This week, I went out of my house 3 days in a row to celebrate the end of my first college semester conducted f2f. This is the story of my 1st day out arranged the night before.
It all starts with me leaving the house by 11, hoping to reach Shangri-la Plaza (I will call this place Shang moving forward) by 12 noon. I originally planned to meet them after lunch around half past one due to their classes, but someone wanted to meet earlier, so I settled for 12. The commute going there was uneventful, unlike the commute going home, so stick with me to the end if you want to know the mishap that happened there.
Once I was in Shang, I decided to walk around the floor for a while, window-shopping the brands that were just out of reach with my finances right now. Then, my friend Bettina surprised me at Starbucks. It’s been more than a year since we last met, so we almost made a commotion with how loudly we greeted each other. She had one of her online classes ongoing; while we waited for the other two friends, she was practicing drawing with vectors. At the same time, I couldn’t resist spilling some of the events that happened to me during my first face-to-face college semester.
An hour and a half passed. The fruity seasonal drink I bought from Starbucks is already empty. Bettina’s iced tea is still half full. The vector drawing of her dog’s finished, as well as her class. Finally, the third invited friend, Jessie, arrived. To absolutely no one’s surprise, he came straight from summer class and was therefore late. He made up for it though by buying us lunch at Bonchon. The news sharing continued over there, and we were all loud and energetic doing so. I had to remember the social skills I learned: waiting for someone to finish, checking their faces and tones to see if they were listening, and more. Neurotypical people take those for granted, but I had to learn all those social cues the hard way because they weren’t instinctual. Anyway, back to the day out.
The last ever friend, Soleil, finally arrived, and we were almost evicted purely for the noise we made seeing her. To be honest, the noise came from mostly her and me, because we truly haven’t seen each other in so long. I was jealous somewhat that she was glowing, while I was still looking like a zombie due to the finals week I had to endure. The news-sharing session became even MORE energetic, and I did comment how instead of saving money, we all saved “chika” to share instead! (Chika is Tagalog for “gossip” but with a positive connotation.)
After we finished our lunches and our news sharing, we decided to explore the mall. Shang is an upscale mall targeted to people in the higher economic levels; the prices at Rustan’s department store certainly weren’t afraid to call us 4 peasants. It was Soleil’s first-ever trip to Shang, so we all stayed together like how ideal friend groups do in horror movies.
With how vast the mall is though, we got hungry and decided to stop by Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for coffee and snacks. I wanted pictures since we all managed to meet up as 4 after a long time. After we all smiled at the camera on my phone, we got our orders and enjoyed the happiness that came from good company and good food. We all agreed to split the bill evenly; Jessie threw a wrench in the plan by paying first. But, we got our way by making him share his GCash acc number for us to pay our share.
It seems impossible on paper, but my friend group and I managed to tour the whole Shang Plaza in one afternoon. Of course, all 4 of us had definite stores we wanted to visit, but we also had fun showing Soleil all the whimsical escalators that loved skipping floors. I think only Jessie and I bought stuff in Shang; he got a Burberry perfume that he loved the scent of, and I stocked up on the toiletries I needed.
The group started leaving one after the other by 1730; Soleil left with her mom and sister, Jessie booked a motorcycle ride to his condominium, and Bettina was fetched by her brother. Bettina and I toured Shang the longest, and I knew it was time to go home when she left.
Going home by myself was a lesson learned the hard way. I took a taxi cab to go home for convenience, but the traffic made me short on cash by the time he was about to drop me off. I told him to wait for me to collect spare change; luckily, there were enough coins at home to cover the commute fare portion I lacked. I was told to never take taxis to go home anymore, but I also kind of hope other people still do so. The taxi driver shared his struggles along with his fellow drivers about how they had to appear in court due to their employers not paying their mandated insurance and etc. for several years. I do hope taxi drivers in the Philippines get treated fairly soon.
The day has ended, but my thirst for social gatherings is far from satisfied. I’ll write posts about the other days out I had in Pasig when I have the energy and time to do so. Until then, I’ll be resting from the tumultuous and memorable college semester I had this year.
Chatterbox 