Kulayan ang Drawing: Your Condo Barkada Summer Story

Summer is finally here! PAGASA already declared it, which means that you and your condo barkada can now go to all the beautiful beaches of the Philippines—or not. Admit it, most of the time, you and your friends end up with just plans and a list of places that you’d want to visit during the summer. Sure, you have a lot of activities that you can enjoy this summer but it’s always a challenge to go out of town.

However, for some reasons, it never happens. The rainy season will come around with you staying at your condo alone, wishing you had something to post on your social media account about your summer adventures.But this year, you will try again and maybe you will succeed in planning your summer getaway with your DMCI Homes barkada.

Here are 12 “Kulayan Ang Drawing” scenarios that you’ll definitely relate to.

1. It starts with an “Uy, tara!”

It can be a surprise Facebook message sent by your neighbor or a small-elevator-conversation-turned-into-oplan-summer-adventure. This will get your hopes up for sure. You end up messaging your other DMCI Homes neighbors, you create an official group chat, and you send the list of places that you can visit. Your barkada will also get the hype and start sending their own ideas and plans. At this point, everyone is good to go…or are they?

2. To the beach we go!

After listing all the prospect adventures, you end up with the beach. Of course, it’s summer, where else would you and your barkada go? You may end up in the usual Batangas beach, or try the trendy La Union shore that everyone’s talking about in their Instagram posts. Everyone agrees, no one asks questions. You plan the transportation, your budget, everything that you need under the sun. The planning stage is no longer in your DMs. It’s now happening, in the living room of your DMCI condo, complete with snacks and a lot of fun.

3. Mark your calendars!

After the meeting, you’ve got your schedules aligned. Everyone promised to file for a leave in their respective offices while the college student in your DMCI barkada has the most flexible days. You probably scheduled the getaway during the long weekend to maximize the adventure. But it doesn’t matter when, what’s important is the excitement you can’t contain. All your beach OOTDs are also well-planned by this time, am I right?

4. Guys? Anyone there? Hello?

It’s quiet. Only a few days before the agreed date, no one replies, no one opens the door when you knock. Your world crashes down when you realize that it’s over. The vacation leave wasn’t approved, there wasn’t enough budget, etc. All kinds of reasoning are given and your dream summer getaway remains unrealized.

5. Okay, this time it’s for real!

Planning your adventure is more fun the second time around. Someone brings life to the group chat and you start refining the plan. You may start from scratch, change your destination, but it’s fine. This time, everyone is more determined to go and really giving their all just to make sure that this coming Friday evening, everyone’s hoping that rented van that will bring you to the sea.

6. You bring this, you bring that!

Someone leads the pack to make sure the vacation happens. You have your own assignments to bring or do. Someone will take care of the food while the other manages the budget. The leader can be a pain sometimes but everyone is thankful for his or her existence because now, your DMCI barkada is no longer lost. This time, you no longer wonder; you know it’s for real.

7. Then suddenly, someone can’t come…

Here comes the night you leave but someone can’t come for whatever reason. It can be because they’re sick, have another important matter to attend, etc. But everyone knows this person is too lazy to go. It’s a bummer especially when they were assigned an important task. But this doesn’t stop you and your friends from going to your most-awaited adventure.

8. Hop in, we’re going on an adventure!

The road trip starts here. It’s probably the most fun part of the adventure. Everyone is telling their stories, someone prepared the best playlist and more importantly, snacks are unlimited. There are a few (or a lot) of stopovers because of something cool you’ve seen while on the road. The trip on the way to the beach is an adventure in itself.

9. What do you mean you forgot the plates?!

You’ve finally arrived in your destination. Your accommodation has been settled, your food are all complete, someone brought a guitar for some jamming session under the buko tree, but someone will always always forget something important. It’s a hassle that you and your friends must face but it’s okay, you get it from the nearby store ten times more than the original plan. Or you use something unconventional to replace it.

10. Beach activities, or the lack thereof

One thing that you may have forgotten to prepare is your activities. Should you build a sand castle? Play beach volleyball? Have a bonfire at night? No one is sure but it’s fine because everything happens naturally anyways. Even if you end up chilling under the sun, your time with your friends is still an experience you wouldn’t want to forget.

11. Time to go back home!

The time has come to pack up and go home. It’s one of the hardest part to do especially because you don’t want to leave your paradise but also because packing all the things you brought is just exhausting. You have to make sure your swimsuit dried up, you’ve got to look for your missing sunglasses, etc. There’s also the possibility that you end up with no clean clothes at the end of your trip because you’ve used them all up. Everyone hops in the rented van again and you bid the beach farewell.

12. And it ends with a “Next time ulit!"

You reach your unit with a smile even if you’re dead tired. You head to your bedroom and immediately feel more comfortable and rested. You realize your drawing is now filled with colourful memories and experiences. Then suddenly, your phone vibrates. You noticed that one of your barkada has already uploaded all your beach photos and captioned it with “Next time ulit!”.