however, that didn't work too.
don't ask me why. (",)
15.10.05
(field trip '05 special entry)
six-thirty a.m., the eleventh of october, year twenty-oh-five. i got out of our car to the sight of a seemingly vast sea of monobloc chairs, white shirts, and blurred faces. i made my way through this crowd, looking for a friend. upon spotting a few, i dashed to their place, then was met by the usual cheers and jeers, like:
"wow, gab! aga naten ha!"
"oy gabriel! akala ko ba magfi-field trip ka sa bahay nyo?"
"ang laki ng polo mo! diba tee-shirt dapat?"
"pare, sasayaw ka ba? sabi kasi field trip eh.. hindi disco..."
oh well, so much for that. they still can't believe that i can go to anywhere on time. and yes, i was wearing a semi-prescribed attire for the event - blue maong pants, and a white polo shirt *i think i've fallen in love with these casual attires ever since...* big deal, huh. i also had with me my blue jansport and grey-and-red adidas bags, containing the day's essentials. and who'd forget their cellphones and pocket money?
anyway, if you still don't know what i'm talking about, here it is... we had our so-called "educational trip" last tuesday. enough said.
man, it was a long day... real long.
so, back to business. it's now six-forty-five, and i've made my way to the queue of avogadro-4, where my dearest classmates were. we were supposed to be leaving by six-thirty *coincidentally the exact time i arrived* but you know us Filipinos nowadays...
finally, all forty-two students were at the bus by seven. yeah, we're half an hour past the schedule. (and the alloted swimming time was trickling down the drain every fleeting second.) as usual, the tour guide was there, and of course the driver, a.k.a. "coach captain". two teachers were with us - one was our adviser, the other a very unfortunate and lonely math teacher (also the ex-adviser of edison-4).
the large vehicle started to move by seven-fifteen. arvie, the class president, was reading sir michael justin caruncho's very *sob* touching farewell message addressed to our class. enclosed was a picture of avogadro-4 sans two students.
then the tour guide took center stage. his name was kuya raymon(d) *sorry*... whose face was quite familiar to most of us (though he shaved his hair bald) because he was also the one who to(rt)ured us last year with the use of his brain's very large memory-capacity. he was quite cool, anyway.
i was seated somewhere in the left side-midsection of the bus with my friend cj... who was noticeably very serene. on the opposite side were abi and kim. i was seated near the aisle - a first (and last) in my four year-term in high school, for i was accustomed to sitting beside the windows. i had this nasty feeling that something queer was about to happen, provided the circumstances, but luckily there was none.
the first stop was... the philippine science centrum in makati(?). it was basically an exhibit of different science brain-twisters and (literal) headturners. there were optical illusions, satellite dishes, puzzles, and merry-go-rounds. after an hour spent there, i wished that i was never fascinated with spinning objects and angular momentum. i had a hard time walking a straight path back to the bus - my eyes seemingly were still rolling side to side and my insides twisted. then the bus was rolling once again... to cavite. i felt my head still spinning with that rotating contraption, and i struggled to keep straight and upright in my seat. fortunately, that was cured through a can of pepsi and two fox's mint candies. kuya raymon(d) was in his usual drawling self again, so i spent the next few hours of the trip communicating with my friends through the cellphone.
some of my friends bought these synthetic-but-looks-like-something-real-at-first-sight roses from the science centrum. i had no idea that they had those stuff and sell them for five bucks; if i knew i'd have bought one... so i tried wooing some of my friends (read: abi) to sell me one yellow flower for twenty bucks... and mind you, she didn't agree. and that became a topic of interest between us two for the rest of the day. *hehee..*
about an hour later we were at aguinaldo shrine, home of the country's first president (though the place was already renovated last 1998, the philippines' 100th year of "independence"). the sun by that time was scorching hot, and everybody were groping for their umbrellas and caps. it was a good thing that aguinaldo's fortress had a roof.
inside there were a lot of interesting things - two bowling alleys, both twice the length of the average and modern alleys used. there was this groundhog hole leading to a bomb shelter (unfortunately entrance to that area was not allowed). then we had glimpses of the uniforms he once wore, his medicine cabinet, his bedrooms, the house's terrace, his car (a ford something way back in the 1960's), his coffin, and his lavatories.
along the way were hundreds of portraits and pictures - of him, his family, his generals, and all that jazz... i don't have the ability enumerate them all, right?
then there was this photo session outside. what would you expect? the poor victim cameraman was sir tour guide. he shot about two pictures per student's camera, and about a dozen brought their own for memorabilia purposes...
after that brief trip to the Shrine (where i was able to buy this micro-mini bolo thing sold by walk-in entrepreneurs), we headed to this crocodile farm, but beforehand we stayed an hour at the bus to have lunch. bringing the food was tasked to those birthday celebrants ranging from june to september, and yes, i am one of them. the main hits were carbonara and lasagna (pasta party?) and other side dishes included bbq, hotdogs, and shanghai rolls...
after that hearty meal, we made our way to the "crocodile" farm, where the main attraction were *strangely* monkeys (maybe they're converted into croc food, according to a friend). i saw maybe a couple of crocodiles, but nothing else. the only eyecatching thing seen there were these couple of monkeys *forgive me for including this part* making love, or whatever they call that. next stop was the butterfly farm, where i saw dozens of ostriches and not a single butterfly. how queer, the way they name their farms... oh hell, i don't really know.
by the time we went again up the bus, we were all craving for the pool waters, for the heat was real stinging. and good for us, the next and last stop would be (finally!) island cove resort.
i suddenly remembered that dear ol' dad didn't allow me to swim, but how would he know? so i went swimming, careful not to acquire sunburn (that would be a nasty giveaway). jump in, jump out, stay away from the sun, and submerge wholly underwater once in a while, i did everything to keep myself from acquiring any form of tan. two hours i swam with my "colleagues", and the whole thing worked out fine. i even had my shirt on during the last half-hour of my swimming time.
the pool was almost empty and student-free when the clock struck five. we were supposed to be at the bus BY five. (see the beauty of filipinos and filipino time?) we left island cove by five-thirty, after having the last doses of lasagna... some of my classmates were permitted to change buses. our adviser gave us a loud beating about classroom cleanliness once again during the first few minutes on the way back. one of my cellphones' battery energy was exhausted by then, and thank God i brought a spare, which allowed me to revert to my texting ways the rest of the return trip and endure through the sermon unscathed. when the sun was down, my classmates clamored for a showing of the "horror" (they say so) movie entitled "the ring 2". the show lasted for two hours, and i only had my glimpses because i was still texting here and there.
we arrived at SM north edsa by eight, and we sadly had to say goodbye to our tour guide, coach captain, and shuttle bus.
certainly there were ups and downs for the day. worst moments? none, really, unless we recount the gruesome stench hovering about those "croc" and "butterfly" farms, and the short period when i felt that i was about to puke in the bus after i tried those spinning contraptions in phil. sci. centrum... best moments? island cove! and... the bus. hahaha. but it's true, that the happiest of times in such field trips happen inside our respective shuttle buses. true, indeed.
so there goes my blow-by-blow account of my very last field trip in my four years of high school... never to come again... *sob...* at least we relished and enjoyed these very rare (and final?) moments... (",)
g_b got tired of senseless ranting by 14:26. |
it was just about now when i noticed that people write things about themselves in the profile section of their online diaries. then i looked at my former blog sites, and, it was like... whoa, am i really that weird?
so maybe it's time for a bit of change, a touch of conventionalism. for once, at least.
well, you see the guy in the picture? yeah, that spectacled boy running in haste? that's supposed to be me, j. gabriel de leon y limpin... what does j stand for, you ask? it's for me to know and for you to find out if you still don't know.
i'm a 16-year old boy who wears a pair of glasses, sports unkempt hair, and usually dons loose clothes. i might look a bit plump in the drawing, but in actuality i'm a tall, dark, skinny, frail guy who always forgets to drink his milk and take his breakfast. up to know i still wonder how come i stand at five-feet-eight-inches but weigh only 102 pounds...
way back then, i was a small, plump kid who showed a lot of promise. during parties, my mom and dad would usually strut around and boast of how intelligent, how healthy, how handsome i was. for eight or so years, that had been the case. i got my share of respect, like this little prince...
then came a heartbreak, and high school.
inexplicably, i suddenly became a complacent and idle guy who fell in love with my personal computer too much, even to the point of forgetting if i already had dinner. i was transformed into a student ridiculously full of potential but never getting to use the stuff. i developed a very healthy sleeping habit that made me garner the honorable distinction of being the student earliest for the nth class.
high school went on, heartbreaks pursued at will, and down to oblivion went that once promising young kid. so much for the pride of my parents.
today, i still look back to him. in fact, i'm trying to revive him, after four years of dormancy, or something more like stagnation. impossible, yes, but it's worth a try. too late, maybe, but i'll prove that it's not.
