25 random things about me

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Note: I got this quiz from my cousin Joycelyn and a few others. The instructions are unexpectedly challenging. I'm putting my answers here because it's a fun quiz to take. :)

Rules: Write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. (It's really not as hard as it sounds).

1. I want to visit Ushuaia.

2. I have to eat four types of fruit to call the year complete: mango, lanzones, pomelo, and santol; miss one fruit's season, and my year is not as good.

3. I have always wanted to take pictures of a volcanic eruption; this, after seeing a coffee table book about Mount Pinatubo. Too bad the conference I had attended in Hawaii was on the wrong island!

4. I am not a coffee drinker. The only time I drank coffee was during sensory evaluations of coffee mixes (a duty in my previous job) and the last few days before the deadline of my thesis manuscript in 2008.

5. I enjoy being lost and meeting new people along the way. 

6. I love maps. I've got a book of road maps for the Philippines, I keep campus maps of Univ of Nottingham, Univ of Sydney and Univ of Queensland... and I used to have maps of the Univ of the Philippines Los Banos. 

7. I used to play the agong, the kulintang, and the dabakan in college, and the lyre in grade school.

8. I treat myself to ice cream every May 15: the first day I was allowed to drive a car.

9. Since I've started working, I always buy pizza for my birthday. The choices are: Shakey's Manager's Choice (thin crust), Pizza Hut's Super Supreme, and Yellow Cab's New York pizza. Obviously, I have been heavily influenced by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

10. My favorite clothing stores are Bayo and Milk&Co.

11. ... but pants from HerBench fit me well too. :D thank goodness for petite sizes! The prices don't break my piggy bank too.

12.On Good Fridays, I am on a real food fast: I couldn't eat anything because the food all have some crustaceans or cephalopods in them (and I the only seafood I can eat are molluscs). I just drink water all day...

13. I wanted to learn to speak and read in Italian because of the food.

14. I don't appreciate commercialised beaches... there are just too many sunburned people and overcrowded shops... why can't they leave the shores alone?!

15. There is one thing on my to-do list for countries I want to visit: Thailand, ride an elephant; England, see the royal guard; China, climb the great wall; Peru, see the Incan ruins; Australia, see a kangaroo and a koala; Japan, see Mount Fuji; Denmark, see the statue of the little mermaid... the list goes on and on... and so far, only the kangaroo and the koala have been crossed off my list.

16. The fastest way for me to get familiar with a city is to walk in it... and I usually visit the free tourist spots first. Hence the early visita iglesia in Brisbane (although I visited Anglican churches), the scenic walk along the narrow alleys of Nottingham, the hike in Hong Kong... and who can forget the afternoon strolling tour of San Francisco?!

17. When Mayor Alfredo Lim ordered the removal of the eyesores along the Baywalk, I was one of the very few happy people.

18. The first time I saw a shooting star, I thought that it came too late... my wish became true a few hours earlier.

19. I always forget to check the weather before I travel... and bring clothes that are not warm enough for winter or are too thick for summer. BUT, the umbrella is always in my pack.

20. My favorite cartoon character is Bugs Bunny. I even have Bugs Bunny house slippers with me when I travel! 

21. To get cheap glassware for Microbiology lab class, I used to travel to Bambang by light rail, and get huge discounts (thus, the expected group expenditure was cut almost by half).

22. I accidentally made a friend an example of a case of schizophrenia... within his earshot! Sorry!

23. Four hours before I defended my undergraduate thesis in 2002, I had to keep walking up and down four flights of stairs to calm the nerves, and did not eat a meal to avoid upsetting my stomach... Six years later, I still need to walk a lot before I talk in front of a crowd, and I still don't eat anything.

24. The mice (for the computer) that I use at work are sometimes left-handed...

25. I don't drink alcoholic beverages.

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