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Pidigan Town Fiesta

Last Sunday, we visited the town of Pidigan in the province of Abra in Northern Philippines. Pidigan celebrates its annual fiesta on the 8th of December to commemorate the Feast of the Immaculate Concepcion, its patron saint.

Just like most Filipinos, we went out only after watching the "Dream Match" between Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao and Oscar "Golden Boy" de la Hoya. At the peryahan, there was electricity in the air. Everyone felt victorious. Everyone was in celebration mode which only heightened the festivities. We didn't stay long as I had to travel back to Manila that night. But before we left, I took a few photos and bought half dozen balut.

Making It Work Long-Distance

I've often wondered how my parents made it work despite being miles apart for decades. I find it difficult to imagine being with someone and not really being WITH that someone.

TIME offers some tips on how to bridge the distance and keep the flame alive.

1. Play together.

So, your beloved is never around to help carry groceries or take you to the movies. But, consider this: Every time you see each other it's like a mini-vacation — a geographic and emotional holiday. "I lived in Seattle, he lived in San Francisco," says Aida,* a 40-year-old writer, who sometimes waited a month and a half between visits with her boyfriend. "We would meet each other on the California-Oregon border — we each had to drive six to seven hours to get there — for a long weekend of camping, hiking, drinking and sex."

But even when you don't travel, you can still keep that vacation glow alive. Jackson West, a San Francisco-based blogger, says when his New York City girlfriend comes to visit, "I love showing her around San Francisco — it feels more like an extended weekend date, or even a trip. We both make a special effort to do interesting things that we probably wouldn't if we'd started seeing each in the same city."

Of course there are limits to how much "vacationing" couples should do. You don't want to cram so much activity into a day that you forget to enjoy some quiet time as a couple — after all, this is a real relationship, not pure fantasy.

2. Manage expectations.

Eleanor Estes, an L.A.-based stylist, found herself in an extreme LDR when her boyfriend moved back to his native Greece. Like Aida, she indulged in the romance of the far-flung affair: "I loved the coming together and then leaving part," Estes confides. "It was always so thrilling."

After four years of doing the long-distance thing, Estes finally picked up and moved to Greece. Problem was, she hadn't sufficiently prepared for the hardship and loneliness of life in a foreign country, away from her friends and family, and without a job. She found herself having to return to the U.S. every three months to renew her tourist visa, which didn't help her already wearisome fish-out-of-water status. "It was difficult because I was moving somewhere where I didn't speak the language and I wasn't allowed to work. It was a new country, an impossible language and I had no friends. I put a lot of pressure on him to help me get those things, but it was too much of a change for me."

In any relationship — and especially LDRs — people can't expect their partners to be their caretakers. If you make a life-changing decision like moving cities to be together, try to establish your own support network as soon as possible, whether that means making a few friends of your own, finding a job or joining a group that shares similar interests. And remember that you each need to maintain your independence and understand that your lives don't revolve solely around one another. Love, companionship and sex should be a given, but you also need to make time for your own interests — and for those of your partner.

3. Talk constantly.

It's hard enough to communicate when you live in the same house, let alone hundreds of miles apart. That's why, despite the distance, faraway couples actually need to communicate more than those who wake up next to each other every day.

Keep up a constant stream of emails and texts, but keep in mind that they're rife with potential for misinterpretation. A dashed-off note mentioning a brilliant new coworker might have been idle chatter for you, but it could throw your partner into paroxysms of jealousy — particularly between couples who miss each other, haven't seen each other in weeks and might be feeling a little insecure. So, that means you have to talk. West says he and his girlfriend communicate through "daily email and text messages, and many phone calls in a week." He often uses instant messaging with friends, but he reserves the phone for his partner: "Why text chat when we can talk on the phone?"

4. Take chances and have faith.

Analisa,* a writer in Rhode Island, has just embarked on an intercontinental coupling with a Parisian illustrator who responded to her profile on an online personals site. "He said he found the French dating sites very depressing, so he was poking around the Anglo sites and saw me," she says. "He said he could tell from what I'd written in my ad that I was a good person, so he sent an email on a whim."

That act of optimism sparked some serious cross-cultural canoodling. The two began corresponding regularly (luckily, Analisa is fluent in French) and decided to meet up in San Francisco, where he was traveling for business. "You never know if chemistry is going to be there when you meet in person, but the rapport we established through our letters translated perfectly," says Analisa.

How about you, any tips on how to make it work long distance?