World Citi Colleges – SIHM Week!

Last week was WCC-Caloocan College Week. Since I’am the adviser of both Tourism Society and HRM Society and also the professor of the Event Management class, the week was not “petiks time” for me. I had to oversee all the events which sometimes has overlapping schedules,  So I had to ran back and forth from different venues.

It was week full of fun and stress and based on experiences the combination of stress and fun is like chocolate and almond, migraine-prone but always a heavenly existence.

I believe the best way to describe or tell all about the things that happened last week is through pictures. A big hug to all those who made an effort to document the whole event-filled week. Sir Xyv, Jazz, EJ and Jen thanks for the taking magazine-worthy photos!

Let’s do it randomly, i don’t think I have the sanity to put the pictures pa in order of events hehehe! Let’s start!

Cupcake Design Competition finalist… and cute nung WCC logo!

this is the Grand Champion, pang fine dining yung taste… the marshmallows weren’t ordinary, they were mango flavored… nakadagdag sa fruity taste nung cupcake.

Red Velvet cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Children’s Party theme… Cuteness!

We invited my college friend, Ghie to talk about cupcakes and cupcake design. She owns a blossoming cupcake business called Sweet Confections. Visit her website here www.sweetconfectionsbygiselle.com

The students we’re really interested about the topic, success ang seminar day!

With Ms. A, Sir Xyv and Giselle after the seminar. Thanks Ghie! Till next time!

Me doing my job as a judge, making rounds in the kitchen to make sure all are following basic sanitation and hygiene rules…

Ms. A as the other judge! Pa sweet in red lang.

With the other judges from outside.

Time check guys! Sabi ng baby ko ang cute ko daw dito… Pa-cute daw sobra!

Photo op with the finished products…

Di pa naman halatang haggard na ako…

With the competition participants… I’m proud of you guys!!

Interview portion ng mga participants, they have to explain the process they did for their dishes..

some of my students!!! Sweet!! Napapadalas yung rocker sign na yan pag nagpapa-picture ako!

With Ms. Gail, one of our English Teacher.

May petiks moment rin naman pala ako. Here I’am fooling around the faculty room with my colleagues…

The Dingdong addict, The Backstabber, The Small Time Guitarist and The Sleepy Head. Thanks Ms. Gail for these pics!

With our super bait na School Administrator, Sir Alvin Gonzales. Super cool lang!

The Taray look or as my baby calls it “The Ewan Ko Sayo Look”.

Some of my Events Management Class who organized the events and all the competitions. Rommel, Aaron and Wendy!

By ko… Sila naka-hug ha… hindi ako…

I’m just so glad all of the events went well, kulang pa nga tong mga picture na nandito e sa sobrang dami. I’m just ecstatic that the SIHM department were super active last week!

With Wendy and Racquel.. thanks for keeping up with all the stress guys!

With Mikel, my student who organized the Cocktail Mixing Competition. I know I dont have photos here of the event but like what I said there have been a lot of activities that week that it’s hard to keep track of and document as well.

This shot was taken after the Rizal Talk with Michael Chua. This is also the last day I sported that hairstyle.

Next stop is the culminating activity for the College Week.. Clash of The Titans, Mr and Ms SIHM. I’ll have a separate post for that!

A New Look

As they say, when something new comes in one’s life everything changes. You can divide your life into two parts, your life before he came and your life after he came.

Everything seems fresh and young. Rediscovering the thrills of holding hands, video calling over Skype, saying sweet good nights before sleeping, conversations over dinner and coffee, sweet smiles and sweet stares never been more exciting.

Since we are on the topic of changes, I’d like to share one of the few that came about the month of February. Yung ibang changes siguro I’ll share it when I’m really ready na, It’s way too much to be written down e, medyo lunod pa ko sa emotion na dala nun….. Well, the change i’d like to tell is something that  I’ve been wanting to do a long time ago but people around me were hesitant about it’s outcome and advised me not to go for it….  But in the spirit of being daring and because I’m getting way too bored with the usual and the fact that I needed a new look for an event I’m hosting…. I decided to finally… shave it all again!

It helps a lot that the most special person in my life right now gave me the go signal. Apparently, he hates my hair, I think he hates hair perse. He’s sporting the same hair-do… that’s why…

Here’s me with Ms. A, she thinks it’s a cool change for me. Lakas maka-bata!

I got some make-up on here… I was about to step on stage already to host the Mr. and Ms. SIHM Pageant.

with some of the candidates that night.. They’re all shocked by the new look. Syempre kelangan sabayan ang pasabog nila.

This was taken a few hours ago. Ms. A, Chef and I went out for dinner and a bit of shopping.

So, I guess I’ll be rocking this new look for a few months! Whhoah! I love change!

At Last.

It was the last phase of our training as Agents of Change. Dr. Bantigue conducted a training on Professional Lecturing and Facilitation Skills. Since it’s the third meeting of the entire group, all of us were already in tune with each others’ personalities… In short, riot na sa loob ng training room!

Here’s the entire group, this was taken after the training.

The first part of the training was Professional Lecturing due to time constraint we had the activity in pairs. We prepared a short presentation of our chosen topic regarding HIV awareness and lecture it in just 10 minutes. I was partnered with Ran, a public hospital nurse. He’s so good at making presentations via Powerpoint and since I’m already experienced in public speaking, our presentation was picked by Dr. Bantigue as the best among all the presentations.

Here’s my partner, Ran. (Sorry, kung haggard ako. I haven’t had a good sleep yet here.)

After the Saturday training, we all went to Solanie Hotel yet again to rest. Wala mga plano ang mga beki kung lalabas ba or nonomo na lang sa loob ng room.

on our way to Solanie, ang saya lang ng punchlines at comebacks!

Half of the group decided to go to Malate. Since most of my batchmates are going, I had no choice but to go kahit haggard na haggard na ako. We had so much fun naman, videoke night daw. I had way too many bottles of vodka that night kaya lalong na-haggard.

Lep, Me (sobrang haggard-looking na!), Jam, Michael (or Har as I opt to call him), Lalo and Julex.

Har and Har.

I’m hilo na here. Promise.

with Jam and Har! Si Julex may sariling mundo lang.

With Lep and Jammy!

After Malate we went back at Solanie to join the other who were also drinking, drank a few more vodka and everything went blank.

Sunday. We almost didn’t make it on time, buti na lang Dr. Bantigue didn’t started on time. We had a session on Facilitation Skills and I was one of the few who were assigned to do a demonstration. I went last and the entire group think that I did great. Even Dr. Bantigue gave good remarks. Ang saya lang!

We had our final lunch together and some cam-whoring as well..

Till next time guys! See you on our first project soon! Go Agents of Change!

P.S. : Something happened along the way and finally I can say that for the first time after a very long time, napayapa na muli ang puso ko. Thanks!

My Heart’s Day!

V-day somehow fell on a Tuesday, my day off from school. I was planning to spend it home watching romantic comedy movies… Yeah right! Loser! Well, Ayoko rin namang makipag-date on the 14th mismo. Ang corny kaya! I just want to be busy on the day itself para medyo ma-distract ako sa love fever on that day.

Lucky for me, I was saved from spending V-day alone. I was invited to host the first WCC Music Club Concert. Jazz, my co-faculty and the club’s adviser tapped my comedic talent to bring some needed talk relief on their concert.

Here’s Jazz with the HOST!

The entire night was filled with fun, nice music and a lot of positivity. The Club planned the song list that the mood of the evening would go from Heartbreaking to Hopeful to So Inlove and to Reassurance. Syempre, kinarir ko ang Heartbreak segment… this is where I can relate to the most. I picked up some witty lines, quotes and other materials para may bala naman ako. Jazz included dedication cards to the tickets they were selling so I read some in between songs.

Here’s some of the club members.. Lahat mga biritera!

Besides the Music Club, Jazz’s band also played. They call themselves the Sit In Band, apparently wala pa pala silang pangalan, I think that’s one of the hardest thing when you form a band e. Naming it. The band sang one of my favorite as a closing song for the Heartbreak segment, The Man Who Cant Be Moved by the Script… But instead of cutting my wrist sa song na ito, medyo na feel ko ang kilig because of the vocalist. Hehehehe! He’s such a cutie!

The cutie vocalist!

The crowd was obviously having fun. It was like a Concert slash Comedy show

The beautiful girls of Music Club! Winner kayo mga teh!

Dahil nga beautiful sila I decided to play an impromtu dating game with some of the boys in the audience. The game went really well, pasok ako sa audience participation!

Syempre, papatalo ba ako. Chance ko na to, if Anne Curtis was able to fill Araneta Coliseum for a concert siguro naman kaya kong tapatan ang birit ng mga Music Club members, with my Year 2012 mantra to be daring and unpredictable on my mind, I stepped on the stage, with Jazz’s permission and sang a few lines from “Wherever You Will Go”, yung high notes ang tinira ko… Hehehehe!

My Valentine’s Day went really well, I was able to do one thing that I discovered that I love doing which is talking hehehe!

Thanks Jazz for the hosting opportunity! I had fun! till next!

2nd Phase…

The 2nd week of training for volunteers for Love Yourself Campaign was even more fun compared to the last one. Though we missed a few people from our original batch, we were then joined by another batch for the 2nd phase of training. It got a lot more interesting since more interesting and fun people were added to the group.

The 2nd phase was dedicated to Counselling Skills, our trainer, Dra. Bantigue was very effective as usual. The training was filled with funny punchlines and comebacks, what you would really expect in a room full of gay guys!

Here’s some of the guys having dinner.

on the left side is Jam, One of the few people that I got really close to instantly. Co-pasimuno ko ng Truth or Dare. Right side is Jurex, my roomie.

here’s the new batch that joined us. Got two crushes on their group. I got to kiss one on the cheek, thanks to Truth or Dare. LOL!

News about Whitney Houston’s untimely death broke out while we were inside the training room. Everyone was so devastated, like I said, it was a roomful of gay guys, Whitney being a gay icon and her loss was something personal to all of us. I promise to have a separate entry about Whitney Houston and how she touched my life soon!

The Counselling Skills training was really outrageously fun, we even had to counsel each other as an activity. Some were even tasked to do demo counseling…

Lastly, I want to give Dr. Bantigue, a loud thank you and the biggest hug for being patient and game in training such a challenging group of people hehehe! An inspiration to all us, she’s a VP in Meralco and teaches Psychology in La Salle but still finds time to do volunteer work like this. May God bless you more Doctora! Till next week!!

On Being Negative

Sometimes a NEGATIVE could be oh so positive!!

On being true to my new year’s resolution, I signed up for a volunteer post several weeks ago. I saw the ad on a gay blog and it says that they we’re looking for people who were willing to be trained as peer educators for HIV awareness. Having had the experience of attending HIV workshop when I was in college, I decided to plunge in and sign up for it, I know based on my experience how important those workshop were for MSM (Men having Sex with Men), I’m grateful for those workshop because it opened my mind to HIV/AIDS.

Training was scheduled on a Saturday afternoon, It’s being spearheaded by RITM an agency under DOH. medyo kinakabahan pa ako, cos I was going there alone. Once the training started I finally felt relaxed. The people I was training with are super nice and very intellectual, ang sarap kausap lahat.

Sabi ko nga sa new year resolution ko, I’ll be more daring… So, when the trainer asked us if we wanted to be tested for HIV, I had no choice but to say yes. A few years back, I promised myself not to be tested, wala lang, I had a philosophy before na “What you don’t know, wont hurt you” but I changed my mind, truth will eventually come out no matter how you repress it, base on experience rin yan. In short, I had my self tested.

We were tested around 7:00pm, results will be released in the morning, the training was an overnight affair. they made stay in a nearby hotel. After the blood extraction, deadma na. I never thought of the result, the group decided to stay up and bond over vodka and conversation and some of us eventually hit Malate since it was just a few blocks away.

Then the morning after came. We all had to face the fact that we are all unsure of  what the result might be. Let’s admit it, the result of that test is might be life altering. It could change everything in your life in just an instant.

Waiting was the agony, we were being called one by one. Once your result is revealed to you, you are then asked to leave the training area as soon as possible, you are not supposed to talk with your fellow trainee. Yun ang torture! One thing nice about it is that we we’re a group, all us we’re making fun of the situation… like asking Doctora to just post the result on our Facebook wall so it would be easier for her. The atmosphere instantaneously became light, I just could imagine the horror of those people who tested and waited for the results alone. Dreadful!

And as title of this post implies, I tested negative. It was such a relief to finally know your status. I was afraid that it might go the other way, knowing that the last guy I was in a relationship with was super promiscuous. Having a negative result, figuratively cleans up my slate. No baggage from the past. I should be ready for the future.

Some of the most interesting guys I met that night…

The training is still on going, it’s a 3 weekend affair. So, I’ll be seeing more of these people this coming weekend. So looking forward to it already!