Back from the North - Pulag adventure

i've been gone for almost two weeks. no sooner had i returned from an induction climb to Mt. Pulag, I headed back to the Baguio area to give a debate seminar. I had no real reason to go, except that I owed a good friend a Baguio adventure. We were calling it a promise that was three years old.

Many things to say about the LM (Loyola Mountaineers) induction climb. I was team leader to the applicants, to a certain extent. For the most part it was Jason who led the entire team for the 4+ days in the mountain, but I had to handle the group for an entire saturday, the day applicants were 'left behind' by the members to find our own way to the camp by the summit. This meant having to figure out the pace, rest stops, and other such issues for 19 people. It wasn't easy. One can imagine that it is difficult enough to calibrate pace and rest for a group of 5 people (normal group size for AMCI), but I had to figure this out for 19. Days later in the post-climb I got a few comments about how things were much too fast, etc. Well, I explained, I could only try to reach the happy medium. Figuring out optimal rest stops for 19 is like coordinating monetary policy for the EU. Someone's gonna bitch.

Til now, LM training climbs had sorta been easy. This isn't a criticism, it's just an observation, from my point of view (w/c I don't trumpet much anyway). I chalk it up to the (proper) conservatism that the org has maintained in terms of deciding what applicants can handle. Members can easily do harder climbs when it's just them.

This induction wasn't easy-LM anymore. I'd even call it an AMCI level TC. It was the first time that I did 4 night-treks in a row. I hadn't even done 1 night trek up to this point. Previous (AMCI) climbs, I'd always been in a sub-group that was a little obssessed with getting to the camp quick, before darkness set in. (I call it Sir Manny Torralba style). Now, for various reasons, like a jeep breaking down, or setting off late in the morning, we had to do night treks. The saturday evening night-trek was through the open grasslands of Pulag. It was nearly 3 hours of being hit with wind and cold, while trekking on a trail one could barely see because of failing headlamps and flashlights. We were so happy when we saw the lights of the rescue party -- 30 mins away from the camp. The members thought we were 'dead'. I was very proud of the team. We had decided to do this 3 hour crap fest rather than settle down in another camp. We're all crazy bastards as one of the applicants said. Later we found out that arriving that late in camp, and trekking that long was some sort of LM record.

We had induction rites the following morning. (Hush-hush about the details, of course). I can say though that Pulag gave us a small window to see the summit in its glorious version. Running up to the peak, i saw the sun come out and wash the side of the mountain in golden light. The famous 'sea of clouds' was on display for a few brief minutes. This was the 'best' peak so far that I had been to.

The rest of the climb was uneventful after that tough Saturday. We scuttled plans to climb down via the steep Akiki route and decided to do (easier) Ambangeg. Later, after the 3 hour (vomitous) ride back to Baguio was done, we were conducting the Post-climb. Naturally, got a lot of comments, queries, being TL for the group. It was humbling, 'coz everything I did was put under scrutiny, and commented on. Realized that the work of TLs was a lot tougher than I had imagined. All the more respect I have for the members of this org. You can't just take care of yourself, with this role. You got to take care of everybody. You have authority and respect, but also the weight of a lot on your shoulders. No regrets doing this job though, and I thought the applicants were pretty happy. The comments during the post-climb were straightforward, but also constructive and fair.

Thanks to the prodding of Jaja, we didnt take the first bus home after the climb. There was time for hanging out and kalokohan around Baguio. Everyone had the mountain high. A highlight was when were all eating at Oh My Gulay. We were tasting each other vegetarian fare like mountaineers -- standing over plates, and relentlessly attacking with out forks. It was a nice atmosphere. We all did some shopping before heading to the bus home.

* * *

Shout outs (yuck, can we think of a better term?) to Batch 16 who survived the Pulag ordeal / induction climb / adventure. We got through the never-ending (yet surreal) Mossy Forest. Not to mention our bizarre eating habits (feast and famine, crap and tasty stuff). Pretty thankful for my team (group 1) who put up with a lot of Analness in my part -- I hated the way they entered the tent with their wet jackets. UGH. They're tough though. I'm referring to (Tiger) Mancy, Mons, Carlo Carlos, and Mickey Lu.

why write. . .

why write angry things? the world is angry enough.
why write 'happy' things? the world is deluded and escapist enough
why write mundane things? the world is shallow and stupid enough
why attempt to write deep things? the world is pretentious enough

why write lies? you have a difficult enough time grasping the truth.
why write the truth? that's a good question why write the truth.

why write about ugly things? do people really need to see more ugliness?
why write about beautiful things? that's a good question why write about beauty.

Captain Incompetence strikes again

Goodness. I had this mistaken impression that a colleague of mine had been getting the hang of doing his job as a teaching assistant with me. I guess I was mistaken.

I put in a bit of effort of making two sets (one green, one blue) for last weekend's final exam. As we all know, this discourages students from cheating. We used to be lazy by making one set and putting them in two different colors so as to give the impression that it was two different sets. Of course, you can only fool the students once with this technique.

ANYWAY, during the day of the exam, Mr. Colleague picks up the collated test papers in the assistants room, and proceeds to distribute the exams for each classroom in this manner: all green exams in one room, all blue exams in another. Hmm. I wonder why we even bothered put them in two colors? For aesthetic purposes?

The ironic thing is now that I've bothered to make two DIFFERENT sets, we get the worst of both worlds by somebody giving each section the one set with the same color.

He later rationalizes his actions to me that he thought that either color was the same set.

"Umm, all the more you'll want to mix them together, right?" God, I actually went straight at him for a change and semi-chewed him out (how do you chew out a colleague right? if he was my subordinate, oh he'd be dead.)

Thank God a fellow pissed off colleague of mine was a simple mobile phone call away.

"Whatever will make we want to get up in the morning"

The semester is coming to a close, and with it thoughts of what next. This is my final semester of grad studies and also probably my final semester of teaching at UP and Ateneo. Perhaps in the future, I will return, but that's not what I'm thinking about now. I feel that it is so right to do something else. After 2.5 years doing academic things, it's time for a change. I just have to figure out what that will be.

A quick criterion I threw at Bob last night, about what I wanted to do, was something that would make me want to get up in the morning excited to do what I'm supposed to do. That's tough, it's probably easier to find a job that will just give you a lot of money -- he said, or something like that. I'm gonna have to figure that out.

We (Me, Bob and Len) had such a fun and funny night last night. Let's just say that Bob kept on making fun of me because I kept on making scenarios of how I would act in front of famous people. To think that I had been remarking that nothing interesting seems to happen anymore. The newest things are the most exciting and I guess that's what keeps one young. Sometimes I have such an Oprah well-adjusted blog.

I feel that i'm on a fence between young and old. I'm turning 25 later this week. You bastards better get me some presents.