Initiation

View my original blog at http://splgum.blogs.friendster.com/melodies_of_life/

May 22, 2006

I was scared and at the same time excited as I bid my mother farewell. Today seemed to be like any ordinary day in high school, but eventually I found out that I was wrong.

I went up to the 10th floor of Andrew Hall. As the elevator doors opened, I saw my friend Tinselle (who was kind enough to buy a PE shirt for me), and Marija (aka Mhir), another friend in Uno High. We said hello and afterwards, the three of us went to DLSU Sports Complex.

My FWSPORT classes start at 9:30 in the morning and ends two exhausting hours after. I changed into my PE uniform and quickly went inside the classroom. (One cannot afford to be late in La Salle, you know.) I was surprised to see mats on the floor and I thought of what our PE would be. 5 minutes ticked away, no ten. While we were waiting for our teacher/professor, most of us just chatted with each other. I informed my mom about our current situation. 15, 20 minutes, and our professor has not yet arrived. I took out my GameBoy Micro and tried to finish a game which I believe would be challenging for most people, Mega Man Zero 3. (You have to finish all stages within an alloted time limit, avoiding any damage to yourself without missing destroying enemy reploids, aka robots.) 25 minutes passed, some blockmates came in late; they were sure lucky. 30 minutes, I told my mom that most likely have a free cut (Students may leave the classroom if a teacher doesn't enter the room within one-third of their class time.) Since we were to have FWSPORT for two hours, the solution for computing for the time would be:

2 hours × 60 minutes / hour = 120 minutes ÷ 3 (one third of the class time; you may also multiply 120 by ⅓) = 40 minutes

That means, if our professor is not around after 40 minutes, which in turn is 10:10 AM, we could pack our things and freely go home.

Our professor didn't arrive. I waited for my blockmates to leave the classroom before I went out myself. After changing back to my casual clothing, I rode a taxi back to GUM & MUG (our store). 1390 Alvarado Extension, Tondo, Manila. We also offer eye checkup at Canaan Vision Center (same location). Our contact numbers are 252-7604 and 258-9428. Visit us today!

My father was furious. (He didn't want me to ride taxis because for him cabs are dangerous transport vehicles and they cost. My trip form DLSU to GUM & MUG cost me 92.50 pesos. Ouch!). I went to school (Uno High School) to check how my fellow classmates are doing on their summer classes. Our beloved Mrs. Rivera welcomed me dearly and informed me that I, as well as Edward got the highest score of 95% in our final examinations. I was glad. Phillip begged our teacher to let me stay inside the room to listen to their lecture. I did so. She told me that I am not allowed to recite during discussions (because I take away everyone's opportunity to earn recitation points by reciting in class all the time). They were discussing about how to compute for an angle θ (theta) in a given equation. An example is: sinθ = tanθ. How do you solve for θ? Simple.

Convert tanθ so it looks like this: sinθ / cosθ.
Transfer #1 to the other side. sinθ - (sinθ / cosθ) = 0
Multiply the whole equation by cosθ. sinθcosθ - sinθ = 0
Factor out sinθ. You end up with two equations. sinθ (cosθ - 1) = 0
Compute for θ on each side. sinθ = 0 --> θ = 0° , 180°, 360° cosθ - 1 = 0 --> cosθ = 1 --> θ = 0° , 360°
There you have it!

I told Mrs. Rivera that our classes should initially end at 11:30 in the morning. I told her that our professor was absent. She replied, "That's 47,000 for you..."

I left after two more questions were answered during break time. Beware of pickpockets, MJ cautioned me.
My mom accompanied me to La Salle via LRT-1 (Light Rail Transit Line 1) and I waited at Andrew Hall for my former classmates. I saw a former classmate (Grade Six in elementary) Joshua Bagotsay, a former CCS Summer Camper named Ed, my former classmates Shirlina, Joyce, and Karl. After a few minutes I saw Austin, and not long after Tinselle arrived. We ate lunch at La Casita canteen situated at the second floor of the Sports Complex. Tinselle ate porkchop and leche flan; Austin ate burger steak. Inspired by the GreenGuide, I decided to try out their Special Sisig. The waitress asked me, "With egg or without?" I told her I wanted it with an egg. Because I was hungry, I ordered an additional Nissin Yakisoba Savory Beef flavor. Austin did so too. We chatted to pass the time. (our next classes begin at 2:30 PM). After eating, Austin went to buy his PE uniform. Tinselle swapped clothes because her next class is PE class.I volunteered to guard their possessions.

Classes were about to start. Austin was still in the line as we bid him farewell and we went to our respective halls. Seeing that there is heavy embouteillage in the elevator, I took the stairs instead. As I arrived in our classroom, I was shocked to find out that the cooling system wasn't working because the school's ventillation system was still under maintenance. 5 minutes passed, and we thought our teacher wasnt coming like before. Ten minutes, my blockmates were boasting about their "French accent." Fifteen minutes (or more), at last! A man wearing what I seemed to be decent clothes and carrying an atache case entered the room. He gave us a piece of paper and asked us to fill it up. He then scribbled some things on the board.

TREDONE
A810
2:30 - 3:30

"What's that?" We thought to ourselves. Even our schedule is different from the class schedule he asked us to fill. He started, "If you've finished filling the forms, you may submit it to the front."

"This is TREDONE class," he said, "our schedule would be..."

We felt uneasy. We didn't have TREDONE classes. The professor looked at us questionably and asked, "Isn't this S-15?" "Yes," we replied. "Could you please show me your schedule?" he continued.

A person showed his/her EAF (Enrollment Assessment Form) to him.

"That's strange," he wondered. "Maybe the office gave me the wrong schedule." He then bid us sorry for many, many times and left the room.

By that time an uproar started in our class. One said to another, "Mabuti na lamang na di mo sinabi na, 'Ano?! Theology class tayo?!'" "Theology class?!" "Wag na!" (and so on and so forth)

A person entered. She asked us, "Don't you have any teacher?" We told her our situation. "That's strange. First time ito naghappen sa La Salle." The woman left. She told us to wait as she talked with the vice dean. "First time? Ha ha! First time daw ito nangyari!" Some jeered. "Ang saya naman ng first day natin, walang teacher!"

"Pioneers in high school, pioneers also in college." I told myself.

Only 10 minutes left and we have to transfer to Gokongwei Hall for our INTRICT (Introduction to Information and Communications Technology) class. A man entered the room. "Nakita ko teacher nyo, nasa baba siya. Hinahanap din nya daw kayo." Some of us told him, "Kami nga naghahanap sa kanya e."

"Alam nyo yung teacher nyo, may hikaw sa isang taenga.""Wow, may hikaw," the noisy students commented."Maskulado rin siya.""Wow!""Sige, hanapin ko siya sa baba. Pero malamang wala na. Lilipat na kayo ng klase."

The man left the room.

We left the room and headed to Gokongwei Hall.

We waited for our teacher to arrive. And boy, she did.We welcomed her with glee. She was puzzled. We told her what had happened. "So, ako ang first teacher nyo." She then realized.

We were then given a short background of what our course was going to be like. She asked us if we willingly chose to take up the course or not. Most of us did. She was glad. She asked us why we chose to take the course, do we know what we are going to take up? She took us back to the time when we had our La Salle Pre-Confirmation Orientation. 2 speakers, Jester (I know him, he's from Uno), and another girl talked to us and explained how fun BS-ICTM was. Our professor said, "They're not totally correct, but that's forgivable, freshmen lang sila dati."

She then informed us that our course is a non-thesis course, meaning, WE DON'T HAVE TO DO ANY THESIS PROJECTS.

It was time for us to leave. I went to an ophthalmologist (My mom is an optometrist.) with my mom because I have a scheduled appointment. And after that, I went home and worked on this blog.

What mysteries await us tomorrow? Who will our teachers be? Will they be late? Absent? Who knows. Only time can tell.

May 23, 2006

I scurried into the realms of the Gokongwei Building and I waited for my classes to start.

How I loved programming. I remember Xiaoge inviting me this summer to join her conquest to learn Java programming somewhere. Because there was a conflict in my schedule, I wasn't able to accompany her. Our teacher entered. She explained to us what was written in her syllabus. Oh boy, we get to partake in hands-on examinations, so on and so forth. We were surprised when she dismissed us early, about an hour before our actual dismissal time.

With nothing left to do, most of my blockmates left the class. I tried to contact Tinselle, Shirlina, and Rochelle to see if I could join their lunch group. Conflicts. One of my blockmates, Veronica aka Vero (who looks a lot like Princess combined wih Mhir), asked me to join their group instead. I agreed. She smiled.

We went to KFC for lunch. I ordered their 2-pieces chicken meal and a cup of Mountain Dew. My blockmates ordered other food. After eating, we went back to Bro. Andrew Hall and went up to 2nd floor. (Something unfortunate happened in the process. I will not mention it for our sake.) When there was only ten minutes left before our class would start. We strategistically initiated our plan. We pressed the elevator's down button and waited for the elevator. We went down to the ground floor and ascended to the eighth floor. No hassle! No embouteillage! (So, if you don't want to encounter a stampede, follow us! ^_^)

Our ALGTRIG professor arrived at last. My first impression on him was that he was a sloppy and lazy geek who wears an earring on his left ear; his other ear with an earphone. He asked us, "Bell na ba?" We remained silent. "Sige, kahit ano muna gawin ninyo." He then sat down, listened to his music, and multitaskingly called someone through his cell phone.

He left the room.

There was silence for a while. After which, people started talking balderdash. Many entered and left the room.
Our teacher returned. By this time, I really felt that he was very sloppy, he wore casual clothes and jeans and taught the lesson while lying on the board. Eventually, we learned that he had insomnia.

Our next teacher was something else. He entered silently. He wore decent clothing. (By now you should have realized that I judge people by how they wear clothes.) He has a pair of eyeglasses. He carried a backpack, which he opened to reveal an LCD (liquid crystal/crystalline display) projector inside. He turned off the lights and showed us some pictures he took from Sulu sea. Marine wildlife. He was going to teach us marine wildlife, I thought to myself. He then showed us a dreadful picture of a poor dolphin slashed at its back that was thrown back into the sea. We were disgusted and terrified. He scared us by saying, "You are involved with what happened to this dolphin."

We learned that we would not have any quizzes in his subject, but we would have to submit portfolios. Wow! He told us about his educational background. He said that he was known for failing one-third of the class one time. Scary. He has a kind face, but I feel that, in it is concealed an evil, menacing grimace. Evil laughter! Muhahahahaha!!!!

I took the LRT to Bambang by myself for the second time in my life and I met my mom. She took me home. After a little bit of studying and playing. I wrote this blog. (and I plan to continue this for the whole week). Until tomorrow, we only have a half day of classes. Yahoo!


May 24, 2006

I don't know how to survive college with a teeny allowance of 100 pesos per day.
I woke up shocked to see that it was already eleven in the morning. As fast as I could, I did all my necessary things and went to Uno.

I waited for five minutes outside our classroom and mustered up the courage needed for me to enter. Phillip saw me, followed by the others. Mrs. Rivera welcomed me into the class. Armed with our ALGTRIG syllabus, I showed her our lesson plan. "Kayang-kaya mo to," she said. I figured out that the topics covered in three quizzes in our remedial classes is equivalent to the topics covered in just one quiz in La Salle.

After some time, I left and rushed to La Salle to meet with my batchmates. They would be having their lunches at Yellow Cab. I arrived late. My batchmates were already at the La Salle amphitheater watching a concert. (Every Wednesday, we have our U-Break aka University Break. Bands sometimes go to La Salle at that time to perform.) I ordered a Charlie Chan Chicken Pasta and a can of Sprite for take-out and ate at our car. It began raining. I got concerned with my batchmates. Shirlina told me that they were heading to class.

I arrived at my classroom. Our professor, Mr. Christopher Cruz, entered the classroom. I suddenly noticed that he looked a lot like Keith, except that he wore eyeglasses and was A LOT THINNER. He also looked like Mr. Barbo, also a Keith lookalike. After his classes, we headed to Andrew Hall. I saw Jensen on the way. We encountered heavy traffic on the elevator and so we took the stairs down instead. We were late for our INTRICT class.

Our professor told us that traditionally, we should be marked late, but she was very considerate. She would wait 5 more minutes before checking the class attendance. She explained her house rules to us. We divided into groups, and my groupmates assigned as group leader. We talked among ourselves how to go about our presentation. After some time, classes were dismissed.

I rode LRT back to Bambang and rode a tricycle vack to our store. We returned home to get my GameCube. After which, my mom, my loyal friend Joanie, and me, went to our second home, aka Pineapple, and played Mario Party 7 with my younger cousins. Naturally, Joanie and I won.

My cousins asked me if I know how to pogo-jump. I hopped 107 times for them, and they were bewildered. I told them that "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Doesn't this saying seem familiar?

Eventually we had to go home. We took Joanie to her house and left for ours. I wrote this blog as fast as I could, so that I would have enough time to study for our INTRPRG recitation tomorrow. So long!


May 25, 2006

I woke up and turned on my PC monitor. (I left my computer turned on the whole night.) The first thing I did was checking my Friendster account to see if someone made me a new testimonial. (I actually received one yesterday without pestering people for the first time.) {Blockmates, pagawa ng testimonial a, thanks!} I also checked out my blog to see if readers made comments about my blog. I found out that Friendster did a lot of improvements on the site. The layout is now better and far more organized. Also, you can display your last name in your profile if you wanted to. Anyway, I was almost late for class. I turned off my PC monitor (take note: monitor only) and rushed to La Salle.

Rush hour! It was 9:30 in the morning and my classes start at 9:40 AM. Uh oh! My mom dropped me on the nearest known LRT station, which is in UN Avenue. From the stairs, I could see the train coming. I breezed through the turnstile (Thank God for Multiple-Trip tickets.) and rushed my way inside the accelerating train. In the process, my bag got caught in between the closing doors of the train. I tried to pull it in, but somehow, I just couldn’t.

One more station, I thought as the train arrived at Pedro Gil station. I quickly took hold of my precious Samsonite backpack as the train doors opened. Item recovered. The train accelerated. I alighted at Quirino Avenue and brisk walked my way to Gokongwei Building. I found out that my watch was fast (in other words, especially for illiterates, “advanced”) and that I wasn’t late. I entered my classroom and found my way to the northeastern cornermost seat. Suddenly, a raindrop fell. No, two. I examined my surroundings. I saw puddles of water. The ceiling was leaking. I ignored the water torture.

We were greeted harshly with a horrendous recitation quiz. It ruined my whole morning. I don’t to talk about it so I’ll just move on. After the drastic recitation, our professor taught us flowcharting. Since I already have a background on flowcharts, I didn’t have trouble understanding the topic. Our professor looked Chinese. Chu – it’s a Chinese surname, isn’t it? I think so…

The came our lunch break. Seeing that there was no one to accompany me to lunch once again, I joined my block mates. We went to Shakey’s. I ordered a platter with spaghetti, Mojos™, chicken, and a loaf of garlic break. For refreshments, I drank iced tea. We then went back to Andrew Hall.

Before Professor Keith-lookalike entered the classroom, I figured out that there was indeed a person who has the same “breed” (My high school friends, you should know what I mean.) as Keith, and his name, in fact, was also Keith. Hilarious! Are Keiths like that always? Today, we took up factoring, which includes common factors, factors of a binomial, sum or difference of two cubes, and much more. We had were given a two-number homework, but some of us were diligent enough to answer them in class. Thanks for the yellow pad!
Then came our environmental science class. We were to think of anything relating to zodiac signs and list those things down on a piece of paper. After five minutes, our professor told us to stop writing. We compared our answers with the ones on the board. (Long story.)

Our second activity was more interesting. We were grouped according to our zodiac signs. I was grouped with two more people. Each group (There were 12 groups in all, for there are 12 zodiac signs, in reality, there’s thirteen.) was given a sheet of paper, which includes yesterday and today’s fortune, if that’s what you call them. I don’t believe in those things. A group was to determine if the astrologer was credible or not using the scientific method and which one is today’s astrology using the same method. It took us 15 minutes. To cut the story short, we really had a fun time. <(^_^)>

Our last subject, which was PERSEF1 (Personal Effectiveness Foundation), was to be taught by none other than Mr. Rene Molano (I thought I knew him. He was the chairperson of last year’s CCS Summer Camp 2005, which I partook in, held in La Salle.) He delivered his jokes effectively. We were told, through him, that our INTRPRG professor was the official translator of F4 and 5566. No wonder she looked Chinese. We also did much more exciting things, but I will end my post now to give way to new stuff I’m about to post. See you! PS. After turning on my PC monitor, I started writing this blog.


May 26, 2006

I woke up surprised to find out that it was already 10:30 in the morning. I planned to go to Uno after accomplishing my work at home. After organizing my things, I was ready to leave the house.

I arrived at Uno not long after. As I walked up the stairs, I thought of what I would say to my teacher and friends there. My plan was demolished when I found our classroom as empty as it was dark. I was very disappointed, for I lost another chance to meet up with my friends and our teacher. Fortunately enough, I met some of my friends who decided to stay over downstairs. They told me that they were dismissed after they took their final exams, half an hour before I arrived at Uno. Soon after, I left and headed to GUM & MUG.
I ate lunch. I stayed over until about 2:45 pm, when my mother decided to accompany me to the LRT station in Bambang. I told her that it was still too early. Unfortunately, I had to comply with her bidding.

I arrived at La Salle. It was still very early. I called my mom through my phone and complained. She told me it was better to be early than late. With nothing to do, I bought myself a Sprite Ice. I saw my friends afterwards. They also bought their own refreshments. Something unfortunate happened, but it was quickly resolved. We went to class.

We had a game but our team wasn't able to win even once. We were given the definitions of the words "information," "communications," "technology," and "management." Soon after, we were dismissed.

I rode LRT back to Bambang. As I was walking down the stairs, a couple talking to each other was walking in front of me. They look familiar. After a little bit more of inspection, I asked myself, "Hey, isn't that..."
"Diana! Raymond!"

We were both glad and surprised to see one another again. They asked me where I was studying. La Salle. They were meant to be together. Destiny is so sweet...

I went back to GUM & MUG and visited my family dermatologist to have some things inspected. Afterwards, we went home. I was struck by the fact that many people already have their topics in INTRICT whilst I still don't know who my partner is. I hope I'll know who he/she is soon. My problems today would be solved. I would get a good night's sleep.

Thanks and have a nice day. This is the end of the week. If there be any interesting news in La Salle, I won't fail to inform everyone about it. See you!