Back in Cebu: Cousins' Day Out

I live in a very closely-knitted family. My mom has six siblings (two brothers [one deceased] and five sisters). She lost her husband (my biological father) two months before I was born and I was taken under the care of one of my aunts. Growing up, I hopped from one aunt to another playing with my cousins every summer. I have nine first cousins (two removed jk).

The bulk of my childhood was spent with my grandma in our birthplace, where I had so much fun, and so much Coke to drink for myself. I ran, rode a bike, slept on the grass, read books, talked to old people, listened to old people talk, got shit-scared about supernatural beings, played under the moonlight with other kids on a long and empty street, learned to play mahjong, tong-its and loads of card games, slept under the moskitero (mosquito net)while listening to crickets and rustling leaves on the background, and woke up to chirping birds and mumbling voices somewhere in the distance.

Part of being young was waiting for cousins every weekend to come over to grandma’s house and play. But my most awaited moments were when my cousin from Cebu came home for grandma’s birthday every year. We would spend endless days and warm cozy nights together and it felt like one of the best days of my life. They are practically my siblings.

Today, now that we’re all grown-ups, we barely have time to come together. Well, I have time, being the sick and unemployed one. But it just takes effort to come together. Everything has to be considered — work leaves, work schedules, and everything in between. Adulting hit real hard.

Now that I got back to Cebu and since it was a weekend, my cousin planned to go to Cebu City to do a bunch of things all at once. I live with them in Minglanilla City, which is roughly a one to two-hour drive depending on traffic.

First, we went apartment hunting because my cousins and my sister are planning to live together. We found a good one in a prime location. Hopefully, all things go well so they would be able to move in together and we’d have a hangout place. 😂

After apartment hunting, we stopped by Ayala Center to grab coffee. We saw a new stall on the way to Bo’s and found out that they were giving free coffee to the 1st 100 customers at 4 PM. It was a new coffee place and nobody knew about that promo at that time, so we were the first ones in line!

PICK UP COFFEE is a new brand so I got curious and looked it up. Their website was not so useful, but it said that they were “founded in the midst of a “digital revolution.” Whatever that meant, I guess they started during the pandemic. A Preview article mentioned that PICKUP COFFE started as “delivery-only” with locations around Metro Manila. Now, they have so many branches in Luzon and Visayas. They are also so affordable from P50-P100!

After coffee and some bread, we head to Camiguin Road in the CBP. It’s somewhere behind 2Quad Building. It’s one of the few empty parks left in the CBP. Soon, all the empty lots will be filled with buildings and this entire place will turn into a concrete jungle. What little park we have left will be turned into a complete business district where people are built to be robots and exhausted to their wits working and making a life of their own. This is a price of progress.

After going round and round the street jogging and hiking (for me), Hannie and the bf, brought me to this small Thai food-inspired carinderia! It is a small place beside Sugbo Mercado. It’s a really small place, nothing fancy. But the food is really good! We shared a bowl of tom yum and got a plate of pad thai each. The pad is perfect 👌 It is complete with ingredients such as stir-fried noodles with eggs, vegetables, tofu, shrimp, garlic, red chili pepper, and peanuts! Super loved it!

We capped the night by meeting our super busy cousin, Justine, who consciously struggles with life between work and law school. If that is not something to proud of, then idk what is.

So here we were at Bo’s. Took a picture of the churros columns while she was studying. My cousins also had the time to talk about the apartment and their plans. I just hope that when I come and viist next time, they are already living in their apartment in the city.