Elbi's Friday on a Thursday

Anyone who’s ever gone to UPLB for college or even some who grew up and lived within the vicinity of the University Campus knows what Thursday in elbi meant. If people get moody on a Monday, starts to get relieved on Tuesdays, smiles at mid-week Wednesday, pray for one more day of survival on Thursdays and look forward to party on Fridays, people in elbi are different. While the rest of the people in Manila (and probably someplace else) are preparing to warm up for the usual gimmick on a Friday night, those in elbi, by Thursday, the party has already started.

Friday on a Thursday?

 The elbi community, which is dominated by students, has a unique culture to start the party on Thursdays. Since every Friday most of the students go back home to their respective provinces or to the city, Thursday has been the official gimmick night. It’s the night before everyone leaves elbi to go home to their families to spend the weekend. The tradition has been passed on way before the new millennium kicked in and the two main requirements to have a guaranteed good night life are great company and good booze.

Elbi gimmick nights are not limited to just booze and bars, but since the community in elbi is very diverse, students have their own versions of spending their “Friday on a Thursday.”

Game Night

Dota? Counterstrike? Star Craft? Games anyone? For those who are not much of a fan of bars and booze, certain groups have a weekly schedule of what they call “Game Night”. Friends have an arranged schedule and set time when they’re going to meet up at a certain computer shop (because there are so many computer shops around the UPLB campus) and they would all play computer games together until wee hours in the morning. After the game night, they usually get together to get something to eat and talk about the game before heading back to their apartments or dorms. Same thing happens every Thursday night and usually the group grows because they have a recruited player who joins every week.

More of the "elbi gimmick" after the Jump!

Bars and Restaurants

During the circa 1990’s, IC’s bar and Leandro’s used to be the top bars where students hang out. Leandro’s is now a shop besides the Java Avenue bar (which used to be Cel’s fast food restaurant). The first IC’s bar was located at the now closed blitz wave computer café, now the IC’s bar is located on the second floor, right above the Coffee Blends café. The location of IC’s bar used to be Padi’s point and IC’s bar, to this day remains the main hang out for those who wants to have a quick trip to memory lane.

LB Square at night

LB Square Restaurants at night ( View from Deck)

Times have changed, while IC’s is the oldest local pub, now there’s LB square who is like the local version of Metrowalk (of Ortigas). LB square used to be an empty lot transformed into an open air park and a compound of small restaurants, coffee shops and bars in one big location. The entrance area of the park houses grill houses and small restaurants and cafes that opens during lunch hour, then at night, if you explore the place furthermore, the park houses Jungle Java, one of the popular bars in the area (and the sister bar of Java Avenue). Beside it is the Loata Loca, where most students and people who loves to dance to RnB music usually hang out and drink. Other bars in the area includes Iziz bar, Hop Scotch Bar and Restaurant who offers videoke rooms for rent and live acoustic jamming, and Rally Point bar which serves an impressive selection of drinks. Majority of the restaurants around the elbi vicinity also offers booze aside from their food menu.

Due to the rise of many laidback bars along Grove, many outsiders (some even from Manila) go to elbi to spend their gimmick nights. So expect a lot of cars parked along the Grove area from Thursdays to Saturdays.

Coffee Shops

Before, elbi students are not much of a coffee drinker’s community. Some may have been coffee drinkers before but they were not the type to grab coffee from the local coffee shop because students usually make their own coffee in their respective dorms and apartments. Now due to the age of new media and the rise of internet and technology, coffee shops in elbi now made a mark in the gimmick night community. Certain coffee shops in elbi offers free wifi where students can hang out with their laptops and enjoy their cyber life.

Coffee Blends, which is located below the same building where IC’s is located, is probably the oldest coffee shop that is currently in operation and still there are a number of students who still swears that it is the best coffee place even though they don’t have wifi. There used to be K.A. or Kofiholics Anonymous which is now an affordable student canteen called Sulyaw. Now there are more coffee shops insight and to name a few, there’s Boston Café who’s famous for having free wifi (and has three branches in Robinson’s Town Mall, Grove and One Caldi Place inside UPLB Campus), same with Ristretto located at Vega Centre. Café Antonio, located in elbi square is also a popular student hang out (even if they do not offer free wifi service) due to their cozy place and occasional jamming sessions where they invite bands to play on certain nights.

House Parties

One of the best gimmick nights of UP students involves house parties. House parties, by definition, is when you get together with your group of friends (they maybe your orgmate/brods/sisses) and buy drinks from the nearest grocery store/convenient store and have a drinking spree with your friends. Majority of UP Students in elbi are fond of house parties because it’s a mixture of good company/ company that you prefer to be with, and booze. House parties are more comfortable to students because you do not have to be on your best behavior during the entire night. You don’t have to dress up, pay for restroom use and you can be your crazy self with less public humiliation.

House parties tend to get wild but it depends on the company you are with. When the budget is tight, house parties remain the top “gimmick” on a Thursday because it is more affordable than drinking at some random bars.

Field/APEC/"Tambayans"

UPLB Freedom Park played a great role during Thursdays during circa 1990s. Everybody bought their booze from Mang Pogs and Aling Sexy, which is the most popular 24 hour sari-sari store before mini-stop and 711 convenience stores came to the picture. Now called Pogi and Sexy store, this used to be located inside the Vega Arcade, now it’s located along Grove. When there were no cell phones nor pagers yet, Mang Pogs store served a vital purpose because you can leave messages to him. Or if you are looking for somebody, you can ask Mang Pogs (the owner and usually the person who’s always on duty in the store) if they have seen that person and they know their regular customers. You can even ask who the person is with, their mode of transportation when they dropped by and the group of people they were with. Back then when there were only few students who brought cars to school, cars are very important because besides the primary purpose of bringing friends to the gimmick place, it is what students use to carry the booze, provide music for the “gimmick” when they were just parked somewhere and the car also serves as the bed for all those who got drunk.

Thursday gimmick nights/parties are also driven by organizations, sororities and fraternities. The students back in circa 1990s have “tambayans” or certain unofficial “hang outs”. “Ranchers” would be at Villegas or the "flat rocks" by the old UPRHS. “Espaleklek” would be under the Acacia tree by Maquiling or in the UP Freedom Park field. “Eagles” of course under the Eagle Tree. The “Divers” had their "own" tree and lamp post near the field. “APO” would be by the Men's dorm to name a few. The usual hang outs aside from the Freedom park which was popularly known as the “field” were: panicles (rice fields going to IPB); “helipad” (near BSP), “megamall” (vet-med library), back of UP main library, road in front of YMCA and Catalan compound in front of Maquiling School. Thursday has always been the happiest day of the UPLB college student life.

Parties and concerts are also held on Thursday night. Certain Organizations, Fraternities and Sororities usually raise funds by inviting a well-known band and come up with a band concert inside the Baker Hall. Expect that students will be flocking outside the Baker Hall in various groups. Most students before bring booze to these concerts and huddle up in groups and have a drinking sessions while sitting, huddled up in the freedom park grass while listening to the music coming from the concert in Baker Hall.

There were times when groups are huddled up in a circle drinking on the UPLB grounds. Before there were alcoholic beverages wrapped in brown paper bag to disguise the fact that students who are currently huddled up in the dark are drinking beer. The University Police Force of UPF would come by and check if these groups were drinking alcohol and some group would hold hands like as if it’s a prayer meeting and sometimes play pranks on the UPF guys by singing “Alive, Alive, Alive Forever more, Jesus is Alive…” accompanied by a guitar. Then UPF would just leave the group alone thinking that it’s just a prayer meeting.

There is also some kinky stuff happening on the UPLB’s famous fertility tree. It ain’t called fertility for nothing because by morning, some jogger who happen to want to go around the oval of the famous tree would go under the shade to rest would get the shock of their life, surprised by a number of used condoms not disposed properly.

When you have this so much fun and freedom both at the same time, the fun tends to get out of hand. But due to the inevitable fact that there are times when things had gone a little, if not already overboard, now you can no longer drink in the UPLB grounds and smoke within the campus, there are lamp posts everywhere making sure that dark places are well-lighted and there’s a campus wide imposed curfew. Of course there are roaming UPF ensuring campus full-time security.

Elbi Gimmick Nights: The Migration

The gimmick in elbi also changed overtime. Before the tuition fee increase, majority of the students would be within elbi vicinity partying and if you happen to hang out in the old pubs, you will always bump into someone you know. Now that things have changed and more students now can afford to bring cars to school, some have started spending their gimmick nights at the nearby area such as Calamba (as the nearest) but most of the time it’s in Alabang or Paseo Sta. Rosa.

Still Thursday

Great thing about the gimmick nights in elbi is they seem to come up and have all the reasons to party. Elbi have “Sem-starter parties” or the “ Welcome Freshies” kind as well as “Sem-ender parties”. From “Pre-Hell Week Parties” (UPLB students call the week of exams and deadlines “hell week”) to “Hell Week After-Parties”. Expect that people from elbi would always have a reason to unwind most especially on a Thursday night. Majority of the students and even alumni describe the gimmick nights in elbi as “Chill” or “Relaxed”. No wonder that even though after they graduate, they still long to come back and feel the homey feeling of gimmick nights in elbi.

One of College Parties held at a local bar

You may have different preferences on how you want to spend your gimmick night but as long as you spend it on a Thursday in elbi, you are already a part of that unique elbi gimmick night community who starts to party as early as Thursday.

This blog entry is the unedited version of the one that will appear on the official student publication of UPLB by the same author. The Author would like to thank her respondents, current students and alumnus of the University of the Philippines, Los Baños from circa 1990s to present.