Summer in November Pt. 7

boracay epilogue (sunday, 4 november 2007)

my trip to boracay would have been totally perfect if not for one thing: i lost my glasses. so from sunday noon up until the end of our trip (6 nov.), i had to look at the world through hazy eyesight. stupid, stupid me! i won't go into the gory details anymore as i could not recall where and what time exactly i lost it, although i have my suspicions--might be when we took a last dip in the water. (to give you an idea how weak my eyes are, i'll give you an illustration: i'm practically kissing the computer/book to be able to read).

right after lunch, we did what other tourists would do: buy souvenirs. shirts, keychains, cell phone toppers that all scream, "I'VE BEEN TO BORACAY!!!" as usual i bought more than what i could give so there are still some more cell phone decorations/keychains (whatever you call them) stashed somewhere in my bag. want one? ;-P (available until supplies last hahaha)

on the pump boat ride back to caticlan, i surmised that once in a while, it would be nice to visit boracay no matter how commercialized it is. what really matters is the people you're with and how you enjoy the place for what it is. so yeah, i'll be going back to boracay, hopefully not 9 years after. there might be an sm or robinson's mall by then. ack!

that's our shadows on the white boracay sand. i'm the one on the left, fixing something in my bag. :-P

back to roxas

if the total travel time we've had last november 2 from roxas to boracay was 5 hours, we actually cut our travel time back to roxas by 2 hours. i noticed that on every trip i've done, the trip back home takes a shorter time. excluding rest and emergency stops, this really happens. what reason that is, it still evades me.

in our case though, one of the reasons would be because the daughter of cuz O's cousin (who told us to hitch a ride with them to and from bora) took a bug in boracay in which medical attention is needed (she's definitely better as of this writing). in just three hours we were at the emergency room in a hospital in roxas city, where our tito and tita (cuz O's parents) and nephew G picked us up.

fun with language barriers

back at our tito and tita's house, we had some time to rest before dinner. nephew G wandered into our room as me and cuzes M and E were lounging on our beds. now for G to even come near us is quite a feat, considering that he's really, really shy and doesn't talk to just anyone except his family. so we stared at G, and he in turn stared back until i said, "G, kiss your titas." so he went around the room to kiss us titas which broke the ice and we started to talk to him in tagalog. the problem is that he answered us back in ilonggo (pls. correct me if i'm wrong here), complete with the lilting sound of the dialect. we were like, oh man, what's he talking about? so for the next few minutes and up to the next day, our conversations generally went something like this:

moi, M or E: G, nasaan si elmo? (G, where is elmo?)
G (speaking in ilonggo): si elmo ara sa balay namon.

okay, this we could understand somehow. he's saying that elmo is in his house. but read on:

moi, M or E: ganun ba? sige, dalhin mo sya dito para paglaruan natin. (is that so? ok, bring him here so we can play with him.)
G: (now speaking in rapid ilonggo which we couldn't catch except for a few stray words)
moi: ha? M, anong sabi nya? (what? M, what did he say?)
M: malay ko! (i don't know!)
G: (speaking in more rapid ilonggo)
moi, M or E: huwaaaaaaaat???
G: (laughing at us coz we couldn't understand him. apparently, he understands tagalog but can't/doesn't want to speak it yet.)

and with this, our lifelong bond with G was sealed. (G is four years old, btw, and the first cousin of K and E.) that adorable little kid has a sister, I, who fortunately came to our rescue the next day as our translator since she knows how to speak in tagalog. at one time, she and G came into our room whispering in ilonggo. cuz E, who apparently just woke up from one of her countless naps (peace, cuz! ü), blurted out, "bakit pa kayo nagbubulungan hindi ko naman kayo maintindihan?!" (why are you whispering? i can't understand you anyway!)

G and sis I. see how comfy he is with us? hopefully he will remember us when he comes to manila this christmas with his family. ^^