I still encounter the double-spacing in between paragraphs and I have to edit the HTML to delete the extra spaces. Hopefully Blogger (or the developers of this particular template) will do the necessary corrections to the template and update it automatically.
Until then, I have to keep on editing the format of each and every post ... like this one.
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Our Saturday started around 4AM when we had to wake up and prep for the field trip. As per reminder on Ikai's diary, we had to be at St. Paul College - Makati early in order to get good seats. They were implementing a first come, first served basis and latecomers were accommodated on other buses mixed with the other latecomers from the NKP (nursery-kinder-prep) levels. Of course, I wanted Ikai to be with her teacher and her classmates so we were at St. Paul at 5:45AM, 15 minutes earlier than the assembly time. Even at such an early time, we were already number 7 on the line.
The itinerary for the day -- Museo ng Katipunan in San Juan, Goldilocks branch in Mandaluyong for a cake-decoration session, Tiendesitas for lunch, Meralco Museum, and finally Mall of Asia for the Science Discovery Center and the fireworks.
The trip was tiring from the start. That's because the first stop was already a crowded affair. When we got to Museo ng Katipunan, other field trippers from other schools were already there and we had to wait for almost an hour just to do the 10-minute trip inside the museum. It was a harried and hassled walk inside the Katipunan museum with largely nothing registering as memorable. The wait on the line was longer than the time it took to tour the museum. IMHO, a complete waste.
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| Ikai and her mamon cake |
While the decorating session was interesting enough, what would've made it more fun was if the number of people participating was reduced. We were like over a hundred pairs packed sardine-like in the Goldi branch (for the duration, they didn't accept walk-ins and dine-in customers) and the kids didn't get to handle the icing bags themselves. There was an actual demo being done by one of Goldi's decorators but the facilitators of the tour didn't "teach" the kids how to decorate their mamons. Each pair had to rely on their own creativity.
After Goldilocks, Tiendesitas was the next stopover ... for lunch. A lot of the field trippers brought their own baons just like us. And I noticed, that just like us, many had adobo-like viands on hand. Adobo is the ultimate ulam because it is food that stays fresh for quite some time.
The picture on the left is a tranvia which Meralco operated in the early 1900s. Running on tracks on the streets of Escolta, it was the first mass transport system at the turn of the century, decades before jeepneys became the kings of the roads. Thinking about it, the tranvia would've made more sense, in my opinion. Imagine today's EDSA running a tranvia track -- of course, the coaches would be air-conditioned now and probably faster but at least old Calle Hunyo 19 (the first name of EDSA according to our tour guide) would be congestion-free and we won't have the eye-sore that is the MRT track overhead and under. Future planning for our mass transport system should've been undertaken eons ago.
And since I have a burgeoning passion for old cars (of the 1:64 scale), I can't help but snap a photo of this old Meralco service truck. If I'm not mistaken, it's an old Ford -- reconstructed and reconditioned. I would've liked to have my photo taken with it but alas, with over 50 kids running all over it, I had to content myself with photos.
Just a thought -- Meralco is now owned by the MVP group ... if they also manage to bag the MRT and LRT operational concessions, then it would bring electricity and tracked mass transport together again under one umbrella. Meralco can again become the Metropolitan Railway and Lighting Company.
From Meralco, we headed to MOA for a trip to the Science Discovery Center which I think all the kids enjoyed because of the interactivity of the different science galleries. There were mini-classes held before the kids were released to enjoy the different amenities of each learning module. However, with so many kids and just a few amenities, there were a lot of grumpy kids. Ikai herself wasn't able to play with a lot of the gadgets as other kids managed to get their hands on these first. She complained to me that the other kids didn't want to share but there was nothing I could do.
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| Ikai with the astronaut statue |
Ikai thoroughly enjoyed the gallery Spaceship Earth where she and her classmates virtually helped Baby Polar Bear cross the broken ice floats to get to its Mother Polar Bear. She also got her kicks out of the motion-detector-powered modules such as the SMART Media Center, and one of the interactive features in the Grossology gallery.
We did miss out on the fireworks.
It rained by the time we reached MOA but the main reason we missed the fireworks was because we were still inside the Planetarium Digistar Theater when the fireworks were unleashed. Unfortunately, SM did their fireworks on time and by the time we finished the Sesame Street film showing, it was already 7:15. The fireworks happened 15 minutes earlier, on the dot.
It was a tiring trip, no doubt. It wasn't a completely fun trip but I think Ikai enjoyed it somehow. Especially since she got to ride the ferris wheel.
However next time, I do hope there'll be better places to visit. The Museo ng Katipunan would've been worthwhile if there were only a few people and the visit was maximized. Ikai's field trip to the Krispy Kreme factory last year in her old school was better than the Goldilock's one. The trip to the Science Discovery Center would've been funner if again, there were fewer kids (including other field trippers from other schools) and there was enough stuff for kids to play with. If, for example, there was only one school going to the SDC, I would've broken the entire class into groups of fives and dispersed these groups to the different galleries -- not the entire class sitting in one module because what you wanted the kids to enjoy was the experience.
More photos of the field trip on my FB photos page.
