Spending time with Cousins + Meeting Up with Students (Day 1/4)

Last week, I spent a few days in my cousin's house. Two of my students are coming to Cebu, and they wanted to meet me. It so happened that they're coming on the same dates, so I decided to stay for a few days and have a short vacation as well.

My cousin, Nicole, went with me since she's also on vacation from work. We headed there on May 3.

Before meeting my cousin at the bus terminal, my father and I went to church to light some candles. The nearby municipality is celebrating its fiesta, so we decided to go there first.

Originally, my cousins and I were to meet one of my students on May 4, but they asked to change to have dinner the day before because the Oslob tour was only available on the 4th. Because of that, Nicole and I headed to the city at an earlier time that day.

Unfortunately, despite trying to go earlier than planned, the bus came later than we expected. We had lunch at around 2:30 PM before getting some stuff I'm giving my students as a welcome gift. From this place, we have one more ride to our cousin's place.

We arrived at our cousin's place a little before 5 PM and met my student and his family an hour later.

We came to Cebu with his son and his wife. I've had one class with his son before they came here, and he was adorable! He enjoyed spending time with my cousins and me. We ate, talked, and played a lot.

It was my first time meeting them in person, but he has been my student for more than 10 years. He couldn't come with his older kids since one is already working, and the other is a university student.

He planned to come here with his older son before, but their flight was cancelled due to a typhoon, so they went to Guam instead. haha So, it's great to finally meet him after so long. Anyway, they gifted my cousins and me a cute Chikuwa stuffed toy dressed as a pilot as a souvenir. They're so cute!!!

I got the blue one, Nicole got the pink one, and Godwyn got the one with sunglasses. <3

After a couple of hours, they left because they had to wake up early the next day for their Oslob tour. My cousins and I stayed around and waited for my aunt because we were going to hang around the area. While waiting, we took some photos, walked around, and talked a bunch.

This place is called Mactan Newtown. It has a lot of interesting places like restaurants, shops, offices, entertainment, etc. When my aunt arrived, we decided to go for a walk and visit the Mactan shrine, which is quite near the place. We walked for around 30 minutes. It was nice walking at night. :)

I lived in Mactan when I was in elementary school, but I don't think I've ever visited this area before. Well, it has changed a lot since then anyway. I'm curious about the museum they're going to open in the area sometime soon, so I want to go there when I visit my cousin's place again.

We stayed there for a while before heading to the halo-halo place, which was around 15 minutes away. We passed by it on our way to the shrine, so...

After finishing the delicious halo-halo, we headed back to my cousin's place. We talked and planned what to do the next day while playing some mobile games together. Then, we freshened up before going to bed.

Well, we didn't really go to bed soon. hahaha We're usually like this. We tend to just talk a lot when we're together while playing something or eating something. The original plan was canceled, so we had a whole day to ourselves the next day. I'll post about Day 2 soon, so please look forward to reading it. :)