mishie takes on the world

still new at 23 Part One

New place, new kind of busride, new and awesome people, new event, new game--all new experiences during my birthday!

I owe this post, mostly to myself, because I know I will regret not posting this, considering the amount of pictures I took. And I'll be honest, I didn't take that many pictures because I didn't really know anyone yet when I started the trip, but I'm glad that I got to know people along the way. It was an awesome new way to experience my birthday and I'll try to be as specific as I can in this post, although it's 2:51am and I have to be up to go to work in 3 hours. : |

So I start my story the day before, there was a commotion at work when we were told one of our officemates had won us a free lunch via a radio station!

I admit it's not the best photo of this bunch but I tried. There was a long wait before we actually got to eat anything, and by the time we did, people mobbed the pantry and I couldn't get a shot. Still being the new girl in the office also meant that I could (and didn't want to) be overly picture-y. 

I found out then that the officemate that won us the lunch had his birthday coming up which turned out to be the day after mine--literally! He was born a day after me, on the same year! What a coincidence. He was also going to AdCon, so we decided that it was going to be epic for us both!

Moving on to going to AdCon, I didn't get any pictures of the trip itself because it was 9pm and I just wanted to get some sleep. I wasn't sure what to expect so I thought I'd get as much sleep as I could. We had a rest-stop somewhere in the middle of nowhere that wasn't picture friendly and had the bathrooms that I only see in my nightmares (that it's a miracle I haven't dreamt of them since coming back!) and the bus we took had the lazyboy chairs which was pretty cool!

Upon getting to the bus terminal, some hubbub happened and our original accomodations did not follow through. 

As a result, we waited 2 hours in the terminal. I kept quiet the whole time because I was sleepy and still didn't know anyone. I did get to see this double rainbow though which is quite awesome!

 

And then eventually we found this quaint place two blocks from the terminal. The place was called the JoMcKayle Apartelle--according to our officemate, it was all thanks to a tricycle driver that we found the place. I took no pictures of the sign because it was too early in the morning to care and all I wanted to do was to catch up on sleep (did I mention that the bus ride from Manila to Naga is 10 hours long?). When I got the energy, it was only then that I took some pictures of our room. 

I ended up rooming with an officemate I had never met prior to that trip. I didn't mind since, at that point, I really didn't know anyone anyway so it didn't really matter. We stayed, at first at the second floor where all the other girls were and it was a very, very green room.

But before I had too much fun in this room shooting photos (and a room in which I thought would be awesome to have to myself to film a vlog in the future or something--I am to have a vlog room in my future apartment/house) people brought to our attention that the air conditioning wasn't working. When we informed the management about it, we were moved to a downstairs room temporarily and then permanently. I didn't mind it too much on the count of it was waaaay better and we had our own bathroom. Given, it was just as small but the "own bathroom thing" was a big plus. Also, the air conditioning was A-OK.

Yes, I do love thos curtains. As it turns out, our second room was even more inspiring to take pictures of because of this awesome lighting effect I got when the light hits our orange curtains! I took so many pictures while my roomate wasn't there and I just went nuts!

This is my side of the bed as you can see from the messy cover and the pretty white flats on the side. 

Oh, wouldn't it be nice to wake up to this kind of coloring every morning? Given that the room was too small--with the amount of tired I felt, I really just dove right into this bed and slept.

AND that's all for now. I realize now that 4 days of being out of town probably means 4 separate posts, so that's how it's going to go. 'Til part2! :D

 

Mishie

new day. new week. new year.

I think I am in love with parallelalisms in my blog titles. They've just got to look nice and memorable.

Anyhoo, without going into too much detail because I'd really like to accompany all the details with pictures, I had celebrated my 23rd birthday in Camarines Sur during the weekend--at the 22nd Advertising Congress (a first upcoming travel blog? I wonder how that will go! haha!). I was both hesitant and excited about it, but luckily things went well and I was able to enjoy it loads even if I was with (at first) strangers in a strange place. I gained new insights about the place and people I work with and now I can say that I have celebrated my birthday at least once away from the presence of my family.

This week also feels good. I'm expecting the first actual inflow of work and I hope that I can handle it. : )

 

That's all for now. Will be back with more.

 

Mishie

something new. something old.

So there are a few changes in my life at this point. Last time I wrote, I think I hinted that those changes were already on their way. Well, now they're here and they're quite strange, but I guess exciting changes.

And with that, I begin with my "something new." Number one off the top of that list is my shiny, new job. Yep. Someone actually thought it would be a good idea to hire me. Heh-heh. But, no, seriously I'm quite thankful for this job. Even if I still, every now and then, ask myself what came over me to try even looking for a job so fresh out of college, I am in awe about how fast I was able to get employed. Imagine me, receiving a job offer right after the second interview--to be accepted or rejected in the next two days!

I started working exactly a month after my graduation. I don't know if it's just me, but I have this sneaking suspicious that I might be one of the firsts, if not the first, person from my batch to start working. On the work itself--it's something I'm confident about doing. Granted that I have never actually had this type of thing as my work before, I still think that it is, as they say, "right up my alley." I haven't been on the job very long--I'm currently on my fourth day and only handling one set of duties, but I'm quite eager to see where I go with this. It is a very good thing though, that even if I'm still about to get used to this job--I mean, its a more detailed version of something that we used to do back in college (very quick and briefly)--I am just very happy that it involves something that I am quite fond of: the Internet.

No, I still won't be able to make videos or lurk through YouTube like I used to. I mean, there are no restrictions when it comes to what sites we can or cannot browse through, but for my own sake--and for the sake of professionalism--I won't be spending too much time combing through vlogs. That means I have to spend more of my time watching cute babies, crazy special effects videos, lolcats, funny dogs and other viral videos. Yep, those come with the job description and I'm seriously kid you not.

I think I'm also very lucky that, within just my first week on the job I get to go to the 22nd AdCongress here--to be held in Camarines Sur. For those not in the know, Camarines Sur (which we locals shorten as "CamSur") is very far from the Metro Manila area. To prove this, my officemates (ooh, look I get to say "officemates" now) and I are going to be taking a bus, while everyone has taken either a train or a plane. The plane ride, I think takes 1-2hours tops. Meanwhile, we travel on bus that leaves at 9pm-ish and gets to the region my 4-frickin-AM. Seven hours, my friends. Seven, long and butt-paining hours on a bus. Well, gives me time to get to know my new officemates. And, to be fair (and as a consolation) it takes longer to get there via train. So I'll consider myself lucky, Thank You Very Much.

That brings me to my "something old": me.

Yep, I'll be going to CamSur this weekend--my birthday weekend. And as I'll be with officemates and new friends that means that I'm going to be turning 23 without my family for the first time in my entire life. My. Entire. Life.

Now this portion is going to me, as a disclaimer, another one of those things where I rant about something that seems like a no-brainer, not a big deal to most people--but is just the most pain-staking thing for me. Yep, one of those. So feel free to check out now if you don't care about the inner workings of my mind.

NO--I was just joking. Come back. Don't leave me. I have no friends. :'(

So I've never spent a birthday without my family. That's because we have this tradition of always eating out on that day. When I was younger and still in grade school and high school, it used to feel like a really big deal when it was my birthday. Since we always rode the bus to and from school on normal days, it felt so special when our mom and dad would leave their work early to fetch us. We would go to a restaurant or a hotel buffet after they fetched us and, as much as possible, we tried eating in a new place every birthday.  In short, I felt very bad-ass during my birthdays back then.

When I entered college and being fetched wasn't such a big deal anymore, what made birthdays special was still finding a new place to eat--having the stomach for buffets and having a more open stomach for other types of food.

Now that my mom's here, I get to experience that as a whole family again, something that I didn't get to do for half of high school and the whole of college. So, I think it goes without saying that it was a very hard decision for me to say "yes" to going to CamSur.

Actually, in a way, it was my parents that decided for me. They knew that I was in a new job, that I needed to get to know the new people I was with and that I had originally wanted to go (way before my mom decided and booked her flight home) and I was torn up about it falling on the day on my birthday two years back as well. Well, in a way, I'm glad they did decide for me because I knew that I wouldn't have been able to.

So, I will be turning older on Saturday, in a new place with new people. I won't hold any expectations because I don't want to over-expect and then be underwhelmed. Bring it on 7-hour bus ride and strange new places and friends. Uh-huh, I'm living life on the edge. Watch me.

 

Mishie