things do not necessarily happen as what we expect

the mindset I had before the vacation was *me, myself, and I*. like, I would be on vacation, I would enjoy, I would be stress-free… but at the end of it all, *I* had been practically omitted from the 26 letters of the english alphabet.

[start background] skip this part if you knew already
this bataan (mt samat) adventure was borne, even as early as summer of 2006 (yup, you read it right, last year).

it was conceptualized by kuya derf (as far as i could recall), as concurred by kuya arvin, then i was informed. ate sharon fangonon was also invited. one by one, for various reasons, people backed-out. naturally, i also backed out, hehe.

and then summer of 2007. while my officemates and friends went to portugal, spain, bangkok, hongkong, the ever loyal poland, and somewhere else, i opted to stay here in the philippines (well, i still have passport issues thanks to DOST XD, hehe)…

i have applied my out-of-office leave from march 31^st to april 9^th even as early as february. this was possible because i had more than enough CDOs (Compensatory Day-Off, meaning our regular vacation leaves would not be consumed) since there have been times that i would work during weekends and wee hours in the morning.

monday (april 2^nd) came, kuya arvin texted me that he could not go, then the next day, ate sharon said that she was supposed to go home to baguio for the lenten season and kuya derf said that he would just follow after he would finish some pre-commitments… same scenario as last year XD however, i have already applied my leaves, finished what needed to be done at work, prepared the necessary stuff for this vacation, etc. in short, i was then ready… i could not back-out now. so, off i went ;p
[end background]

‘brief’ summary (sat to mon not included): might be very long, skip it if you are impatient

tuesday (april 3^rd)
i was at the hot seat, as in really impromptu interview. but for sudden twist of events, my host’s family was the one sharing. and in just one night, i have comprehensively known the background! nyee… in fairness, i have nothing to say except that they were so kind :)

wednesday
we went to my host’s brother's newly bought house and lot in a modern subdivision. it was oriental-inspired (private-joke ;p). then by afternoon to his newly born nephew (comment: awww… we are getting old XD) AND, we were engaged into a very deep-faith discussion with my host’s sister’s father-in-law, being old and with the proximity of relationship kinda added to the excitement for like 2hours. everything ended cordially at least.

thursday
supposedly rest day. but no! we assembled an amplifier XD haha (and yes, we used that amplifier for some P&W *jamming* sessions ;p)

friday
my very first witness of ‘cenaculo’ ever, after 21 years. kumusta naman! ;p

saturday
we were supposed to go to mt samat as culmination (err… araw ng kagitingan, remember o_O), but we instead had pizza at a national pizza parlor. reason: we were waiting for my host’s sister, but it was getting very late already and we decided to just eat, hehe… yeah, sad since that was the primary motivation last year :(.

sunday
we attended the sunrise (read: 4:30am, good luck talaga) service of the church of a fellow DCF alumni (as referred to my host by kuya caloy). in fairness, it started on time. and come 3pm, back to manila XD

after those kind of events, the *I* became *others*:

• i had very productive quiet times, free from clock worries

• i was impressed that i should do some *charity act*. not really for fun, but i was my challenged by my host and our friend we met friday for me to have a ‘scholar’. for that, i have talked with my younger brother that i would be the one to spend for his tuition this summer. unfortunately, my parents outdid me with it. they have already spent for his tuition. oh well, i am just reimbursing instead :)

• realizing that i could not commit to going back to the campus at least once a week, i have been thinking of transitioning discipleship to other people who have better load. this has been also because, we have been praying for like a year already for a D-group commitment in the church that we go to during sundays. and yes, i now deem that our prayers have been answered already (might even months ago pa).

• since this is the time that i would be seriously doing my AP role as i have said months ago, i would still continue to be responsible for students via AP (AP need not be every week / month). my current APs are kuya arvin (though he is set to graduate this april also ;p) and lutoy! (ehem, luther pala… dapat formal dcf chair na kasi) :) and after contemplation, i have crossed the boundaries of dorms when it comes to commitment. i have been afraid before to have something to do with people from other dorms when it came to responsibilities, but as one of the lessons i learned last lenten, i have now a third AP, my host last vacation - jason. (so, be my host for later vacations, baka kayo yung magiging next AP ko, hahahaha, joke lang po. being AP should not be taken lightly)

and yeah, even if i have not *publicized* this blog here in the workplace, POPE did able to locate it, haha... guess, i really should be opening my blog(s) not only for students (part of moving on) :)

speaking of work, i am now bound with HP for the next 6 months. it's because i had ITIL Training (last march 27^th to 29^th - basically, set of books regarding best practices being complied with leading IT companies) and Oracle 10g Program with PL/SQL Training come april 16^th to april 20^th, whole day from 9am (man, good luck nalang sa akin!) to 5pm in Oracle University (hahaha). 6months because HP would be spending at least PhP86,000 (without discount) for the two trainings... hmmm… this amount of money could pay for the tuition of 2 (actually, 1.5 rounded off) students for a 4-year course in UP save for the tuition hike that is set to be implemented this June (and to think the aggregated number of Training Days is just 8 days vs 8 sems!) lubus-lubusin na natin ito!