Today is the day we live our homes to have a retreat at the place they call "Avilla".At first when i thought of the word retreat is just some kind of a quick escape from the whole problems and all we will be doing is to have boring sessions and all that! but when everything started i then realized that all those things i thought were wrong.

When we entered the Avilla, i felt the certain kind of peace that is very overwhelming and the certain kind of tranquility of the place. Everywhere you look you can see flowers and trees almost as high as the skies. Beauty is all around and i cant help but feel like i was home. When you entered the inner part of the place you can see a pool, rooms for guests and visitors, and there's a big, big pond and there's a cottage in the center. If a new comer would go there, he/she would then feel the certain kind of an unexplainable feeling enveloping him/her(not that the place is haunted!no, its not!its just a place where in it had grown old and have stand the test of time. And it is and will be the best place i have ever been).

But because we were all tired and sleepy after the trip and the sight seeing, we decided to call it a night. So you can really say that our first night was spend sleeping at a comfortable bed with an air conditioned room.

I woke up at around 4:00 am and every one was still sleeping by then ,so after i took a shower i went out to have a walk. and although i did not witness the sunrise still i felt that my day is gonna be worth it.

At the strike of the clock at 8:00, everyone was already wide awake and have finished breakfast. We started the session by introducing to us first of the purpose of this retreat. although we did spend the hours with sessions but i tell you those sessions were not boring, in fact the words are the best ones i've ever heard.

We ate our lunch at exactly 12:30, we were so engrossed with the stories of the caterpillar and how he'd come to realize that the journey in not about all that what one can acquire but the knowledge one is willing to have and the realization to be seen. And after we ate we took a time out and then started the session again.

When night came, we were grouped and asked share something about our family and where we sit on the dining table and what color would represent our love for the family. Some of my classmates became very emotional and started to cry. one of them was Franilyn, she had every right to be emotional for she came from a broken family and she even told her groupmates that she really hated her father...can't tell facts about her and all that!i'll get myself killed for this!

And Christian, who also came from a broken family but has a very loving ,supporting mother. They both are the same but on Christians' case, he doesn't blame anyone for that. Christians' family held many secrets from him, secrets that when found out might hurt him badly...know what?! when i found out all of these, i was glad i came not from a broken family but a whole and supporting parents and i really thanked God for this life of mine...And after all this sharing, one of us will show the pictures we draw that represents our family and explain it to the other groups and after that we were asked to make a play about peoples lives and the realization of it...We finished at exactly 11:00 p.m. and so we started off to bed...since every one was very, very exhausted, they slept easily...

4:00 am, the sweet cries of the birds are heard and i came out to finally witness the sunrise on this part of the world...and it's certainly is a beautiful sight, just like what they've said it would be...So unlike ordinary days, on these day is our last day here in Avilla and i'm really gonna miss everything...

Our task for today is to form a circle and there's a center chair meant for the person to be judged. This game is called the "love chair" wherein the one sitting on that chair will be listening to the people who is around him/her...on this part those people not sitting on the center will say something to that person on the center about what he/she feels about that person whether it's good or bad...we finished the game by 1:00 p.m. and still only five person were sitted on the chair and since there are 50 of us so that leaves 45 more but since it's past lunch time and we've have'nt eaten, the teachers decided to end the game and asked us to rest after lunch...For us students, since we've loved the game we continued it on shayne's room.

Although it's quite not as big as the room my roommates and i occupy still it can hold us! This scene i might not forget...when it was Rynans' turn(because he volunteered) everyone felt a little bit uneasy and when shaira said something(which i dont want to talk about)he started to cry and went wild...and every one of us cried as well...Then he started telling us how he became like that and so the crying went on and on, some of us went out especially the boys, they were swearing and all that!Stig went out too and she was crying very hard. Frany was trying her very best for Stig to spill it out but she was hard and desperate to run away, she stood up and hit her head on the ladder which where she's under. And later, i found out the reason behind it...i really felt sorry for her but it's their life! no one could do anything to change it.

Later, we were asked to get back to the session room for the closing of the ceremony. Our parents were sitted on our side except mine cause my parents were not there. Prof. Siocon told our parents that we are really great children and we aren't difficult to handle...i am really happy!And when i came home, although it was very hard, i told my father i love him with words spoken half joking half serious ,but, he didn't paid attention to it anyway and that hurts...but maybe it's not yet the right time for me to say those words, no, it's not yet the time...

We went to Silay to try to win the game... we were just asked to represent the YFC...when we came there, we practice the stunts that will be performed. when it was our turn, everyone of us was excited and while in the middle of the performance, Shaira, one of our stunts landed on the ground because the catchers forgot about her because they were very tense...thank God she was alright!But i knew she was not because she looks as if she's gonna break anytime!but it's possible because she's a bag of bones... Our teacher got really nervous and so was the audience!although we did a great job, we only won the 2nd place, which was very sad and we have to carry our defeat on the way home and because of that, no one dared to speak until the end the trip...Yes, we lost but it counts as one of our unforgettable memories...