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City of Golden Friendship

Our quick visit to one of the key cities in Mindanao was filled to the brim. It was extra grueling because I was arranging Vic's surprise from faraway.

My hectic day started at 4:30am. I needed to be at the NAIA Terminal 3 for the 6AM call time. I had to be in early since I was assigned "Punong-abala" for that part of the tour. Our choir manager was already in CDO giving a talk.

Being the PA, I had to take note of people who aren't checked in yet. It wasn't a big deal except for "some" small issue. A couple of people failed to arrive at the arranged call time because they overslept! When I called them for a location check, they were still at home, unpacked and not ready to leave. There was nothing I could do but tell them to hurry. I wasn't too worried, since there is another flight leaving in four hours. I just informed them about their options.

After about 45mins, they haven't arrived at the airport yet. They had to go back to get their tickets. Ganda. I bet they were majorly stressed out. At least the early Saturday morning traffic was cooperative. After all the brouhaha, they made it to our flight.

I could have sworn that I made a least 10 mobile phone calls in a span of 2 hours. I don't want to see my bill when it comes next month.

Linea from the XU Glee Club met us at the airport. We were housed in Grand City Hotel near CDO's Divisoria. It was also just a short walk away from Xavier University. How convenient. The hotel greeted us with brunch.

The first official tour duty was the Courtesy Call at the President's office. Fr. Jett and his staff enjoyed the two songs we rendered. After which, we had a few hours to rest and go around. Elaine, my roomie, and I went to the nearby Tourism office. They recommended going to Sler's for processed meats. The other destinations were too far away and would take up too much time. We took the tricycle, a taxi cab/jeepney service that takes the passenger any where he/she needs to go for only P5 per trip. Sler's offers good ham, longganisa, chicharon and other pasalubong items. Sler's recommended going to Vjandep for fresh pastel, a custard-filled roll. We couldn't really go white-water-rafting in an hour so we decided to go back to the hotel after getting all our pasalubong.

At around 3PM, we started our sound check at XU's chapel. We had cocktails afterwards. Some of us sneaked back to the hotel for a quick shower. We definitely felt summer there, not to mention the humidity.

Concert began at 8PM. Dinner was at 10PM. By then we were already low in battery. You'd see some of us staring into space slowly drifting to sleep. Hehe.

The trip definitely followed a pattern: Eat-Sing-Eat-Sing-Eat.

Our trip would've been better if we had more time to explore the city and get to know the people who brought us there.

It took me 10 years to go back to CDO. I hope it wont take me that long next time.

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