paraiso

justine clio marquez-ostique was in iloilo last night and she summoned us (tara, ayè, buddy mitch, pai and myself + mader cris) in stanley's talabahan in villa. it was great to spend some time with the vocal-not-afraid-to-use-vulgar-words cli-cli. i expected it to be a super fun night, reminiscing about the old intermedius days, cli-cli's throaty laughter, mitch's unexpected fall from the chair at the bar, ayè's frustrating attempt at understanding niponggo and french, cheering tara for having a bottle of beer...

i can't really recall who started the idea of going to paraiso. must be the blurry effect after dozing off two bottles of red horse. before i knew it, tara's high school friends were there to accompany us in going to the red lights district.

i remember when we were starting out in intermedius, nang marianne promised to take us for an immersion in a gay bar. she must have realized that we were too young and too naive that time. we all forgot about it.

and last night was the night. wahahaha! we were excited and scared at the same time (for us girls, at least). the boys said they were ashamed to be seen in a place like that, but hey! so are we!

as bench drove along jm basa st., we were giggling and laughing, but when we got out of the everest, we were as quiet as we can be. we climb the steep and narrow stairs up to the gay bar whispering to each other. when we paid at the entrance, dark images started to appear. we thought of backing out. but, well, for an educational experience, going to a gay bar is not that bad. (ahuh! defensive!)

i felt sorry for all those boys dancing on the stage. my goodness! they were young! 18-20 years old. i wonder why they opted to make that as a source of living. okay, i don't want to judge them for choosing that kind of job...i just drank my beer and let my eyes wander around the place, observing how discreet men, gays and women behave, noticing where people go when they suddenly disappear from their table and definitely did not go to the washroom or the exit door, observing how those guys attract customers.

it was a whole new experience. period.