DizoN, WINTER KYLE R. 12-st.

dominic of osma
What
What did you What did What did you What did you
did you
see? you hear? taste? feel?
smell?
• Large clouds • Leaves rustling • Fishy • Salty water • Warm sea water
• Blue sky • Wind swooshing • Smoke • Grilled fish • Smooth sand
• Rock formations • Waves crashing from • Smoky Liempo • Water pushing
• Blue sea into big stones grilling • Salty chips • Wind blowing
• Corals • People talking • Sweet • Hard rough rocks
• Colourful fishes and laughing watermelon • Stingy salt water
• Beige sand • Loud music • Carbonated drinks in my eyes
• Hermit Crabs • People singing • Spiky sea urchin
• Nipa huts • Water splashing • Slimy fishes
• Crow of people • My mom’s voice • Ticklish hermit
• Drunk people • Boat machine crab legs
• Kids swimming in • Itchy sea weeds
the sea • Sun ray burning
• Sea creatures my skin
• Sea weeds • Tired
• Trees • My mom’s warm
touch

Hundred memories in Hundred island

I love traveling; I love the long ride, the talk throughout the ride with family members,
the subtle teasing with cousins, the singing of random songs playing on the radio, endless
snacks, and holding of pee until the next stop. I love all of that but I am at the point where
when we already arrived at our destination, my enthusiasm seems to decrease. I feel tired like
I just want to cuddle in an airconditioned room rented by us for the night. However, it was not
the same when I went to Hundred Island, Alaminos, Pangasinan.
 Even though it was years past since I went there, I still remember a lot of fragments of
memories I have with my mom. We went there when I was maybe eight or nine years old with
my mother’s side, but oddly, all of my memories there are just with my mom and faces I don’t
know. I clearly remember when I first step onto the smooth fine beige sand as if I were standing
in my favorite blanket, it was so comforting. I slowly walk and watch the sand go in between
my toes and slowly slide back down. Then, my mom called me as I was getting behind, and
along with her voice is loud pop music blasting in the nearby nipa hut. The nipa hut was
aesthetically pleasing, they look like the ones you see in movies where the protagonist takes
a vacation on. A lot of people are talking loudly because they can’t hear each other because of
the loudspeaker and the drunk Tito’s having a competition in karaoke. They all seem to be
happy since I hear their loud laughs. I just got here but I was already over-stimulated with all
the things I hear, so I decided to look up and saw massive solid clouds, they look like I could
touch them, and the sky was so blue it looks like it mirrors the seawater. I looked down and
saw my mom’s irritated face because obviously, she hates the sun, I can’t blame her, the sun
was also burning my skin. I run to her and she smeared a handful of sunscreens onto my skin
as my hair get blown by the wind, then I saw kids, my age, splashing each other with water on
the shore, I franticly rushed my mom and before she even finished I excitedly run towards the
shore and played with the kids, my mom shouted and said take care and I looked back and
saw her smiling.

I was enjoying my time playing with stranger kids in the warm waters of the sea, weirdly
I smell something fishy maybe it was the water, anyway, there are fishes in the sea. Eventually,
the kids start this boasting contest on who is the one who traveled most, and one said that he
has been to Boracay and it was so much better than Hundred Island. I find myself uninterested
in their topic and divert my attention to my surrounding as I was kept on being pushed by the
strong waves back to the shore. I sat down on the shore as the waves touch my feet. Sitting
there I saw big rock formations covered with trees not far from the beach, I felt the cold wind
blowing, I hugged myself and went back to our hut where I can smell smoke from the grill
where my Tito’s are grilling some marinated Leimpo and freshly catch fish, and I don’t know
why but Liempo taste different when you are in an outing. And my mom along with my Tita’s
are savoring sliced watermelon covered with salt, my mom gave me one and I devoured it and
juices dripped onto hands.

The next day, we went island hopping. The boat was rocked by tall waves, I was nauseous
as I tightened my grip on my mom’s arms. We finally arrived, unlike the previous beach where
the water was so blue, here the water was so clear you can see a class of colorful fishes
swimming around the corals. Wearing my life vest I swam around while holding onto my mom,
then I felt something touching my feet, I alerted my mom and she immediately grabs a green
leafy thing out of the water, she said it was just a seaweed and laughed. She got tired so we
went to the shallow area where there are rough rocks where you can sit and in between the
gaps on the rocks are small sea urchins attached to it, I tried to touch it carefully but before its
spikes sink into my skin my mom splashes me with water as a sign of warning to not touch it,
I was startled and water went up to my nose and mouth, I tasted how salty the water is.

We went to the shore and I saw a moving shell with tiny legs that look like a crab crawling
in the sand, I grabbed it and it hid inside the shell. I showed it to my mom as she was handing
me a pack of chips and a cup of coke, I gulped the coke and placed the shell inside the cup and
she told me it was a hermit crab, I don’t know why but I find that name silly and laugh and
repeated, “hermit crab”. Then I started my journey to find more hermit crabs to bring home,
snorkeling onto the shallow water, I saw some creatures back then I don’t know the name of,
now I can Identify that they were barnacles, black brittle starfish, clownfish, and sea anemone,
water may have been entering my mask and stinging my eyes, it did not stop me from
appreciating the majestic life underwater, however, I want to say sorry if I may have stamped
on some sea creature while exploring. I hold up my head as I was losing my breath and went
straight to my mom to tell her all the things I saw. That was the last thing that I remember
from that trip to Hundred Island.