Coffee Drinking Spree: The Experience of Drinking Coffee as an Adult

It's the time of the year in the Filipino-Chinese community wherein they do this tours exclusively for Filipino-Chinese to mingle, make friends and hoping that the one for you is there. I mean that's what I remember from the first time I attended their tour where one of the friends I invited on the inaugural trip asked one of the fellow participants out on a date (but unfortunately it only lasts past one date)

Last year I wasn't able to join them as their trip overlapped to my trip in Toronto. So this year, I have zero plans on going out of the country. I think the last time I intentionally planned was my Canada trip, but other than that it's more of I was dragged to join by people or a family or the company will sponsor the trip. So this year this same organizer decided to travel to Vietnam. Oh, there's no fuel price increase involved yet when they announced it. My mind was like okay I know it's somehow affordable, but aside from Korea, Vietnam is also one of the countries where somebody would have to drag my feet at will or maybe somebody will be willing to pay it for free in order for me to go there. I know Vietnam has been the talk of town. Even my sister-in-law wanted them to have their honeymoon there with my brother.

The problem: Food. I don't like beansprouts and I don't drink coffee (which is their specialty), but yes I still eat coffee jelly and mocha cake if those count as coffee. My pho experience in the Philippines was so unpleasant before because who knows if the people there would include beansprouts on the Pho by default like some restaurants. Then when I ate at Pho Hoa, I saw that they separated the beansprouts from the pho. I was like Thank God! I mean I would still eat the beansprouts because it would be a waste if it isn't it's just that that time my friend love those so I happily gave it to her as I don't need to suffer the dread of eating beansprouts. Same when I was in Canada where my relatives there were so into pho that I end up "violating" my Lenten sacrifice of not eating meat since beef is their specialty and it would probably be the last time I would go there (or if I could it would take an eternity) of course I'm glad that they also separated it that my cousin maybe got weirded out on why I started to eat those raw before eating pho. I said I don't like beansprouts so I ate it first. At least I have an idea that some restaurants serve them separately, but of course gambling in a foreign country is a different story.

As for the coffee, I know I have a bad experience about it since there is one time when I'm 13 years old where everybody who would join the perennial study tour in China would have to attend their breakfast before our trip to China. They only serve us coffee and I'm probably too shy to ask for water to drink. When I tasted the coffee, I didn't like the taste (I guess that's obvious when you're young and you associate coffee as for old people and kids are for sweets). So I grew up not drinking coffee.

So the dilemma, there is money, it's affordable, but I guess my trauma from the mandatory shops didn't make me at ease because that last time you want to do is to spend an unnecessary amount of money on the things that you don't want to avail in the first place. I mean if it's affordable, there's a high chance that a mandatory shop is involved - which is expected given that it's actually better for the organizers to have a tour instead of doing DIY.

What I initially did was to send the sample itinerary to the people who I knew already went to Vietnam and asked them about the beansprouts because I think that's a cause of concern rather than the coffee. They said they don't mix the beansprouts and pho together. If ever they do that, they told me I could always tell them not to mix it. Then when I realized that the single supplement is so cheap by PH standards, I feel like it's a good opportunity to experience sleeping alone in a hotel in abroad now rather than doing it in another country that costs a lot more. I just feel like with my previous experience in mandatory shops, I am now well-armed on how to dodge falling on buying from the mandatory shops unless I am fully aware about what I'm doing.

Eventually I joined them armed with knowing that I can dodge eating beansprouts while pondering where I would drink their coffee there or not... and I decided I will.

When I told people that I'll drink their coffee, my colleagues were worried that I might not sleep well if I drink their Vietnamese Coffee especially someone who never drank that much coffee in their life. I was like okay let's see.

And so the coffee drinking spree began. So whenever there's a coffee or a free coffee, I drank it whatever kind I guess.

If I would evaluate on my experience of drinking black coffee or any form of coffee in general during my trip in Vietnam, I think I realized that it's like drinking some of the Japanese teas that tasted like coffee as part of their complimentary drinks at the Japanese restaurants. I think that's what I picked up based on my experience. About the whether I could sleep at night or not, so far I was able to sleep at night. I am not sure because I timely drank it and my servings are tolerable. I mean the first weekend that I came back from Vietnam, I even drank a Barako coffee when I joined the praycation with the Fil-Chi Catholic community that I'm part of.

Maybe if there is some realization in coffee or caffeine it's the aftermath of the trip was that eight years ago, the matcha latte that I drank quite late at night was not because the tea or powder is old that caused my palpitations, it's that I realized I am a person who cannot drink caffeine in the late evening even if I just drank tea. It took another set of overtime and entering the night-differential mode working with our CEO that made me realized that I am someone who can't drink anything caffeinated very late at night. When I start palpitating past midnight, I knew that the matcha latte I ordered before wasn't a one-off thing, it's real that my body cannot drink any caffeine at night.

I guess that's why people say coffee reacts differently towards the person. I think similar to every dish, every body would react toward it. Some would want it, but can't have it. Some can have it but doesn't want it, while some want it and can have it.

If I would drink coffee again? I mean I don't know. But I would still drink tea, it's just that I now know until what time I'm allowed to drink tea if I don't want to have palpitations out of nowhere. I guess it's true that as you grow older, you don't like to eat a lot of sweets and you are more okay or comfortable with the idea that maybe tasting a little bitterness it's fine - or maybe what you thought its bitter it's not something bitter at all. Maybe if I would answer that Dalai Lama question again about what I would associate coffee to, chances are my answer is going to be different this time.

A Consoling Trophy for the Broken Heart?

My personal reflection as the Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball 2025-2026 season has ended as I am now looking forward towards the end of regular season and to watch the Spurs finally back to the playoffs after so many years.

For two straight fantasy basketball seasons that I played in this league, I got my butt kicked by the same manager in the league where I was assigned the commissioner. The first one when he knocked me out of the bronze medal game and the other one in the first round of the playoffs. I guess battling for the first round of the fantasy playoffs in a foreign country doesn't help to change my fortune.

Before the start of this fantasy season, I felt like I needed to do something different to get that gold trophy once more... And also to my other league where I gained a friend there to finally get the gold trophy and not just be a bridesmaid every time I get a chance to draft my own players in the league where he is the commissioner.

However, I can only manage to draft in one league, where I got my butt kicked for two consecutive times by the same guy. While I told my online friend that I cannot draft wisely if they are going to do the draft in the middle of my working hours [time zone difference]. So he has to remove me from his league [but of course we're still good friends in talking terms].

And so the draft day begins... I felt like the draft for this season was more difficult than ever. Not only we were 20 teams, but there are a lot of good players who are out for a long term due to injury such as Tyrese Haliburton, Jayson Tatum, Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, etc. So out of those, you would be wondering who would be left especially when I got the lowest possible draft ever. 15!

Who would I be getting at 15? In other leagues, that's equivalent to a 2nd round guy or sometimes 3rd round guy in shallow leagues.

Based on the projections, my heart was choosing Domantas Sabonis or Alpren Sengun. I really liked the idea of having a non-point guard as my first pick as I felt it's easier to find a point guard later in the rounds. Unless of course it's Shai Gilgeous Alexander or Luka Doncic that we're talking about... Or even Cade Cunningham. I know last year I took Domantas Sabonis as my first pick and it didn't end well in the sense he wasn't there or injured at the wrong time (together with Chet Holmgren) to help anchor my team into getting out of the first round especially I knew that the score was extremely close and the opponent had to sacrifice a key player just to stream that player's spot. So I wasn't sure if I would do it once again if he fell on my lap. It's like my heart wants it, but my brain knew how he "failed" me during the time when I needed him in the first round of fantasy playoffs.

Two picks before my turn, somebody picked up Sabonis and my mind knew that if the next one didn't pick up Sengun, I'm going to pick him, especially when I learned during his FIBA games that he was trying to become a point-forward aka the Jokic or Sabonis type of players.

True enough, I got him as my first pick. Then what was a bit surprising was my 2nd pick who is Bam Adebayo had times where he is surpassing Sengun on some days fantasy wise. It also helped that the offense ran through him when Tyler Herro was injured at the start of the season.

This fantasy season was a mixture of some eerie things going on, unbelievable ones, and perhaps I don't even know if I've been extremely lucky or I was rewarded with planning my picks.

Mind you, I noticed that my preferred players usually gets scrambled up by the time draft comes because the ranking changes and you don't know which default setting was used compared to practice drafts. So with my knowledge in data scraping, I have to apply what I learned from work to play, so I know which guys I will target and high chance that I could still pick them.

I didn't focus much on the first and second round as any pick would be okay, but the tricky ones were in the middle of the pack because some of those players would overperform based on their average draft position.

As the fantasy season started, I realized that based on my picks and the situation of various players especially the last few picks are quite questionable or unstable. What I thought was something I could pick up on the wire ended up I'm going to be desperately needing it - the point guard position. After realizing Jared Butler (my last draft pick) was waived, I needed to find a substitute and found Marcus Smart for the short term. Then I realized Mike Conley was demoted to a bench role in favor of Donte Divincenzo, which means I not only lost one point guard, but two as I needed to drop Mike Conley too. As for the Jared Butler situation, I thought I found the backup for Devin Booker as they are lacking depth at the point guard position behind Booker. However, I am glad that I found Colin Gillespie in the nick of time at the free agency and realized he was the back-up point guard that Coach Ott wanted for Booker. So far, I was able to beat some formidable opponent, but I realized that sooner or later I might be bound to lose a game or two as what my usual fantasy season for this league.

As the weeks go on, I realized that my team was still unbeatable or even if there was this one round where I thought it's over, Shaedon Sharpe did something crazy that helped my team beat against a tough opponent that I was even ready to pencil it as an L.

For some reason I don't know what's going on. It's either my opponents happened to have injured players when I play against them or maybe they forgot to activate them. Then I realized that Domantas Sabonis kept getting injured that made him sit for a long time and eventually was out for the season. The one who took him was someone I respected as a fellow co-manager and co-commissioner in the league. He has been a veteran in our league for a long time so it's kind of disheartening that his team wasn't performing as what I expected of him year after year whenever we play. It doesn't help when he picked players that were injury prone or pretending to be injured because they are on a tanking team such as Michael Porter Jr.

I believe that alone perhaps changed the trajectory of my fantasy season. Imagine if I was the one who has Domantas Sabonis, I wonder what would happen to my roster? I mean I have players who got injured such as Bennedict Mathurin. But in Mathurin's case, because he is underperforming based on his draft position, so it would be better if he was seated in our INJ slot for a long time while looking who could be a possible replacement.

I wasn't complacent enough yet even if my fellow co-commissioner felt that that season it's going to be something magical for me... because I haven't faced a lot of tough opponents yet. I just knew I would have to be active and aware on what the opponent was doing... and despite the tough matchups, I still managed to win those series and when I saw my two remaining opponents are somehow inactive going into the fantasy playoffs, I knew that all I just need to do was to prepare for the playoffs.

When I realized that I'm going to win it all in the regular season, I felt like I have to win this all because I don't know if this would happen ever again, plus I don't want to be called a choke artist or a fraud. So I reviewed my roster and knew I would have to give up the guys that I picked up on the wire and never look back. Those are Derik Queen and Jaylon Tyson. Two guys that I picked up on the wire and gave me nice numbers for weeks, but with the return of Dejounte Murray for the Pelicans and James Harden getting traded to the Cavaliers respectively proved that I would have to drop them and find something else.

I realized that I was really researching so much not only the players statistical performances, but as far as their contract situation. Never have I thought researching if a random scrub is on a two-way contract or regular contract as to avoid the random rest or out due to their contract situation. I am so glad I encountered the problem early on before the start of the fantasy playoffs.

Then fantasy playoffs arrived, I am currently at the 1st seed - an unbeatable record facing an 8th seed. I know I have to do my job on who's in front of me, while also wondering who I'll be facing because all I knew was I have to do my job by activating the lineups and drop the players who I needed to drop. I mean who would have thought that for that round Bam Adebayo decided to get the highest points scored in a single game behind the Kobe Bryant in that round? Imagine 83 points was equivalent to around 102 fantasy points. Enough to scare the opponent.

Onto the next round, I knew it's a tough opponent. If I would use our scores last week, I would have lost already and he did beat a higher seed. Because of that, there is a reseeding and I end up facing him. I felt like I needed a little bit of miracle to win the match against him. It doesn't help that he is very active and we both live in Asia which is harder to match-up against since you don't have a time zone advantage to make your moves. For some funny reason, he has players who are on and off on the injured list and he has Kawhi Leonard not playing a single game or two. I know I had players random resting too, but for this round it's VJ Edgecombe and Justin Edwards who came through pounding the opponents with their high-scoring fantasy points... enough to overpower the opponent especially if the opponent made a few blunders such as picking Josh Minott who ended up having a DNP-CD if I remember it right and he maxed out his moves already.

Now onto the finals. I was against someone who kicked my butt for two consecutive times. I know my fellow co-commissioner was already cheering me on hoping that I would win it all. I knew I'm a bit lucky on this one because Stephen Curry is still on the shelf and Jalen Brunson only has three games for that week instead of four or five games which would be brutal if that happens. For some reason, he only just activated his lineups and made switches on his injured players, but never made a move on who to add or drop. I mean I don't know what is going on onto his end. It would have been nice if he made a move or two as to make it more competitive. So in the end I was able to beat him by a huge margin. This time Alpren Sengun finally came alive at the most important time of the matchup. I know his performance maybe was an icing on top of the cake, but regardless who knows if the opponent make a move to throw you off guard right?

I mean to be honest as much as I never had a perfect winning season coupled with getting the gold trophy, maybe it wasn't as heart thrilling as I thought it could be like the first time I got it. I am not sure perhaps my love life suddenly fell apart during the last week of my championship round and having this trophy might be the prize that appease my sorrows? I mean I don't know. Maybe it was a bit of a blessing my opponents aren't as active that they're used to means that I don't need to think about much of my moves too, because as much as Alpren Sengun suddenly played well on the last day of the fantasy season, some of my players are a bit meh, but then the scores of the opponent aren't huge enough to scare the heck out of my team too.

I don't know which NBA team winning the finals I could relate my fantasy season too, but whatever it is it maybe a little lackluster, but a trophy is a trophy.

So here it is, my second gold trophy!

Every to Us is Every to You

When they say dating in this generation is crazy, it really is.

So for those who found love before this dating generation or you finally found one during this generation, I hope you are very thankful that you don’t need to suffer in this cruel dating world anymore.

Every peso we spend on looking for love... 

    ...is every peso you start saving towards the future you're trying to build.

Every minute we spend on determining whether the person in front of us is the one...  

    ...is every minute you add to the memories you have with your lover.

Every gift we receive would form an uncertainty if we should cherish them... 

    ...is every gift you receive will be wholeheartedly cherished forever. 

Every picture we had with a prospective someone would suddenly go to delete or trash file if things ended... 

    ...is every picture you had would be placed securely in your computer hard drives.  

Every memory we try to create with a person we’re seeing only to be forcibly discarded if things fall apart...  

    ...is every memory you create with your family and place them in a sacred part of your life knowing that nobody could take it away from you.

Every flaw that was highlighted to us that’s why we’re still single...  

    ...is every flaw you have that is unconditionally loved and accepted by your partner.

Every lesson we learn could only be applied to the next person we meet next...  

    ...is every lesson you learned would improve your relationship with your partner.

Every rejection we received from the people we went out with...  

    ...is every “thank God I found you” to your partner that you don’t need to be rejected by someone anymore.

Every tear we get from heartbreaks...  

    ...is every tear you get from your created family’s happy milestones.

Every what ifs we have if we could still find our eternal happiness romantically... 

    ...is every what ifs you have if you guys never met and you are both blessed it didn’t happen that way. 

AND

Every breath of relief that we have that we didn’t end up with someone that put our life in chaos...      

    ...is every breath of relief that whenever there's a chaos in your life, you are assured that you have such a wonderful partner beside you.

I could have mentioned a lot of everys as there are too much to mention, but I guess all we need is compassion and acknowledgement that today’s dating generation is very brutal, you don’t need to compare your time to our time.