As promised, here are some photos from my weekend in Punta Fuego. I went with my best friend of 17 years and her cousins. They like to call me the adopted because it really feels like I'm part of the family already. Haha. We've known each other since we were little blobs of pudginess rolling around in the grass but it's been awhile since I got to hang out with them. This weekend was perfect for catching up.

Our group was mostly boys so the weekend was spent under the sun playing beach sports, running around and body surfing. I am extremely burnt but so so happy.

This is my best friend and I at the beach. We still look pretty fresh here because this was before all the chaos and mayhem began. Haha. I believe we were still waiting on the other 15 people in our group to arrive.

This is a little over half of our group. Most of them are athletes so they're in really good shape. I believe it was a mix of baseball varsity and soccer varsity kids. WOW! I love their bodies. Their abs make me jealous. Haha.

Halfway through the afternoon, the boys decided to have a little contest. They set up the skimboards and took turns trying to jump over them. It was hilarious! 3 of them made it over and the rest ended up running straight into the boards or clipping them with their legs. The girls just cheered them on because we were all too afraid to try it ourselves.

That was over almost as soon as it began though. With their egos, knees and butts bruised from hitting the boards, they gave up and just decided to ride the waves. That's when the girls joined in. I would post a picture of myself but they're all really bad. Every single picture I have, I'm just about to fall off and slam into the shore. Haha. Way too embarassed to post those.

So that was my awesome weekend. How did you spend your long weekend? I hope everyone had as much fun as I did!

My pole classes have been pretty intense lately. We're preparing for our show this November and we only have one dance down out of 3-5 so we've been working extra hard on polishing and starting on the new choreography. I got home after class last night and literally just passed out from exhaustion. Haha. It felt really good to be that tired!

While I'm on the topic of our show, I'm gonna take a minute here to shamelessly plug and promote myself. At the end of November, my pole instructor and all his students will be putting on a show. There is no set time and date and I wouldn't want to release the venue yet before everything is finalized. But I can tell you that it is in Makati. I would love to see you all there! The show will be amazing with a lot of pole routines, silhouette stripteases and burlesque dancing. And don't worry, it's not the raunchy kind. It will be a very artistic and classy show. Keep reading my blog coz I'll be posting all the details here once I know for sure!

Besides preparing for the show, I've been working extra hard at pole to get in shape for my beach trip this weekend. It's a long weekend (YAY!) so a few of my friends and I decided to take a break from city life and hibernate at the beach. It's going to be an amazing weekend! We're going to park our bums in the sand all day and just sit and relax. I think I deserve a good weekend away after the hectic past two weeks I've had!

Our trip is only from Sunday to Monday though. My mom is arriving from the States on Saturday after a month-long trip. And I want to be in Manila when she comes home. That and I definitely cannot wait for pasalubong!

Expect a lot of photo blogs next week. This weekend will be one for the books!

Have a happy weekend, everybody! And if you're feeling down, just listen to the song in the video. It did wonders for my mood!

This might be a little too personal to be sharing with so many people but I think it could help a few individuals out there. Here goes nothing!

Right now, I'm going through a breakup. Yes, two Thursdays ago, I finally called it quits with my first boyfriend. Since the day we met, it was very rare that we could go a whole day without speaking. Before we even started having feelings for each other or dating or anything, we were already talking every day. So you can imagine how hard it is to have gone this long without so much as a word to each other. And for everyone who has been through a breakup, you don't even have to imagine. You know how difficult going through this is.

I don't want to talk about the sadness or hurt or anger though. I just want people to know that I feel great! Please don't go thinking that I'm so heartless as not to care about the break up. The fact of the matter is that we love each other very much and can honestly say that we held on to it until holding on was just hurting us. There were too many problems and we were unhappy. So going our separate ways was the best, if not the only, option. I can't be miserable when I know that I saved us both a great deal of pain.

At the very start of this ordeal, it was SO hard to get up and work out. Even harder was denying myself all the comfort food. But somehow I convinced myself that not being healthy just wasn't worth it, no matter how bad I felt. So after the breakup, I attended my pole class and ate a healthy dinner and just forced myself to stick with it.

Eventually you get the hang of functioning despite all the negative feelings. So I kept working out even outside dance class. I did stretches and crunches. And I was pretty surprised to find how good I felt. You could say it's all just endorphins but I think it's more than that. Even my eating habits stayed intact. I avoided all the comfort food like chips and cake and chocolate and SUGAR. As shallow as this might sound, I told myself "You're alone again. You need to give those other boys something to look at. You're looking for an ego boost from a person and not a quick fix from food." Knowing that you're doing something for yourself and staying healthy and trying your best to look good makes you feel good too.

That good feeling is what I held on to. Somewhere behind this nightmare was something good and I was determined to get my hands on it. Now, I feel amazing! There are times, of course, when sadness strikes and I let myself mope for a few minutes. But overall, I'm happy. It's just a matter of perspective. To me, this breakup is a test of self-control, self-love, determination and the ultimate learning experience. So I'll take what life has to throw at me, roll with the punches, and at times fall down. But nothing is gonna stop me from getting back up and making myself better. And this time I'm not doing it for anybody else but me.

My Top Break-Up Songs:

1. You Learn - Alanis Morisette
2. Don't Want You Back - Backstreet Boys
3. Rescued - Jack's Mannequin

Have a great weekend, everybody! I will!

As I mentioned in my last post, I was set to conquer pole class and dance out all my frustrations. And that's exactly what I did last Tuesday. We're currently preparing for a show in November so our teacher has been pushing us extra hard to learn new stunts and master all the old ones. And because I'm proud of what I was able to do, I'm just going to take a few minutes to gloat about my accomplishments. Haha. I would like to apologize in advance if my descriptions of the moves are vague.

First up, I've been trying for a few classes now to do a shoulder mount. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a way to get on the pole where you end up upside down, facing the floor. You start standing with your back against the pole and your hands gripping it above your head and then with a little kick (you can't kick all that hard since the pole behind you gets in the way) and sheer muscle power and determination, you lift your entire body up in front of you until you're upside down and gripping the pole with your legs.

Second, I've been working on a combination that I can't ever seem to get right. In pole dancing terms, you start with an invert to Scorpio to Half Cupid and then Superman. (I think I posted a picture of Superman in one of my first blog entries. It's the one where, well, I look like Superman flying.) The complicated part is actually explaining what that is. Imagine a series of moves where you start facing the ceiling and strike specific poses while rotating your body to face the floor. Complicated! BUT I DID IT!

Last is pole sit. It's the pose where it looks like you're sitting on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you and you're trying to put your head to your knees. Easy right? Wrong. That's the exact pose except you're upside down again. You use your inner thigh, side and back of your arm to grip so that you can open your legs a little and eventuall do a split. It kinda creates the illusion that you stay on the pole by magic. Haha.

Okay, yes, I know. I'm really bad at describing these things. One day, I'll take a video of what a pole dance class is like and post if here for everyone.

Ciao for now!

I must admit, the past week hasn't been easy for me. I've been stressing out about all sorts of things and surprisingly, work has been the least stressful for me (busy but not stressful). Although I am old enough to live on my own, we're a traditional family in the sense that I'm expected to live at home for a while longer. My mom's in the States now and being the eldest child at home, I'm in charge of managing the household. I need to keep track of the expenses, make sure everything is running smoothly, check up on my little sister and her school work... All the usual stuff.

I've been doing that for the past few weeks and I was looking forward to not being home this weekend but I accidentally overbooked myself with things I HAD to do and things I WANTED to do. So that added to a little of the stress too.

There's been a bunch of other stuff happening too but I won't bore you with my personal drama. I think you all get the gist of this past week.

Everything got me thinking, "What could I do for myself to deal with all this stress?" Here's what I came up with:

1. Naturally, first up is a massage. A good massage never fails to get me relaxed and in a good mood.
2. Parlor day! Nothing relieves stress like a full-on girly day at the parlor. Manis, pedis, a shampoo and blowdry. It's always a good thing to feel pretty.
3. Happy music! There are just some songs that make you wanna jump up and dance and just forget all the bad things in the world. I stand by my belief that Don't Stop Me Now by Queen is the ultimate feel good song. Also, my guilty pleasure, TiK ToK and the pretty song in the video I posted. Hahaha.
4. A good book on a rainy day. Rain means cuddle weather. And when there's no one to cuddle with, a good book is just as good. I love reading. It's my favorite form of escapism. More than watching movies or sitcoms, drawing, doodling or writing, I enjoy reading. Right now, I'm reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. It's not the happiest of novels (I would go so far as to say the subject matter is actually quite depressing) but it's one of those books you can just read over and over again. I pick up something new from it every time I read it.
5. Of course, I can't forget dancing. I've been a dancer since as far back as I can remember and I just love going to pole class after a bad day and dancing out all my frustrations. The endorphins partenered with the sheer thrill I get from moving to the music makes me walk out of the studio with a huge smile on my face and a positive outlook on life.

I want to just put together a whole list of fool-proof ways to get rid of stress, a reference for all the bad days. I've been drowning in happy music all day and I have pole class tonight. Things are definitely starting to look up.