Celdran Tours

For my BFF Reyn's birthday, I thought I'd do something new... We barely see each other, and it's almost always at home. So, when Louie told me about Carlos Celdran's Manila tours, we immediately signed up for his Livin' La Vida Imelda tour of the CCP complex.

I'm not going to disclose info in this entry... he said things that are pretty much best experienced firsthand, meaning from Carlos himself. But I was saying "Whoa!" and "Really?!" and "I didn't know that!" at every revelation. It was a great, informative and even slightly scandalous tour. :D

I didn't take so many pictures coz I wasn't sure I was 'allowed' so here are the few pics I sneaked...From L-R, Carlos in front of the PICC reflecting pools, a nostalgic look at the PICC where I graduated, and Carlos with Hitler's picture... you'll have to attend his tour to find out why that pic is in an Imelda Marcos themed tour. :)

Having enjoyed the first tour, I dragged Tere to the 'If These Walls Could Talk' Intramuros tour. Since I can still pretty much remember my Philippine history (thank you Sir Azor!), there weren't too many 'revelations' here. But I did get a new perspective on how I saw Manila, and a different view on Spanish-Filipino history, American-Filipino history and World War II. And taking a peek inside Casa Manila and how life was lived during the Spanish era? It's really an experience.

The front of the San Agustin Church from different angles (Tere took these pics... kaya maarte) :) The San Agustin Church was the only church that survived the bombings of WWII.

Posing with free Chocnut in Father Blanco's garden...

Carlos as he talks about the time the Americans came to Manila...

And then we went inside the San Agustin crypt while Carlos talked about World War II, and how we were caught in the middle of a war that wasn't even ours to begin with. And how thousands of people were massacred during that siege, including the hundreds buried in the crypt plus the priests who were stacked one on top of the other on the monument seen in the middle pic. What's weird is... all the pictures we took inside the crypt, and I mean all, had this hazy, blurry quality in them... creepy.

Inside the San Agustin Church.. Notice the 3D like appearance of the murals on the ceiling? They're actually just paintings made to look like, well, 3-dimensional. :)

..and the tomb of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, first Spanish Governor General of the Philippines.

Lastly, we crossed the street over to Casa Manila, where the tour took a more lighthearted tone again. Pictures weren't allowed inside the Casa Manila, but it showed a very Pinoy looking home... with eclectic design patterns from French cabinets, to wood furniture, Chinese bowls, chairs that didn't match...made me think of my own 'eclectic' house.

I really enjoy tours with Carlos Celdran because not only are they entertaining, but also because they add a different perspective to what we see as 'ordinary'. It's weird that I had to travel so far away to realize we have our own little treasures here as well. And we don't need to go to Boracay or Bohol, we don't even need to leave the city! Even the buildings, structures and streets of Manila have their stories to tell, and it's just great that Carlos Celdran in his own way, is making these stories heard, to the people who need to hear them most.

Visit Carlos Celdran's site for Tour Dates and other information. :)

Ten Things : Tagged by Jeng

BTW, I'm home :D Been busy...and I still have some major updates to post... but first, Jeng tagged me on Multiply to post ten random things about me. :) So I felt 'obliged' to put up my own list before posting my updates.

First, the rules:

• Each blogger starts with ten random facts/habits about themselves.
• Bloggers that are tagged need to write on their own blog about their ten things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose ten people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don't forget to leave them a comment telling they're tagged, and to read your blog.
  

Now the facts:

1. I have really bad eyesight. Yeah, I know most people know already, but I mean it's reaaaallly bad. :D I wear uber thick glasses, until I graduated college, and only wore contacts when I started working.

2. One of my friend's dubbed me as a 'goldfish', he says it's coz I have a memory span of about 3 seconds...well I don't agree! Wait, what were we talking about?

3. I can't draw to save my life. Let's just say I'm more into performing arts rather than the actual "arts" arts.

4. Back in elementary, I was able to maintain good grades without even trying, but I got addicted to pocketbooks during 5th grade. To the point that I read during class hours! This of course, caused my grades to slip and got kicked out of the honors class. The books I read? Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High, Sweet Dreams, RL Stine and Christopher Pike books. But I managed to get my act together and finished High school with several awards. :D

5. I'm a cynical person... I just hide it well.

6. I've always loved computers, probably influenced by the thought that 'hackers are cool'... and I was one of the early adopters of the Internet in Manila... I had the whole alternate identity, my own website, cyber-buddies, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, whatevers...yeah, I was (and still am) a geek. Don't judge me! My BFFs Jeng and Reyn were all into it too! Now I use the internet solely for 'research' and blogging purposes. :D

7. It's easy for me to fall in love... and when I do, I fall hard. But then, it's also easy for me to fall out of love, if there is such a thing.

8. When I was a kid, I wanted to be the President of the Philippines... or Ms. Universe. Go figure. Now I wouldn't want anything to do with any of them. :P

9. I was a bit of an athlete when I was young, or maybe I was just more active... I was a serious swimmer, I played volleyball, badminton, table tennis... Now, the only exercise I get is from walking in malls. Oh, and the occasional Aikido practice, hehe. :P

10. In grade school, I used to 'fake' illnesses to get out of classes. Sometimes, I would pretend to have a fever, curl up under my blanket to make sure I was warm so when my yaya would wake me up I could feign a high temperature. Or sometimes, I would pretend I had a really bad cold by slathering myself with Vick's... or I would stand in front of the aircon/fan... so I would feel clammy. :)) Yeah... those were the days. And sometimes during I would skip class by pretending to get a headache, sometimes with tears in my eyes... I did this often to my Filipino class. But I was so good at it, my teachers didn't suspect a thing. Oh I'm sure my parents knew, but I got good enough grades for them not to mind. :)

Anyway... those are the 10 things I decided to share. There's more, if you would care to get to know me better, hehe.

And here's the people I'm tagging. I hope some of you have time to finish this, I found it interesting, especially when I thought back on the things that I used to do when I was younger:
Mich, Louie, Jong, Jun, Esti, Eric, Tere, Reyn, Cindy, & Kat