Lantern Parade 2012

Classes in UP this 2012 officially ended last Friday. And what's the best way to celebrate? Lantern Parade, of course!

UP PEP Squad's performance

UP AME plugging their major event on February: AME 1UP

UP Tomo-Kai's ramen

UP College of Engineering. Nope, it's not JUST an Ikot jeep...

...it's a Transformer!! They call it "DeceptIKOT"

Here's a video of DeceptIKOT's Transformation (taken by ME professor, Sir Ji Reyes). Isn't it amazing? The Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute did it! I swear it's so genius! I mean, come on, they created a Transformer!

UP Babaylan (LGBT org) being bongga/fabulous as always

And finally, the lanterns from The College of Fine Arts (i.e. the highlight of the whole parade). This year, CFA's theme is flight.

Jack Skellington riding a sleigh pulled by his reindeer skeletons

Javelin throw

Pegasus pulling a carriage

And that's it. I didn't get a lot of photos because it was very difficult to take photos of moving objects in the dark and I was very tired too (I was running on 3 hours of sleep and I also hosted our Institute Christmas party that day). UP College of Engineering did not win best float this year but I am still amazed by DeceptIKOT.

In which I wore my sablay on my left shoulder

There goes another reward for years of hardwork. :)

photo from Cathy

another photo from Cathy

Ah, I miss these boys. :( I usually sit in class and study at the tambayan with them during college.

Just wore my old grad dress (it doesn't matter much, the sablay covers the clothes anyway) and my Tonic shoes, blow-dried my hair myself and did my own makeup because I didn't want to spend anymore

Oath taking of new civil engineers last Saturday at PICC.

I didn't really want to attend the because I knew what's going to happen: basically sit, stand, raise your hand and swear. And it's not worth the PhP 700 per head. TOO EXPENSIVE! Even the person who's taking the oath has to pay. But my parents wanted to go so we paid a total of PhP 2,100. Isn't that crazy? We could have spent the money on more important things. :(

But oh well, enough with the rants. At least I sat with my batchmates. We wore our UP sablay with Barong Tagalogs or white dresses like what our upperclassmen did before. It's great because our clothes stand out so it's easy to spot schoolmates. 

After getting my documents (PRC license included!), we were very hungry so my mom asked me where I wanted to eat. I seriously answered "Jollibee" because I didn't want any more spending and I don't eat fastfood much anyway. But she said that it's not fitting for my clothes so we ended up at this Japanese restaurant along Roxas Boulevard, Shiro Shiro (literally means White Castle, judging from their logo). Great interiors and good food. I totally love the Ebi Kani Salad! :) Although for me, Sambokojin is still a better run for money.

Ebi Kani Salad and Salmon Sashimi

Seafood Chahan

Omurice (omelet rice) and Ebi Tempura

Floor

Interiors

I Love Lantern Parade!

The Lantern Parade is an event in UP Diliman held during the last day of classes before Christmas break. The UP community celebrates Christmas with different units, colleges and organizations parading around the academic oval with their respective floats and lanterns.

The College of Arts and Letters's float celebrates Rizal's 150th birth anniversary on June 16

CAL

AME members in their haori parading with CAL

with Red who's parading for the College of Music

College of Music

Gorgeous ladies from the College of Home Economics

UP Tomokai. I like their sakura tree!

UP National Institute of Geological Sciences

UP NIGS's float

Dragonair!

My PI 100 professor, Sir Nilo Ocampo, parading for UP Mountaineers

The College of Fine Arts is a special case though. As far as I know, first and second year students are required to make lanterns, costumes and floats and to join the parade. So unlike other units with only one lantern or float, CFA has several. They're also at the tail of the parade because they make the prettiest and the most interesting floats. I have orgmates from CFA who told me that during December, their classes are usually cancelled because they're very very busy making lanterns and costumes. Sometimes, they even spend sleepless nights inside their college.

Actually the Lantern Parade has several functions. Aside from being a Christmas celebration and a venue to showcase each unit's creativity, the Lantern Parade can also be a venue for protests and for certain causes. It's UP, after all!

The Lantern Parade is also contest, as far as I know. The best float gets an award. The College of Fine Arts, however, is already disqualified in this because obviously, if they did, they'd just win every year. Anyway, as far as I know, the College of Engineering usually wins. I don't know who won this year, though.

Cars designed and made by the Department of Mechanical Engineering for competitions abroad

This year, the College of Engineering's float is inspired by Disney's UP.

Sir Gab and Sir Ji

UP Aggregates in MERALCO-sponsored shirts (MERALCO has been sponsoring shirts for UP College of Engineering's parade for some years already)

I really love Lantern Parade! I like standing at the sidewalk, amongst the crowd, taking photos if I have a camera, sitting down the sidewalk gutter when I'm too tired, and sometimes, eating food from the many food booths around. Although this wasn't the case a few years ago.

During my first year in college, 2006, the Lantern Parade was cancelled due to political reasons. I couldn't understand why my senior orgmates were so disappointed. I wasn't really interested in the Lantern Parade after all. I thought, "They're just lanterns." That year, as far as I know, the Lantern Parade still kind of pushed through but it wasn't a official anymore. In 2007, I didn't attend again. Still, I wasn't interested. Although I managed to see the amazing floats made by Fine Arts students while going home and I was satisfied just by passing by them.

During my third year, 2008, however, I attended. I can't remember why. Maybe because my friends were going so I went too. That year, I had fun! I was amused with the floats, especially by the floats from Engineering and from Fine Arts. During my fourth year, I couldn't attend again because I was very busy with Miss Engineering 2009, which coincided with the Lantern Parade. Although during my fifth year and this year, I was able to attend again.

This year, I positioned myself in front of the Faculty Center. It's probably a habit because I'd usually watch the parade with AME people before. There weren't much AME people in front of FC this year but at least there was something interesting. UP KONTRAGAPI (a CAL-based student organization) setup their instruments in front of the Faculty Center and played.

Many people took photos with this setup by UP KONTRAGAPI

Unfortunately, this year, my camera's battery decided to die right before the floats from the College of Fine Arts arrived. Too bad because there were many interesting floats like the rotating Narda-Darna float and the Gundam float. Oh well.