Weeks Before the Boards, Mostly in Food Photos

With the medical boards so very very near, last week I decided to pick up my lazy ass and haul myself and my medical reviewers to Manila for some serious studying. There were times I wished I could do a Sheldon-Cooper-Flash-moment -- go to the Grand Canyons, scream my head off, and go back as zen as the Dalai Lama -- because putting on a show of calm and serenity when I'm really a bunch of nerves inside was driving me over the edge, but I'm better now hahaha. Thank you I Wrote This For You for averting a near-psychotic-break. ;)

Anyway, let's move on to happier things, i.e., what I ate last week. Haha.

Monday Snack

Potato Corner's Wasabi Fries
Yes it's a hideous shade of green, that's really how it looks like.

Tuesday Dinner

Army Navy Steak Tacos
Because it's Taco Tuesday!!!

Wednesday Brunch

Beef Brisket Sandwich + Full Leaf Brewed English Breakfast
I actually liked this sandwich :D

Wednesday Post-Dinner

CBTL's Iced Chai Tea Latte
I still think Seattle's Best has the best chai. ;)

Friday Brunch

Turkey and Chicken Ham with Egg White and Emmenthal Cheese
That's not even the full name, that's just what I remember.

Friday Dinner

I went back to Mercato for the first time this year! 

My last was during Ultimate Taste Test 7.0 and it feels like eons ago. 

Eating on the sidewalk. Because all the chairs were
taken. Even the sidewalk was full! Grabe lang.

Wagyu Paella + Cheesestick Dynamite + My Thighs. Lol.

Day-old chick.
First time to eat these. Haha. Not bad, but not really my thing either.
I don't even eat balut because I can see the form of the chick.

For dessert! HAHAHA.

Papa Roti's Phrata with Condensed Milk
Huge serving of roti, I hope it came with a larger serving of milk. :D

The only photo with my face in it was lomo-fied to give my face a bit of color, people have been telling me I look sick. I am not. Haha I just don't have my time out in the sun, and I don't feel like putting on makeup most of the time, because prettifying for a book feels a bit sad hahaha. :P

Photoblog: The Board Review Chronicles

Because nothing interesting is happening in my life right now, and my brain is too exhausted to come up with anything creative, witty, funny or touching. All I can manage is sarcasm and that has no place in this blog, because I once swore that this would remain a place exclusively for rainbows and unicorns and other glittery sh..things. Lol.

My favorite pen right now. Because it writes well, and just seeing
 "Phi Lambda Delta" on my pen makes me feel warm inside. :)

Yesterday's dinner. Turkey and Chicken with Apple Stuffing on
Whole Wheat and Walnut. Not so good.

I was in such a rush to leave the house that I forgot my First Aid!
Say hello to my emergency Booksale purchase, 250php. :P

Trips to the bookstore always make me feel better. :)
Almost bought more highlighters and post-its but I already have
a buttload of those and I really don't use them anymore. I also have
too many pens and a new box of Mongol #2s. Hence, an eraser.

Iced Green Tea Latte because I needed a morale boost.
 Matcha is love. ♥

Totally unrelated to my studying "adventures"
but these were really pretty. :)

Aah neurons please don't die just yet. Stay with me until February!!! Also please allow me to write in coherent paragraphs soon because I still have to do that magazine article about the health benefits of {guess what activity} hahaha! 

Starbucks Smores and Other Failures

My friend R told me to be careful of calories now that I'm always at Starbucks again. So today I decided to get iced tea instead of the peppermint mocha which is essentially one shot of espresso plus milk and sugar and whipped cream. Hehehe.

But the line was long so I found myself standing a long time in front of the pastry display. 

For some reason I came to the conclusion that I was entitled to a pastry since the tea was only 95 bucks (versus a grande mocha which was 165 pesos). So I got their smores which looked more like a tart than well, smores, because I am a girl and the gold stars got to me. Darn you hormones! Hehehe. Total bill: 165!

It was only when I got to my table that I realized my reason for not getting a mocha was not really the price but the calories HAHAHA and now I have a pastry greaaaaat.

Apparently, gold stars are the key to my heart. Maybe I didn't get
enough gold stars when I was in kindergarten hahaha.

These two cost just as much as a grande red cup! I tell ya the
red cup beverages are gold!

I still say it was a TART not smores. It wasn't even that good too. Nakakaumay. (How do you say that in english?) I'd only buy that again if there were four or five of us sharing, because I can only handle one bite. :/

Anyway, operation expensive coffee was a failure today (maybe because I didn't actually buy coffee LOL). I had to leave early due to um, bathroom needs. Hahaha. And my laptop is back from repair (the hinge broke) so I don't know how I'm supposed to study now. I can't stop rewatching Hart of Dixie episodes because Rachel Bilson is a sweetheart even if she dresses all wrong for a medical practice and Wilson Bethel as a hot hot hot bad boy with a sensitive streak is irresistible. :D

Sorry if I'm blogging about Starbucks and TV shows again, there is simply nothing else going on in my life right now. What a sad sad life hahaha. Tomorrow I'll be in Banchetto for that thing with the lanterns maybe something interesting will happen then. Like I make a wish "please give me a hot guy" and then a hot guy actually comes up to me to say hello! HAHAHA, I really feel ditzy at the moment I am so sorreh.

Motivation

It is so hard to study alone. Bow.

Seriously, in my 7 years of Intarmed (a medicine program straight from high school in UP) I have never studied alone. This is a challenge for me, and one with very serious consequences! 

So I went to Starbucks, because I have come to realize that my productivity is directly proportional to the price of my coffee. LOL. It's like my subconscious is pushing me to read more pages to get my money's worth. Bwahaha.

It didn't hurt that the red cups are back. I love peppermint mocha! Enough not to think about the 165 pesos I spent for a grande cup. Hahaha it's like drinking GOLD!

Peppermint mocha.
I missed you so. <3

Anyhoo, studying in Starbucks Calamba (aka Jejebucks) was pleasant enough. Noisier than Starbucks Adri/ UN Av/ Valero where the usual crowd is law + med students, but a lot quieter than my favorite local coffee shop which unfortunately for me, is also the favorite hangout of college kids from UPLB (wow I really feel old, I call college students KIDS hahaha). 

My Starbucks days have started again, and I think getting that planner will be a breeze this year. SEVENTEEN ONLY? Hahaha! Too bad I've got my eyes set on another planner, maybe I'll just give it away as a gift. :D

--

Today I also learned going to a coffee shop alone = boys. Hehehe. Kaya lang, COLLEGE DUDES. Mga tsong, may gatas pa kayo sa labi! But fine, better than the old foreigners in Figaro. HAHAHA.

My Tastebuds Are Green

I like green food.

I don't mean green leafy vegetables hahaha the truth of it is I didn't even eat them until premed when my blockmate Ana started force-feeding me veggies (as in she would cut them in small pieces and hide them in my food the crazy girl) and I realized they weren't that bad and they helped me in um, doing my business. So now I eat them although you still can't make me eat okra and ampalaya. Do not even try force-feeding me that!!!

But I'm going off tangent again. Mom brought home a pack of matcha chocolates today (given to her by a friend, I guess), and tossed it to me. That might have something to do with the fact that I brought home her favorite Kruffins so exchange gift kami haha but I also think she knows us well enough to know that I'm the one who goes giddy-happy at the sight of anything green tea flavored. Hello I was the one who brought home green tea flavored peanut butter which nobody else in our family liked!

Well, only the packaging is actually green but it's the idea that counts. :P

I don't recall how this started. When my classmate Ilian asked me to try his green tea frap at Starbucks, I remember saying "Eck lasang damo!!" (It tastes like grass!!) The first time I tried mint chocolates I also complained it tasted like toothpaste. I hated wasabi because it made me feel like smoke was coming out my nostrils. (Wow, now I understand why my friends keep telling me I'm so fickle!)

But as they say, past is past. I've changed my mind, now I love green food!

Exercises in Futility

Today is day 2 of blogging to curb FB addiction. Deng this must be how it feels to chew gum when what you really want to do is smoke a cig. And it's like going to Ministop (was gonna say sarisari store but haha cmon) to buy gum and seeing all those Marlboros lined up behind the counter! Having to go online to update this blog makes controlling my FB urges almost impossible. JUST. ONE. CLICK. AWAY! AAAACK! I am so deleting my facebook bookmark!

Speaking of ministop.. it's my new Jollibee. I find myself walking out of the house in my pambahay to go to ministop to buy fried chicken. Or their Hot Chix (a wimpy cross of chicken nuggets and hotshots but is really yummy and is every gluttons dream at just 42 smackeroos!) which is what I had for dinner the other day, lunch yesterday and possibly what i will have for lunch and dinner tomorrow. For dinner last night I actually made an effort to go to Yellow Cab at UN Av for some Charlie Chan. Yum. And today I'm scavenging my friend TRK's condo for food to escape the horrors of tuna siopao which seem to be the extent of a convenience store's lenten menu (bleeech!). TRK's condo has to be the best place on earth five minutes after I stepped in I had already devoured 5 squares of Lindt and 2 chocolate covered coffee beans. For lunch there's salmon, which in tunay na rich kid fashion he said was "just 380 pesos a kilo, mura lang" after which my wallet promptly fainted in embarassment, and right now I've just finished a mini bar of snickers and am eyeing a box of mac and cheese sitting on his cupboard for breakfast. So my food supply is secure for the day and tomorrow I go back to eating hotchix. Goodness I hafta stop eatinnnnggg but I'm trying to accomplish my goals one at a time so I'll do that one after this FB thing is resolved which is possibly never.