Final 25

What an awesome news to hear..

My name is in the final roster of 25 for the UAAP Competition team of Animo Squad.

First team, baby!

:D

Araneta Coliseum, here I come!

Jay~

Pinch Time

I think we're all starting to feel the time pressure.
4 weeks to go before the Nationals.

So much choreography to learn.
So many lifts to execute.
So many stunts to perfect.

Everyone's feeling it.

Fatigue.

Mental. Physical.

Let's get through this, Animo.
We're not called 'Animo' for nothing.

P.1.3.

Yet Another YC Date

This is probably the last time I get to enjoy Yellow Cab pizza. :( The PT at the Office of Sports Development in La Salle, and my personal trainer/varsity athlete friend Raf has asked me to cut down on the calorie-loaded pizzas. Oh well.. At least the date was awesome. :)

Mm.. Can hardly wait. :D

"What?? Diet??"

At least I don't have to diet on this. <3 Gorgeous!

<3

"The food's taking long.." :(

It isn't called a 'meat lover's' for nothing.

Another 300 cal from Sola. So delicious, but so bad. :(


Jay~

TaraWoods

TaraWoods, located in Batangas, Luzon, Philippines, is a very pretty, rustic country-house style retreat. It's very peaceful and a big change from the concrete jungle of Manila. :) The place boasts two compounds, the main country house, and the separate compound, located a quick walk away. The staff is awesome, and the food, even better. :)

Front.




The field.

The entrance (from attic).

Pool (partly obscured) and barbecue area (from attic).

Pool from afar.

Garden view from the conference room.

Barbecue area.

Guys' rooms and bathroom.



Attic.

Living room.

Dining area.

Girls' bathrooms.


As I said earlier in the post, TaraWoods has real awesome food. Here are the food pictures. :) Enjoy drooling. Some of them were firsts for me, having been here just a year after all.

This is called suman and it's glutinous rice and was served with coconut syrup. Very delicious, and hell on a diet.

Spaghetti carbonara and papaya shake. I had two glasses. :)

Pork liempo (grilled pork) and chop suey. The liempo was heavenly, and I had 2 servings, prompting squad captain Totie to tell me to diet. ROFL. Chop suey is just basically stir-fried vegetables, which were pretty nice too.

Longganisa (home-made pork sausages) and omelet. :) Incredibly nice.

At each and every meal, the omnipresent TaraWoods kalamansi juice (lime juice/"air limau") was served. It was not bad either.

I talked with the operator of TaraWoods and you can actually rent the entire place.. provided you pay for it. LOL. A great place to go to if you're going somewhere with at least 20 friends. :)

Jay~

Animo Squad Trip Day 2

Second day of our trip. Nothing much happened other than we made a banner for the squad and had a brief seminar.

The banner had stars on it. Each star was designed individually by each squad member and pasted on. On the star, the member's commitment to the squad was written down. :) Very nice concept, I have to say. :)

Stars!





Then it was bye-bye TaraWoods. :(



Fun but tiring. :)

It was good bonding with all of you guys. :)
I'm proud to say that you're all my teammates.
One Animo, One La Salle!

P.1.3. :)

Jay~

Animo Squad Trip Day 1

July 12 saw our team finally go on a team-building trip (the original trip was canceled a few minutes before go time due to Typhoon Frank). We went to this beautiful place called TaraWoods, which turned out to be something like a large country house.

At South Gate, DLSU, waiting for the bus.


Squad Captain and Liftings Coach looking for the bus.

Head count.

When we finally reached TaraWoods, I think everyone didn't quite expect how nice the place was. It reminded me so much of Piasau Boat Club back in Miri. Lush grass, nice green views, and old-school buildings. The boys were assigned the country house (yay) while the girls stayed at their own compound a short distance away.




Light snacks after arriving.



After this, we had a quick meeting/seminar.


Right after that, we had four team-building games, all designed to promote cooperation and teamwork. Pretty fun, until the sun decided it was time to make a batch of roasted Animo Squad members.

Game 1
We have to transfer from one side of the string square to the other.. without touching the string. =/ We finally did it after many tries. There was a catch; no talking allowed.




Game 2
We stood around a hula-hoop and with our indexes supporting the hoop, we're supposed to bring it down a couple of feet.. all with their fingers continually touching the hoop. Mentally hard, but we did this the fastest. :)



Game 3
No pictures. :( All of us, while performing lifts, have to step on a tarp and flip it over without falling off. The challenge was made harder when the tarp was folded in half. We were attempting to accomplish a 1/8, but it wasn't meant to be. LOL. We were successful up to 1/4 of the tarp left.

Game 4
No pictures too. The most mentally challenging one, plus it got SO hot. We were all blindfolded, surrounding a bucket. With a string on a garter around the bucket mouth, we were supposed to bring the bucket to a point in the field.. while blindfolded and keeping perfect tension on the garter (or it will stretch and the bucket will fall). Very frustrating, but we did it, when the blindfolds were taken off.

After that, we had some light snacks. :)

The highlight of the trip was definitely the Fashion Show. The squad was divided into groups of 5-6. The theme was nature, and clothes must be worn in inappropriate places. LMAO. Each group would also come up with a squad cheer. Prepare yourselves for some extremely strange pictures. ROFL.





Brent's group won, and now we are using their cheer after practices. :) It's a tongue-twister, and we have a cute ending to it. :) Additional information about the cheer? Dial your nearest 1800 provider.

TaraWoods had 2 swimming pools, and since La Salle rented the entire place for us, we obviously had the place to us alone. It's water time! It didn't help that I had allergy. :( Cold water. :( Thanks to Monika's cam and Totie for taking the pictures.










After swimming, there was a karaoke session and a Scrabble game. You guys can guess (correctly) which one I did. LOL. I am SO rusty in Scrabble! Jie, you need to whack me again and show me how to play like a pro. :P

Go Animo! :) P.1.3. guys. :)

Jay~