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Blissful Wonder

2017 Recap!
Why Hello lovies! I think it’s safe to say that I officially suck at posting on my blog and I do apologise in advance, it’s not even the fact that I’m busy, because I can manage my time quiet efficiently, it’s just because I’m lazy.

I will try and post on a regular basis for 2018!! So now my 2017 recap! 2017 has been the year of realisation, selflessness, insecurities and just stepping out of my comfort zone to which I want to continue in 2018. I focused more on my career and what I wanted to do in the future rather than in the moment. From competitions to failed dieting and exercising to changing my course from the judgment of the people around me I’ve learnt just to not care about what people think.

JANUARY
Not much happened during this month, this year was basically a time to get back into reality after the Christmas holidays and meeting up with old friends and such as well as going back to university and living that student life.
FEBRUARY
February was the month where I competed for the first time in cheerleading, it was such a magical and surprising experience for me and my cheer team, we got 3rd Place for co-ed level 2 university cheer and I was ecstatic after we messed up the routine! The support and love from the team was incredible! During this month one of my best friend moved to America, it was so surreal that I would probably never see her again but I promise you in the future I will visit her! We said our goodbye and off she went to make America great again!
MARCH
This month I was the busiest month of the year, multiple deadlines were creeping up, 2 presentations I needed to perform at the same time, dealing with my break up, and managing to compete 3 times for dance and cheer. I really had a hard time to cope with everything so I kind of shut myself out from the world. I felt like I had nothing and everything was getting so overwhelming.
APRIL
This month was more about self-reflection and realisation about myself and where I wanted to be in the future. I decided to change my course from International Development / Sociology to Education Studies, I had my realisation to become a teacher more specifically primary teaching. I mainly focused on self-love this month after my break up and just cherishing my family and friends that support me.

MAY
Marking the end of my “1st Year” I got my email to change my course and now time to relax!! Nothing much happened this month in all honestly.

JUNE
A memorable month, June is my birthday month and I wanted to thank my friends for surprising me on my birthday, I don’t really celebrate my birthday because it’s exam season and most of my friends are on holiday or at home. Another memorable moment was meeting DEAN!!! YES!! I went to the DEAN concert with one of my friend and it was the most amazing experience ever! I loved every moment of it. I got to meet and befriend a lot of kpop fans, I complimented DEAN and SAYY and I managed to be in front row!

JULY
Holiday time! This year was the year I accomplished in travelling, I am so happy because I love the whole concept of travelling away from home. My first travel experience was Amsterdam which my uni chicas, I can’t tell you how much I’ve fell in love with Amsterdam. A week after I travelled to York (Scarborough to be exact) with my family to go caravanning!

SEPTEMBER
One of my favourite holidays is the trip back to my motherland country which is the PHILIPPINES!! After over 10 years I’ve finally touched the soil of where I was born and let me tell you it is more fun in the Philippines! We stayed all over Philippines meeting and catching up with friends and family, it was so something really special towards me because I haven’t seen or experience Filipino culture and the country until now (I will do a blog post on Philippines). September is also the year where I restart university, the day after I came back from Philippines I immediately had to pack my bags back to university which I was voted in as Secretary for Cheerleading therefore had to promote and advertise my squad. Let’s just say I was really tired this month.
OCTOBER
Fun times when you’re in university, even more fun when you have to deal with cocky and stubborn landlords. I finally experienced adult life and how to deal with housing and chores. I’ve got to join a bunch of societies and sports clubs meeting new people because I promise myself to be more exposed.
NOVEMBER
Nothing particular special just dealing with the hustle and bustle of university life, social life and dealing with my non-existence student finance. Funnily enough I’ve got to meet one particular person, in the funniest way, who has now become my significant other.

DECEMBER
What a way to end the year, although my insecurities and jealously was put into the test but I manage to travel around more often. I got to walk down the British countryside and also had a low key travel away weekend to Oxford. To which we were stranded in due to heavy snow conditions. Christmas holidays were fun! Catching up with friends and spending time with the family was nice.


Annnddd that's that!!! My year in a nutshell! I can confidently say that I enjoyed myself this year than I did in 2016. The last couple of months has been so magical and really just helped me out as an individual. I pray that 2018 will be better I have exciting stuff happening in 2018!!
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Hello Guys!! For this post I thought it would be interesting to do a ‘What’s in my Travel Carry-on bag’ just essential items I have to bring every time I go out.
Firstly, I change my bag depending on my mood and outfit, but I love love love this shoulder/hand bag from TKMax it’s big and has a lot of pockets and instalments inside which is perfect for me because I don’t want to use a smaller bag to put inside this bag. It’s too much of a hassle.
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As this academic year has drawn to a close with another chapter of my life is also closing. It’s crazy how I’ve finished my first year of university it seems like only last week I started university and now I’m finishing it and I must say it’s been such a chill year for me (a lot of people did say that 1st years do just mess and fuck around, which is true) like deadlines was the only stressful thing all year and I manage to finish with a first in my course. 

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Since I've almost finished my first year at uni I thought why not write about my experience and give advice towards people who are in university or who are thinking of going to uni. Being a joint honours student and a member of the dance and cheer society I am constantly running around juggling my student life, social life and sports life. One of the main key elements for me being successful in my uni life is organisation!! No matter what anyone say organisation is key. Some of these are just extra, it's because I AM EXTRA and I love being organise cause it helps me keep peace at mind. So here are examples of things that can help you get organised.
DIARIES/PLANNERS!
Theres a reason why they're called planners!! they help you plan and organise any assignments, exams, and activities. What I tend to do in my diary is I colour coordinate, I'm a visual learner and I am obsessed with good ascetics. 
  • For my modules (or subjects if you're in A-Level/GCSE) have a different colours for each one of them and write down any assignments, homework or research task, etc on them.  
  • I also like highlighters I use the traffic light system to highlight the things I should get done first such as ORANGE highlight signifies 'GET THIS DONE FIRST' and then yellow 'DO IT SOON' and green 'AIN'T THAT IMPORTANT BUT GET IT DONE LATER'
  • I also use stickers when I write down key dates such as any competitions, interviews and exams (I usually write that inn black and highlight it within the chosen module colour code.) 
  • For essays, reports and presentations I usually write down a list of tasks to do such as; researching, books, articles I need to read, meetings and planning the essay out.
  • Writing down any activities that the university offers date and time, whether it be practices, career talks, volunteering programmes or conventions. Write them down so that you won't forget.
CALANDAR
I use both physical and computer calendars because it reminds my stupid ass. 
  • I basically just write down any important dates; exams, interviews, due dates, holidays, especially occasions (Similar to my planner but a simplified version/overview.) 
POST-STICK NOTES
Sticky notes are my life savers, I use them for revision and to organise my work. 
  • I use different coloured sticky notes for each of my modules/subjects and write the simplified version of the module guide and then afterwards I would tick and write down what grade I got, I usually stick these around my wall/desk. Example: 
DEV1002 
1) Essay 2,000 word (19th Dec)
2) Group Presentation (Feb 20th-Mar 24th)
3) Exam 2hr (May 2nd) 

FOLDERS/BINDERS
Probably the only thing that keeps my physical work AND computer folders organised. 
  • PHYSICAL FOLDER: Use binders to divide my work into modules/subjects, make sure you write the date down for each paperwork you have (trust me it helps you so much).
  • COMPUTER FOLDERS: Similar to physical, different folders for modules and within those folders I would make a new set of folders and divide them up into weeks. I also have a separate folder called 'ASSIGNMENTS' which basically have all my assignments in there. 
LEARNING APP
I'm not sure if all universities have these, but my uni does and it's basically an app has all the essentials you need in terms of modules. I recommend downloading this app not only cause I am constantly on my phone 24/7 but because it gives you notifications of any announcements your lecturers release. 

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💖💖💖


So I thought about what else I could post on my blog since there's nothing interesting in my life right now, and I got the inspiration from one of my friends to do a '20 Facts About Me' 

1. I'm Filipinooo~ with a little Chinese blood, but I'm not gonna go into details about my ancestry. 

2. Born in Bicol, Philippines and raised in Brighton/Birmingham, England. I haven't been back to the Philippines in 10 years, so I'm pretty much white-washed. 

3. I can't speak tagalog or any filipino dialect, just English. But I can still understand ^^

4. I'm such a huge comic book fan, especially the cinematic universes', my favourite are the x-men & spider-man series 💖

5. I love to dance, as a hobby; I use to go to tap, ballet, jazz and contemporary classes.

6. I always look at dance inspirations on youtube, my favourite choreographers are; Parris Goebel, Ellen Kim, Sorah Yang, Keone/Mari Madrid, Kyle Hanagami, Jade Chynoweth, KK Harris & More (might do a post on this)

7. Proud Potterhead⚡ and a proud Hufflepuff - I pretty much watch all the Harry Potter films every year. 

8. Still and will forever love K-pop, as corny as that sounds, I've been interested in Korean culture since 2008. 

9. I'm pretty flexible, I can do the splits, certain tumbles and other basic gymnastics skills, however, I wish to learn more in the future.

10. My dream job is to be a Flight attendant and to work within a international development organisation  ✈ 

11. Cat Lover!! 🐱 I once owned 9 cats. 

12. My favourite colours are teal and rose gold. 

13. I'm also interested in Japanese culture too, I love their music, dramas, food, cities, anime and such 🗼

14. I'm a feminist, yes! say what you wanna say about feminist, but if the definition of a feminist is the social, political and economic equality of the sexes then why wouldn't I support that. I also think that it's pretty subjective topic. ♀

15. I compete in cheerleading for uni, cause why not.

16. I have an underbite, my teeth are pretty fucked up I've been waiting to get my surgery done so I can have an overbite. 

17. Lee Taemin is still my husband, after 9 years we're still going strong. 

18. I can shuffle/house step (if i really try) 

19. I spend 80% of my time on YouTube

20. My favourite film company is Studio Ghibli 





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University Dance Competition 2017 


If you don't know me, I have a passion for dancing, I've been dancing since I was 6. So for uni I decided to join the hip-hop squad for this year!! 
There's not doubt that these group of people are the most fun people to be around with. One of my closest people are in this club and I'm sooo happy to have joined!

Our first competition was at Loughborough University, it was my first time at an actual dance competition, and well let's just say I was so overwhelmed there were so many great uni dance groups, I definitely got stage fright. There was 30 universities performing and the venue was massive!! When it was our turn to perform our music got cut off....Out of all the unis our got cut off ahaha... but we manage to perform again which was terrifying. Loughborough was a great experience and I can't wait to smash it again next year. 

Our second competition was at Northampton, well long story short WE CAME 1ST PLACE FOR NOVICE HIPHOP!!! I was actually in shocked since we thought we would place 3rd or 2nd but nope 1st Place for my hip hop girls and thats all!

















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Cheerleading University Competition 2017


During my first year of university I manage to compete in Cheerleading, I must say at the beginning I was reluctant because I never cheered before, not only that but I also gave in to the stereotype of cheerleaders. Luckily that wasn't the case for my cheer team, I am so happy to have joined the university cheer team this year I got to meet new people, learn new things and also develop and improve my flexibility. Although I originally wanted to learn how to tumble (i never learnt in the end) I still got to keep fit and active because of it. 

One thing I learned from cheer is that attendance is sooo important for anything if one person doesn't attend you're basically screwed as a group and you have to learn the whole routine and pyramid again. 
But safe to say that during my first cheer competition the majority of the team were 1st years and things got a bit overwhelming, we didn't do so great for our first comps however we manage to come 3RD out of 9 universities in Future Cheer! which was surprising since we messed up the dance sequence. 

The second thing I learned from cheer is that CHEERLEADING IS A SPORT!! not many people credit it as a sport and I was one of them. But seeing as now I've experienced it myself cheer is definitely a sport the strength, flexibility, the synchronisation and other skills you need to gain and everything else was just as similar to any other sport, yea we may look pretty and all but to be able to hold another body put, the timings, dance, jumps, pyramid, tumbles, stunts all play for point. 
If anyone is up for debate about how cheerleading is sports ask them have you ever tried it yourself on a competitive level? 
This is why you don't judge children, never judge a book by its cover. 

Our 2nd competition was Legacy Cheer, no lie it was a long day I mean who performs at 5:30 pm to get results at 11:30 pm... like what?? no... We manage to get 2ND PLACE!! 
Next year we're gonna become more stronger and better, and hopefully, I'll be able to learn how to tumble. I'm thankful to my cheer team that voted me as their secretary for 2017/18

LET'S GO STALLIONS LET'S GO!!






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Erika Jane | 20 | Student | British-Filo | Birmingham | Northampton

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