Celine's Life Adventure

I've been to Baguio quite a few times, and here I am trying to share about the excellent restaurants and yummy food I have tried. Good Taste Cafe and Restaurant They serve great food served with the freshest available ingredients at affordable prices. I would recommend the Chopseuy, Beef Broccoli and Buttered Chicken.   +Jomar and I ordered those and we could not even finish one of the viands! Talk about takaw tingin . O' Mai Khan This is my fave restaurant in Baguio EVER. No, I don't order the Mongolian buffet. Rather, I choose to explore their culinary expertise with the ala carte meals. My favourite right now is Kublai's Dream. Trying out the Genghis Khan Steak (Php 210) and O'Maikhan's Hearty Meal (Php 210)

This blog post is the 3rd one highlighting three restaurants in Maginhawa Street. Previously, I've been to Crazy Katsu, Fancy Crepes, and Fruili Trattoria along Maginhawa Street inside the U.P. Village, Quezon City, Philippines. Yesterday (since it was a holiday), Jomar and I had our holiday date. We decided to eat somewhere in Maginhawa. Roberta Flavors of Asia (formerly called, Roberta Seafood Cantina) For lunch we went to Roberta, we ordered, Salt & Lemon Pepper Squid, Gising-Gising, Bagoong Rice, and Herbed Rice. Nothing was outstanding about what we ate. It was sad. The only consolation is the Herbed Rice which tasted fine. Our food from Roberta

+Jomar Tigcal  and I celebrated our second anniversary last August 4, 2013, in Baguio City with our dearest friends from both  +GBG Philippines  and the  +GDG Philippines . The morning started with another round of delicious breakfast from  +Azalea Baguio . Since we already checked out our room, we decided to stay in the common area of the three-bedroom suite of Mama  +Chelle Gray  and Ms.  +Aileen Apolo .

After a restful evening in  +Azalea Baguio , we woke up to enjoy the delicious breakfast the hotel served. I fell in love with the Baguio longganisa. After having breakfast and loading all the tab, I needed for my Google Search presentation,  +Jomar Tigcal  and I went to the events place on the other side of the hotel. There were almost a hundred women entrepreneurs and students! Android wood carving is their token to the speakers!

Travel to Baguio City We spent day 1 of our anniversary celebration on the road going to Baguio City.  +Jomar Tigcal  and I met up with Mama  +Chelle Gray ,  +Jerome Locson , and  +Reymart Canuel  in McDonald's near Greenbelt 1 to wait for Ms.  +Aileen Apolo  and  +Maricar Dabao  with the van. Hot Chocolate from McCafe We left Makati at around 8:30 AM. We had lunch in Max's Restaurant at SM City Rosales in Pangasinan and met with Allan Medrano there. By 3:30 PM we found ourselves in the beautiful city of Baguio. We went straight to  +Azalea Baguio  and rested a bit.

It was our first time in Cagayan de Oro (CDO) over the weekend.  +Jomar Tigcal  and I were speakers during the  +GDG Cagayan de Oro   6th Monthsary Meetup . We were at NAIA Terminal 3 at around 5:30 AM (early for our 6:55 AM flight). Surprisingly, our flight departed on time and arrived CDO on time. By 8:20 AM we found ourselves in the one-month young Laguindingan International Airport. By the time we exited the airport, we had seen our former colleague +Paul Michael Labis  who is now home-based in CDO. Divine Mercy Shrine Our first stop was the Divine Mercy Christ Shrine in El Salvador City, Misamis Oriental. It's one of the cities and municipalities between CDO City and the airport. Paul dropped Jomar and me off at the bottom of the Shrine, and we climbed the many steps of stairs (I should have counted it!). Oh, and at the entrance, they'll lend girls a skirt that you could wear while inside the shrine compound.

Last July 20, 2013,  +Jomar Tigcal  and I made an effort to explore the other restaurants along Maginhawa Street (a few steps away from where I live) in Quezon City. This time we had lunch in Fruili Trattoria. When the tricycle would pass by this restaurant, I would always think that it's some fruit yogurt store. It's an Italian restaurant which serves pizza and pasta. By far, my fave pizza-pasta place is The Old Spaghetti House. Fruili comes close. It's reasonably priced, and they serve good food. Mozzarella Sticks, Tre Formaggi, and Tuna & Mushroom Spaghetti

After the successful Southeast Asia Summit with Google, a good number of Filipino delegates stayed in Jogja to see the rest of the city and what it has to offer. Thank God, Reymart has friends who are living in Jogjakarta, Indonesia. Not only did they gave us a tour and drove us around the city (instead of hailing and waiting for a cab every time), they were our translator and had become our friends. Bella and Titis are our new friends from Jogja! Both girls gave us ( +Jomar ,  +Josan ,  +Reymart ,  +Ruben ,  +Reymart , +Keshan , and I) a tour around the city. Gadjah Mada University Our first stop for the day is the Sunday Market in UGM. Seriously, Indonesia is a lot like the Philippines. Humid weather, love for affordable market places - the Sunday Market is just like what we have in Makati in the Philippines. After sweating a lot and looking at the different items, we walked going back to the car and saw the beautiful mosque inside the campus. We don't have a lot of mosques i

Last Day of SEARCH Summit It was the last day of the SEARCH Summit. Time flies when you're having fun! We're having fun and making friends in Jogja. Now, I have acquaintances and friends from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, and more places! Thank God for blessing us with opportunities like this. We had another excellent breakfast even if +Jomar  and I woke up late. We had GDG Managers sharing their experiences the rest of the morning: +Samdy  ( +GDG Phnom Penh ) shared about how to keep the community engaged. Next,  +Ruben  ( +GDG Cebu ) shared about collaboration between the groups. Then,  +Louis  ( +GDG Singapore ) shared about the success of their work with the government to create a contest in making useful applications using big data. Lastly, +Josan  ( +GDG Cagayan de Oro ) shared about the success of their Student Developer's Day. We learned so much and had bonded over the last few days. The SEA GDG Managers is the best group ever!

After getting restful sleep, we enjoyed the breakfast buffet at Hyatt. After breakfast, we went to a session with the GBG leads. We had a lot of good afternoon activities as well. I learned about Google Ventures, HTML5, AdMob and AdSense, and Diversity. I would say that the sticker exchange that happened in the morning did the trick that made the GDG leads a talk with each other.

8-hour layover. That's the summary of our journey from Manila, Philippines going to Yogyakarta in Indonesia to attend the Southeast Asia Outreach Summit organized by Google for the different communities (GDG, GBG, GSA, and MapMaker) in SEA. Ninoy Aquino International Airport There's 25 of us travelling from the Philippines. We left Manila a little after 9:30 PM via Cebu Pacific going to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. While waiting for our flight, the GDG Managers from the Philippines ( +Jomar ,  +Josan ,  +Reymart ,  +Theo ,  +anne ,  +Ruben , and I) decided to use the time to discuss our DevFest 2013 plans. I also purchased from National Bookstore a new passport cover! Hihi. GDG Managers from the Philippines

Last weekend, Jomar and I went to Cebu for another round of Google Apps for Education training for the University of San Jose-Recoletos. Tokyo Tokyo Ramen Our flight was scheduled at 10:10 PM via Cebu Pacific. We had dinner in Greenbelt 1 (Tokyo-Tokyo) and started to line up for a cab at around 7:30 PM. I am trying the new Ramen from Tokyo-Tokyo.

New city. New people. More universities going Google! Day 1: LSU Gone Google Last May 24, 2013 (Friday), Jomar and I took the only flight going to Ozamiz City (from Manila) for the La Salle University (LSU) Google Apps for Education Training. After the initial surprise of the checked-in luggage just being handed out by airport employees, we went out and looked for Ms. Leslyn of LSU. We saw her with the other professors, and we headed straight to the university. Being an alumna of De La Salle University in Taft Avenue, Manila , I am delighted to be sharing to the faculty of LSU what I know about Google Apps. We started the training a little after 9:00 AM and the teaching staff representatives from each college and department was very eager to learn. They asked questions and were really looking forward to maximizing Google Apps for the coming school year. Day 1 Class

Ilocos Sur in the Ilocos Region of the Philippines was one of our stops during our Ilocandia Exploration. Here's a list of places we've visited in Ilocos Sur. Calle Crisologo It was my dream to see what a town or street that is a glimpse of what the Philippines looked like during the Spanish time. From the photos I see online, the best place to achieve this dream is to see and visit Vigan City personally which was our first stop during the trip. Walking in Calle Crisologo did feel like I was transported to the past, during the Spanish Era to be exact. Too bad I was only using the camera from my Samsung Galaxy Tab that I can't capture the view I am looking at during that moment.

Here's a list of places I visited in Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Region (Region 1), Philippines during my Explore Ilocos trip with high school best friends, Lik and Deci, and boyfriend, Jomar. Marcos Museum and Mausoleum Seeing the supposed to be the corpse of Former President Ferdinand Marcos is scary and creepy. The body inside the Mausoleum looks like its made of wax already, but they say it's his preserved body waiting to be in its rightful place in the Libingan ng mga Bayani . Meanwhile, the museum showcased the childhood of Ferdinand Marcos up until the time he married Former First Lady Imelda Romualdez. The highlight of the Museum would be the 11-day courtship between the two.

What are the food we tried and the restaurants we visited during our Ilocandia trip? Here's a list! Cafe Uno (Vigan City, Ilocos Sur) We had breakfast in Cafe Uno! +Jomar  had the beef tapa while Deci, Lik and I had Vigan Longganisa. The beef tapa was too salty for my liking while the Longganisa was spot on delicious even if the serving is small. I had hot chocolate which from tablea - perfect!

I had always dreamt of time travelling to the years when the Spaniards ruled the Philippines. I know it is not possible to time travel (yet) so the closest thing I could think of is walking the historic city of Vigan. Checking the pictures online, Vigan is like a snapshot of what the Philippines look like during those early days. Last weekend, with my high school best friends (Deci and Lik) and boyfriend ( +Jomar ) we went to explore the beauty of the Ilocos region. I would be preparing separate blog posts for the places I visited in Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur as well as the food we tried. Day 1 The trip started on Thursday evening at around 9:00 PM. I met with Jomar, Lik, and Deci in McDonald's North Avenue corner Mindanao Avenue. We waited for our van c/o Explore Island Philippines Travel and Tours . There were three groups in one van, us, a duo, and a group of four, as well. Our tour guide and driver for the trip is Kuya Rey. We left McDo a little past 9:00 PM. We

My mom is a Cebuana. She was born and raised in Cebu City. She would always share with us how she would have few but real friends from grade school and high school and would only get updated with them via snail mail. After months of convincing, my dearest mother now has a Facebook account. She was able to connect with her grade school and high school friends. Thus, she found out that one of her closest friends (who's now living in Alaska) is going home to Cebu for vacation. When I found out about this, I kept on nagging mother to go home to Cebu! She would say no because of the expenses and saying that she would only worry about Alyanna and the house and other things that are bothering her. I convinced her by saying that I would pay for the vacation. She deserves the break and its mother's day, anyway. It's the least I could do for her.

San Juan is a small city in Metro Manila, and I have no idea where it is until the time I started riding vans who shortcut around San Juan to get to Makati every morning. Yesterday, I went to the De La Salle to get my transcript then off to the Google Student Leaders Summit  organized by the Google Student Ambassadors (GSA) happening in Orange and Bronze Software Labs Inc.  Mama  +Chelle  gave a talk about the community both the Google Developer Group (GDG) and Google Business Group (GBG) and how the student leaders could volunteer. When +Jomar  and I arrived at the venue, Mamu Chelle called me in front to share how I started in the industry, got involved in the GDGs, and the perks I get from volunteering from GDG. At around 12:30 to almost 1:00 PM, Mamu, Jomar, and I rushed to the GBG San Juan meet-up in The Orange Place Hotel. It was fun! I opened the after snacks session with the topic that I thought of on the way to the meet-up: Google Local and Pages for Business.

Last weekend, +Jomar  and I were back in Cebu for a Google Apps for Education training for one of the universities there. We arrived in Cebu at around 10:30 PM and met with +Jerome  at The Ridges Commercial Center. We went to Starbucks in IT Park to discuss the training the following day. I had hot chocolate and croissant. After less than an hour, we went straight to Center Suites  to get some shut eye for the next morning's training. After having breakfast, we went to university and trained the student leaders of the campus. It was the first time I teach students about Google Apps who already know the basic but was amaze on the other things I shared. I had fun today!