Whitewater Rafting

Cagayan de Oro City, a gateway to Northern Mindanao, Philippines (a region where I hailed from), is becoming the country's  thrill seeker destination for whitewater rafting. Cagayan de Oro river boasts 23 rapid counts ranging from difficulty levels 1 to 4.

Last January 2007, six of our friends and fellow students (from Russia, Germany, Turkey, Czech and Poland) went with us on our way home from Taiwan to Philippines. They enjoyed touring our home university, touring Samal and Camiguin islands, riding our crazy jeepneys and even hitch-riding the tubo-tubo (a huge cargo truck for sugar canes). On such particular tour, we enjoyed whitewater rafting at Cagayan de Oro City. We took the beginner rapids.

Here are some of the highlights:

The jeepney that brought us to the site.

Us ready to rumble with the rapids!

Paddling the white rapids.

Clinging to each other as not to fall in the cascading water. 

Clinging on or we might fall! so funny and scary! 

Rapids or not, we still managed to smile lol!

Look at these scary noisy rapids! 

Paddle paddle!  

Conquering the rapids! Oh yeah! 

Surfing the rapids! 

Fell down!

Me and a friend outbalanced and fell, scary! we need to grab the rope asap or we might get carried away by the strong current. 

That was really fun! 

At the same time enjoying the panoramic view. The forest along the riversides are havens for monkeys.

The river was clean and refreshing!

Plunging to our deaths lol. No, this scary jump was for our graduation (crazy me, 3rd from left).

That was fun! Indeed, adrenaline-pumping one!

Us after the fun (meaning, after eating barbecues with our bare hands lol)!!

So, what are you waiting for? Come and feel the rush of nature's wildest at Cagayan de Oro City. Click here for more info. I wonna get back there myself and experience the fun once more.

  

Sunshine Award

I was honored again with another blog award and this time it's the prettiest Sunshine Award. Yayyy!!!

This sunshiny award was given to me by a sweet mom blogger Rovie of Anything About Bella. Thank you Rovie for brightening up my day. This is indeed lovely! It's refreshing to know that I was able to inspire people or at least I inspired Rovie enough to honor me (wink wink!). Apparently, Sunshine Blog Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blogosphere.

Here are the rules for accepting this award:

1. Thank the person who gave this award and write a post about it.

2. Answer the following questions below.
3. And pass the award to 10~12 fabulous bloggers, link their blogs and let them know you awarded them. 

Hence, my answers to the questions:

Favorite color?  Lilac. Such a lovely relaxing color. It was my wedding motif too ten years ago.

Favorite animal?  Dog. Totally, a man's best friend. I love to adopt than buy one. So many neglected dogs out there deserve our love and care.
Favorite number?  I love three. My daughters' birthdays.
Favorite drink?  Green tea. It's healthier and gives me a boost to my busy days.
Facebook or Twitter?  Facebook. All of my friends are there. Even their pets have their own accounts. Seriously.
Your passion?  Serving my hubby and kids. They are my world. Everyday I thank God for such wonderful blessings.
Giving or getting presents?  Giving. It feels good to give, help and make someone happy in our own special way.
Favorite day?  Friday. It means I can watch movies till late or be lazy all night and blog or bloghop till I drop. 
Favorite flowers?  Oh, I just can't get enough of red roses. Wish my husband gives me one each day. 

There you have it guys. Now, it's time for me to share the love. Sunshine Blog Award is the cutest so I must pass it on to twelve deserving bloggers~ who either inspired me with their sassy and creative blogs or made me smile with their thoughtful comments on my posts.  Here they are in totally random order. 

Judy of JUDY H-J'S THOUGHTS - A TWINLESS TWIN
Barbara of Spanish4Kiddos
Jackie of SAHM City

Beauty of Beauty and the Green 

Jessy of Jessy's Adventure

Shanda of A Pause in the Path

Icar of Of Limes and Lemons

Jen of Making Our Life Matter

Gagay of I am... but Gagay

Rosann of Christian SuperMom
Anney of Blog ni Ako

Rashida of Women Walking in the Spirit of Christ

Hope you would have time to visit their cool and amazing blogs too. Have a wonderful day ahead to ya all. E*Hugs!

Versatile Blogger Award

I was elated when I was honored with the awesome Versatile Blogger Award, not just once but twice. I got the first time within the first month of actively joining the blogosphere, awarded by no less than the amazing mom blogger Barbara from Spanish4Kiddos. I so love her blog since it teaches kids and adults alike like me the Spanish language, the fun way. Thank you so much Barbara! Then few weeks later, I was again honored by the fabulous Beauty and the Green. I so love her blog that features various inspiring pieces of art and fashion, from trendy clothes to chic accessories, name it. Thanks girl! If you have the moment, please check out and visit their cool sites too.

This award has few rules. First is to thank and link back to the person who gave you this award. Second, share seven things about yourself. And third, send the award to 15 other bloggers and let them know you have awarded them.

For the seven things about myself, I'll disclose at least seven weird ones:

1. I'm an avid procrastinator. I procrastinate on everything. I procrastinate even on my meal and sleeping time. With that said, my sincere apologies for procrastinating in passing this very cool award. I was really terribly busy these past crazy school months. I'm still terrible with my time management.
2. I just love horror movies especially the crazy zombies, but not the scarier Chainsaw Massacre thing. I know it's weird.
3. I'm scared of heights, really! But I love conquering it. Riding the scary Diving Machine G5 that drops a vertical 180 feet at a speed of 68 mph made me experienced a near-death moment. I survived it. Then riding the very scary Turbo Drop and Taiwan's tallest Ferris wheel (289 ft tall) all at Janfusun Fancyworld somehow helped me conquer this fear. Bungee jumping? I still say no, it's too much.
4. I love to sing although singing just doesn't love me lol. I sing when I'm sad, or worried, or praying, or happy, or even when driving. Weird, right?
5. I'm a nocturnal. I'm sluggish at daytime and active at night. I worked effectively at night ~ either doing my experiments or writing my reports. However, I know this is bad for my health. Still trying to change my style.
6. I'm one tardy lady. I'm always late even on events or parties I organized. They made fun of me saying that it's good my guests are all my good friends and they still love me though they hate the tardy part lol. Again, I'm still working on my time management.
7. I love cracking my fingers' knuckles. I cringe at the idea that such habit might deform my fingers. But I just can't stop myself from doing it. I'm addicted. So far, all fingers are fine and normal. But I'm working on stopping it, like for years  now.

That said, I hope you will still like me even if I'm that weird and unlikable lolz.

Now, I'm passing on this award to 15 more interesting versatile blogging sites. This may not be their first, but still they deserve the award. Here they are (not in order):

Loving the Family Life

Saving While Making Money

Cool Bean Mommas

Making It From Page to Table

Between Babies

Beauty Queen Gene

Peggy apl seeds

Food and Food Trips

Travelholic's Expressions

Seow Wei DigiScrap Blog

On the Old Path

Family and Life Online 

A Sahm Reviews. Net

Cassandrasminicorner

Kat in the Kitchen

Congratulations guys!
I love these blogs, so I'm pretty sure you would love them too! Have fun!

Signature Smile

Me at 15 years old (high school days).

Digging up some old photos, I saw this classic photo of mine from high school days. Back then, black and white was still on trend at photo souvenir shops. I was still a skinny little short-haired girl. Don't I look so sweet in here? My friends used to comment I'm one photogenic girl, which might have implied I don't look as good in person haha, but hey, I still took them as compliments lol. Fast forward to present, I'm no longer so sure if I still got the same smile. Check out my latest photo taken just last weekend.

Me and my smile 16 years later...

So do you think I still got my signature smile? My friends also commented that my daughter got some signature smile too. She usually smiles in front of the camera just the way I did in my younger days lol, and they make fun of it hmm. Check this out.

My daughter and her smile. She took this photo herself from my mobile.

So what do you think? Does my li'l girl got her mom's once signature smile too?  Thanks for visiting!

Front page moment LOL

This happened last year...

A local newspaper was handed to me by my daughter after her class.

And I was surprised to see myself on its front page (2nd from right, on orange Punjabi garb) lol. Taken from university-sponsored Diwali Festival fashion show last year.

Crafting a native costume

In time for our university's 92nd birthday, the foreign students were invited to join the event last Saturday, to be on our traditional clothes and represent our respective countries and flags. This year, only three students were from Philippines so I decided to let my daughter join the fun, who by the way loves joining events. Then I decided to let her wear our cultural local costume. The problem was, I only got the top/blouse so I needed to come up with a skirt and the accessories, which were not so easy to acquire being on a foreign land.

I just needed to remember the essential colors for our native costumes: red, yellow, black and white. Scouting nearby DIY shops, I bought necessary materials for her headdress and accessories (necklaces, bracelets, anklets and earrings). I know I'm not good at crafting but I took such task as a challenge.

beads: red, yellow, black, white,
other colors are optional; small
anklet bells, clasps,  nylon.

Wire sticks (I can't find black
though), yarns, steel wires.

Here's how I made our local headdress:

I arranged the wire sticks and tied them together with a thin steel wire.

Then added some layers of steel wires at the base.

And further added more layers of thicker steel wires on the top part.

However, due to my busy schedules at school, I finished the headdress just a night or actually a dawn before the event. I slept like 3 AM to finish everything. Hurrying up for the 8 AM event the next day, I forgot to take a photo of the final product but here's how the headdress looked like, as worn by my daughter. 

The last-minute made headdress. Basically, I just tied the yarns around the steel wires. Then I stitched a black garter to attach the headdress to her head and embellished it with few beads. 

This was how my daughter looked like in the event. I modified her wrap-around skirt. It was actually mine bought by my husband from Costa Rica 6 years ago. I decorated it with sheer red handkerchiefs on each side, and it fit her so well (my, she's really growing up fast). Then I made her simple necklaces and anklets out of the beads I bought. Back home, necklaces and bracelets are far thicker and grander. A good Filipina friend Cyd, helped me with the earrings and bracelets when she came to visit us one afternoon. I finished her look with a pair of Habagat slippers.

My own version of Kaamulan Festival costume yay! I say, not bad, right? (except for few falling yarns lol, which I managed to fix later on). 

Behold the pretty Filipinas on our traditional outfits. Both Cyd and my 9-yr old daughter were wearing our provincial native costumes, usually worn on our local celebration known as "Kaamulan Festival".

Us (me, 2nd from right, I wore our national costume) and some friends.

With some more friends...

and with more... My apologies! Just realized we might had handled our flags the wrong way, should not touch the ground right?  If so, this is out of pure ignorance... We will be mindful the next time...

Us on our flags.. 

My daughter was kind of enjoying the attention she's getting lol.

I really enjoyed crafting my daughter's attire. After all, such event only happen once in a blue moon. It's also a good way to bond with her. My daughter was so ecstatic and grateful about it.

So, what do you think of her costume? Do you like it?

Filipiniana

The cloth is made out of
pineapple leaf fiber
or piña fabric.

I, along with my daughter and other international students joined the celebration for our university's 92nd founding anniversary and then represented our respective countries. My daughter and Filipino friend wore our local traditional Kaamulan costumes while I wore a Filipiniana dress.

Me and my 9-year old daughter, on her traditional  Bukidnon attire. I made her costume by the way yay! Check it out here  :)

Joined by Cyd from Philippines wearing a Bukidnon dress (left), with Romanian friend (hmm not on her traditional get-up), and  from Honduras on her beautiful red Flamenco (right).

Joined by more friends from Japan and Nepal. 

Africa and USA (and he insisted he's wearing a traditional get-up, hmmm).

More from Asia, Europe, Africa, Central America.

With ladies from India. 

and more (daughter hid herself with our flag..)

 "Praying for Thailand", with Thai and Japanese students.

Overall, we had fun showing off our colorful and unique traditional costumes especially during the parade. Such activity gave us the opportunity to bond with other international students, who on ordinary days are invisible while immersed on their own busy academic worlds. That day, Thailand was in our thoughts and almost everybody donated for the flood-affected country.