Book Review: In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden

In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden is the story of a bittersweet romance set against the backdrop of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, flod–a tragedy that cost some 2,200 lives when the South Fork Dam burst on Memorial Day weekend, 1889. The dam was the site of a gentlemen’s club that attracted some of the wealthiest industrialists of the day–Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Mellon, and Andrew Carnegie–and served as a summertime idyll for the families of the rich. In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden imagines the lives that were lived, lost, and irreparably changed by a tragedy that could have been averted.

Rating: 2/5 

With books like this, I want to have a connection with the people in the book. I want to get to know them more. It didn’t really happen to me in this book. I didn’t feel like I know the characters after reading. It felt insufficient somehow.

Although, I gotta admit — I loved the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius quotes!

Check out my 50Leaves page.

Smint Ad

From all the ads that I watched during the UP Fair, this one caught my eye:  

The girl is smoking hot!  

Details of the fair riot

At around 10:30-11, some people (I assume the JJs) started banging on the fences. In between the bands playing, USC people were already asking the people outside to stop banging on the fences. It came to a point that he wasn’t just asking the people to stop — he was really mad at that time. 

 Please lang tama na! Behave na tayo! Wag naman nating sirain ang pader at ang fair. Nagkakaintindihan ba tayo? If this goes on, ititigil namin ang fair. Primary concern lang namin ang safety ng mga tao rito! MORE LOVE, LESS RAGE!

Bands were advised to mellow down the songs to calm the people down.

12 midnight, the fireworks happened. And then Bamboo.

Bamboo played slow songs. After Bamboo, my friends left the fair and from there, it looked like the fair was stopped. The wall broke down, they entered the backstage, and bands backed out. According to my friend. It was really scary. Sort of like, “OMGWTFIDON’TWANTTODIE” kind of scary — especially for the people near the wall.

From the riot, a security personnel was blooded from getting hit by bottles. According to my source, bricks from the UP oval sidewalk were thrown around to the point that a part of the sidewalk–that is still under construction–was left bare.

More of my friends reported seeing a security personnel with a bandaged head and there was also an unconscious girl who was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. Sirens were heard and fire trucks with people with anti-riot shields arrived. Even a JJ (jumping jolog: people wearing all black — rakista dudes. The kind who rush forward when Chicosci starts playing) was rushed out in a stretcher.

My friends then hid in one of the buildings in UP and were calling for a taxi service but the requests were repeatedly refused because taxi services stopped sending units to UP. Their units were allegedly smashed by the crowds. 

Some people are blaming the lack of security for this. But if you only knew — security was almost doubled. The USC spent A LOT on security for this year. Two police forces are always on standby during the whole duration of the fair. 

I heard that at 5 PM, they started reprinting tickets and fake ones were circulated. The capacity of the Sunken Garden couldn’t have stood the number of people who wanted to get in. But then you must keep in mind that they stopped people from getting in at some point — and the riot mostly originated from the outside – the people who wanted to get in. 

I am part of the UP Fair Volunteer Corps but I was unable to attend last night’s fair because of a family affair I couldn’t get out of. 

Pao Express

Okay. So this is just too cute to not share.

If you pull the string, the box opens like this. NYAAAAAAA. CUTE! 

Different dots mean different flavors.

Plus, they don’t have that annoying under the siopao that I always accidentally eat! 

Chinatown Adventure

The Chinatown Adventure happened this morning. Our call time was 6:30 but we got there around 6:45. The “program” started at around 8? I’m not so sure because we were at our stations by quarter to 7.

Our station was the at Ongpin Statue. The Lion Dance station.

Participants were given 5 minutes to learn and perform the lion dance.

2 people on the Lion, 1 on the drums, and 1 on the cymbals.  

 Funny Anecdote:

While there weren’t any participants on our station, we asked to be taught the Lion Dance. I was able to learn the drums. And there was this guy, who told my sister that she should try the Lion’s head. My sister refused because the Lion’s head is heavy. And then the guy said, “Di bale, malaki naman braso mo. (Ah! But you have big arms!)” To which my sister replied, “Bugbugan na lang oh! (How about some fist-fighting!)” LOLOL. Okay. Translation fail.

Anyway, it was over and all was good.

It was super worth it! Imagine: You pay a refundable 500Php (It’s just to make sure that you actually show up today), run around in Binondo and play around with stuff like Lion Dance, some other dance, eat siopao, blahblah. And then you get freebees like a Pao Express box, Robby Rabbit folder bag thing, Mug, Chinatown Adventure shirt, etc.

1st: 10k

2nd: 8k

3rd: 6k

4th: 5k

5th: 4k

6th-10th: 2k

11th-20th: 1k

21st-30th: 500

NYAHAHA. Congratulations to everyone!

I heard that there was this guy who was given 10k by a Feng Shui expert for knowing the name for the 12 hours in a day — did I get that right? Anyway, boo for the people I asked to join and refused.  

Photos at my Multiply! Check it out! 

F Word Restaurant

What I like about Fusion Cuisine is that you not only have to know how to cook well, you also have to be creative about the dishes you whip up. 

Last month (or was it a couple of months ago?), we were invited to dine at F Word in Ortigas. 

G/F 109 F&M Lopez Bldg.C. Palanca St. Legazpi Village Makati City

+632.813.04.75 | +63922.777.51.42  

Here’s the pictures from F Word provided by F Word.

Here are the pictures I took from when I dined there with other blogger friends!

Click on the pictures for my descriptions. 

Undivided: A United Stand for Campus Peace

 So I attended UP JMA’s event yesterday. I was with Dalandan Soda and we went there right after their gig at White Ave. in Tomas Morato for UP JPIA’s event.

When we got there, there wasn’t much people left in Albelardo Hall. Which was really too bad because the bands were great. I love the instrumentals on Taken by Cars. And I was definitely awestruck by Roots of Nature!

I got home pretty late but it was worth it — Dalandan Soda’s set was pretty solid as well.

Too bad I didn’t get to hear Picoy beatbox. 

Two papers and an exam

Huzzah. I’m alive. With an hour of sleep anyway. And the thing is — I don’t think I did horribly on my exam. Except forget that rumination is part of the 8 eating disorders we were told to enumerate. Sucks.

So then my 4 and a half hour break was spent staring off into space and reading up on my Japanese lessons. That, and play DotA and Left 4 Dead with Kriss and Jam. First time I played Left 4 Dead, though. I didn’t get it that much. But Jam told me that it gets addicting. NEXT TIME!

And then home.

Good night!

Baby Observation

We went to Claud’s (I don’t really know her) house to interview their helper regarding the care of her baby.

It’s for our Psych 171 class — Child Psychology.

We were assigned to demonstrate to class how to cut a baby’s nails and then clean the baby’s belly button.

Did you know that a mother can continue breast feeding until there is still a need for it? As long as her breasts are continuously sucked on? Or maybe I understood wrong.

UP CSA 45h Anniversary Alumni Homecoming

We finally pulled it off! I’m so happy. Yesterday was the alumni homecoming for the UP Chinese Student Association. Even letsgosago.net was there! Yay him. 

So anyway, 3 months before the event, our Alumni Homecoming head resigned without prior warning because, according to her, she wanted to focus on her studies. Mind you, the alumni homecoming head is not appointed. You run for the position.   

Panic mode ON.   

It was really fun. A table cost us 12,000. And people only had to pay 500 for the food. That’s cheap. Seriously. 

We gave away car stickers and tumblers too. And we had raffles and speakers and everything! 

FAIRY LUI = awesome musician.  

Teresita Ang Sy = thick-skinned.  

I’m not necessarily saying it in a bad way but she told us, “I didn’t join UP CSA before (she was also a UP alumni) because I couldn’t stand them.” 

According to her, they thought themselves superior to the locals, blah. Right in front of her were CSA alumni with graying hair. I just hope to heaven that none of them was her batchmate.  

Frankly, I’m against any kind of racism but I believe that you can’t really blame them. Our history tells us that there was a time that the Chinese were looked down upon by Filipinos. 

Contempt (if you can call it that) only serves to breed more contempt. Anger breeds more anger; and racism just breeds even more.   

So it must stop somewhere.

Photos from Sean Tiu