Pink heater

These days are freezing! Living in a subtropical country, we have winters without snow but our winter is so humid thus awfully cold. Aside from warm comforters, we take comforts on heaters. My friend brought this electric heater home and it's so cute in pink, thus perfect for our pink meme...

The cute pink heater. No, it's not an electric fan lol.

My pinky friend enjoying the warmth from the pinky heater.

Happy New Year!!!

Almost everybody went to Taipei to watch the spectacular fireworks at Taipei 101 that cost millions of dollars. For the remaining lazy people like us, we just got contented with what our university can offer. We were catered by a parade of colorful booths probably a hundred selling various Taiwanese cuisines and hosting games, a lively concert by famous local artists, and fireworks display on top of the 7-floored university library. After satisfying our hungry stomachs and that means surviving the heavy traffic of people especially along the food stalls, I, my daughter and some friends sat on the grasses by the lake facing the library, waiting for the countdown to new year. We ate, we chatted and ignored the freezing temperature. After the countdown (ended up with hoarse voices), we then went to a tea shop to continue our chitchats and further went to a movie theater to watch Tom Cruise's MI-4. At about 4:30 dawn, we then proceeded to eat breakfast together till 6:30 AM. I know it's a terrible way to start a new year (that is being outside of the house), as my mom would say, we would end up nocturnals for the rest of the year lol. Hopefully not. I guess this is what we get for being away from home, and having our friends as our only family here to greet the new year with.

Gathering for tea in a checkered black and white teashop after new year countdown.

At the lakeside with friends watching simple firework displays.

Wishing you all a prosperous new year too! May 2012 be better for all of us!

Christmas with friends

For almost five years of living as a graduate student in Taiwan, it means I've also been missing having five Christmas with my whole family back in my country. Back home, we have bright and festive Christmas celebrations everywhere, well, crazy it may sound some do as early as September. Homes are highlighted with Christmas decors while streets are filled with mostly DIY stars. On Christmas Eve, the whole family attends a midnight mass followed by Noche Buena, a midnight dinner filled with all sorts of delicious Filipino delicacies shared with joy and laughter by the whole family. The dark skies then will be decorated with colorful fire crackers as fathers showed off to their kids how to create loud colorful magics, the safe way lol.

With my daughter. Hubby and youngest daughter were back in Philippines.

On the other hand, Christmas here in Taiwan is not considered a holiday. Everybody works on December 25th, classes and examinations are held as if nothing happens, which was very frustrating and depressing the first time. I understand they have Chinese New Year which is more important in their culture, however I'm thankful at least Jan 1 is considered a holiday.

Back to our Christmas celebration, I'm very grateful our Filipino community here still continued our tradition by holding midnight masses from December 16th to the 24th, followed by simple merienda. On the 24th, we heard a midnight mass and shared the Christmas spirit with fellow Christians, sharing of gifts and delicious Filipino foods. After the mass, I and my daughter, along with three other Christian friends (2 Filipinos and 1 Indonesian) ran to our Christmas party held with our fellow foreign students (venue: a friend's dormitory). Everybody brought their own country's dish to share with everybody, enjoyed the games and simply caught up with everyone's lives. Indeed, I'm so blessed to have a group of friends here to share the spirit of loving and sharing.  Though we're of different religions and nationalities, we came together to celebrate Christmas as a family.

Christmas with fellow students and friends from our university.

Simple Christmas gathering with friends. No Christmas trees or decor. Just us.

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to all!

Though far and away from our loved ones this special season, still we managed to celebrate Christmas. Thanks to our dear friends who were always there to celebrate with on special occasions as this. Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!!!

Flash flood donation drive

As Typhoon Washi (local name Sendong) passed by the Southern Philippines last week, along with it came the monstrous rainfall that created fatal and highly damaging flash floods and land slides. Unprepared for what was coming in the middle of the night, more than a thousand from Cagayan de Oro City and Iligan City sadly succumbed while a lot more were missing as muddy flood waters covered their roof tops in few minutes and horrifyingly swept out entire villages towards the sea. At present, hundreds of thousands were homeless. Such tragic event happened so close to home, a mere 3 hours drive away, and it was very heart-breaking.

My hubby didn't pushed through with his supposed Christmas trip to Samal island and instead donated the money and some clothes and tents for the victims. I've never been so touched and proud of him. Meanwhile, wanting to help in our own special way, I along with two other Filipino students organized a donation drive here in our university for relief assistance of the flash flood victims. For three days, we set up donation boxes at the Office of International Affairs and by the end of the day, we were extremely touched to see the boxes overflowing with donations. Clothes, sleeping bags, blankets, comforters, bottled waters, canned foods, shoes and even cash were donated. Such warm responses were so touching and indeed, they're the best Christmas gifts we received this year.

Extremely touched by people's generous hearts!

 As of now, the goods were shipped towards the Philippines via LBC, courtesy of a generous donor from our church. Amidst the tragedy hitting us, God still find ways to touch our lives through people's goodness. We continue to pray for the victims of the flash floods and may God strengthen everybody especially in this tragic moment. Christmas may be gloomy this year but with our help, little they may be, makes a big difference to a victim's life. You may donate here - via Philippine Red Cross. Thank you. May God bless us all.

Ostrich eggs

Visiting an ostrich farm today, we were greeted by these gigantic eggs.

A parade of ostrich eggs. .. and their shadows :)

Just lovely!

My good friend showing off how big  these eggs are.

Birthday flowers

My ever sweet hubby never failed to surprise me even if we're different countries away. Celebrating my birthday last Friday, a Filipina friend gave me a boquet of pink flowers supposedly from no other than my hubby. I was extremely touched.

a boquet of sweet smelling fresh pink roses! 

The funny thing was, I have to pay for the flowers! Hahahaha! What is this, a collect call/flower service? lol. I know, my hubby is the sweetest right? Nevertheless, his thoughtfulness made my day!

The panoramic ocean

Bored one summer and just wonna relax in the seaside, hubby planned a backpacking trip for us. The next daybreak, we traveled for 6 hours towards the beach capital of Taiwan~ Kenting, where we stayed for three adventure-filled days. The first day, we  rented a scooter and traveled around the place for scenic views.

We stopped by Jialeshuei on our way to the surfing area. This was on top of a summit overlooking the Pacific ocean.

Hail the Pacific view! Clear blue ocean and clear white clouds. What a perfect day to get out!

Daughter and hubby enjoying the panoramic view.

Isn't this breath-taking!!!

Such a glorious day! We thanked God for such simple miracles of nature!

This was last year and Joey was still so small, now she's almost as tall as me. Again, time flew by fast. 

The top of the world. The Rock.

Trying to feel how it feels to be on top of the world. So windy! This was taken after we took a dip in the ocean and on our way back to our rented place. 

Linking for Our World Tuesday,  Wednesday Whites, Watery Wednesday, Skywatch Friday 

Yellow ballerina

Since my daughter joined us in Taiwan, she studied and danced ballet. The last time they had a presentation in their school, she was a rainbow fish. At first she was sad she was not wearing a tutu unlike last year's. But then of course it would be weird for a fish to wear a tutu, she was convinced. While attending to her make-up backstage, I became an instant make up artist for almost all of her classmates too lol. I guess their number is too much to handle by the volunteer moms and an extra hand was very much appreciated. The  ballet dances, the cute and talented kids, the proud parents, the entertained spectators, overall it was a fun night!

Cute rainbow fishes!

The proud mommy, daddy and little sister!

Baloons for our little star!

With the full support of aunts and uncles!

Birthday Pink

For my nth birthday last year, my friends gave me this beautiful bouquet of fragrant lovely flowers. Ain't they beautiful!

A group of pink roses accompanied by a white stargazer lily and greenies, all wrapped in pink!

Ain't they very pretty and sweet!!!

Friends who invaded me that fun night!

Celebrating with my dear family and friends last year!  

For my oncoming birthday this year (yes, on my fave holiday-filled December, and it's next week!), indeed I have a lot of blessings to be thankful for! My deteriorating physical and mental health (due to stress) improved a lot. I was able to take care of my body of my family's health properly. I was able to reunite my youngest daughter (then 4-year old) with us from across another country. I was beyond blissful to have my whole family together, even for at least 7 months. We bonded together as an expat family, travelling, celebrating all birthdays, going to foreign schools, hanging out with friends and simply enjoying another country's culture together. We passed a lot of trials and so blessed and thankful to God we survived them. Having a handful of genuine friends around helped a lot too. Overall, though as my birthday is coming, age is undeniably increasing, wrinkles start appearing but I don't care, I enjoyed my 2011 a lot and looking forward for a more glamorous blissful 2012. Cheers!