Corregidor: The Color of Autumn, The Scent of Summer

4:40:00 PM ivannejuare 0 Comments

Corregidor was my favorite part of the field trip. The island was just so scenic and peaceful, despite the fact that it had seen the blood sheds of wars. The island was the color of autumn and the scent of summer. The trees and the ambiance felt like I was someplace else, outside the country, experiencing fall for the first time. The sea and the waves gave out a summery effect to the place. The half day wait to ride the ferry to the island was all worth it after seeing only the port.

Does it look like we're still in the Philippines? haha
The island was full of ruins and canyons everywhere, which reminded me of how things were in the past. It just made me thankful that we are not experiencing what they had to go through before. With the wars, and the bombs and people fighting for their lives and for the country, you just can’t help but secretly thank that you are living in a peaceful era.
What is left of what used to be barracks

The island's shape according to our guide, Uncle Bob, was that of tadpole. Uncle Bob, by the way happened to found the burial site of Japanese soldiers. At first I thought he was joking, but in our next stop, we saw the proof that he really did found it. It was just amazing to be in the company of such a great man. Though he was credited for the discovery, he received not a penny from it from either the Philippine or Japanese government.

The Filipino American Friendship Statue
The Eternal Flame of Freedom

An old cannon, overlooking the sea. Oh, how peaceful it looks now!
It's almost sunset and the aura of autumn just got stronger :)

My beloved Scions 09.
I shall return. - Gen. MacArthur
Me and my roommates who cramped ourselves in a room good for five because we just so love each other. haha. Did I mention that we're 9 in the room? Yeah, we're awesome like that! :)
The Malinta Tunnel.
Our last stop was the Malinta Tunnel. We experienced the lights & sounds and sculptural show. It was my first time to be in a tunnel, and given the fact that it had been a hiding place during the war, I expected to have goosebumps. Good thing though, the running and fast tracked show kept me too occupied to notice anything out of the ordinary. The show was good and like the lights and sound show in Luneta, it was made possible by the efforts of the highly esteemed National Artists.  Perhaps, it was their way of making people pay attention to and appreciate our history, without the typical boring and sleepy lectures in history classes.
I was glad that Corregidor and its beauty are preserved. It still had that historic feel even after all the years that had passed. To me, the whole island felt like a museum, rich in history and stories to tell.

Credits: Thanks for Elmark, Lecza and Jessel for the pictures of me and the rest of the group, as well as the Malinta Tunnel and MacArthur :)

Relishing the Antiquities

4:59:00 PM ivannejuare 0 Comments

On our first day, we went to Fort Santiago at Intramuros and traced the steps of Rizal leading to Luneta. Afterwards, we went to Luneta to experience the lights, sounds and sculptural show regarding the last few hours of Rizal's life. Now this is Rizal stuff. haha




Rizal's foot steps.
Hello again, Luneta! The flag pole by the way is the tallest in the country and the money spent reconstructing it after a pole somewhere in Subic (I think) bypassed it height, would have been used for some other meaningful purposes.

I did not appreciate the show that because some tour guide ruined the moment for us (I am not going to exaggerate on this but I wish I could cut his hair short for revenge's sake).

 On our last day of the fieldtrip and possibly the most packed with people. We went to the Aguinaldo Shrine (now, this doesn't have anything to do with Rizal, isn't it?) only to find out during our way there that there are more than 20 busses scheduled to tour the place. Luckily, we were the first bus from our tour to arrive. There were already many people by that time and the number blew out of proportions before we left. There were just so many people lining up outside the Aguinaldo Shrine, waiting to have a glimpse of the house of the country’s first president.

 The house was majestic. It was something considered big and spacious in today’s generation. You can call it a mansion, fit for rich people. Considering the times, I just can imagine how rich the Aguinaldo family was in the old times. Their house would probably be something in the level of a palace during those times. I was more amazed when we were told that it was designed by Emilio Aguinaldo himself, without any architectural backgrounds and that it was built through the bayanihan of the people of Cavite.  I just couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that they had their own bowling alley, which made me think that they are really that rich.





The declaration of independence and the flag was first waved in the balcony of this house. I was told that it was actually just from the window, since the house had no balcony during that time.

The house contained some secret tunnels and we only saw a few. We only toured the two floors and the experience would have been complete had we seen the entire 7 or 6.5 storeys of the house. Our teacher was lucky enough to tour the entire house. She made us wait for I can't remember how long, even when we were instructed to only stay for just 15 minutes. Talk about not being pasaway, eh? Then she had the guts to show some air and brag about her experience (Oh common, just shut up!). And she was mad for us for enjoying the movie in the bus, and whose fault was it that we were enjoying a movie while someone was playing the VIP trick? 

PI 100 Fieldtrip: The Museum Tour

4:20:00 PM ivannejuare 0 Comments

My last year in college just couldn't get any more expensive! It all started with the OJT in Makati, then the Ilahas Fieldtrip in Cebu, then the graduation expenses, then the payment for the board review and then this! My teacher in PI 100 announced that we would be having a field trip in Manila which by the way makes up for 25% of our grade. Did I mention that she didn't mention anything about a field trip ever since we started having class? She just told us about this 'fun' thingy barely 2 or 3 weeks before the scheduled field trip. She was basically insisting that we join the field trip instead of doing a paper work for an alternative, I might add.

Why am I making a big fuss out of this? My reasoning is rather simple, I might say. I paid P10,100 for a field trip that in my opinion have very little to do with Rizal, who happened to be the central topic of PI100. And the services? Oh, don't get me started with it! I don't think that the services and sorts did not match up to the amount I paid for. First, they let us eat at Jollibee and Chowking (not that I have any thing against these fast food chains). Seriously, we paid that much and we are only supposed to eat at a fast food? Second, the buffet sucks. I'm not demanding for something popular. All I wanted was somewhere nice to eat where the type of food lives up to the price we are paying. I am not posting anything food related regarding about the field trip because there just wasn't anything worthy to post, to start with. Third, was that really a hotel we were staying? With around 200 people, they can get a huge discount to some decent hotel but they let us settle for something I would classify as a motel. Lastly, do you call strolling half a day at MOA a field trip? Like, what the heck is wrong with you? There were so many items in the itinerary that we haven't been to. I would have appreciated it if they haven't written down those items in the itinerary. It was just so disappointing. If I were to choose between that Ilahas field trip and this, oh, my answer would be clearer than a cloudless sky. I would definitely choose Ilahas. The services, food, & hotel were way better. There weren't problems while we were on the trip, unlike this one.  Also, we weren't given ample time to enjoy the stops in this field trip. I felt like we were always running after time, catching our breaths, instead of enjoying the moment.If there was anything nice about this whole tour, it would have to be the Corregidor part and our tour guide and coach captain who were very nice. You really can't blame us if we enjoyed watching movies at our bus more, instead of going out, don't you? :)

The first day was all about museums. I have nothing against museums personally, but what do they have to do with Rizal? Ok, so some have items related to Rizal, but they don't make up the whole museum. We are taking Rizal, not History, for chrisakes!

THE UST MUSEUM
It's not my first time to be in UST but it was my first time to visit the UST Museum which was closed the last time we went there. It is said to be the oldest museum in the country and I really like how they separated the sculptures, paintings and relics from one another. 





Me with St. Dominic. 





NATIONAL HISTORICAL INSTITUTE
This museum had lots of items about the heroes, whether named or not, the presidents and the rest of our history. They've got quite a handful of items about Rizal including the lamp with which he hid the Mi Ultimo Adios. I like how the OIC explained and described to us the items in the museum. It was a good thing he switched places with the girl who was letting our teacher do all the talking instead of doing her job.





Say hello to these awesome presidential cars!
NATIONAL MUSEUM
The National Museum had to buildings. One for the Museum of the Filipino People and the other for the National Art Gallery. I was really looking forward for the National Art Gallery but unfortunately, we were only able to tour the ground floor. And it's not even a full tour of the said floor because we were not allowed to enter the sculptures room that was full of white sculptures (perhaps they think that due to our number, we might cause some damage). 






Some items in the Rizal Collection. The photo in the upper left is A Mother's Revenge while the one at the lower left is a comparison of Rizal's work and two other replicas.
My favorite part of the musuem! I just love the concept and the effect! :)
The Spolarium was so huge and the meaning behind it was just so deep. I never really bothered before about what the story might be behind the infamous painting.


Credits: Thank you Elmark, Lecza and Jessel for some of the photos :

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