It has been a long day for me and my group mates as we were cramming everything. Our proposal defense for our experimental research is just around the corner, and us being not-so well-versed with research are stressed beyond compare. We were reviewing everything and noticed a lot of errors in our paper. Frustrated, we decided to call it a day and start anew tomorrow.
My classmates, who were in the same boat as us, have decided to take a break as well. One of my closest classmates approached me and invited me to go out with our friend group to visit a nearby town having their fiesta celebration. Of course, as someone who needed a break, I agreed. We decided to depart to our destination at around 8:00pm. We were four in total and my classmate, Clarice, was my passenger. We traveled for around 20 minutes, and met Zeith, our friend who's a local and he became our "Tour Guide".
Zeith led us to his cousin's house so that we can securely park our motorcycles. After that, we walked around, and went to the church. As Filipinos, it's customary to visit the church during fiestas to give respect to the patron saint whom the fiesta is dedicated to (This applies to Roman Catholic devotees). After saying a prayer, we then proceeded to walk around the town's family park. The area surrounding the park was filled with stalls selling various items from different kinds of food to souvenirs like shirts, jewelries, and commemorative items. I didn't buy anything as I was saving my budgetted money. I haven't had my dinner yet, and that takes priority.
After walking around for some time in the family park, we decided to go to their dockside. This is where their "perya" was located. I wanted to ride one of their rides but it was a bit pricey. Maybe it was pricey because there were a lot of people lining up for different rides. I asked my friends to come ride with me but they refused saying that they might get motion sickness and it would ruin their night. In the end, we just roamed around the "perya" (Filipino Fair).
After roaming around, we were invited by an acquaintance to eat at their house. It is customary in the Philippines that when celebrating the fiesta, we cook food and share it with other people, may it be people who you know, or those who are invited by someone you know. However, this varies in different places in the Philippines.
We ate our fill, and had a short drinking session. We drank beer while eating ice cream. I know, weird combination right? But it worked, and was appealing to me. We talked about different things while drinking and I got to know more about Elle, the guy who invited us to his house. We then decided to go to the town's sports complex to dance since it was made to be a temporary disco club.
The venue was so crowded that we had to link our arms to avoid separating from each other as we waded through the sea of crowd. We reached the front of the stage and there we had another drinking session while dancing on the dance floor. The DJ was playing their set list of songs and the people were singing along and dancing to the beat. It was a good night for me because as we were dancing, we bumped into my crush. He was with his friends, and they decided to be a part of our circle. We danced with each other, and during the latter part of the disco, he put his arms around me and we're basically cuddling while dancing. I got a bit shy because my friends were teasing me with their looks and I slowly withdrew from the cuddling position. I don't want to be painted as someone who takes advantage of situations. Later on, I messaged my crush to apologize and he said that he didn't mind it, in fact he enjoyed our time together. Still, I was too embarrassed, and I guess had let the chance pass by.
The disco stopped around 3am. It had stopped because of, I guess, two things: We had reached the curfew, or someone got into a fight. Well, it was a bit disappointing because the way they stopped it was abrupt, and we didn't get a proper send off before the party stopped.
After being able to get out of the venue, we went back to Elle's house because my girl friends wanted to use the bathroom. We then decided to call it a night because we had to go back to working with our research proposal.
While the experience has its highs and lows, it was really fun for me. I would definitely do it again next year.
PS. I'm very sorry for the very low quality photos. My phone is outdated, and I haven't gotten the chance to upgrade it.