You shall know my velocity (or my Philippine trip)



I met up and had dinner with two childhood friends who were in town for a few days, and were due to leave soon after. When they left, we looked out the window and admired Glorietta (the mall in front of the hotel). Looking down, we saw our friends walking away. One of us suddenly remembered: we hadn't had our pictures taken! It suddenly seemed to be a matter of life and death. We scrambled for our phones and called them to look up at us waving frantically. They had to come back as we hadn't had our pictures taken. It could be another five years before we get a chance to meet again.



The next day, I headed off to Ateneo to pick up my diploma, oversized and in a dead language. Jared, who teaches Biology, dismissed his students early so we could have lunch at Manang's, whose inihaw (grilled pork) is the best and is probably one of the things people miss most about Ateneo. But I was late and he had another class in a few minutes. So he walked with me and we shuttled back and forth between the mainland and Bellarmine, students again, slaves to the whim of cashiers and clerks and the registrar. The school was eerily empty. I felt like saying Where's everyone?. Maybe everyone was in class. It probably would have felt weirder to be caught in the middle of rush hour and not know anyone at all, anyway. I remembered with wistfulness that the last time I was there was graduation day. The boy I liked walked away for the last time and I felt a bitter taste on my tongue, like lukewarm beer.



Jed and I said goodbye, and I promised to mail him back my college ID that I had left with him for requesting transcripts and such, that I was borrowing. I took a cab back to Makati, and promptly got stuck in traffic.



On my last day in Manila, I met up with my roommates. I was browsing at Music One, clutching the itchyworms' The Worm Jumped Over the Moon, when Cyb called, and in the rush to get downstairs, I put the CD back on the rack and I'm regretting it to this day. My roommates are great. We've been through a lot of apartments and different roommates, but Cyb, Day, Aye and I stuck together for four years, and tolerated each other's quirks.



I had to meet up with my blockmates shortly after, so my roommates and I split up. I was at Greenbelt when Bodge called to say she was waiting at the hotel. Now, it is convenient that Makati's malls are connected together, but it is quite a walk and one has to plod through massive crowds. Everyone is at the mall. Patient Bodge, who bravely plunged into med school after graduating from a totally unrelated course, waited while I walked through the malls, packed my overnight bag, and had dollars changed into pesos. At the overpass connecting Landmark and Greenbelt, I spied a red vintage convertible inching its way through traffic. No one in his right mind cruises around Manila in an open convertible, seventh on a list of Asia's most polluted cities. Of course. I did a double take as I realized that the crazy guy in the car was Marc, my crazy Theo groupmate, who makes girls swoon and who sings in an awesome band, and can be as irrational as he wants to be. We were late when we stumbled in to McDonald's, still the designated meeting place.



We had dinner at Recipes and had dessert at Bizu afterwards. The servings at Recipes looked small, but we all shared a couple of dishes and were satisfied. At Bizu, we had to share, three to a mini cake, as it was just too rich and sweet. There was a couple in the table next to ours whose date was rudely interrupted by a mini roach.



Bodge and Justin gave me a copy of Ciudad's "Is that Ciudad?...," which has been on repeat mode in my player for, gosh, two months.



After dinner, Emmy, Malou, Bodge and Justin split, while Jenny, Sheila Ann, Kath and I had a sleep-over. Unfortunately, we were all too tired and sleepy to talk, which defeated the whole purpose of the sleep-over. Nevertheless, good food and good company always makes for a great night.