Iskolar Ng Bayan

Now... where was I? Oh ya, I got a surprise call on my way back from class last night. Pretty unexpected yet welcomed anytime! :D Sammi, Cavis and Malvin called me! (Oh, by the way, if you're wondering whether I forgot Rogie-boi was there too, I didn't; it's just cause he spoke to me last so it's sorta "in the order of appearance blah blah...".)

Nice to hear from them again, and with some good and paranoid news. Sammi and Cavis are planning a trip up here for a few days, but not after the alledged "record-richter earthquake" passes. P.S. I found out that 8.0 on the scale isn't a big deal here... it's just a big headache after.

Come on down!!! Mabuhay and you're most welcomed!

So, where was I again...? Hmm... 'Iskolar Ng Bayan' loosely translated 'National Scholar' is the title given to a successful graduate of the University of the Philippines. It's a dignified term used to also subject the poor graduate to political and social abuse and recognition, and I for one will probably benefit as well as indirectly suffer from the stigma. What's that all about? Ask any non-UP graduate or anyone who holds a 'failure-to-admit' grudge against the uni and they'll give you as frank of an answer as you can get.

I think my life as a student officially started on the 5th of June when I had to enlist for my subjects. (Bear in mind that this is also an American-styled enrollment so it may sound familiarly strange to some) Rather than me summarising the entire day, I think a time-list should clearly outline how important this particular day was for me and why I mark it as my 'christening' day:

5:30am - Up and half-way about
6:30am - On my way to UP (travel time in the morning is approximately 1 half to 2 hours)
7:45am - Reach UP (must be one of those good days)
8:00am - Admin window opens for students to get their Form 5A (it's a really stupid thing but transferees like myself were only allowed to start subject enlistment 5 days from the start of class - which meant most class slots were either full or over-flowing. The really asenine part of the enlistment was to get all 18 units or 6 subjects validated before 5pm! Talk about mission-next-to-impossible!)
8:15am - Somehow, get to know a girl who happens to be a transferee too. We both set off on our 'journey' to capture our hidden class slots.
8:45am - Reach the English Department to enlist for at least 2 classes. There's a petition list and we're required to check back at 2pm. There goes lunchtime.
9:00am - Get to the Philippine History Department to enlist for the required Phil. Hist. subject. I got in and it was the only class where the teacher taught in English! Lucky!
9:30am - The time gap is real cos it reflects the waiting line til the department's admin room! Talk about rush-hour jam, this is the SHIT. We're off to other colleges (That's what they call the various buildings which provide the different disciplines for a wide variety of majors; Engineering College, Home Economics College, etc...) Seems like all of the classes are full... d'oh! It was a tiring trip cos apart from the fact that neither of us had our own vehicle, taking the in-campus jeepney didn't make sense and the weather was still cooling off from summer.
11:30am (I think) - Back to the Mass Comm College where the Film department is. Got some advise from the academic head there and had some back-up options to fill-up our unit requirements (Every student needs to maintain at least a 15 unit/5 subject semester. Failure to do so will result in pretty fucked up shit I don't wanna mess with). I got 5 subjects in line (and to my stupid dissapointment found out that because of a technical term error, I couldn't credit the subjects I took last semester! Fucking wankers didn't tell me that! That's political ambiguity for you! Burn me now!!)
1:00pm - Missed lunch... real hungry... real tired... she looks good to eat... can't... focus... must en... list. Back at the English Dept. We've both got only 1 subject each, that means at least 4 more, and we're waiting for the english subjects to be opened. The line is looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong and I'm not exagerrating the situation cos that's the reality of enlistment day; the lines! The fuckin long-ass-giraffe-stretched-snake-like lines!!! There's a joke running around the Uni (which I've come to realise is pretty cynically-sarcastic) that UP literally and figuratively also means Unibersidad Ng Pila-Pila... translated University of Queue Lines. I'm not gonna revisit that episode but we did get our English subjects after all! Sweet! 3 down and I can actually get another 3 more making that my full load of 18 units! Nice!
2:45pm - Back to Mass Comm and now to get the 3 film major subjects. Got them (fucking have to do Intro to Film again! I don't mind photog but Intro is just pure painful, likesay) By normal standards this progress is actually unbelievably lucky and fast. So it's off to the admin to validate the classes.
3:45pm - Less than 1 half hour til the window closes. I manage to squeeze my forms in before the turn of the hour. All I can do now is wait. As I waited in painful patience, I stole away from my new-found friend for a cig. She looks totally burned out. Most likely not used to the whole hectic urgency of the System being that she came from a uni that packaged everything for her upon registration.
4:50pm - 10 minutes left now. I'm down to 3 sticks left and my view of chiqui-chiquitas is slowly fading as the day draws to an end. One window is covered... not good. (Apparently while I was slowly burning my lungs, an announcement for the extension of the validating deadline was aired.. fuckin figures)
5:00pm - Somehow, I get my validated form! Woot!!! That's a fuckin dancer! Now I'm set for the sem. Nothing else to worry about except making sure I don't fuck up this time. My friend, oh, her name's Kathleen, Kat, looks worried but she gets her form a little later. Good times.

I don't expect you to be able to stomach the whole entry at one sitting and if you managed to I hope you weren't eating. But what I've described there is the typical day that EVERY UP student has to go through. It gets easier once the student starts on his major subjects, but like life, nothing's certain and things can change anytime. There's 2 parts to a wholistic education experience in UP, one is the General Education subjects and the other is the major subjects. The former basically deals with 3 different disciplines, namely Arts and Humanities, Maths, Science and Technology and Social Science and Philosophy. These 3 are not only to burden the student with more subjects so that the uni makes more money off them, (please, it was sarcastic), but it broadens and creates a critically and creatively knowledgable student who not only is specialised in his chosen discipline, but in other life-applicable disciplines as well. It seems like a boatful of unnecessary bollocks but I beg to differ. In any case, I'll be the guinea pig and you'll be the pessimistic customer who I need to convince.

Class has started already, and I've gotten around to almost all my classes ('cept for World Literature. Dunno where the lazy bastard is... hehe)

I just got a stack of readings to sit through and Bob Marley will get Jah to help me. :)

Peace!