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Hmm. It's been a while I guess, since I last posted. And I'm not really in the mood to post, but I'm still gonna write an entry on the retreat cause if I hold it off too long, it won't be fresh from my memory bank. Haha.

So, I woke up kinda early on October 17, Friday. I checked my things and got ready. I left at about past 10 and even brought my dog along to see me off at school. But I guess she wasn't that excited cause she kept on growling when other people come near her. Haha, sorry bout that. Anyway, there were people still writing palancas (ahem, Joker :P), there were some who were signing attendance, and some who were just playing around. I saw the envelopes for the palancas and I put the ones I made in the envelopes. I guess I have to apologize for not being able to give palancas to some people. Sorry. I had a list of people, but after the third or fourth person, my hand ached and I had nothing to write anymore. So, I only managed to make a few more, and then it was time for retreat. Riscia and I went around the school for some time and then stayed at the grandstand. After a while, we went back to the front lob. Then it was time to board the bus. I sat behind Ma'am Barrer and Ma'am Sabanal, Kit and Joaq was behind me, Jay was beside me. If I remember correctly, Jay became my seatmate because we boarded the bus at about the same time. Anyway, everybody was excited, but after a while, I felt sleepy. And so did Kit, I think. Joaq kept singing songs (even though the radio was on), and Jay kept on telling me to talk to him. After a while, my seatmates quieted down. But after the bathroom break, it seemed like they were energized and kept on talking again. Haha. When we arrived at Angel's Hills (we arrived after Li and Sr, I think), we waited for the other students to go down the bus and then proceeded to the convention hall. The house rules were to be explained, but at some time, the speaker walked out (and I only realized it when the girl who took over said so, I thought the guy was just called to the back. :P). After discussing the rules with the new speaker, we were assigned the rooms. Mymy, Zarra, Riscia and I got 27B, which was near the meditation garden, and whose "veranda" was facing a wall. Our cottage on the map was drawn to be at a very far corner, with a statue/garden at the front. We were expecting it to be cold (duh, Tagaytay), but with our cottage facing the wall, air can't pass through much and it was hot. Not to mention, our ceiling fan looked ancient and turned very veeeery slooooowly. The front door had some kind of cork board beside it, and insects stayed there, not to mention the ants marching on the wall. :| We went in, and just made lots of noise. We took some pics, and "planned" how we would sleep. It was fun in the room, we did nothing but goof around and laugh. Then it was time to retur to the convention hall. Father Mon taught an Italian (am I right?) song, and some other more familiar songs. It was fun. Then we had a talk about prayers. After that, dinner. After dinner, the batch had an activity. We had a human bingo where there were boxes written with "I love you.", "A person you would enjoy the sunset with", "The person you would spend your life with". After passing my paper, I just watched the others run around and telling people to sign, it was fun to watch. :)) Then the human board game. We had some snacks then we went back to our cottage. That's when people started calling. :)) People were running around and asking for numbers. Job and his roommates called and it was confusing. Nobody got to talk properly, haha. Some people called, then when we didn't want to talk to them, we would pass the phone to some other person. Mymy enjoyed talking like a guy. When Riscia was in the bathroom, we pretended that we were talking to somebody who was inviting her to walk outside, it was just so much fun. It was still hot when we tried to start sleeping. Riscia, Zarra and I laid down already on the bed, but Mymy was taking to Jay on the phone. We couldn't sleep because we hear them taking bout hips, weight and that stuff. We got to sleep in the early morning already.

October 18, the catholics had a mass at 6:30 am. I woke up at about 4, but I think we got out of bed at 5 am. Riscia and I looked out at the sky when Zarra was in the bathroom, and it was still dark. When we went out to walk with Zarra, the sun was already up, and it was just about 6 then. We went around for some time then went to mass. After that, we had breakfast and announcements were made. We had a session after that. The first session's speaker was just great. He caught our attention when he entered and held it until the end of his talk. His stories were inspirational and funny. And watching him with his very expressive face was even funnier. His stories about his son was just so sweet. I enjoyed his talk very much. We had an activity after that, the Amazing Grace. Our first station was with the water guns. Plata, Riscia, Zarra and I were the ones who held the paper which were not supposed to be wet. The guys had so much fun shooting Plata, so after that station she was very wet. Brandon became the director at Ma'am Docto's station. Ada found the balloon a few seconds after the facilitator told us to find it. My teammates chose to just throw to the other side the trash we should pick up. We answered a tricky question and built human stairs for the firewall. Our last station was where you had to shout the math problems. Oh yeah, our team was the most relaxed team. Nobody ran, and nobody wanted to run, but we still managed to go back to the convention hall before the others. We led the girls in our team and ate Elvie to our cottage to have our small group discussion there. After that, we ate our lunch quickly and went to the chapel. It was late when we realized we could have finished early, but we didn't know there was a line when we went in. While waiting for confession, some had there one-on-one discussions. After that, we had our third session. The story about the highschool couple was very impressive. Anyway, we had a quick small group discussion and then ate Elvie took me for my one-on-one. My one-on-one was very short so I went back to the cottage after. We had till 6:30 to walk around and rest. We had our dinner and then it was palanca giving time. :P We waited outside the convention hall and were given candles Inside, the lights were turned off and we were arranged in circles. It was amazing how the room looked being lit up by many candles. After I got my envelope, I chose to read in the cottage so it would be more comfortable and I can cry in peace if ever. Haha. I saved the letters that I knew would make me cry. When we started reading (we as in My, Riscia, Zarra and me), we were laughing and even reading some letters out loud. But My was called out after a while for practice, I think. And when Zarra went out, I started to read those letters that I saved. Sure enough, I cried. And my tears won't stop coming out. After a while Zarra called me to go outside, but I realized why she would be calling me. Since Riscia had to deliver something to someone, we escaped through the backdoor, and went to the village. After returning to the cottage, I read the other letters. Then Riscia vanished. Some things happened after that but I remember seeing Zarra talking on the phone when we returned. Oh yeah, after the ceremony for the palancas, I saw Micah come in to our room through the backdoor, demanding his palanca from My. We scared him off by saying that a teacher was there. Other Ilang people also came. After some time, My and I went outside to walk with Ilang. While walking around we gathered Ilang people. Many were outside, enjoying there last night. Ma'am Butaran and Ma'am Docto even allowed us to go into the village that night to go to Ilang. When we returned to the cottage, I remember Riscia telling stories that kind of scared us after. :)) We planned on waking up at 5 am so we would have time to walk around, but we slept early in the morning already.

Sunday. Riscia set her alarm for 5 am that morning, when it went off, she told us it was 5 and we woke up. We laughed at My thinkiing she was still asleep. You see, before going to bed, Mymy told us that she was going to take a bath before us. We laughed, saying that we would be late because she would be hard to wake up. But that morning, she surprised us by declaring she was awake. After laughing, we fell asleep again. I checked my phone when I woke up again, and saw that it was already 6. That was when we got up, exactly 1 hour after our target time. :)) we walked around after that then had breakfast. After that were the prayers/presentations. We then wrote on a piece of paper our bad habits and stuff, and then burnt it. We had mass after that, and then the batch picture taking. I was in no mood for the picture taking, so I just waited for it to be over, not even bothering to smile or to be seen. After that, we packed up, and went to lunch. We were the first ones to arrive. After eating, we loaded up, and then went to the souvenir shop for a while. At the bus, I chose to sit beside Kit cause I knew he won't push me to talk if I had nothing to say. When he left at the Caltex stop, I got the seat to myself. I was able to sleep lightly for a while after that. I stayed with Ilang while waiting for my mom to fetch me. We then went to the mall where my sisters were waiting. Anyway, the retreat's over. Back to reality. :| And I only realized time stopped at Angel's Hills, just when the retreat was over.

(1) balloons.