while some of them i chat with almost daily (that's you edmon and cheng) and others had to be guilt-tripped into a meetup (that's definitely allan), seeing them before 2017 closed curtains has definitely made that year even more fantastic than it already was for me.
The Gifted Children
at the onset of our teenage years, a few of us students of the pilot section of the sophomore batch were seated on the last 2 back rows of a small classroom. none of us remembered how the name came to be, until ann brought up that one of us recited in class impressively and someone commented about that person being gifted (but i have bad memory, so i don't even know if i remembered this correctly either). we all then started hanging out together, mostly singing songs out of a "10,001 songs" song book (there was no YouTube and lyrics.com back then, okay?) during class breaks and then apparently say mean things about other people 😟 (this part conveniently removed from my memory haha). i'm glad to report that the gifted children have indeed used their gifts and grew up to be responsible people (and we're not poor anymore! woot!)
that friendship lives on for more than 2 decades now, albeit some bumps on the road that was smoothened out eventually (well, wine resolves everything). some of us moved far from home, making it really difficult for all of us to be complete. so it was great that both emil and i were back home for the holidays, and we finally got to see ann too - i haven't seen her for an eternity. though we were still not complete (and *ehem* someone decided to move to dusty dubai haha) it was such a memorable day to sit next to all these rugrats again!
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| before the 'burger with a side of rice' incident |
of course we had to talk about high school again - about our group, the other cliques, the stories that could never, ever be forgotten, and how some people are doing now. we spent almost the whole day together and if not for our commitments (you know, like work and kids - like real adults 😆) it could have gone for much longer.
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| no meetup with cheng is complete without coffee :-D |
at the end of the day only three of us (+1) were left and had dinner in a bistropub so it was quite loud and made talking difficult. i lost my voice the next day, but it was totally worth it. after all, this was nothing compared to a very tiring day for edmon. lovro and i were super spoiled because edmon picked us up and dropped us back home as well, and we're staying in a different province! thanks tito ninong 😍
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| my sweet +1 |
Peyups Block D1
god, i so hope i got our block name right.
while i was proud to be going to the best university in the country (UP yabang, yay! 😅) i was so nervous and insecure knowing that that wasn't the meager town where i came from anymore. i was gonna embark on a survival journey with the best and brightest from all over the country, and i was sure that my best was nowhere near good enough compared to most of these folks. but i was lucky to have met these approachable kiddos who turned out to be cool people, except marvs and elms. (not because you're not approachable, you guys! but because i wasn't bound to meet you til after freshman year haha)
these are the people who taught me the most important things anyone in college need to learn - to play cards and mahjong and hangout in a tambayan! LOL
seriously though, these people have taught me so much during that time. i was so proud to be friends with them because they're all very smart (they're double major-ers after all, and i wasn't!) (and especially maris, who you'd never see bothering to even study for an exam, but always got good grades. that woman!) i must say college was the formative years for me, and these guys had a lot to do with that. so if i am not a nice person now, please go ahead and blame them. LOL
anyway, the meetup with these guys was more complicated than the high school friends. months before i flew home, i'd been in constant communication with maris about this possible reunion. but the lack of commitment from the boys (hay nako) resulted in not really having a concrete plan. and i hate not having plans. but someone had to do something to make it happen! i told maris i was gonna take a grab car from my sister's all the way to hers (it's a long journey) just so at least the two of us could meet for sure. it would hopefully encourage the others since they're all in the city and the commute would be easier. i also had a devious plan of guilt-tripping allan into meeting up since i hadn't seen him since F's funeral, and was trying hard to get marvin too since he's here all the way from deutschland. it's a shame we couldn't get elmer to come, it was too short-notice perhaps.
i booked the car at 3:30pm and reached maris's by 7:30pm. she was worried i suppose, and as we entered the subdivision the driver got a call from customer service asking where we are because someone's looking for us! as we reached their beautiful home, we were served dinner and treated like royalty. i forgot how motherly maris is haha. allan arrived a few hours later, after being assured of having plenty of rice for him, and he bought ice cream, to recreate one of the most memorable moments back then. one day during our sophomore (?) year, we all decided to buy a gallon of ice cream and since we didn't have cones or bowls, we just marked the ice cream in 4 equal parts and ate from the gallon. one of the best days ever. too bad, lourds missed this one!
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| i demanded UBE (purple yam) |
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| like old times, only 'wiser' |
after lovro dozed off, we 3 stayed downstairs to finally have our moment. as with my high school friends, it was like we were never really apart for so long. we talked about everything, but what was most significant about our chat was talking about family and retirement. god, we're so old!
the next morning, maris toured me around the subdivision to be in awe of those humongous houses that i probably would never get to own in this lifetime. somewhere in that drive about, it was brought up that lourds' place in san mateo would be quite close to this area.
i remembered then that she gave me her number before she boycotted facebook, so i tried my luck and sent a whatsapp message. she replied in 10 minutes! i was so excited i immediately made plans knowing that allan would be flexible that day. she was gonna be available only after 3pm, and i had lunch plans with allan, so we all agreed to meet mid-afternoon at what could only be the best place for a reunion: in front of our dear College of Business Administration building. maris was green with jealousy because they're driving out to bulacan to attend a wedding so she couldn't see her.
of course there is no UP reunion without having to eat our way back into memory lane. we had fish balls and kikiam then later drove in search of wherever the famous Mang Larry's isawan moved to.
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| UP naming mahal |
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| yes, yes, yes! |
mang larry's isawan used to be in front of one of the Kalayaan dorm back in the day (Kalayaan is a co-ed dormitory housing freshmen). while this group of friends and i didn't go to that dorm, we were not spared of the spell that orange isaw casted over the entire university and even outsiders. (for my foreign friends, isaw means intestine. they (supposedly) turn the intestines inside out and clean them (and we hoped to god they really did) and the orange color comes from the marinade and the dipping sauce that would come with this grilled delicacy). words cannot describe how good that shit is (pun intended). LOL
we didn't know where it moved to, but as we drove around i saw a street with an endless number of cars parked on the road side. i knew something's going on there, and was right to know that it was exactly where mang larry's isawan moved to! hurray!
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| found it! |
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| 'anong order mo?' |
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| oh my isaw! |
all that time i was trying my luck with marvin, but his messages were so vague i almost gave up on him. suddenly he declared that he was taking a cab from where he was, to UPTC and could meet! during lunch, allan had this brilliant idea of driving all the way to bulacan just so we could all meet-up before maris and family drives north for the new year. lourds did not plan on being out so late but had no contentions, but we weren't sure about marvin. when he hopped into the car, we told him the plan, and he was cool too. so off to bulacan we went!
probably excited about what's to come, allan made a wrong turn exiting the highway and we ended up on a perilous journey across rice fields, as instructed by waze. it was amazing that there were even roads there, which clearly were made to be passable only by tricycles. allan's everest is too big and too heavy to even made sense that we actually made it out, but we did! this reunion was written in the stars!
and so reached burgos, bulacan. the final frontier. we had dinner in a really nice spanish-house inspired restaurant, that served some really good food for really cheap. so much win. we only had maybe half an hour together, all of us. but it was so, so worth it all.
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| bonus round! |
these are clearly the moments we live for. and these are the friends we die for.
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much love to you, my friends. you know who you are. there's only so few of you anyway, because you know, i only select the best. 😎
happy 2018! may the next meetups not take so long!
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