Katalsikang laway sa dagat

An experience that I could add to my treasure box.

Last Thursday, January 24 Sir Manolo Quezon our Copy Editing and Proof Reading professor treat the journalism class for lunch in Harbor View somewhere in Kalaw St. Manila. We had so much fun and I'm so busog grabe.. fiesta? crispy pata, inihaw na pusit, nilasing na hipon, kinilaw na tanigi, malaking hito, super sarap na fried rice, chocolate cake and ripe mango juice. Kamusta naman yun? grabe parang bibitayin? Sarap! yun ang tanghaliang matatawag; plus the breathtaking view of Manila Bay and yung hangin na parang dinuduyan ka... the best. Mapapa "haaay.." ka na lang tlga.

Before we got there, some of my classmates decided na magkitakita na lang sa Letran kasi hindi ko alam how to get there. The meeting time is 9:00 am but nalate ako nakarating ako ng 10:30, hayun iniwan na nila ko. Lesson learned. Kaya sumakay na lang ako ng Kalaw kasi sabi nila dun lang yun, ito naman si mamang driver hindi din alam kaya binaba niya ko sa mismong Kalaw. The thing is yung Harbor View is dulong dulo ng street, literal. Sea side tlga ang drama, so lakad galore! la lang naman, tirik na tirik lang naman yung araw and I brought with me my laptop kaya sobrang bigat ng dala ko. Parusa tlga. "Wa Poise"

Pagdating ko dun, nauna pa ko sa kanila. But when I was their, whoooo! it's worth the walk. Presko kasi, ang daling makarecover sa pagkakahaggard. Well, that day was our deadline for the submission of our project, the book: "The Good Fight" we copy edited and proof read it from the original book and made a new one. The book is an autobiography of our professor's grand father, the late president Manuel L. Quezon. Sir Manolo wants to publish the book and the 8 of us will be credited as its editors. Mahirap siya pero when we saw the finish product, nakahinga naman kami ng maluwag. Thanks to Kuya Joey, you're really heaven sent. Marami pong salamat.

More than the mouth-watering meals and breathtaking views, the storytelling and sharing were the highlights of the day. I learned so much from everybody that day, most especially from Sir Manolo, such a brilliant mind. Nung araw na yun din we got the chance to know him closely, his life. He shared so many things na never ko ba nabasa sa mga textbooks. I really prefer experience rather than theories and discussions.

Journalism students with Sir Manolo at the set of "The Explainer"

We talked about the most useless subject we have taken. Iba-iba kami ng sagot, most of them answered Algebra, ako sinagot ko Rizal but most of them disagreed, Sir Manolo just smiled. Napa-isip ko bigla, "oo nga pala, importante pala yun, walang kwenta lang yung nagtuturo." kaya sabi ko na lang "joke lang!" hehe... Then i raised my point that a certain subject becomes useless if the students learned nothing from it. It is in the hands of the teacher, how he or she present and teach the subject as interesting as watching a movie. Minsan kasi kahit mga guro hindi din nila alam yung tinuturo nila, or worst hindi nila pinaniniwalaan yung tinuturo nila. Sad but true.

Napunta naman yung topic namin sa history and tracing the family lineage. Sir Manolo shared na madami pa lang "Quezon" mostly in Bataan pero as time passed, yung iba naiiba ng spelling like "Quizon", "Queson" at marami pang iba. In some cases, di natin alam na minsan may ibang tao na di natin kamag-anak na kabilang sa same family lineage. Sila sir kasi particularly his Dad Manuel Quezon II, is up in finding their ancestors, tracing the names back from Spanish and Chinese roots. Napaisip ako, ako kaya hanapin ko kaya mga ninuno ko? ano kaya matutuklasan ko? na kamag-anak ko pala si Bill Gates! wow.. dream on. Silly. He also said that if anyone dare to trace his or her roots, best people to talk to is the mormons. Sila daw kasi ang may pinakamaraming records of people's names kahit nung sinaunang panahon pa. Nagiikot sila sa iba't-ibang parish churches to get the names, kaya when those churches were destroyed, yung records nasira lahat.

Another topic is about Spam. yes. According to sir, canniblism in South East is very prevalent back then, so what the early missionaries did, para di na sila kumain ng tao, binigyan sila ng pagkain na kasing lasa at pareho ng texture ng human flesh, and you know what was that? ita SPAM! napanganga na lang ako, kasi favorite ko kaya yun, yung alat nya malinamnam! sarap.. hays.. kaya if ever kakain kayo ng Spam isipin niyo na lang na laman ng tao yun para makapag diet kayo. funny.

Kung saan-saan na napunta ang usapan namin from the simplest to the complex. Sir Manolo shared his life back when he was young. Nakakamangha tlga, but I prefer not to include it here baka di niya gusto mapublicize pa ng lalo ang buhay niya. hehe..

After this, I can say that I can learn indeed outside the four corners of my classroom. Even the simplest conversation (talsikang laway) means a lot.