September 3 – 4, 2022

This trip finally pushed through after planning it for quite a while! We, bisprins, wanted to spend our time together away from the city, but I honestly couldn’t remember how we all ended up agreeing to go to the inflatable island. Can I just say that this was one of the most exhausting yet, at the same time, relaxing trips I had experienced? First off, the weather was already bad, days before this trip. The southwest monsoon being enhanced by the tropical typhoon and some unforeseen circumstances made us almost back out, but screw it, we still pushed through, rain or shine. So the day before our trip, we decided to just meet up at the office. Most of us were scheduled to work from home that day, so we all just went to the office after our shift. We also wanted to meet up with the tech team that was in the office and celebrated our officemate’s birthday.

September 2, 2022 – Friday | Ry‘s birthday celebration + office Friday socials

We spent a few hours bonding with everyone, then around 8 pm, we decided to go ahead and travel to Zambales. On our way out of the office, Ems decided to go out with us and go home. It was funny because we were supposed to just drop her off at her place, but then she asked us where we were going and if she could also come, and we all agreed. We accompanied her to her condo to pack for like 5-10 minutes. It was way too sudden and crazy! We love spontaneity!

We arrived around 2 am at Jhaey‘s place in Zambales. We were all drained from the travel, so after we freshened up, we called it a day. We woke up around 6 am because the time slot we booked for the inflatable island was the earliest, 8 am. We still needed to travel from Zambales to Olongapo, which was like an hour’s drive away. We were all regretting our life decisions at this point. Lol! We arrived past our scheduled time, but the management agreed to move it to 9 am. The weather was gloomy, and it was raining every now and then. The downside of this weather was that the rain turned the sea water brown and murky, and there were trash strewn about. Srsly gross! Anyhoo, we took the Sprinkle pass, and that was an hour access to the floating island. Thank goodness, we took just the hour pass because dannnng, it felt like we were there for so long. We wanted our time to end already. It was fun, though. We all slipped and fell in the water. But yes, never again.

After the exhausting activity, Jhaey brought us to this authentic Korean restaurant somewhere in Subic. We were all famished! And that moment was the highlight of my day. It was by far the best k-restau I’ve ever been to! Super yummy, reasonable prices, and large servings. Can’t wait to go back there! We went back to Zambales after that scrumptious brunch. We caught up on lost sleep, and since it was raining nonstop that day, we decided to just rest, spend time together. We didn’t even bother drinking, but we still played question card games for deeper conversations. And talked about everything and nothing ’til the wee hours.

Our itinerary wasn’t followed due to the weather. We were supposed to try the new pizza place near Jhaey’s and also visit Mapanuepe Lake, but oh well. We just stayed at the beachfront and grabbed lunch/celebrated Marnie‘s birthday before we went back to the jungle. We still made the most of our time, and I was happy to spend my weekend with these beautiful people. ♡

P.S. We had work the next day and most of us called in sick. This trip was definitely one for the books.

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The following days after this trip were tough for me and my family. I had an emergency when we were on our way home from Zambales. I went straight to the hospital when we arrived in the metro. Mama’s heart wasn’t doing well, and she was brought to the hospital. She underwent an angiogram procedure, and the doctor suggested doing a bypass operation because she has three clogged arteries. She’s still recovering and is doing somewhat okay now. My siblings and I are still asking for politicians/government’s financial help. A lot has already helped, and I couldn’t be more grateful. Her coronary bypass operation is scheduled for January next year. I hope everything goes well.