The good-byes have begun...

One of my cousins asked recently, "Are you going to host your own farewell party?" I said no because I wasn't willing to pay for my own despedida party. However, I was willing to spend time with friends and family before I flew out.

Grace and TJ opened my farewell season by organising a lunch with me at Ramen Nagi and at St. Marc's Café. We had a lot of fun catching up, talking about how geeky we were. Yes, we like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. TJ mentioned that I might actually enjoy watching Real Player One because I like the sci-fi genre. The rest of my barkada from high school threw me a farewell swimming party at 88 Resort.


And just as my last month began, my road trip buddies organised a field trip to Silang, Cavite. What started off as annual museum-hopping expeditions of rag-tag individuals bloomed into a strong friendship that has seen all of us grow, transform, and move on to life's new challenges. 


My GQNC officemates also hosted a farewell party for at Crisostomo's in Nuvali. This party was not meant just for farewell because Nese also used this opportunity to welcome the new members of the team. Actually, the team is now called Applied Genomics Cluster of the Strategic Innovations Platform... totally shedding its grain quality (and phenotyping) label. I am not a member of this group as I am now a member of the Livelihood, Gender, and Nutrition Cluster in the Sustainable Impact Platform. However, I am thankful that they organised something so the noobs could meet the oldies (me included).


But the GQNC staff organised yet another farewell party, initially intending to include Tita Dory and Tita Ruby. However, the two mothers of the lab were both unavailable on that day, so their adopted children dined at Kanin Club in Paseo de Sta Rosa.


I couldn't go without saying good-bye to some of chef friends so I decided to visit both Chele (who just opened Gallery by Chele) and Carlos (Black Pig). Again, fun evenings spent with great food and good friends. Neil, Man, and Matty joined me for dinner at Gallery by Chele while Cindy, Krishna, and Kristty ate at Black Pig with me.


Farewell parties aren't really my thing when it comes to myself so I opted to call my dinner with Rizza, Pogs, Kuya Rhulyx, and Cindy simply as "dinner with friends". It was a clear, cloudless night (thankfully cool too) while we ate al fresco at Faustina's, talking about work, fun times, and family.

The Livelihood, Gender, and Nutrition cluster also kindly organised a send-off party for me. This is only the third time I met with the group since I've been busy with knowledge transfer to GQNC staff.

I didn't realise that Manuel was counting how many times he's been in despedida parties for me until we were at Aurora's in Sta Cruz. He and Krishna have been in the most number of farewell parties for me and I appreciate their presence a lot.



Our lawyer friends decided to celebrate our friendship with a dinner that was originally planned to be an Independence Day hike at Mount Makiling. However, because of the monsoon rain, my crammed schedule, and people really not in the mood for a hike, we opted for dinner instead.

Of course, Tita Ising had to meet up with me just before I flew out so we had dinner at Locavore in Conrad (near Mall of Asia). However, I opted not to have a big celebration, the way Anna did, because I had a lot of bags still to pack and to send off for shipment... meaning, I had a long to-do list and quite a few of those items involved spending money. With my Philippine credit card subscription now terminated, I had to transact either by debit card or by cash.

Kuya Eldie, Richelle, and Kuya Junjun dropped by to help me finish my chores and to shut down the house I grew up in. In a way, it's their way to say good-bye, without really saying it. I am very thankful that they showed up because I struggled with so many errands in such little time.

And just as I arrived at the airport, Val and Nikos came with the new platform leader for Agri-food Policy, Jean. We had coffee at the airport branch of Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. An hour later of talking about people coming and people leaving IRRI, I had to go back inside and look for my boarding gate. Their presence certainly made my last minutes in Manila more bearable.

As I leave my life in the Philippines (for now) to be with my family on the other side of the pond, I highly appreciate that my family and my friends took the time to bid me farewell and to wish me good luck as I start from scratch.

Thank you so much, everyone!

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