High School Reunion

It was so great to see my high school classmates and some faculty from UP High School Cebu after several long odd years.

The UP High School Batch 76 Reunion started with a mass lead by Monsignor Dakay.

“Don’t be late or you’ll get a scolding,” we were warned.

Cocktails, and a wonderful dinner followed, hosted by Jojo Bernardo in his private residence, a cool beautiful victorian villa with a collection of priceless antiques.

Colleagues flew in from near and far to gather for the next four days. We had classmates that flew in from as far as the United States and Manila, and the rest, coming from all over the corners of Cebu.

Mrs. Sophie Alino Logarta took the stage and opened for us. She still look exactly as I remember in high school.
She seemed ageless.

Wine and liquor started flowing simultaneously with the rain.

The downpour brought us closer and cozier to each other as we snuggled, avoiding getting soaked.

Karaoke was ON, as we belted out some oldies and goodies from yester years.

 

Dancing with the stars, Peter Mancao and Belinda Senoron, as Allan Suarez crooned in the background.

Back at the round table, we started wondering whatever happened to this classmate and that, as we speak, they started to trickle and show up one by one. Speaking of the devil…

Of course, the guessing game began,

“Do you know who I am?” “You do? Okay, who am I?”

“Sorry, I don’t remember, must be one of my dementia moments.”

We were mixing up someone’s names with surnames, trying to match each other’s face with their names, followed by confusion, chaos, and giggles.

These types of reunions usually evokes nostalgic and melancholic moments.

I am aware that people go on crash diets for special reunions like these, trying to reclaim their old figures back.

Those who were once slam dunk slender grew horizontally and those chubbier mates melted down.

Prom queens become frump queens and ugly ducklings turned into swans.

High School Reunions are indeed an emotional roller coaster ride, that in the US they even created a TV series around these events.

UP High Batch 76, I am proud to say that everyone looked good, youthful, healthy and radiant. We do miss some of our dear classmates who passed, rather very young like Rainier Adlawan and Bernabe Mayol.

Some of my classmates seemed ageless, like Gigi Bugarin for instance, hardly looked a day older than our high school days.

“Gi, what’s your secret?” I asked. “You only live once,” she smiled, as she nibbled on lechon fat.

Raymond used to be skinny during High School, now you’d think he’s incredible HULK. Well as for me, I was always chubby during high school and only got chubbier through the years.

It was just wonderful, fun, and rejuvenating to relive High School follies one more time again.

JUNE 17, 2011

The next day, June 17 the group went to Tambuli Beach Resort. We though it was a better alternative than island hopping, since not everyone really wanted to do that.

At Tambuli Beach Resort, everyone is free to do what they want and they have multiple choice, whether they wanted to do island hopping, jet skiing, boating or simply reading a book and laying in the sun to tan.

The best thing about Tambuli is our long lost classmate, Susan Ponce. We’ve been looking for her and through FaceBook found out that she’s been working there for several years. So if we went to Tambuli, she could even join us, if she had to work, not to mention some special rates.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t join them because I had to work the next day.

However, I was able to catch up with the night life at Level 8 Disco.

This was really a nice disco because they played songs from the golden 80′s.

Gayle Lucas from California came with her family, Nenelow from Florida and Raymond Rodis and Elfina flew in from Manila too. I haven’t seen them in 30 some years, and it was great to see them again.

We had fun dancing with the DI’s Dance Instructors and amongst ourselves, figuring out the hustles, 12 step, swing, line dance, etc. as you can see the pic below, golden girls were stressed synchronizing the steps with the music.

The band members congratulated our group and also serenaded us.

Apolinar Suarez could not help but take the stage once more. Encore!

Now for nightcap, group photo moments, or should I say,

“Smile, you’re tagged at Facebook!:

The next day, June 18, Saturday, Day 3.

We met at the 9:30am in front of the UP Oblation for a drive down south to Badian to Aqua Azul resort privately owned by Peter Mancao, our colleague and host.

Thanks, Pete.

Before we leave, let’s take a picture in front of our alma matter and the most famous oblation. Elfina focused, looking for the tree she used to climb, when she was studying her subjects in high school.

John and Gigi Bugarin followed in a second van, as they were still going to pick up some faculty members, who later pulled out at the last minute.

It was a bright warm sunny day as usual, and it sure was exciting to make the road trip down south. Morgan was able to join us and was catching up with her from the car.

We plan to hook up with John and Gigi and their group in Carcar and have lunch there.

Carcar is one of the old towns of Cebu reminiscent of spanish heritage, old church and still well maintained ancestral homes.

Carcar is also famous for their local delicacies like ampao, a sticky rice concoction with nuts, chicharon especially from Mat-mat and shoe factories.

We visited Peter Mancao’s ancestral home, and it’s color is peach, not pink, mind you.

We bought some food from the Carcar Market and waited for the second batch to come so we could eat lunch at this wonderful place.

More memorable pose, you’re tagged at FB

On our way to Badian we stopped by the Milk Farm in Barili.

Here you can get fresh milk and cheese from the carabaos. The cheese was really good, not salty as I expected.

We couldn’t resist stopping by for fresh ice cream. yum.

except for those, who already drank beer, they abstained from the ice cream.

I did have one can of Red Bull but I trained my stomache to a beer and ice cream float.

Off the record, this was also favorite Pee stop, and kudos to Raymond who put his muscles at work.
Our Sir Galahad, Raymond fetch buckets of water and flushed the toilet when it stank so bad so we could use it.
Thanks again, Raymond, truly admirable and gentleman of you, well trained by asawa, kudos to her too!
Such noble deed did not go unnoticed!

Finally we reach our destination, the wonderful Agua Azul Beach Resort.

We were tired and weary from a long drive but wanted to stretch out. As soon as we familiarized ourselves with our surroundings, Belinda whipped us to a zumba workout hour enough to make us hungry for dinner.

Genaro was chef for the night and whipped up a mean lean paksiw, that tasted heavenly!

Joel Bas broke in his new motorcycle and drove south to meet up with us.
During dinner, we could not help recounting the tale of Joel Bas’ notorious adding machine.

Mr. Lutao allowed us to bring calculators for our math class, and here comes Joel bringing a huge traditional adding machine that made a lot of noise that filled the hall and outside classrooms in our building.

Peter and Pia Mancao also came couple of hours later. Thanks again, Pete. By night time our group was complete.

John, Gigi as well as Elfina drove home that night. Elfina still had a flight to catch to manila and John and Gigi had other events to attend to.

The rest of the bunch was all up and cozy still catching up with one another over a bottle of red bull, san miguel as well as tanduay ice. Third night in a row, I need sleep.

The next day, Belinda, Soccorro and I got up early to go to church. I was distressed because I only brought shorts and tank tops not to mention bikinis which was definitely a NO-GO for church. Luckily Morgan lent me a long skirt and I used my sarong as a shawl to cover up so I was good to go.

Badian Church was uplifting and inspiring, good way to start the day, which was just a 10 minutes walk from Agua Azul. They had a beautiful choir and mass was held in our dialect. Outside the church was a dental mission bus.

It was an awesome beautiful day, and Father’s day as well, as we greeted the fathers in our group.

A huge hearty Filipino breakfast awaited us.

Went for a swim at the resort next door, since they had a lap pool. Just enough laps to work us an appetite for lunch.

Another huge, yummy lunch and we were all so full and intoxicated from each other’s company, as well as the beautiful environment that surrounded us.

Agua Azul, we’ll be back!

Unfortunately, weekends do end and we had to rush back to catch the party later that night. Peter Mancao hosted a dinner at Parian, one of the old heritage streets in cebu proper.

I could not resist taking a shot of Guibuangan School sounds like “Crazy School”,

and we could not help chuckling about the idea of it and their graduates.

Pia Mancao suggested that we visit the Mantayupan falls in Barili and we made it there, at least we did not have to walk 2 kms. like the Kawasan falls.

We got lost for a little bit, but finally found the falls in an off the beaten track.
It was beautiful, had 2 layers of falls. Also this place was actually historical since this was the exact landmark John Bugarin broke his arm in one of the high school outings, so they say. True John?

When we got back to cebu, I was so worn out to attend the finale farewell party and karoake and just evaporated without a word, sorry guys. Also took a day and half to recover from this fun filled high school reunion. I realize I did not have the stamina and energy of non stop partying reminiscent of high school, does that got something to do with age?

Thanks again for the planning committee, this would not have happened without Belinda, Marnun, Soccorro and Nenelow and Gia, who was actively planning with us but barely made the events.

Did I forget someone? Blame it on a senior moment.

Next High School reunion was planned in 5 years and if we don’t hear from you, you’re either dead or alive or disabled!

Hope to see y’all in 5 years.

Almost forgot, there are two passports auctioned to the highest bidder,

1 dual citizen and 1 triple whammy, if the currency and price is right!

last but not least, listen…

Caught you on Tape
click here

Ciaoooooo!!!!

A week or two later, we had a mini reunion because Jane Sevilla flew in for her parents golden anniversary and Mayet Villamor was also in town.

Wa kuno “Tag-ay” sa Facebook!

Then the next day, Teodorica Cabaero showed up and here we are again,
that my family was already asking how long will this reunion last???

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Tags: cebu city, high school reunion, philippines, UP Cebu Batch 76