November 25, 2015, the most awaited day of the year. It was that day when the tour that has been planned for over the months finally happened. It has been how many days that we’ve waited for that day to come, the closer to the date, the more exciting it become. The night before the tour was even more exciting, some said they couldn’t sleep, cause of too much excitement, but I did and it’s not because I’m not excited, the packing of things made me tired, helping me sleep that night, still had the thought for tomorrow, the day that everyone has been waiting for. 

At 2:30 AM, we gathered at the school lobby, waiting for the bus to fetch us. When the bus finally arrived, everything was settled and we’re all ready for the ride.

We ate breakfast at Stop Over Grill in Narra.

The time was quarter to 10 when we arrived at Puerto Princesa, we went directly on the airport and waited for our flight. The expected time for the flight was 11:30, but of course, delays happen in flights, and it did happened to us. Our group was divided into two, first batch was on Air Asia and I was included on the second batch, Cebu Pacific Air.

    

   

After an almost 1 hour flight, we finally landed at NAIA.

The time has come and the tour’s beginning was just about to start. 

Outside the airport, there were six vans waiting and each group went directly to each van. I was included on van 2, just the quietest among all the groups, I think it suited me too, such a nice combination of the people in the van. Our group was so quiet, we seldom talk, almost all of us were sleeping during the ride. They say it’s boring, other groups say they’re always having fun inside their van, always alive, but I’m not bored with my group, they’re nice people. We’re all right having earphones listening to songs and just like in a song, “we say it best when we say nothing at all”.

Traffic was not new, we’re in Manila, it’s already expected, the problem was it’s unlimited. We took advantage of the traffic by taking pictures of the bill boards and some buildings.

Before we went to La Salle Green Hills, we have an early dinner at SM Mega Mall.

We already arrived late in our accommodation, La Salle Green Hills, but we still had a time for a night shopping so we went to LSGH Shopping Center, which was just near by. We’ve seen their creative Christmas presentation which was made of huge props. 

2^nd Day of Tour

The second day was the campus tour. We were toured by some of the LSGH teachers, there were different teachers accompanying each group. 

Before we tour the school, we first have a session about the  introduction of the school and its teachers.

The school is really big, big enough that you cannot tour it for just a day. There are a lot of rooms in each floor and there are a lot of floors in each building. The school has different libraries, chapels and gymnasiums. Here are some of the areas of the school where we toured:

ST. LA SALLE CHAPEL

THE DLSA FMAC

TAEKWONDO ROOM

WEIGHTS ROOM

ST. LA SALLE CAFETERIA

THE LIBRARIES:

CERAMICS ROOM

ART 4 & 5

Our group entered this music room where we were able to watch these group of boys have their sample.

Fortunately, the 4th year students(one is on the right) assigned in our group let us entered their class room which was in section J,or K, and wow, they're so "quiet". I've also spot some differences between the upper and lower classes, especially that we're passing by their class rooms, touring. Like, in section A, almost all boys were wearing glasses and everyone's listening to their teacher but when you go to the lower classes, everyone's chill, but what's common between them, they both have brain and charm, let's just say a male version of beauty and brain.

We also joined the LSGH Adult Night High School class. We joined in their group activities, where we had an opportunity to interact with the students and learn from the discussions. We attended in both section A and section B classes and it was on section B where we met deaf students, it was amazing. We also had a Math class with them and we were divided into groups with three members in each group. In our group we have kuya Mark, an LSGH Adult Night High School student, he guided us on using the tablet and it’s about Trigonometry, learning Trigo using technology. The instructions given by the teacher was a bit difficult to follow, specially working with the paper and at the same time with the tablet, but kuya Mark was there to guide us and I really learned a lot from him and to the whole discussion.

Me and kuya Mark, our group mate from LSGH Adult Night High School.

3^rd Day

On the third day of our tour, we went at the Academy of St. John in Cavite where we felt such warm welcome of the students and their principal. I really cannot forget how they welcomed us. The first person that came to meet us was the principal and in that time I have no idea that she’s the principal. She interacted with us and our teachers like just a simple teacher, she was so nice and it’s really great that we have met a principal like her. There were also some students who entertained us, talked to us, they’re also nice. They’ve also prepared food for us, not just on breakfast but also on lunch after the playing of games, it was the first school that I’ve been that treated us like that. The school is really amazing especially of it’s people, they treated us so well.

We also watched the different presentations that they have prepared and we’ve seen how talented their students are. Our school also joined the presentation and ours was a cultural dance and it was the unique one, fresh from Palawan.

Some of students of our school played Filipino games with ASJ students. The games were played boys vs. boys and girls vs. girls and it was really a good game. 

After the activities was the awarding. The participants of each game were given tokens and before we left the school, every one of us also received tokens and the students of ASJ were the ones who gave us.

In the afternoon, we went to Manila Ocean Park.

We also met this naughty yet funny penguin who gave us an amusing show. Some of my classmates were also included on his talk, LOL.

We also watched the Symphony Orchestra, an amazing show at the water side.

Just another memorable, first time encounter.

Last Day of Tour

November 28, this was the last day of our tour. We let ourselves enjoy this last day, and it’s even more fun. We went to 5 different places. First, we went to the historical park, the Luneta Park.

We also enjoined riding on the train which gave us a one-round trip. The fifty pesos we paid was more than enough, aside from we enjoined the ride, we were able to saw and took pictures of the different views of the park without being tired.

Teachers and classmates dancing "in Luneta Park", well that was fun, but it's against the rules, so before we left the place, we just realized we broke some rules, but at least we've learned a lesson.

The second place that we have gone was SM Aura, we just stopped by there for a few minutes and took pictures of the wonderful Christmas decorations.

After this, we went to Market Market where we ate our lunch and we also bought some of the delicacies there.

The fourth place was the Mind Museum!

The first thing that we met at the museum was the robot named Aedi which introduced us about Mind Museum.

Everything about Science, History and Arts

The very last place that we have gone at the last day of our tour was SM Mega Mall. We were given time to tour ourselves in the mall and the time given to us was not enough, since the mall is really big, of course, it’s Mall of Asia. If it’s your first time in the mall and you only have a limited time to tour around, you have no time to stay long and window shop at each place, you had to be in a hurry. In our situation, we were not allowed to roam around the mall alone we have to be with a buddy, so even if I wanted to shop alone, so that I can hurry and choose quickly, I cannot, so I go around with a mate, ‘cause I don’t know where my buddy is. I’ve stayed to that store window shopping, waiting for her to buy something and me ended up buying nothing, time wasted at that store until I couldn’t resist anymore. On the last 25 minutes, I roam around alone looking for the things that I planned to buy, success, I’ve also bought something and it was perfect timing I saw some of my classmates and I joined with them to exit. The shopping was not enough, I want to buy more. But I think if I just started going around alone, I should have bought the things that I want to buy, and maybe if I did that, I haven’t found my way out to the meeting place, just the bad news. So I didn’t wait for the expected time to come, I really kept an eye on my classmates who were there, we can barely see each other to that huge mall, so to that, I haven’t toured myself much, maybe next time, if I had an opportunity to go their again. It was 10:30, the meeting time at the meeting place, all have to be there already, but some were not there yet, glad I wasn’t included on the late comers, I don’t want to be scolded by a teacher, no one wants to. But for those who were late and felt bad after being told, it’s probably another lesson learned, just let the night pass, tomorrow’s another day.

Departure from Manila

Seemed like nobody’s excited to go home, just excited to go to Robinson and have a joyful ride towards home!

But before we left Manila, at the counter of tickets, I’ve just seen my tita. It’s been eight years we haven’t seen each other. It was unexpected and I didn’t expect that in this educational tour, a precious moment may happen. Cebu Pacific Airline-it made it happened, just another acknowledgement.

Now came the time to say goodbye.

We’ve landed back at Puerto Princesa and lastly, before we go back home, we went to Robinson’s Mall. This time, I knew the place. I was able to bought all the things that I want to buy , but of course of what was enough from my budget. I was free to roam around the mall, but this time, I wasn’t alone. A buddy joined me, an "unoriginal" buddy, I have different buddies you know.

We went back to the bus at 4:10, the time that everyone should be there already. But as expected, some won’t come at exact meeting time, there we sing like birds in the wilderness waiting for the others to come, got that from a scout song. We stayed for 1 hour waiting for those people, but still we don’t have bad feedbacks to them, just don’t know with the teachers, they had a talk with the "very" late comers and it wasn’t a nice talk. By all means, everyone was settled, time to hit the ride! Also a former classmate of ours, who’s now studying at Puerto, joined the ride until their house only. Inside the bus, everyone was singing, the songs played were classic disco hits so we’re like in a disco bus. It was really an epic ride.

This tour was so far the most memorable and unforgettable thing ever happened in our lives. It gave us an opportunity to travel together as a batch and learn new things. This tour was an absolute history and hopefully, it will not just be a part of history but will also continue in the future, means more tours to come! There are a lot of things that I’ve learned in this tour, not just about the different places that we’ve been, not just on the malls and everything, but also on the schools and to the people that we’ve met. These things that we got from the tour, the things happened to us and the memories we've made, these are the things that we will always treasure.