April 18th, 2007
i'm back, rejuvenated and reborn!
the past week that i was not in the office i was in lilliput. remember jonathan swift's famous gulliver's travels? lilliput, and blefuscu, are two fictional island nations that appear in this 1726 novel and both islands are characterized by all things tiny.
i had been hopping from one island to another these past 7 days and i should say that all the islands i went to are tiny yet they are also as impressive as the lilliput. images of lilliput that have come to be engraved in my head are anything but good and amazing, what with the tiny people's ability to outsmart gulliver and kick him off his wits inspite of his imposing built. and the lilliputans have developed their own society, making up a culture definite and separate from that of the neighboring islands. people who come to lilliput are in many ways affected by its culture no matter how brief his/her stay in the island is, and at the same time he/she also affects lilliput as the island accepts all forms of new things though their mode of adaptation may differ.
davao-cagayan
april 12, thursday
anna and i took the 10am bus bound for cagayan. the 7-hour trip was not so much of a teaser. the gruelling experience in the campus from the other day held me a captive of sleep and the zigzag road was not really friendly. i had bouts of stomach upset and so was anna who was seated away from me. the posters of miguel zubiri which were all over the davao-bukidnon road was not so pleasing to the eye too. but we arrived in cagayan safe, nonetheless.
cagayan-cebu
april 13, friday
it proved to be a bad idea, going to cebu by ship, but the business office's less friendly inhabitants and their unsystemic system hindered us from being able to make advanced plans and scout for better and easier way to the capital of the visayas. and so from the terminal off we went to the port after we bought tickets of transasia china vessel. we were two of the earliest passengers and we realized then how uncomfortable it would be if we rode a tiny ship as that of transasia china and so with no due deliberation and more out of impulse perhaps brought about by the tiring trip beforehand, we got down of transasia, had our tickets refunded, and headed straight to sulpicio lines. and i swear, never again will i ride the princess of the seas vessel of the SL. we reached cebu city 3hours late since the princess slept, like a true royal, not considering where and what time it was and the cases of its passengers. heck, the princess slept in the middle of the seas at 3am! and so dear cebu, sorry if we can't stay long, i thought. i jsut met pulonx and emat, and off anna and i went to the south bus terminal.
cebu city-dumaguete city
5 hours of complete feast. from the bus, the view of cebu city and the neighboring towns, the virgin beaches and the resorts, the old churches, the blue seas as we crossed islands, the experience was simply exhilarating! i guess i was just too tired confronting the familiarity of davao city, my work and the people around, that the trip simply unleashed the reserve for excitement and fun and anything new. dumaguete, as lilliput, is so tiny so that one who's accustomed to the hustle and bustle of big cities like davao would find it boring and alarmingly quiet. i had to adjust, my paradigm of things wasn't just of help to me in that little peaceful city.
dumaguete is actually a melting pot of cultures. people living there come from different races, and the color of their skin attest to that, and yet they live quietly, peacefully, happily. rates of crimes and accidents do not amount to much, and shops and bars close late at night. one could walk the streets wearing anything he/she fancies since, like singapore, people live and let live.
CEGP 67th Annual Convention
April 13-17, 2007
Silliman University, Dumaguete City
the convention was stimulating in many ways. the speakers were great in their fields, and the topics were timely and very necessary for campus journalists. the basic masses integration brought me back to the time when, as a student, i was active in causes for the majority or the masses. the gawad beng hernandez led me back to the time when beng and i walked our way from the bayan muna headquarters to victoria plaza, just a day before she went off to continue her task in the fact finding committee she was involved with (her last day in the city alive for she came back dead after a few days of her leave). the forum on election and the role of the youth was helpful as it encouraged the youth to take part as stakeholders should, to be vigilant, to be active in shaping the future of the land. i guess we need this kind of forum to enlighten us during this turbulent period. other discussions were just as interesting but the trip wore me down so that on my 2nd day in the city anna and i had to go out of the SU for a massage. the new environment, the new dorm and new set of dormmates, the hectic schedule of the convention had left me wasted, harassed, and wanting to break free.
dumaguete city-cebu city
april 15, sunday
sometimes, when u can't take things anymore, u just have to set it aside. that was one thing i learned out of this trip. so i headed back to cebu on my own, leaving behind anna in the safety and care of the convention secretariat and a few of her relatives. there were a few things i had to do in cebu for my department anyway so i thought it was just an ok thing to do. i reached cebu in time to witness manny's last rounds against jorge solis. i was thankful for that opportunity as i had time to just lay in bed for a few minutes, the one thing i could not do in SU. at 4.30 francis, julie and her bf, and i headed to the bassilica del sto nino for the afternoon mass. geez, the bassilica was so old, and heaven knows how much i appreciate old structures. the open church also stands out in its modern design and i wonder where all those people came from! there were just so many of those people coming in and out of the church that even julie wondered where they came from. we had a little dinner with more talk, and off we went back to my brother and sister's boarding house.
cebu city-bohol
april 16, monday
headed to cebu pacific ticketing outlet in sm, then to ng khai to do something concerning microsoft (ek-ek), then back to cebu pacific. wasn't able to avail of the promo so i had to tell myself again and again that travelling back to davao by ship would not be so bad as it was going forth. at 4pm, pulonx and i headed forth to bohol to meet relatives i had last met in 1994. didn't realized how much i missed my paternal grandmother until i saw her. there was just so much to talk of that it was only after midnight was i able to sleep. i never had the chance to dream these past few days.
Sagbayan Peak, Bohol
april 17, tuesday
with kuya olie and his son dj, cousins mimi and yvette, and pulonx... see folder in the gallery... there's just so much to write about but i don't know where to start.
When the dream ends.
tuesday still
cebu-cagayan
the lilliputan hallucination has to end, and it was on april 17. after having our lunch, pulonx and i ran for the port to catch the 2pm trip back to cebu. we had to buy tickets for the ship and the mother of all jokes, there was not a single vessel to depart cebu on tuesdays except for the transasia china! what an irony and a pain, i thought...but i was not bent on spending another day in cebu, i missed my home so much that i settled for little transasia china. the only good thing about transasia china was that i met one handsome guy, the only beautiful thing i had ever encountered on this trip (hehehe, he looked like some korean teleseries actor i just quite figure who). he helped me carry my trolley from the port terminal to the bus, and off the bus to the ship. it's a pity i didn't learn of his name, and his number (hehe, *wink). another night in the ship. and a few more hours on the sea.
cagayan de oro-davao city
april 18, wednesday
davao, i love you, davao! i am finally back home.