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Day 21 – Memories: Where have you traveled?

Published by Justine

So many memories to fill in just one post. I haven’t traveled to that many places, but I can definitely say I’ve traveled enough and lived in another country long enough to understand different cultures better, be more open minded about certain situations, and have dealt with my fair share of travel experiences.

I’ve traveled alone and with people and I can definitely say while traveling alone is great, nothing beats the company of friends and/or family. I’ve yet to travel to these continents: Europe, America, and Africa. I would love to in the near future!

My last memorable travel was to Seoul last year. It made me learn a couple of things about myself, how I hate the cold, but I love Seoul so so so so much. I think it’s a place I wouldn’t visiting from time to time to remind myself that order in a city/country is possible in a world of chaos.

One country/city I’m very familiar with as much as my own is Singapore. I’ve been to Singapore every year (sometimes twice or thrice) for the last 16 years of my life. I think this year is when I break that Singapore streak because I haven’t traveled out of the country yet so far.

I moved to Ujung Pandang, Indonesia (now Makassar) when I was barely a year old or around a year old, then spent a few years there, and went back to the Philippines to do my growing up. I think it’s safe to say I’ve been to more cities in Indonesia than I have ever been in the Philippines, which is kind of sad and I think should definitely change. I’ve been to Bali, to Yogyakarta where the Borrobudur temple is, and a few cities in Java along the way because that was a crazy-ass 15 hour drive that I wish to forget. You know how they say the journey is more important than the destination? Yeah, that didn’t apply at all. I’ve been to Bintan Island (via Singapore since it’s actually nearer) Last year I went to Cirebon to visit my dad and I loved it there. So chill without the hustle and bustle of Jakarta.

For my graduation, I traveled to Perth, Australia and spent a couple of weeks there. If Perth is an indication of how the rest of Australia is, then I would definitely want to live there forever, or at least retire. They say Melbourne is better, and I would love to go there as well, but Perth was just the kind of city I would want to be part in. It has a lot of things going on, but it’s not suffocating, nor busy. Areas are vast and there’s just so much good nature to take in. I didn’t even know people were capable of spending their office lunch breaks laying out a picnic blanket in the grass outside of their office buildings, lay there, and eat their sandwiches with a good book until I went to Perth. I was like, “I WANT THAT TO BE MY FUTURE!”

Asia (particularly Southeast Asia) is generally easy to travel to. I’ve also been to Hong Kong a few times, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, and Brunei (I think? Though it doesn’t count since I don’t remember it).

I’d love to go somewhere not Asia anymore, unless it’s Japan (HELLO, bucket list?!). We have travel plans for the UK next year and I hope that materializes. As much as I love to travel, it’s the journey that ultimately annoys me because I’m iffy with plane rides, have love/hate relationships with airports and hate the part where I can NEVER sleep while traveling. So yeah, can I have some apparition powers, please?

Day 20 – Something you’re trying to figure out

Published by Justine

Not a fan of how this is such a broad topic and there are endless possibilities to write about. At the same time I can just be an ass about it and write that I’m trying to figure out myself. Love. How to love. MEN. How to apply eyeliner. How to not be scared. How to NOT be an emotional sponge. When to let go. Why I’m afraid to ride boats when I can swim. Plus so much more.

In the words of Smashing Pumpkins, “Justine never knew the rules..” and I still don’t. The point is, I’m trying to figure out life as it is.

Day 19 – 20 facts about yourself

Published by Justine

These facts are the first things that came into my mind while writing this post.. they’re not in any particular order and just random realizations about myself.

  1. I speak better Indonesian than Tagalog.
  2. If dessert and main course are served together or are in one table, I usually eat the dessert first.
  3. I’ve seen Bring It On more than 20 times.
  4. Eggplant is my least favorite vegetable.
  5. Asian food > any kind of food.
  6. Stella Artois is my favorite beer.
  7. I love brie.
  8. I can’t dive.
  9. I’ve been on airplanes since before I could walk and talk but the more I fly the more it scares me.
  10. If it benefits me, I’ll still be nice to you even though I don’t like you.
  11. If I don’t like you and it doesn’t benefit me, I won’t even care about your existence.
  12. My eyebrows are sort of non existent if I don’t fill them in.
  13. I can’t leave the house without filling in my brows.
  14. I have fat ring fingers that’s why I don’t wear rings that much.
  15. I like big watches.
  16. I learned to drive when I was 14.
  17. I got into a fender bender while driving to class in a Jakarta freeway alone.
  18. I’m an Apple advocate through and through.
  19. I’m still interested in Hello Kitty, Doraemon and Stitch–cute stuff!
  20. I’ve been using Twitter every single day for a good 7 years now. Sometimes I can’t believe I’ve stuck to it that long.

Update! I did a more cohesive one when my cousin tagged me on Instagram totally forgetting the fact that I did this here. I could have copied the whole thing, now it’s becoming 40 facts although some are probably of the same meaning. Here goes!

  1. I have a feeling I will always feel like I’m 19. 22, at least.
  2. Smell is a strong memory retention for me. Especially perfume or any body scent.
  3. One of my dreams is to be a cruise ship singer, but I hate boats or ships and/or any water-related transportation so.. that’s off the list.
  4. Regardless, I love the beach and will always be an island girl.
  5. I don’t think I can ever live in a country that has predominantly cold winters. Or long winters. Cold weather kills me.
  6. Can’t wait to visit these continents soon: America, Europe and Africa!
  7. I’ve been on planes since before I could walk but the more I ride em the more I get scared of flights. Seriously, can I just apparate?
  8. I’ve traveled abroad alone many times to realize I HATE traveling alone. It’s so fucking lonely.
  9. I think the best part about being at this age is realizing what you want, and what you don’t want and actually acting on it. Goodbye, #FOMO.
  10. Being ambitious is great, and I often wonder how I don’t really have much ambition in me.
  11. More often than not, the talent I usually get most envious about from other people is the ability to write well and be able to put thoughts into words effortlessly.
  12. My longest commitment in life is probably Twitter.
  13. I always smile at immigration officers. You should always be excited to be entering another country.
  14. I can’t wait to buy a bookshelf so I can showcase my fandom openly, and sadly where my money has gone the past few years.
  15. I don’t like standing concerts because I am short, and like to feel comfortable when watching my favorite acts live.
  16. I wonder if there will be a guy who’s able to put up with all my shit, mood swings and all.
  17. In real life, I have nonexistent eye brows.
  18. My parents and my sister are my number one best friends. I guess I wouldn’t mind if my life gets shitty at times as long as my relationship with my family stays as golden as it is.
  19. I learned to drive when I was 14.
  20. I quite like my life as it is right now, but I often wonder how it’s gonna get shaken up.

 

Day 18 – Your favorite: Childhood books

Published by Justine

The only childhood books I ever remember really loving were the Sweet Valley Kids series. I’m pretty sure I was exposed to a lot of books as a child but Sweet Valley really stuck with me, up until Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley High, Sweet Valley University, The Unicorn Club, SVJH (Sweet Valley Jr. High), Sweet Valley Senior Year, and even Sweet Valley Confidential, in which I posted about here and here.

I remember getting this book during my 6th or 7th birthday. I was so happy. The Sweet Valley series were really a big part of my childhood. Other books that I remember really loving were different kinds of Enid Blyton books and a bit of The Babysitter’s Club as well.

In my early “tweens” I also got into a lot of the Mary-Kate and Ashley franchise which includes their books like Two of a Kind, The Adventures of, and So Little Time collections and TV shows and DVDs. I think I was probably part of driving force on the twins’ rise to fame, stardom and money. Those were simpler times for me and I miss it so.

I probably shouldn’t fail to mention that I read a lot of Encyclopedia when I was young because my mom bought me a condensed version, then at one point I got a full blown collection that was about 26 issues or something. There were A LOT of them and we still have the books up to now. They are very heavy and take a lot of space. Encyclopedia may not have helped me much in the “knowledge” department, but I think it helped a lot with my ability to take in information really quickly and made me a fast learner for some reason. I’d like to attribute my swift learning to that.

Day 17 – Where do you work?

Published by Justine

I work in the world’s largest self-publishing company. This is my third job and I’ve been working there for 2 and a half years now. Suffice to say, I’m enjoying it! I’m in Corporate Marketing, particularly in Product Development where we come up with different methods and ways for our authors to publish and market their books, to easily explain it.

I like how my work is so closely related to what I studied in uni and I’m glad it’s something I enjoy as well. It’s an office job without strict hours because we cater the whole world. I guess what I like most about it is despite being a desk job I don’t do the same shit every day, there are different ideas, lots of conceptualizing involved, market research, communication etc etc that if I explain further I’d just be rambling.

Aside from the things we usually do, we just finished developing a magazine app (with a 3rd party developer). It was one year worth of work but there’s still so much to be done and improved. It just doesn’t stop at one point. None of my teammates have a strong background on app development so we had to learn from the ground up. It was pretty fun and a really good learning experience.