Cinemalaya: The Animals

I love indie movies. I can't remember when I started collecting them,
basta when I was old enough, Ate took me to see some films at Galleria and I loved them.
You guys have probably seen her blogs about those movies two years ago!

Basta I find them so interesting and kakaiba and when you go to Belindle
for college, it will be impossible for you not to hear about Cinemalaya.

I have a lot of friends from the film course at school, and they seem
busiest during Cinemalaya season - last year, you'd see all their tweets
and Facebook posts about the movies and which ones were good,
 and which ones were bad, and you'd see them inviting everyone to watch, etc etc.

I always wanted to experience it, and I finally got the chance to do that this year!
Sayang nga lang, I would have loved to watch more than one film!

The Animals was what I kept on hearing from my friends Jane and Kimpoi
over the summer - they had spent their days shooting and being busy.
They invited me to go to the shoots but it was too far! My other blockmates
were game for it though, I think some of them even got it as their OJT!

Some of them were assistants, and some of them got to be extras!
They turned Pia into a goth girl, and my other friend Nico had
to help a puking drunk girl out of the bathroom :-))

Other than my blockmates, some of my film friends got to be in the movie too!
Erica had a boyfriend who gets hit in the head with a bottle, and Clyde
played a funny girl who kept on getting pissed because she had to pay for things :-))

It was fun seeing all of them in the film! So proud of Jane for this!
And congratulations to Gino Santos too, who directed the film!
I got to meet him a few times and he's super nice :-)

When we got there, Kimpoi instantly turned into a busy bee,
because he was the one who reserved all our tickets for us.
He had to pick up the tickets and give them out, eh
hiwalay-hiwalay kami lahat so naguluhan siya ng onti :-))
(Thank you so much for the tickets, Kimps! Muah muah muah)

We waited for the rest of the blockmates to arrive, and then we got in line.
The first floor was full, so we went up to the third floor.
We waited in line only to find out that even the third floor was full too,
so we had to go up to the fourth! We ended up getting seats that were separated from each other,
but a lady was kind enough to move us to some seats that were next to each other, whew.

(Kasi nga naman, what's fun about watching a movie without people you know next to you, right?)

Again, I would like to thank Mister Kimpoi Lazaro for the tickets!

This is Erica, the girl with the boyfriend who gets hit in the head!
Girlie, I'm so proud of you! Ang shoyatot mo na!
Ang ganda ng legs mo, 'teh!!!

As you can see - I was an albularyo again.
Actually other than being an albularyo, Set was asking me if I'm ghetto now. =))

Hey hey, Ella Mae! Don't worry guys,
I asked her if I could eat her hair before I actually did it.

Oh a wild Chan appeared

Hehe hello guys :-)

Took this after watching the movie, and can I just say?
The only word I can use to describe the movie is traumatizing. =))
And I'm not saying that's a bad thing! I don't know if people
who are older than me will feel the same about the film,
but when you watch it it's just so weird and familiar and nakakakilabot.

Basta I just didn't think it would end that way! Kakastress. =))
Super galing umarte ni Dawn Balagot!

Carlos, Shetbols (I call him Shetbols and he calls me Shetbols but his real name's Luis), and Kimpoi

I don't know why, but I get really excited every time I see Luis. =))
When I saw him we both started jumping everywhere

Luis, I want to see you at Cinemalaya soon, okay?
Isa ka pang awesome eh!

And guess who I found!!! Miss Margarita Buenaventura,
I did not think I would run into you at Cinemalaya at all!
I haven't seen you in the longest! Congratulations again, graduate!!!
(Okay wala lang I'm just really proud of you for graduating, okay?)
And you, Miss Set, you're so tall na! Bakit ka pa nagheels?

I have no idea what Marga was trying to do here,
because if it was to cover her face, she failed

This is probably the best shot of the three of us na!

Basta, good job everyone! I'm so proud of my friends!

Goodbye Angel Hills

That morning, I woke up to the sound of some of the girls

talking and walking around the room.

I turned around on my bed and Ella said to me, 

"Hi Ana! We're going to have breakfast. Sama ka?"

I don't eat in the morning because I get a bad stomach, so

I declined and Ella said, "Okay, you have one hour to sleep pa!"

I fell asleep again, and a bit later, I woke up and peeked at them again - 

All of them were dressed up and about to leave!

I thought some of them would want to sleep in too,

but no! They were all going to leave to have breakfast! 

Ayaw ko maiwan mag-isa so I forced myself to wake up too

When I got back to the house after breakfast, I found this cute dog

sitting at our house's doorstep! I pet him on the head, ran inside, and got my camera.

What do you guys think he was doing there?

 I didn't want him to be alone, so I sat on the steps with him. :-)

Sessions were about to start again, 

so I took a bath and fixed my stuff for the trip back home.

On the way to the session room,
 I found my friend Fivay's nametag on a lampost!
I have no idea how it got there, but when I passed by,
I thought to myself, "Haha, ang cute naman na remembrance!"

Isn't it? The next retreaters will find it and wonder whose it is.

They were giving out puto at the session room, and I couldn't resist!
I loooove puto (And Tisha likes kutsinta!)

Work for the day was to write palancas to people who you thought were either:
(These are the 5 C's of a Benildian)
1. Christian 2. Competent 3. Compassionate 4. Confident or 5. Committed

The day before, I met a girl called Monica from the SHRIM course at school.
We were at the gazebo and it looked like she  wasn't talking to anyone,
so I looked over and said hi to her. To my surprise, she stood up,
shook my hand, and introduced herself!

After that we would greet each other whenever we saw each other around.
After the session the night before, I wasn't feeling too okay.
She kept on trying to cheer me up, and I found it really sweet.
"Ana, why are you sad? You were so perky when I met you a while ago!
You know, like boobs! You were perky! Why are you so down?"
"Listen, o! There are frogs! Diba you like frogs? Be happy na!"

I made sure to write her a letter that morning. I wanted to thank her because
I really appreciated what she did and I might never see her again!

I think everyone liked writing. The idea of giving out the letters
after mass was really exciting! (Or baka ako lang yung na-excite)

But anyway, I think it's really good to be able to tell people that
you appreciate the things they've done for you kasi.
It makes them feel nice and I think it's important that they
know na what they did for you didn't go unnoticed.

After we were done with the letters, we had a break and thenwe celebrated mass.
This part was really cute because when it was time to share peace,
we spent a really long time hugging and waving at each other


So ayun nga, when mass ended, Father blessed our letters with holy water,
and then we were given permission to give our letters to our friends.

When I gave my letter to Monica (the girl I met), she gave me a hug!
She told me she'd love for us to see each other again also :-)

The giving of letters was just everyone hugging each other and being happy
and it was sweet and just happy and even more happy :-)


After all of that, Gino took me and Carlos to a statue where he said,
"You're gonna look like you have wings!"
(As in yun lang yung point niya, mag-picture na mukhang may pakpak :-)) )

Lunch time - Pansit, chicken, and bananas!

Hello, FMA7! I love you guys!
From the left: Jhea, Val, Dey, Kevin, Chan, Pia, Fivay, Kimpoi, Rein, Charm, and Ella!

They sent us back to our rooms to get ready for leaving,
 and since I was pretty much done, I spent my extra time hanging out at
another house's porch. While sitting there, I suddenly heard loud singing.

I looked around to find out where the voice was coming from,
and it was from a window at the house behind me!
A guy was singing out some song, and when the guy saw me
sitting there, he shut his window and I couldn't help but laugh =))

After hanging out at the porch, I walked to the gazebo where we'd always hang out
during break. I took a photo of these two statues that I won't ever forget!

Back in the bus! It was happy because I love car rides,
and it was sad because the retreat felt a bit bitin to me.
(Chan is being a monster at the back)

Kimpoi is asleep as usual, but I think he was careful
 not to leave his mouth open this time :-))

There were two stopovers on the way back to Manila,
one was a tindahan place where there were trinkets and Tagaytay food,
and the second was the Caltex at SLEX.

At the first stopover, some went down to buy pasalubong for their families,
some went down to buy drinks, some went down for a banyo break,
but I went down cos I was bored and I wanted to look around.

Ended up falling in love with these glasses, and Kimpoi + Carlos got them for me!
(Okay I really don't know which one of you paid for them for real, so
I'm thanking you both nalang! Mahal ko kayo!)

At the second stopover at Caltex, the retreat facilitators had 

some ice cream while some people bought their second lunches.

We found Monica sitting alone at Starbucks, so we sat with her

and made chika chika. :-)

Tapos we were back in Manila, but the day wasn't over yet, because 

we would all see each other again that night - but that's for another blog entry!

P.S. Dear Val, thank you for the toothpaste! You were the toothpaste distributor at the retreat :-))

P.P.S. Dear Rein, thank you for agreeing to sleep on my bed with me because I was scared! 

(I know you were scared too, but I still want to thank you!)

P.P.P.S. To my friends who read this, alam niyo ba yung name nung dog? :-(

There was a flying chicken!

Hi! I had my last retreat last week, and it was one of the happiest events in my life recently.
I got to spend time with my block, and I got to meet new people too!

I got to school really early because Anne was going to be in Taft at 9 and
she wanted to give me my palanca (which was handwritten ang sweet okay)
My best friend Borj also made it a point to give me and Carlos letters
he made for us the night before! 

We took over the back of the bus for the trip to Tagaytay.

Yes, that blue thing over there is Fluffy, I took him with me to help me sleep!
The bus trip was spent listening to music!

I'm so sorry I took this photo, Kimps! I'm sorry I blogged it too.
Oh, and I'm sorry I Instagram-ed it too. =))

When we arrived at Angel Hills, they took us to the
session hall before they showed us our houses.
That's Pia, Dey, and Henrick.

That's Val, Jhea, Chan, and Kevin.

These people here are my best friends.
They're some of my m-m-m-m-m-m-moooost favorite people. :-)

Meet the girls' room!
Fivay at the end, Jhea, Val, Rein, Pia, Charm, and Ella!

Merienda was Jollibee-tasting spaghetti

Hey, Rein and Justin! :-)
Justin isn't a blockmate, but he should be! Yiheeee cute niyo dito
Rein, please tell him he's one of the friendliest people I've ever met!

Sometimes I call her Ulan, and I'm glad she doesn't mind

That's Kuya Edwin, our retreat master. This is the only photo I have of him,
and he looks like he's mid-talk because when I took this, he was in the middle
of explaining where the basketball court was (Yes, there was a basketball court!)

Angel Hills is a retreat place that's about two hectares,
they have a court and a swimming pool!

There were so many freaky sculptures there, too!
This one's of St. Michael stepping on a demon.

In the middle of a session, me and Gino went out for a bit because
it was really cold inside the session room. We were in the gazeebo
when I noticed a bird hanging out on a tree branch.

It was so big, so I asked Gino, "What kind of bird is that?"
He walked over to the wall where the tree was, and he shouted,
"Oh my god, manok yan!!!" I started freaking out too, because
chickens can't fly! What was this one doing on a tree branch??

When Gino wasn't looking, the chicken jumped up and landed
on an even higher branch! I told him I HAD to take a photo so
he went back to the session room with me so I could get my camera.

When we got back, the chicken was nowhere to be found, and Gino said:

A while later when we went on another break, the chicken was there again
and it was on an even higher branch than the higher branch that I mentioned before!
We were so happy to see it that we started jumping around =))

I grabbed my camera and realized something -
the lens I brought with me couldn't zoom in or zoom out. :-(

Took the shot anyway! The chicken is there on a branch. :-))

Back at the session room, I still couldn't stop thinking about the flying
chicken, so I decided to draw it on my retreat booklet. =))

Yikee, Kevin's being really serious about answering his booklet!

Things got serious at the session room after dinner -
It was a lot of quiet time to think and to pray for things +
We gave candles to people we wanted to thank and apologize to.
Mmm it was nice to fix things that night! :-)


This was what our room was like before we all
started freaking ourselves out with scary stories

And this is what happened after the scary stories :-))

There was a point in the night when we all couldn't sleep
and all eight of us made siksik into two beds :-))