Markings of a Dreamer: Touching the Clouds: Caleruega

It was a rainy Sunday. It was two days after the first month of being official.

My first shared experience. With someone special.

I asked him if this is possible. A pilgrimage. With all these things going too fast and slowly getting out of control - we both needed a guidance. Maybe if we go to a spiritual place together, we will feel the inner peace and feel grateful for all the things we have.

But it was a mess.

Plans not being thought through, we got lost. We were mad. We were cranky in an early Sunday morning. He lost patience, I broke down.

When we managed to take this pilgrimage together, we both did not feel the inner peace we both sought for. And so I prayed for us to survive the upcoming challenges. But I have had that feel -

If this is love, then why we have to suffer? When love means utter freedom, why we are prisoners in this sad slumber? When love means flight, why don't we flutter?

And so weeks later - another challenge came. Unfortunately, we never managed to get through it. Yeah, all things are out of control. Shared experiences were rough. And it is better to take a step back and rethink. That maybe letting go of him is like letting him take flight - let him flutter like butterflies.

And so that's what happened to my first visit in this holy place.

Months later, as a newly-recognized-insta-friend by the GFI "classmates", I feel like invited yet again, thrust into the world of joining lakwatsa and field trips. For me, I was being adopted as a foreign-exchange student (yes, foreign, since I work in an American Investment Bank) and they welcome me to the new world and treated me as a new classmate.

Ergo, the second coming to Caleruega. To touch the clouds and to seek for inner peace.

This time, I came prepared. Hair, dress, and all.

Bound to go via bus to Nasugbu on a Saturday afternoon, we stayed the night before in an inn, a homey-place-for-a-weekend-getaway. The inn, named Twin Pines Hotel, is owned by a retired official in the same GFI - and inspired us with her Pandesal Discussions of work ethic, discipline, and being dedicated to both careers - of being a banker and being a wife and mother. Small world as it is, I used to call her relating to the questions of different cases when I was part of the Government Sector before.

Pandesal Discussion Participants (Left to right):
Bianx, Josh, Ella, Tita Menchu and her husband, Jules, Jed, Jay

I do not want to compare this second coming to my first shared experience, but there is a similarity with this - the second coming was brought about by the truth that two classmates of mine, a month after being an official couple, wanted to see the place for themselves.

JUST LIKE WHAT I DID.

But this time around, even the clouds were in their favor. It was a vibrant afternoon, full of colors.

And as I remember my first time entering the church and pray for a miracle, I see myself in her, praying for the same. But it was of a different aura in her, it was pristine, it was full of vigor and positivism. Maybe because we are all there to support them, as good friends and loyal fans of their newly-bloomed relationship - when all of us think of floating hearts, colorful balloons, and fluttering butterflies. Yes, all were cheesy, denied or not.

So there, freethinking thoughts shall end here. Let me post these photos and be merry and cherish this wonderful field trip.

Snippets of the fellowship, the night before -

Jed and I sat beside the sign, talked about the past, and shared sentimentality
- even without drinking any liquor yet!

Team red! Jay wears the shirt with the GFI logo, me realizing it is a legit Friday night-out, availed the leave on the Friday night shift

Roomies - Jed, Jay and me. Bianx was in washroom~

Fieldtrip celebrating the first month:
Jed, Jay, Ella (bata-batuta-tsura), Bianx, Josh and Jules

And so, a Sunny Saturdate, we touched the clouds - together.

We all roamed around, and being happy. And with the sunny weather, we reflected our own sunny personalities - being a child-at-heart, and do limitless photo-shoot sessions. :)

Photo-inception: Ella captures Jed capturing Bianx in the location.

Mimicry: Jules tried her best to do what the statue did. It was perfect!

Waiting by the bench:
I sit here with the perfect smile hoping that when you see this, you'll smile too.

Couple-shot? Hi cutie~

Bromance

Buwis-buhay shot: If I don't hold tight to the lamp post, I'll roll down the mountaintop

Thinking of you? Hi cutie~

And so I shall wait.

Hmmmm

"That is Batulao, a mountain with many peaks. Like our love. For us to see all these wondrous peaks, we have to climb the mountain - together." -In the thoughts of Josh