January 23, 2009 - 5.30am - 10.30am @ PUP
This post was created today, but the words refer to the time I went to the locations.
So yesterday (Jan 22) we went to PUP to get my permit. Unfortunately I got rejected because I didn’t had a seal on my form, it was my first time to go there, with Martney, I was so, let me say it this way, naasar, hahaha. “Sayang pamasahe,” I say to my self walking home from the main building “nakakaasar talaga! Hahahaha, okay lang atleast naka-punta na’ko at alam ko na rin kung pa’no! Hahahaha”. Nakakahiya tuloy kay MatMat. Hmp! :))
Today (Jan 23). My brother accompanied me to the campus, he was sort of my tour guide, he was the university’s alumni back in 2001, I think? PUP is a state university, sabi nga ni ate Livi nung retreat, hindi ibig sabihin kapag mura panget na, at hindi rin ibig sabihin mahal maganda na ang form ng education, she’s from UP by the way, Philosophy major and studying law at the moment, well that was — cool. 
I believe her, it doesn’t necessarily mean na kapag mura e wala nang kwenta. 
Money is something but it’s not everything, sabi ni Ptr. Jonathan. Saan ka nakakita ng public university na may Olympic size pool at largest library in the whole Southeast Asia/Asia (correct me if I’m wrong, ‘yun kasi ang sabi ng aking kuya ^^,). Regardless if it’s known as the home of the student activist, it still depends on the students if they would join the groups.
We went to the Admission’s Office, it was super haba ng pila! It wasn’t like that yesterday, maybe because we went there afternoon na. So, puro so, yeah, hahahaha. Ayun. My brother toured me all over the campus - from his old class room from east wing to the north wing - explaining every feature. Bwahahaha. It was a nice experience - he was a nice tour guide.
We stopped by at Cubao to eat, and then he left me - I had to go home early ’cause I was running for my retreat. He had to go to Gilmore for PC stuff.
January 23, 2009 - 12.30pm - 3.00am @ WCC Campus - Luntiang Paraiso, Giginto-Bulacan
As usual I had to come late, it’s a bit sad ’cause being late is growing in me. 
Not so late though, I arrived 15 minutes early in time to board the bus. But eventually I had to go to Circle-T to by necessary stuff - for some important purposes.
In the bus
It was sooo hot. Ivan kept on complaining about the heat, “Ito na ba ‘yung 1.6k?”, and so did Martney, “1.6k na ba ‘to?” and so I tried to make them shut their mouth - “Hoy, ‘wag ganun.” But they ignored me. People. When will they ever learn to be mature enough? 
We stopped at a gasoline station sa NLEX - seeing Starbucks you can hear my classmates cheering for it. “Wow, bili tayo dali,” mumured someone “sir, pwede po bang bumaba?”, “Hindi” sir Panizal replied. “300 lang pera ko, Starbucks pa? Ayos.” Roel added. “Ang tagal naman, magkano ba ‘yung pinakarga Angel?” Ivan asked, “2000 ata, oo, 2000 nga.” I said.
The trip
We opened the windows by the way, we can’t take the heat anymore. It was weird why we had to take that bus. Hahahaha. I was listening to Can I Have This Dance over and over again, LSS, gosh, it made me fall for HSM again. The heart of a kid and the mind of an adult: that’s me; maybe that’s why I enjoy being a teenager so much, I’m in between. High school, I will surely miss you.
Knowing how this trip was going to end - there was only one thing in my mind, we’ll all be leaving the school soon - much sooner, a month left to go and it’s goodbye high school and hello to co-llege? Hahaha. I can’t still accept that I’m so old, I’m not supposed to be like this am I? I’m supposed to be happy, yey! I’m leaving WCC at last, but I’ll surely miss the people who made my life meaningful there, ten years there, gosh, that’s the longest stay I’ve ever made. And every year the people you meet added that every percent of memory in your life.
The arrival
Bulacan is a very beautiful place. I remember four years ago, Bulacan was our destination in our field trip, Pulilan - Butterfly Heaven, and I wonder if 8 Waves belong to that part of Bulacan. Graduating years; these are the days, we might as well make good use of it - the time is very fragile - use it for important things. Happy memories.
Ang habang intro nun for this paragraph - so we arrived in a very big house - it’s a resort named Luntiang Paraiso situated at Giginto, Bulacan. It was pink, cute; and the rooms were air-conditioned, with Cable-TV and a refrigerator (except that the ref was empty. O.o LOL). Double-deck beds, and a bathroom - of course it is a hotel so they provide slippers, towels, toothbrush, shampoo, toothpaste and that Bioderm soap, the smell, I can’t get over with :))
Our room was green/pink I completely forgot. Oh yeah, the entrance was full of baging like a jungle, hahaha, it had three pools, one medium size - where most of us swam; a big one, super lalim - the boys enjoyed a lot, it was sooo deep; and a kiddie pool - no one swam in it ’cause everybody thought it was dirty! Hahahaha. Oh yeah, we had cute name tags - sort of reminded me of our Get Connected 2007! Recollection at WCC-QC. Ma’am Malou, your preaching that time was awesome. I will never forget you! 
And you’re so pretty! ^.~
Introduction: Identity (Conference Room)
Our theme for this year was DOTA: Developing Our Traits and Assets, lead by Ptr. Al Termulo. I was moved by his message, though now I sort of forgot what actually his points were. Sorry. But I’ll get some info on the things he pointed out. I wasn’t paying attention in writing that time. I was just listening.
We watched “Father’s Love Letter”, if you don’t know this yet click here. If the link doesn’t work try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKmdIdQg3Ks (well of course this wasn’t the version the leader’s used, they had one made by them.)
But before that, we had a relay game. Human BING-O, sort of, we had to get every boxed signed by someone who’d do the action, it was fun. Martney, Rhonette and Katrina won. Game-ish people really. They don’t really like to lose. So ni-career nila yung event na ‘yun. Hahahaha. ;P
Molding of Character - Ptr. Al Termulo
Now this was the time I got to my senses - we discussed our responses to the following what was the way we do and the righteous way:
Elaborating Luke 5:1-11
We turned to 3 points:
The Adversity Test
How do you respond to failure?
The Authority Test
How do you respond to authority?
The Affluence Test
How do you respond to success?
I should’ve written the POWER points, but I guess I didn’t do it. Ahahahaha. ;P
The swimming
We didn’t got our free time, ’cause we had took over-time. But it was good, kabitin nga lang. So we ate dinner, yummy naman yung food. After that the leaders declared that we have our free time kasi we finished our dinner early. Some stayed I think for Prayers and Counseling — the leaders and teachers stayed at the Conference Room while we start dressing up for the swimming. Everyone was so excited about swimming, guys did the stunts (weird stunts and considering the malicious stunts), we played until 12.00 in the morning. Some had the sing-along; it was a very enjoying moment for all of us — we actually wanted to stay longer but we were supposed to turn the lights of at exactly 12.00am.
But we are still the hard-headed batch of fourth year - ever - I think. Some of us stayed as late as 6.30am and that was supposed to be our call-time for waking up. Talk about staying up late - early. Hahahaha.
I was one of those - freaks. Honestly I just slept for two-hours. At 1.00am Rhonette and I can’t sleep so we wander up and down the stairs, down at the Conference Room for food - coffee, hot choco - Jjamphong! Hahahaha. Played the guitar. Obviously I can’t get over it - time was so fast and the next time I’ll be making an entry I’ll be talking about our graduation - time. Gosh, it’s so fast like it’s playing in fast-forward.
I can’t sleep - Aleli was bothered, I thought she was so bored and just wanted to get the right position in sleeping but she talked to me - prayed for me. This was the time the whole loving rebuke happened. I sort of wished Renalyn was there, honestly she’s in a need of that - prayers. Rhonette, Aleli and I slept in Room 1 - together with the female leaders. It was cute ’cause Ma’am Genie chose us to be their room mates - sweet! ^_____^
So after that Aleli didn’t really sleep yet, she ate her junkfoods, “Masama sa katawan ‘yan!” I said whispering, “Oo nga! Bigay mo na lang dito yan.” Rhonette said while talking with her suitor over the phone. Oh yeah, Ivan paid us a visit - weird. So Ma’am Genie had to shut him up and shun him out - Hahaha. “Ivan, you’re not supposed to be here.” she said, and so Rhonette and I laughed by that time Aleli was asleep. It was weird ’cause we were still talking then a little while she’s fast asleep. Martney entered our room often, asking me to come out - and so I did. Around two o’clock we were still at their room, Matthew, Michael, Sir Panizal were all crazed on playing their PSPs I’m not even sure that was allowed. Sir Jem was asleep, soundly. Alfonso and Bay were outside - Roel was asleep with Richard in the other room. James and MC were ghost hunting like whatever they didn’t saw anything - just want to kill themselves with weird thoughts. I even saw them trying to open doors one-by-one on our corridor. Weird really. Then a little later shouts were heard coming from Kaye’s room and the sound of MC and James ridiculous scary minggles.
It was tiring staying up so late around 4.30, I had fallen asleep for about 45 minutes - so Martney called me out to the lobby - I said I couldn’t take it anymore, I got the food from the ref and gave it to him, so I blame my self for causing him the headache the morning after - he was so up so late because of the chocolate content on the chips I gave him.
Around 5.30am I woke up expecting that he would still be awake - though it was forbidden to go up there - not so forbidden - but girls weren’t supposed to be at the boys’ lounge. To my surprise he was still asleep, he was so peaceful — I tried to take off his slippers, but he hesitated and almost kicked me. They were all asleep except Mark “Bay”, he was the one to open the doors - I think he didn’t sleep.
So I got downstairs, little by little my classmates were waking up - Sir Reggie was awake, so we took pictures of our classmates while they were sleeping, it was fun! Hahahaha. And so the wake up time passed around 7.00am some dressed up for swimming — boys were early swimming — but we still had our last session at 9.00am so they had to like umahon kaagad. Hahahaha.
Like Bella or Edward — calculating that time — the night swimming with my classmates, is one of the best nights of my life. And I’ll cherish that as long as I live.
At breakfast Percival mentioned that, “Hindi na mauulit ‘to, I mean, itong magkakasama tayo.” I believe him, “Once in a lifetime.” he added, “Oo nga e, college na tayo next year.” I said, it’s true, that was our last gathering together, not like that’s going to happen again - might as well make the best out of it right?
The teachers gathered. The leaders too. And some visitors came to give us another session, our ” Career Orientation”, Ate Livi and Kuya Ice. I’ll never forget them, just like Ma’am Malou from two years ago. She was a good speaker. It’s a good thing that WCC-QC hire Christian employees, siguro nagkakataon lang, pero I think sa Human Relations Office hila dun, a lot are Christians. ^.~
So the session ended. Six were awarded — The most behaved: Percival and Jun Jun; the most cooperative: Martney and I ^_______^; The most polite: Aleli; From preventing on being biased the leaders awarded the cleanliness award to the boys’ room; Gab, MC, James and Jun Jun with Sir William.
So that was it — we took our baths got to our bus and went home. HOME BOUND.
That was the little story of our retreat, these are just partial of what happened, but we’ll forever treasure that event in our memories and hearts.
Good luck sa Prom, CAT Graduation and Graduation! Aja Fourth Year Matthew!
Bottom Line: We’re still all in this together. Somehow. Hahahaha.
