Today's Letter

August 26, 2012

Dear Friend,

Today I went to UST to accompany my brother for his USTET. Itay had a prior appointment so he couldn't take him, so my sister and I had to. I didn't want to at first but I figured it was an opportunity to go back to UST. I studied there for a year before I transferred to UP, and the last time I visited was when I was in my second year at UP. I used to always attend Paskuhan there with my ex-classmates. It's a Christmas thing/program of UST, something like the UP Fair but different. But it's an equivalent.

My sister took this photo of me, and I tweeted it. 

My tweet said "Windy UST." I miss rhyming words. I don't know why I had to tweet that, maybe I'm narcissistic. But I sincerely hope I'm not.

Brother said the exam was "okay"; he had difficulty answering science more than math. I taught him a few ~basic algebra concepts 10minutes before we left the house, just to make sure he has something to remember when he needs to. And to catch up on my guilt trip because I didn't teach him at all for UPCAT. I hope he passes.

---

2 weeks ago I went to tagaytay with my UP friends. I'd normally just refer to them as my college friends but since I told you about my first year being spent at UST, I didn't want you to get mixed up.

The original plan was for us to have an overnight somewhere, whether South or North. But I wasn't allowed by my parents because that was the week that the habagat just hit Luzon and it was I guess unsafe. I understand their decision. So the new plan was to then just have a day trip, Sunday of that week.

Saturday night I texted them for the meetup details. We still haven't decided where exactly we were going. 30 minutes later, they called me. 

"Hulaan mo kung nasaan kami." 

"I hate youuuuuuuu!"

They went to Laguna without me. I wasn't really thrilled by it, but they said that I could just follow them there by Sunday morning. That got me really excited. I have not ridden a bus province-bound, on my own. I liked the idea. It's an adventure before the adventure day trip.

They taught me the commute details and everything was set. I left the house at around 4am, and got at the bus station by 5. My parents were okay with it, I told them I was going with my friends to have a day trip at Laguna. I was actually surprised I didn't get a lot of questions.

The best part about the ride was the fact that I met a really nice girl, my bus seatmate. I asked her about the payment details of the bus, and how long the travel time was to my destination. We ended up talking the whole bus ride, approximately an hour and a half. Her name's Kristinasol, or Kristina Sol, I don't really remember if it's one name or not. The "Kristina" part of her name was random, mainly because her grandmother didn't approve of Katrina (I think because it wasn't on the Bible). "Sol" is her aunt's name, because her aunt won the bet that her mother was pregnant of a girl and not a boy. I find that story more cool than funny. I admire parents who name their children randomly, because it takes a lot of courage to do that. My parents obviously had it the other way around, to name me Ghoent must've taken ~time to be as it is. But I admire them for that as well, because they reasoned and really thought about it.

I think I know a lot about Katrina Sol more than I know some aquaintances from school or work. I found out that she's from UP as well, and we are about the same age. Her first degree is BS Agriculture from UPLB, and now she's taking up a second degree at UP Diliman, Linguistics I think. It's amazing that I can still remember these details even if this happened two weeks ago. She's focusing on Japanese ling, and I know this because we talked about her handouts that I saw her reviewing. She had a test pending the resumption of classes. It's refreshing to see someone review notes on their way back home. I mean it's normal to review on your way to school, but when you see someone review on the way home, that's something. She said she didn't want to get bored along the way, but I think she's just really a good student. 

She showed me a box that was giftwrapped in a special Japanese way, and told me about her buying the fabric at some store that sold them cheaper, instead of getting bandanas that were priced 4times more expensive. We talked about groupings, how she gets away with introducing herself as a freshman. She's petite and pretty at that. And she is on her first year after all.

We also talked about her family. She was on her way to Laguna to have a "family meeting", and she said they've always had family meetings since she was eight. And she was always aware of family happenings, if they had or didn't have money, etc etc. They scheduled a family meeting that day at Jollibee, because of the Habagat. Apparently their house was greatly affected so they couldn't even meet there. But she was happy that her family's safe, and I was happy they were too.

It was a great start of the morning, really, because we talked so much that when my friends asked me where I was, I would reply 10minutes late because Sol and I were talking a lot. Even the kondoktor became our friend because I kept on asking him if my stop was already near.

When I finally had to leave, we just said goodbye and thanked each other for the nice ride. It's the first time I've really talked to a stranger, and everything felt pleasant. It was a good morning.

---

I then met with my friends and we decided to go to Tagaytay, at People's Park in the Sky. We did a lot of talking, got lost because google maps wasn't aware that he recommended a route that involved a private subdivision. We took a lot of pictures when we got there. Here are a few:

We went back to Manila after that. We were tired and all the pictures and road conversations and breakfast and lunch conversations were all enough for us. It was a really good day.

---

It's a long weekend so I don't have work tomorrow. Too bad our supposed Monday get together with my workmates got cancelled. Well, next time.

There always is a next time anyway. Right?

Love always,

Ghoent

-----

I'm currently reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower, so you guys know how this entry is patterned to it. I am really liking the book. :) I'm almost done, but I'm trying not to finish it just yet because it's a great read. The book had the main character Charlie describe one of the books he read (it was Charlie's professor, actually) as "Easy to read but difficult to read well."

This book's not far from that. It's a light read, but I know everything means so much more than it does up front. And I'm taking my time in realizing all those. I'm really appreciating it. :)

For the girls out there, here's one of my favorites:

It's like he would take a photograph of Sam, and the photograph would be beautiful. And he would think that the reason the photograph was beautiful was because of how he took it. If I took it, I would know that the only reason it's beautiful is because of Sam.

I just think it's bad when a boy looks at a girl and thinks that the way he sees the girl is better than the girl actually is.

---

This entry's so long. I should've probably broken it down to two or three letters/entries.