Muddy Hell, the Bonfire

Yep. The Bellarmine field was exactly that. A muddy hell for all our feet. 2 hours before the mass, unwanted rain had started to pour in torrents. I had prayed silently that it would soon stop. Fortunately, it finally did stop after more or less an hour. But the damage was done. As expected, Bell field became the ruin of our perfectly good shoes.

Before the bonfire proper, we celebrated the Holy Eucharist along with the five team champions in this year's UAAP: the Blue Eagles, the Blue Eaglets, the Lady Tankers, the grade school basketball team and the junior swimming team. There was a lot of reasons to celebrate that night. Fr. Ben gave his amusing but touching sermon. He narrated how hard the team worked for the title. He even described how Chris Tiu became a frequent visitor to the Moro clinic and they finally came up with a name for him. Made in China.

After the mass, Paoie and I rushed to the field. We thought the autograph signing would be the next event. But apparently not. I'll fast forward and just say that by 10:15PM people were still waiting to meet and greet the Blue Eagles. Although I didn't stay for that, I'm glad I was able to catch a portion of the bonfire celebration. The fireworks display was really pretty. :) It was the surprise number of the night. LOL. It lasted about five to ten minutes? I'm not sure. They were so pretty that I lost track of time. haha. By that time, I was lining up for the meet and greet. I looked at my watch and it was already 10PM! And to think that they said it would be over by then. But oh well. Too late to complain about that. At least I got to see the beautiful fireworks. It was one of the things that made the horrendous mud quite bearable. And good thing my shoes weren't completely ruined even tough they were caked with icky sticky mud for hours. I swear I thought my shoes would fall off at any minute. But at least I got to be part of a historical event in Ateneo. We haven't been champions for 6 years. So all of us were eager to celebrate the win. Especially the players who did so well in all of their games. But it's really sad that Yuri Escueta and Chris Tiu played their final game last Thursday. We shall miss both of them very much. But to end on a happy note. I was so happy when I saw Wesley Gonzales and Chris Tiu on stage together. I was big fan of Wesley back when I was in 6th grade. He was my favorite player then. And there he was standing beside my current favorite player. haha. It couldn't get better than that. I never thought I would see them together like that. After all, Wesley graduated back in 2002. But it's nice to see that the old players come back to their Alma Mater. Oh, and I saw Doug Kramer too! Too bad Paoie had my marker. I wanted an autograph. Oh well. And from the pictures I've seen, JC Intal was also there along with Rich Alvarez. What a night! Hopefully, next year we would be champions again. Although Chris Tiu would not be playing anymore, I know that the remaining and new players will try their best to defend the championship. Hopefully, I'll see you guys at the bonfire next year. haha. GO ATENEO! ONE BIG FIGHT! And yes, Mr. #17 we will MISS YOU.


P.S Thanks to Bea and Bianca for the pics. ^^,