Down the Rabbit Hole

2015 turned out to be quite a unique year. Here are some of the highlights that made the year interesting for me... Bill Gates visits IRRI.  It was a mostly a surprise to many of us at IRRI headquarters. I learned about his visit when my cousins started bugging me, asking for confirmation. Since I wasn't part of the very small group of people who he conversed with, I didn't know that he was already touring the facilities. In short, he was there but I didn't meet him. Charlie Hebdo shooting. Staff at this French satirical magazine were gunned down by three people, who eventually were killed while fighting authorities. The killings have produced such a clamor since the people were allegedly killed by Islamic extremists who were offended by the satirical images the magazine publishes. It, indeed, raises the question about press freedom. It also reminds us that the freedom of expression that we have a right to has an equivalent responsibility. It is our responsibility to...

My mom has been bugging all of us about going to Solvang, California for a year now. So when I went to visit them over the holidays, it automatically made it to our to-visit list. And so on the third day of our road trip, we took some time to explore the city. And I was wowed. It's this quaint little city whose buildings (along the main streets anyway) have been built with strong Danish architectural influences. Many of the building façades feature timber framing (but most likely with panels that are typical in the USA rather than in Denmark) and many of the roofs are artificially thatched. The place felt like a theme park (like Main Street, USA in Disneyland ) to me because although the buildings looked really Danish, the stores were very American. During the tour (we road a horse-drawn carriage pulled by the biggest horses I've seen), the guide mentioned that Solvang is not  Disneyland. People do reside in the city (away from the main thoroughfares, of course)... I just ...

Mommy, Daddy, and I were deciding where to eat brunch in Pismo Beach when a restaurant called Kunfusion caught our attention. What a catchy name, we thought... and so we trooped over to see what the restaurant had to offer. As we barraged the server with questions, we found out that Kunfusion started out as a food truck (yes, Biboy has not  yet taken me to a food truck), a product of the genius that is Lori Nunes. Honestly, the menu was a headache-inducing selection of food... in a good way, of course. For first-timers like us, we had to ask for help from our server because it was the strangest menu we had seen: tempeh and tofu could substitute for meats and seafood while Asian and American culinary traditions were mixed into utter confusion. But when the food came out, the dishes were absolutely wonderful. I had the F tacos, with tempeh in lieu of tilapia. It was so good! My mom had a salad while my dad had the naked shrimp tacos. They were also very happy with their foo...

One of the most fascinating things (for me) about flying to different countries is the time difference ... and the real possibility of time travel. On several occasions, for instance, I found myself leaving the Philippines, flying for hours on end, and then landing at the destination as if I've only been in the plane for a short time. On my recent trip to visit my family in the USA, however, "time traveling" took on an extreme turn... Yes, it was made possible because of the timings of the United Airlines flights I took. I left Manila at 11:59pm on December 22nd. Before flying, I already had dinner in Los Baños. Then, I arrived in Guam early on December 23rd. A few hours later, I was again in the plane, going to Honolulu this time... still December 23rd. But because I crossed the International Date Line while flying, I actually moved a day backwards! Hence, I found myself eating my second December 22nd dinner at a bench in the Honolulu International Airport at rough...

The night before I flew to the US for the Christmas holidays, Val and I had dinner at David's Tea House in Calamba. I've passed by this restaurant each night I go home from Los Baños but I never thought of making a stop here to eat. That's because whenever Calamba and Chinese cuisine are put in one sentence, people normally think about Ding-Hao . The food was really delicious! When I saw the hot and sour soup , I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try it out; after all, it has become a routine for me to eat this soup before I leave the San Francisco International Airport to go back to the Philippines. The sautéed polonchay with garlic had a great balance of textures and flavours because the garlic never overwhelmed my taste buds. And then there's the beef dish... I typically order beef with broccoli. in Chinese restaurants But this time, we got the beef brisket because we already had a vegetable dish... the beef was also quite yummy. I'm happy that Val...

Man showed me around UP Town Centre one evening. It's ironic because I've passed this mall so many times when I still teaching at the Ateneo but I never stopped over for lunch there (I was always had to drive straight to Laguna after class). There were a lot of options for dinner. But we ended up where we had to wait to be seated: Mad Mark's Creamery and Good Eats. For me, the major attraction was the long queue. A long line of people willing to wait for atable is ALWAYS a good sign that the resto is a good one. And as we waited outside, out popped two of my college classmates: Manuel Delfin, Jr and Sharon Madriñan (she's married now but I don't know her married surname)! It was such a random thing, to see my friends from back in the day there! They highly recommended the ice cream. I was sold. Then, there's the steak. Mad Mark's cooks it's Signature Steak the way I like it: medium well USDA steak and with a generouse helping of vegetables on the s...

Spoiler alert. If you haven't watched the movie, read at your own risk. You have been warned. I'm posting my thoughts on it now since the movie's been around for a few weeks already. A photo posted by Rochie Cuevas (@rochiecuevas) on Dec 16, 2015 at 8:28am PST Matty and I waited for a year to see the seventh episode in the Star Wars space opera. So when the advanced screening presented itself and both of us were willing to pay to be some of the first to see the movie, we trooped to the movie house to see The Force Awakens . After seeing the movie, I can say this: aesthetically, it was consistent with Episodes 4–6 but the special effects were much better. And the storyline was good... I'd say, however, that Kylo Ren's build-up to the part akin to the "Luke, I am your father" scene in The Empire Strikes Back wasn't as dramatic because I was already expecting such a twist to come up earlier on (and there were no spoilers yet at that ti...

Seeing Man onstage as one of the hosts during IRRI's year-end party reminded me of Queen 's song "The Show Must Go On". Man was aptly dressed as a classy Peter Pan , in my opinion, because he faced the audience with his jolly face on despite losing his father to cancer a few days before the party.  Inside my heart is breaking My make-up may be flaking But my smile still stays on. I don't know how he does this. During Lola Estay 's necrological services, I had a very difficult time delivering my eulogy  for her. I was choking up my words and was trying to keep the tears from falling. But in Man's case, he seemed happy as ever. My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies Fairytales of yesterday will grow but never die I can fly, my friends Maybe, part of the joy is because his father is finally at peace and is no longer battling the cancer. Perhaps, his heart has been filled with positivity and support provided by family and fr...

This year-end celebration was special because it marked the last day of Dr Bob Zeigler as the director general of IRRI. He had passed on the baton to Dr Matthew Morell earlier in the day and so this was the institute's way of saying farewell to the man who led IRRI for the past ten years. Walking over to the venue got me thinking about the many changes that my group, the Grain Quality and Nutrition Centre , has gone through throughout the years. We used to be called the Grain Quality and Nutrition Research Centre when I first came on-board (as a researcher). Melissa was the head of the centre then. Vito and I didn't have graduate degrees then. The GQNRC was housed in the NC Brady Lab building back then... and our office space (if it can be called that) was so cramped that we didn't even have any leg room. Soon after, Vito and I went to graduate school, finished off with PhD degrees , and are now qualified to compete with international candidates for job openings. The GQ...

Yes, they just had to not  let my two least favourite characters rest. But who can blame them? People were lapping up anything Popoy and Basha... all they had to do was milk this unhappy love story for all its got and make a second movie out of it. Popoy and Basha's story, the first one, was supposedly about how a long-term relationship ends. And it ended all right, complete with all the crying, the screaming, and the well-meaning friends supporting the two. Frankly, at this point, I felt bad for the two because they've been airing their dirty laundry to their public (and to the audience!). I was happy to see it end with the two protagonists moving on with their lives without resentment about the other. But wait... There's more! The movie just had to have a postscript suggesting that they're willing to give each other one more chance. *Groan* Seriously! And since Krishna and Jojie had it next on our movie list, we trooped to the cinema t...

I was looking for the photo but since I couldn't find it (maybe it's with you out there), I shared a photo from the photo album itself. :) Happy 36th wedding anniversary, Mommy and Daddy!! @donutb0y @nanaxiu @barbie_oc A photo posted by Rochie Cuevas (@rochiecuevas) on Nov 30, 2015 at 7:41am PST

I finally committed to learning how to communicate in French... not Spanish , as I had promised myself eight years ago. I'm currently studying in Alliance Française de Manille (I'm in my second session now) to decipher what people say is a language I would have difficulty to learn. There are a few reasons why I opted to learn French over other languages but the turning point for me was my trip to Switzerland . I thought that since I'd be in Europe, English would be the language used throughout. Oh how wrong I was! My Lonely Planet phrasebook was a great help for asking questions but I couldn't understand their answers... so I struggled, even to buy food! And I did go to Thonon-les-Bains, France on that same trip, with a few Nestle Fellows, without thinking that I'd have difficulty in communication. Plus, I've been put in situations in which the  ability to converse in French is important .  So now, I'm in school. The shock came on my first day of my f...