I first started training as a belly dancer in 2009. I was going through a rigorous PhD program in the States, under an insane amount of stress, and needing a way to get away from the winter blues. I thought it would be a simple, effortless way of getting exercise and letting my adrenaline flow.…
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There are days when you aren’t sure how you feel about the world – when you are torn between running around and trying to keep yourself busy, and sitting down in a corner and falling into a daze. There are days when you don’t know what you want to do, but it seems that your…
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Sometimes, you can’t help wondering about people. They gossip, go into backbiting fits, engage in the sport of backstabbing – and then still have the gall to put on a sweet, smiling face. But who am I to talk? I used to gossip a lot about colleagues. I used to talk about them behind their…
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I remember the day that I first spoke up against someone. She had openly criticized me for being a snob. Incensed, I reported her to to the higher ups. I didn’t like being called a snob. Not in public. Not amongst peers. The higher ups told me that people could talk however they wanted, and…
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I was on the Recto platform of the LRT today, as I would be on any ordinary Monday. I had a bad headache, which I tried to stave off with music in my ears and a slow shimmy on my hips. I stood within the lines that marked where the train’s doors would be, in…
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When I was young, all I wanted were medals and pieces of paper to tell me that I was awesome. I still have a whole portfolio of certificates and medals to tell me that I was great in debate, mathematics, science, and writing. When I was young, I loved looking at that portfolio. It seemed…
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Let me get straight to the point, as I’ve been chewing on this idea for a while. Why do people pack themselves into LRT trains? And why don’t people line up? I’ve been riding the LRT since September. It’s the fastest way to get to work. Plus: It’s a great way to stay fit. I…
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(This is in response to broadcast journalist Arnold Clavio’s declaration on TV that the Men’s National Football Team was “pretending to be Filipino” – “in his words, “nagpapanggap na kayumanggi” – a declaration that was not taken lightly by many Azkals fans.) I haven’t written a blog entry like this in a long time. The…
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I overheard the neighbors chatting last night, while I sat in my room. They were four or five men, all husbands and fathers who lived in their compound with their families. They were talking – almost shouting – about which celebrities and starlets they thought were the most shapely, the sexiest, the hottest, the most…
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As I sit here in my room and write my project proposals, I cannot help overhearing my mother. She is watching a news channel outside and is not exactly quiet about it. She jeers, in a high pitched whine, about how the former president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is taking advantage of her sickness to get out…
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