August 26, Friday

It was a day to go to Manila.
Me and my cousin,
with three of our friends
(all of us five are interns in one company)
went first to
The National Library.
And it took us
longer than we expected.
Well at least
we now have our library cards
for
The National Library.

And there
I got a taste of
crankiness
from a librarian
I assumed
to be
an old maid
in my
embarrassment.

And then we were there
until lunch.

We had lunch
inside a garden in
Rizal Park.
A little garden
that you can enter
for the mere
price of
five pesos.
There, as we were eating,
 out of nowhere,
a poor,
seemingly homeless child,
probably around three or four
came to us
without a word
asking for food.
Without a word.

'Course a friend gave some.
And in turn, the child
gave
to his mother.
As we watched
him where he'd go.

So we proceeded to the
Rizal monument
after we have finished eating.
We took pictures
after pictures.
Well in between,
we witnessed how
the guards
are replaced.
The guards I'm talking about
are those who,
like statues,
stand on both sides of the statue.
Lucky Rizal.
Though dead,
he has body guards.

To Intramuros we went next.
Inside Intramuros,
Fort Santiago.
Another round of taking pictures
after pictures.
And a video, too.

It was a historical trip.
I loved Fort Santiago.
I love how
the place was preserved.

Intramuros
is a walled city.
Fort Santiago
is inside Intramuros.
And
Fort Santiago
was where Rizal was held prison
before he was executed at Bagumbayan,
the place we now call
Rizal Park
or
Luneta.

We traveled in reverse
of Rizal's direction
on that day when he walked
from Fort Santiago
to Bagumbayan
to be executed.

Our next and last stop was
the Mall of Asia.
Can't miss that place, I guess.

All of these historical trips whatsoever
are part of a project in
'Rizal',
a subject in school,
for the midterm period.