Down the Rabbit Hole

Yan ang tanong sa akin ng mga magulang ko pag napapansin nilang may lakad ang mga kapatid ko kasama ang kanilang mga kabarkada. Si Biboy may mga kaibigang mahilig mag-capoeira. Si Anna naman may mga nakabarkada na na kapwa Pilipinong bagong salta sa California at mga ibang lahi na naging katrabaho o kaklase.  E ako: Ang taong bahay na laging ang anak ang bitbit sa pasyalan. Ang aking mga kaibigan dito sa USA nasa Southern California o sa East Coast karamihan. Walang nakatira sa Bay Area. Kaya naman nung pumunta kami sa San Diego, sinigurado kong kausapin ang aking mga kaibigan sa Southern California upang malaman kung pwede kaming magkita. Dahil biglaan ang pagbyahe naming pamilya, dalawa sa tatlo kong kaibigan galing UPRHS ay nasa ibang lugar. Si Noah, nagkataon na walang lakad o pasok, kaya nakipagkita sa amin sa Chino. Nakakatuwa ang pagkikitang yun kasi ang tagal na naming di nagkita. Huli ata kaming nagkita ay 2019 pa; pareho kaming nasa Los Banos . Kaya ang kwentuhan namin ay tu

Our trip to San Diego wouldn't be complete without a visit to one of the places on my bucket list: the San Diego Zoo (I've always wanted to visit since I was in grade school). Initially, I planned for us to be there all day on our second day in the city. However, Mommy and Daddy wanted to listen to the organ recital in Balboa Park, so we scheduled the zoo trip right after visiting the USS Midway . Visiting in the afternoon was a good idea because the crowd was smaller, the bus queues were shorter (yes, there are buses in the zoo!), and the gondola lifts were much shorter. We saw elephants playing, lions and tigers napping, koalas hanging around, giraffes munching, camels people-watching, and flamingoes walking about.  We even saw an artificial tar pit with a few bones, which Donan enjoyed staring at.  We saw most of the zoo on the bus tour and the gondola lift (for a bird' s-eye view); however, we didn't visit the animals whose enclosures were away from the tour's

One of the places we  had to see while we were in San Diego was the USS Midway Museum because Donan has been interested in fighter jets since we saw the  Blue Angels  last year. I wanted to show him different aircraft types (the FA-18s aren't the only aeroplanes in the sky), and  a museum was the best place to see such a variety of aircraft. Et voila!  The USS Midway is an aircraft carrier on active duty from 1945 to 1992 (yes, that's from World War II to Desert Storm). Currently moored at the Navy Pier in San Diego, it is one of the largest museums I have ever visited. Just see how big the ship's island (tower) is from the dock! We had to take a ramp and an elevator to reach the red, white, and blue banner on the lower right of the photo! However, we only stayed in the hangar for a quick rest for Mommy because Donan wasn't comfortable in the big, dark space. We skipped the exhibit about the Battle of Midway, a major battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War II , and

We drove for about three or four hours (~250 miles) en route to San Diego when we decided to take a stretch and snack break. We happened to be close to San Luis Obispo, so we searched for any familiar coffee shop franchise with vacant parking spots. After driving around the downtown area and not finding a suitable place to stop, we headed back towards Highway 101 and discovered the House of Bread Bakery and Cafe. The interiors smelled delicious! Just outside the open kitchen area, there was a good selection of freshly baked breads and pastries. The staff had us try several of their bread samples, which were so yummy! I ended up buying the chocolate zucchini bread. It contains unbleached flour, zucchini, and cocoa. Donan had no qualms about eating the bread despite the presence of zucchini because of the rich chocolate flavour. The texture was soft, chewy, and easy on the palate after a long drive. Mommy, on the other hand, got a prairie bread. It contains a wheat and rye flour blend, h

I've been watching period productions recently, and one that made quite an impression on me was "North and South." It's a story about the contrasts between the industrial north (where the cotton mill owned by John Thorton was located) and the rural south (where Margaret Hale grew up as a pastor's daughter). It also contrasts the points of view between employer and employee.  What caught my attention early on was that Margaret was not a typical 1800s heroine. She wasn't knitting or painting while waiting for guests to arrive at her house (just like many heroines from Jane Austen's novels). Instead, she was looking for a home she and her parents could stay in when they moved to the fictional town of Milton in northern England. Moving to the North was quite an adjustment for her; nevertheless, she befriended a family whose source of income was tied closely to the cotton mills.  John, on the other hand, was not a typical rich man. He had risen from humble begi

I have attended conferences where climate change was discussed from a food security angle. Increasing temperatures, drought, excess rain, and flooding would lead to food shortages. Therefore,  climate-smart  food sources must be incorporated into planetary health diets  so that people get their nutritional needs while keeping their impact on the planet at a minimum. During Solano County's Public Health Division-Wide Meeting this year, Mr Jerry Huber (Director, Department of Health and Social Services) and Dr Bela Matyas (Public Health Officer and Deputy Director, Department of Health and Social Services) highlighted the need to talk about climate instability from a public health perspective. This encompasses the associations between public health and clean water, public health and **exotic** disease-bearing vectors, and public health and wildfires, among others. Zooming out of these specific links to public health reveals that climate instability is the underlying common theme. Cli