Rotary Tribute to Valedictorians

Good day.

I wasn't able to go online last night. I had a sort of, err, appointment. haha.

Anyway, yesterday I had a little affair at the Century Park Hotel. It's the hotel in Manila, near Harrison Plaza (Mommy says this is Dad's favorite mall, eto kasi uso dati, haha.) I attended an awarding ceremony for the valedictorians of the National Capital Region which was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Downtown Manila (RCDM). Naturally, I had to come in my school uniform (Do you realize how awkward it is to commute and have everyone staring at you, wondering why the hell you're in school uniform in the middle of summer? I couldn't have them assume I'm in college, I'm barely tall enough to be considered High School :D).

We were required to have an escort, so I brought along Kuya Nevo. We arrived at the hotel (via tricycle, oha oha) an hour early. I sat in the lobby reading The Appeal by John Grisham while Kuya Nevo went to have lunch. (It was a good thing he did. I thought even escorts had lunch prepared for them, turns out only we had lunch)

When it was time to register, I went through the whole registration process (good thing I pre-registered) and got my merienda and drinks. The lines were sooooo long. I couldn't believe how many public and private high schools there actually were. The program listed around 400+ (pre-registered pa yun, wala pa yung on that day nag-register)

Onga pala! Since it was a program for public and private schools in NCR, my dear grade school alma mater was in the list - Operation Brotherhood Montessori Center Inc., Sta. Ana Branch. Other OBMCI branches were also on the list, but only the one from Greenhills made it. Anyway, I saw on the list that the Valedictorian from my alma mater is Sanghyun Lee! Yeay. Congratulations to her! :D

So, the program got started and I was seated at Table34. Syempre super ingay ko na naman. Haha. I made 4 new friends: Alexis, Michelle. Kelvin and Toni. Yeay. May friends pa ako.

I also saw a lot of friends I met through various reasons. Haha. Hope I can remember them all:

B&G's Week: Joben, Jessie, Donn Ronn, Harold
AJSS: Geri, Mendel, Dom, Billy
Ocean Park: Angelie, Addie, Angelo

Oha oha. Haha

So we had a guest speaker. Amb. Alfredo Yao and he had a freakin cool story. His father died when he was around 12 years old. To earn a living, he worked as a err, "boy" in one of those mah jong stores in Binondo (I used to live there!). He and his mom also made a living via the "banketas." He had to stop pursuing college education so his siblings could finish. One day, he decided to open up a printing press. Once, when he was in Germany (big question: how did he get to Germany?) he was inspired by a juice packaging and tried it here in the Philippines. Sadly, no juice company accepted his packaging. So he met up with a chemist and produced their own citrus drink. He also had a designer create the name. A lot of people commented at how the designer he got usually takes around 3 months to submit a design; in his case however, it took the designer a week. He said that those instances proved that when something is really meant for you, God will put everything into order. To cut it short, that's how the famous juice drink, Zest-O, began. Now, he owns a lot more than just Zest-O. He has various drinks on the market (RC-Cola, One Iced Tea, etc) and even has his own airline (ZestAir). As if that wasn't blessing enough, he's also been blessed with 3 incredibly successful kids:

Eldest - UST, Cum Laude
Middle- Ateneo, Management Engineering, Magna Cum Laude
Youngest - UP, Summa Cum Laude

HOMAYGAD.

His talk was truly inspiring. He was even crying all throughout. It made me believe that nothing is impossible if you work hard for it.

"Lunch" was served to us around 3:00pm. Oha oha. But it was alright. The food was great. Pansit + 2 Chicken legs + salad = yum. haha. The we went through the very loooong awarding (there were like 600+ of us). We also had to introduce ourselves, our school and our escort before receiving our awards. Took like forever! But we got some really cool stuff. Aside from the usual medal and certificate, we got these:

a cute lunch box. haha
cute travel kit, with portable toothbrush and super super cute colgate. mas mahaba pa pinky finger ko :)
a white bag (similar to the ymca one)
superlamig candy!
keychain
holy kettle corn
magazines on rotary
notepad
2 bolpens
and of course...my favorite...
a specially-made-for-the-occasion Illustrazio backpack! Yeay

I've always been harboring this desire to own an Illustrazio bag. haha, even if, well, it kinda brings painful memories....

My seatmate, Alexis, also gave me his hardbound notebook:

Ella: Ang cute naman niyan!
Alexis: Bigay lang yan eh. Gusto mo sa'yo na lang?
Ella: Hindi nga?
Alexis: Sige sa'yo na lang
Ella: Sulatan mo muna message.
Alexis: (sulat)

Haha. Ang cute niya. :)

I could've brought home more prizes if I had been luckier. There was a raffle portion wherein they practically gave away stuff:

2 scooters
toaster + coffee maker
1 overnight stay for 2 at Century Park
11 Illiutsrazio bags
1 Illustrazio bag with mp4 player
toaster
5 Books on Buddha
USBs
pens with keychains
other gift prizes
LOADS OF MONEY. The organizers suddenly decided to donate 1000pesos each and have a raffle for them. They gave the winners 500pesos each.

It's hard to imagine with all these prizes and an increased probability of being picked, I didn't get a single one. 2-1-8. I am sooooo unlucky with raffles. Haha.

Kuya Nevo and I ate dinner at KFC before leaving for home. We got lost though. Haha. But we got on a bus in the end, standing nga lang. Haha. Nevermind. Twas a marvelous day. ;D

Well, I've got no more to talk about. I was at home the whole day. Tomorrow, Mama Eden, Princess Donah and I will be going to NAIA to fetch Papa DonDon. Yeay.

Ta ta. (Landi)

BTW: Word of the Day is MicroChenes. ;)