Darryl like Darrell

Study study Study!

2010-07-27T12:19:00.001-07:00

Last week in Chile calls for studying. Memorizing fungi and viruses is not the cup of tea, but it has to be done. Last day and fun! Today, we just had our lab final which was not to bad, although it was 100% of our grade, so we shall see.
Yesterday, we visited a chocolate store, called "VarsoVienne". You have to try it to see how great it taste. Then I watched some guy stencil out on the street. It's pretty cool. Youtube spacepainting, as it has the same style. I shall try something like that when I get home. Ciao Ciao for now.

Darryl Torculas

Concha y Toro Wine Tour!

2010-07-24T22:59:00.001-07:00

Saturday, we went on a wine tour to Concha y Toro. We learned about the vineyard and how they are grown. We visited the main headquarters, but they have vineyards all over Chile.
Don Melchor Concha y Toro brought noble French grapevines from France to the Maipo Valley of Chile. He paved the way for winery and to perfecting his craft for wines.
This wine tour has taught me many things about drinking wine and the different uses for wine. Red wine is for meat, white wine for seafood and fish. White wine should be cold and the cup should be held at the stem as the features of the wine can be deterred. As for red wine, it doesn't really matter. To fully enjoy red wine, one should swirl the wine to allow for oxygenation. This oxygenation allows for the release of the smell of the oak barrels that it was kept in. Swirl, smell, taste is the way to do it!
After the tour, I went to the wine bar to enjoy more wines and to educate myself on the finest wines made by the winery. Such fine wine they make! Anyways, check the pics, pretty happy with how they turned out.

Darryl Torculas

Old school way of aging wine.

The grape stems, but have just been harvested.

Wine Wine Barrels

Red Wine Barrels

12th Floor View

Vaquita Sabrosa

2010-07-23T19:49:00.001-07:00

It's Friday. Just chillen. Just had a filling dinner of Bife de Chorizo at Vaquita Sabrosa. Pretty bomb carne, very soft and juicy! Had some pure de patatas (mashed potatoes) on the side to accompany the meal. All that was missing was some red wine, but I opted out for some Fanta Naranja. Good stuff! Next on our list is Gorda Vaca, the mother of the chain of restaurants!
Tomorrow is gonna be a fun day as we are going on a wine tour! Time to bring back the goodies! Hopefully the sun will be out, to take some pics!

What a Beauty!

Demolished!

Darryl Torculas

Los Dominicos Artisan Place

2010-07-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day for souvenir shopping. A bunch of us went to this local artisan place at Los Dominicos. It was pretty cool and unique. These stores actually made their own products. Also, you could see them work on their items. It was pretty cool to watch them put their skill and creativity into great pieces of art. The stores were pretty pricey, but one could get a couple of good things for souvenirs.
For a light lunch, I got a pinon empanada at 3 for 1800 pesos. To accompany the meal was Fanta Naranja! The fried empanada was legit!! I was happy with the deal. To top it off, I also got some icecream, chocolate with almonds!
That was pretty much it for today, just souvenir shopping, grocery shopping for some cup-a-noodles, and now studying. See you tomorrow.

Darryl Torculas

Museo de la Moda!

2010-07-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

Today was officially the last day of microlab. We played around with fungus and learned how to identify them. Afterwards, we had lunch, which was some good fried fish, rice, and potatoes. Afterwards, we went to the Museo de la Moda, a modern museum featuring the history of the Chilean World Cup, an extravagant and beautiful house, and a 1980s theme.
One thing that caught my attention was the wall of videotapes. It brought back some memories of watching them Disney videos when I was young.
Dinner was at Piccola, a fine Italian restaurant down the street from the hotel. I got myself a Spassettini. BBQ meat, fries, and lettuce. Pretty good for the price. Also had a cafe helado, a drink made of vanilla ice cream and coffee. Dinner was good, and now back at home, studying!

Here are the pics:

Pucon Day 3

2010-07-21T06:23:00.000-07:00

The final day was just for hanging out. Nothing too crazy happened. Just cooked some good breakfast for the group, walked around town, and bought some souvenirs! Left around 3pm to go back to Santiago, Chile, only to arrive around 1AM.

Family park

Lake looks like a duck?

Our friend for the weekend!

Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas

Day 2

2010-07-20T12:31:00.001-07:00

Crazy ass day. Hiked up the live volcano Mt. Villarica. There were only 4 of us who went: Elaine, Kent, Denny, and I. Everyone else went onto a tour of Pucon. We got half way until we were told it was dangerous to keep on going. Hike was supposed to take 8am to 5pm, but we finished 3 hours earlier. Damn Argentinian winds. I have a newfound respect for wind. Then, we went to the Hot Springs at night.

Darryl "Dee-rell" Torculas

day 3 coming soon

Pucon Weekend Day 1 Friday

2010-07-20T12:21:00.001-07:00

Day 1:
Breakfast
Horseback Riding
Canopy/Zip lining
Mexican Food

Master Bedroom

Cabagaltas

He was such a rebel!

Elaine, Lea, Vyvy

Caroline, Deepa, Sam

-Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas

Providencia, Cafes, and Bellas Artes!

2010-07-13T18:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Monday, we had our first midterm for our microbiology lecture. It was an interesting test,in terms of scoring:
+4 = correct
-1 = incorrect
0 = no answer
Haven't had a test like that since the AP/SAT testing.
After taking our midterm, a bunch of us went to Providencia via the metro. It's a popular street with many stores and cafes. The cafes are what makes this place fun, as there are plenty to choose from. Cafes are the place to be here in chile.

Providencia.

Vienne Latte at Tavelli Cafe.

Tavelli Azucar!

Today, after class, we went to the Bellas Artes Museum near Santa Lucia. The museum is pretty sick, my favorite exhibition being the photography section by a local Chilean by Rene Combeau. His picture are has that Chilean aesthetic feel. Properly setup from lighting to positioning, he is able to convey what it is like to be in Chile. To top everything off, all his picture were in black and white.

After the museum, my roommate Kent and I tried to find wine bottle openers with a Chile logo. There are none to be found as we went through as many stores as we can. For a place that sells lots of wine, they sure don't have the essential tool to drink it. I hope to find one soon. yeee.
During our journey for bottle openers, we went to a cafe called "Cafe Tomodachi" or "Cafe Amigo". I had myself a superlatte caramel.

Super Caramel Latte!

For dinner, a bunch of us went to a restaurant called Domino Fuente de Soda. I ordered the Rodeo Burger with churasco, courtesy of Mayur Mistry and last years travel study group. It's a burger with BBQ sauce, bacon, cheese, churrasco, and onions. It was BOMB!

Rodeo Burger with Churrasco. (Before)

Demolished Burger!

Today was a long day with lots of walking. The Pucon trip will be planned tonight after studying some FUNGI!

-Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas

SNOWBOARDING IN THE ANDES!

2010-07-11T11:35:00.001-07:00

Saturday was an epic day because we snowboarded in the ANDES! The view was beautiful, the snow was soft, the park we went to was not that crowded, everything went smoothly as planned.

We went to the ski resort called El Colorado. White snow everywhere. So blinding!

Here are some pics. I couldn't use my dslr, I was scared to use it while boarding. I pushed my snowboarding limits and did the steepest hills at this resort. Was fun, but now i'm very sore.

oOo...

2010-07-09T20:20:00.001-07:00

This is an interesting picture that came out. Purple sky!

D-rell

San Cristobal Hike and Empanadas Todo!

2010-07-08T18:45:00.001-07:00

Hello! So today after class, a bunch of us decided to go on a hike at a local mountain called San Cristobal. A distance of 6km or 3.8 miles, eeek...It was accomplished =). But I advised to not do it in thermals and chucks! My feet and knees were killing me, nonetheless, I feel accomplished. Below are some pics on the journey up this trail!

Bottom: Small shops before the trek up!

VYVY and J. MAI

View from 1km.

Continuing on the journey...

Can see the Andes!

A trail we decided to take to catch up to the rest of the group! It proved to be worth it as we went from being the last to being to the first at the top!

The Virgin Mary at the Summit! A Catholic and religious feel at the top as there is a Church, Statues of Jesus, and an open stage for holding processions.

More small stores near the trolley station.

The Trolley station, at which we decided to ride down the mountain at 900 pesos!

I feel so accomplished after that hike! Afterwards, we went to Empenadas Todos, down on Bella Vista to feed our hunger. I got myself a Palmito, which consisted of corn and cheese, and a Salque, which was Salmon and cheese! SOOOO GOOODD!!!!

Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas

Chilean Beer Pong

2010-07-07T23:04:00.001-07:00

Makeshift Beer Pong in Chile. I guess Beer pong is not that big down here in Southern America. We got a table going, which consisted of a sliding closet door from the triple room, two chairs, and 20 white cups. The table was NOT steady at all. The white cups were really narrow at the mouth. It's pretty amazing how John Mai and I won 4 straight games here in Chile. GG. We are undefeated so far. Let's hope this continues..yee...

Buenos Aires ...YEE...

2010-07-06T05:53:00.000-07:00

Hello. Sorry for the lack of updates. Been pretty busy from long eventful 18 hour days. Here's a lengthy update of my weekend in Buenos Aires, Argentina! We left thursday afternoon using LAN airlines. It was a 2 hour trip east of Santiago chile. After arriving, we had a filling meal at Santa Fe Cafe, which is open for 24 hrs!!! Something we don't have at Santiago Chile. So here it is, a 4 day recap..yee..

Day 1:
Hotel De Las Americas
Santa Fe Cafe
Steak Meal #1

Day 2: DO DAH TANGO!

Sabor a Tango. Tango Lessons, dinner, and a SHOW.

Got some tango lessons so lets DANCE the TANGO!
SIERRA <3!!!

Steak Meal #2 at the Tango Show

Bar - Jager Bomb

Clubbing at Larsky's. Listened to some good rap music for once hahah. Nonetheless, it was a small club, with 2 rooms, one played hip hop and the other, local rap argentenian

Day 3

Argentina vs. Germany...a German Massacre of 4-0.

Find the German! Many Argentinians gave her the bird. lol. Pretty Funny.

3 coarse dinner meal at Mala Cara.
Steak Meal #3 + red wine

A classy bar. 3 floors of fun!

Imperial - reminiscent of Honduras..yee

Lazy night...watched Justin Bieber, Chris Brown Crying, Tae Yung dancing to Wedding Dress, and random Dance Videos. Hahah. Buenos Aires is tiring.

Day 4

Ricoleta Open Air Market where they sold handcrafts!

Vyvy learning how to throw a boomerang properly. I got myself a boomerang so it shall be fun.

Cemetary at Ricoleta - some fancy graves and creepy ones
Cafe

Lots of stray cats live at this cemetery. This is one of the creepy cats. eeek.

Lunch/Dinner at the oldest cafe in Argentina, Cafe Tortoni, which began in 1858.

Steak Meal #4 + Red Wine = LEGITI <3 RED WINE!!!!!

At Buenos Aires, I noticed a couple of things. 1) the people here are really nice, they don't stare at you and are more tolerable of tourists. 2) When ordering at any restaurant, they do not like to take notes of your order, they do it straight from memory. 3) The people actually want to have a conversation if they know you're not a local. It's pretty nice. 4) The spanish interaction is much easier as I feel that it is slower when they speak, making it understandable. 5) Argentinians are very prideful, in a good way. They do have the best steak that I have eaten. They are known for their bife de chorizo..yee...

- Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas

Tour of Isla Negra & Pomaire

2010-07-05T06:48:00.001-07:00

Today was a beautiful day at Isla de Negra and Pomaire. Sunny skies made the trip pleasant. Isla de Negra is a 2-3 hour drive west of Santiago, Chile. We visited a poets house, which was turned into a museum. This famous chilean is Pablo Neruda, a artistic poet and an avid collector. He collected many items, from piano leg stands, to beetles, to sperm whale teeth, and shells. To accommodate his collections, he expanded his house for a new set of collections. His house started from a simple one house room, to about 5 - 6 bedrooms, maybe more?!

After touring the museum, we traveled to Pomaire, where we had authentic Chilean lunch. This 3 coarse meal included an empenada for appetizer, a main dish of chicken, corn, onions, and beef?, and a peach and corn dessert. To top it off, the meal was accompanied with el vino rojo. Chileans sure know how to eat.

It's been a great day so far. More to come tonight as we go bar hopping in Bella Vista. It's going to be EXCITING!!!!

-shout out to those going to SUSSEX, have fun and safe

-Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas

Chile vs. Espana

2010-06-25T21:00:00.001-07:00

Today was a good day. We had orientation for class today at UNAB, University Andres Bello! The buildings used to be houses owned by the wealthy. Now they are used as schools, but their structure and authenticity have been preserved because it provides so much history.

Office Doors

Epic ping-pong matches @ the R6 Gym.

Veggie Sandwich for lunch.

WORLD CUP action in 4 hours in front of the Presidential Palace.

Chile PRIDE!

This is where I developed some thighs of steel! =)

View at the top of the Parque Municipal. Can see the Andes from afar, but usually cannot because of the smoke. Luckily it rained a couple days before.

Parque Municipal

Chile fans at its finest. We just scored a goal a few minutes into the 2nd half. CRAZY atmosphere to be in.

Now, we're just chillen at the hotel, waiting for dinner. Resting up for a good friday night in Chile.

-Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas

Chile vs. Espana

2010-06-25T19:55:00.001-07:00

Office Doors

Epic ping-pong matches @ the R6 Gym.

Veggie Sandwich for lunch.

WORLD CUP action in 4 hours in front of the Presidential Palace.

Chile PRIDE!

This is where I developed some thighs of steel! =)

View at the top of the Parque Municipal. Can see the Andes from afar, but usually cannot because of the smoke. Luckily it rained a couple days before.

Parque Municipal

Chile fans at its finest. We just scored a goal a few minutes into the 2nd half. CRAZY atmosphere to be in.

Now, we're just chillen at the hotel, waiting for dinner. Resting up for a good friday night in Chile.

-Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas

Chile Begins!

2010-06-24T20:27:00.001-07:00

View from the window.

The room. 2 full size beds and a twin size = Triple...it's gonna be a Crazy room!

Class Schedule and Pamphlet. The Future looks Promising!!!!

Dinner at Camino Real. A beautiful place at night, where the city lights of Santiago can be seen in all directions.

Tomorrow is world cup action. It's gonna be one crazy afternoon as Chile plays Spain. I need to get me one of those noise makers..lol..to join in on the fun...yee...Orientation tomorrow and some housekeeping before classes get rolling. Adios and greetings from Chile!

First Week Summer Session 2

2009-08-05T00:33:00.000-07:00

Session 1 is complete and now on to session 2. Went home for the weekend. Got a couple things done. for the car, I finally raised the rear coilovers so now the car looks even, instead of the rear looking lower than the front. now all i need to do now is get an alignment. I also put the spoon n1 exhaust on. I moved up from a greddy evo 2 to an spoon n1 axle back. I must say that i love it very much, has the deep growl sound that I've been craving. It's also very quiet and stock looking from the outside. On Sunday, picked u p one of my cousin Neils dog. Vyvy and I named her "Momo," after the character from Avatar.
About Momo: She's a mutt, a mix from a Dachsund, Schnouzer, Pomeranian. She's a very mellow character. She is a very good lap dog.She tends to cry a lot, which can be very annoying, but she's been better over the past few days. She is teething, so she tends to bite a lot of things. She is also very playful, but she doesn't p ay attention to the things that are moving when we want her to play catch or anything. She can climb up the stairs already, which is very good. A funny thing that she knows how to do is to clim b out of the cooler that we put her in, when she decides to go to sleep. So far, Momo has been a very tought pup to deal with, but she's getting better and she's very loveable.

Pics
SPOON N1 =)

"MOMO"!!!

Torculas Family Party

2009-07-20T18:54:00.001-07:00

Torculas family party at Rhor park in Bonita. =) Good times.

Hike Day =)

2009-07-14T21:59:00.001-07:00

Today, Sean, Vyvy, and I went on a hike in Newport North. It was a good place to hike, even amount of dirt road, for those dangerous hikers, hahah, and paved road for those bikers. Was pretty tiring and we didn't go through the whole thing. Tomorrow we will try the other side of this trail or maybe find a new one. Yee. And at meet Kolla? (spelling) King and Lisa's dog. I forget what kind it is, i think it's a mix of a husky and a chihuahua.

Pics are from iphone and I took some from the Olympus XA, but will need to get those developed. Enjoy. =)

-DT

4th of July Fun Weekend

2009-07-09T22:48:00.001-07:00

4th of July was pretty dope. Went to the San Diego Zoo and bought season passes, visited my old high school and reminisced a little, grabbed some food local taco shop called Saguaros, watched two sets of fireworks shows with Vyvy from across the freeway, and picked up a Spoon N1 exhaust. =). What a good day all in all.

Epic Weekend

2009-05-03T14:13:00.001-07:00

Friday: Disneyland, Korean BBQ, then party HARD!

Satruday: Just picked up some car parts for the coche. Front and rear camber kits and some black interior parts for my black interior conversion. Wee oh wee. Pacquaio won in 2nd round. TKO. Filipino pride for the win.

Kaba Modern Tryouts

2009-02-15T15:38:00.000-08:00

Some pics from 2009 Kaba Modern Auditions!
shot with my friends Canon 1D Mk-II. Camera was a beast and fun to work with. Was my first time using it, so yeah!. thanks. -DT

Mission ASO: 103 <3 203

2009-01-16T17:51:00.001-08:00

Ice Skating @ Horton Plaza (Downtown SD)

2008-12-31T00:23:00.001-08:00

Took a trip to Downtown San Diego to go ice skating with the buddies. The rink was pretty small, smaller than the one at UTC. The one thing I dread about ice skating is that the ice skates hurt your feet, and can get blisters. It sucks. I have learned to get at least one size up and double up on the socks. Anyways, I had a good time. It was pretty foggy, so pictures weren't that great.

Mt. Laguna + Ghetto Snowboarding!

2008-12-27T21:32:00.001-08:00

-DT

IMG_8667

2008-10-17T00:31:00.003-07:00

IMG_8667
Originally uploaded by kidrobotfun

Suite 103 & the Martians

IMG_8540

2008-10-17T00:31:00.001-07:00

IMG_8540
Originally uploaded by kidrobotfun

IMG_8536

2008-10-17T00:30:00.001-07:00

IMG_8536
Originally uploaded by kidrobotfun

SD: Graffiti Hunt Part 1

2008-08-19T00:45:00.000-07:00

Home

2008-08-02T00:21:00.000-07:00

Finally home. Summer school is over. Math 2A was alright. Home feels good for once. Need to be home, away from school for awhile. Summer Intensive is around the corner as far as auditions go. I need to practice. Gahh.. I might be trying out for both Intermediate and Advanced, but we will see how that goes.
Started the DIY backdrop muslin project for photography for Sierra. Started designing the 2nd backdrop. This will be an exciting opportunity for me as a beginner photographer, to take my skills to another level. It will be exciting. We will see how that goes. Need to get my polaroid pictures going. My project idea was to just take candid and random pics of friends. So far, it's going pretty well, need to take more. Hah.

Random

2008-07-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

Just finished watching Soccer (LA vs NY). Ended in a tie =(. Hoping that LA would win. Started reading "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. It is a great book. I remember reading it in the sophomore year of my high school career but did not pay attention it as much. Now, that I am in the college atmosphere and nearing the real world, I am in need of guidance and self-help to aid me in my future encounters and endeavors. Started my records of my expenses as I need to learn to control myself with my money. I need to spend it much more wisely. Will blog later...peace...

Tuesday was a Productive Day!

2008-07-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

So I woke up around 8ish to get ready for Body Worlds 3 & the Story of the Heart held at the California Science Center in LA. The exhibit/museum was very interesting and worth the money. All the displays were fascinating as it shows you what is inside of you. there were whole body plastinates, organs, translucent body slices, and a presentation of the heart. There were also displays of a long-necked giraffe and ostrich.

I finally received my camera. The Colorsplash Chakra edition from Lomography. All have to say is Wow. I'm pleased with the camera and it's effect. This is more of a collectors item to me. Someone might not fork over the money to pay for such a camera, but it was worth my money. Using film the old school way, feels so much better and takes me away from the digital age of photography that we live in.

Last night was the first class of Summer Intensive 5 Advanced 2B. The class was hard, very hard. The choreo was doable, just the speed of doing the choreo was difficult. I have much more progress to do. This is where the intensivity begins for the summer. I am very sore, gahh...

Random

2008-07-14T00:38:00.000-07:00

Check out my flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dc5smiles/

=)

Recap of my weekend:
Friday: Partied with Sierrans at Angelo's and Vu's aptmt. It was pretty fun. I watched drunk people play basketball out in the courts. It was funny cause they were actually making their shots. Left Irvine for SD at 3 in the morning. I saw Ilyssa, came down all the way from San Jose to visit. But I heard she got in trouble. =(

Saturday: Went to the Miramar Exchange to buy clothes, preferrably briefs and boxers. =). I finally got myself a steam iron to get those wrinkles out. I also got myself a pair of swim shorts cause the last pair I had was very very small to the point where i had to sag so I looked "cool." lol.

Sunday: Went to Church. Went to the Miramar commissary to buy food. Restocked on supplies and looks like it will last me a while. Now I'm back in Irvine, in my room, it's 12:45AM.
Later today, comes in my camera !!!...so excited...

Wednesday

2008-07-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

1:39 PM :
Back at VDC Norte
My navy blue half cabs came in today. The shipment was very fast and was surprised that it came within two days.

Math 2A is whack. I could have aced my first quiz but the points were taken off cause I did not show my work fully. All the answers were right too. Stupid TA. Really irritated right now. Then on today's quiz, I messed up on an easy question. Whack status.

Lesson: Show all your work.

Saturday or Sunday: Rex Navarette at Irvine Spectrum
http://www.symfonee.com/improv/irvine/home/index.aspx
Who wants to go?!?

July 15: Body Worlds: The Story of the Heart
http://www.californiasciencecenter.org/Exhibits/Weingart/BodyWorlds_3/BodyWorlds_3.php
A very interesting exhibit. I have not been there yet, but should be an interesting day.