wehehe..a redundant title..niweyz, i was really there. at roxas boulevard. our group in geog1 decided to do a report on the squatter community on the breakwater. we left up around 3:30. we arrived there at 5 pm. we boarded the mrt at quezon ave. and departed at the last station: taft. there weren't that many people. i wonder why. even though it's a saturday and it's a holiday, aug. 21, yesterday. normally, the coaches are so full of people. you can hardly move. yesterday, there were even empty seats. got to seat. i think it's the second time i got to sit in the mrt. and my first time to sit down just after i boarded. really rare times. hehe.
anyway, there were four of us. our other groupmate, one groupmate of mine calls him julio but his name is carlo, couldn't come along because of a family emergency. so we are: apol, michael (these two are both film majors, hence they are close friends, and they call each other girlfriend and boyfriend), christian (an eng'g freshie) and i.
i just found out yesterday the different layouts and structures of the different mrt stations. i didn't think there'd be variety. but there were underground stations, and stations where the whole passenger plank is in between the two railways, and the normal ones. apol and michael had this collection of jokes that they share continuously. i was particularly amused, totally, by her stevie wonder joke. just ask me about it. it might get too corny in here.
from the mrt station in taft, we boarded a jeep that took us to where we can ride vito cruz jeeps w/c will then take us to roxas boulevard. so it's been an hour ride. if we commuted from up all the way there, it could have taken us three hours. that was so when tita cyn had a pogs convention at the picc and we took a quiapo jeep, then boarded lawton and went to their billeting place diamond hotel w/c was along roxas boulevard.
there wasn't much to see. there was no longer any sun. even if it was only 5. too bad, i could have had my first glimpse of the famous sunset at manila bay. maybe it was the clouds. yup, it was a cloudy afternoon. there was not a single sign. don't tell me the sun sets at an earlier hour nowadays..
apol brought her videocam with her. i didn't know those cams could get so small. i'm really not updated with those kind of technology. poor me. it really looks nice. however, the water doesn't have a really pleasant smell to it and since it was very windy, it showers sprays and other larger amts of water onto those staying by the, uh, ledge. coz' there were benches along the whole length of the "ledge". but there were plenty of people there. old, young, foreign, filipino, rich, poor, family, single. most of the foreigners there were of the yellow race. there was one black couple. and there were plenty of foodshops there - anthology (this one had midget waiters - yep, all of 'em), figaro, a whole lot.. can't remember 'em all. anyway, we tried to walk the whole baywalk. but as we neared the end trying to look for informal settlers there, we found this man who was obviously patrolling the area or guarding against illegal vendors and the like (since i just knew that this area was beautified 2 years ago to promote tourism, courtesy of mayor lito atienza) and apol (she was usu. the one who asked questions about what we are going to ride and what those little kids were doing along the baywalk) asked him if there were communities left. he replied on the negative. so that ended our quest.
all that for naught information.
anyway, since we were misdirected, we ended up riding an sm fairview fx. p25 took us safely to philcoa. i ate at jollibee - just a cheap one, a one-pc burger steak. bought some foodstuffs at coop, w/c was almost consumed just this afternoon. watched 7th heaven - this is one heck of a show - and boston public. amused and touched at the same time. i shed a tear when one of the students was singing a song in her dad's funeral - a song he composed and which lyrics she wrote for her father. i think the lyrics are quite familiar. anyway, it was really nice. i was also finishing up this story married by mistake. usu. romance stuff from the post-feudal ages.
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so how much money was spent? i've lost track. at least i got there. not without relatives. with classmates, one of the farthest i've been to. it's just too bad that we weren't able to view the sunset. it could've made up for all the time and effort we spent. so we're still looking for a place to report on. any suggestions?
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from ghel's post on friendster: 'tis quite nice. hell yeah, it's pablo neruda, what the hell were you thinking? ghel's my batchmate in applying at upmc but she didn't continue. she's a member of the up streetdance club and as i've read, president of the molave residence artists' pool. one heck of a girl no? and she loves poetry. so here it is:
Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines - Pablo Neruda
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
Write for example, the night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.
The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines,
I loved her and sometimes, she loved me too.
Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.
She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could not one have love her great still eyes?
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.
To hear immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to a pasture.
What does it matter that my love could not keep her?
The night is shattered and she is not with me.
This is all. In the distance, someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that is has lost her.
My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.
The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.
I no longer love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her!
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.
Another’s. she will be another’s. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.
I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is short, forgetting is so long.
Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
And these are the last verses I write for her.
***
ciao..
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