A sea of green

The three tallest structures in the Ateneo de Manila University right now are the Church of the Gesù and its bell tower, the two-tower student dormitory, and the Ricardo & Dr. Rosita Leong Hall—the home of the School of Social Sciences which you can't see here because I took this photo from its roof deck. The scale of the church and the dorm is deceiving because the terrain is hidden by the trees. The church stands on the highest point of the campus. Behind it, the land begins to slope downward until it ends on a cliff which overlooks Marikina valley. The dorm is at the very edge of the property and probably has a wonderful view of the City of Marikina and the Sierra Madre mountains.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

For women

The second residential hall built in the 1960s inside the Loyola Heights campus of the Ateneo de Manila University was Eliazo Hall. It was built two years after Cervini Hall, in 1968, and named after the Jesuit priest Father Jose M. Eliazo, SJ. When the university turned co-educational in the 1970s, Eliazo Hall became the women's dormitory, and it has been ever since. I can only speak about Manila architecture, but the two buildings' patterned concrete blocks just scream the 60s to me.

Baguio redux

It has been three years since my husband and I went up to Baguio City. Located in the Cordillera mountain range, it is known as the Philippines' summer capital because the American colonial government would move there during the summer months to escape Manila's heat. Casa Vallejo was Baguio's first hotel, though originally built as a dormitory for government workers. It survived Japanese bombing during WWII and the devastating 1990 earthquake, and after laying in disrepair for many years, it was finally restored and reborn as a boutique hotel—with a restaurant, bookshop and spa—last year.




The main reason for the vacation was our 15th wedding anniversary on June 1. One of my husband's former students, who lives a few kilometers away in the town of La Trinidad, sent us a beautiful bouquet of roses and lilies which I arranged in a vase I borrowed from the hotel, wrapping it in the sinamay (woven abaca fibers) and ribbon that the flowers came in. They brightened up our room wonderfully and made our stay even more special. Thank you, Sari.

For men

Cervini Hall was one of two residential halls for students built in the 1960s inside the Loyola Heights campus of the Ateneo de Manila University. It was inaugurated in 1966 and named after the Jesuit priest Father Andrew F. Cervini, SJ. When the university finally turned co-educational in the 1970s, Cervini Hall became the men's dormitory. And if you're wondering about the yellow ribbons on the trees, they're leftovers from the death of former Philippine President Corazon Aquino on August 1, 2009 and not the university's endorsement of the presidential candidacy of her son Noynoy.

---

Whatever your faith is, please keep the Philippines in your thoughts and prayers today and in the next few days. We go out to vote for our national and local governments today. Please pray that the elections and the counting will be clean (election cheating has always been rampant here), that there won't be too much violence (asking for no violence at all is not realistic), that the new counting machines will work without a hitch (it's the first time we're using machines—counting was always done manually in the past), and that we finally elect good leaders who will selflessly work for the good of the country and of all Filipinos (rather than those who will just work for their own enrichment).