July 18th: Leaving Bicol

The IP Rondalla singing "Maraming Salamat" to Dr. Sy with Tita Cris
handing her a specially framed group picture of the IP Rondalla

Hey, Ceci here. Today was a bittersweet day of many good-byes. We started off the day at our various lodgings. I stayed at the governor's mansion, which was filled with moths, dead and alive. We went to Kendra Sy's house for breakfast where I stuffed myself with fried bananas to the shock of others (I'm allergic to raw bananas). Because we were traveling back to Manila in two groups, there were many tears and good-byes after breakfast.

The first group left for the airport at 10 am, while the other group, including me, George, and Janrey, stayed at Dr. Sy's house and had a heaping of food for lunch. Dr. Sy was very kind to us. Even Kendra came down to say her parting words. At around noon, the second group boarded the van to the airport. Our flight was at 2 pm, but since we were a big group, we had to leave a little earlier for check-in. By now, the other group had already landed in Manila and were waiting for us.




Flying over Manila on our descent

We arrived at the airport at around 4 pm. By 4:30 pm, we were at Remington Hotel (ha ha, remember we were here at the beginning during our first big performance at Resorts World?) where the rest of the group awaited us. Unlike most days we've been having, the afternoon was pretty relaxing. We didn't have a performance and we didn't have anything scheduled, so the rest of the crew that was left behind sat in the lobby eating cheese pizza and begging the parents to let us go to the movies to watch "Monster's University." They surprisingly said no, despite this being our last day together. Oh well...at least we could sleep early for once. And that's exactly what we did.

Ceci