If you love nature, you'll love Urasa. In fact, I remember saying once that if you're living in Urasa, it's not enough that you love nature, you have to be obsessed by it. Surrounded by mountains, ricefields and small houses reminiscent of sleepy towns, it's a perfect place to relax and unwind. For the past 2 years, I've stayed in this place -- IUJ in particular -- 6 times, and as Raul so accurately told me, living here is like living in a retreat house.
The downside to living in such an environment is the presence of a lot of "natural" inhabitants. The place abounds with insects and frogs that can climb walls. (Spiderfrog, is that you.) There were also occasional bear sightings on campus, though I haven't experienced it personally. (I'm still trying to decide whether I'd like to.)
The upside is that Urasa is the perfect place to enjoy a range of outdoor activities, including barbecues. With a vast carpet of green grass below, and the forest mountains behind, it's the perfect setting for an afternoon picnic. And that's exactly what we did this past weekend.
The kohais feted the senpais with a barbecue party, and fortunately, I was in town to join the celebration. The girls prepared a virtual buffet of goodies to grill: beef, pork, chicken, fish, veggies, the works. On the other hand, the guys manned the grills, fanning and turning until everything was cooked to perfection. Not surprisingly, everyone ate faster than we could cook. But it was the perfect sign that everyone enjoyed the food.
After eating, everyone ran off to have an impromptu photo session. The postcard perfect vista of IUJ brought out the photographer - and model - in everyone. By virtue of having nifty SLRs, we had 2 professional photographers that evening - Josie and Byron. The entire shindig was reminiscent of location shoots that I attended in UP Sunken Garden and other nature parks. And if this was a photo shoot, this would be the group shot that would always cap a day of shooting.
The first time I visited IUJ was a few days after the arrival Mark and his batchmates. This week, I arrived to watch Mark and his batchmates graduate from their respective Master's programs. In between, I was with them for ASEAN night, the snow festival, as well as other campus and off-campus events. Mark told me that I even have photos in their yearbook. It makes me feel like I went to school with their batch. (Maybe I can apply for an "adopted student" status.)
I'm glad that I came in time for this barbecue party for class 2008. It made me realize that in my 2-year stint-of-sorts in IUJ, I got close to nature, as well as got close to a lot of wonderful people.
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