the beautiful city

      In Cagayan, I had always wanted to go to Manila during vacations. It was, for me, this beautiful place with an amazing cityscape, huge malls and insane theme parks, all that glitz and glamour. It was the City of Lights, and everything to me seemed so magical and wonderful (all this having been established as "fact" the first time I came to Manila; I was about three years old then).

    But Manila is definitely NOT all that glamour and glitz. Living in Katipunan (and now, seventeen years old) has made me realize that things aren't as flashy as my three-year-old self had imagined them to be. Katipunan may come across as a fancy shmancy destination to go eat, unwind, and have fun (*ahem* Cantina *ahem*), but it can also be very UN-glamorous: the unbearable heat, the insufferable filth, the risk of getting stolen from, or the dangers, as my Kagay-anon relatives and friends are always warning me about, of indiscreetly being slipped a roofer, passing out, and then waking up in a tub of ice with your internal organs missing.

    Fort Bonifacio is different though. While Katipunan pretty much shattered my idealized view of Manila, Fort Boni (as Kuya Karl once called it) resurrected my belief in the existence of the Beautiful Manila, piece by glamorous piece.

   Today, I went with Jason, my sole high school classmate studying with me in AdMU  (do I really have to keep introducing him to you guys?) to visit Karen and Michael (again, high school classmates) who study at the classy culinary school Enderun over at Fort Bonifacio.

     We took a taxi there, and the fare reached up to P180. Since no driver was willing to take us so far, we had to pay this one guy an extra P50 just so he'd agree. Pshhh. Manilenyo taxi drivers are so choosy when it comes to their customers.

      Anyway, after twenty or thirty minutes, we got dropped off at The Piazza in McKinley Hill.

Look! Airplane! :D

     It was all so beautiful. The architecture, the colors, the vintage expensive cars - there was even this escalator that only worked when you stepped onto it!

     Jason said The Piazza was made to look like Venice, Italy. I've never been to Italy (or anywhere else outside the country, for that matter), but over at McKinley Hill, I certainly felt like I was a tourist in some foreign country

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Okay, now some Enderun picszsz p0hwz!

       

     And I thought Ateneo was classy. Enderun looks like a hotel! The hallways are all air-conditioned, and students get unlimited iced tea at the bar (as shown in the picture immediately above this paragraph)! Even the  comfort rooms have chandeliers. Purrrrdy.

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After that, we went to Market! Market!, which is a fifty-two-peso taxi ride away from The Piazza. The simplicity of its layout reminded me a lot of Limketkai Mall in CDOC - you couldn't get lost in it if you tried.

We ate at Sbarro's. (Did you know they don't have any ketchup? :O AT ALL? :O :O) 'Twas good eatin'. Too bad I didn't take any pictures with my phone. I got too paranoid about it being snatched and all.

After that, we walked to Serendra, which is this beautiful beautiful business park thang right across the mall.

And then we walked to Bonifacio High Street, which was right across Serendra. I'd been there last April with my family, and it all seemed so lovely. But we didn't stay up to night, when it was even more lovely.

(above)The ground floor of the biggest Fully Booked I've ever seen

It was all very glossy and shiny and shimmering and splendid, yes. Beautiful Manila. Beautiful, beautiful city. But, amidst all the lights and the fountains and the overpriced food, I found myself still feeling lost. Still overwhelmed by all the sights and sounds, still in shock at having to spend the next four years of my life in these new grounds, so far away from home, so far away from Cagayan, where it is quieter and more peaceful and even more beautiful than any Serendra or High Street or McKinley.

Manila, while you are so magical and enchanting to me, you will never be Cagayan de Oro, and beautiful is all you ever will be.

I miss home.