i love love love immersion! :) if at first, we had apprehensions about leaving work, about the 2 hour hike, about living without technology and shiz, well. i say we did the right choice. If you want to experience immersion at its finest, BILAD (in particular), CAPAS TARLAC is the place to be. :)
What 2 hour hike!?
We took a bus from Cubao to Tarlac, which took two hours. It was 5 in the morning, so the whole time i was asleep in the bus. When we arrived tarlac, we ate at mcdo for an hour and then rode a jeep to the foot of the mountain. We were all excited, and we put our game faces on for this 2 hour hike to the community of the aetas. We bought sombreros pa.
my theo groupmates! best group ever! dea, gar, camil, justin, lei and cas!but we didn't know that the hike was going to be an uphill climb. miley cyrus was the LSS of that hike. there's always gonna be another mountain. so true.
can you see the start of the long and winding road? yes? yes. that's how high the uphill climb was. and it gets higher.
so along the way, we had lots of stops.
stopped here.
stopped there.
stopped everywhere.
can you see the start of the long and winding road? yes? yes. that's how high the uphill climb was. and it gets higher. so along the way, we had lots of stops.
stopped here.
stopped there.
stopped everywhere.Ate dudj, our osci formator, during one stop, picked this leaf from a tree and ate it. parang kami, what!!!! she says that we could actually eat the leaf. so we all got a piece and ate. it was yummy. so along the way, we were picking leaves and eating it. according to lei, "it gives you energy!!"
it's called, alibangbang. :)
so we continued with our trekking, and at one point, ate dudj asked us if we wanted to take the non-uphill hike which was the long cut, or the complicated shortcut. at that time, anything that sounded like we were nearer to our destination was the better option. so we took the shortcut.
no one told us this was mountain climbing, too.
ate dudj supporting them as they go down. HAHA.
we had to hold on to roots and weeds and stuff just so we wouldn't fall. normal mountain climbers would have ropes and stuff in hand, but we didn't. so if we held on to a root that wasn't stable, srsly, it's goodbye. haha. so as we went down to this little river, we took a rest. and then climbed up this waterfalls-ish slope. same procedure. find a stone to step on, find a root to hang on to. and then pull yourself up.
waterfalls-ish climb.
when we finally got to the top, rain poured down on us. good thing there was a small hut, so we asked the family who lived there if we could stop for a while.
cas brought an umbrella!
ate dudj asked us if we wanted to wait for the rain to stop or if we wanted to continue. we were so tired, we wanted to get there already. so even if the rain was pouring, we still continued walking and walking.... and walking. until we found salvation, just around the next mountain.
as you can see, in the very back, there's this peach colored roof? that's the community. salvation.
after i took the picture above, i wanted to celebrate the moment. so i took out from my baon, a lemon square cheescupcake, my favorite, to treat myself. after walking and climbing so many miles, finally we made it. the people in the picture already proceeded with the walking, while i was busy holding my camera in one hand, and the cupcake in the other. i was trying to open the cupcake while walking. tapos i slipped. HAHA. no one saw me, no one even heard me laugh all alone, with a cupcake, in the middle of the mountain. hahah. so i just laughed all by myself. AHAHA
moments before i slipped. hahaha
we started walking around 1030 that morning. we arrived at the community at around 230pm. four hours, of not just walking, but of climbing and whatnot. HAHAHA. That was the most extreme i've ever experienced in my life. (natalo nya pa yung love! WEh. haha)
La mia famiglia
when we arrived, we were assigned to our families already. ideally, one student was assigned per household. but of all the people i'd be in the house with, danica had to be my housemate.
with the kiddies in this house, myca and shara!
so you can just imagine how rowdy and noisy our house was. Gar, who lived at the end of the community, could hear our voices from our house. all we did was play, laugh, and talk about life and love! *ehem* haha
family picture. this was the whole family! :)
i love love love my family. we lived with the Vitugs. Danica's parents were older, nanay consing and tatay i forgot his name sorry. hehe. nanay consing's son, Willie was my daddy. i call him daddy because i call his wife mommy rhodalyn. HAHA. daddy willie and mommy rhoda were still young, around 22.
this is daddy willie and mommy rhoda, so happy together! :)
so basically, danica was my tita. HAHA. mommy was as kalog as i was, (or am i? haha) so the house was pretty noisy. HAHA. but it was alllll fuun. plus, the kids were suuuper makulit. HEHE.
that's myca in blue, shara the other kid. we were trying to do the omar ching pokerface pose. HAHAHA
what was super kulit was danica made kwento (hey hey conyo blog much. haha) to the community about my love life. (or the lack thereof. haha. or. not. haha) and danica's sister told me "uy malungkot na naman si ate timee, di nagsasalita, tumatawa lang. wala namang nakakatawa sa sinasabi namin... ah, baka ganon lang talaga pag nagmamahal" - myca at 12 years old, ladies and gentlemen. and the whole time we were there, we kept going back to talking about my love life (or the lack therof. haha. or. not. haha) and i asked the kids "bakit ulit natin toh pinag-uusapan!?" shara, myca's friend, answered "eh malungkot po kasi kayo, naiiyak kayo eh, nakikita po sa mga mata niyo" uhm!? HAHAHAHAHA.
We slept right after dinner, around 7pm. Define EARLY. :)
Sisig Hooray! :)
The following day, we woke up around 8am too. I love that we got to sleep for 12 hours, something we couldn't do back in the city. We ate breakfast and drank coffee. I must say that their coffee, for me (coz gar didn't like it), was suuper yummy. :) And every meal was suuuper delicious. For breakfast, we ate squash leaves in soup. basta. the veggies looked like flowers, and they were yummy. :) We got all dressed up because we were leaving for "gasak". I don't know what it meant, but i think this is where they get their food. :)
so danica and i, in the clothes that we were wearing the day before, were super ready to go to gasak! :) we didn't know that this gasak was also 2 hours hike. yes, just hike. no extreme mountain climbing. well, except for the part where we were nearing this gasak. haha. the kids had to hold my hand just so i wouldn't fall. HAHA. they were experts at climbing. well, they should be. they do it everyday. the girls go to gasak everyday, and some of the men in the community come along too. :) so along the way, they would find banana trees, bolo it down, and cut off its puso. as the saying goes, "isa lang ang puso ng saging" haha.
when we reached the gasak, there was this hut. so we rested, and i fell asleep. when i woke up it was semi-lunch time, and they had cooked rice inside bamboo stalks/shoots/wood (?!) the rice was yuuummy. :) we spent a few hours in the gasak, and when we headed home, we were asked to carry the gathered puso ng saging. my mommy made it into a backpack. HAHA. cutie.
the rice cooked inside the bamboo thingy. yummy!!
yummy semi-lunch! hehe
our dinner pala during our first night was SISIG na PUSO NG SAGING. so after the gasak, we asked mommy rhoda if we could cook dinner for them. and we wanted to cook sisig na puso ng saging because it was really really really yummy!! :) so yeah, danica and i cooked. and we're happy that they loved it. :)
that's the puso ng saging. :) and we were preparing them for sisig! :)
happily chopping it away! :) while mommy was playing with the camera! haha
finally! cooking the sisig!! i still remember how to! :)
by the looks of it, i think mommy rhoda loved our sisig! HAHA!
hoy no joke.
after dinner, we just hung out inside the house, with just a candle giving us light. i asked them what they do after dinner, or during their free time. mommy rhoda said they just rested, nagkukwentuhan over coffee. :) their lives are so simple, i envy them.
Simple Lives
good thing they had a water system within the community. there were faucets situated in different spots around the community, and this was where we bathed and where cas did his laundry. haha so everytime we took a bath (don't ask how many times. haha), the children would gather around to watch us. HAHA. (we didn't take off our clothes, FYI. haha)
cassandra taking a bath.
it's called, alibangbang. :) so we continued with our trekking, and at one point, ate dudj asked us if we wanted to take the non-uphill hike which was the long cut, or the complicated shortcut. at that time, anything that sounded like we were nearer to our destination was the better option. so we took the shortcut.
no one told us this was mountain climbing, too.
ate dudj supporting them as they go down. HAHA. we had to hold on to roots and weeds and stuff just so we wouldn't fall. normal mountain climbers would have ropes and stuff in hand, but we didn't. so if we held on to a root that wasn't stable, srsly, it's goodbye. haha. so as we went down to this little river, we took a rest. and then climbed up this waterfalls-ish slope. same procedure. find a stone to step on, find a root to hang on to. and then pull yourself up.
waterfalls-ish climb. when we finally got to the top, rain poured down on us. good thing there was a small hut, so we asked the family who lived there if we could stop for a while.
cas brought an umbrella!ate dudj asked us if we wanted to wait for the rain to stop or if we wanted to continue. we were so tired, we wanted to get there already. so even if the rain was pouring, we still continued walking and walking.... and walking. until we found salvation, just around the next mountain.
as you can see, in the very back, there's this peach colored roof? that's the community. salvation.after i took the picture above, i wanted to celebrate the moment. so i took out from my baon, a lemon square cheescupcake, my favorite, to treat myself. after walking and climbing so many miles, finally we made it. the people in the picture already proceeded with the walking, while i was busy holding my camera in one hand, and the cupcake in the other. i was trying to open the cupcake while walking. tapos i slipped. HAHA. no one saw me, no one even heard me laugh all alone, with a cupcake, in the middle of the mountain. hahah. so i just laughed all by myself. AHAHA
moments before i slipped. hahahawe started walking around 1030 that morning. we arrived at the community at around 230pm. four hours, of not just walking, but of climbing and whatnot. HAHAHA. That was the most extreme i've ever experienced in my life. (natalo nya pa yung love! WEh. haha)
La mia famiglia
when we arrived, we were assigned to our families already. ideally, one student was assigned per household. but of all the people i'd be in the house with, danica had to be my housemate.
with the kiddies in this house, myca and shara! so you can just imagine how rowdy and noisy our house was. Gar, who lived at the end of the community, could hear our voices from our house. all we did was play, laugh, and talk about life and love! *ehem* haha
family picture. this was the whole family! :) i love love love my family. we lived with the Vitugs. Danica's parents were older, nanay consing and tatay i forgot his name sorry. hehe. nanay consing's son, Willie was my daddy. i call him daddy because i call his wife mommy rhodalyn. HAHA. daddy willie and mommy rhoda were still young, around 22.
this is daddy willie and mommy rhoda, so happy together! :) so basically, danica was my tita. HAHA. mommy was as kalog as i was, (or am i? haha) so the house was pretty noisy. HAHA. but it was alllll fuun. plus, the kids were suuuper makulit. HEHE.
that's myca in blue, shara the other kid. we were trying to do the omar ching pokerface pose. HAHAHAwhat was super kulit was danica made kwento (hey hey conyo blog much. haha) to the community about my love life. (or the lack thereof. haha. or. not. haha) and danica's sister told me "uy malungkot na naman si ate timee, di nagsasalita, tumatawa lang. wala namang nakakatawa sa sinasabi namin... ah, baka ganon lang talaga pag nagmamahal" - myca at 12 years old, ladies and gentlemen. and the whole time we were there, we kept going back to talking about my love life (or the lack therof. haha. or. not. haha) and i asked the kids "bakit ulit natin toh pinag-uusapan!?" shara, myca's friend, answered "eh malungkot po kasi kayo, naiiyak kayo eh, nakikita po sa mga mata niyo" uhm!? HAHAHAHAHA.
We slept right after dinner, around 7pm. Define EARLY. :)
Sisig Hooray! :)
The following day, we woke up around 8am too. I love that we got to sleep for 12 hours, something we couldn't do back in the city. We ate breakfast and drank coffee. I must say that their coffee, for me (coz gar didn't like it), was suuper yummy. :) And every meal was suuuper delicious. For breakfast, we ate squash leaves in soup. basta. the veggies looked like flowers, and they were yummy. :) We got all dressed up because we were leaving for "gasak". I don't know what it meant, but i think this is where they get their food. :)
so danica and i, in the clothes that we were wearing the day before, were super ready to go to gasak! :) we didn't know that this gasak was also 2 hours hike. yes, just hike. no extreme mountain climbing. well, except for the part where we were nearing this gasak. haha. the kids had to hold my hand just so i wouldn't fall. HAHA. they were experts at climbing. well, they should be. they do it everyday. the girls go to gasak everyday, and some of the men in the community come along too. :) so along the way, they would find banana trees, bolo it down, and cut off its puso. as the saying goes, "isa lang ang puso ng saging" haha.
when we reached the gasak, there was this hut. so we rested, and i fell asleep. when i woke up it was semi-lunch time, and they had cooked rice inside bamboo stalks/shoots/wood (?!) the rice was yuuummy. :) we spent a few hours in the gasak, and when we headed home, we were asked to carry the gathered puso ng saging. my mommy made it into a backpack. HAHA. cutie.
the rice cooked inside the bamboo thingy. yummy!!
yummy semi-lunch! hehe
that's the puso ng saging. :) and we were preparing them for sisig! :)
happily chopping it away! :) while mommy was playing with the camera! haha
finally! cooking the sisig!! i still remember how to! :)
by the looks of it, i think mommy rhoda loved our sisig! HAHA!hoy no joke.
after dinner, we just hung out inside the house, with just a candle giving us light. i asked them what they do after dinner, or during their free time. mommy rhoda said they just rested, nagkukwentuhan over coffee. :) their lives are so simple, i envy them.
Simple Lives
good thing they had a water system within the community. there were faucets situated in different spots around the community, and this was where we bathed and where cas did his laundry. haha so everytime we took a bath (don't ask how many times. haha), the children would gather around to watch us. HAHA. (we didn't take off our clothes, FYI. haha)
cassandra taking a bath.what i loved most about my immersion experience was that i got away from MY LIFE for 3 days. 3 days of not thinking of my academics, of love (although this was a futile attempt), of any problems or worries. i didn't bring a phone either, so that i could experience hardcore immersion. and i'm glad i didn't because i could've texted home and asked if everything was still under control. no internet either. no multiply, plurk, facebook. no papers, no readings, no anything. when i got back from immersion, i cried because I just had so much to do. i didn't want to go back to my life again. i feel that my life is just so depressing, and i wished that i had a simpler life. :(
our last night was nice. :) a community night was held, and we were asked to share our experiences with our families and stuff. after, we were taught how to dance their native dance. infair, masakit sa katawan. hehe we were supposed to hold the community night outdoors, surrounding a bonfire, but it rained so we had to open the church (built by koreans) and got the generator for our electricity. :)
myca teaching danica to dance!
our last night was nice. :) a community night was held, and we were asked to share our experiences with our families and stuff. after, we were taught how to dance their native dance. infair, masakit sa katawan. hehe we were supposed to hold the community night outdoors, surrounding a bonfire, but it rained so we had to open the church (built by koreans) and got the generator for our electricity. :)
myca teaching danica to dance!i'm glad that the first schedule for our immersion got postponed, because i was sick then, and if i had gone to the immersion, i think i would've died. I don't think i would've enjoyed immersion as much, so thank you. i know everything happens for a reason. :) also, when we got back from immersion, that monday was a no class holiday, so we enjoyed a long rest. :) but still, going back to my life was a bit depressing. we just had lots to do. :(
that immersion was extreme. :) i love it and i will forever have those memories in my heart. :) if you want a meaningful immersion, then i suggest you go to tarlac. :)
that immersion was extreme. :) i love it and i will forever have those memories in my heart. :) if you want a meaningful immersion, then i suggest you go to tarlac. :)
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