NARRATIVE REPORT

By Paul Daniel M. Cudel

It was Friday, February 7 when me and my classmates went to Manila to go and explore
the National Museums of our country. We have been planning a week before that day, but
like all events that you plan, not all goes perfectly. Before leaving Taguig, it was quite
noticeable that the sky is dark. It was clear that it would probably rain but we didn't care
about the weather and still continue the plan. Before going to Luneta, me and my
classmates decided to go to Market! Market! first to eat some lunch before heading to
Manila. But, the weather didn't cooperate and it rained heavily. My colleagues
contemplated whether we should go to Luneta or not. We don't have any extra umbrella.
All we had was some jacket and sweater that will still make our life hard. So ultimately, we
decided to buy some umbrella in the mall but ironically, the heavy rain was replaced by a
light drizzle. After riding to jeepneys, we rode the LRT, it was quite fast and we arrived at
the United Nations after 10 minutes but sadly our greatests fear happened and the rain
started falling again and since you need to walk to reach the museum, by the time we
arrived the National Museum of Fine Arts, I was really wet. Good thing that the guard
allowed us to go inside.

The moment we enter the museum, you will be greeted by the wonderful painting of the
famous painter Juan Luna, the Spolarium. It was one of the most memorable painting that I
have ever seen. It was really huge. I actually thought that the painting displayed there was
just a replica due to its large size but after reading the description, it was actually the real
deal. I was really distracted when I entered the museum and forgot to take some photos of
some of the artworks. There are several paintings that you can find inside the museum.
Varying from different art syles. Some are portraits of politicians and artists others are
scenes captured from the nature while some are abstracts and came from the artistic and
creative minds of the painter. Seeing those paintings make you appreciate the work and
effort that goes into that artwork. Along the hallways of the museum, several sculptures are
placed. I admire those artwork especially the different sculptures of some apostles and
Roman figures. You can see the intricate details in each and every one of them. Even
though we can't really fully comprehend what the artist's vision for his art. We can still
admire the hardwork they put into every piece they make.

As we go further into the museum, an area full of Fernando Amorsolo's work can be found.
There are hundreds of sketches of different scenes of the Philippines made by himself. My
attention was definitelty grabbed by the unfinished portrait of Florencia Singson Gonzales.
She was the mother of the famous Dr. Vicky Bello. It was Amorsolo's last work before he
passed away in 1972. The portrait was so beautiful. Several portraits of politicians made
by Amorsolo are also there. But out of all his paintings, I really admire his scenic paintings
which show how our country look liked during the time of the Spaniards. But most of all,
you can't help to respect the sketches of the natural beauty of our nation.
After a few more walks, there was a room full of Rizal's prized works. From his drawings to
this sculptures, all of our national hero's art are showcased here. Not only that he is good
in writing, he is also excellent in utilizing his creativity as shown in his works. I was
definitely honored to witness his obras. Can you imagine that Pepe's hands created that
thing?!

After admiring and seeing all this wonderful works. I developed a sense of pride as a
Filipino. Those works are made from the talents of our own people. I'm really glad that I
was able to go there and I hope that the next generation can witness this level of creativity.

Visiting the National Museum of Fine Arts really was a great pleasure because not only did
I visit it with no purpose but I came there with pride and glory because of the historical
paintings and artworks inside the building. The youth must know and understand the
message of every artwork and must appreciate that kind of artworks. National museum is
a historical building of the Philippines. I am glad that I had time visiting it because my
schedule was really tight.
As the rain continue to fall we stayed inside the National Museum of Fine Arts until the sky
became quite. After the weather became nicer. We now went to the the next national
museum next to it, The National Museum of Anthropology. This museum houses the
ethnological and archaeological exhibitions of our country's people. It has so many stuffs
inside such as different artifacts and some archaeological findings.

As we enter the room you will be greeted by the amazing architecture of the museum. As
we walk inside the museum, the first exhibit that we saw are the bells and cannons in the
corridor. These artifacts are dated back to the Spanish and are definitely considered to be
precious artifacts of our country. Noticeably, you can see the age of these artifacts. The
design was really beautiful even for today's standards and you can imagine the friars that
used them during the time of the Spaniards. The next are we went to is the room of
"Manlilikha ng Bayan" or the National Living Treasure. In this section of the museum, it
showcases our country's that contributed to the enrichment of our country's culture. They
are the people that shoes how rich our country truly is Our coutry is composed of over
7,000 islands and its hard to imagine how much culture and tradition our country contains.

Different artifacts such as cloths and weavings can be found throughout the building. After
a few rooms, I room that I can certainly remember is the room that showcases our first
alphabet system. Its the Alibata or Baybayin. There you can find the different figures and
engravings that are sculpted into rocks and potteries. Its fascinating that the early Filipinos
are able to create their own and unique writing system. It just shows how smart and
creative Filipinos naturally are. The writings are engraved into potteries and metals. Even
though this writing system is not used in today's world. We need to preserve this thing
made by our ancestors so that our future generation can see the culture of our country.
After learning a lot from the National Museum of Anthropology, we then went to the
National Museum of Natural History. I would admit that this is the one that I'm most excited
about since I really like to study about fossils and our planets magnificance. Unfortunately,
we arrived at the museum at around 4:00 pm and we only have one hour to go around the
place.

As you enter the museum you can see the amazing structure of the building. The building
was designed by a Filipino architect Antonio Toledo. He is also the one that designed the
famous Manila City Hall. You can't help but appreciate the beauty of the building and the
one that grabs your attention is the facade known as the DNA Tree of Life. Because of the
elegance and class of the building matched with its ivory white structure, 30 minutes of our
time for roaming the building was wasted by classmates for picture taking. (ughh). I'm not
really into pictures so I was secretely annoyed that can't explore the place that I'm really
looking forward to. So after wasting so much time, we explored the museum quickly. It
wasn't able to read the descriptions of the exhibitions so I was kinda bummed about it.

In the first floor, you can see the different petricite and fossils thay dated millions of years
ago during the time that dinosaurs walked the earth. Imagine the leaves of those trees of
petricite are once being eaten by a Diplodocus! In the Ayala Hall, which is also located at
the first floor, you can find the skeleton of Lolong which is the largest saltwater crocodile
ever caught. He was discovered lurking in the town of Bunawan in the province of Agusan
del Sur in 2011. Sadly, Lolong didn't last in captivity but his relics still remain in this
museum. I wasn't able to remember the other places due to lack of time and we were
rushing to take pictures of the different exhibitions because the announcer was saying that
the museum will close soon. We went home exhausted. The LRT trains are also full and
the moment we leave the station, the pollution and smoke from the cars didn't help either.
That experience was definitely not enjoyable. But in the end of the day, I had fun.