Archive for the ‘human interest’ Category
Filed under food trip, human interest, travel
Okay, this is not really a food “trip,” but a list of foods that caught my fancy in this land far, far away.
The day after I came in, someone in class passed around a plate full of what I thought were red twisted candles. LOL. My newfound friend, Sarah (who has a palmtop that I envy, I kept looking at it), explained that it is strawberry-flavored licorice candy. I tried it, and I liked it. It’s really long, like a candle; I just twisted it to look like a loop, as you see in the photo.
I haven’t seen this candy in our candy stores. Or am I just not exposed enough to sweets?
And here’s an oddly-shaped squash (to me, anyway) that I saw in another friend’s house, where we ate dinner last night. I thought this was some kind of American vegetable unheard of in Asia, and then he told me it was squash. The only squash I’ve seen before are the pumpkin-like ones we have back home.
Here’s another kind of squash I found in his backyard. (The man grows vegetables in his backyard and makes his beer at home!)
He said it is yellow squash. I thought it was yellow eggplant.
Afterwards, we had a sumptous dinner of grilled vegetables (which included the yellow squash in the photo), grilled beans, grilled corn, spicy chicken, and rice (yipee!) out in his patio. The vegetables were cut into slices,wrapped in foil, and then grilled. You rub some kind of Japanese paste to the corn and then grill it. Yummy!
It was my first real meal since Friday. As much as I appreciate expensive airline food, and as much as I like burgers, nothing beats having rice for a meal. Thanks a lot, Santa! 
Filed under human interest, travel
It wasn’t even a wish, it was more like a passing thought. I wrote in my journal at the beginning of the year that I wanted to go back, and look, it is coming true!
I’m leaving later today for Hong Kong. From there I’ll be flying to Los Angeles, and then to Dallas, Texas, and then finally to Lexington, Kentucky. Lexington is the horse capital of the world, sometimes also called “Athens of the West.”
I was given an assignment that requires me to travel to the corporate headquarters, thanks to my fairy godmother who is always watching out for me. I’d probably be pulling all my hair out doing the work, but heck, it’s still a trip and it’s a rare opportunity. Actually, I am more excited about the trip rather than the work. LOL.
I am glad I am going because I didn’t get enough of the place when I was there last year. For one, I wasn’t able to get on a horse. The best I did was feed a mint to a horse before it ran in the racetracks. And I won a dime from the race, by the way. 
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Filed under Photohunt, human interest, travel
Do you see what I see?
I snapped these photo soon after taking off from the Legazpi Airport. It’s on the northern part of the Philippines, by the way, right where the world-famous cone-shaped Mayon Volcano is.
I thought the clouds looked like a bear hiding in the bushes.
Look, he is standing up and scratching his right cheek!
Filed under food trip, human interest, trivia
Am I the last one to know that coffee can be made from animal droppings?
I saw these jars while having lunch at Abaseria Deli and Cafe, a Filipino restaurant that also sells accessories, native houseware, and delicacies that can’t be bought anywhere. I was looking over the shelves when a friend pointed these out to me:
I’m told this coffee was featured on TV. I don’t watch TV so that’s probably why I didn’t know.
I did a quick search on the web, and learned that Philippine civet (also known as alamid) is a cat-like animal that is said to eat only the best coffee cherries, which contain the coffee beans. Producers of the Philippine civet coffee call this natural processing. Right. And the digestive process of the civet is said to add to the rare taste.
This coffee is considered gourmet, and is very expensive. You can check the price on the bottle.
Filed under Photohunt, adventure, human interest, travel, trivia
This is the Delirium, a thrill ride at the Kings Island Amusement Park in Mason, Ohio. (Trivia: This park is the biggest in the Midwest. It was once featured on The Partridge Family and Brady Bunch.)
Riders are seated on a ring facing outward with their legs dangling in the air. A giant arm swings the ring back and forth as if it is swinging a slingshot, and riders are spun in a 240-degree arc 137 feet in the air, or roughly more than 13 stories. Hanging, indeed!
I didn’t ride the Delirium because I was already dizzy from the other thrill rides in the park, and besides, I didn’t have the guts to go up on it. Just looking at it from afar made my insides knot.
Filed under Photohunt, art, human interest, travel, trivia
I’m late again for PhotoHunt, but what can I do? I am never home on weekends. I just got back from a weekend of beach and sand in Negros. Will post about it later. 
My entry for this week is a shot I took last year of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C.
It looks small, but it’s really huge when you go near it. It is in fact the world’s tallest stone structure and the world’s tallest obelisk. It is made of marble, sandstone, and granite.
It’s an imposing structure. You wouldn’t miss it. It’s among the first you can see when you go to Washington D.C.
Filed under Photohunt, art, human interest, travel, trivia
This is the Crown Fountain, a fountain of many colors in the Millennium Park of Chicago. The park boasts of one-of-a-kind art pieces, this fountain by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa among them.
The fountain changes colors every few seconds or so. Sometimes a face of a person or a collage of several faces appears on the LED screen. The structure is made of glass, built inside which are the lights that give it color. The sprinkles of water add to the bright effect. If I had brought a change of clothes, of if we had more time, I would have played under the fountain.
I’m the girl in a blue-and-white striped jacket in the third and fourth photos. Photos were taken by Robert Haggard.
This is my entry for this week’s PhotoHunt.
Filed under Photohunt, human interest, people, travel
I thought of not joining this week’s PhotoHunt because I initially had no idea what to put out for the theme.
Until I saw this picture. I took it last year in downtown New York, where the World Trade Center used to be.
The blue thing the grandpa was leaning on contained information on the soon-to-be-built Freedom Tower on the site.
He seemed to be living off the street, although he could be a passionate musician who just wanted to share his talent in public.
I wonder how he is now.
Filed under human interest
My housemate, Cathleen, brought home some jumbo-sized bananas that she found in a market in Negros.
I have never seen bananas these big:
We placed the bottle of Sprite there for comparison. As you can see, the bananas are longer than a 1.5-liter bottle of Sprite.
It took us two days to eat these. We had to cut the bananes into slices and eat the slices one at a time.
Maybe there really is a kind of banana this big, but this is my first time to see one.
