WVSU AB Political Science Manila Educational Tour (Part 2 of 4)

Previous "WVSU AB Political Science Manila Educational Tour" post can be read by clicking this link.

(This is part 2 of a 4-part series...)

On my previous post, I talked about the emotional aspect of the our tour of Manila. In this post, I will tell you all about all the misfortunes that have struck us on the ship and in Manila.

We all know that trips bring about excitement in every one of us. So you can only imagine how ecstatic everyone was while waiting at the pier (we were all supposed to meet there at 6 A.M. but some arrived earlier). However, the departure of the ship was delayed. We boarded N.N. St. Michael the Archangel at around 8 A.M. but it left the port of Iloilo at 10 A.M. Of course, things like this happen all the time, especially here in the Philippines. But that little delay proved to be the start of all misfortune (I will not refer to it as "bad luck" since I do not believe in luck) throughout the trip. Let me reiterate what I said in my previous post, however. No amount of tragedy dampened the spirits of my tour-mates.

Then at around midnight, as the ship was approaching Romblon, the waves became a bit violent. No, I take that back, the waves became very violent. I became extremely seasick. So did Vince and Ma'am Verns and many marinos from John B. Lacson Maritime University who were on board. I kept telling myself that I am strong and that the sick feeling was all in my mind. But alas, the spirit may be strong but the flesh is weak. I gave in to the waves, ran to the washroom and puked until I couldn't puke anymore. No joke. By the time I joined him, Vince had already vomited four times. We got out and took in some fresh air. The waves stopped rocking the ship at around 2 A.M. Finally, after about two stomach churning hours, we were able to get some sleep.

We had a date with typhoon Pedring in Manila. He welcomed us with rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. You get sick of seeing so much rain fall down. So, on Tuesday, September 27th, we had to revise our itinerary, thanks to the fact that Metro Manila was under storm signal number 2. The Supreme Court and the House of Representatives, our major destinations for the day had to cancel office as to not risk the safety of their employees. Since the Supreme Court was near Robinson's Manila, we decided to walk going there because the bus was struck in traffic. After walking a few meters we found ourselves wading in ankle-deep flood waters. Our shoes and part of our pants got wet. Slipper vendors were very happy that day. Once we got inside Robinson's, we tried to de-stress ourselves and enjoy the mall. After eating lunch, we found out we couldn't get out because the streets were flooded making them impossible to use by people and by vehicles. Stranded in a mall in Manila. Great.

One major tragedy that happened to our tour thanks to typhoon Pedring was the cancellation of our visit to Manila Ocean Park. The Park was the biggest reason I wanted to go on the tour because this is my opportunity to conquer my fear of sharks (hello, do you want we dive into shark-infested ocean instead?).

As a sort of coup de grace from Pedring, our plane going home was delayed by an hour. We had to wait at the airport an extra hour. In case you don't know me, I have extremely low tolerance for waiting. I try to be patient, but I easily get irritated when I wait for something (please don't take this out of context; the "waiting" that I am referring to is the literal waiting as in waiting in line, etc.) Irritation is equal to discomfort. And who would want discomfort?

Again, I have said this over and over now. The misfortunes failed to dampen the fun that we had during the tour. These misfortunes turned out to be memorable, bonding moments for everyone. Like what a Mayday Parade song said, "sometimes it isn't [about] where you're going, it's who you're with". It's up to you and the people around you to make the most of everything that's going on, be it good or bad. We did just that.

Rage and Love,

Kennan

(Photo credit: http://www.afreemind.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/pedring01.jpg)



Previous "WVSU AB Political Science Manila Educational Tour" post can be read by clicking this link.