Happy CHINESE NEW YEAR!

2014's Chinese New Year (you might also call it the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival) starts today, January 31.

from ownbound.com

2014 is a year of the horse. The Horse is one of the eleven Chinese Zodiacs, together with the Dragon, Ox, Rooster and many more. If you were born in 2002, 1990, 1978, or 1966, it's your year (according to the Chinese Zodiac)! 

You might celebrate the Spring Festival in a variety of ways. Dragon dances are popular not just in China, but also in different parts of the world (find them in their Chinatowns), visiting relatives and family members, having a family gathering and a meal together, giving red envelopes with money (usually to young children) and watching a display of fireworks. 

So, to the people born in any of the years of the Horse, it's your year. Remember to make the most out of it, get some red envelopes and see you tomorrow for Part 2 of Lucky Numbers Around The World. 

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Read More -- Where To Go In The Philippines?

Featured EATS -- The Bellman Cafe and Konditori

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Lucky Numbers Around The World

You might think of numbers as that annoying thing you just see in Math class (might as well add in the variables, huh?), but some numbers actually mean more in different cultures. Read on to find out more!

• The Number 7. In Egyptian Mythology, the number 7 is a symbol for being whole and perfect. Examples of the number seven which is depicted in Egyptian Mythology are the seven zigzag lines that form a pool (representing water) and the Nebu (Egyptian symbol for gold) had seven spines on its underside.

A nebu which represents gold. from egyptianmyths.net

• The Number 8. Another one for Chinese culture, the way you say the number eight sounds like the Chinese word for rich or wealthy. Maybe this was the reason on why the 2008 Beijing Olympics started on 8.08 in the evening. And you know what date the opening ceremony was? 8-8-2008!

Beijing 2008 Logo from wikipedia.org

• The Number 4. In Ireland, the number 4 is lucky because of the "lucky four-leaf clover" superstition. 

• The Number 13. Although considered unlucky in many areas around the world, the number 13 is lucky in Italy. This is perhaps because of an Italian betting game called "Totocalcio" which was based off Italian Football. The person who manage to correctly bet on 13 results won the largest part of a jackpot. (from http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080816091700AAECP31)

• The Number 1. In Greek Mythology, the Number 1 symbolizes the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite and the Greek god Apollo, the god of truth and beauty.

And finally, the Number 10,000. Maybe not lucky for a culture, but lucky for me. My blog just reached 10,000 pageviews. Thank you to everyone who read my blog, and to the people who refreshed it (*wink*). Hope you will continue to support and read my blog, because there will surely be more to come this 2014. 

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Part 2 (Unlucky Numbers) Coming Out on Saturday!

Read More on the Co-Authors and Non-Daily Posting

Read More about the University of the Philippines

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UPDATES: The Contributor's Corner + Non-Daily Posting

• Contributor's Corner Update

With the announcement of the co-authors, they will post in the blog with a parenthesized (CC) on the title, which stands for Contributor's Corner.

If you want to see all the CC Posts, just click here and click Contributor's Corner. CC Posts start on the first week of February!

• Non-Daily Blog Posting

Sometimes, it's really difficult for me to stir up an idea, so we will not be posting daily anymore. I (Euan) might post three or two times per week, but this blog will still be fully focused on nevertheless. I look forward in hitting 10,000 on February 1! 

So that's it. I just wanted everybody to be updated on the things that will be happening for quite some time on the blog. Again, thanks for reading and thank you for your support.

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3 National Symbols of the Philippines

• The Philippine Flag. The flag of the Philippines is commonly known as the "Three Stars and a Sun". The royal blue part of the flag symbolizes justice, peace and truth, while the scarlet red part represents bravery, courage and honor. The three stars represents Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, the three major parts of the Philippines. Finally, the eight rayed sun symbolizes the 8 provinces that started the 1896 Philippine Revolution, Batangas, Nueva Ecija, Laguna, Manila, Tarlac, Bulacan, Pampanga and Cavite.

Something unique on the Philippine flag: If the Philippines is at war, the flag is turned upside down, where the red side is up.

from wikipedia.org

• The Sampaguita. The Sampaguita (sam-pa-gee-ta) is the Philippine's national flower. In where I live, San Pedro in Laguna, it's actually called the Sampaguita Capital of the Philippines. We also celebrate an annual Sampaguita Festival.  

The Sampaguita festival is a really fun event to experience. It's filled with tons of street dancing, exhibitions and a hell of a lot of dance contests. Everyone participating is seen with a garment of sampaguita, may it be a necklace, bracelet, crown, or maybe even their underpants (I'm kidding, who would wear a flower crown?). You might also see floats and a parade!

from dipologcity.com

• Philippine National Food? From my knowledge, the Philippines has lots of "national foods", all of which are disputed. I personally like Lechon which is a whole roasted suckling pig, 

from pangbahay.com

I love Lechon, especially it's toasted, crispy skin! However, they also say that adobo is the national dish. Adobo is meat marinated in a sauce of soy sauce and vinegar. Another disputed National Dish is sinigang, a soup with pork / fish and tamarinds. Sinigang = very sour.

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That's it. Thank you for reading!

Sorry, that the plan of Stockholm's Parks in Winter didn't do so well, so I scrapped the idea. Maybe next week?

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 Jollibee (Should be considered the Philippines' national fast food chain)

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THE SURPRISE!

So before I spill the deets, I just wanted to say that I spent some time thinking about this and I thought it would be good both for the blog and for themselves.

THE SURPRISE: Introducing The Co-Authors! 

I (Euan) will still be owning the blog fully, and managing a larger part of the blog than the co-authors. I feel like I'm only sharing my experiences here, and I think letting other people share theirs is a good way for them to publicly share thoughts and for you to get an insight to what other people are thinking. 

Of course some readers may dislike this motion, but keep in mind that I'll still be posting mostly. In fact, the plan we're having now is to have 2 days for two separate co-authors to post per week, with the remaining five days for me. So you won't really miss me that much *grin*. 

Please also keep in mind that this is still in the dry run / practice stage. My original plan is to test this out for two months and see if a majority of people like it.  

Most importantly, I want to thank all of you who are reading and supporting the blog. It means so much more than you can imagine for people like you to read my blog. I hope you will still continue to read and support it, with this major renovation coming up. 

You might get to know to authors at a later date.

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Featured In Our School Magazine!

We just published the first ever school magazine for our school! The ISSR Voice's December 2013 Winter Issue just sold out and I am so proud of not just myself, but also the crew and my friends (and our English teacher who guided us) for making this a success! Woo-hoo! 

I was an author of the magazine and I chose two of my blog posts to be published in the magazine. First was the Stockholms Stadsmuseet (Stockholm City Museum) post and the Vasa Museum blog posts.

Because of the success of the magazine, we raised over 1300 Swedish Crowns which will be donated to the World Wildlife Foundation. 

I know you might think that "Oh, it's just his school... big deal.", but it is actually an honor for me to get my opinions out to the school, kinda like what I'm doing here with the blog (but with a broader audience). 

See you tomorrow for another post! Special thanks to Shriya & Gloria for making the layout for the articles! 

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Beef Rydberg in the Hemma Vasastan Restaurant

Where To Go In Manila, The Philippines?

        

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