hey! just a quick post before i get ready for my FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL TOMORROW. let's see. i don't know what i'm going to wear yet and i don't even know how to get to my first class. frankly, every moment i spend not solving those problems makes me extremely anxious. but forget about that for a moment as i share what happened today.

i had to wake up at 5:30 so i could leave the house by 7. i really didn't want to be late for the orientation. (as a matter of fact, i don't ever want to be late for anything ever) i got up at that unholy hour because it was my first time to go to UP all by myself via jeepney rides and i had to give myself a lot of time to learn the route. i had to make time for the slip-ups that would undoubtedly happen to me. and this is what i have to say about that journey:

currently listening to: paparazzi - lady gaga

less than three days left before class officially starts. i considered putting this on my facebook status: "guys! say you have the A(H1N1) so classes will be suspended for 10 days!". but i know that it's a terrible and distasteful joke, so never mind. facebook has been my favorite time-waster these days, now that my review classes are over.

sam and co. moved here in QC so i hitched a ride with them on the last day of the review classes. we had greenwich food delivered which arrived in 20 mins. probably because the store was across the street. looking back, we definitely looked like lazy fat-asses. the day before that, i commuted with christelle back to her house. it was her first time to go on a train so she had a lot of fun. it was really amusing for me, a seasoned train traveler, to see a total novice go about it. we got to her house safe and sound and i ate lunch there.

at the moment, i'm just keeping my room tidy and making sure all of the things i need for school are in order. i'm approaching my last year of high school so i want to make sure everything goes smoothly. i'm also reading The Inferno, just to get a head start on things. i'm liking it so far. the book and the concept of hell.

a'ight. report over.

p.s. missed the JB live chat this morning. the weather just made me want to stay in bed all day.

i just wanted to do a quick post before the weekend is over. i went to the coastal clean-up with the rest of the officers yesterday. buying the boots was a good call because the floor was literally made up of trash. they handed us these sticks to pierce the trash. i tried it out for a few minutes before i fully realized that it didn't lessen the garbage in the area. so i finally put the stick down and used my [gloved] hands.

buying rubber gloves: very good call

a lot of people were there, actually. from all over, i guess. it was the international coastal clean-up day hosted by the DENR. freedom island's coast line was almost entirely made out of garbage. the place was hella stinky. we'd been cleaning there for an hour and it didn't seem like we lessened the trash. we went back to the buses at around 8:30 AM. we left the place at 9:00 AM. our bus kind of got sidetracked so we had to go around a farther u-turn slot. we got back to school at 10:00 AM. kind of a long ride considering we were just a little bit ahead the mall of asia. we were the last bus to get to STC. actually, when we got there, all of the buses were gone. i'm assuming they already parked in gate 7.

since we finished early, (the ETA was 10:30) i had to call my mom up to pick me up. too bad no one was available. so...on July 20, 2008, i rode a jeepney alone for the first time. oh yeah, it's a huge deal. i know way younger kids have been riding the jeep alone for as long as they can remember but i'm not like them. i rode a jeepney for the first time as a 15-year old. who said 15 wasn't a milestone year? haha. my first jeepney ride all alone was a pleasant one. haha. if you consider riding a jeepney pleasant.

after taking a scalding hot shower (to kill the smell, germs, etc) i had lunch with the family and then i went to trinoma with ate ida. i accompanied her while she was shopping. that hurt so much because i didn't even get to buy anything. :(

sunday: i watched game one of ateneo vs. la salle. i really hadn't been following the season but my sister was watching so i watched along with her. she's an atenean so guess who we were rooting for. i'd forgotten how much fun it was to watch basketball. my mom got so into it, we almot missed mass. almost. my mom would never let us miss mass unless we couldn't stand anymore.

so yeah, that's how my weekend went. how was yours?

i have discovered that my favorite way of public transportation is (drum roll)

it's so uncomplicated and there's no traffic. how cool is that?

there are some downsides. sometimes it's so siksikan and you can't find anything to hold on to.

worst case scenario: you can't even get inside the train because there are so many people inside already.



in other news, i have forgotten what it feels like to put on a slightly damp t-shirt, straight from the clothesline. how can i when all my clothes come to the house washed, dried, and folded. i miss that. weird.

today was my first day at PROSEC. the school which teaches people how to speed-read. the day did not start well. i woke up at around 6AM. that is so insane because i need to be there at 9AM. anyway, i got ready and i was ready by 7AM. the time my mom and i were supposed to be leaving the house and making our way over to ortigas. we ended up getting delayed because my mom had tons of orders to her employees. when we finally got to leaving home, my mom tells me we have to see one of the employees off to the store because she's carrying lotsa moolah. we went to cubao and got on the MRT. that was so crazy. it seemed like everyone in the metro manila area decided to take the train! my mom and i couldn't even get inside. we eventually gave up. the train was way too crowded and more people kept coming in.

after all that, we killed an hour, at least. so it's 8AM and we are nowhere near ortigas. my mom decided to just hell with it and take a cab. it took a while to get one. we had tons of competition. needless to say, we got to PROSEC. i came in at around 9:10. not bad, considering the misadventures we had.

the first activity of the day was to introduce your partner to the class - your partner being the person beside you. the person i sat next to is this 13 year old boy. we eventually got to talking because we had to introduce each other. i found out that he goes to la salle greenhills, likes the internet and playing sports, failed kindergarten 1, got accelerated to 1st year from grade 6 (ugh. he skipped grade 7), and other things i forgot. there were other latecomers. there was an empty seat beside me and a girl eventually occupied it. she's a college freshman at UP. she's 16 and lives in Cavite. her brother and her cousin are taking the course with her. she went to Elizabeth Seton for high school. aside from high school kids, there were also some adults. 4 of them actually. there's 24 of us in the class.

we eventually got to the reason we wre there, to learn to speed read. we had a diagnostic test first "to determine how fast we can read before the course starts". our comprehension was also tested. it was fun. the teacher is ms. tami :). she's very animated so it wasn't boring. after the diagnostic tests, we talked about the 3 reasons why people read slowly. after that we had our break. they gave us snacks - chips delight and zest-o. i don't think it sat well with me. my stomack hurt afterward :(. my partner didn't get any food. hmmm. i wonder why. after break, we learned a basic technique to read faster - to use the magic wand!!! which is our finger! yay!

we spent the rest of the lesson doing that. and so ends the first day at prosec. gawd. i wish it's easier to think of something to wear everyday. bleh.

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