Happy International Women's Day! | Graphic by Niña Terol-Zialcita, created using Canva.com

First of all, let me take this opportunity to greet every woman out here for International Women’s Day 🙂 As some of you may already have gathered from reading some of my previous posts, I’m a fan of spoken word poetry and have dabbled in a bit of spoken word myself. So, to celebrate International Women’s Day 2014, I share here a curated list of eight powerful spoken word performances that I believe every empowered woman must watch in order to remind her of her…Continue Reading “8 Powerful Spoken Word Performances for Women”

"Self-Portrait #2" by Niña Terol-Zialcita | Correction ink on board (2012)

First Wednesdays of the month are Poetry Slam nights for my favorite hangout, Sev’s Café (which I affectionately call my “unofficial living and dining room”). The “slam” consists of a competition for amateur spoken word artists and poets, while the open mic portion–as the name suggests–welcomes anyone and everyone who wishes to share a piece (or more!). Here is a piece I’ve done for both the slam and our open mic sessions. I wrote it shortly after supertyphoon Haiyan (local name: Yolanda) flattened many coastal…Continue Reading “Poetry: “You are not Broken””

Mitch Albom and Me ;)

I was such a huge fan of Tuesdays with Morrie, the New York Times bestseller about professor Morrie Schwartz’s lessons on dying and death, as experienced and written by his student, Mitch Albom. Like many of Albom’s readers, I had always regarded him as an inspirational writer whose works are “must-reads” and “must-shares.” So imagine my surprise (and elation!) when I got a call from my Rappler editor, asking if I would take on an assignment interviewing Albom during his trip to the Philippines. My answer was inelegant,…Continue Reading “A Tuesday with Mitch Albom”

BAGS FOR REBUILDING LIVES. [Clockwise from upper left] Taclob meets with master bagmaker, Mr. Yadu Saulo and Khumbmela/Yadu Bag’s managing partner Dhanvan Saulo; 5th grader Angelo is one of the first owners of the upcycled, storm-proof, hand-made Taclob Bags; behind-the-scenes at the Ambassadors of Compassion photo shoot; Jourdan Sebastian in Tacloban, with the first recipients of Taclob bags. All images from the Instagram account of Jourdan Sebastian, used with permission.

(First published on Homegrown.ph on February 21, 2014) How does a country recover from the unprecedented disaster unleashed by a supertyphoon? By creating new opportunities and creating a thriving center for enterprise. by Niña Terol-Zialcita Can the Philippines be the social enterprise capital of the world? This was the bold question raised by Jourdan Sebastian, a filmmaker, producer, actor, and spoken word artist who recently co-organized “Operation Airdrop” to airlift much-needed relief goods to remote areas that were hardest hit by Yolanda. A self-proclaimed “Dreamer Warrior,” Sebastian…Continue Reading “Building The Social Enterprise Capital Of The World (Homegrown.ph)”

"Surviving the 10-Day Lemon Juice Cleanse": A must-read on Rappler.com! :)

NOTE: My first major piece for the year was the product of sacrifice, self-awareness, honesty, and a whole lot of lemon juice. THANK YOU to my editors at Rappler for allowing me to share this–and thanks to the many readers who made this one of the “most read” pieces for that cycle! Sharing an excerpt here 🙂 MANILA, Philippines – The Lemon Juice Cleanse, a.k.a. Master Cleanse or the Lemonade Diet, is a 10-day cleanse that involves fasting on all solid foods and drinking only…Continue Reading “Surviving the 10-Day Lemon Juice Cleanse (Rappler.com)”

"Mighty Aphrodite" in Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, November 2013 issue

NOTE: This is a late post, and I apologize to my editors for not promoting the November 2013 issue of T+L Southeast Asia early enough. But between dealing with the aftermath of supertyphoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) plus all the traveling we did in November, there hasn’t been much time to catch our breath! Mighty Aphrodite A young woman in the Philippines has made it her personal mission to save the seas. By Niña Terol-Zialcita (Published in the November 2013 issue of Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia) Many little…Continue Reading “Mighty Aphrodite (Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia)”

AMANPULO. Paradise in the Sulu Sea. Screen shot from http://www.amanresorts.com/

(First published on November 4, 2013) in Rappler.com) [See the original image here] MANILA, Philippines – Amanpulo, the ultra-exclusive resort located in Pamalican Island in the Sulu Sea, has once again made it to Condé Nast Traveller’s list of Top 100 resorts, hotels and spas in the Readers’ Travel Awards 2013. The resort was cited among the Top 20 in the Asia & India category, with a numeric rating of 77.88 over 100. Amanpulo is the only Philippine resort to make it to this year’s Top 100. According…Continue Reading “Amanpulo, Visayas Islands among the best of Conde Nast (Rappler.com)”

DINIWID PARADISE. Heaven's painting. All photos by Niña Terol-Zialcita

(First published on November 3, 2013 in Rappler.com) I kicked off my flip-flops and dug my feet into the cool, soft sand. It was the first sunny morning in a week of stormy skies and sudden rainshowers, and I wanted to make the most of it. I sipped the warm, sweet taho that I bought from a roving vendor, then I settled my glass snugly into the sand before finding my own sweet spot. In front of me, the high tide was carrying strong waves in a…Continue Reading “Diniwid beach: The quiet side of Boracay (Rappler.com)”

The Paris must-sees | Photos by Niña Terol-Zialcita | View more travel photos at @ninaterol on Instagram

(First published in asianTraveler Magazine in October 2010) Note: A colleague of mine is traveling to Paris in a couple of weeks, which made me fish out my old Paris booklets and re-open this old published piece. I share it here in case anyone needs tips for getting to know Paris in just 24 short but sweet hours. I have to admit: it was a rather foolish decision to make Paris only a short pit stop between my trip to Prague, Czech Republic, where I had spent…Continue Reading “#ThrowbackThursday: Paris in a Hurry (asianTraveler Magazine)”