The Capital City

I have hazy memories of the capital city. My trips to Manila were usually limited to a few hours or at most, a night and a short day. I was ecstatic that last Friday, me, my five other classmates and a teacher, went to Manila for a quiz bee (and a lot more). Wihi! Two nights in the National Capital Region. Of course, I was excited. NCR is the nearest domestic address we have to "the city that never sleeps" and I'm going with friends who fall under the same age group and with the same preferences as me.

(Read more for more fun...)

After arriving a few minutes from 7 PM in Manila, a nice girl from the Southville Foreign University (SFU) picked us up from NAIA Terminal 3 and we rode the car she brought along. The bearable traffic made our trip to the SFU campus in Las Pinas well....bearable. 

Hungry, we got a little help from a nearby McDonald's branch.

I wonder why the McDo branches in Manila get an extra list of sundae flavors. Back here in Iloilo we only get two flavors, chocolate and caramel. Boooring.

So we slept in a dorm arranged by the people from SFU and we witnessed supernatural hauntings which I will not elaborate on - rekindling scary memories are scarier than experience. Even spirits were in a partying mood. Spooky and kind of funny in an evil way.

This photo is missing one team member. She was taking the picture.
We should have b(r)ought someone to take the photos =P

After the first night, we prepared ourselves  for another breakfast in the nearby McDo(again). We visit a faraway place and we still eat at the same fast food chain we eat at in Iloilo, eating the same type of calories. Irony of tourism! You can't blame us. The choices were limited in the residential area we were occupying in Las Pinas and we needed the 'fast' fastfood was offering during that time.

After the breakfast, we started changing into our Philippine Science High School - Western Visayas Campus uniforms and it felt weird. The contest will be starting in a few and we moved on to the SFU campus where the quiz bee will be held. 

In this photo, I look like the second shortest. My height is one of the
few things I am least sad about my body and I honestly say, the heights on this
photo is inaccurate.

Our team's primary goal was not to emerge last in the quiz bee - formally called the "10th Global Dimensions Olympiad" sponsored by the Southville Foreign University and the Rotary Club of Makati Salcedo. Its the first time our school is going to join this contest so basically, we have no idea on how the quiz works. We were given a coverage of the questions but the list only covered at most 25% of the quiz bee. After three rounds of tensions, we emerged as the euphemism of 3rd Place - the 2nd Runner-Ups. Thank you, Lord!

We were happy because aside from the Scholarship grants from the premiere school that bills 2,500++ Dollars per semester (multiply by 3 per year because the school year is on trimesters), 10,000 pesos cash price and a nice trophy, we were able to grab a place in the top three with no relevant preparations beforehand. 

After the contest, we were given an exclusive school tour. Southville should win awards for their facilities. OMG! They have chairs that feel like the ones on luxury theaters, they have glass blackboards, uniforms featuring a tux and a tie and an elite-ish crowd of students. The scholarship we won suddenly became extremely tempting. While walking around the school, "ooooohhh"s and "aaaaaaah"s were defeaning! Southville is like the Hermes of education in the Philippines.

In one of the classrooms of SFU

We all agreed that we pay Enchanted Kingdom a visit so after a post-contest cocktail party, we packed our bags and headed to Enchanted Kingdom. Did you know? It was my first time and for that, it deserves a separate blog entry.

PS: Its really my first time to arrive at the NCR and have intentions of staying there because my previous trips to the region only happen during connecting flights to somewhere else or when fetching someone. I have a right to sound like a kid on his first airplane ride.