Credit Card Theft and Fraud

Someone stole my credit card yesterday. Right out of my wallet. I only found out because the bank called me this morning and informed of suspicious charges. And I know it was taken straight out of my wallet because that credit card is for emergency use only, and I never use it.

Luckily they caught it on time and hopefully it will be easy to dispute the charges.

I've done the run through and I've pretty much figured out where and when it could have been taken.

It's not the actual money that pains me so much. Sure, it really bothers me and money is important. But what hurts me more, is the loss of trust. The loss of trust among those around you, the loss of trust in people.

This is the kind of thing that ruins it for everyone else. You have faith in people, you believe they're doing great, you do your best to help them. You treat everyone with respect and you go through your day, as best and as honestly as you can.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to you, someone has went through your personal things, opened your wallet, and taken something.

Perhaps it was being away for a period of time that allowed me to bring my guard down. It's partly my fault, I should have known better.

I will take what I have learned from this experience and put it to good use. I refuse to let this incident mar my trust in people and I will also not allow this incident to ruin more days than it already has.

So to whoever took my credit card and charged thirteen grand, I honestly hope that you needed it and that you put the money to good use. I forgive you. And I honestly hope and pray that theft is something you never have to resort to again.

Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

It's 11 in the evening and I just got home from work. No, it's not as bad as you think because I start work at 1 PM. Still, I am honestly more of a morning person and I love the sunshine. If I could teach English outdoors half the time, I think I'd be very happy with that arrangement.

But yes, it was my second day on the job. Though yesterday may have been a bit of a struggle, today was definitely a better day. I was kind of thrown into the deep end of the pool but I managed so survive. Not wonderfully, but I survived and I think I did ok.

No contest, the best parts of my work day were these two moments.

I work at the IT Park here in Cebu and it's nice to walk around when it isn't too warm. There were actually signs of a typhoon today and the rains and winds were really strong.

At about 7 PM we had a forty minute break. I put on my rain jacket, brought out the big umbrella, and took a walk around the area. It was just nice being out outdoors, enjoying the scenery, and feeling the wind on my face. Those few moments of tranquility were a much break from the stuffiness of being indoors the whole day.

Work finished around ten and as I stepped out of the office, I heard strains of "Mrs. Robinson" being played by an acoustic band in a cafe across the street. I stood there, in the dark, and I realized how much I had missed listening to live music like that. I was tempted to walk in and order a nightcap. Maybe I should have.

Maybe next time.

So I'm working again and of course, it's always an adjustment. But I am already learning a lot. And hopefully making a difference. After all, that's why I became a teacher right. To help people learn, in one way or another.

On a side note, I have to teach phonemes! I really need to brush up on that.

Next week, I start work at 6 AM.

Princess Party Time!

Yesterday was the Princess Party! And what a Princess Party it was! All the girls dressed up in pretty princess dresses (including yours truly *ahem.) What can I say, I'm a big kid at heart.

So we had games, clowns, glitter tattoos, animal ballons, a cotton candy stand, and a puppet show! And of course, a very happy birthday girl in a beautiful princess dress. What a party. What a day.

Happy Happy Birthday Ela! You're four years old already!




And the biggest kids of all....

Eagles in Cebu

I'm obviously never going to be a sports photographer but I wanted to share some images from the Ateneo Blue Eagles vs. Cebu Landmasters game. I think some of my photos actually ended up looking like Monet paintings.

This was the championship game of the Cesafi Friendship Tournament held on June 11, 2009 at the Cebu Coliseum. Though the game was a disappointing experience, it was never the less fun to watch and it definitely brought me back to my college days.

Go Ateneo!

Attempt, originally uploaded by maitaflorendo.

Cross court, originally uploaded by maitaflorendo.

Fight, originally uploaded by maitaflorendo.

Battle, originally uploaded by maitaflorendo.

2 Points, originally uploaded by maitaflorendo.

Filipino Fashion Statements

I am very proud of the fact that I am Filipino. I will delve deeper into this another time, but for now, I'll keep it light.

These days, I love the fact that people show their patriotism and love for our country through what they wear, for everyone to see. In honor of Independence day, I have compiled a list of my favorite fashion statements that showcase our love for our country and our fellow men.

1. Number one on my list is the Adidas Philippines Jacket. Nothing screams that you're Filipino and proud of it like this bright blue, white, and red jacket emulating our Philippine Flag.

Photo from http://winterheim.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/adidas_philippines_track_jacket.jpg

2. I absolutely love, love, love the My Pilipinas clothing line of Collezione, designed by Rhette Eala. His pieces mostly prominently display a map of the Philippines in classic and funky designs. You can check out the official website here.

Photo from Collezione Website

3. Of course, we have our tribute t-shirts to our world famous boxer, our champion, Manny Paquiao, made specially by Nike.

Photo from http://www.dubdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/qs_manny_pacquiao_tees_redtif.jpg

4. Last but definitely not the least, I have to mention the limited edition Havaianas Filipinas collection. Wear the world's best flip-flops and show off your national pride. Get one with a stylized Philippine flag symbol, or even better yet, get the pair which features our ever loved Phillipine Icon, the Jeepney. You can check out the official website here too.


Now I know as of now I only have four on my list. What's your favorite Philippine pride fashion statement?

Purses from Payatas

I want a Rags2Riches purse. I love the idea, I love the concept, not to mention the purses themselves.

So what is a Rags2Riches purse? Well, Rags2Riches is a company founded by a group of Ateneans (of course) in 2007. This company works with the women of Payatas, Manila's main waste management site. Thousands of families call Payatas home. (Images from this post courtesy of Google. Click on them for better viewing.)

Photos from Rags2Riches Website and Write Ups

These women of Payatas used to forage through the Payatas dump site for scraps of cloth which they would then weave into colorful rugs. Of course when it came time to sell these rugs, these women had to go through middle men and ended up only earning one peso for every rug they sold.


What Rags2Riches did was partner with these women and bring their work to the mainstream market. Instead of rugs, these women now weave beautiful purses and clutches which are available to the public. Moving even one step further, many of their purses are now designed by the likes of Philippine design icons Rajo Laurel and Amina Aranaz. These items are currently sold in many high end stores in Manila. And according to their website, each product comes with the Rags2Riches story of transformation and a handwritten signature of the mother who made the product.

All of this has enabled the women of Payatas to earn a livelihood, help support their families and send their children to school. As of this year, Rags2Riches has expanded exponentially and they are gearing towards exporting their products to cities like New York, San Francisco, and beyond.

Rags2Riches is a wonderful example of what can be achieved with a little ingenuity and a lot of hard work. With Rags2Riches serving as an inspiration, think of all the things we are capable of doing. The possibilities are endless.


So buy a purse and let's help support the community of Payatas today.

For more information, you can visit the offical website of Rags2Riches here.

On Being Blue

Last night, my siblings and I attended the Blue Night, an alumni gathering held for Atenistas based here in Cebu. It was there I was reminded of why we chose Ateneo.

And the question many Ateneans are asked: What does it mean to be an Atenista?

For one, it means that you were blessed enough to attend one of the finest schools in the Philippines. A school steeped in tradition, history, and national pride, and so much more.

From personal experience, Ateneo taught me so many things. For starters, Ateneo taught me the value of hard work, the importance of adapting, and basically, the huge impact that making a difference can produce. I had brilliant teachers, some scary, some friendly, some intimidating, but all part of the Ateneo experience of preparing you for the world ahead. I got lost on campus, attended the wrong class, and I regularly ate at Manang's. I loved seeing Bel Field at Christmas time with all the pretty lights but I never attended Simbang Gabi. I watched basketball games at the Araneta Coliseum and learned most of the cheers. And I made it through to graduation in 2006.

This year, the Ateneo de Manila University is celebrating their 15oth anniversary.


In honor of this celebration and working with the mission of "Building the Nation", the Ateneo is aiming to raise funds for 500 new scholarships. Currently, the Ateneo has 1,088 scholars out of a school population of 7,963 which brings the scholar percentage to about 13.7%. They seek to raise this percentage to 20% thus effectively projecting 1,600 scholars out of a student population of 8,000, or hopefully, one scholar out of five students in the coming future.


I am a teacher and I truly believe that education is the key to our country rising up. It pains me to see how lacking our educational system really is and how many out of school youth there are.

But if we can make a difference in the lives of those 1,600 scholars by helping them receive the education that we were blessed with, I can't even begin to imagine how those 1,600 scholars would make a difference in our country today. Many Ateneo scholars have already gone on to serve our country in many different ways. (You can actually read more about their stories and the scholarship fund by clicking on the banner above.)

I know helping our country can seem like such a daunting task. But as with every journey, every undertaking, every dream, it can be achieved. As always, one step at a time. So let's give. And give back.

Ateneo truly chose a wonderful way of celebrating their 150 years.

Party Crafting II

With Ela's birthday less than a few weeks away, party preparations are underway!

I've almost finished the envelopes for her invitations. All I had to do was google a template, print them out, cut them up and paste them together. What's great about it is that you can use any paper you want! I had these pads of funky construction paper lying around so I decided to use those. Aren't they pretty?


If you want to make your own envelopes, here's a tutorial from instructables.com. They're really easy to make. You can also find a lot of ready to print templates for making your own envelope online.

Next up on our list is... crowns! Crowns for this special princess party. At first, I had no idea how we were going to make these crowns but my mom found these huge sheets of colored foam for P180.00 each. So of course, I went back to google (my answer to everything) and did some research on how to make crowns. So here's how we made our crowns.

1. First I downloaded the image below and printed an even number of copies on board paper for easier cutting tracing. Since our guests are quite young, I shrank the image down to 60% to make the crowns smaller.


2. Next, we cut out the crown patterns, taped the two sides together and traced the patterns over and over again on the colored foam sheets.


3. After, we cut out the crown patterns, decorated them with plastic rhinestones, colored foam cut out pieces, ribbon, (basically anything and everything you want.)




4. Lastly, we attached a garter to the two ends of the crown using these metal studs to keep them from slipping off the small ones heads. I think you can get the metal studs and garter at most craft/fabric stores.


There you go! The finished products of the crown assembly line. Pretty cute huh? I've still got to design my very own personalized crown. I'm tempted to buy a tube of puff/fabric paint at the bookstore so I can write "Princess Maita" on mine. Hey, what girl doesn't want to be a princess for a day. :)



For a more in depth make your own crown instructions, you can download pdf files from this website. They've got different patterns and this is where we got the pattern for our little foam shapes too.

Happy party crafting!

Designer Reusable Bags

Did you know that a regular plastic bag, like those from the supermarket or bookstore, takes between 500 to 1,000 years to biodegrade? That means that all those plastic bags you take home will all pile up in a landfill somewhere for the half a millennium at least! That's a lot of plastic bags. That's a long time.

This is honestly one of the reasons I always throw an Envirosax in my purse before I head out. To the store, to the mall, to travel, to wherever,I always have an Envirosax handy. So what are Envirosax anyway? Well, they're touted as the original designer reusable bag. I love how handy and useful they are, you just roll them up, click the buttons together, and put them in your purse, glove compartment, suitcase, anywhere. Here are photos from the Envirosax website, rolled up, and in use.

Photos from Envirosax Website

Not to mention all the pretty patterns and prints they've got! I always had a hard time choosing which one to buy. There's a design for every personality, male or female. I also love giving them as presents. If everyone started using an Envirosax for light shopping trips, think of all the plastic bags we'd save! They're also really comfortable to use, they don't cut into your shoulder when they're heavy. I can't begin to count the number of times Gerard has been thankful that I had one, especially when we go shopping. *wink wink* They're great for consolidating all those little carrier bags as well.

If you'd like to find out more about Envirosax, you can find the original Envirosax website here. For Philippine users, here's their Philippine website. So far, here in Cebu, I've found Envirosax at the store What A Girl Wants at the Ayala Center and at Republik at the Banilad Town Center. They retail for P410.00.

But if you think that's a little pricey, there are cheaper options at the SM Department store. They've got all sorts of reusable bags that you can fold up and tuck in your purse too and they only cost about P150.00 each. But I still love the Envirosax designs. There are just too many too choose from. And they're just so pretty!

Either way, I hope you get a reusable bag for yourself sometime soon. Lets lessen the number of plastic bags being tossed into those landfills and garbage dumps!

Photos from Envirosax Website

Party Crafting

I love working with paper and ink. But because I left my Pilot Parallel Pens in Philadelphia, for now, I've only got the computer to work with. But still, it's amazing the things you can do with Photoshop and the internet!
Ela, my beloved youngest niece, is celebrating her 4th birthday soon and she dearly wants a "Disney Princess" party. We tried looking for nice invitations but I decided to take things into my own hands and make them myself. I googled the internet for a Disney Princess image that I could use, added the necessary details, and voila! A personalized Disney Princess party invitation. Best thing of all, I had these printed at Kodak so they only cost 7 Pesos each. (Thank you Disney, for this image. I promise not to use it for commercial gain.)



For envelopes, I went to Google again and searched for templates for making your own envelopes. I found one that fit, and as soon as I find my steel ruler, I'm going to print, cut, and glue those envelopes together. Not bad for a few hours work. :)

We're also going to make colored foam tiaras and crowns for all the party guests but more on that next time. So many fun craft things to do! I love children's parties :D

Love, Long Distance

Two weeks from today, Gerard and I will have been engaged for a year. If you had told me three years ago that I would be in a long distance relationship, not to mention a long distance engagement, I would have laughed it off. I honestly didn't believe in long distance relationships back then.

Over the last year and a half, I've read a lot about long distance relationships. How it helps to work toward a goal, the importance of keeping communication lines open, make each other a priority, etc. And of course, with the technology available today, keeping in touch is never a problem. (More on that later.)

Gerard and I were very close, the ten years or so before we decided to tie the knot. Sure, we had our ups and downs as with every relationship and the decision to spend the rest of our lives together came after much thought and reflection. We eventually came to realize that we had changed for the better, that we had matured and that we were ready to take the next step. He often tells me that it's as if he was waiting, not consciously, but just waiting, for the right time. Whereas I, had to realize that he had always been there, all along.

To quote from the famous "Partners & Marriage" Paper of Eduardo Calasanz of the Ateneo de Manila:

"The truly lucky people are the ones who manage to become long-time friends before they realize they are attracted to each other. They get to know each other's laughs, passions, sadness, and fears. They see each other at their worst and at their best."

This, is where I truly believe with all my heart, where we are. Though we may not be physically together every day, we are priority in each other's lives and we share everything. There is no detail too small or too trivial, if we want to talk about it. And we laugh. Boy, do we laugh, sometimes til the wee hours of the morning.

As of now, we're planning on trying the knot hopefully sometime early next year. To some, that may seem a lifetime, not to mention the distance that engulfs us. But not a day goes by that we don't let each other know how important the other one is. We're working on spending the rest of our lives together and I have complete faith that we'll get there.

P.S. If you would like to read the whole peice of "Partners and Marriage" you can find it here. It's a beautiful, thought-provoking piece with wonderful insights.