The Last Letter

33

Chapter XXXIII

August’s POV

[October 15,1995]

The first few days of the second semester have been stressful. Just as we third year students came back from the three week semester break, we’ve then been bombarded with so many activities.

I was born in August, hence my name. We just had a really simple celebration with my family and close friends. And it was in the weekdays so everyone was busy attending, they just dropped off to eat and give their gifts and that’s just how it went. I don’t complain since the less visitors, the less the chances of the house turning into a giant mess. So yeah, I’m officially 20 years old now. Do I like it? Of course not.

Ben did a really good job in his competition. Of course, he won and will advance to the nationals next year. What do you expect from Ben? He’s doing really great in everything he does. The university is so proud of him that his tarpaulin is hanging in the gates. The first face you’ll see when you enter the school is his face printed on a very big tarpaulin.

Suzanne was still busy and even busier than ever. She had a really tough time in the second semester since based on my experience, it was one of the hardest and busiest semesters out of all the years you spend in an architecture course. As her friend, I didn’t hesitate a bit in helping her when I had free time and we actually spent a lot more time together than we thought. Be it in the library or in my house on sundays.

Can you believe how fast the time is passing? In two months, it will be Christmas already then it will be a new year.

And today… drum rolls please.

It is one of the most anticipated events in our department! We’ll go to a certain place that is outside of our town, look at its location and propose a whole plan on how we imagine it will look like in the next 10 years. It is sponsored by an organization of the country’s most promising Architects so it is quite a serious event for us Architecture students. There will be a winning group that’ll be awarded nationally and will also become a potential member of the said organization. More importantly, this will serve as our midterm examination on major subjects for the second semester so it’ll be a tough competition.

It’ll be a 2 week program. For the first 3 days, including today, 3-4 teams will go to a certain location outside of the town and try to brainstorm for the possible proposal we’ll do. We will be staying in a hotel accommodated by the school. The food will also be provided but we are urged to bring pocket money. In the first week, only 10 teams will continue to the next round, only one team from every location.

I’ve done this for 2 years now but it still excites me every time. And during my first year, a team from our university got first place so there’s a chance that our university could have a place in the nationals this year.

As I had mentioned, it will be by a group of 15 people, randomly picked from 1st to 4th year and guess what? I don’t know if it’s all just a coincidence but Suzanne is in my group. When I thought about it, it was almost impossible since there were about 400+ students and the chances I’ll be grouped with her randomly is very low.

I saw how excited she was during the assembly when her name was called after mine. We met after the assembly and she was so happy, jumping up and down, saying she was so excited for this program.

And here we are now. Sitting on the bus beside her. She was sitting by the window while I was on the side of the aisle. When I asked her about her work, she said that her boss allowed her to have a leave for 3 days. Her grandpa and brother also wired her with some pocket money she could use for this trip.

By the way, we were grouped with four 4th-year students, four 3rd-year students including me, five second-year students and two freshmen students. It wasn’t a bad group. Two of the 4th-year are top students who we voted as our leader and vice leader. Other than that, all of us seem decent but there are groups that are far more competent than us.

In this bus, are the 4 groups heading to the same location. I glanced at them at the back, they were quiet. Well, except the noisy sophomores, almost all of the students inside this bus are listening to mp3, sleeping, or quietly eating in the corners. I looked at Suzanne on my right side and she was sleeping with head leaning on the window.

It was quite a bumpy ride heading to that place called “San Fernando City” where this bus and these teams are stationed.

I felt my heart racing when a really bumpy road caused everyone to almost fall out of their seats. If I hadn’t held Suzanne’s arms, she would probably fall and hit her head on the window. I saw some students who experienced that, I wonder if they’re okay.

The area is so underdeveloped, and that’s the reason why we are here.

“Thank you August. Sorry I was so sleepy.” She said,

“No it’s okay. You can lean closer to me so I can hold you immediately if that happens again.” I replied. I placed my very big backpack on my right thigh so she could rest her head above it and sleep more comfortably.

“Okay. Thank you so much.” She pouted and laid her head on my bag in front of me. I also held tightly on my seat just in case the same thing as earlier happened again. I admit, with all my things in my bag plus her head, my right thigh is kind of numb in just about 10 minutes. But since I see Suzanne is sleeping more comfortably now, I could endure this for more time.

I also took a nap without noticing it. I just knew I slept when Suzanne woke me up when we reached a rest stop. She asked if I needed to go to the restroom so she could look out of our things. But I didn’t feel a call of nature that time so we just bought and ate merienda or light meals outside.

She said that’s the last rest stop so she concluded that we’re getting nearer the location. And sure enough, just after 45 minutes we safely reached our destination.

To describe the area, it was just a wide field of just grass if I’m seeing it correctly. It definitely looks like we are just dropped off here out of nowhere.

Not far from where we’re dropped, is a small village. Our leader said we will stay in one of the inns inside that village and it is also a possibility that the village is the one we will be modelling.

Inside, the first things you could see very clearly are the foundations of the houses that are made of wood with thick roofs made out of dried coconut leaves and bamboo. Houses are also very close to each other to the point that you can possibly hear whatever is going on in the house next door. There are also fruit bearing trees everywhere which reminds me so much of my childhood. Children in the villages are the same in my neighborhood, they are having the best times of their lives.

Without a doubt, it is a really nice and simple village with friendly and welcoming people. Just as they saw that we were walking towards the gate, the villagers immediately gathered around and welcomed us warmly.

As we walked down the block with one of our professor and a tourist guide, looking for the place where we will stay, we saw a tiny primary school building, a small wet and dry market, and a small historic chapel, as what the tourist guide said.

Suzanne was very astonished and pleased with everything that was going on and what she was seeing right now. Well, I was the same when I was in my first year so I fully understand her reaction. And as a 3rd year student who has been doing this for 2 years now, it isn’t surprising to see places like this but it is certainly exciting to think what we could possibly get from this experience.

We reached a two story kind of a big, wide, and old house that our professor said where we will all stay. It is really huge, with so many rooms but just some of the rooms have their own CRs. Our room doesn’t have so we need to use the community restrooms which to me, isn’t half bad. Now I get to experience what it feel like living in a dormitory with my schoolmates.

Our team leader is really competitive which shocked me since she looks like the silent type. Thanks to her, we got the biggest room but doesn’t have a CR. This room measures about 2 and a half times the size of a regular room so it is really really big, it could fit all of us. The beds are divided into males on the left row and females on the right row.

We all unpacked our things and you could see that all of us were getting excited and warmed up. I chuckled since I felt the same too and in fact I’m really hyped up right now. Upon seeing what the location looks like, I immediately thought of some ideas for the brainstorming. I really like this kind of thing. Sharing ideas within your group, hyping each other up, and just being competitive in general.

It is just 11am right now and we have until 2pm to eat lunch, unpack our things which we already did, get familiar with this place and get to know some of the locals. At 2 in the afternoon, we will be taking the first look of the place with our respective teams and then we could have the very first brainstorming and getting to know each other.

To be continued…