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Showing posts from June, 2024

Week 2-4: Eat Pray Love is #BetterByBicycle (Part 2)

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Pray I'm not exactly a religious person but I used to be. I was born into a devout Catholic family. I grew up religiously attending mass with my family. We would pray together every night and bless the food with a prayer before eating. My siblings and I attended Catholic school and we joined church related organizations  and activities. I received a New Testament bible at age 8, and I remember reading it during my free time every day even though I couldn't comprehend the meaning of the verses. I have a nun grand aunt and a priest uncle and it was a source of pride among our clan to have kins who heed the clergy calling. When I left home for college, I started to slowly go astray of my religious upbringing. The demands of the academic life made me skip the mass every now and then. But more importantly, my mind was opened with the corruption and hypocrisy  of not just the Catholic church, but almost every organized religion in the world. But I have no plans to leave the church no

Week 2-4: Eat Pray Love is #BetterByBicycle (Part 1)

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I remember when the film  Eat Pray Love  came out, the travel sphere in the Philippines was just starting to take off. I mean, sure tourists had been around since time immemorial, but it wasn't too long when traveling by  air became within reach of ordinary Filipinos. The presence of budget carriers made it  feasible for every  Juan  to go to far flung places. The internet also paved the way to the rapid growth of travel blogs, providing platform to share experiences and tips to enjoy places when on a shoe-string budget. Then all of a sudden, everyone seems to be off to somewhere, flooding the different social media platforms with pictures and videos of sun-kissed faces and bodies, pristine and white sand beaches with crystal blue water, sea of clouds, sophisticated architectures, colorful and sumptuous food! Every freaking evidence that one is in another place but home or work. Traveling for recreation and relaxation has become an essential part of a sane life these days.  And I