We're like Masochistic Lovesick Puppy Dogs, and that's Okay

If you knew that there is 99% chance of getting your heart broken, why still give out all your heart and soul?

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of memes and other posts about how horrible the lives of med students are. Though sometimes they sound depressing, most of them are pretty funny… So painfully funny because they are undeniably true (unfortunately). Some really happy people (and research) say laughter is the best medicine so what the heck right? 

Go ahead. Make fun of (y)our misery. There’s no better thing to do about it anyway. Lol.

Anyway, it made me think that being a med student is like being a masochistic, lovesick puppy dog. Yep. Pretty much.

Before you applied for your dream medschool, I bet you had an idea of how difficult medschool will be. Now that I think about it, medschool application is kind of a hassle but it’s probably the easiest part. Everything else after was just a blur. Jk.

First day of being a legit med student is like telling your Forever Crush about your feelings (after stalking him/her for like… forever).

There you were… Standing proud in whites, feeling the butterflies brushing against the mucosa of your stomach, and having just the right angst to convince yourself (and your classmates) you do belong here. At the same time, you’ve never been more eager to learn, excited to dissect a cadaver, freaked to discuss legit medical cases. THIS IS IT PANCIT! Time to make pabibo!

Confessing your love is more or less like that. Right? Convinced that you look decent enough and hopeful that your crush won’t resist (too much), you just go for it! Armed with a basket of dark chocolate and your witty, a little corny but cute speech, you tell Crush that you’re madly, deeply, crazy. Oh right, and you’re in love. Perhaps, ask for a date? Because… THIS IS IT PANCIT!!

First Year Med. Everything is tested—intellectual ability, physical wellness, and emotional stability. ALREADY.   EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

You’re slowly turning into a zombie like everybody else. They were not kidding. You’re lucky to have three hours of sleep a day. Sometimes, you just have to rely on caffeine. Pray that somehow it will work its magic and keep you alive for the whole day. Oh, and goodbye social life outside medschool. Readings come and go (nope, they don’t go away, they just come to you like it never ends). Exhausted trying to absorb all the medical terms and lectures they feed you for the day (talk about information overload), you go home, and study your ass off for the night. And still, you barely pass the exams. Worse is, it has become a cycle, and you feel like no matter how hard you try, you can’t get out. Feels like you are bound to fail but you do it anyway.

You start to doubt yourself. You would want to quit but you won’t. You can’t. You shouldn’t. Because that’s not what you really want. You can’t quit on your dream!

You struggle, you cry, and then you try again.

Just like chasing love… (or someone for that matter who won’t love you back for some stupid reason)

You do everything and get nothing. You get nothing. No response whatsoever. You try and try and try. You put soooo much effort. Every bit of you is on the line. Still nothing. You’re heartbroken and you know you will just get your heart broken over and over again yet you still try anyway. Not because you’re fond of the pain or you’re so used to it, you don’t mind anymore.. It’s because you knew someday, somehow, you’ll get the love you deserve. And it’s gonna be worth it. All the pain will be worth it. So you can’t just quit. You don’t quit.

You struggle, you cry, and then you try again.

And now we still have, three? four? five? ten years more, even? More years of hardships and unrequited love. More heartbreaks for every exam we fail and every person who walks away. More alone coffee dates, sleepless nights and buckets of tears (and weight gain </3)… More failures and little triumphs... And that’s okay. Take time to heal and recover. Still be at your best. For your dream. Because it’s worth it.

I’m 99% certain that I will have my heart broken along the way as I reach for my dream. But that 1% is good enough to always keep me trying. I know it’s going be worth it. 

Lastly, some wise words from a wise guy to help you keep going <3

 (c) msenchantedsays.blogspot.com

For the love of coffee: Starbucks Coffee Appreciation Festival

Last April 2 and 3, Starbucks held a Coffee Appreciation Festival at the Grand Atrium, Main Wing of EDSA Shangri-La Plaza. I’m one #happycoffeegirl so there’s no way I’ll miss an event to appreciate coffee! :D :D

Good thing I went early on the first day, literally waited for the mall to open, because the line of the people who wanted to enter the festival got long fast. Nonetheless, coffee is always great with company.

We were given a map which served as our guide to the coffee exploration journey. The fest had four stations which the participants had to visit one by one. In each station, we had to collect one stamp from the coffee master to be able to proceed to the next. It was a lot of fun, I felt like Dora the Explorer (without the singing, thank goodness).

Our Starbucks coffee exploration journey started with “The Journey of the Bean” where awesome SB baristas explained a bit of history of coffee; the different kinds and attributes of coffee; how the plant is grown; where the coffee originate; and the processes that coffee undergoes such as drying and roasting, before it leads to our favorite Starbucks store. There were tarps with the history of coffee and there were also coffee plants and sacks of beans displayed.

Starbucks is very proud of its "100% Arabica bean coffee" which are grown all the way from Latin America. They prefer this kind because of its smooth texture and gorgeous flavor.

It’s a coffee festival so you got to expect a lot of drinking of course (but I absolutely didn’t mind, GIMMEE COFFEE!) but we just didn’t drink coffee, we got to make our own! SB baristas, who were the coffee masters, were really nice to show us two coffee techniques that they use when making our favorite cup. There was a demo for coffee press brewing and pour over brewing.

Using coffee press retains the precious oils that paper filters absorb, which keeps the coffee’s full flavor.

Let me share to you the four fundamentals of brewing Starbucks (any coffee in general) coffee!

Proportion – The recipe for great coffee is 2 tbsp ground coffee for every 180 mL of water. You may adjust by adding hot water but using less coffee will give you a bitter cup. 

Grind – The rule of thumb is, the finer the grind, the shorter the brew time. Another thing I learned, espresso grind is the finest, followed by brew, and then press is the coarse one.

Water – When brewing coffee, you want to use a one degree-less-from-boiling water. Heat the water to almost boiling in order to extract the coffee’s full range of flavors.

Freshness – The freshness of the coffee is very important to retain its flavor. So once you’ve opened the coffee bag, keep the coffee in an airtight container at room temperature. Keep it away from oxygen, light, heat and moisture.

We weren’t able to do the pour over brewing, unfortunately, because there were too many people in that station already… and we were really excited about the coffee tasting. MUST.GET.COFFEE!

We were really excited to do the coffee tasting… not just because we’ll get to have coffee but it’s actually our first time to experience “coffee tasting” … sounds so mature and classy and sophisticated (haha) like wine tasting, only we’re drinking coffee.

Anywayyy, on the first Coffee tasting station, we had Gladwyn as our coffee master. He was really nice. He had us taste Caffé Verona. It had a rather heavy bodied, bold, chocolatey flavor.

The coffee master also taught us the four steps of coffee tasting. (See, what’d I say…sophistication. Jk!)

Even Mico was pretty excited! :))

First and foremost, we smell the coffee before we taste it. Apparently our mouth can only distinguish limited tastes but our nose can detect thousands of smells. So before you take a sip of your coffee, don’t forget to take a sniff first!

When tasting coffee, it’s important to slurp it because this allows the coffee to spray across your entire palate and lets the subtle flavors and aromas reach all the tasting zones of your mouth. You might hesitate when you’re out with friends (or on your own) in your SB tambayan, but according to coffee master Gladwyn, in Starbucks, the louder the slurp, the better! Much like eating ramen I guess… so slurp your hearts out!

Next step is locate… think about the coffee’s weight and feel in your mouth. Yes, you gotta drink with your mind too. Light-bodied coffees feel light on the tongue and have a clean finish while full-bodied coffees feel heavier and have lingering flavors. Where are you experiencing the flavors on your tongue?

Finally, describe your coffee-tasting experience. How would you characterize the aroma, flavor and the feel of the coffee in your mouth? Sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle… (just like somebody you know LOL) Flavors can vary greatly between coffees – from citrus to cocoa to berry..

Isn’t coffee tasting fun? :)

So after tasting the coffee bare, Gladwyn made us taste it with milk chocolate and dark chocolate. You’d be surprised how the flavor developed with the chocolate. The bitterness of the coffee was balanced with the sweetness of the chocolate. The cocoa flavor of the coffee was further enhanced by the chocolate. Really good!

We also got to taste the Caffé Colombia from Latin America, where else? This was a bit lighter and had a sweeter flavor than Verona. It had a nutty flavor so the coffee master made us try it with different nuts. We tasted it with almond, walnut and the common peanut. The nut was able to even out the bitterness of Colombia (see what I did there :P). My favorite combo was Colombia and almond. Almond has this sweet flavor which I liked with the coffee. I do like my coffee bittersweet.

After some coffee tasting, we went to take a look at the all-in-one espresso machine demo. Only some SB stores have that machine of total awesomeness. I had to try it myself, of course! Before the do-it-yourself experience, there was supposedly a latté art talk on the side but I was too eager to try the espresso machine, I stayed beside it the whole time we’re in that station. HAHAHA

Yay! Did my own latté (with the help of this nice barista)! #Happycoffeegirl is happy though I wasn’t able to pull off the coffee art. Guess, I kinda missed a lot from not listening to the coffee art lessons. Oh well… still, free double shot latté for me!

Finally, we got to the final stop of our coffee exploration journey, at the Starbucks Reserve Station.

Have you visited any of the Starbucks Reserve shops in the metro? I’ve been in the Tomas Morato store. It’s nice and big, great for study outs and chill dates.

Other Starbucks Reserve stores are in Makati, Fort Bonifacio Global City and Ortigas.

Starbucks Reserve offer different exotic kinds of coffee using the pour over brewing method. We tried the coffee from the Panama Carmen Estate and Costa Rica La Candelilla during our visit.

Back at the Starbucks coffee festival, we got to try the Buenos Aires Nicaragua maracaturra. Its coffee beans were bigger than your usual coffee beans, hence its name—maracaturra. Honey, the coffee master explained the etymology but I’ll leave that to her (HAHA sorry). But basically, it just means bigger bean. 

Starbucks is proud to cater some of the rarest coffees in the world through Starbucks Reserve. According to Coffee Master Honey, the coffees they offer at Reserve are so rare because they only grow once in years.

And there you go, here’s one Certified Coffee Explorer! HOORAAYY!

Collecting the stamps on the map wasn’t just for the fun of it. After going through all Coffee Appreciation festival stations, we received an exclusive Coffee Explorer kit.

Besides the activities, there were also art exhibits made of coffee

We also got to buy coffee beans and brewing equipment with discount!

So the next time you visit Starbucks, skip the frappe and give their fresh brew a try! 

Copyright ©2016 by Mykha B. Tabuzo. The moral right of Mykha B. Tabuzo to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.

Break it to me gently (Not)

You've been wanting to call it quits with this girl you're seeing but you can't break her heart or you're scared of how she will react and you know you won't be able to handle that. What are you gonna do??

It is scientifically evident that girls  could get into drama more so than guys. (Yes, it's biology people!) We tend to be oversensitive, more emotional and less rational sometimes. Unfortunately, men have very minute understanding of these inevitable moments and would rather not deal with it more often than not. Hence, they do the stupidest things..

Breaking up is always hard. Even Nelly asks why all good things come to an end... However, sometimes it's just what we gotta do. But how? How are you gonna break it to her gently? Well sometimes, you just can't.

First off, and most importantly, cut the bs. We don't need you to be creative about it. It's not like asking a girl out. No more sparks, no more butterflies and rainbows, no gimmicks. However, allot time and just enough effort to say it to her face. Yes, she might cry; she might shout at you; she might plead desperately for another chance; surely you don't want to see that but you owe her an explanation. So you have to have the guts to talk to her personally. Sorry, you can't cut the drama. Deal with it.

If you're thinking of writing her a note on a post-it like what you do with your grocery list, do not even try.

If you're thinking a letter would suffice and make her stop asking, no.

If you're planning to use a lame cliche line that you got from a movie as an excuse, you're wasting time.

If you're just going to send her an SMS or call, grow some balls dude.

Have the decency to tell it to her personally. There's nothing you can do to ease the potential pain. She deserves to know and ask. She's entitled to cry and you can't blame her if she can't hide her feelings.

Another thing, while you're at it, don't tell her lies (anymore). Be honest because no excuse can make it better. Nothing would make it less painful. Lying would even make it worse. You owe her the truth. She'll need it to be able to move on. She has to know what went wrong. She has to know where she went wrong.

Break it to me gently, but if you'll have to tell me lies then screw that. I can be brave and strong enough to hear the truth. There's no need to make up excuses and reasons. You can even blame me and accuse me of being the worst girlfriend but I would need some explanation, because I deserve it. 

You guys can always try to make things less complicated and skip all the drama but sometimes the situation won't allow you. You can blame our hormones or say that some parts of our brain are bigger and you guys have damaged corpus callosum (hahaha)... Or maybe we just invest so much.. we can't help that our way to cope and not die completely inside is be that outrageous drama queen you're scared of. 

We are girls, we're complex and difficult but we are stronger than you think (duh, we run the world!).

#mayporeber

The trending show "Forevermore" just ended and my Facebook feed is srsly flooded of #mayforever posts. In line with this... I also want to proclaim to the whole wide world (sa inyo haha) that I am also a firm believer of forever.. ❤️❤️
Mga bruh, may poreber!!

Image Source: wikipedia.org

(c) E. Maquiling 

How to trick someone into going out with you

Image from http://www.thefunnyplanet.com/pictures/13516.jpg.

You're probably reading this because you're a newbie in this "game" and you want some glorious idea ;) Can't just say it to her face? or maybe you haven't been very successful in asking someone out hence, despite of being in the game for almost forever, you know nothing.. Well... Fear not, bruh! Here are some not-too-obvious, kinda-but-not-really creative and (could be) annoying ways to ask a girl (or a guy) out that you, normal being, can do ;))

Disclaimer: These are not some cheesy, scandalous tricks you see in youtube. :O

* Bet on it! 

You really like this girl (or guy) but there's a trail of other peeps who want to date her too. Instead of taking this as a disadvantage, use it to your advantage! Pretend that you just heard from somewhere (i know, i know.. you found out about it because you 

stalk her FB and twitter pages :P) that *some guy* has a crush on her. She'll probably deny (as in super!) because who admits somebody's got a crush on them, right? This way, you not only get to talk to her without being awkward, you also get a clue of what she thinks about the other guy ;) What you do is, ask her to bet on it! 

You: Yieeeeh crush ka raw ni ganito...

Crush: Hindi ahh..

You: Pustahan tayo? :> :>

You have to think strategically here. Set the prize. For example, if you win, free lunch for you!  if you lose, she'll get free lunch courtesy of you. ;) Then you'll have to lose so you can "go on a date" with her. Also, you can add some cutesy shizz to make it ... Uhh cuter?:)) and catchy, e.g. if you lose, she can put make up on you when you go to lunch or dinner. That way, it's gonna be more interesting for her and chances of her to bite the bait would be higher! Use some of your creative juices!! Ako nalang ba lahat? Jk :))

To be successful, you have to do some research ;) You have to be smart when setting the ground rules. Also, you don't want her to pay on your first date so be reallyyyy smart about it.

* Challenge her!

If you wish to date a competitive gal, beat her at her own game! (Or get beaten! Hihi) Assuming you're both students, take advantage of your never ending exams. Make a dare. If you get a higher grade than her on your next exam, she must go on a date with you; if her score is higher then, you'll treat her to lunch/dinner. This is kinda a win-win situation for you if she says yes. You'll score a date and this can be your inspiration to study :D Miss competitive would surely want to up her ego even more (being competitive :))) thus, she'll accept. TIP: I think it'd be more favorable for you if you let her win this one. :p Orrrr, maybe if the love gods are in your favor, and you win, she'll hate you just a bit because you hurt her fervent little ego BUT like you as well, and see you as an interesting challenge like herself. :D

If she's into sports, you can use that too!

* Play a little accident

This is a little risky. Desperate times call for desperate measures. "Accidentally" spill something on her tidy, pretty dress. (Make sure or pray it's not her favortie coz you'll be dead meat then) You can use coffee (but dont spill it hot, please -_-), all-time fave spaghetti like in the movies or your lunch ulam :))))) First, ask for forgiveness and admit that you are the stupidest guy on earth and it was merely an accident so you deserve a chance to live (at least). Then, as a nice (but kinda stupid, clumsy) guy, you offer (you really should) to buy her a new dress and maybe you can treat her to dinner too, to make bawi :P Simple and easy ;)

Like what The Awesome Helen Keller once said, "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." So alam mo na ;)) Besides... What's the worst thing that could happen? She kicks you in the balls with all might becase she's in too much rage but who cares?? Isn't it worth a shot?:)) 

Asking your crush to go with you on a date is so damn hard! ... but you gotta do it anyway ;) The suggestions above are just weird gimmicks :)) (that might work *wink wink*). Last piece of advice...be nice and rememburrr! The most important thing is be yourself! ;) Good luck mga bruh! :))

"We deserve an explanation!"

So i watched "Starting Over Again" (Starring Piolo Pascual & Toni Gonzaga) for the nth time today.. #Walapalatalagangforever :( 

Everytime my mom and i watch this movie, there's never fail that my mom would comment on how she hates the ending and that Marco should've ended up with Ginny and not the girl na kamukha ni Mama Mary (lols). But I guess besides not having the usual expected "happy ending," it was a big hit to the Pinoy audience because it was rather a big slap in the (or your) face and sometimes that's just what we (you) need. Sabi nga ni John Green, pain needs to be felt. But dont you lose hope, my dear... Di naman sa #walangforever... Meron naman.. With the right person ;)

You've probably shared the same sentiments with Ginny, one way or another (kaya nga pinaulit ulit mo rin di ba?) and thought about all the possible reasons why he had to leave you and worse, looked for someone else (na di hamak naman na mas chaka sayo!!). And yes, i know, mabaliw baliw ka nun. Eh di ba ikaw lang naman yung perfect para sa kanya so pano sya nakahanap ng iba?! :( Pano nawala yung spark? Is it even possible that he has fallen OUT OF LOVE?! 

According to some genius, love is a battlefield so you have to fight, fight, fight..for your love :p but have you ever asked yourself, does s/he want you to fight for whatever you think is worth fighting for? Are you really sure there's still something left or feelingera ka lang parang si Ginny? Yes, love is worth fighting for but for how long?? Kung ang kasing-gwapo nga ni Papa P, sinusukuan, jowa mo pa ba? Jk! :)) anyway, too many questions... We deserve an explanation! *feels*

There's nothing better than having the privilege of having someone to love and to be loved back. At some point in your life, you'll meet somebody who you think would be the answer to all your prayers; the one who will suck you out of the blackhole that you've been in your entire life; the one who will light up your sad, dark universe; the one who will save you from all the heart breaks; the one you'll do anything and everything for... The one.. 

To have that "forever" with the person you have invested your whole heart and soul would be the best thing that can ever happen and just thinking otherwise is the most devastating thing evurrr. Yet there are unfortunate events that we can't control which may lead to that, like what happened to the movie that i was talking about earlier. I know... It's like the whole universe is against you and no matter how much you try and fight, YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. 

When you think everything is perfectly in place, life suddenly hits you and it hits you hard! ... cause life's a btch like that. Sasabihin nya nalang sayo bigla, it's over or there's someone else, i dont love you anymore, it's not you, it's me.. Mga lines na akala mo sa movies lang ginagamit, pwede rin pala sayo.. Minsan, maka-linya lang okay na, wala man lang reasons! O_O Dito na papasok ang #walangforever drama natin. Apparently, falling out is inevitable but i believe that it only happens to couples in relationships that could not work. What?! Why?! How?! There can be a million reasons why s/he fell out of love with you so hindi ko kayang isa-isahin. Alam mo na yan! Buttttt... We should always remember that a relationship is made up of a couple who are both always excited and happy and in love for the relationship to work and if things fck up, always willing to work things out. 

Eh bakit ba kasi hindi pa sya makuntento maging "the one" ko? 

Maybe our relationships don't work out sometimes and some people just choose to leave because their role is to teach and allow us to know ourselves more. They exist for us to allow ourselves to grow, be better, be stronger. Or maybe to keep us busy (pwede rin di ba?:))) and make the ride worthwhile. Who knows right? Magpaka-positive nalang tayo mga bruh!

We should aspire for a relationship with just enough respect, trust and allowance for mistakes (got this from the movie! Haha). Point is, dapat kayong dalawa.. You have to be on the same page for it to work...to make it work. If not, maybe it's time to reconsider? No matter how much you fight for it, nothing will happen when the other party won't fight with you. Alam kong matapang ka kaya mo pinaglalaban :) kahit na gaano ka pa kapagod at kahirap. So keep that in mind! Matapang ka... Don't be afraid to start over again. ;)

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Welcome EMbrace!

"Love makes the world go round." This cliche has probably ticked you off for as long as forever because your world is perfectly moving despite of the fact that you're all alone so you're pretty convinced that love doesn't really have anything to do with it. Orrr... it's inspired you  and made you believe in the power of love and you think it's all you'll ever need to live a full life.  

Well, your love life, my love life and everybody else's love life is my favorite thing to talk about and I gotta say, I really have lots to say.... (Oops) hence, this blog 😂 it's gonna be all about love,  how magical and problematic it is..and everything in between 😁  This is for the - in love, bitter(melons), hopeless romantics, friendzoned, broken hearted, on the edge of getting a nervous breakdown 💘  LAHAT MGA BRUH! 😝

I'll be posting more soon! Feel free to ask and suggest. 

❤️❤️❤️