messycheryl: Philippines

These 2 days were when we had our homestay. My buddy, Ellie, and I were fortunate enough to have had the Lacson family as our generous hosts. From the moment we arrived til even after we had left, they treated us with nothing but warmth and kindness.

They had their own mango trees that bore some of the sweetest mangoes I've ever had. They had them by the carton-fulls! Tita Nems sliced us so many mangoes I think I nearly had an overdose. Naaaaah actually that's not possible. You can never have too many mangoes-- especially when they're falling everyday in your backyard. They also cooked us a feast fit for kings. Not just regular kings-- very greedy, hungry, emotionally-binging kings. And delicious it was!

Tita Nems, our lovely host! She treated us like we were one of her own. She even brought us to a cafe all the way in bacolod city, just because we said we enjoyed desserts! And she ordered 4 cakes... for just the three of us!

This is little Iwa who taught us how to male friendship bracelets!

Couldn't have asked fot a better host family for my first homestay experience in a long time. It touched us so deeply that they were so warm and welcoming, doing everything they could to make us feel at home when they were going above and beyond the call of duty. I genuinely felt a sense of attachment even though it was just a little over 24h.

I will always remember then and the kindness with which they treated us. best hosts EVER ♡

Also just a funfact: they are descendants of the sugar baron who built the mansion in the ruins! I thought Tita Nems was pulling my leg until I did my own research. Holy crap!

Philippines

After a gruelling day of work, we took a trip to Bacolod, the provincial capital. There, we went to the city's largest mall, SM Mall. It was weird to step inside such a huge mall after such a long time in Bago!

We also visited The Ruins, an old mansion built by a sugar baron, Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson, for his Portuguese wife. It was deliberately set on fire during WWII so that it wouldn't be used as a headquarter by the Japanese forces. However, the cement mixture used was so high quality that it managed to withstand all the fire, leaving only the skeleton as the remains.

The next day, we went to visit an elementary school that was in the running for an eco-school competition. It was amazing how creative they were with their recycled materials! I really applauded their devotion to being a green school.