Young Jose Rizal lived in the same house with his aunt, two cousins and three half-cousins. His aunt was an old lady, already over seventy. She used to sit on the floor and read the Bible in Tagalog. One cousin was an unmarried young girl who liked to go to confession and do penance. Her brother was a widower. One of his half-cousins was something of a tomboy. She was quick to anger, but frank and true hearted, taught Rizal games and treated him as if he were her brother. Sometimes the younger kids played in the street at night. Their elders did not allow them to play in the house.
Rizal's manner of life was simple during those days of his youth. He heard mass at four if there was one, or studied his lessons at that hour and then went to mass afterwards. Then he would go out into the yard and look for mabolos. Breakfast came, which generally consisted of a plate of rice and two dried sardines. There was class work until ten o'clock and then a study period afterwards. In the afternoon, school started at two and then finished at five. He would then play with his cousins for a while after school. Study and sometimes painting took up the remainder of his afternoon. By and by came supper, one or two plates of rice with a fish called ayungin. In the evening they had prayers and then, if the moon was bright, he and a cousin would play in the street with the others. Rizal was never ill while away from home.
One day, there came a letter from his sister Saturnina which announced that the steamer Talim would stop for him on a certain day. He said goodbye to his friends and to his teacher, to whom he said kind words of gratitude. Although his teacher had punished him frequently, Rizal had understood that it was done out of necessity and that his teacher's heart was heavy when he did it.
Rizal left Biñan on the afternoon of Saturday, the 17th of December 1870. He was nine years old. For the first time, he saw what a steamer really was and thought it was very beautiful and admirable. But he heard his cousin, who was with him at the time, make remarks to the banquero criticizing the steamer's speed. Two sailors put his baggage into a cabin, then he went to inspect it. Rizal thought he was going to be alone in the cabin, but a Frenchman by the name of Arturo Camps, who was a friend of Rizal's father, looked after him. This was the first time he ever met anyone of foreign birth. The journey seemed very long, but they finally arrived at Calamba.
Rizal was glad to see the shore. At once he wanted to jump into the first banca. A deckhand took the young Jose in his arms and put him into the captain's boat. Then the Frenchman came and four sailors rowed them ashore where a servant was waiting for them with a carriage. Rizal jumped in and soon found himself happy again in his home, happy in the love of his family.
Source: Rizal's Own Story of His Life