unite-d
Monday, October 20, 2008 8:25 PM || 0 hugs

Yeah, poor pun on the "title" of our retreat, I know. But.. yeah.

Anyway. To be honest, the retreat was fun. Also, I got to think about certain stuff that have been bothering me lately... and I've been able to think about them from another POV. Yeah.

So.. as you probably know from the previous post, I went to Pisay at noon. Upon arriving, it was... quite chaotic. Everyone was in the front lobby, cramming palancas, registering, looking at the revised sked, mailing palancas... Which was pretty much what I did while I was there. I swear, it's hard looking for the envelopes of the people I wrote palancas for. It was a mess. Not to mention I wasn't done putting the palancas into envelopes -- I ended up not using envelopes for most of the palancas I gave. Oh, well.

And because of that, I wasn't able to get a decent seat in the bus -- I ended up seating in one of the aisle seats. Not easy, mind you -- everytime someone had to go out, we had to fold our seats and stand.  So, yeah... it was hell. Oh, and the trip itself was pretty uneventful too. We had a stopover somewhere near Tagaytay, and I had cotton candy. Whee. :D But that's it. XD

Upon arriving, we went to this hall for orientation. And gah. There was this staff member who was conducting the orientation and unfortunately people were rather noisy, so he ended up walking out. And then the girl who took over.. well.. she gave us a bit of a sermon and stuff. Then room assignments were given out, along with our keys. And so we trudged to our rooms, carrying heavy bags full of clothes.

And yeah... we ended up strolling/exploring the place that afternoon. Haha. We girls lamented over the fact that Alvin's room consisted of two floors, and stuff. Oh, and we also got to go and visit people. Haha. Then there was this talk about prayer.. and it was fun singing those songs! Ho bisogno di te! Woo. All for the greater glory of God. Amen.

Then... yeah.  We stole the keys to Josh and Co.'s room. Haha. I was supposed to return it to them since they left it outside, but someone went ahead and got it. XD We got a karma attack though. =))

After dinner, we had this activity. It was fun -- Human Bingo! Haha. I found it hard to fill it up, though, since... yeah, I have issues. Haha. But I was able to make people sign in the boxes I wanted them to sign. Oh and Portia's my prom date (Jil wasn't around, eh). HAHAHAHA. =)) And then after that was this human board game thing. Haha. The dares were funny as hell to watch, although it did get quite disturbing at times (Thank you, Franco Del Rosario. You scarred me for life.). But still, it was fun. =))

Then we went back to our rooms, and I started to get all emo and stuff because of the human bingo. Gah. Rawr. Haha.  But even that was soon forgotten when we started to talk about.. stuff. Like the "confiscated" palanca fiasco earlier during the bonding activities. And we (more of they, actually) also made some prank calls. Like this:

Estelle: Hello? *deep voice*
*random person*: Sino ito?
Estelle: Si Marz to. *deep voice*
Kat: *takes receiver* Hindi, si Marz ito. *deep voice*
Agnes: *snatches receiver* Hindi kaya! Ako kaya si Marz! *deep voice again*
Me: Tama na! *snatches receiver* Hello? Haha. Sorry. Eto talaga si Marz. Promise.

Then we ended up talking about Beyblades, Pokemon, Barbie dolls, and Polly Pocket. Haha. Yeah, childhood nostalgia at its finest. We ended up sleeping at 2-ish, and set our alarms for 4:30.

But yeah. We didn't wake up on time -- we woke up at 6, and mass was at 6:30. (Which means we were pretty much screwed. So we hurriedly took showers and rushed to mass. We ended up being late, anyway. XD

Then after breakfast we had this talk about conflicts and stuff. And I was hit hard, because I started to think about my friendships. And I think I teared up a bit. And what our speaker told us about his son was really, really touching. Aww.

Next, we had our Amazing Race. Woo. Haha. Our team was the underdog, because there were only twelve of us (4 people who were supposed to be in our team had a competition, while the others were still sleeping). But it proved useful, since we finished first. XD It was tiring, really -- we ran from one end of Angels' Hills (the retreat place) to the other.

Then, lunch AKA palancramming session. Haha. I went to confession this time (although I must admit I was reluctant to go at first). I swear, it feels so good. I dunno, but my heart felt a little lighter after it -- literally. It really felt like God was beside me (not that He isn't).

After confession, we had this talk on sex. Okay. I'll be honest here -- it's something that's... well, I've heard it so many times before, and I'm pretty sure that I won't succumb to that. While I believe that the talk was important, I think that for now, it's quite.. well, irrelevant's not the term, really. But the guy speaker was cool. Everything he said.. well, it made me laugh. =))

And then more palancramming, during which Alvin, Isabel, and Bingbong invaded our room. Haha. Loaaaads of pics. And stuff. And we realized that Kat, Isabel, and Agnes were wearing color-coordinated outfits. No kidding.

Dinner was next. And it was hilarious. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. =)) Hahaha. =))

And then last minute palancramming. Haha. More vanity ensued. Isabel practically became an expert at killing mosquitoes, while we became experts at "akyat-bahay". HAHA. Yeah, we almost never used our door to go in. Too lazy to fish around for keys, e.

Finally, we had palanca night. Our section was the first to enter the hall. And then, yeah.. Ma'am Docto read her palanca to the batch, and we started lighting our candles and stuff. Then we got our envelopes, and started reading.

And you know, it's so awesome. The first one I read was Ren's, and to be honest, I was touched. Haha. By the time I was reading the third palanca, I was already crying so hard (I think I was the first Mg girl who cried). It really, really made me feel better, and made me feel loved. Aww.

By the time I got to my... 6th(?) palanca, I decided to get out of the hall -- everyone was doing that, anyway. So yeah.. I took advantage of our empty room and read the rest of my palancas. These made me cry even more, especially those from my parents. Haha. Thank you soooo much. And then Agnes, Estelle, Kat and Alvin went in and started reading too. And Alvin... well, it was the first time I heard a guy cry. And I discovered that Alvin "flies" when he cries. The Amazing Flying Alvin! Haha. ILY ALVIN.

After that, well... it was almost like there was a bloc party outside. Everyone was just there, seriously. Haha. And we went strolling for a bit, and I got to tell Kat something. Haha. Isabel! I still owe you. Then I went back to the room and yeah. Got all emo and stuff. Gah.

But I forgot being emo after a while. Haha. They (Agnes, Estelle, Kat) doodled on my journal (lol) and.. yeah. Ended up being the poorpoorpoor guinea pig of their fashion experiments. Gah. Haha. Hilarious, yes, but I don't want to do that again. We stopped when we realized that we were tired like hell. XD

Then the last day of our retreat finally came. Woke up earlier than the previous day. I decided to stroll around on my own after bathing, and ended up going with Isabel. Haha. Tried to wake the boys up by knocking on their door, but they wouldn't so we ended up climbing on their balcony instead. We couldn't bring ourselves to wake them up at first though -- they look so peaceful when they're asleep. Haha. And James and co. helped us wake them up too. XD Once they got up, I accompanied Isabel to the chapel for her choir practice. Stayed there for a bit, then went back to my room -- and talked to Kristina for a bit on the way back.

Once there, I did a bit of writing, then fell asleep. Actually, everyone in the room fell asleep. Haha. Only woke up because of breakfast. Then we had this batch prayer thing, and burning. Lol, my paper read like a journal entry, I swear. Then went to Mass. It feels so uplifting! I ended up singing my heart out for the Lord. :D

After that, we had some batch pictures, signed the tarpaulin, packed our things, had lunch, and left. Haha.

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I have to be honest here. I've been waiting for this retreat for so long. I don't know about you, but it seemed to me like a perfect opportunity to correct my past mistakes, to strengthen friendships, and to renew my relationship with God. These past few years, I haven't exactly been the person that He would've wanted me to become. I haven't been praying... I even started having doubts, actually.

But just being there... I really could feel His presence. Sure, I may be burdened with loads of problems, but just merely looking around, I can see His wonderful gift to me -- my life. I can't be more thankful than that.

It also served as a de-stressing activity to me. I've been so stressed this past year, and I needed to get that out of my system. Being there did me wonders.

So, yeah. I'm thankful for this opportunity. :D



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