I have a YouTube channel, yay! Be sure to subscribe so you’re up to date on the many videos I will soon upload! 🙂
Click here for lovexlaura on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnguCMcgBE0csJxgvEbC-Jg
And also, if you haven’t read my last post, I’m actually managing a new blog over at lovexlaura.blogspot.com. See ya! 🙂
I’ve moved! See you all on lovexlaura.blogspot.com!
2013 was one heck of a year for me. If I had to choose a time in my life where I felt all kinds of emotions available to mankind, it would be this past year. My ups reached sky-rocket highs, but my downs hit rock bottom damn hard as well. With approximately three hours left before the clock strikes 12 and the calendar flips to 2014, I reflect on this past year by sharing with you the top 5 things that have shaped my 2013 into the roller coaster year that it truly was:
(1) I fell in and out of love.
Wow, lakas! Eto kagad?! Haha. But yes, it’s true–I did have a boy at the beginning of the year. In all honesty, he was a great guy; just not the one for me. And yes, I did love him.. or at least, I think I did? I guess it’s vague things like that that ultimately led to the breakup. When it’s not meant to be, it just won’t work. We parted ways a few days before Valentine’s Day (IKR? Talk about adding salt to injury!), and I was an emotional, albeit silent, wreck.
It took months for me to get over the split. In the long run, I knew there was more good in the breakup. But at the time of the breakup, your logic gets fazed and emotions overtake. You forget the bigger picture; you refuse to look for any hint of a silver lining. If you’ve ever gone through a breakup, you understand when I say that I used to literally feel my heart tighten and ache at the though of the once was.
And yet here I am now, ten months after the heartbreak, sincerely happy, completely satisfied, and incredibly thankful for yielding to God’s order and plan. I now look back at the once was and breathe a sigh of relief that God has already closed that chapter of my life. Truly, He knows what He’s doing.
(2) I used the heartache from #1 to propel me forward.
A few weeks after the guy and I called it quits, I decided I needed to do something to distract myself and keep my mind off of post-breakup thoughts (they can be quite haunting). The breakup then ultimately became the driving force behind my achievements that semester before summer, muahaha! For real though–I had been feeling so low and down in the dumps that I wanted to go for things that will make me feel good about myself. I applied for my college’s investment committee, The Blue Blazers, looked through my options for a suitable study abroad program, and worked my ass off in all my classes. The results? A Blue Blazers acceptance invitation, a Fall semester voyage around the world via Semester at Sea, and a spot in the Spring 2013 Dean’s List. Go, me! It was almost as if God was telling me, “O ha, you don’t need a man to make you happy!” Hehehe
(3) I got an internship!
My summer internship at Asia Society Manila was such a worth-while experience. I learned how to write company sponsorship letters, called a bunch of big shot organizations over the phone to confirm events, and was taught how to operate in an actual working environment that specifically deals with Asian and international relations. It didn’t hurt that the people I worked with were all so down-to-earth and funny! Definitely made the internship that much more exciting. Read the rest of this entry
Hello readers, hello world!
If you have been following my Semester at Sea blog, then you already know that my adventure has come to a close, and I have safely returned to Manila (and on land!) about a week ago. It feels great to be home, but I am definitely feeling some serious SAS withdrawals! I guess an experience as big as a semester-long voyage is impossible to go through without having it impact your life in one way or another.
Anyway– hello again! I originally planned on shutting down this blog and just continue writing on my SAS blog site because I didn’t want to have to keep switching between both online journals. But! When I decided to check on this blog’s stats for the first time in four months, I was pleasantly surprised that you guys have still been checking in on it!!! My WordPress notification says:
“Your stats are booming! Looks like ‘Paper Pirouettes’ is getting lots of traffic than usual!”
BOOM! Whether you got directed to my site intentionally or by mistake, THANK YOU! Hehe. So now I’m finding it hard to just abandon this blog, much less completely shut it down! I will probably update it with a post or two every now and then, but in the next few weeks, I will be focusing on finishing my SAS journals on my other blog site. So keep checking both!
Happy almost new year, y’all!
peace out girl scout
But I’m not quite ready to go!
So it’s the night before the big day. The big day being my trip to London to start my Semester at Sea journey! I spent all day today finalizing all my packing and making sure I’ve got everything I’m going to need for the next four months in my bags. Not an easy task, but I’m glad I started sorting out my clothes a week ago. Definitely made packing throughout this week a lot easier.
Although I’ve got everything all prepared and ready to go, I still have one hurdle to get through– obtaining my Argentina visa. Because of the heavy rains yesterday, my scheduled appointment with the Argentinean Embassy didn’t push through. I wanted to cry (actually, I did cry), I felt so helpless because the weather was beyond my control, and I was literally running out of days to get that visa! And no, I didn’t put it off til the last minute. The embassy was the one who scheduled this appointment for me, nothing I could do about it. My adventure with the Argentinean Embassy seemed to never end, but more on that later!
Thank God my flight tomorrow isn’t til 7:40 in the evening, which gives me just enough time to go to the embassy early tomorrow morning, have my interview conducted, and then wait for the visa release a little after lunch, right before I head off to the airport. Talk about photo finish. I guess God wanted to add a little more excitement to my last day in the Philippines!
Haay, it’s going to be one full day for me tomorrow! Time to put my brave face on again. Definitely having mixed feelings. Cheers, govna’!
P.S. My Semester at Sea blog is up! Check out www.laura2013sas.blogspot.com to follow my adventures on this experience of a lifetime! 🙂
The title is self-explanatory. I woke up today feeling all sorts of excitement and nervousness—it’s already August for real! Usually I would only feel the butterflies that come with the thought of going back to the states and starting school again. Dem butterflies usually flutter around my tummy around this time every year.
This time, however, it’s not butterflies I’m feeling–more like huge flesh-eating monsters in my tummy!!! Ok, maybe not flesh-eating. Although it would be nice if they were fat-eating instead.. You see, this coming semester won’t be just any other ordinary semester. For these next four months, I will be traveling the world!! Well, half the world!
I applied to this study abroad program called Semester at Sea, and that is exactly where this coming semester will take place–AT SEA!! Basically, I will be on board a floating university. The ship is literally like a school, complete with classrooms, libraries, dining halls, etc. It will take us to 15 countries in 4 months! While at sea, we will be doing what I usually would be doing if I were back at Westminster–studying and taking regular classes. But once we dock at the different ports in the different countries, we will be student-tourists!! Yay!! School field trips have just been taken a whole notch higher!
My voyage will start in England, where we will be embarking from the Southampton Port. From there, we will be cruising to Russia, then to Germany, Belgium, France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, and finally end our journey back in the USA, debarking in Florida. (:
Writing about it is making me a lot more excited, but it is also giving me all these asdfhgjkl nerves because: Read the rest of this entry
If you’ve been a loyal Tweeter for many years now, then you would love Twitter’s new feature that allows you to read all your past tweets! ALL of ’em! Down to your very first tweet that might have you cringing/laughing/wondering why you tweeted that way before. I know I laughed when I saw mine, haha!
Here’s how to request an archive:
(1) Go to your Twitter account, and click Settings.
(2) Under Settings, keep scrolling down until you see the button that says Request Archive
(3) Click on it, and wait for the email from Twitter giving you the downloadable file of your whole Twitter archive!
(4) Download the file, unzip it, and then choose tweets.csv (that’s what worked for me, at least. I don’t know if all files are downloaded the same on every computer software!)
(5) Click tweets.csv, then voila! Enjoy reading!! (:
(Credits go to the Twitter blog team for the instructions)
My file opened in MS Excel, and true enough, ALL of my tweets dating back to 2007 were there, complete with dates! I am highly amused.
Some of the things I tweeted about that entertained me today:
11/20/2007: “Procrastinating. HAH. noooo it’s not raining anymore!! 😦 eurgh. just realized i have no school friends who twit. :p i shall convince!”
Ok, one– TWIT?! Talagang twit?? HAHAHA.
And two– Switch topics agad?! In one tweet twit? #ADD
11/24/2007: “Eating cheetos. Not studying for USTET tomorrow.”
Eh ang yabang ko lang?! Hahaha. Read the rest of this entry
Hello everyone! Thank you for checking out this half-active, half-inactive blog of mine!! Chances are, napadpad kayo dito because of my Ate Stella’s blog, where I was featured in her Tea Time series! Hehe. I was overwhelmed by how much the stats of my blog views went up because of that Tea Time feature! So, Ate, THANK YOU!! Hehehe (:
Anyway, anyhow, anywhat– Hello! So much has been going on with me since I last updated. Being back home has allowed me to get lots of rest and relaxation, a sweet break from my recently concluded spring semester. I love being able to see my family everyday, and getting to spend time with my nephew and baby niece, too! They are the cutest little people on earth. Mas cute pa sila sakin nung baby ako!! Haha. There was a week where I spent three days at my sister’s place (hello, misisteapot) and I loved every minute of it! I became Tita Ninang Nanny mostly to Jaden, because Sophia’s still so little that the most I could do was stare at her or carry her ever so carefully hehe. Gotta love the pamangkins!
Crazy faces with Jader Baders!
Kuya Jaden at Sophia’s dedication (:
Sino ang gaya gaya? Hehe just chillin’ with Sophia!
Pretty pretty Sophia Gabrielle (:
One of my luggages was overweight by 5 lbs. Five freakin’ pounds that would force me to have to pay $75 freakin’ dollars unless I found a way to repack all my crap.
Both bags I was checking in were so full already, there was no way to repack it. So I had to open my suitcase right at the counter, for everyone to see. I started transferring stuff from the suitcase to my backpack which I was bringing as a carry-on. It was a nightmare.
After a few minutes of struggling, I asked the airline person how much it would cost if I checked in a third bag. I figured I could just check-in my backpack since it was getting so heavy and so fat for a carry-on, now that it had more things stuffed in it. I had packed an empty handbag in the overweight suitcase, so I thought maybe I could just use that as my carry-on instead of the backpack.
The airline person checked her monitor.
Airline person: A third bag would cost you $200.
Me: Huh.
In my head, though, it was more like HOLY CRAP WTF?! So I proceeded to continue repacking. But then after about 10 minutes, I was just like whatever, I’ll pay the freakin’ $75. This whole repacking thing ain’t gonna happen. By then, the airline person who was helping me was in the middle of helping another customer, so she transferred me over to another airline person. When I was getting ready to hand her the $75, she noticed that I had membership with Delta’s Sky Miles Club. There are a lot of benefits that come with being a member of said club… Including checking in a third bag for free.
FO’ FREE! Geez.
So I managed to pull out 5 lbs from the overweight suitcase, transfered the 5 lbs to my backpack, checked in 3 super packed bags, and walked away with my $75 still in my pocket.
I wanted to hug airline person #2. And maybe kick airline person #1..
I’m down to my final week of this semester! Wuhoo! Sometimes I feel as if a day takes forever, but then there are also times when I honestly think time just whizzed by. Another year down! I can’t believe it. IT IS AWESOME.
I have been swamped with school work these past couple of weeks, as papers and projects piled up the closer we approached finals week. Most of my final exams are papers instead of actual tests I have to take in class, which I have mixed feelings about since I absolutely hate writing papers.
One amazing news, though, is being told I could skip my International Business final, the one final I was dreading! If you knew Buckley, you would understand. But bless his heart for giving us the option to not take the exam if we were satisfied with our current grade. His email writes:
Laura-
I have finished determining grades-to-date for International Business. First, the bottom line for you is that you have a grade of A going into the final exam. Well done! I assume that you will not be taking the final.
BOOM. I was literally jumping for joy around my room as soon as I got that email. You don’t understand. Such a boulder off my shoulders!
Not having to study for that final gave me a bit more time to work on my other take home finals, in between starting to pack up my stuff for home. So far I’ve emptied out my desk drawers and put down the decorations that were on my wall. Now my room looks so sad and bare! I feel like I’m in a prison cell. Ok, maybe not.
I have four full days left here, and then I fly off on Friday! I still have so much to do between now and then, but I wanted to just update this and let y’all know I’m still alive and kickin’ (:
If you are interested in reading daily tid bits of my life, I have started my Daily Randomosities on my Tumblr page (laurapastores.tumblr.com). It’s basically just random short notes I feel like sharing. It’s in between a tweet and a blog post. Enjoy.
Paper Pirouettes 