#BangonSugBohol: Story of the Earthquake

This has been a long, long week. It all started last Tuesday, October 15, 2013. It was supposed to be just another ordinary holiday. We were eating breakfast in a way that we usually do during holidays. Suddenly, we felt the earth shaking. It lasted longer than I thought it would. My sister was still sleeping when it happened. While we hurried out of the house, Dad had to wake her up. It was so shocking and frightening because we didn't know what else could happen in the house.

Few minutes after we got out, we were talking about how that earthquake was the strongest one they have ever felt in their lives. My grandma, who lives with us, is already 74 and she feels the same way. We kept talking about it even as that first wave stopped.

Initially, there was no power in the house for precautionary measures. Eventually it was put back on. While watching the news on TV, the aftershocks kept coming. Good thing we have a mirror that can detect the slightest movement due to aftershocks. All plans I had for that day went to a screeching halt.

In the afternoon, all I was doing was watch TV and anime on my computer. I went up to my room shortly after watching certain shows on TV to watch Shingeki no Kyojin. (This is a really dark and morbid anime, but cool nonetheless. I might review it soon!) The sad part about watching it that afternoon was that the aftershocks kept kicking in, so the morbid parts of the episode felt more morbid than usual. After one aftershock happened, I went down to the living room to take a breather. Few minutes later, I went back up to watch again. THEN ANOTHER AFTERSHOCK HAPPENED. After that, I just stayed downstairs and meddled with my phone.

While all that was happening, a lot of sad news came in. People died because the roof of the Pasil Fish Port collapsed. The belfry of the Basilica del Sto. Niño fell. Churches in Bohol were crushed by the powerful earthquake. Some bridges there became impassable. People in Cebu and Bohol are panicking because of the quakes. They either brought tents outside and slept there or simply slept on the roads since they were all scared of going back inside for there might be more aftershocks.

The story didn't stop there though, as the next day was even more troubling. At dawn, ANOTHER aftershock happened and people were awakened by it. Some couldn't even sleep because they were frightened by it. On my way to work, I tried to find some damages of the earthquake. Unfortunately, I never found any until I got in to the elevator area of the ground floor of our building. There were already remnants of the earthquake. When I got to the 7th floor and reached my cubicle in the office, my McDonald's tumbler fell to the chair. At least that's what happened in my cubicle. In other cubicles, I saw CPU towers fall on its side. On the ceiling, there were lights and smoke alarms moved. Thankfully, the network didn't suffer any damage, as that would have affected our work that day. Unfortunately, we felt TWO aftershocks in the office in the morning. After lunch, we were allowed to go home early since the aftershocks really worried the people in the office.

Up to this day, we are still experiencing aftershocks. It sucks that we have to live with this for a while since I am most concerned with the people of Bohol. They are the ones who suffered most in these tragic times. The reason why I put up that picture of the full moon is because it reminded me that despite the darkness, there will always be that light shining on us. We can rise again. We should help those people in need so that our comeback will be stronger than ever. If you're confused as to how you can help, check out @BangonSugBohol on Twitter or those non-profit organizations that you already know, or go here: http://www.istorya.net/forums/content/bangonsugbohol-call-action-help-our-brothers-and-sisters-need-480/. 

Fellow Cebuanos and Boholanos, stay safe always!

V: Bonding at the Bay with Cousins! :)

Happy moments seem to connect with each other lately, particularly during this summer. I loved the fact that I got to spend most of the weekends with family and friends (even though I could feel tired sometimes when a trip is just one week after the previous one). Unlike the other ones, this was planned like a month before. My Dad wanted us cousins to bond during summer even for just one weekend, so he made it a reality and had an overnight stay in Plantation Bay. ^_^

It may not be our first time here, but it sure was our first time that only we, the cousins, were going overnight. Despite the phone attachments we have, (it's so obvious, we even brought phones even while biking) we hang out a lot and went together all the time. :D

We ate dinner on the poolside which really felt like the beach since it was saltwater rather than freshwater. It was an American-themed dinner, which explains the hotdog and the fries there. After that, we went to the game room to play a lot of table games like Air Hockey and Table Tennis. We also played Darts (I suck at it). We got tired after 2 hours of playing and went back to the room. We had a lot of fun in the room until 1am and slept. When we woke up the next day, our parents went to get us and have McDonald's for breakfast. Mactan Newtown recently opened a McDonald's there and it really looks good! After that, we had our final moments in Plantation Bay and went home.

I wouldn't want to end my summer in any other way than with family. :D

IV: D' Woods of Tabuelan.

This by far has got to be the most "out-of-town" of all the trips I've been to. Despite that, this one made me see all the wonders that Mother Nature wants us to see and appreciate. Unlike the previous trips where we had to wake up early at dawn just to enjoy most of the trip, we left at 8 AM. The trip was very long since it took us almost 3 HOURS to get to our destination and we almost got lost trying to find the place! Good thing there was enough signal for my dad to call his brother on the name and location of the place we're staying. It's named D' Woods Beach Camp. (Which is the reason of the title of the post. ^^)

The place really felt isolated. The cabin (in D' Woods! Get it? HAHA) was the only place where people can sleep. The room's nice because it's a room that you usually would expect from a beach resort. The surroundings are very refreshing since you don't see a hint of modernization around you except when you get inside their cottages where you'll find stuff for cooking and the rooms.

The beachfront in D' Woods isn't much since it's pretty much a mangrove plantation, so it's a good thing there are more beach resorts within Tabuelan alone. We didn't really do much in the beach camp besides sleeping, eating, and using our phones. It was fun when we went to Durhan Beach Resort and the Maravilla Public Beach.

Going around Cebu for most of this summer made me realize how much I really love it. The beauty of the beaches all around Cebu cannot be fully described through blogging. Durhan Beach Resort is one of those beaches. Although it may be far away, it's still worth it to go there when you wanna get away from the noise and insanity of the city. This trip is one of the best ones I've been to and I won't hesitate to go back here at all.

III: The Adventures of Danasan.

Good thing this one didn't happen the week after we went to Camotes, otherwise I would have realized that I couldn't take a lot of "out-of-town" trips. Haha. Anyway, this happened on the first of May. Again, this was planned by my mom's friend who wanted to spend time here. The place was really nice. It really felt like we were out of civilization! We were out of it actually since there was no signal there! The cottage we stayed in really belonged with the whole location since it was made of bamboo.

We actually aimed for one thing only: WAKEBOARDING. We the young people really wanted to try wakeboarding and since my mom's friend wanted us to enjoy the place, we agreed to do 4 adventurous activities. Oooh, very nice indeed.

Of course, the first activity we had was WAKEBOARDING. It was really hard to do at first but when you get the hang of it (and have the place to yourself for more than 2 hours), you get to feel the thrill of surfing but with a rope hanging above you! It was really amazing, I really stumbled a lot but I managed to do it well after all those stumbles. Woohoo! After we got exhausted of wakeboarding all the time, we went back to their canteen and ate lunch there.

After lunch, we were driving on ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles, in case you didn't know) around the Eco Park. I gotta say, the place is really fitting for ATVs since there were a lot of obstacles such as valley-like passageway and the bottom part was a puddle. We were stuck there for like 10 to 15 minutes! I thought we wouldn't get out of there. Another problem was when one of the ATVs died and the guide that went along with us had to walk the whole way back! (Poor guide!) We enjoyed the whole thing anyway!

When that was done, we rode the 8x8, which is a bigger version of an ATV that can accommodate 7 people (8 when you count the driver). The ride was INSANE! The driver kept doing unpredictable drifts which makes us really hang on to our seats! The whole ride was nothing less of spectacular! In the middle of the 8x8 trip, we stopped by the top of a hill where there was a very amazing view! Too bad I wasn't able to get a shot of it. Sucks!

After that, we went for another round of WAKEBOARDING, only this time there were a lot of people! At least we were already experienced that we lasted longer than before. Did I mention we rode a TRACTOR-like vehicle on our way to the 2nd round of wakeboarding? I LOVED IT!

All in all, I really loved Danasan. It reminds me that nature has a lot of things to show us and we should embrace it more rather than wreck it in order to appreciate our world.

Gotta sleep. Night!