Social Studies

Field trip reaction paper

Jacob Lim

I-Garnet

Last January 15, 2011, Garnet, together with Emerald and Ruby, went to Intramuros,
the Ayala and National museums for a field trip. The field trip was planned to enrich our
knowledge which we got in school and build our appreciation for Philippine history and
culture.

Our first stop was the Baluarte de San Andres. From there, we started walking around
the walls and the city proper. We saw the different fortifications of the fort and the
armories and facilities of the walls. After our walk, we proceeded to the National
museum where we saw exhibits on the ruins of a Spanish galleon off the coast. We also
saw exhibits on historic Philippines, mainly the people and geography, and the
biodiversity of the Philippines.

We continued our trip in the National museum with the next building which housed the
artworks. There we saw the Spoliaruim and the Assasination of Governor Bustamante.
The guide talked about how the Spoliarium is one of our national treasures and the
history behind Juan Luna, the painter, and the painting itself. The other talk was about
the latter painting. It explained the story of the painting: how Governor General
Bustamante traced stolen money to the priests and friars and how the friars and priests
assassinated Bustamante.

After that, we had lunch in a park near Luneta.

Our last stop was the Ayala Museum where we saw exhibits about pre-Hispanic gold
and how our ancestors were advanced enough to have a social hierarchy and how gold
emphasized it. This showed that we have a very rich heritage. We also saw some
paintings by Amorsolo there, specifically, Sunday Morning Going to Town, which is the
painting that struck me the most because of Amorsolo’s use of a bright orange to bring
attention to the parasol of a lady.

I think this field trip really made me appreciate my Filipino heritage more because it
showed our rich history, a great history that we can boast proudly.