Calaruega

Coming to Calaruega for the third time as an outgoing member apparently really means something in the strange world of the Varsitarian.

I remember the first time I went there as an incoming: I had my first pseudo-fight, I couldn't cooperate with the rest of the staff even if I wanted to, and I actually practiced sacraments!

The following year, I merely spent the whole time making googly eyes at "RT." How I succumbed to such fake happiness, I will never know. Haha! It was also my first time to go star gazing that year. The whole experience was just lovely and I loved every moment of it. 

This was all the reason why I wasn't that ecstatic this year. With hype that high, reality never stood a chance. My third year in Calaruega was basically spent with the Awesome Foursome minus Tabora, jogging and smoking and sharing stories about love and life. 

Okay. So it's not that I don't have anything good to say about the whole trip. I mean, I'll definitely remember almost getting sanctioned because of a condescending "twatter" but other than that, the unexpected warmth in temperature and bereft of activity made it a *hand flipping gesture* trip. 

After failing to get my holy on at Calaruega, I spent most of my days at STATUS for the internship. I spent early mornings jogging at the SM parking lot with Jonnie preparing for Caylabne and went on the GM diet as I have been ranting about in the past.

Tuguegarao

However, in the one-week-before-Caylabne gray area, the five nine to six's got to me and I went mad. I went to Tuguegarao. 

I don't have pictures for proof and it's not like I did anything even mildly interesting there except stay in one room making excellent love to the air conditioner, I loved the whole stay. Funny story too, Dre's dad was my seatmate at the bus on my way there! Nobody expected that. But yeah, they let me stay at their place for a whole three days. They fed me and let me stay in Dre's room! \:D/ it was nice. I even got to taste Batil Patung again! So hooray for that. Upon the dawn of the tribe wars however, I had to leave. And when I did, I merely had a change of clothes, packed again and stormed off.

Caylabne

When my name was drawn from the Varsitarian sorting hat placing me in the Itals tribe two years ago, pity was painted all over the faces of everyone around me. They kept on telling me stuff like "itals ka? kawawa ka naman." or "itals, ay talo." Needless to say, our tribe's reputation precedes it. But it was okay, win or lose I was pretty much game for anything. Which is why a day before my first trip to Caylabne I got a haircut with Paul Q and Alya celebrating our loyalty to the tribe. As much as I would like to say "I regret nothing!" no angle or argument can ever suffice and overcome the fact that it was horrible and I shouldn't have done it. Definitely the worst haircut of my life. But it was okay. Hair grows. 

Two years after that hair catastrophe, our tribe has gotten away with two consecutive overall wins and my hair has also grown back to the way it was before I had it cut. And in the same way old hair grows dead and weary through the years and then eventually chopped off in order to let new and healthier hair grow, I put myself in the dead ended side of the chopping block. 

This was my third and last year in Caylabne.

I dyed my hair red, won women's swimming with Mides for the third time, played basketball for real for the first time, obtained several bruises and cuts, got 75% tanner, and of course, got everyone drunk.

Also, my tribe achieved it! A three-peat!

I cried a river during my speech at the outgoings night, and talked to everyone one-by-one because I thought it was imperative that I say good bye properly. Looking back, however, I can't help but think that it was silly of me to do that because what was I saying good bye for anyway?

Once a V staffer, always a V staffer.

Photos by Jilson Tiu, Erika Dizon, and Daniel Hirro :) I need to get my own camera! HAHA