A Ticket to Asia

          No, it was joke. Not Asia, but Asian Temples in Cebu. The trip happened last Sunday, September 22. It was a field trip for our History 2 and attendance was a must. So like what the teacher instructed, most of us came to AS lobby with loose shirts and jogging pants on. But just as we were about to leave, the teacher announced that the yoga session, which was the reason for our loose-shirt-and-jogging-pants attire, will no longer happen because the instructor was having a flu. And so we had to visit temples with our rugged look; but it was comfortable anyway.

          We first headed to Heavenly Temple. You can hear the sound of the wind and the sound of the leaves dancing in the air due to the silence of the place. Sir Espiritu served as our tour guide. He was very fluent in explaining every corner and every hidden meaning in the temple. He talked like he was a Taoist. He introduced us to the oracles in the temple – kidney stones and wooden sticks. He even tried it himself but he got a very unfavourable revelation which is hopelessness. When we were given the chance to try, most of the students got bad results like a bad future. It was very funny because everyone was so excited to try, yet their moods changed when they got the super blunt revelations.

Niño, Joyce, Claire, Gilamie, Jenissa and Alexis having a pose at the overlooking part of the temple.

          On the way to our next destination, we were told to tie a hanky on our heads. In order to get inside the Cebu-Hindu temple, we must have a covering on the head to pay respect to their religion. The place is as quiet as the first temple. We entered in their place of worship and awed on the beauty of the fabrics they used in the room. Their holy book was covered with layers and layers of beautiful fabrics with patterns of glittery laces. The priest sang and read the holy book for us. Parshad, their holy food, was also offered to all of us. And aside from their holy food, when we were about to leave, they gave us juice and biscuits. I don’t know why they are so generous. If Roman Catholic would be this good, I would go to our chapel every Sunday (hahahahah).

BA Psychology students together with the priest( center) , Miss Jabines ( beside the priest) and Sir Espiritu (far left).

          Not so far from the second temple was the Tibetan Temple. It was a castle-like in structure and had Chinese-style paintings. Saying that the statues inside are huge will be an understatement. It was more than huge and big. The statues were gigantic – reaching to more than three meters in length. The monk who welcomed us was very accommodating and hospitable. Despite of our noisiness brought about by our huge population, he opened the doors to every room of the temple. They even prepared food for us before we left the place. The food was like struck by the lightning – in just seconds they were gone. While in the bus for the last temple, I kept thinking if they feel annoyed or happy in giving us snacks ( coz it was magical for us).

Psychology students, Miss Jabines and Sir Espiritu having a picture with the Tibetan  monks.

          The last, but definitely not the least temple, was the Chu Un Temple. The colour of the sky turned from orange-y to dark blue when we got there. Sir Henry was no longer our speaker because the temple had its own tour guide. The guide became anxious of how quiet we were while he was discussing things about Buddhism. The reason behind our silence is maybe because of exhaustion, or bus lag (not jet-lag haha). But nevertheless, we still enjoyed the place. The grass there was no ordinary. When we stepped on it, we felt like we were floating.  And the most eye-candy spot in the temple was their catwalk. It had colourful round lanterns with drawings of Buddhist monks on it. The ambiance is very heart-warming and relaxing. It made us think of the new things we learned from the different temples we visited.

A karate lesson with the bald babies.

          For me, that day was very fruitful. I was able to observe the different practices of different religions because of different culture. Some religions are very strict and organized by rules. And some just want unity among everyone, disregarding the socio-economic status.  But the latter are quite judged by those religions in the former. They don’t have the same practices and principles. I don’t get it why they bash those in Sikhism, Buddhism, and Taoism when the only thing that is of great importance for them is unity.

If Ever You're In My Arms Again

            It is already thirty minutes past twelve in the morning and I can’t think of anything except for the unknown reason why an important ‘someone’ in my life ignored me for days now. We have been spending these days ignoring each other. Stolen glances and awkward eye contacts always happen when our paths cross. I try to reach out but she eludes me. I hate this feeling of having a part of you missing.

            We have been together for already four months. I met her last April 2013 and I never thought we would be this close. We play together – scratching and running here and there. We wrestle and play hide-and-seek. The fun we always have ceased to exist this week of August 2013. Everytime I get home from school I always look for her. I even sometimes spend an hour playing with her. But now, I am very clueless on why she is ignoring me. Have I done something wrong? Should I stop chasing her? I want the old us back. I want to be happy with her again.

            She is the second white cat I had and the closest to my heart. I feel very happy whenever I get to play with her. Even if she came from a not-so- clean place, whenever she gets home, I put her on my lap and pet her until she falls asleep. And when she wakes up and asks for food, I offer an immediate response. I feed her with my bare hands. Laziness takes hold of her hunger and that’s why she keeps on meowing to me signalling that she wants me to swoop in the food into her mouth. Bare hands are also my only weapon when we battle against each other. She is armed with sharped claws and attacks me furiously while I stand aback looking so vulnerable. But still I play with her with my mighty little fingers. Hide-and-seek and soccer are not so foreign to us. We play them during those times when we get bored of wrestling. Also, like lovers, we get so lovey-dovey during cold weather. We cuddle in the sofa and fall asleep together. I just love her so much.

            But these happy moments are on a ‘pause’ mode now. Whenever I try to go near her, she flees away. And when I hold her, she slips and transfers to another place. When I sit beside her, she moves to the opposite direction. She only goes to me when I am eating. Maybe she is in the stage of adolescence where an individual starts doing a rebellion. I have no choice but to wait until everything goes back to normal. I shall wait patiently. I shall wait for the happy moments to ‘play’ again.

A Revolution Indeed

I don’t know much about Fashion, but all I knew was that UP had the greatest and the ‘IMBA-est’ designs.

Last August 3, 2013, we attended the Green Fashion Revolution at SM City Cebu Trade Hall. Our attendance was required for our NSTP. I was hesitant to go because of the heavy rain, but a part of me wanted to go because it will be my first time. And so, I really went there hahahaha.

I went there with my friend because I didn’t know what jeepney to ride and where the trade hall was located.  When we got there, the lights were very colourful and the speakers were very loud. The UP students were all roaming around finding their sections’ attendance sheets. After we signed the sheet, we settled near our classmates. We waited for almost 35 minutes and the show finally started. The speaker on our right side was at full blast. We were covering our right ears everytime a loud music was played. But eventually, our ears adapted to the loudness and we started contributing to the noise.

Each time our university’s name was mentioned, we, including a professor who was near us, shouted to the top of our lungs. UP Cebu’s participants were the first to present their designs.   They were soooooooo amazing. The designs were really impressive. It had a ‘funky-feel’ and was in for the modern style. The models were also very astonishing. My friends and I went crazy when we saw Kenji Watanabe and Joshua Luke Aquino. We were screaming, waddling, pulling our hair, and hitting one another. They were just so jaw-dropping for us that one of my friends was nearly crying. The last girl with the long gown was oozing with prettiness. I heard that she was a professional model. When God gave out beauty and good-height, I guess she was there, patiently waiting. For us, no one can beat the awesomeness of UP’s designs. They really fit to the criteria of wearable-ness. But we are really confused on what went through judges’ minds. We witnessed all the other universities’ designs. They were all beautiful, but for us, UP had the best ones.

There were lottery and talent shows before the announcement of winners. It was very fun because we really didn’t expect that some of our friends will win. We were jumping and we were shouting our numbers, hoping that that those will be chosen. But then, we acted the other way when the announcement of winners was started. We were fidgeting and some were even praying. The fifth and fourth placers were called, and we were thankful that they were not UP (hahahah evil).  But we were shocked when the UP Cebu went to third place. We were like,” NO THIS CAN’T BE!” Their designs stood out from the rest. Our faces turned from O_O to raging faces. When it was announced that CNU was the champion, we started thinking that it was kinda ‘planned’ winner. Why? Because when they presented their designs, the lights were very playful and very flashy. They were the only university who experienced that. But, whatever may the truth be, we can’t change the results. We just left the place with content. We looked at the bright side and were thankful that the UP FASO was able to impress the crowd and was able to live up the UP Standard. They are so IMBA! 

UP's participants (models and designers) together with the judges and the hosts

(c)Genie Marie Togono

Hi and Goodbye :)

               Journalism was not so familiar to me until the age of 11. I studied in Talamban Elementary School since I was in Kinder-1 and it was the same school which introduced journalism to me. It was my first time and the memories were quite worth keeping. I was able to meet different people. Although Friendster ate all of my photos back then, I can still recall the fun and sadness I experienced because of journalism.

When you say journalism, people always think of writing news or sports news, but I wasn’t into writing. During Grade 6, in mid-August, our English teacher announced that a Division Schools Press Conference or DSPC was happening soon. I didn’t know what that was all about back then. Later that night after hearing what our teacher announced, I asked my brother who had experience in journalism. He explained it very well to me and encouraged me to join the training our school offered. After three days, the training began. Our teacher introduced many fields of journalism like news writing, sports writing, feature writing and editorial writing. I liked news writing but my brother suggested that I should do some photo journalism and editorial cartooning and our teacher agreed with him. Since then, I often spent half of my school days taking pictures of children and places in our school and spent my nights at home practicing cartoon-drawing.

               It was second week of October when DSPC was held. It took place in Labangon Elementary School. It was a very spacious school with a vast grass ground located at its centre. It was, I think, a three-day event. The photo-taking part of the photojournalism category was in the first day. In the second day, we needed to choose six pictures, write captions about them and paste them into a black cartolina presentably. After submitting the cartolina, I proceeded to the venue for the cartooning which was just the next classroom. I was so nervous back then when I saw the very diverse styles of the other contestants. The third day was allotted for the awarding of winners. The winners in DSCP can proceed to Regional Schools Press Conference (RSPC). Fortunately, I was able to proceed in RSCP with still the same categories.

               RSPC took place in Subangdaku Elementary School. I couldn’t remember well but I think it was a five-day event, held from October 31 until November 4. The first day was intended for the parade. All regions in Visayas had their representatives. It was so hot and I was walking so thirsty. Photojournalism’s photo-taking part was in the third day and that day was so remarkable to me. I realized that, even if emerged in competition, there are still people who are willing to help. I got a problem with the film I was using (because we were required to use the old cameras) because it was not storing any of my photos. Two contestants, from Bohol I guess, helped me fixed my film. It turned out that I flipped the film wrongly. The next day came and the same process of presenting the photos occurred but again, I had a problem. I was not able to bring a regular pair of scissors and instead, brought a pair of craft scissors. Borrowing from other contestants was prohibited so I got stuck in using the curvy blades which resulted into crappy shapes. It took me so long to finish because I was repeating cutting and cutting. There was only ten minutes left when I started pasting everything. All went rush to me. Little did I know that I was running late for the cartooning. The room was quite far so I had to run as fast as I could. I was able to arrive before the time officially started. Then the last day came and everyone was once again gathered in a very huge gymnasium in Mandaue. During the announcement of winners, my coach got disappointed because no one from our school was mentioned yet. Suddenly, she called my name and slapped me on the shoulders. I wasn’t expecting that my name would be called. I couldn’t forget how my lips shivered as the photographers took photos on stage. I only won in one category, but I was very thankful to God and my brother. Then I was able to proceed to National Schools Press Conference (NSPC).

               NSPC was a seven-day event held in Naga, Bicol. It was my first time to ride an airplane. My mother went with me because she wanted me to be safe. It saddens me until now that I still haven’t repaid her goodness and patience to me during those times. Anyway (off with the drama hahaaha), being in Bicol and able to see Mayon volcano was very memorable to me. Also, the travel to Naga was remarkable too. The bus we rode to our apartelle got lost for almost 4 hours. From morning until night, we were riding a bus for almost 12 hours. The driver was really, really lost, so we decided to just stay in another apartelle. The next morning, we went to the venue of the contest and looked for another room to stay because the other one was too crowded. We ended up staying in a hotel, a comfy one. The day of my category came and I was very, very, very nervous. We were not able to meet the judge, unlike in the DSPC and RSPC where the judges told us what their styles are. That got me more nervous and at the same time mad because I thought it was injustice. Then I observed that the proctors in the room were very biased. Whenever someone from Visayas region asks a question, they don’t answer it, but when someone from their region asks, they even come to the student and answer the question face-to-face. I was a victim of the biased system. I asked if we were allowed to use markers to trace our drawings, then the proctor just murmured something and didn’t answer me clearly. I asked again and she said yes. During the drawing period, a proctor happened to pass by me. She then asked me why I used markers. I exclaimed that they permitted us to use markers, but she said they didn’t. So I had to draw all over again. There was no much time left for me to draw everything as nice as I could. I had bad tracing marks and even misspelled the word mamamahayag. I left the room so disappointed. I told my mother and coach but they said it’s alright and it was not my fault. I spent the following days exploring Bicol. The sixth day was the announcement of winners, and I guess, only one student from the Visayas won and the most number of winners went to NCR region and Bicol region. We were all expecting the results. The next day was intended for a field trip. We went to Camarines Sur Waterpark and at that time, it was still under construction but at the same time open for viewing. Our next stop was a mountain across Mt. Mayon.

The roads to the mountain were very scary. They were all curvy and got steeper everytime. When we got on top, it was very windy but at the same time, sunny. Food there was so expensive that it makes you feel guilty while eating it. The thing that made me so amazed was that we were able to see the very tip of the volcano giving off smoke. It was scary and beautiful. After this, we went to Cagsawa to see the ‘sunken’ church and to stare at Mayon’s perfect cone. While on the way there, you can see the houses destroyed when the volcano erupted. Stones were very large and so black in color. The site was quite commercialized. They had entrance fees, stores which sell souvenirs in expensive prices and locals who take a ‘creative’ picture of you for 50 pesos. When we got inside, you can really see a perfect cone. The large stones enticed people to climb on them. I tried and it was very slippery. Our disappointment was replaced with enjoyment. We were tired but at the same time very happy.

               These were my unforgettable memories brought by journalism. I had a rollercoaster of feelings. I went nervous, happy, sad, mad, disappointed and amazed. Journalism also taught me moral lessons which I value until today. Even if I’m not so good at it, I love it because it let me experience new things. There is only one thing I regretted the most and that is when I uploaded all the photos to Friendster.

Uhmmm.. Hi there :)

“The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.” 
― Virginia Woolf

               And maybe yes, I’m prisoned inside those cages. I’m not so into exposing myself to everyone. I am easily freaked out when people stare at me. Oftentimes, I stutter when I talk to someone I don’t know or someone I just knew and that makes the whole conversation awkward. My heart thumps even when ordering in fastfood chains, not because the crew was handsome, but purely because I’m awkward in starting conversations. I always think that somewhere in the place I am staying, there is someone staring at me, not a ghost, but a person who has the eyes to see my awkwardness. I constantly think that for every action I do, there are always people who talk about it, just like Newton’s third law of motion. And basically, maybe that’s the reason why I don’t talk much to people who are new to me. Not only in the outside am I awkward, but even online. I owned a blog before, but I never wrote something in it, I only kept re-blogging pictures of different Korean men (K-pop idols Hahahah). I am afraid to let the people see who I really am and what things are running in my mind. But now, we had a blog as a project. It is not a really bad thing for me, because, maybe it is time to change a little bit of my so called “social awkwardness” now. So apparently, this is my first time to write a blog entry. To anyone who can read my blog, please bear with my lame entries.

              So I guess in starting a conversation to someone, you start off with introducing yourself. My name is Jenissa Mari Seno Misa, and most people mispronounce my first name and misspell my second name. I am currently in my 16^th year since August 23, 1996. I currently live in Cebu, Philippines. I am presently enrolled under BA Psychology I in UP Cebu. I am in the first year of college life, and I hope, I’ll make it through the succeeding years.

              I am a short girl with big backpacks. I do love cute dresses and skirts, but I just don’t wear them. I often pair a shirt or a polo shirt with jeans. Cute stuffs or anything with a cute packaging attract my eyes. Those cute candy-makers from Japan and skin products of Etude House are some of my eyes’ candies, but I don’t buy them. Also, I am very eager to own every cute pig toy present in the world. I love pigs and I am sometimes sorry when I eat them. Despite of being fat, they are still cute, but I pity their lives because they grow just to be eaten. Pigs and I have very same habits—eating a lot and sleeping after devouring. Anyway, I love collecting pig toys. I also love cats, especially white cats. In fact, I own a white kitten now and I love petting it. Aside from the cute stuffs, I love dancing. And again, I am too shy to dance when people ask me to. Moving on, I am into K-pop and I am loyal to two groups only – Shinee and TVXQ. So perhaps, I have mentioned the general description of myself and I hope there exist people who are awkward like me so we can be friends and have awkward conversations.