbian crowd! That probably explains the 2 "mature" women (in their late 50s) who were sunbathing together topless beside us. Also something I learned is that one must never get a massage on the beach unless maybe it is done in the Philippines. The one I got barely lasted 30 minutes and it was more juggling of my insides. And the Chinese girl who was doing it could only communicate in Spanish. So we did have some crossed lines. In short, it was a bit of a rip-off. :(
Sangria we kept to a minimum this time. Because the last time we overdid it in Spain last year, I broke out into a rash that stayed with me for a whole week. And it was pretty gross. :(
We also did some exploring and found a design studio which we invited ourselves into. It was a pretty cool-looking place with friendly people in it. The president was away so we couldn't have a chat with him.
Not much luck in the musuems department as our trip coincided with a major design event called Sonar. Getting into the MACBA & CCCB meant buying tickets for the whole event which cost 15euros a person. Too bad, we were so excited to use our new student ID cards. We did get to take advantage of them when we entered Poble Espaņol. Noel called it a Nayong Pilipino type of place. It's a small, tourist walled-town that showcases many Spanish places and products from those places. They even hold little workshops like mosaic-making and glass-blowing. Too bad these places were already closed when we got there. We did get to have a nice tapas dinner under an orange tree though. Then we ended our last night with an IMAX movie near the port. The features were documentaries on Australia and The Ghosts of the Titanic. Both were in Spanish, but they were enjoyable anyway. Even if the Titanic was a bit sleepy.
We had a few hitches like getting stopped in the Torino Caselle Airport. Ben says it's because we're really shifty looking characters. Heehee. But really, while it was happening to us, we had to take several deep breaths (especially me) because we were the only ones out of all the other tourists there that were Asian. Thanks to my Italian lessons, I was able to hold my own when one of the policemen who asked us to wait was making small talk with us. Our main topic was about how important it was to learn about other cultures, religions, etc. I was telling him that we're really all the same. (Hoping the point hit home and he realized that stopping us was really quite racist of them) It was also our first time to fly Ryanair, a budget airline that strips all the frills from your flight, so we were just a little nervous. Especially when our pilot announced just before take off: "We are headed towards Turin, er Genova, er Girona." It does little for your nerves when you think your pilot is not even certain of your destination. Also as we were getting ready to land, he said Costo Brovo instead of Costa Brava... The stewardess also did not hide the fact that she was having a bad day, as her in-flight demo was totally lack-lustre and had a frown to match almost every demo. But she became a little better towards the end of the flight. Could be that she really hates to fly herself?
It was also our first time to take the bus to the airport. This meant having to take a train to Torino and to take a bus from there to the airport. Having arrived in the Barcelona Girona Airport meant taking another bus to the city center. And a metro ride to our hotel. This was huge savings though, since a cab ride would come out to about 80euros to the airport, at least! So even though we lost about a day and a half due to our low-cost transportation scheme, we really enjoyed the Barcelona sun and tons of things to see and do. It's definitely one of our favorite places and an exceptionally unforgettable birthday for me. I owe it all to my dear husband. :)
Its been a year since our first post. Thanks to the readers and comment posts. Please continue doing so and we shall too. Here is a copy of our first messages:
Welcome to noeluvia.com by Noel
For those of you who do not know noeluvia simply means Noel (that's me) loves Via. This site was created for our wedding RSVP. Now it will be a magnifying glass into what's happening in our daily lives. We are expecting a lot of changes this year. We are excited to share with you, our family and friends, our life and our experiences. Thank you for reading this and be sure to come back soon. :)
My Birthday by Via
Today I woke up at around 1am to see Noel sneaking inside the room with two oddly-wrapped parcels. He mumbled "Happy Birthday" and I smiled sleepily before dozing back off. I opened my presents this morning. A very happy stripey birthday to me indeed! I got the striped Esprit umbrella and matching carry-all notebook (in preparation for studying in Italy!) that I wanted! What a great husband I have.
We left early to make it to our 9am meeting. Another surprise awaited me before that! A huge present wrapped with a fushia bow greeted me in Mommy's condo. "A house for Cosi." She said. Underneath the wrapping (which I excitedly ripped open) were 3- not one red Samsonite pieces of luggage! Wowee! It was like opening a Russian doll- there was more inside! And the red was a beautiful cherry red not a tacky red-orange kind. The card attached made me want to cry- it was so beautiful.
On to lunch at one of our favorite places, Il Cartoccio. Signor Antonio Saba greets us as we are regulars. Abuelita and Tita Cay joined us for lunch too which was nice. :) Tita Cay vows to bring her friends over as well as the rest of our family to help his business thrive. We had an excellent meal capped with a digestive called Mirto di Sardegna. It was served in these frosted almost Erlynmeyer type flasks that were pre-chilled. Apparently Mirto is a berry found only in Sardegna where Signor Antonio is from. Whooh! It was pretty strong stuff- the type that knocks out. But it was good, kind of sweet. My Dad turned very red and after a while said: "Naku, tinatamaan na ako!" Hehehe. And my phone kept beeping and ringing all throughout the day with well-wishers. What a truly magical day! :)
June 10 was Via's 27th Birthday. Happy Birthday my lovely wife! The picture above shows my birthday greeting projected on the walls of Talponia during this year's graduation party. (click on the image to enlarge)
Entry Meant for June 10, 2004
Today is our first-year bloggerversary! :) Last year we were just preparing for the big move here to Italy. And it's almost been a year since we've been living here.
I also turned 27. My first birthday abroad. We celebrated along with 2 other friends, Ben and Bernd by going to Milan to see Harry Potter 3. (That was the nearest place showing it) Then on to a fabulous Japenese dinner in this cool Japanese bar called Parco- thanks to this restaurant guidebook in Hoepli bookstore. Thank you Noel for my wonderful birthday. And to Mommy Vicki, for our amazing dinner celebration. :)
Airport Express is another good reason to love Apple. Look at this product! You can easily connect your iTunes wirelessly to your home stereo! I admit I have been sucked into the world of mac. Once you go mac you can never go back. Hahaha.
Of course there is still the option to use iPod with iTrip to play your iPod music on an FM frequency.
I just finished the documentation for my new project this term, which ended last May 29. The spring term was entitled Physical Intranets and Connected Interfaces. Most of the students did solo work, so did I. What I did for this project was to conceptualize a way to connect people with others within the institute and to inform them of ongoing events. The result was a software that would detect Bluetooth devices and a physical structure that displayed this information. I find it hard to summarize it in a sentence, so please just visit this site I created called Bluetoothed Bluhaus.
How do we pass the time here at Ivrea? Considering that there are very limited things to do, we resort to sticking our heads in the computer screen most of the time. And one addiction we re-gained is watching TV shows. Only here in Ivrea did we get to watch Buffy, The Vampire Slayer TV series. My classmates, Tom and Matty have lent us their DVDs and both of them and are certified Buffy freaks. Hey Matty, where are the rest of the discs from Season 3? :)
But aside from Buffy we are getting to rewatch one of my favorite TV shows of all time: Smallville. Smallville just finished its 3rd season sometime ago, and we are currently rewatching season 2. We didn't get to finish season 2 when we were back in Manila. Now is our chance to catch up.
Also, we have been playing with Singles. Its a German made game which reminds me of EA Games' The Sims. But it focuses on only 2 single people sharing an apartment. It is very interesting and I do not want to go into details.
The tagline of this game, Cranium, reads: "You'll be amazed at what your friends can do" could not be more accurate. For those that are not familiar with Cranium, it is a combination of Pictionary, Humble (where you must either hum or whistle a song), Charades, Trivial Pursuit and word games all in one.
We had our first session, a warm-up round with Ben and Tom where one of the highlights was Ben trying to hum the theme song of Mission Impossible and Tom calling my Charades moves "red butt".
The more intense and recent game was over at Ethan and Nicole's. We split ourselves into 3 teams: Noel & Tom, Ben & Nicole and Ethan and myself. In between turns, we would grab some incredible bruschetta made by Ethan and addictive banana bread, strawberries & kiwis in cream and chocolate chip cookies by Nicole. I had to hum Madonna's Like a Virgin while Ethan, Nicole and Tom had to do a group charade thing that was free of time limits. They were circling round and round with strange motions of distributing something- while Noel, Ben and I were in shambles on the couch, clutching our stomachs in pain. At one point all three of them stopped, then realized simultaneously that they had to keep going as it was untimed. We went home exhausted and hoarse from all the excitement. But we were also well-fed and warm with yummy French liquer, Creme de Cassis, champagne and red wine.