Down the Rabbit Hole

I first encountered this game when Joys whipped it out of her bag after our epic hike in Mount Makiling . We were at  Siento Café , having just finished our cold drinks and pastries. The second time I played this game was with Joycelyn, Jackie, and Anna in California, after we've had dinner at Tita Babie's house. It's a card game called OrganATTACK! Like the name suggests, the caricature-like organs were subjected to different illnesses. The aim of the game is to be the last organ standing. To do so, one has to remove the other players' organs as rapidly as possible using "attack cards" that featured organ-specific afflictions (e.g., gallstones, arrhythmia, and thyroiditis) or "wild cards" that could attack any organ (e.g., necrosis). All hope is not lost, however, because there's a chance that one can get "defensive cards" that can be used to prevent organ death and cards that can force players to switch  their cards among each ot...

This is a movie that I don't think I'll ever tire of watching. The King's Speech is a movie directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. It's about King George VI (Queen Elizabeth II's father) overcoming his speech impediment through the help of Lionel Logue, a speech and language therapist. George VI became king because his brother, Edward VIII, famously abdicated the throne and opted to be with Mrs Wallis Simpson at a time when divorce was not accepted in the Church of England. George VI's stammer, however, made his capacity to rule–even to communicate to the public as a prince-on-assignment from his father–next to impossible. Lionel was able to help him get past his speech difficulties when George VI needed to talk: during George VI's coronation and (more importantly) at the eve of World War II, when he declared war against Nazi Germany through a speech (delivered live on radio). Over the course of the movie, it was shown that his stammering mi...

One of my cousins asked recently, "Are you going to host your own farewell party?" I said no because I wasn't willing to pay for my own despedida party. However, I was willing to spend time with friends and family before I flew out. Grace and TJ opened my farewell season by organising a lunch with me at Ramen Nagi and at St. Marc's Café. We had a lot of fun catching up, talking about how geeky we were. Yes, we like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. TJ mentioned that I might actually enjoy watching Real Player One because I like the sci-fi genre. The rest of my barkada from high school threw me a farewell swimming party at 88 Resort. And just as my last month began, my road trip buddies organised a field trip to Silang, Cavite . What started off as annual  museum-hopping expeditions  of rag-tag individuals bloomed into a strong friendship that has seen all of us grow, transform, and move on to life's new challenges.  My GQNC officemates also host...

Continuing on our academic immersion in Thai history, Reianne and I visited the Bangkok National Museum. As we were buying tickets, we were told that the museum was closing in less than two hours. We thought that we had enough time to go around, or at least to catch a glimpse of a part of the museum so we went ahead. The structure of the museum was similar to that of the structures in Wat Phra Kaew ; so I thought that this building must have been part of the original royal palace complex. Apparently, it was! This used to be the residence of the Thai vice king, a post that has been removed many years ago. Inside, we saw the Thai history gallery, where there were exhibits from the different periods of Thai art. There were more extensive collections in the other buildings of the museum, of course, but the way the gallery was curated reminded me of the exhibits in San Francisco's  de Young Museum .  Instead of noticing the many-armed Vishnu statue, I instead z...

I haven't had the chance to see the royal palaces in Denmark and in the UK but I finally was able to see the Thai Grand Palace. This was where the royal family used to live in this building. From 1926 onwards, however, the royals have taken up residency in other palaces, leaving the Grand Palace as the venue for various official events. I was hoping that we'd be able to see the interiors but it appeared to be closed to the public when we visited. Instead, Reianne and I drooped by one of the buildings in the outer court which featured Queen Sirikit's collection of clothes designed by Parisian couturier Balmain. While everybody else typically tries to pack light to avoid excess baggage charges in flights, the royal luggage on display was extensive. There were 24 Louis Vuitton trunks containing clothes, coats, hats, shoes, jewellery, and other accessories. Balmain and his collaborators definitely did not scrimp on the details. Of course, the royal family probably di...

After the conference on value addition, Reianne and I had a free day to explore Bangkok. It's my first post-conference opportunity to go around so I grabbed it. Our first stop was the Wat Phra Kaew, the temple of the Emerald Buddha. I didn't realise that despite the rain, we'd be faced with a jam-packed venue, making this temple look small and crowded compared to Wat Phra Si Sanpeth . It was so busy that I wondered if people actually worshipped here. Everyone went in one direction so Reianne and I decided to go around the other way, where there were fewer people hanging around. The sparsity of the crowd allowed us to see the different structures more closely. One of the first statues we encountered, right at the entrance, was that of a hermit doctor (it apparently has healing powers). Because I am not well read about the architecture of Thai religious structures, they tended to look very similar to me except if there are differences in colour.  T...

Instead of chedis , we were greeted by prangs (ornately carved towers) in the next temple complex we visited in Ayutthaya. These prangs at Wat Mahathat actually reminded me of the bell towers of the baroque churches in Ilocos . But what intrigued me about these prangs was that these were constructed using brick and yet the builders were still able to put carved designs in them. The Wat Mahathat, unlike the Wat Phra Si Sanpeth (a royal temple), was a Buddhist monastery... an important one too, given its proximity to the former Royal Palace. Walking deeper into the site, I could just imagine how grand it must have been when it was still operational. And it must have been crowded too, because Ayutthaya used to be the capital of the kingdom and this temple was (presumably) open to the public. Some parts of the ruins are so damaged that it's easy to see the modern part of the city popping up in the background. This reminds me of Intramuros: as long as you look inwards, yo...

After exiting Wat Phra Si Sanpeth, I realised that this cultural field trip organised by the FFTC and the KU seminar team was exposing us to a snippet of the religious culture of Thailand, specifically of Ayutthaya. That's because right after seeing the ruins, we were in front of a temple that has been active since the 1600s. It's called Wat Mongkohn Bophit and I couldn't believe that it has been in operation for more than 400 years because it looks well maintained! I was expecting it to be in ruins because it must have been established in close proximity to Wat Phra Si Sanpeth during the Burmese invasion. Reading up on the history of the temple, I learned that, indeed, it was razed to the ground during the Burmese invasion. The Buddha image known as Mongkhon Bophit was last restored in the 1950s and was covered in gold leaf in the 1990s. I was astounded at how big the statue is! I'm used to seeing Christian saints depicted (mostly) by four-foot statues ...