[excerpt...so this blog entry is almost a week late because it is the first time in Bali i found a decent wifi connection that my mobile can work with so sorry....]

I really dont know where to start ... its been 8 years since i left my birthplace... The Philippines... I still remember how i felt when i first arrived in L.A.. My emotions were completely mixed... on one hand i was very happy to finally able to see my parents after almost 2 years of separation... but on the other hand i was completely anxious, and i'm sorry for my lack of better words... scared sh*tless to just completely abandon the only life i knew and start somewhere completely different...


From then on i lived in L.A. where i experienced many things, learned a lot more and gratefully met and made friendships wit many people from different backgrounds..


Then you guys are somewhat familiar with my yearlong exchange program here in japan and the crazy fun, crazy busy and crazy random and mostly challenging things i have done...

And now i that i came back to the Philippines, i feel that i made a full circle... there are things then that i didnt really think much of but now is an important part of me... for example, i really respect and love my filipino upbrining [kudos to my parents] because this is really a part of me and my oddities... oh and i really enjoyed seeing and doing really simple things like going to a "sari-sari" store and buying some soda and drinking it from a plastic bag... eating very simple and cheap vegetable dishes and talking random things with what we call "tambay", they are a group of people mostly men that likes to hang out in a bench next to the street...

i really didnt have plenty of personal free time in the philippines but i can say that what i had was enough for me to say i went back to my roots...

oh before i forget, the main agenda of this trip was to assist my professor and my japanese friends with their research about low-cost medium rise buildings for their architecture thesis project... we interviewed many various NGOs, benefeciaries, project engineers, volunteers and other people that are involved with "SOCIAL" housing...[i hope you got my sarcasm by putting social in between parenthesis... but more on that later...hahaha]

i will write a more architecturally relevant blog with photos and data when i get real computer time because right now i'm waiting in a train station on my way to the airport to another fieldwork/research trip in bali and singapore...


....holy smokes its rush hour...were packed inside the train like a sardine can... and having a backpack, small suitcase and blogging is not helping... hahahhaa... but i will write again soon...