Wait, what are you doing in The Philippines?: Is it bad to go swimming during a thunderstorm?

Friday night in; I turned down a night of dancing for zucchini, tofu and tv; my body needs rest! After returning to the Ayala Museum today in Makati for a round 2 with those dioramas, I came home to relax and take a swim BUT it started monsooning;we're talking serious asian rain here people. At first it deterred me until I realized these Filipinos hate the rain! Jackpot! Pool to myself!

By the time I got around to jumping into the speedo it was dark, still no fear. Bring it on.I walk outside. The security guard was parked on the bottom floor of my building for cover under a gigantic umbrella. As I passed by with my goggles he looked at me like I was cr-azy. It was pouring. As I splashed towards the pool I found that there were a couple other brave souls in the water, young teenage boys who had too much redbull. I swam a few laps but I kept seeing flashes under water and lifting my head up trying to decided whether it was a camera or the sky. Keep swimming. More flashes. Lightening. I started looking around to see if the redbull boys were racing to get out of the pool. I feel like I've seen some scary jeff goldblum movie where when the lightening starts the people RUN out of the water. Is it dangerous to swim during thunderstorms???? Since I had to ask myself I decided to get out and just stand in the warm rain for a few minutes instead. Although it was cut short, there's no better feeling than swimming when it's raining.

Ayala; I am in love with this museum. But you already knew that from my earlier post on falling for Fernando Zobel de Ayala's photography. I spent some more time looking at his work today on the 2nd floor reading some of his letters. He wrote a lot of letters while he was traveling in Manila, Spain, Italy. Something that he wrote in one of them that stayed with me today was,

"The only thing to do is shrug your shoulders and start again"

He had gorgeous handwriting.

Post Zobel fest, I made it down to the Filipino dioramas (again) this time equipped with the freaking audio headset thank you very much! I took my time listening to the story behind the scene in front of me for all 60 dioramas. There was so much to take in. Trade with the Chinese, Catholicism vs Islam, Spanish occupation, Rizal, American occupation, Philippines independence.....I think I was on that floor for 2 hours until I finally checked my watch and realized I was almost out of time. I still only feel like I gained partial understanding of the struggles that led this country to there independence day. Which is on June 12th btw, soon! I wonder how they celebrate....

In other news I filmed for another local channel here this week!! On tuesday night the film crew from a lifestyle show called "Us Girls" came to the Fort studio. I did the interview this time (which for some reason when it came time to do, I got super nervous. Probs because there were 30 people surrounding me in 5 foot radius while I did an impromptu explanation of what barre3 is). Then Joie taught a class to the tv hosts and their entourage of good looking Filipino men. I stayed and took class, just for fun :) The show airs on Thursday at 9pm here. They may post the episode on their facebook page. If so I'll snag it. In the meantime here are some shots at the shoot;