BACK TO YOU: Pre-akwe.

* Same as what I have done at my Facebook account, I'm gonna be dividing the whole weekend getaway into four parts while maintaining a single blog title.

After thousands of excuses and weeks of bugging, my Mum finally gave in to my request of visiting Baguio just in time for Anime_HQ's acquaintance party for new members.

I called up some of my Manila-based friends and orgmates about the trip and found out that some had already traveled ahead in anticipation of the said org event. Haha, excited much? It's a good thing though that my friend Jasper still had classes until Thursday so he agreed to take the Friday midnight trip to Baguio. However, due to overfatigue, stress, and parents that came home late, we were delayed our trip until 6 am of Friday.

I dunno who's got the bad luck but we've certainly ran out of luck during the entire trip. The bus we boarded broke down while we're at Siesta in Tarlac City, and had to wait an hour for another bus. When the replacement bus arrived, it was already full so we have to wait for another bus to arrive.

Things went smoothly for the first half an hour until the bus driver pulled over a Bus stop eatery and declared a 15-minute break. I was like, "Oh-kay" at first but not until it seems like the bus driver vowed to pull over with every Bus stop he sees. You might think that I'm just making a big fuss out of it but believe me, it's just a waste of time for frequent Baguio travellers. There should only be two-three stopovers to Baguio - Dau terminal, Siesta at Tarlac, and Sison terminal.

Because of the delays, it took us almost 7 and a half hours to reach Baguio. Not good for someone like me who's terribly excited to see everyone. Upon reaching Baguio, we dumped our bags at SM's package counter and headed straight to UP. God, I really did miss the place. It's been months since last I've been here and it's a great feeling to pretend being a student once more.

Surprisingly, I found out that HQ have already occupied the right side area of the IB Lobby as the unofficial tambayan. It's such a shame that we've lost the Guidance office, but hey, this is better than nothing.

And suddenly, I was almost glomped by members trying to get my signature. How I wish I tried coming up with more interesting tasks for them to do than just having them sing and act in front of many people.

Just when I thought I'm having the time of my life toying with the new members, Gab dropped by to say hi! I've missed him so much that I made sure I'll have this picture taken. And also, I've managed to invite him to tomorrow's party.

We brought the whole gang to Good Taste for some dinner. It's the ideal place for large groups to eat out and spend less. It was chaotic bringing everyone (I think we were more than 15 people) but it was worth it.

And since I've missed Baguio so much. I vowed to enjoy every minute of my stay and no sleeping. We headed straight to Gamman's for some Rock Band session. It's behind the La Azotea building and just across the DENR office. Playtime's 60 bucks per hour. Not bad, eh?

Still strictly implementing the no sleeping rule, next stop was Zola Cafe at Session Road. It's a perfect place for pulling all-nighter doing acads stuff since they offer free wi-fi and free laptop charging (as long as you sit near the socket). Since we'll be brainstorming over the program for the next day's event, it's basically the perfect spot. Oh, and they offer free coffee by 3 AM. What can be more awesome than that?

In between brainstorming, we watched the live action version of the 20th Century Boys. Just click the link for the plot since I'm in no mood to discuss it. But believe me, it's worth watching.

After five hours, six cups of coffee, and 2 glasses of milk shake, we left for the market to do shop for the party's food and necessities.

3 mos. of bloggong hiatus

Been noticing the lack of updates? Yes, ladies and gentlemen. I'm sorry to tell that yours truly have been on hiatus with this little travel blog for the past three months.

The reason? simply UNEMPLOYMENT.

Ever since my college graduation, I've been scouting here and there for any job that could simply get me out of unemployment. Haha, from radio stations, broadcast networks, publishing houses to ad agencies, marketing companies, and even staff leasing offices, I've practically submitted my resume everywhere. I was desperate.

People said I should take my time off and enjoy my vacation. After all, I've been studying for 14 years already and I deserve a break. What they fail to realize is that unemployment equates being broke, and being broke prevents me from doing anything fun, much less do more travels.

Oh, and not to mention that I was kinda depressed about my loong vacation. I've been missing so the people I've left in Baguio so much that it hurts everytime I realize that we're like 200kms away from each other.

I really really do.

It's a good thing though that I'm already out of the unemployment pool so I can save up money to pay them a visit once in a while. I'm actually planning to use my first payslip for a Baguio weekend getaway.