Autumn colors at its peak

I love autumn and since this is my first time to experience it, I'm delighted to share with you some photos I took around my neighborhood that showcase the season's colors at its finest. I said to myself that the first thing I'll do when autumn comes is to turn on my mp3 player full blast and listen to Vivaldi's L'Autunno. I embedded a Youtube clip for you, so if you like please feel free to do the same. It's amazing how Vivaldi really captured the feel of autumn in his composition.









Somebody coaxed us to visit the cemetery behind ESF and experience a more surreal feel of autumn. Indeed, the first thing that welcomed us was this giant tree with brightly lit orange leaves that reflected the red sunset. I swear, the tree looked like it was burning from afar. So immediately I had this concept of taking a shot of a gravestone with the "burning trees" as background to convey a very eerie interpretation of death.

Bad start, great end

The worst way to start the day is coming late to an 8 am class soaking wet from an unexpected, freezing autumn shower with just 4 hours of sleep and a midterm exams to worry about. No other words, even those accentuated with the strongest superlatives, can describe how awful I felt the entire day. But, as the cliche goes, there's always light at the end of the tunnel. My day ended just like that, almost literally in fact: seeing the gorgeous sunset basking ESF with a golden glow, having dinner with my major professor and fellow advisees, hanging-out and having tomato-feta pizza at Varsity's, and ending the night with a brief chat with Yas. It's always wonderful to end a terrible day with a big sigh of relief.





Now, time to brace myself for another rough week ahead ...

Pinoy berday paty

We were invited to attend a pinoy birthday party yesterday and yes, as expected, it was all fun! I was happy having to taste some of our pinoy delicacies again, like pancit, sinigang, lumpiang shanghai (for the non-Filipinos, lumpiang shanghai is not from Shanghai, China. It's a Filipino adaptation of the Chinese fried spring rolls), biko, and chicken sopas. To top it all up, we spent the remainder of the night singing our hearts out with OPM and western classics in the ever reliable magic mic.


It was not only the Filipinos who got to demonstrate their singing prowess. A bunch of American kids caught the pinoy singing fever as well and at some point dominated the magic mic for a sizeable fraction of the night. What amazed me was that these kids were not singing the likes of Jonas bros, Miley Cyrus or Timbaland. They were going for classic songs like Thriller, Hound Dog, and (as for the photo below) Britney's Oops I Did It Again. Haha, I rember there's this kid who grabs the mic and shouts, "Ooops takeling!" in an attempt to read the song title "Ooops! Teka lang!" That was cute and hilarious. Kinda reminds me of the dragon katol ad in the Philippines.


Below is the birthday mom, Hydie, and her lovely daughter singing Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On. She couldn't read the words yet, but still got a grade of 100%! I think magic mics have built-in biometric sensors that detect their owner's finger prints. In fairness, she was really good and we all concur that her singing genes are 100% derived from Filipinos :)


This gathering made me realize one thing: Filipinos, no matter how far they are from home and how long they have been disconnected from their roots, could still find a way to uncover the "pinoy genes" in them. Initially, I felt a bit awkward being greeted by Filipinos with thick american accents and idiomatic expressions. But when they all start singing and dancing, that's when the true Filipino colors come out.

I couldn't think of a better way to end an awful week than this ... except probably if I could have the option not to go back studying again the following day. I definitely look forward to attending future pinoy gatherings in Syracuse just to remind myself how I always enjoy the company of our kababayan (fellow countrymen and women). Hydie, thanks for the fun party and happy birthday again!