written yesterday, Nov. 6

I'm back! :-) Baguio has been incredibly fun but I hardly felt like I went through three days of the retreat. Everything just seemed to pass me by ridiculously quickly and I'm beginning to miss the cool weather as well as wearing our class jacket, which I can hardly use in Manila due to the constant humidity of the place.

I'll try placing everything in detail just to keep a record of the whole trip. I definitely want to look back at this again several years from now.

Wednesday, November 3 - Day 1
Jessie and I didn't bother to get any sleep, and we found ourselves staying up making palanca letters and surfing the internet until the wee hours of the morning. After fixing up our bags and fixing ourselves up, we left my grandfather's house at 3:50am, then arrived at MC at exactly 4:02am (the car said so anyway).

Since the school still seemed to be completely dark and empty at that time (we were that early... atat kasi eh :)), my dad stayed with us until Maria, one of our classmates, finally arrived. After this, everyone soon began pouring in and we ended up leaving at past 5am already due to a classmate who arrived late.

A rosary, some sleep and about 7 hours later, we finally arrived at our most-anticipated destination. It was a double treat for me because it wasn't only our last and longest retreat so far, but it was also my first time in Baguio. I was thrilled at the sight of all the fog that began to surround us when we started passing through the actual mountains because they could really make you feel like you were being carried through the clouds... everything was just so nice and cold and foggy.

My first taste of Baguio air came when we all stepped off the bus outside the Maryknoll Sisters Convent. It reminded me strongly of Narita, especially when we realized that we were already speaking with fog from our mouths. After a very brief dose of picture-taking, the class went on to their respective dorms to settle down. I was assigned in DORM 3 (Silid-tulugan 3) along with Annalice, Rosa, Bhelly, Myrgel, Jessie, Cla, Emily, Janeh, KC, Helen, and Noelle.


Silid-Tulugan 3... looks creepy here.

We had several activities afterwards. Basta yan nalang muna at ayaw kong i-spoil para sa mga magreretreat pa. Also, I remember having this day as the day where I got to finally free myself of guilt from something... so there. :) Sir Diwa also got to tell us some ghost stories today.

By the way, I also learned that two dogs lived in the retreat house today. Very cute... they were waiting for food to be tossed their way. Both of them kept on staring at anyone who would acknowledge them with eyes that seemed to want to communicate. Haha... cute.

Thursday, November 4 – Day 2
I woke up at 4:30am to take a bath so several of my dormmates and I (along with several other classmates in the other dorms) could go with Mrs. Abenes to the 6am mass. My body temperature seemed to come in slight extremes— I woke up to feeling very cold and then took a bath to extremely warm water (there was even a point when the water got too hot to take a bath in... but fortunately the heater went back to the right temperature shortly afterwards).

It was already around 5:30am when some of my classmates and I hung around outdoors in the court of the convent. We stayed there, waiting for the sunrise (because Baguio reportedly has some of the most beautiful sunsets/sunrises in the country) in spite of the darkness of the place (we couldn't even see each other well yet). Unfortunately, we weren't able to witness it because it turned out that we weren't facing the east after all, and we only got to see a few rays shoot out at around 6am.

At several minutes past 6, several classmates and I made our way with Mama Josie to the nearby parish. It felt so good to be able to walk down the street in the cold weather, with fog escaping our mouths again. I even saw several young students (mostly 6-10 year olds) walking with their backpacks in their legwarmers and jackets going to school. Also it was so refreshingly unusual seeing people in sweaters everywhere knowing that I've experienced warm weather in the Philippines for much of my life (Tagaytay palang ang napuntahan kong medyo malamig. =)), and all the sights gave me the feeling of wanting to live there too.

The whole sight of children walking to school especially impressed me and made me feel guilty at the same time because I know that I tend to complain in my mind whenever I have to conduct the simple task of walking to the college tricycle area every Wednesday dismissal time to commute.

Anyway, moving on with things, we reached the small church at around 6:30 I think, and then heard mass. We then trekked back to our retreat house/convent and had breakfast.

Today I also named the two dogs I saw (And even saw another one tied to a little rock–like dog-sheltering roof... but he seemed less friendly. He was a black dachshund who didn't seem to be very nice to visitors) after one of our meriendas for the retreat: Long John (a long-shaped bread with sugar) and Hot Chocolate because they looked like food.


Friendly Long John and Antisocial Eddie/Hot Chocolate (or sunog na long john as jessie calls it)

Sir Diwa renamed Hot Chocolate as Eddie because he said that the dog looked like the one in 100 Good Deeds for Eddie McDowd... nakakatawa kasi parating masama daw ang tingin ni EDDIE sa kanya. Kaya parati niyang iniirapan.

Sir Diwa: (points to Eddie) Is this dog a girl?
several classmates: Oo, babae po siya...
Sir Diwa: Ah... well she's a bitch.


Hehehe... natawa ako dun ah.

For the other activities, we had a cosmic journey (interesting hike), a group presentation on Jesus, a brief lecture on the history of the Maryknoll Sisters and Mother Mary Joseph, an inspiring film-viewing portion, a visit to the beautiful sanctuary house (bioshelter), a flower ritual, an affirmation envelopes thing, a Julian-of-Norwick dance, a candle-lighting event, and the bonfire.

The bonfire was enjoyable in particular. We first had our group (by dorm) presentations and had a blast doing so. Joke time eh! Haha... sobrang saya. =D I swear I love my class. (At Paula, Jasmine isn't my idol. My brother and I just wanted to meet her. Beh! But keep an eye on Camile and Martin Nievera who are having a concert this December. :) hehe...Ok... why did they enter my baguio story? Anyway...)

Afterwards, we all got to roast marshmallows and hotdogs on sticks, along with graham crackers (partial s'mores... walang chocolate syrup eh). It was just irritating and funny because the marshmallows kept on melting hopelessly into the fire while our faces were already being welded with heat, and yet the hotdogs remained cold and uncooked. I think most of us had to eat either burnt or half-cooked hotdogs but that was okay, because they were good all the same. It was really funny because everyone was working to withstand the extreme heat from burning their fingers and melting their faces just to get their hotdogs cooked. Hehe, desperado talaga. And yes, I also got to eat a melted marshmallow on graham crackers and it was just incredible. Chewy and slimy and good all at the same time. :)

After the eating session, we had a positive-affirmation-of-the-class thing around the bonfire. Creepy things were reported to have happened during this activity, along with the other activities of this day. But I won't elaborate anymore. Argh, I felt like crying everytime someone squealed about capturing a ghost in their camera or seeing figures pass by during the bonfire. Pati nga yung isa kong classmate, lumabas na nakatuwalya lang dahil sa takot despite the fact that Sir Diwa was there.

And guess what? Our present IV-4 classroom has also been reported to be haunted, it being beside the CAT room, which is also haunted. Yikes... good luck nalang for the rest of the schoolyear.


Part of the class before roasting marshmallows at the bonfire (the small figure beside my head isn't a ghost... that's Sir Pino)

Oo na, may pagkatatakutin ako dahil malakas ako maka-imagine din. I just don't like the feeling of the whole thing. Whether any of the stories or none of it or all of it is true, I wouldn't know as I still don't know what to believe with regards to visitors from the afterlife. But at the same time, I don't think I’d want to personally find out if any of it is true either. I'm happy with my insensitive and closed sixth sense. Please stay that way.

ANYWAY, after the bonfire, several tauphiphiers and I stayed up a while longer to listen to Mama Josie and Daddy Diwa’s own ghost stories. Kapal namin no? Takut na takot na nga eh nagpatakot pa. I guess I just like listening to those kinds of experiences even though I get scared afterwards.

Si Sir Pino nakakatawa pa kasi hindi mo ma-eexpect sa kanya bilang tahimik na CL teacher, pero parati nalang nananakot. Yung biglang pagkita ko nasa likod na namin siya bigla sa bonfire, or nagiimbento siya ng stories ng mga nakikita niya sa hallways ng convent.

Obviously, the whole day pretty much scared me (the three teachers we went with had really good ghost stories and even morbid trivia) but this day was my favorite because we got to do and learn a lot. And it was good just being able to bond as IV-4.

Friday, November 5 – Day 3
We ended up waking up and taking a bath at 6am already on this day. After breakfast, we had a class mass and a mini-clay-pot-painting session where we were also able to meet the Maryknoll convent's resident artist, Clemente Delim (a deaf and mute man who's extremely talented at the arts. Hanga ako sa mga ginawa niya. sobra.).

Then we had to go. Fortunately, we were allowed to shop for an hour and a half at Mines View kaya nakabili ako ng pasalubong. =)

The bus ride home was sprinkled with sleep and more ghost stories... but this time, we focused on all the creepy events that took place in the retreat house (dahil nakaalis na kami). Scary... but we were able to get over it in some way or another fortunately.

Although we left Mines View in Baguio at 2pm, we already arrived at MC past 10 in the evening. Jessie slept over again because she didn't have anyone to fetch her at that time.




Anyhooo... to sum everything up: THE RETREAT WAS MEMORABLE AND FUN. The activities were okay, the food was good, and being with Mama Josie, Daddy Diwa, Sir Pino, and beloved IV-4 was just excellent. :-) It was a nice and successful retreat.

And even with all the restless and lingering spirits in Baguio, I would like to try to go back again (this time to more ghost-free accommodations) because it was just so relaxing and refreshing to get exposed to a different place for once in a long time. However, I guess it would have to be back to reality for us again for now because I am now going to have to face a long test and an Econ quiz on Monday. With that, I still have to start my 3-5page CL Essay. Argh.



On more recent events, we had an Ecosongfest practice today (I went from 9am-5pm... it was supposed to be at 7 but I couldn't pick myself up during that time as the trip home last night was tiring). Everything is finally done and now we just need to practice the choreography like heck during the next few days. The competition is already on Thursday of this week so please pray for us and wish us good luck as well.

After this, I went with Rosa to develop the pics and then go to the Hyperbeat concert. It seemed too perky and something else at first but as my classmates and I finally got to dance hyper-ly in front of the stage, we finally got to have a bit more fun. Nakakatawa pa at para kaming kulto— we (Rosa, Ven, Annalice, Claude’s sister Cathy and I) were all coincidentally wearing pink when we met each other at the entrance of UP's Bahay ng Alumni while Claude, in a green blouse, was trying to sell a few extra hyperbeat tickets so she looked like our cult leader. Hehe. And to top things off, we bought fishballs and a 7-up bottle with part of the money we earned. :)

So that will be my long entry for this month. I am now happily tired because it's nearly 2am and I'm already craving for a lot of shhleeeeep :)