Chapter 38: A Weekend in Laguna (Part I)
It was 5:00 a.m. Saturday morning. The sky was dark and the weather was cool.
Michelle and I had just woken up from bed when Karina and the house maids prepared a hearty breakfast for us. They served a plate of sausages, a dish of tuna omelet, fried garlic rice and a pitcher of piping hot coffee.
Unfortunately, I am not much of a coffee drinker, so Karina squeezed some fresh orange juice on the glass. After a few final touches, breakfast was ready to serve.
Just as we partook at breakfast, the sun began rising on the horizon. The brisk weather that had greeted us earlier gradually dissipated and the temperature heated up a bit.
"We must hurry," I urged Michelle. "Or we might be late for the assignment."
After breakfast was finished, I borrowed Michelle's weighing scale to check on my weight that day. Upon tipping the scales, I weighed in at 158 pounds which were slightly heavier than the 158 of my last weigh-in.
But that slight weight gain was just a minor setback. My figure was as graceful as ever.
I took a bath first while Michelle sat on the bed to call for our friends. Upon leaving the bathroom, Michelle shared some good news.
"I talked to Ella, Jamie, Taylor and Erin and said that they're ready to go," Michelle said. "But we need to hurry because they're anxiously waiting for us."
And so Michelle went for a shower while I picked a few clothes from her closet. Then after Michelle put on some fresh clothes of her own, it was time for us to fetch our friends.
Unfortunately, we encountered some directional problems. Michelle forgot to ask Jamie, Taylor and Erin on where they live.
Michelle and I went to the gas station to fill up the car. Meanwhile, we visited the convenience store to call for Jamie, Taylor and Erin.
Michelle first called Taylor on the payphone. But he told her not to visit their home because he and Erin already left.
Instead, he suggested that we should meet at a gas station near the expressway. Michelle agreed to do so.
Next up was Jamie and he revealed to us that he lives in a condominium unit in Makati. And so it was off to Jamie's place to pick him up.
After fetching Ella from her condominium, the four of us drove down south to meet with Taylor and Erin. Once there, we sat down at a fast-food restaurant for some snacks.
Ella and Jamie brought along a video camera, some videotapes and a boom microphone for the video recording production assignment. Meanwhile, Michelle, Taylor and Erin brought along their SLR cameras.
With all things considered, we were off to Mount Makiling for our assignment. But just as we reached the hilly roads, Michelle's car suddenly broke down.
It turned out that Michelle had a flat tire and her wheel needs to be changed. So Taylor and Erin stopped by for some assistance while Jamie, Ella and I went outside and checked on her car.
Taylor and Jamie, being the only two muscular dudes of the ensemble, opened the trunk and picked up the spare wheel. They then brought a jack and a steel pipe to raise Michelle's car, followed by replacing the damaged wheel with the spare one.
While fixing Michelle's car, Taylor and Jamie acquainted themselves and complemented their handsome looks. Shortly after we introduced Ella and Jamie to an eager Erin.
The first leg of the trip took us to Mount Makiling, a popular national park in Laguna. Upon making our way to this iconic tourist destination, I cannot help but be impressed at the wide variety of flora and fauna that permeate this place.
But we were not here to enjoy these sights and sounds. Instead, we immediately went to work.
Bringing along our trusty cameras, we began to walk through these rocky and muddy trails. Michelle and Erin began to take pictures of various animals that roam the park.
Meanwhile, Ella and Jamie took turns in recording videos. I, on the other hand, held the boom microphone so that they can speak clearly amid shrieks of birds that flew all the way up.
It was 11:00 a.m., and we were already gasping for air. So we went back down the parking lot for a break.
"So how many minutes have you been able to record?" I asked Ella and Jamie.
"So far around 10 each," Ella answered. The professor said our clips should only be 15 minutes long, but with all things considered we need to double the length of our footage to edit them."
I then approached Michelle and Erin for some updates on the photography assignment.
"How about you Michelle? How many pictures have you captured?"
"About 20 each," Michelle responded favorably. "So far it's all good. But we require some more just to be sure."
Just then, our stomachs began to grumble. Luckily, Taylor and Erin packed up enough food for lunch to last us the rest of the afternoon.
Taylor and Erin brought out cans of preserved tuna, loaves of bread, slices of lettuce, tomato, onions and cheese, and bottles of ice cold water from the trunk of their car. After placing a large placemat on the back, they assembled each of the ingredients and created an impromptu tuna cheese sandwich.
"Mmmm..." I reacted while taking a bite. "Tastes good."
"Not bad guys," Michelle gleefully said. "This is one hell of a delicious lunch we had today."
After lunch, we took a brief nap and resumed our project shortly afterwards. It was my turn to capture a few shots, but at first I had trouble dealing with the intricacies of Michelle's SLR camera.
Good thing Michelle played like a pro in handling her camera and offered me some tips on dabbing with the buttons. After learning a thing or two about shutter speed, aperture and exposure, I was ready to flash some pictures with Taylor on Mount Makiling's famous hot springs.
Meantime, it was Michelle's turn to handle Ella's video camera. With Jamie as the boom operator, she began recording extensive footage of the bubbling hot water on the springs.
"Looks steamy isn't it," Michelle commented on the location.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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ralphierce To be continued.
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