Hi! I'm Muriel and I call myself the great escapist. I have a tanned skin, big cheeks and a very messy fringe. This little online space is my personal diary and it consists of my adventures, work, style, or anything I'd like to share to the world!
While everyone
probably enjoyed the waves, got tans, and partied at Laboracay on May 1st,
I was able to celebrate the day with my friends Kariza, Nichole and EJ at
Nuvali, Sta Rosa.
If you are
following me on my other social media accounts (where i usually lurk and loiter)
you would know that I am a fan of Up Dharma Down. Every time I hear news about
them performing live in a nearby city or town I would always want to come. It
is already my third time hearing them live and Up Dharma still never fails to
get the best of me. ‘Pagtumugtog na ang
kanta ng UDD, ang dami ko na talagang feels.’
Besides the
fact that I love Up Dharma, I also took the time to enjoy the holiday because I
know I would be very busy the following weeks (same reason why I’m only
blogging about this now).
I don’t
understand college professors. This semester is consisted of 21 weeks but all of
our professors plotted decided to give all the requirements and the exams in its last four weeks causing all schoolwork to pile up. Oh wow. Such time
management.
But enough
about that.
I went to
Nuvali, Sta Rosa with my friends EJ, Nichole and Kariza who were big fans of Up
Dharma’s music too. It was my first time going there. The event we went to was The Nuvali Night Sky Cinema wherein they would show three films namely:
Shift, That Thing Called Tadhana and Begin Again. It was hosted by John Lapus
with special bands like Moonstar88 and of course, Up Dharma!!!
On my previous posts, I’ve been talking about my upcoming collaboration with Kuya Poj and Lois, and now, here it is! This is an exclusive behind the scenes of our first photoshoot for our blog entitled ‘The Monday Weekends’. It is a blog about three individuals who will exhibit a fusion of fashion and photography.
Here are some behind-the-scenes photos:
Watch out for more updates about this project! I will be posting the link as soon as we fix our schedules and the blog.
The linkage between Chinese and Filipino will be forever acknowledge, and so on February 19, 2015, we celebrated the Chinese New Year.
My UP Photographers’ Society family really had a huge amount of wanderlust and so we had another photo walk and it’s in Binondo. We joined the celebration and witnessed things such as street dances, parades, and even saw cute little girls in Chinese costumes.
There are a lot of things to see and everything was picture perfect. I enjoyed walking on the streets because I saw a lot of Chinitos. Haha!
I spent the day with Amiel, Sarah, Kuya Kidd, Kuya CJ, Pat, Earl, Lois and Charles.
The locals of Binondo welcomed the people with a dragon dance. They said that the dragon is more than 200 meters long. *o*
Did some street photography.
FIERY STREET DANCERS!
Adorable little girls in chinese costumes!! They are so cute I want to put them in my pockets and bring them home! haha.
We got hungry and ate at a place that Pat recommended. After eating, we decided to go to Mall Of Asia. We had dinner and played some arcade games. It was very hilarious when we played Just Dance and Kuya CJ won every single time. Haha!
For some reason, though this experience was very tiresome, I find it very memorable. I believe that this experience started something I would remember forever.
February 7 was an artful kind of day. Being surrounded by creative people imparting knowledge and spending the day with people who have the same passion as I were the kind of days I live for.
My UP Photographers’ Society family decided to attend a photography seminar in Diliman. I decided to come along since I couldn’t take this wanderlust anymore.
Before we went to UP Diliman, my orgmates and I met at Trinoma and had some quality time.
Of course, a shoe selfie.
We played some cards in Starbucks while waiting for Kuya Poj. We were laughing our asses off because I get to win over Kuya CJ considering that it was my first time to play the game, Go Fish!
There was an exhibit outside the seminar room at the UP Vargas Museum (which I finally crossed out on my bucket list) so we took the chance and appreciate them.
Kuya CJ being artsy fartsy.
Rick Rocamora giving his lecture about street and documentary photography!
Kuya Poj being artsy fartsy.
Tired Kuya CJ said he could finish the whole bottle.
Off to our next destination!
The sunset never fails to amaze me. I could watch them for hours.
And then we arrived at the Art Fair at The Link!
The Art Fair made me realize a few things. One of which is that there are different forms of art and we need to open our minds to appreciate other people’s works. Looking at the works of other people make me sad about who I am right now. I realized that I am nowhere near these people and I need to work hard even more if I want to be like them. They are all so inspiring. I actually cried a little because of intimidation but I cried even more because I was so inspired that day that I wanted to become greater and be somebody who will be able to inspire others too.
It was then true. Art is not supposed to mean something, it’s supposed to make you feel something.
It was a great experience and I hope I could go to more art fairs in the future. aaaand of course, be more inspired to do well in life and reach my dreams.
Thank you to my Up PhotoS family for spending the day with me!
Well-spent Valentine’s Night with my best friends at Cocina. Everyone was available on Valentine’s so we decided to have a little get together and catching up. We were supposed to go to Nuvali for the Sky Cinema but it started raining so we just had dinner and went to V3 for some karaoke. Sadly, Sam was not able to come at the last minute.
Lately, I’ve been hooked up with Korea’s culture especially when I started fangirling over GOT7 and Lee Jong Suk from Doctor Stranger. Few of my friends are big KPop-junkies so we decided to try authentic Korean food before school starts.
This plan was postponed at least two times before it was pushed through. Fortunately, it happened last January 31, 2015! I went with two of my beautiful best friends, Althea and Pauline.
Thankful for these two for spending the day with me. January 31st will always be special to me.
As we enter A-WON we were overwhelmed with their greeting; ’Annyeonghaseyo!’. We couldn’t help but smile at them and burst little giggles out. The crew escorted us to out table and gave us the menu.
For the meat we decided to get:
Woo Sam Gyup (Beef Belly for 500php/platter), Samgyeopsal (Grilled Pork Belly for 300php/platter), and Buldak Galbi (Spicy Chicken BBQ for 350php/platter) which were very very satisfying. I mean, come on. it’s meat. What else do I have to say?
For the meals we decided to get:
Deonjang-jjigae (Soybean Paste Stew for 300php/serving); Maeun-tteok-boki (Spicy stir-fried Rice Cake for 300php/serving) and Gyeram-jjim (Steamed Eggs for 150php/serving).
For the drinks we decided to get:
Soju (250php/bottle); Watermelon Shake and Mango Shake for both 90php per glass.
When the meals were served we immediately dug in and satisfied our cravings. I feel like I was in South Korea and eating in a small food stall with Mark Tuan. Hahaha! Okay, that was too much of my imagination.
I was so stoked to see Go Jun Hee because I’m currently watching Junhee and Jinwoon’s We Got Married. Hehe. She’s so pretty!
The side dishes were phenomenal!!! and look there’s kimchi!
It’s so funny how fascinated we were while grilling the meat. It’s like we’ve discovered the process of grilling for the first time. Hahaha!
Rice cake!!! I didn’t like it the first time I’ve tried it way back but this one ugh! It’s very tasty!!
We cut the pork bellies into strips just like how they do it in Korea and included it in our wraps.
Can we just take this moment to actually appreciate this steamed egg? Gosh. My brother and I are big fans of eggs whether fried, scrambled, boiled but steamed??? oh my god. I have to go back to A-WON and have that steamed egg.. with my brother!
I asked my dongseang to make me a wrap and it was so good. Pau surely wrapped it with love. Haha!
they are so lovely.
I actually consider this spicier than kimchi. what up taste bud.
successful pork grilling.
We tried posing with our chopsticks while waiting for the meat to be grilled. Haha! *chopstick skill level 10 (out of a hundred haha)*
It was a great experience. I hope I could experience this again but in South Korea! Haha! Thank you, A-WON! We definitely had a great time. Our tummies were happier and we will surely come back. Annyeong!!
I woke up at around ten in the morning after I heard my cellphone ringing. As I looked at the screen I felt like as if there were a thousand suns before my eyes. It was so bright so I immediately answered the phone. It was my cousin calling and she wants me to go to Cavite with them. I got up and decided to prepare. There were four of us in the car - my cousin, her husband, her husband’s helper and I.
I wasn’t able to have either breakfast or lunch so we went on a drive thru. (What’s a joyride without a drive thru anyway?)
took a selfie during the ride because I was bored.
We finally arrived! I was surprised when my cousin said that there’s a beach at the back of her husband’s childhood home. Since I didn’t bring my camera I decided to take the pictures using my cellphone. (he he.)
I fell in love with the sound of the beach, the sunset and the skies. Looking at the horizon made me feel so small yet I’m thankful that it did. I realized that the horizon is like my future. It may be very far away, but at least I know it is there – it is breathtaking and it makes me feel so free. Looking at it from afar makes me happy and motivated.
It was then time to go back to Laguna. It was just my cousin and I because her husband and the helper would stay in Cavite for a few days. On our way home, we put our windows down and we just sang along to different songs. I can feel the wind on my face and it just felt so good.
This is my first adventure in 2015 and I’m glad that I’m off to a good start.
