Maingat at Maging Maalam sa Panahon ng Sakuna! Tayo ay Magbasa!

 

When Seoul Surprises: What We Learn From Namjoon’s Continuing Namjooning

The ginkgo and birch trees that line the streets of Seoul has always fascinated me. I can’t think of a better word to describe the mood and the vibe. Basta, they’re romantic. Trees are romantic.

So, I plucked a couple of leaves from a ginkgo tree in front of the middle school where Min Yoongi studied and, in Hongdae, leaves from a birch tree. I carefully tucked them inside my journal as precious keepsakes but also as subjects for my cyanotype prints.

A few days ago, I took advantage of the afternoon sun in our yard and began printing. We were on a very tight budget in South Korea, so I thought of crafting something that would journey from there to here and back again. The more I read about these trees, the more I understood why they quietly stayed with me.

The ginkgo is one of East Asia’s most enduring symbols.

Having survived for millions of years, it is often called a “living fossil.” Across Korea, China, and Japan, it represents resilience, longevity, hope, and quiet endurance. Ginkgo trees stand beside temples, schools, and palaces, witnessing generations come and go. They remind us that strength is not always loud. Sometimes, it simply means remaining rooted while the seasons change around us.

The birch tells a different story.

Its pale bark has long symbolized renewal, new beginnings, and simplicity. Even after long winters, birches are among the first trees to suggest that spring is coming. There is something quietly optimistic about them.

Together, these two trees seemed to tell the story of our journey at Festa 2026. One reminds me to endure. The other reminds me to begin again. That is why I could not simply leave their leaves behind on the streets of Seoul. Instead, they came home with me.

Under the Philippine sun, they became cyanotype prints. In a few days, I will frame them as pasalubong for my ARMY friends and Kdrama Titas. These are my souvenirs made from leaves, sunlight, water, paper, and time. Perhaps that is what the best pasalubong has always been. It is not the price tag, but the thought that someone traveled through a place, remembered you, and returned carrying a story worth sharing.

As I looked at each finished print, I realized they were no longer simply  leaves from Korea. They had become conversations between Seoul and home. Between Namjoon’s way of noticing the world and my own.

For the longest time, Namjooning for the fandom meant visiting museums, bookstores, parks, and cafés because Namjoon had once been there. I think it means something much more.

It is learning to notice. To slow down enough for ordinary things to reveal themselves. To understand that beauty is not something we consume but something we learn to pay attention to.

A fallen leaf. A neighborhood tree. An afternoon walk. The warmth of the sun while making a cyanotype print. A simple gift made by hand.

Namjooning is not about collecting places. It is about allowing places to reshape the way we see ourselves and the world. As a librarian, I have always believed that stories live inside books.

But I also believe that stories live inside leaves, trees, sunlight, and the hands that choose to create. That is why Namjooning never really ends.

Allow a place to tell its story and listen with intention. Bring its story with you and let it inspire you to create something new. Apobangpo. Purple and true. 💜

Growing Through Stories: Super Maya

 

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Bangtan Hermana Notes: Blood Sweat & Tears. Louder Than Bombs. Munich.

I honestly don’t know if BTS planned this pairing. Maybe they did. Maybe they didn’t. But sometimes, songs meet a place so perfectly that they begin talking to each other in ways we never expected.

For me, Blood Sweat & Tears has always been a song about desire, ambition and the beautiful temptation of giving everything to a dream. Knowing that Hermann Hesse’s Demian inspired its music video only deepens that feeling. It has always reminded me that becoming who we are often asks something of us.

Years later, BTS gave us Louder Than Bombs. And suddenly, the conversation changes. The dream has already been fulfilled. The world knows your name. But in your moments of silence, you still carry fear. Success has a cost.

If Blood Sweat & Tears asks what we’re willing to give for our dreams, Louder Than Bombs quietly asks what happens after we’ve already given everything.

Then BTS sang those songs in Munich. I had to gather my wits. Gave myself a few hours to draft and make visible my joy and admiration for Bangtan.

Germany has long been a place where people have wrestled with the biggest questions of what it means to be human. I found myself thinking about Goethe writing Faust, where ambition comes with a price; of Nietzsche asking us to become who we are; of Kant wondering what it means to live with integrity; of Hannah Arendt reminding us that even in the darkest moments, we must remain deeply human.

There’s Beethoven turning suffering into music. And Bach who made mathematics music’s beloved sibling. And of course there’s Einstein imagining a universe no one had seen before.

Different people. Different centuries. Yet somehow asking the same question.

What does it cost to create something that can outlive you?

I’m not saying BTS chose these songs because they were in Munich. I don’t know that. But I do think Munich changes how I hear them. This is one of the gifts of the Bangtan Noraebang.

The songs don’t change. The place changes, and the time too. Suddenly old songs begin to show us the breadth and depth of our humanity.

This pairing has stayed with me. I’m putting them together in my playlist. For one moment in Munich, Blood Sweat & Tears and Louder Than Bombs became songs about all of us, our dreams of becoming and discovering that success never frees us from being human.

And perhaps this is exactly why BTS is BTS. Apobangpo! Purple and true! 💜

For National Disaster Resilience Month, Let's Read the Disaster Ready Kids Series!

 

Make Your Own Storybook Workshop with Pilot Pens

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The Lighthouse Diary Entry #89: Our Wonderings and Our Ways of Knowing

July settled in quite quickly while I was still experiencing separation anxiety from our 7-day, 6-night trip to South Korea for the 2026 FESTA celebration. I have yet to post my travel logs here on the blog as part of my coping mechanism, but life goes on.

Indeed, it does in the form of work and responsibilities. Having made and forged new memories and lasting relationships with my grown up children weeks ago, I face real life with tenderness and, more importantly, gusto. I surprise myself because I am enjoying my summer classes a little extra this year!

For the first time, I am running our bridging program for incoming Grade 7 and Grade 8 students. It's a program that the school entrusted me to design and implement. I followed the basic principles of Reading into Writing and Inquiry-Based Learning. A component of the program is Research Skills, an area I am always excited to teach.

After having the class read a nonfiction text about Tetris and using the framework READ, NOTICE, WONDER, DISCUSS, WRITE, and REFLECT, I extracted their questions from the WONDER part of the framework because their questions were authentic forms of inquiry. I then presented four categories of knowledge: Design, Technology, History, and Impact. What we did next was explore these categories by associating words and connecting them to ideas the students were able to think about. We had enough words to come up with a definition for each category of knowledge.

It did not end there. We turned to a dictionary to establish each definition based on a credible reference source. This proved that knowledge is something we can build, create, validate, question and communicate. After establishing the terms and definitions, I showed the students where each question fell, modeling the classification and organization of knowledge. A word is not just a word.

This entire exercise is preparatory to learning search strategies for using online databases, search engines, and AI-powered tools. It is also one way to activate prior knowledge and expand vocabulary. The next class is a full-on session on types of sources, establishing their credibility, and applying keyword strategies for searching. This is love!

Happy ARMY Day 2026!