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? :-(