R.I.P. Elly

fritz's mom died on dec 21.she's only 68 years old.

this is the only picture i have of her, this was taken in 2009 during one of my vacations when i visited fritz. i should have taken more pictures with her, but since we visited her almost every weekend when i came to live here, i didnt think that i needed to take pictures.
she has always been nice to me and made me feel welcome everytime we visited.
i still remember on my last visit she told me before leaving, i love you---and i told fritz that---that it was nice to have your mom's boyfriend like you--(even --love you). i'll miss you elly. we'll all miss you.

we went to another country in 40 minutes!

..hmmm....well, the other country is belgium. it is only 40minutes away by car from where we live so we decided to go and have a walk in antwerp. its a nice city and cant wait to get back there soon....



rides outside of the train station


train station

enjoying my authentic belgian waffles! yummmm


the most amazing thing happened. we bumped into Tamara in Antwerp! What are the chances! I used to work with her in Bigfoot in Cebu. I knew she was from Belgium, but wow, what a coincidence. she lives in grimembergen and i live in breda and with so many people there, we bump into her. kismet! we promised to see each other again and have coffee in january.


enjoying some fancy champagne at the champagne bar in antwerp. :)

christmas at den haag

merry christmas!

merry christmas from fritz,arleen, henrika, steve and ling!

miss u everyone in manila

its been a sad christmas as fritz's mom died yesterday and instead of christmas plans we have been arranging for funeral plans. :( may she rest in peace. she has always been nice to me and on one hand i am glad that the pain and suffering in the hospital is over for her. i hope she is in a good place now.

anyway, life goes on. i miss you everyone there in manila.
we wish everyone and eat a crunchy skin of lechon in my honor.:)

homesick at christmas time

So I finally found a catholic mass in english here in breda, its in st. martinuskerk in breda princenhage and they only do it every sunday of the month at 2pm. Most of the churchgoers are Filipinos with their Dutch husbands and children, but other people are welcome as well.

They put up a Belen (Nativity) outside the church, with a real donkey!




and here is a picture with my new filipina friend Mylaine who is married to a Dutch man who is---- the father of the boyfriend of a colleague at NHTV.Did you get it?
Look at all the snow and how I am wearing 4 layers of shirts/sweater and winter coat--making me look like a michelin man! weeheeee



im a bit homesick, but also spending a lot of time in the hospital as fritz's mom is still in ICU. Its my first time away from home for Christmas, and its a blue Christmas...:(

love is food

my mom and dad will be so proud of me!
COOKING!!!!
Tonight I cooked Sinigang na Baboy for dinner and my beloved favorite dessert, palita! I am so glad our Asian store has everything that i need to make me feel like home---with homemade cooking...
Eating this makes me feel better today despite the cold.
i miss my house in manila.

Ski Virgin!

it was my first time to try skiing! we went to a place called skidome (skidome.nl).Skidome is in Ruchpen, around 30minutes from Breda and is good for beginners skiing and snowboarding. Philippines being a tropical country--has no snow or skiing so this was an alien concept for me---one activity that I just watch in a movie or on television.
It was an epic success!
It was not as bad as I expected it to be and i was able to do several rounds of skiing AND I didnt fall a lot (maybe 4 times in 2 hours...not so bad!)Fritz told me I learned fast!Ggoodie!
Here are our pictures with the whole skii shebang!

snow outside my office

Sumptuous thanksgiving dinner

we had a nice thanksgiving dinner with our colleagues, ling and steve.
here's our feast!

yumyum turkey (but looks more like a big chicken--but super duper good!)

pumpkin pie

and our table (food you did not see (spinach with bacon, mashed potato with portuguese cheese and buttered corn! yum yum yum!)

Roma Italia!

We presented our paper, "A Case study about Youtube and Facebook as Social Media Tools in enhancing Student Centered Learning and Engagement" at the IJAS Conference in Rome, Italy.

Here are some sightseeing pics done before the conference started, but Rome was raining...but we still got nice pictures!

Real authentice capuccino!


Aria Opera

Spanish Steps

La Dolce Vita (Trevi Fountain)

Il Vittorio

Roman Forum

Colesseum

Naked!


Rome is such a beautiful city, and also one big museum!

Vatican City

Shots from the Vatican and inside St Peter's Basilica
My mom would love it here.
But I have a bad memory of this place as I got lost and I had to go back to the hotel alone. huhu

christmas blues

today when i was shopping, there was a short parade of zwarte piet giving away candies and treats. in the netherlands, their version of santa claus is called sinterklaas, which is an old bearded bishop riding a horse that supposedly came on a boat from spain, and together with him is his assistant called zwarte piet (black pete). its not politically correct in today's world, but usually piet is supposed to be black--so dutch people paint their faces all black (sootface) and he is is dressed in colorful page clothes.
i dont have the exact pictures from the parade, but here are some examples:



its nice that christmas is almost here, but i also felt a bit sad, because f is in spain for the weekend and i am alone now. I suddenly missed my family as I will be spending christmas here in europe.

well that is life.

so, feeling melancholic, i decided to get a small christmas tree for our flat.


advanced merry christmas everyone!

autumn weekend in germany

we went to visit f's family in ehningen, and also went to tubingen and stuttgart over the weekend. here are some pics.

the weirdly called "onion cake" but very very good!


castle in stuttgart

lake in tubingen

townhall in stuttgart

thirsty in bom jesus, braga, portugal

fort joao in varzim, portugal

beach in ofir, portugal (but water is too cold!)

coffee/breakfast in benavente, valladolid.

so here is our route:
ryan air from breda-nijmegen-dusseldord(wezze) airport to valladolid
road trip (hertz rent a car) from
valladolid - benavente spain to
chaves- vila real - braga - esposende - estella -ofir - povoa de varzim - vila do conde, portugal!
5 day road trip!
The cheapest, most tasty lunch we had was in vila real with rice, fish, roast chicken, 2 desserts and water for 2 people for 9 euros!

More images in Portugal

Ancient bridge built by Emperor Flavius in Chaves, Portugal

Case Mateus in Mateus, Portugal

Statue of Ferdinand Magellan, in his hometown in Sabrosa, Portugal

The view from Bom Jesus, Braga, Portugal