“‘Uy, may food park nanaman,” My classmates repeatedly keep saying. Supposedly, iACADEMY’s foundation week was to be celebrated on the dates January 27-31, as the occasion is usually commemorated on the same month. Game changers were looking forward to this event, however, due to the surprising eruption of Taal Volcano, the celebration was unfortunately postponed for the safety of students and faculty alike. But even though the events and activities were put on hold, there was a saving grace that remained that week– the food park. “Tara, food park tayo,” My friends and I said to each other. Just like that, our week was automatically made better.
The clock strikes 12’o’clock, lunchtime has begun. One of my friends, Loujane Alhumayed (17), invites us to go downstairs to check out the food park. The rest of my friends, Pat Campos (17) and Hannah Sorrera (18), immediately agreed and went on to get their wallets.
“I’ll remove my sweater,” said Pat. We follow her lead and remove our sweaters as well, knowing the smell of the cafeteria will stick to it once we return. Once we’re all set, we head out straight downstairs. We checked to see if there were any elevators going down, or else we’ll take the stairs, much to their dismay. Luckily, there was.
The elevator opens, the sight of the stalls and the smell of the food welcomes us. We roam around to check out the various selections, feeling out what type of food we want to eat. As we walk around, we saw familiar stalls that we see every food bazaar. There was the Hottu Doggu, which from the name, freshly grilled hot dogs. There was the usual Takoyaki stand, as well as the Scramble vendor. Loujane headed to her staple food park item– lemonade, which can be found at the stall called Coolava. Interestingly enough, they don’t just make regular lemonade. They mix a bunch of flavors, like lychee and peach, with the lemonade to create a refreshing burst of flavor. I’d usually go buy one, but there was a new stall that caught my eye.
“Bea, look oh!” my friend said excitedly. I looked at the direction of where she was pointing and saw a new addition to the food selection– Avocadoria, a shop that sells Avocado-flavored desserts. We rush to the stall, eager to buy their avocado ice cream. Beside Avocadoria was also a new stall that we hadn’t tried called Puesto, a Thai stall that sells pad thai.
As we receive the ice cream, we sat down to wait for the rest of our friends. Loujane returned with her go-to lemonade, while Hannah returned as if she discovered gold. “These cookies are so good, I swear,” she said. Each of us takes a small bite out of the chocolate chip cookie, and it certainly did not disappoint. We asked her where she got it from, and she pointed at the new stall called Tiger Cookies, a stall that sells freshly baked goods. We checked it out and saw that they sell different types of cookies, like oreo and chocolate chip, as well as graham balls. Besides those stalls, there wasn’t anything new. There was a shop that sells kpop merch, the stall that sells Korean rice cakes, and the soft-serve shop.
When we finished buying what we wanted to buy, we returned to our classroom. The first thing that we did when we got back was spray a ton of perfume on us, hopefully eliminating the smell of the canteen that stuck to us. We proceed to eat what we bought, contented with what we found at the food park.
Ysabela Meets World 