Barkada Escapade at Riverstone Castle in Argao

In the afternoon of September 8, we checked out the nearby tourist attraction in Argao called Riverstone Castle.
Barkada pose in front of the Riverstone Castle entrance:

From left to right: Rocely, Gemma, Kristen, Me, Mizpah, Mary Ann.
Riverstone first floor middle round table:

From left to right, top to bottom: Kristen, Me, Cathy, Mary Ann, Gemma and Rocely.

Another round table picture:

Riverstone Castle drawbridge:




The castle's first floor was a little creepy, the lights were a little dim and the ambience was quite eerie. Most of the furnitures were carved from stones and there was also a real harp there. Despite the old setting of the place there was a wall fan stuck on the side which made it funny. hehehehe.
Pictures at the first floor minibar:





Heading towards the restaurant:

Riverstone Castle views:



The castle was fascinating enough.
The place had a karaoke bar and a restaurant on the 3rd floor and a swimming pool on the top most part.





The place had a maze like structure. It also had many hidden passages which are fun for first timers.
Here's my solo at the castle's front window:

Barkada Escapade at Ocean Bay Dalaguete

Last September 8, my friends and I decided to go on an adventure to the south of Cebu, particularly Ocean Bay Dalaguete. We went there via V-Hire and the trip took around 2 hours.

The place was fine, the beach was not so great but there was an indoor swimming pool.


The facilities of the unit we rented were quite satisfactory, except for the TV which didn't have cable. The refrigerator and the air conditioners were working and the common area was spacious. The place was not bad at all and it was reasonably priced. The resort also had a restaurant on the left side but we weren't able to sample a meal there though.

Dinner with Father

Most of my brothers can't get along with each other well. But I sure am glad that they don't fight as much when I'm around. Last September 7 we decided to have dinner together at SM Golden Courie with Father. (I can only have dinner with only one set of parents at a time :P)
All of my brothers were there except one, Oging. He doesn't eat anything but chicken or Jollibee food so it was decided that he had to skip this one for us to be able to eat proper food. The truth is, I am a little strained towards dealing with my Father. I do want to help him but I already promised my mother to support her. And I don't have enough finances to support both of them so I had to pick one. Since most of my brothers are with my mother, I chose to stick with my mother. How I wish there was a way to make it all good, to make everyone happy. Perhaps someday, when I grow a little bit more, I can find the answer :).

At Jerry's Grill with Bedshaker

September 3. I had a lot of stomach problems during the day. I had eaten too much during my birthday (September 2). I stuffed myself with as much as I could which mostly consist of really unhealthy stuff like crispy lechon skin, dinuguan and lots of softdrinks.

I was feeling a little better in the evening so my brother Caloy and I decided to dine out and went to Jerry's grill. We met his friend there and I'm sorry but I can't really remember his real name, all I can remember is how my brother addressed him. Caloy calls him Bedshaker, it's his nick in their chat channel. These two were actually giving me tips on how to differentiate gay from real guys and they're even giving me tips on how to get a guy! Talk about generation gap! And I've always thought that I was full of wisdom. :P I was dead wrong. hahahahaha.

Hanging out with Gib

During the 4th week of August I spent my time looking for schools to study and improve my Japanese since my work forcibly ended August 17. The next day after I was kicked out I decided the attend the Toyonaka Bochi bochi to start another series of Japanese study.
During the bochi bochi I met Gibran. Gib's last name is Garcia, same as mine. He's from Mexico. He's Japanese level is way above mine despite the fact that he lives there. He reasoned that he had been studying the language at school for some time. He also happened to be looking for some Japanese schools too, to make himself more fluent. So we decided to join forces.
During the next few days we kept in touch to collaborate about the classes. Unfortunately most schools were closed for the summer so there weren't many schools to go to. hehehe :P

Summer Sonic 2007

August 11, 2007 was one of the hottest summer day in Osaka. We, Jet, Mars and I were headed out to watch Summer Sonic in Maishima. We had a little problem getting there since we got a little lost and went out of the station eventhough we weren't supposed to. But it all worked out in the end. We were able to get to the place. There were shuttle buses that took the people to the actual venue. When people were lining up towards the shuttle bus station, I was amazed. I've never seen so many young people in Japan. I thought the country was suffering from the lack of youth, but as I saw the crowd of young people, I thought, THAT IS SO UNTRUE!

This picture was taken inside the shuttle bus heading towards Maishima.

So finally we got to Maishima and started lining up for the wristbands(They give wristbands for you in exchange for the ticket). Then we went out to look for Tomo-chan and his wife. Both of them were already lining up to buy some summer sonic official goods. We lined up for a while also but lost patience and finally gave up and went out of the line and just asked Tomo-chan to buy stuff for us while we went out to look for some food.

This picture was taken after we lined up for the wristbands.

Mars, me, Jet and Shoko-chan (Tomo-chan's wife) after lunch at the parking lot.

The event had many sponsors and most of them were giving away stuff. I got around 3 towels, one from Tower Records, 2 from Docomo then I also bought one official Summer Sonic towel.

Maishima had 5 stages. We mostly stayed at the Sky Stage were most of the alternative bands performed like Hinder, Avenged Sevenfold and The OffSpring.

This is Sky Stage with Hinder performing at the back.

This is the Sky Stage after Hinder's performance.
The most surprising performer for me during that day was Cindy Lauper. I admit that I was pretty curious as to how she will sing in the concert. I knew that she's NOT young anymore. When she came out for the first song she was wearing a black wig. She looked like an older Ashlee Simpson in it but when she sang, it was just AWESOME! Her voice didn't change throughout the years. It was unbelievable that she could carry out all the hight pitch parts of her song, flawlessly! From then on, I have gathered a new profound respect for her. She is one awesome and powerful performer. She might not have the same incredible physique as Madonna, and she dances really weird too...but in overall performance and voice quality, SHE STILL ROCKS!

Karaoke with Fukushima-sensei

July 21 was a saturday. That afternoon Fukushima-sensei along with Kou-san went to the karaoke in Minami-senri. You see I enrolled in this place called Suita Interpeople Frienship Association to study Japanese. I attended the wednesday night class which starts at 6:30 - 8:30 PM. Yes it was a gruelling schedule but I had no choice since there were no other good classes that I could go to anyway. During this time I was still working in Nishinakajima Minamigata which took a good 40 minutes to reach the school (15 mins walk to the station, 15 mins train ride, another 10 from the minami-senri station to the school location). But I guess now that I'm already working in Sannomiya, going to this class would be close to impossible for me.
As summer vacation for the school approached, Fukushima sensei decided to transfer to the afternoon class when the regular classes resumes after the break, hence she will not teach the night class anymore. To commemorate our good times together in class we decided to go our for karaoke just before the summer break starts.
During the karaoke session Fukushim-sensei sang Sen no Kaze song twice. I only realized how popular that song was way after we had the karaoke session. hehehehehe. She was urging us to sing along by pointing out the lyrics on the TV screen while singing. Teachers never change, no matter where you put them, they will always try to teach. :)
I sang songs from english to japanese to tagalog that afternoon. I felt very satisfied afterwards not to mention happy since I didn't pay much eventhough I ate a seafood pasta during the karaoke. :P
During class break time we usually end up talking about each of our countries. Fukushima-sensei loves Taiwan, I myself got interested in Taiwan because of her. I hope the next time she goes there, I will have enough money to go with her. Ahhhh...that would truly be SPLENDID! :)

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