Instituto Cervantes Presents: Berso sa Metro 2010

- April 17, 2010, Saturday

- Finally, the long-awaited event has arrived!! This three-venued poetry event started from Serendra's A Different Bookstore, Greenbelt's Powerbooks, and ended at Mag:net Cafe Katipunan. (I only went to the first 2 though.)

- I was happy to know that I didn't get lost the second time I commuted to Serendra. I guess I was too early since A Different Bookstore was still closed; it was around 10 something in the morning. I decided to have lunch at McDonald's Market Market.

- I think my companions came around half an hour later, and the VIP's, riding the Berso-sa-Metro-decorated eco-jeepneys, arrived another half an hour later.

- After setting up, Director (Jose Rodriguez) gave his welcoming speech. I enjoyed listening to his speech because it had a fairly light tone while stressing on the importance of reading, poetry, and literature itself.

- The theme of the poems to be read in A Different Bookstore was "City Life."

- Aside from the Spanish poet, Jose Gutierrez, (the one Enzo and I fetched from the Manila Pav,) the main highlight of the recitals, I would say, was the Balagtasan between Mike Coroza and Vim Nadera. Their poetic joust was also parallel to the theme.

- I wasn't able to listen very closely to all the poets, even the Balagtasan, since I was busy organizing the videos of the poets and attempting to upload them asap on youtube.

- After the poetry recital, we interns rode Enzo's car (Thanks Enzo :D:D:D:D) to Greenbelt. It was a short and fun ride to Greenbelt, while Lily Allen's LDN and Alicia Keys' Empire State of Mind II played inside my head. Haha. Random.

- Upon arriving at Powerbooks, we asked the staff the set the place up. Since most of us were hungry, we decided to eat at Glorietta. We had a lot of time to spare anyway. Oh yeah, Ito and Martin also accompanied us, since they were also hungry.

- After eating at Glorietta's food court, we rushed back to Powerbooks and set up the music, courtesy of my iPod's "wide selection" of world music. Ito asked be beforehand to prepare a playlist with Spanish/Latin American songs, and I didn't have a hard time organizing one. Hahahaha.

- The same procedure followed, but with a greater audience, and a greater set. (The fake Berso sa Metro jeep was set up as the backdrop....and later used for wild wild pictures.) The theme of the second venue was "Dreams, Memories, Nightmares."

- I was able to listen to most of the poetry, including the Balagtasan-turned-kundiman-concert performed by the same pair, since the videos failed to upload on youtube. Sigh much.

- After the rather short poetry recital - one hour instead of two- many people, including us interns, took the opportunity to have pictures with the fake jeep, and of course, our friendly Spanish bosses (Direc Rodriguez and Head of the Cultural Dept. Jose Fons.)

- I met my former wushu teacher, Ms. Alma Sy, and also had a picture with her. I told her how much I missed my wushu classes with her. (I took wushu for my PE class during my first semester in sophomore year.)

- We also had the chance to have a picture with the (quite laid-back) Spanish poet, Jose Gomez. (I just realized that most of the Spanish men I know and have met are named Jose. Haha.)

- The event ended, at least for us who didn't go to the last venue. Karla and I were the last ones to leave, since we organized the video and picture files through my laptop. Luckily, she was also going to ride the MRT -at least I had someone to talk to during the long walk from Greenbelt to the MRT station in SM Makati. :D:D:D:D