Refreshed

Our new Dean treated the college faculty to a rejuvenating overnight stay at Eden Nature Park, atop Davao’s mountains. But only the Humanities Department faculty (minus a teacher or two, who were also going on a field trip to Camiguin Island with their classes) were able to make it.

We left the campus on board the school bus at around 4 p.m. Friday, and after an hour and with a short stop at a convenience store for some last-minute purchases, we arrived at Eden Nature Park.

A short distance from the gate, and where you change rides (unless you bring your own car), is the entrance to the mountain resort. A few feet away from this “Welcome” tableau is a replica of a Bagobo family’s house. The Bagabo, an indigenous group in Mindanao, used to inhabit the area.

Craving for a holiday

Students are off on their semester’s break and will be back by November 5 yet. Wouldn’t it be great if teachers also get a semester’s break?

We do get a break from holding classes, meeting with students, marking papers. But it’s mostly spent finalizing preparations for next term’s classes. And me, I still have to report for office duty every ****ing day because I’m department chair.

How I wish to spend a few days away from school. A weekend just won’t do it.

I would need more time to just sit under the sun and fry. Or to swim in the water. Or to lie down in a hammock or beach chair with a book, preferably a pulp novel. Or…

How I crave for a holiday.

No discrimination

Heaven and earth conjoin and sweet dew falls,
nobody makes this happen
but it just falls equally on all.

(Image grabbed from logicfury.com/public)

Kind of gloomy if you look at it one way. But kind of liberating too, if you look at it another way. One way would be that this is all determined, and there is no grand puppeteer directing traffic — everything is just how it is, inexorably unfolding. And so, who knows where all things will lead to.

On the other hand, isn’t that exciting? When things come together and you don’t know how they will turn out.