About
Hi there, and welcome to my blog!
My name's Rachel Tordesillas. I'm thirteen, and I'm an energetic individual who tries to look at everything in a different perspective. I love music and books! I mostly blog about anything and everything!
•Skydive
•Bungee jump
•Go on a roadtrip – Batangas with my cousins?
•Get at least 15-20 million in Temple Run
•Go to Universal Studios in Hollywood – March 2013, baby!
•Buy any product from Aeropostale/Abercrombie & Fitch/American Eagle Outfitters straight from America – check, check and check!
•Join an Ultimate Frisbee competition
•Finish a whole tub of ice cream while watching a movie
•Watch all the episodes of Friends
report: Season 1 and 4: accomplished.
•Understand Algebra
•Take care of tarantulas/any creepy crawlie – does touching one count?
•Make a new shirt from an old one
•Grow at least 5’6 or 5’7
•Not sleep for a whole day
•Camp out
•Make a bonfire
•Make wicked Oreos - with my cousin Roy! (they’re really good)
•Stargaze with someone
•Fly a kite at night – Pandi overnight with my cousins!
•Design my own room with lights and band posters
•Learn how to skate slash manipulate a wakeboard
•Learn how to ride a bike
•Sleep on the beach
•Dye the tips of my hair pink, teal or blue
•Find a real best friend – wrong. Best friends.
•Disguise myself as a guy for a day
•Not use my iPhone for a whole month
•Find a guy friend – done!
•Learn how to tie-dye a shirt
•Gain 1,000 followers in any blog I own
•Replay all my Disney movies in a whole day
•Learn how to surf
•Ride a roller coaster for 2 consecutive times – The. FREAKING. M U M M Y. (and in that moment, I swear we were infinite.)
•Be good at frisbee
•Succeed in the hammer throw department
•Make a whole meal for my parents
•Star in a play – With the POEE Pandas! Oh, Francisco.
•Watch a Broadway play again
•Speak in an English accent for a whole day
•Invent a new shake/smoothie flavor
•Build a neat sandcastle
•Design my own iPhone case
•Wake up to an alarm clock/any alarm
•Wake up at dawn
•Witness a sunrise & a sunset
•Save someone’s life
•Dance in the rain
•Eat something I don’t like/haven’t tasted before
•Learn how to plant rice crops
•Ride a carabao
•Sleep on a field with someone
•Make a whole meal without any help
•Learn how to use the ‘tiyakad’
•Upload a funny video of me on YouTube
•Have a movie marathon (3-6 movies straight)
•Have a picture with an actor/actress – Jimmy Fallon’s cardboard cutout?
•Scream my own name on top of a cliff and hear it echo
•Eat super spicy noodles without drinking any water/beverage
•Experience a ‘leap of faith’ (contributed by my cousin, Ronn.)
•Do a cartwheel
•Win in a chubby bunny contest
•Stuff 10-15 marshmallows in my mouth
•Go ghost hunting
•Own an SLR/Lomo cam/Kindle – Polaroid cam!
•Grow my hair down to my hips
•Walk around in 4-inch stilletos/wedges for a whole day (5 hours is good to go.)
•Experience a ‘brain freeze’
•Finish a novel in a single seating
•Memorize a poem
I’m writing this cause I can’t sleep as well. Ironic, huh?
And it’s already 3:23 AM. Fantastic.
1. Make a playlist. Playlists really help! Personally, music is really helpful when it comes to solving one of my late-night dilemmas. Make a new playlist, fill it with some mellow or slow songs (I would suggest to just make a playlist that has 15 to 20 songs in it.), and play it before you sleep! Try not to think too much of the lyrics, and let the melody slowly lull you to sleep.
[You might want to add Birdy’s version of Skinny Love and Regina Spektor’s Firewood into your playlist.You’re welcome.]
2. Count some sheep! (Baa-baa) Trust me, counting sheep really helps! Count slowly, and before you know it, you’re already drifting off to Dreamland. Never underestimate the power of the sheep!!!!!!!!!!!
3. Empty your mind. It might seem funny to you, but emptying your mind is a big key factor. Usually, many of us like being all deep and sentimental when it’s nighttime. Seriously, it can’t be helped! You’re all alone, you’re tucked in bed, and all your thoughts are making their way to your head, so, why not think about possibilities? Life? School? Crushes? Family? See? It can’t be helped. So it’s nice to just empty your mind.
What I do is I try to imagine white paint or black paint, and I’m pouring it over a white cloth. I focus on that and nothing else. Just that. Surprisingly, it works! Or if you like, imagine yourself in a peaceful place, and just focus your mind on that place.
4. Read, read, read! Reading helps. A lot. Plus, reading is fun! Reading slowly exhausts you until you realize that your eyes are getting a little droopy and your mind is a little tired. Try it out! If you don’t know what book to read or anything, go to goodreads.com to look for some new books!
5. Eat. When all else fails, eat. Don’t eat a lot though! Just eat something light. Like a banana! Or make yourself a sandwich! Eat some cookies! Drink some milk! Just remember not to overdo the eating.
That is the question.
Hi guys!
So basically, instead of making a rant about pools, I decided to make a little post about the pros and cons of night swimming.
Pros:
1. No more hassle over the ‘oh my gosh I’m gonna be dark! I don’t want to be dark!’ problem for the skin-conscious people out there (like me). Night swimming solves all of that.
2. Sunburns? Nuh-uh!
3. Fewer people! Isn’t that great? Think about it. Fewer crowds, less noise, more relaxation!
4. Cooler water temperature! Add to that the absence of the sun’s rays, and you have got yourself one fantastic, relaxing night ahead of you.
Cons:
1. Sports? Oopsies, you can’t do that! Night swimming prohibits you to playing sports like volleyball, ultimate frisbee, etc. (Well, unless you have glow-in-the-dark discs and balls, then you won’t have a problem catching it and throwing it.)
2. There’s danger out there. Dark pools make it difficult to gauge the depth of the water, so you couldn’t be sure if the water is shallow or deep, which could lead to serious injuries. Trust me, it’s going to be really hard to see where you’re going.
3. DIRTY, DIRTY, DIRTY. We all know we couldn’t avoid people peeing in the pools. Yikes. Just a friendly reminder: do not drink pool or beach water when it is 8 PM. Trust me, you do not even want to know what’s making the jacuzzi warm.
4. Without the benefit of light, it’s really difficult to see who’s behind you. Trust me, you must think I’m crazy or something, but really. There are many cases of kidnapping and rape. At night. What difference does it make if you’re in the beach? Just be aware of your surroundings.
So, yeah! I hope that this post will help you in deciding whether or not to swim at night or to just risk your skin color and go for afternoon swimming! :)
So this Sunday was just supposed to be a simple visit to my grandparents’ house in Pandi, Bulacan, but it turned into me going to Amana with my some of my cousins! (It was my cousin’s treat to us since it was his birthday last week)
It was actually a miracle that my mom packed me a swimsuit in my luggage, cause she thought that I would swim at our condo tower’s pool! (Long story short, we had an overnight stay at our condominium unit at St. Francis Shangri-la Place after a pretty loooong time.)
Also, it was a good thing I packed extra underwear and another set of clothes! Whew.
And so, it was settled. Plan Amana was underway!
Here’s a picture of us at the Avatar pool! (Sorry if the pictures are a bit blurry. I guess Samsung SIII isn’t that good around the ‘nighttime pictures’ department.) 
And here’s another shot of us, ‘class picture’ style! 
Here’s a ‘wacky’ picture of us. Sorry if it’s a little blurry! 
Oh, and not to rant or anything, but Amana’s pools are really….dirty. Also, a friendly suggestion. Don’t go night swimming in there, when you’re aware that bus loads of people already swam (and possibly peed) their way through the pools, dirt and everything including. Yikes.
Trust me. Save yourself the pain.
So after exploring through the different pools (all of them were… sheesh), we settled with the Avatar pool. We played around a bit, talked and made fun of different things (including renaming Avatar pool to Doraemon’s pocket because of the countless lost objects you could find in there), and watched the fireworks.
[I’m actually deciding whether or not to make a rant about Amana’s services and pools at 8 PM in another post. Hmm.]
Then my mom and my aunt bought us some grilled chicken (5 whole ones — we have a big appetite), a huge pot of rice (lol what diet?) and three bottles of soft drinks. After twenty minutes, we were full and ready to hit the water again.
Then, my guy cousins resorted to doing this thing they like to do — make a human tower. 
Man, those cousins of mine are really strong.
After a few attempts and a lot of laughing, we decided to play a game. I don’t even know the title; all I know is that we twirled (is that the word?) around the water and float around.
We’re weird like that. 
So, yeah, you can say Amana was a pretty damn cool experience for me!
I’m gonna start posting some photos and entries that happened this year but I was just too lazy (or the WiFi just sucked, sucked, sucked) to post it here.
My first entry will be about the time the whole Cruz family (mother’s side) went to Baguio last January.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
The trip to Baguio was actually pretty spontaneous. My older cousin was teaching me how to ride a bike while the family was inside the house.
They even finished planning way before I even learned how to ride a bike!
The initial plan was that only two families would go to Baguio, my family and my uncle’s family, since we already have rooms reserved. Then, when they started discussing it with the others, they suddenly had an idea to come as a whole family instead! (Plus Baguio was really, really cold at that time, so it was a sure go!)
And so, it was planned. The next morning, we head out for Baguio!
Here’s our incomplete picture at Isdaan! (That’s the restaurant where we stopped for lunch) <br>
[I’ll continue tomorrow, since it’s getting pretty late!]
P.S.: I’m the girl wearing the Old Navy sweater :)
So yeah, I deleted my past blog and made a new one. Basically it’s because I want to start a new blog that contains different things about my life and stuff.
My former blog really sucked, basically cause it’s such a messy mix of different things.
However, black-and-jello.tumblr.com is still alive.
Yup.
So yeah!
