A Shift in Tone

I woke up today with my right leg and right foot feeling like hell. I'm thankfully not hungover from last night and I woke up before my alarm at 6:30 a.m. But when I started walking outside, I couldn't fully move because my right foot hurt badly. I kind of was limping at first because there was serious pain. I walked a bit to the common area, then talked to some people about that snorkeling thing we were gonna do. Sometime later, I went back to our room to clean up and wear my swimming outfit. I wore mine and waited for a while before we began our snorkeling trip. While waiting, I "borrowed" some sunscreen from a coworker and then I saw a few people eat breakfast and it was already being served behind us. One of my coworkers advised us to not eat anything before a long swim, but I really just disregarded that and ate anyway. I got myself freshly-made scrambled egg with cheese and mushroom, along with a plate of garlic rice and some other thing. I ate breakfast on the table I sat on earlier and it was really good, it was probably the best scrambled egg I've had ever. The guy who was cooking delivered. Eventually, everyone who was going to go on the snorkeling/island hopping trip was eating. After I finished mine, I went back to my seat to chat with the others for a few more minutes. One coworker and I got into a discussion and we talked about how my watch wasn't really waterproof, that it can't handle seawater really well. I told them that it could, and said that it had been tracking my swims for the past day. I looked at my watch and it still looked well, even the crown/dial still turned, which was surprising given how salty the sea was and how much sand got into it. I played ILLIT's Magnetic as a short speaker test, and my coworker said that it played a distorted sound. I just defended the watch by saying that the speaker was so small on this thing. They asked me if I could play another song since they were sick of hearing Magnetic, and I played STUPID IN LOVE by Max Schneider and Huh Yunjin as we were walking towards the boat.

Our group eventually got in the boat and we had 2 more girls join our expedition, with the total being 6 guys and 4 women. Someone did talk to me, as they noticed that the "island" (it was still connected to the coastline) that we passed by had a cave, referencing our playthrough in Sons of the Forest. I laughed and agreed, then we went to just look outside. By the time we got to the "island," someone noticed that there were structures to the right of us and joked that they were ruins. I genuinely laughed and found it cute of them to reference our playthroughs. We all eventually swam on the beach, which was pretty rocky. There were some corals near the shore, but they were all dead as they were white. We played for some time in the water, some swam around, and some had trouble swimming. Someone pulled a joke on me and that caused me to splash water onto them. They said, "You idiot!" after that and said that saltwater was not good for the glasses they were wearing. They went to shore to remove their glasses and went back to the sea. I swam awkwardly after that, but then I returned to them and asked if they could still see.

For the "island hopping" thing, we just swam at a beach that was still connected to the same shoreline. It was nice, we just swam and did some shenanigans. The water tasted different, though. Like it was more bitter for some reason. I challenged another coworker to swim far away with me and we found a white thing floating underwater. My coworker wondered if it was either a piece of tissue or a real jellyfish. I swam down and looked underwater to see that it had white tentacles and exclaimed that it was a jellyfish. I swam back to the group and we all continued to play in the water. Some of my friends and I linked up to make a platform, one pretended to be Rose from Titanic and said, "Jack!" as they got on top of the human platform. It was funny, and eventually, we were called to go back on the boat to start our snorkeling trip. I also noticed someone sing STUPID IN LOVE. I helped her get back her glasses which she left behind on the beach by calling our photographer friend if there were still some items left behind on the beach. The boat started and continued to the next destination. We arrived at the open sea, at the area where we and a few other boats were doing a dive. We were given snorkeling goggles, some were given a normal pair of swimming goggles, and I had a faulty one that didn't fit me properly. I dove for a bit and some water got within my goggles. I was looking at someone while they were swimming and I eventually swapped goggles with them. They couldn't see through their normal pair of swimming goggles as it was tinted black. They kept swimming and so did I. I helped Nicole for a bit because she had a bit of trouble with her life vest and I grabbed onto her so that she didn't become fully untethered from her life vest. I kept by her side as she tried to get her life vest properly secured and she eventually noticed the part of the vest that dislocated. She eventually fixed it and was able to swim on her own again, and then I left to rejoin the group. We had this idea to form into a circle and link up our feet in the middle. At first, it didn't fully work because we were too far from the boat. One of our coworkers was there to take a picture and we swam closer to the boat for our 2nd attempt. We were able to successfully do it and we got that pic! We swam around for a bit more until we eventually were told to get back on the boat as our snorkeling trip was done.

As we were seating ourselves, I sat back to my original seat and someone was alone at the back with no one sitting beside her. Since someone said that there was space still left at the back, I just decided to sit next to someone while we were on our way back to shore. I talked to her about a few things, like how aespa's Armageddon will be released this Sunday [NOTE: I was incorrect, it was released Monday] and I asked them to dance Better Things if they could since they were already singing and dancing to other aespa songs. We talked about a few other things, but it was me mostly initiating conversation between us. We eventually reached shore and I got off by leaving from the side of the boat instead of the front. Most of us just went back to our rooms to change up, wash, and do other things. Around this time, it was already raining, but it was only a drizzle.

Not much happened after that. I took a bath, and talked to a few coworkers about work, portfolios, what their future career paths are like, and so on. It rained heavily after this. Then it was lunchtime and we had to eat. They served us lechon and it was a full piglet. Someone didn't want to eat the lechon because they heard the piglet being killed last night. I ate the other dishes being served there and went back to my table to talk to some coworkers about various things like ongoing projects, upcoming company events, and so on. But we finished our food and then we were supposed to pack up as we were supposed to head home now. I went back into the room to pack up, plus a few other shenanigans, but I eventually finished packing up everything and I was good to go.

I brought my stuff and walked towards the van, and the pain from my foot was really getting painful. I was able to find a seat in the van and my space was pretty luxurious. We waited for the others to board and our trip back to Metro Manila started. By the time we were on the road, it was raining heavily, and it seemed like a typhoon had formed outside. This part of the trip surprised me because the tone of the day earlier was sunny, summer weather and now it just shifted to dark and monsoon-y. The weather also played a role into my emotions because I felt downcast by the start of the trip. I saw everyone else just power down for the remainder of the trip and so did I. I found this song from Silent Sanctuary and related to it. I even watched the MV for it and it was a bit corny, but okay. Who knew looking out the window and playing songs would get so emotional?

During the trip, I slept for some parts. By the time we got near SLEX, someone asked to borrow my power bank and I went back to sleep and zoned out. Nothing else noteworthy happened and I got my power bank back by the time we got to Alabang. When we were around Starmall, I booked a ride and thankfully found one fairly quickly. The weather was absolutely horrible at this point and it was raining hard. We got back to Festival Mall and most of us got off there, with the others remaining going northwards. I was just waiting for my Angkas rider to arrive and chatted with Nicole for a bit. Eventually, my ride arrived and I had difficulty getting on the motorcycle on account of my foot. I managed, but since it was raining hard, I didn't enjoy the trip. Also, I had to carry my bag to my side, so it was mostly wet for the ride home (thankfully, it's waterproof). On the ride home, I was still playing songs which lightened my mood. I also wondered if I brought my Nike shoes with me. I kind of worried because I don't remember packing in the plastic bag which had the shoes. It made me sad that I was offered another pair of shoes during teambuilding (last year, I left behind my trusty Vans from 2021).

Despite the horrible rain, I was able to get home safely. I asked for help from my family members to help me because my foot pain was getting pretty bad. I just lay down on the bed immediately and rested for a bit because I was so exhausted, and it was around 5 p.m.

This was a complete tonal shift in my day because it seemed like the rainy season was here. It was the afternoon, but it was raining so hard that it might as well be night. By the evening, I tried to order Chowking for my sister and I, but the order kept getting canceled, so I just tried another food delivery app and another restaurant. We were able to have our dinner and I was able to eat, thankfully. Nothing else happened after that and I finally got my full rest, despite my foot hurting badly.