Escapade

Elo!

The outing was a blast!! It was a very fun experience!

We were supposed to meet at Mcdo Lipa at midday, but out of curiosity and excitement, Aizel and Darryl and I compromised to meet an hour earlier. And we did, and Darryl was the last one to arrive again. Well, what’s new with him? So we chatted the time out until everyone arrived. Unfortunately, the 27 people who agreed on coming diminished to 14… Yes, the other 13 all-talk-people backed out because of this issue on NPA’s infesting Laiya. And that, for me, was very petty because San Juan was even advertised by GMA in one of their shows. Besides, we already went there a year ago, and there was not a sign of threat or terrorism. Everything was fit for paradise.

After hours of waiting for our chickeny high school section adviser, we bulleted to San Juan in full abandon. We made a stop-over at the talipapa in San Juan and bought some amenities (lamog-lamog fish, a kite that’s only plastic and skeleton, abanicos, prickly firewood, wet coal, etc.) So, we were all blabbering about the very quick ride, because the driver was flying. Maybe he thought we’re on a plane and decided to fly instead of trekking the ground. Aizel and I, who were seat at the seat nearest to the entrance of the jeep were like bouncing all the time. We were windswept; Aizel lost one of her balloons, and we almost lost our bigas, my slippers, and Aizel to the ravaging air. It was a very fast ride.

Now, we thought that was the hard catch in it, but when we finally reached the vicinity, we were forced to drive across sand dunes! Laiya’s soil is mainly powdered white sand… So imagine driving over it in a jeep. Our final destination was the resort called Ka Bugoy’s. When I set foot on the ground, the sand which accumulated inside the jeep was very thick, it literally whitened our skin. It even bleached our hair. Darryl suddenly looked 10 years older. Jomie’s nest of hair transformed into a nest (??), and I had the dirtiest feet of all.

And Jomie was suggesting a photo shoot. What’s with her??

We had some difficulty finding a place to stay because a lot of people were occupying the best places. In the end, we settled for a small cottage with two long tables coming with it for Php2000.

The first day was spent for chores. Leontine and Kathleen and Mommy Niña were making barbecues while Aizel, Angelica, and me did the hardest chore of all – sand-castle making. It was very hopeful in the beginning, with Aizel the Artist and Angelica the Architect at hand, but… Well, we never really finished the castle. The high tide swallowed it. So we resorted to kite flying. And Kim did a very good job, but we also weren’t able to appreciate it much because it was almost night fall.

Haha!

A series of unfortunate events.

Now where’s lemony snickets?

*He’s currently treating his inner-thighs allergy in Lipa… “May Hadhad Siya” in Tagalog.*

Dinner came and we dined on Banana leaves! Very fun. But we starved first before we had the chance to munch on carcinogen-rich over-fried tilapia and unevenly cooked barbecue. It was a good thing that Len didn’t come because I can never imagine her eating with her hands…

After cleaning the mess, we had this bonding session by the shore. It was dubbed as “Revelations” and to establish the program, we had to present something, like a number or … what… something to that sort. My groupmates were Ayen, Leontine, Aizel the Baby Bear, Carla the Mama Bear, Darryl the Papa Bear, Zara the Betrothed, and Kathleen. We did this song and dance number to the tune of Saligumbay-Dayang-Dayang remix and the Bear Chant. It was so hilarious! We challenged the other group consisting of Jomie, Lique, Abi, and Eeween, and they were so no match. Kim did a solo act – the Worm Dance. It was outrageous!! Haha, I’ll cherish everything for sure.

Then we proceeded to this revealing stuff. Jomie went down the hot seat first, and every intriguing thing was cleared. Everything. From Tito Jose, to Hector, to LEMY… Oooh, it was a bittersweet Jomie standing and explaining in front of us, framed by waves of the sea. Every one of us had this tingling sensation of mixed romance and parental warfare and hope (for Lemy)… They really looked good together. I’m still hoping. For them.

Kim went next. I knew I’d be the issue but he started with his love life. Then there was this hidden side of Kim slowly surfacing like some heavy bubble trapped in oil and grease. He told in full detail his pursuit of a very out-of-reach Lian and the very out-of-time Avis and his disputes with me and Edgy and JACK, and rumors. He complained to us about his very ill-fated love life, and the bad rumors about him. Then he made my entrance to the scene. He actually went down to accusing me of spreading the gossip, but I was successful of clearing my name because I’m not the one who’d backbite or spread a buzz… I mean, no man would ever do that. But I had a hard time to get cool with Kim because he had a lot of things in mind. SO, there was me and Kim in the hot seat, me holding out my hand, and Kim rejecting it. He just asked and asked, and I was just explaining and explaining. In the end, I finally convinced him that I had no more intentions of being alienated from him, so he finally accepted. And we’re cool! No more fights from now on. That’s between me and Kim… Between Kim and Lian, Det, and Ana… Time will tell. Soon.

And the other disputes… I do hope they get cool with each other this year. There will be another reunion on Christmas. I hope everyone will be there.

I can’t remember who went next… Basta. Darryl’s talk was short – all about Maico and their very short romance. Darryl was very mean to the girl! He even admitted that he didn’t like her at all; he just wanted to satisfy the girl’s needs… (??) That’s very mean! Don’t you think so, Torian?? When you engage in a relationship, there should be a 2-way benefit system. There’s no such thing as one-way love.

Kathleen was all about life in Lyceum and having 0% love life.

Lique was also a bit intriguing because he was somehow connected to Kim. There were rumors that before Lique went down to Jejo, she had a thing for Kim – but we left it to where it ended. Lique is very happy now with my cousin, and I hope them the very best that life can offer a couple of vibrant people. Lique continued with her so grimy roommate in Kalay, and in the end, everyone was grimacing.

Carla’s talk was also so short – academics and that guy who everyone had been teasing Carla with. I can’t remember his name.

I can’t remember Ayen’s talk because I must have dipped to sleep during those moments. I was forcing Ayen to tick by finger her list of crushes, and that’s a count that would reach 2 thousand.

I think Ayen has a crush with Kim.

Hihi.

Leontine hardly spoke a thing. She just said she was waiting for the outing to reconcile with Claudet and JACK. She reconciled with me when I offered my hand to her, and I felt this unique feeling of being free of burden… Social burden.

Zara’s talk was the whatabouts of her relationship with Boylet. They’re so sweet, hinatid pa si Zara nung boyfriend nya sa jeep namin nung sinundo namin siya… Very noble…

Niña was about … Well … I dunno, I can’t remember. Grrr, short term memory loss.

Eeween’s talk was juicy. Hey! Erwin has a girlfriend! The girl’s name is Mary Grace, she’s from Romblon. Erwin was also too cruel to his girl. He confessed that he’s only being man, standing by Grace as a boyfriend although his heart still throbs for Mariel. Aww… It’s so telenovela-ish. Erwin still loves Mariel, who turned him down for this Joel Luna, a goldfish-looking pale-skinned high school waste in braces. Oh, pardon me.

Mariel was blind.

Abi’s talk was delivered to us by Jomie. She didn’t talk for herself. Jomie did the love life talk about MJ (??), a possible boy toy for Abi… Haay, finally, she had fallen in love.

Aizel’s talk was about frustrated stalkers named Mark Luna. See, all Luna’s in the Philippines, except the Luna’s in Ayen’s side, are manic.

Luckily, I didn’t have to talk about my love life because they forgot all about it. Haha, I had my share of talk with Kim.

And that was the end of it. The next activity was the “Walang Tulugan Challenge”, the test which I failed to meet at end because I retired for like 2 hours because I’m so so tired and my eyes are like being blown by the night breeze. So I made these bed-like indentations on the sand, perfectly aligning each contour of my body because my scoliosis is into torturing me again. Darryl made his “bed” beside mine, and so did Aizel, and we went to Dreamland hand in hand. The next thing, I found myself still asleep but now beside everyone else. We were all huddled by the sand; some were talking about the papal candidacy of Italian cardinals, liberation theology, and Anti-Christianity. I on the other hand, journeyed through time…

Whatever.

Then came dawn, and some of my favorite people were already swimming at the ice cold beach. We (Me, Ayen, Darryl, and Aizel) joined later. It was already morning. The sun was already making its way towards the heavens. Then everyone else joined and we played this volleyball-ish game where Ayen ended up being cornered and Zara was always out of reach of the ball. I enjoyed swimming with goggles on; I saw a lot of butts… Haha.

We went offshore before the clock struck 7. Then we made this sorrowful pilgrim towards “The Rock”. It was this huge boulder at the far end of the shoreline. We were walking for like 30 minutes, and when we got there, we didn’t waste time and went down to business – Photography. We were so crazy, we took shots of ourselves posing in model stances for magazines, and I felt good about it, even though we were impeding everyone else in their attempt to get to the summit. It was so fun, I wanted to do a lot of photo shoots. Unfortunately, the cameras bugged out. One lost power, the other one went full. Oh well…

We toured the vicinity of “The Rock” and found ourselves balancing on thin flip flops because there were a lot of crevices on the rocks that jutted out of water, and the splashing water did no help. Nevertheless, we made it safe and sound, except for Kathleen who had a long nasty cut on her ankle. Poor she.

When we were about to return, we had this dispute of how to get back to home base. Most of us proposed for riding a boat, while others preferred walking. We won (boat), and the last thing I remember was we dived out of the boat in the middle of the sea, with nothing to protect us but orange floating vests and guts… FUN!! It was like 50 feet deep, but the waters were still so clear, we could actually see the rocks underneath. There weren’t any life forms, so there’s no shark to fear… It was so fun, it was my first time to swim out in the sea that far. It was a unique experience; I want to do it again!

When we finally reached home base, we prepared for departure. Then all went their separate ways…

Haay, I’ll miss them for sure. I hope we’ll have another outing next year, and I hope that time, everyone can come.

By the way, I’m very envious of Aizel’s tan. It was perfect. I feel sorry for myself for not being able to achieve it because staying out in the sun is painful in the skin. I can’t stand going out longer than 10 minutes. Maybe I’ll use tanning cream next time.

I hope I’ll see more skin next year…

Hey, no Botox injections until tomorrow! Yey!

-resting-