reminiscing again

"tsong" is synonymous to friend. but over the years, this word has been more to me than that. this word pertains to a group of people that have been very special to me and who have made significant imprints in my life.

i remember...

*receiving the news that we passed the exam when we were in bulacan, in tita oj's reast house. i do believe, however, this time is more memorable to rose who broke her foot trying to catch a bus to cubao. or maybe to irish.. who had to carry rose around the house because of her broken foot. a true test of friendship. :)

*our first day (which rose sadly missed). pogs was wearing a pink long sleeved polo and could only be described as "mataray". bert deceived us all when he pretended to be quiet and shy. reno was the english-speaking person in the group and alvin was first preceived to be arrogant (who would not, if you say your nickname is inlav and not divulge anything?).

*our first gimik --- playing billiards and bowling. the guys were very much interested in playing billiards while we were getting sleepy. little did we know we would be loving the sport ourselves! thanks to bert for being my first "tutor" in this sport and to all my other senseis --- alvin, irish, kathy, art, andrew and neil. i am still looking forward to the day when i would beat neil fair and square. maybe in ten years' time. :)

*the time we went to batangas to attend our manager's wedding. we stayed in tita eva's house and played games until 4 am. i would always remember rumel gamely wearing a dress and dancing at the top of the table. hehehe!

*our first company outing -- in punta baluarte. greatly enjoyed watching the volleyball tournament where reno was the ever humble but undoubtedly the star player. i didn't mind losing to them. i have fond memoriers of erwin, creating those catchy cheers for their team, einstein in his winning form in the sack race, the late night conversation with vanny while everyone else was already sleeping and alvin waking everyone in the room. hehehe!

*los banos outing. we were greatly enjoying while the rest of the nation was in edsa, participating in the ousting of erap. we did watch, though. :) and the second outing being so memorable because of andrew trying to act out, "ano bang meron ka?" in charades and pogs singing april boy's "di ko kayang tanggapin". that was priceless!

*the time when we went to disneyland (irish and alvin, martha and bert and me!). me obviously being the fifth wheel. i distinctly remember we were pushing martha at bert to be a couple. little did we know they were seriously thinking about it. i still believe they just waited for me to go back to the philippines before they made their "formal" announcement. hehehe!

*the time when pogs, eden, erwin and i went to japan for a business trip. it was a great time eventhough we were up to our necks with work. it was all worth it come weekend when we would all get together for a dvd night or a trip to akihabara.

*all the coffee sessions in starbucks and seattle's best. we would frequent these places when we were excited, happy, sad or angry about something (or someone)... or sometimes just to have a caffeine boost.

*all the bowling and billiards tournaments and all the swimming sessions. we were half-crazy to swim in the cold but we did, anyway. :)

i could not even begin to imagine life without these people. we've been through a lot of really tough times and all i can say is that i am grateful to have survived it with them.