It was my second visit last weekend with my mom. I remember commenting on my classmate's blog about how I hoped to visit 10,000 roses again to see it differently, and I finally made it happen, despite the busy days. It made me look back on my first visit years ago when I was with my cousins. It was daytime, and we were like the only ones taking pictures around the place. Totally different from today. There are more art installations now and the place is crowded. Many people, even foreigners, come to visit.

Some of you might have heard or visited the SMR store before. It's been years, I think, since the last time I visited the store to buy chocolates and other food items there. Years ago, I remember the displays extended to the second floor, but when we visited recently, it seems like they have turned the second floor into a storage room, and now you just pick your orders from the ground floor.

We arrived at Solea early in the morning, traveling from the city on their private bus. Upon arrival, we were given free colored shirts and grouped up with our teams wearing the same color. I was with the yellow team along with one of my co-interns. It was fun getting to know people from different companies and learning about their roles. We shared our ideas in making a chant for our group and enjoyed the morning games that tested our cooperation and teamwork, like hula hoop pass, human knot, egg hunt, and many more. We also had free lunch , and since we ranked third in our morning games so our team was third in line.

I have heard a lot about it since they had the soft opening. I saw issues from posts about how some people delayed going back to the city from Tops because the buses didn't come back for them, so they got stranded. It was during the opening phase, and people from the city flocked to the place. When we visited, we had our motorcycle. It was still early in the morning, and there were only a few people inside.

Recently, during the holidays, I had the opportunity to visit my province in Balamban with my mom. On our way back to the city, we decided to make two stops at destinations I had never been to before. One of these places was Buwakan ni Alejandra, which I'll be sharing about for this blog.

The first spot we visited that day was the Bantayan, the biggest of the island's three municipalities, including Madridejos and Santa Fe. It wasn't too far from where we were staying in Santa Fe. We took a mini jeep to get there, because tricycles from Santa Fe aren't allowed in Bantayan.