Where Do We Start?

Where Do We Start?

3^rd of December, Year 2008

As long as this story goes, I believe I have to start from the beginning of all this. It was morning, 3 am to be precise, when I woke up after a night of fever and coughing. I was ready to get cooking, so I switched on all the lights. I really looked forward to the day ahead of me. Everyone told me beforehand that this was going to be a really boring trip. And I thought so too. But I didn’t let that get in the way of enjoying another day. So I prepared three bacon-tomato sandwiches, a burger, and two Hungarian sausages on a bun, with pickled relish and catsup. And not to forget, I made fries that morning too. I was sorry to have bothered the house-helper that morning, as I was in the way of the stove, which I knew she needed. She wasn’t the only one I had to bother at such an ungodly hour. I walked outside, in the dark, cold, rainy morning and woke up the driver. I asked him to prepare the car. And, although I really didn’t mean to, I woke my mom up to. There are two reasons, first, I needed my medicine, which were in her room. Next, she wouldn’t want me to go out without saying goodbye. So after saying goodbye to my mother, I went out the door and into the rain—with my umbrella, of course.

I walked quietly to Patricia’s house. She was a first year student, from the emerald class. She was a service-mate of mine who lived just in the same subdivision. I stood outside their gate, and their dog started barking. And soon enough, dogs from all over the subdivision were barking along. And so I said, “Tao po? Patricia? PATRESHAAA!!!” And she came out of the door, laughing as I had been. Her mother thanked me for taking Patricia to school, and we were off.

The ride in the car was particularly weird. When we got in the car, the stereo started playing Christmas songs. Turns out, my mom has a CD of Christmas carols which she put into the car before to automatically play. I thought of changing to song from “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” to “Twelve Days of Christmas”, even though I never really understood a bit of that song. By the time the song was done, I was getting tired of Christmas carols, so I switched to FM, and heard JoJo singing something. I didn’t really care what it was, though.

When we got to school, it was still dark, and the sky was glowing red for some reason. I remembered something I watched in Knowledge Channel once. They said that the sky turns red in the dark if the area’s atmosphere is polluted. “Air pollution, huh?” I thought. Then I saw a silhouette, which seemed to be familiar, standing by the chapel. I came closer, and with all suppositions written down to memory, I was sure it was Alex. Lo and behold, it was. I paid a visit to the sacrament for a bit, and then chased after Alex. And then I showed her the container filled with fries, to which she squealed with glee. She took a bite, and didn’t care that the fries have lost their crunch. She just said, “I love fries,” like some McDonald’s advertisement.

There are still too few people, when Jonnah appeared out of the blue—or the red, since the sky was still red at that point; but that just wouldn’t make much sense now, would it?—when Alex pointed out Jonnah’s silhouette out of a dozen others. When she came by she told us the story of how the night before and the morning after went about in the Zabala household. She used hand gestures which really amused us. And she said that they really did do the hand gestures at home. That just made her story telling even funnier.

In any case, time got away from us, since she didn’t even finish the whole of the story when we had to go line up. I was searching frantically for Mrs. Ramos, and then I decided to calm down and let the president do the worrying. I’m sorry to Trix for that, but I can’t make teachers magically appear at will. Anyway, it’s not like Mrs. Ramos was at all late. Just that we were wandering the hall cluelessly, not knowing where to go, and not really knowing if “cluelessly” was an actual word.

When we got to the bus, there was so much spinning around. Places were being traded, and people’s seats were reassigned. The seating position ended up with Jonnah, Hannah and Cynarra in front of me, Robbie beside me on the window seat, and Ms. Rojas on the other seat next to me. With such an arrangement, you could say we didn’t follow the class number arrangement at all.

So we rode for quite awhile on Bus#5. I attacked my sandwiches one by one, as the fries were being punished by the merciless Jenine and Alex. Those two undoubtedly and inevitably love potatoes. (They were the ones who requested for the fries in the first place.)

We had a stop-over by a petrol station, where Faith vomited in the Men’s room, I heard. Then we all got back on. As the bus went along, the juniors were watching for the bulletin boards, and calling dibs after them. Then our tour guide, Kuya Fritz, have us play a few flashcard games. Mariel and I were like monkeys on rampage, fighting for our right of recognition. Add in Hannah, Cyna and Jonnah, and we had an official raise-your-hand party. It was hilarious, really. Robbie and I slept like Children needing a nap for a bit, when we woke up to the sound of the people playing the game “this is up, this is down”. I’ve known the game since fifth grade. The tour guides with Lakbay Kalikasan taught us this one, so it reminded me of those times from before.

Some time after, we were at the Dairy Training facility of UPLB. That was where we visited another restroom. I’m kidding. But what with the amount of time we’ve spent, and have been to two restrooms, it seemed like a day of visiting the different kinds of restrooms around the Philippines. It was Toilet Expo ’08, or the pilgrimage of toilets.

It was raining, and my shoes were getting wet. And I mean even the inside was getting wet. When we actually got to the part about the cows, we were told about the pasteurization process. The big fun everyone had with the dairy training facility is that they got to buy ice cream and milk.

Next was IRRI. The film-viewing was quite informative. I enjoyed the video. But I was disappointed that the answers to the questions we had weren’t answered there, even in the museum. They had wonderfully loving displays, though. They were quite enjoyable. And I have witnesses such craftsmanship as that of the bench where Thea hid in. Haha. In any case, neither the San Diego, nor the Agrobacterium questions were answered. So we were starting to get troubled about it.

We headed off to the Botanical Garden for lunch. But since it rained hard, we weren’t able to eat at the garden. Instead, we ate inside the bus. Everyone noticed how I’ve been eating non-stop that day, though. The beef with oyster sauce, celery and mushroom I had for lunch was followed by a fluffy mamon. Hey, they said to pack healthy food. Pastries are healthy.

We had to go up the raptors, but before that, Mrs. Ramos and I went to the restroom. We were able to catch up with the others quickly enough, though. And Shannon (however her name is spelled) was right in front of me. After some time, it rained, and we were all sweating anyway, so we all gave up the hope of being dry. We took off our jackets and walked up the raptors, as the first years diligently—or not so—counted the steps. It was part of their mathematics assignment.

When we actually got to the eagles, I wanted to look at them closely and read the descriptions better. But then I noticed that it would hold up a line if I did so. It was a shame that we weren’t given enough time to learn more about the birds. It was basically pointless to have come there. Perhaps the tour guide at the front explained on the way. But the people at the back wouldn’t have noticed. The experience was fun though, counting along with the freshmen.

When we got back, I desperately scrambled around the bus, looking through my bag for the shirt, and waiting for everyone to get back to close the curtains. While I was changing though, someone opened the curtains. Ugh, that was a disaster. In any case, no one was outside, thankfully. So we were able to dry off and get out quickly.

We got out and walked off to the Museum of Natural History. Everyone was saying that the place was just like a residence. But it didn’t matter. The skull of the sperm whale was huge, to say the least. And the “world’s smallest beetle” was as small as a 0.3 tip G-tech pen. They weren’t lying! I had to wonder if it were ethical to put fetuses in jars, whether they were miscarried or aborted. I don’t know. It just disturbed me. I think they should have been blessed, and buried, like when humans die. They’re human too. I don’t really find it amusing or at all ethical if my carcass was put in a jar and set to display for the world, just because it’s for scientific purposes. I don’t care if I were killed, or if I died naturally. No one deserves to be put in a jar for display, I believe.

Anyway, there were fossils upstairs, including a worm’s. Then Jenine went with her, “I’m a worm!” act again. There wasn’t much more, but there were these really amazing mushrooms. You can’t miss them.

When we got back on the bus, Robie and I slept for the whole trip there, until I woke up to the song “Fly On The Wall” by Miley Cyrus. We got to the Lucky Me Noodle Factory, where we saw the manufacturing of noodles, including a bunch of other children’s displays. Then we had a Q&A session, and then a picture-taking session. And that was it. Next thing we knew, we were back on the bus, watching Horton, heading for home.