Xiamen Tour 2016 Experience

2016

Hi guys!

We know that we've been gone for quite some time (jk) not just quite some time, we've been inactive for three months! We're really sorry for that but it's because we went to Xiamen, China! We went there on March 31 and came back last week! Pretty crazy, but we really did stay there for that long. It wasn't just any other tour, it was a study tour. You might think that that wouldn't be fun at all, but it was actually a really great experience. We got to familiarize ourselves with dorm life, being independent, wandering around a foreign country on our own, making new friends, conversing with others in a language you're not great at, and much more. Although it could get tiring and a little stressful at times, it was certainly an enriching experience.

Audrey: On my first day there, I remember thinking that the campus was huge and that I'd get lost in it everyday. I also remember being really exhausted when I got there after waking up having gotten nearly no sleep, and as I placed the luggage by my bed, I instantly flopped down onto the mattress covered in amusing green sheets that reminded me of green tea or matcha ice cream. I regretted that. The mattress was very thin, therefore I, jumping onto the bed, expecting it to be as bouncy as my bed back home, was thoroughly disappointed and also in pain. I also remember having this bruise on my hip because I was clumsy and had fallen, and it made sleeping on that bed seem like torture. Nevertheless, I grew used to the dorm beds, and they became the most comfortable thing I could find in China. It wasn't long before I started referring to my dorm room as "home", and to me, it really did feel like it. My dorm room inevitably became my home in China.

Even though it was a study tour, it was one of the best trips we've had! Studying wasn't stressful there and honestly you don't have to take it seriously haha. It's so fun because there's a lot of free time wherein you could just go out with your friends and go to the night market, cafes, restaurants and mall nearby!

One of the best parts of the tour was meeting new people! We met a lot of new and awesome friends there. Like seriously it's heartbreaking that we had to separate and return to the Philippines! This was truly an unforgettable experience!

Here are some of the pictures we took! :)
Performance day :)

Roomie :)

Umbrella dance x Fan dance

Signs Tea at Laughings Cafe :)

Wuyishan Adventure Day 2 :) 

At a milk tea shop located in the night market 

Wuyishan Day 1 with my roomie :)

Xiamen Buddies

Feeding pigs and monkeys at an amusement park :)

Room 104 ever

Beryl's best friend HAHAHA sorry Andrea

At a random temple :)



Heading back to the campus

Beryl, Nadine, Audrey and Andrea

Dress day at SM :)

Zhongshanlu with roomies (with a cameraman HAHA)
Our campus

Another gorgeous temple

Just a little Xiamen culture

Day 1 antics

Drinking one of the many milk teas I've had during my stay

Sunset in Xiamen

Shopping at Zhongshanlu

This cute little flower shop at Zhongshanlu

So cute, right?

What I do every break: take selfies, lots of them

Enjoying ice cream from this chemistry themed shop

River rafting at Wuyishan

Another one of the many temples we visited

A maze on water

Audrey's Wushu teacher

Eating Japanese food in China because why not?

Xiamen in our hearts


We've had a lot of experiences in Xiamen that are so meaningful and can't ever be fully expressed in photos. This has honestly been the best summer we've had, and the most memorable one. It felt like the trip was over way too quickly, but in that short span of time, we've experienced so much, learned so much. Xiamen will forever be in our hearts. 


Top Ten Tuesday: Reasons Why We Love to be a Blogger/Reader

adventure
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish

Our topic for this week is the reasons why we love being a blogger or a reader. We think that this is a great opportunity for us to show how great blogging is.

1. Community

We just love the book blogging community because everyone is just so friendly! When we started book blogging (which was just about over a month ago) we honestly had no idea what we were doing (we still don't really, but we've gotten better at pretending that we do lol) and it was easier when we found out that there were book bloggers out there who are willing to help you with anything. We really wouldn't be where we are without the wonderful community of bookish people. We've connected with a couple of bloggers on Twitter and they are seriously the best people ever. Plus, there are great book blog events (like the Love-A-Thon) to participate in, and you get to interact with so many awesome people. 

2. Free books
We had no idea what ARCs even were when we first created this blog. When we started to get review requests and discovered Netgalley and Edelweiss, we just got so excited and crazy at all the free books that we ended up with a giant to-review pile. Whew, at least now we've learned to control ourselves more. Anyway, free books are one of the perks in book blogging, but it's not all about free books of course! Even without free books, we'd definitely still review books (anything that we do own or buy). 

3. Writing skills
Because really, why is it so fun to write reviews but such a pain to do school papers? Admit it, book blogging can be pretty tiring and time consuming, but we're all doing it anyway because we want to - and without realizing it, we're actually improving our writing skills. We never think of book blogging as homework though because that just takes the fun out of it, but unconsciously just writing a blog post everyday is already doing wonders to our abilities in writing.

4. Fun
It's just so much fun! Does this reason count? Of course it does! Whether it's a hobby, a passion, a talent or all three, book blogging and reading is just so much fun - if not  then why would we still do it? We just hope that book blogging and reading never ever starts to feel like a chore or work.

5. Something to do when you're bored
There are a lot of times during the summer vacation or during a school day that we get really bored. We think that blogging is a much healthier thing to do during those times than just sitting around, eating, and watching TV all day. At least when we blog, we can remain active.

6. Author interactions
Because of book blogging, we were able to interact with a lot of authors, and some we've actually become good friends with! There are a lot of friendly and nice authors out there who are so fun to talk to - you can go stalk them on Twitter and they'll be sure to respond! 

7. Adventure
With blogging, we feel like we're on a new adventure everyday. Because of blogging, we have learned a lot of new things. Also, as book bloggers, every read takes us into a new adventure. Each book we read, we act as if we are part of the book and feel what the characters are also feeling.

8. Experience
How many people out there have blogs? Compared to everyone in the world, the book blogging community is kinda small. Knowing that you are part of that small community just brings a warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart. The experience of owning a blog is also great since you have tried new things and know more.

9. Bragging Rights
You'll be able to say that yes, I own a blog and yes, I'm proud of it. All that work will pay off. All that effort that you have put into blogging will be worth it because you will have the privilege to truthfully say that you own a blog.

10. Procrastinating 
Whenever we want to put off studying or doing our chores, we blog or read. It's great because we won't just be sitting there thinking about what we should be doing. We will be able to forget about what we were supposed to do by blogging or reading and then after, we can start studying or doing chores. It probably sounds terrible that we're using blogging and reading as an excuse to not do something that we should do but it is one of the reasons why we love the two.

What's your Top Ten Tuesday? What did you think about ours?

The Gift Wrapping Curse

activity
DISCLAIMER: Not generalizing that all men and women are like this. Just what I observed from the men and women in my family.


Gift wrapping is a sexist activity (at least in my family).

It pretty much saddens me to realize how something as innocent as gift wrapping could be sexist.

I was doing what I normally do during Christmas break: lying in bed while watching a movie (Coraline was my movie of choice for that day) when my aunt called me and my other cousins to go out to help her with something.

When we got out of the room we were amazed and shocked to find heaps of toys everywhere yet to be giftwrapped, even with just 2 days left til Christmas. This was how the assignments went: Beryl was the human tape dispenser; and me and Audrey were the gift wrappers (as in people who wrap the gift not the gift wrapper as in the wrapper paper object). 

Anyway, we pretty much sucked at it as we never really had any formal gift wrapping training aside from those stupid Christmas projects in school which were one-time things. And we never really had the chance to wrap things at home because... Well mostly because our parents didn't want us to meddle with their stuff and destroy them 'cause we were rowdy kids who couldn't do anything right. 

So let's just say that that was pretty much the first time we had to really wrap a gift.



Our aunt found us laughable and ignorant and maybe even stupid for not knowing how to wrap. It felt like gift wrapping was this skill you HAD to know and be good at just because. It was like gift wrapping was supposed to be something natural or innate just... Because. But I guess we just weren't blessed enough by the gift wrapping gods.

5 minutes into our gift wrapping racket, we found out those gifts were my aunt's husband's gifts for his godchildren. I unconsciously commented:

"That's the wife's curse. You have to buy and wrap your husbands gifts."

I pondered over what I said and then I remembered. I remembered the countless times I accompanied my mom to buy gifts for people, not just her gifts but my FATHER'S gifts. I remembered helping her wrap each one of them (tho I was just the human tape dispenser back then) for my father. My aunt told us how she learned about gift wrapping because of the many times she had to help my grandmother wrap gifts back when they were younger. They weren't even just joint couple gifts; there were individual gifts too. Then I looked around me and realized - we were all women.

Why are we the ones cursed to wrap gifts? It's because the MEN can't be bothered to buy and wrap their OWN gifts. Why is it so difficult for men to stop letting women do their shit and actually step up and do their own gift wrapping shit? 

Why are they born in life believing that they are superior human beings just because they own a penis? Why can't they be bothered to do something as simple and easy (yes it's actually pretty easy) as gift wrapping? 

And then it dawned on me that gift wrapping wasn't something expected of everyone. My aunt's disappointment wasn't on how we didn't know how to giftwrap - and we all know everyone should know how to giftwrap. It was more because we were GIRLS who didn't know how to giftwrap - and what kind of women are we to not know how to giftwrap? How will our future husbands deal with christmas then, if we didn't know how to buy gifts for them and giftwrap the gifts for them?

My grandfather cannot be bothered to gift wrap. My father as well. And my brother, at this rate, won't probably ever have to wrap his own gifts too in the future.

So they will never, ever learn the art of giftwrapping. But it's okay, because they'll get married and have wives who'll do stuff for them, even wrap their gifts FOR THEM because that's what wives do right? Right?

After that incident, I had a headache and excused myself from giftwrapping duties, told my brother to freaking help, and vowed to myself that I will never buy or wrap gifts for my future spouse. 

It's a doggy dog world, man.

-K :)

For Anyone Who Has Ever Been Called "Fat"

beautiful

Growing up I've learned to just ignore the people who have nothing nice to say. 

I am called "fat" every single day of my life and I've learned to stop caring.

Let's backtrack a little. 

When I was younger, I was a chubby little kid who liked wearing sleeveless clothes and short dresses because I thought they were pretty and looked nice on me. And I just felt more comfortable wearing them. People would tease me calling me taba (fat) but I didn't really care. But when I went through my puberty years, I stopped wearing dresses, and traded them for tshirts and shorts. Somewhere in my unconscious, I didn't feel that confident about myself because of my body type, even if I didn't admit it outloud. It was like there was this silent inner voice at the back of my mind whispering to me everyday that I wasn't thin enough to be pretty or nice.

E I G H T E E N

18


"Pray hard, study harder, and party hardest."

Yup, just one of the advices I got during my debut.

(Via if you're reading this, that is probably the best advice I've ever gotten.)

I digress.

I love being 18. I really do. I know that most people hate getting older but turning 18 has given me one of the best feelings ever in my life.


Sure, I still can't drive. I still have to go to school. I can now get imprisoned if I do anything wrong or illegal (not that I do). I probably won't even really do anything with this new sense of legality. It's not like being 18 will suddenly turn me into this alcohol consuming tattoo addict person.


But there is a certain feeling of freedom I get now that I'm 18. It means I'm old enough to make my own decisions and opinions about certain issues. It means I'm mature enough that what I have to say would be taken seriously. It means I would be taken seriously by the people around me. It means that my opinion would count, that I would count. 

But it doesn't mean that I am now this perfect mature wise experienced person. No. I'd still probably get lost if you leave me on my own at Disneyland (And I'd cry).


Being 18 gives me this refreshing feeling that I'm old but still young enough to explore the world, make mistakes, meet new people, fall in love, gain experiences, and most importantly - find myself.

And that is why I love being 18. ❤

------

Pictures taken 3rd of November, Trader's Hotel. Taken using my iPod touch unless stated otherwise :)

(More pictures next time when I get the HD photos :) )

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2015 Reading Challenge
Kimi has read 3 books toward her goal of 100 books.
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