Summer of 2003

I was digging around my bookshelf for something I can lend to my brother (he's been reading the Twilight series and I wanted to save him) when I came upon some of my old notebooks.  I'm quite good at notebook hoarding but not in filling them up, so I'm left with a bunch of not-even-half-filled notebooks.  Anyway, I took one book, "The Official Day to Day Notebook" I bought from Papemelroti, and turned to the first page.

say hi to my teenage wit.

The next entry in the notebook was dated Wednesday, April 2, 2003:

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Summer boredom to be extinguished by the promise of more things to come, other stuff to do

Accomplishments so far--

1. climbed at PowerUp Pasig w/ the BIGKIS kids [new friends thru Ronald & Brian: Carlo, Eric, Luther, Chinky, Ate Beth (I think) etc. etc.]
2. exercise -  stretching, jogging, walked around
3. joined GRABE ROCK fun bouldering competition last March 29 at the ATC (w/ Bri) -- got shirt!
4. learned how to burn CDs (did 7 so far)
5. read novels at speed record (1 novel a day)
6. watched: Gangs of New York, Possessions, Maid in Manhattan
7. arranged the many pics
8. made a "bracelet"
9. bought my own chalk bag
10. proved to myself I need more practice at climbing
11. spent time w/ Brian & Ronald, wishing more would come from the relationship than just climbing fellowship (I wish to have deeper friendship!)

Don't laugh.  I was nineteen and lovesick.

Ronald & Brian were friends who lived 'down south' (Paranaque), who went to the climbing gym 'up north' (Quezon City) to climb.  I met them when I took wallclimbing lessons that summer.  The BIGKIS group was their church youth group I think, and I met them when we tried out PowerUp's outdoor wallclimbing facility.  Initially my mother didn't want me wallclimbing (she considers it an extreme, dangerous sport), and only agreed to let me have them if I took my brother along.  So Kuya and I took lessons with these guys, at PowerUp in Tandang Sora (QC).

The bouldering competition is a memorable one--I think Ronald had measles and couldn't compete, so it was just me and Bri.  I was tad nervous--it was my first time to travel to Alabang by myself (I took the bus, and, on my way home, was almost caught jaywalking--I pretended to be lost, which I really was anyway), and I was a complete noob at the sport.  After my round (women's amateur), Bri and I took off, too scared and embarrassed to find out about the results.  It was only later that we were told they were looking for us, because apparently I got third place!  Yay!  Of course, it helped a lot that there were only three of us in my division.  :P  But what the heck.  I loved the sport, and wanted so much to get better at it that I bought my own chalk bag and started to save up for rock shoes and more climbing sessions.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to climb walls again after that year.  :(

The next and last entry in the notebook was written like this:
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May 19 - additional

1. Joined the UP-ASP & KAPI's Field School at Taal, Batangas --> learned a lot of new things & met a lot of new people
2. Watched X-men 2 w/ ___
3. Climbed @ PowerUp TS w/ Brian and ___
4. Made a fool of myself in front of Eric
5. Talked to Ramil (Ramil Gulle, whom I considered my mentor in the writing community)
6. More movies! -- Bought a copy of "The Dead Poets Society"
7. Renewed interest for constellations, made my own "sky"
8. Poetry's back, in small amounts
9. Started writing in a journal again
10. Getting interested in photography, read mythology
11. Gained weight! Aaargh!!!

Aaah, summer.  Hahaha.

I was really itching to do something relevant that summer, and, armed with my (impressive, of course) grades for the previous semester, I asked my mother to let me join an archaeological field school I'd seen in the newspaper.  "Let it be my prize," I asked, very nicely.  I was so happy when she said yes, go ahead.  I think I'll do another post on that field school, an awesome time when I met some of the coolest people I know, and which further heightened my interest in archaeology (and sleeping in tents, haha). 

I was really too old to get a prize for high grades, but I really, really wanted a reason to go away (what's summer without a summer fling, I mean thing, right?)!

The blanks uh, hide a name because of security reasons. :P

The "sky" I made are two pieces of blue-black construction paper cut into a circle.  One piece was the northern hemisphere at a certain time of the year (July at 7pm, I think), and the other was the southern hemisphere.  Based on an astronomy book, I plotted the constellations on the papers and, using a dressing pin, punched out the 'stars'.  The constellations would then come out when I used the paper to cover a light source in front of me.  I studied the constellations for quite some time (try me), and wished I lived in a place where it was easy to go stargazing without the brightness of the city lights.

How did I get interested in the night sky in the first place?  Well, it was also a result of that trip to Batangas.  More on this in that upcoming field school post (which I really have to write soon, before I forget).

I think 2002-2003 was a very teenage angst-filled phase in my life (including the icky 'love problems') and I did a lot of soul-searching (awww) then.  But I felt happy and accomplished to have been able to do and learn about a lot of new things, especially burn music CDs (and give them away to friends).  Who still does that?

Sigh.  It was nice looking back to that year.  I'm glad I can still remember those moments, thanks to my notebooks and my then-journal-writing self.