Emar and I woke up ermmm... a bit late. I took a power nap at 3:00 am, which should only last for 5 minutes, but the thing is, I was so tired the whole day that I so wanted to sleep. I woke up at 4:00 am with Mom's nagging voice, "Kala ko ba 5 am flight nyo? Alas quatro na!"

Oh shit.

We didn't take a bath anymore. So what if our hair looks disastrous? I'd rather have people staring at me than miss a flight. And I took a bath before packing my things last night and my room was all air-conditioned, thus I didn't sweat even a little.

And honestly, not being defensive or anything, my hair still looks great even after a whole day's work. It's even better when I get out of bed. Really.

We arrived at the airport, where Erick and everybody else has been waiting for us, at around 4:15 am. Thing is, I have Erick's and Garet's tickets so they can't enter Terminal 2 without me. And we need to have this shared check-in thingie because we have with us the souvenir programs for the congress, the weight of which will be distributed among our allowed individual check-in baggage weight.

As we were walking inside the airport complex, we started hearing the announcement, "Last call for the last 6 passengers of PR809, please proceed to Gate 1 immediately."

Double shit. That's us. The 6 of us.

We ran from one end of the airport to the other. When I reached the tube tunnel I slowed down a bit because I didn't want to pant in front of the other passengers. I entered the plane and people were looking at me as if I am up a guillotine. It was as if something is playing in their minds. Something like, "Punyeta, ang tagal kasi eh. " Yeah, you know the feeling.

I sat between two women, one sleeping even before the plane took off and another one who happens to be a balik-bayan from Canada talking to her aunt beside her. I sort of know her aunt. She looked really familiar. But let's not get to that.

The flight was an hour and a half long, but I didn't get any sleep. I don't normally sleep when I am aboard an airplane, so I just watched the people around and made comments in my head. In short, okrayan ito.

But then I figured, it wouldn't be fun because I have no one to share my comments with so I just pulled out my hott pink iPod from my really nice hott pink bag, and I ate airplane food.

I mean, OK, you know how airplane food is like when you're in a domestic flight. It's just crackers or bread and juice, unlike international flights that serve full meals. Oh well, I ate my food anyway. At the same time I was thinking about what Peter told me about Davao. According to him, the first thing I will smell as I land on Davao is durian. He said it's like all over the place. It's like, the air is made up of durian.

As soon as I got off the plane, I started sniffing. I can't smell it, Peter. No hint of durians. But when I got out of the airport, it hits me.

After a while, I noticed the smell is slowly fading. We were probably getting immuned.

While our hotel service was loading our stuff into the van, we started taking our first pictures of Davao.

I mean, our first pictures IN Davao.

The sun was scorging hot. I can feel it penetrating my skin and bones. We look glowing in the pictures. But who cares about the hot Davao sun? Not me.


We rode along the streets of Davao until we reached downtown. Few turns and we reached the place that will serve as our home for the next six days: the Crown Regency Residences.


We entered the lobby, and I was sort of amazed. It was really a nice place. It's not a hotel, but it's really very grand for a hotel alternative. The lobby was Muslim Mindanao inspired.


Anyway, we walked inside towards our room (we thought it was just a room), only to find out that they have Mexican-inspired villas. They were houses with two floors.


Inside the compound was this fifties-inspired cafeteria called the Fab Fifties, a spa, a jacuzzi, and a really nice swimming pool.



On the way to our villa, we passed by this narrow walk, which I think is really Mexican-ish.


Then we reached Number 117, our house (I took this pic during our first night.)


The flight of stairs was the first to greet us as we opened our door.


To the right of the stairs was a really nice makes-you-feel-you're-home living room with a huge sofa that goes with a pull-out bed (Another night pic.)


The room goes all the way to the back where the kitchen and the toilet can be found. Behind the back door is a parking space for us.


The house has really nice Mexican windows with wooden blinds that you can pull down.


Upstairs, two bedrooms can be found, both sharing one toilet and bath. Em and I chose the master's bedroom because it has a TV. Teehee!


Chris, Garet, Danmar, and Erick were supposed to stay in the other room with two single beds, each one having a pull-out bed.


But then Erick and Danmar chose to sleep downstairs on the comfy sofa and its pull-out bed because they also want the TV.

Having inspected the whole house, we all posed in the living room for our "family" picture.


We unpacked our bags and watched TV and then ate our brunch at the Fab Fifties cafeteria. We talked about having to cook our dinners since it is the only meal not covered by the Chemistry Congress. And so we decided to hit SM Davao as soon as we finished our meal to buy some groceries.

While waiting for our taxi to arrive, we took photos again at the lobby.


And also outside, where everyone imitated this school friend of ours, and posed like him with his angas look. I didn't want to be like him though, so I made my own pa-cute pose.


We met up with Kelvin, who was staying in an inn near Ateneo de Davao (where the 21st PCC was held). We shopped around for our "household" and personal needs. Gosh, it's so nice to type "household."

We went home at 7 pm to just chill in the house.

We started tinkering the two laptops Erick and Chris brought for our Environmental Chemistry take home exam. It is due tomorrow at 4 pm, and we are really very thankful to have Prue in Manila. She will print all our answers, and pass them to Dr. Sison.

Agony is still not yet over. Until this Envi exam is finished, none of us can relax and enjoy Davao. We will take turns doing our exams tonight.

Dang. What a way to celebrate our first night in Davao.