Category Archives: buhaykolehiyo

The Complex

Posted on by
Reply

        Every year, me and my siblings would accompany my mom to the annual Children’s Christmas Party held inside the Department of Finance building. But for this year, the party was to be held, inside the ECDP building within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex, for the DOF building is undergoing renovation after a massive airconditioning breakdown took place earlier this year, forcing the DOF to move its offices to the nearby ECDP complex.

    Fortunately, I get to see the wonderful exteriors of the complex itself. It’s BSP’s exterior which fascinates me more than its rather blant and unsafe looking interiors of its buildings. The exterior found within BSP is creatively planned and landscaped in good taste. There’s pretty much a lot of greenery found inside the complex which, added to that the wide space provided by the wide distance of the buildings between each other inside, gives people a sense of ease and sanctity with matching wind effect.

       A little piece of history I found unearthed is the ruins of what was remained of an old colonial fort called Fort Abad. Little do I know about this piece of old structure but other than the similar colonial arhcitecture it shares with the well-known Fort Santiago, it somehow gave Manilenyos an idea of what Manila was back then, as the whole stretch of Roxas Boulevard used to be one stretch of a beach extending all the way to Pasay and Cavite.
 
           The buildings are well designed on the outside, very reminiscent of the Marcos-era architecture propagated by Former First Lady Imelda Marcos. One design that caught my fancy was the almost shoe-box like layout of each of the buildings, similar to the design followed by SM North EDSA and SM Megamall. The DOF building and one of the BSP complex building are connected via a bridge which also serves as a facade for people preferring to walk outside of the buildings.

    Also an ergonomic plus are the availabiltiy of facilities/walkways for the physically-disabled like those who ride on wheelchairs.

     But that leads me to the worst part about the complex, its interiors. The ECDP building is probably the best case to highlight a design gone wrong. If it looks good on the outside, it’s not much of an eyesore (because unlike the DFA Building, it has a lot of green space), the inside is.

1. It smells like someone from 30 years ago smoked like crazy just before airconditioning units became the ideal alternative for electric fans.

2. The already-dim lighst are in dire need to repairs

3. Ventilation is rather mediocre or just below it.

4. The elevators looks like one of those deadly quadrelateral  killing machines seen on the movie “Hyper Cube” for it looks, feels, and functions in a very unsafe way.

5. The corridors/hallways is a blah. If you were able to watch old 1980’s movies starring Dawn Zulueta and Sharon Cuneta where they were working in as office girls, you may have ntoice that their working area is made out of wood. It’s the same here, except that the wooden walls are in dire need of varnishing to make them at least look shiny.

6. There are few offices inside the ECDP building’s 8th floor that looks so decent, but looking at my mom’s temporary office (Fiscal Policy and Planning Office) there, it kind resembles my mom’s previous office way before she moved to her proper office found at the more-tolerable DOF building. The only redeeming factors would be the sleek looking Fuji PC’s and the cool-looking office tables.

7. Don’t even start me up on the bathrooms, the male restroom is poorly maintained, smelly and lacks basic restroom necessities like soaps and tissue-filled containers. The sinks are supposed to be used for washing hands not washing dishes for crying out loud! And one of the sink doesn’t work because the leftovers brought by the washed dishes had all bt cloged it up.

8. Back to the hallways, the dim lighting and the wooden walls remind me of a psycho-horror thriller where the victim is being chased  by a killer while running on an endless hallway with nowhere to go.

Unfortunately, I didn’t brought my camera with me that time but I do have pics of the exterior from last Friday. Enjoy!^

Coming up next: The Rolling of the Chairs

Share this post

Jaime and the REAL EDSA Adventure

Posted on by
4

This is the aftermath of “Alyssa’s Place @ Merville Subdivision, 90210”.

     From the side road near SLEX/South Superhighway/Skyway; Me, Sheena, Pax, and Angie took a cab and drove all the way to South EDSA where I was dropped off. I had my dSLR and my laptop left behind in Alyssa’s since it was late and I might get mugged by criminal elements.

        Anyway, from the south side of EDSA, I crossed the avenida by way of the overpass which is kinda difficult. I have this sort of fear of heights except that I’m afraid of wide open spaces whenever I’m in the middle of a bridge, fearing that I might fall. I could even feel my legs trembling! Hahaha!

    After successfully crossing the overpass, I waited patiently near a gas station to hitch a ride on an aircon bus en route to Caloocan. It was already late past 11 and i getting a bit cold. Fortunately, I was able to ride one and seated at the front row near the aisle.

      The bubs’s radio is set on 90.7 Love Radio where it was airing this not so-heart-to-heart program called “TLC: True Love Confessions”. Supposedly, the programs premise is for listener’s to share their love problems to the DJ and the DJ would give them love advice. Problem is, instead of giving listeners an advice about love, the DJ merely laughs AT the listener and his problems with matching laugh stingers in between!

 And I thought advice programs on radio aren’t supposed to be comedic in any way. Grrr….

         In order for me to at least drown my ears from further hearing the halakhak that was coming from the irritating DJ’s mouth, I had my headphones placed on my….head and turned on my I-Pod.

    As I listen to the first 14 songs from my playlist, the bus is moving along the 23.8 kilometer stretch of Epifanio delos Santos Avenue. I passed by Rockwell, Shaw, Robinson’s The Forum, Paragon Plaza, Reliance, Shangri-La, SM Megamall, Farmer’s Market, Gateway, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon Avenue, Trinoma, SM North EDSA, the ongoing construction of the LRT-MRT Loop, and finally MCU where I dropped myself off and walk across McArthur Highway. I bought some mineral water from Ministop Monumento since I was really thirsty. The supposedly “water” contained on a glass untouched during the party was in fact, Sprite.

       From there, I finally took a jeepney ride home, arriving at 12:30 in the am.

BTW, tumawag sina Pax para kamustahin ako habang nasa bus pa ako, at tinext nila ako nung nakauwi na ako’t matutulog na. Salamat at may mga kaibigan akong maasahan talaga! 😀

Share this post

Na-USTe Ako!: Kay Tagal Kitang Hinintay/Si Jeco Na-USTe!

Posted on by
15

After card distribution last Friday, I decided to accompany Jeco and Raymond in UST for the annual Paskuhan, a Christmas fair held every year in the Pontifical University. In the past weeks, us three had already agreed as to when we’re going to meet up in UST and this is one is a perfect time to do so.

                I left for UST at around 6pm and texted Raymond that I’m on his way. By the time I arrived at Dapitan before 6:30 (After meeting some groovy traffic along the way), I noticed that I’m running out of cellphone load so I went to a nearby loading station to reload, unfortunately, the lady there said they’re loadless, the same with Ministop Dapitan which, unfortunately, doesn’t sell cellphone load.  I don’t want to ask my mom again for additional load after I exhausted the reload I got from the day before.

             I texted Raymond that I’m already in the Dapitan gate so from there, I waited. Unfortunately, Monde didn’t reply to my succeeding text messages as I was waiting for almost half an hour. I decided to look for a loading station within the Thomasian ground, at their famous food strip by the carpark. I paid the reload lady Php 20.00, told her my number and simcard affiliation. Again, for some reason, I haven’t received any text afterwards and my existing load continues to deteriorate.

         The ground itself is jam-pack crowded with people that kept coming in, including outsiders like me. Not just outsiders but also missionaries asking for donations and little carolers trick-or-treating people nearby.

       I was about to give up until I saw at least, one Jamer in the area, Von. Von was with his girlfriend for almost three years. I asked if he had seen Jeco or even Raymond, and he did. But the bad news, it seems like nakakawalaan kami.  It was already past 8 and if the two aren’t able to show up before a quarter until 9, I have to leave.

               I was seating in bench at the quadrangle and I was facing the entrance of the Faculty of Civil Law. Seated with me was a girl with her boyfriend. Because I’m so desperate, I politely asked her if I could borrow her phone to text Raymond, urging her that it’s an emergency.  She lend me her cellphone and texted him right away. When that didn’t work, I went around  to look for them. Von saw me again and said that he just saw Jeco and Monde and pointed them where I  was just then. Coming back from where I was seating, looks like there’s n certainty if we’ll ever see each other so I looked for another person whom I could borrow a phone and, this time, call Raymond. Just as I was calling them, nagkita na kami, grabeh!

It was already past 9pm and I still haven’t eaten dinner. Just so we won’t spoil the night, we watched the ongoing concert at the UST soccer field where the last act for the evening was none other than BAMBOO!! Jeco and I brought along our dSLR’s and took pictures like crazy.

 

         The concert was over at around 10:30, people were starting to leave pero kumakalam ang aking tiyan. We went to McDonald’s within USTe and bought myself double-cheeseburger, a large cup of Coca Cola for myself and another for Jeco who gave me money for his royal thirstiness.

                Outside the Dapitan gate, we were fetched by Monde’s parents who were waiting for us, parked near an old Caltex/Chevron station. Monde’s parents drove past H. Lopez Avenue,  Radial 10 Road (near Letre) and dropped Jeco near the infamous SSS office (where there was a shootout that took place a couple of years ago). I was then dropped somewhere near the loading area of jeeps en route to Monumento in Concepcion, Malabon. I took a jeep ride until dropping myself off near Francis Market, Acacia and from there took a jeepney ride en route to Paco, Bulacan (instead of Polo, Valenzuela for there were none available at the meantime). I dropped off in Panghulo (still in Bulacan) and from there, walked to cross the border before arriving finally at my house past midnight!

 

Remember: There may be One La Salle, there’s also One BENILDE!

Share this post

The CSB Experience 2: Uncertainty (Term Ender Special)

Posted on by
7

It’s the Term Break once more, and not just any term break but my second collegiate Christmas break ever! HahaHAHAHA! Ehem….

          But nevertheless, it’s another break of uncertainty for me. Yeah, I got myself enrolled for the third term and all but the recent course card distribution had me wonder if it’s still possible for me to be in Dean’s Lister status for the second straight trimester. I got two 2.0’s from Desprin and NSTPCWT but was able to have my GPA equaled to a 3.0, just enough for me to get 2nd Honor status. But I thought, would the two 2.0’s possible make me not qualify for being DL.
  
            I just hope not, I worked very hard to maintain my grade just so I’d be able to at least become qualified for a grant (if I get to be DL for three straight terms that is). But if not, I guess that’s okay, kahit papaano ay nakaranas na rin ako kung paano maging DL.

Merry Christmas!

Share this post

The CSB Experience 2: The Grand Eyeball

Posted on by
Reply

         Yesterday, I organized an eyeball among my co-CSB PExers just so we could be able to meet one another in person (thus the word “Eyeball”). Unfortunately, not too many weren’t able to attend and it ended with three people attending the EB (myself included).

       Among those who attended is a 108 CDA student named Franz and a 105 BM dude named Mac. We all met at around 12 noon in Plaza Villarosa. When we did met, we were all speeches. never have we thought we couldn’t say anything in person now that we weren’t online.  Usually in PEx, we all have a lot to say, thus a lot of thing to type about. But then again, we introduced ourselves and we shared a little bit about ourselves to each other.

     Another awkward moment is the lack of girl PExers in the already three-some EB. There was one but she’s not the type who join into such hehehe.

    Franz had to leave early so I was left with Mac. Mac and I had a lot of things that we discussed, usually anything about CSB in general, the PExers from CSB, and Pinoy Exchange (our section in particular). We had lunch at Tropical Hut where we continued our discussion.

      Around 1 in the afternoon, I have to go back to SDA so I thanked Mac for attending the EB regardless how too few we were who attended and left him smoking outside the now-former Charlie Brown restaurant.

I hope the next time we are to have another EB, many more would come.

Share this post

The CSB Experience 2: The Korean-Born Koreans from Korea

Posted on by
Reply

Weeghh, this is so late a post. Just hoping I’d still remeber what I have to say bwehehehe!

1. 3rd Term-Petwoda Madness

         I have, for the first time, three foreigners as classmates (not counting those who may look foreign but somehow act more Filipino than they may seem). They’re from Korea and unfortunately, I could only remember one of their names, Yu-Jin, the girl with glasses and the slimmer, smaller of the two girls (compared to her larger friend). There’s another Korean girl but she’s more reserved than the other two. I got along with despite the language barrier and we were all able to ace Petwoda, because we were doing nothing but table tennis, YEY!

2. 1st Term 08-09 -Philien C-Break

      Jake Kim is an AB-AM student and was included in our group throughout the duration of Philien. He’s really shy and not that close with the other Korean classmate who evetually dropped out from the class. He knows his limitations as far as communication is concerned but he’s really willing to do his part in order to contribute greatly to our group project. The result? C-Break!

3. 1st Term-Outrageous Petwoda Divas

      So far, this set of Korean classmates are the most hilarious. There’s three Koreans in our dance class, 2 girls and a guy named Tom. The one of the 2 girls lost their dancing partners to somebody else during finals. Then it was decided that I’ll be pairing with one of the Koreans and was included with Ron’s group (him and the other girl). What really made my day was seeing Ron’s partner’s dress. I was definitely speechless! Think of this movie starring Drew Barrymore where she relived this certain scene in lher ife when she was turned down by her promdate.

Meanwhile, the guy named Tom was also in our group and his partner was the FDM girl with the weird laugh. He became my partner during midterms when were supposed to do this dance steps nonstop. I got confused because he got confused and the dance was a disaster.

Do you believe in me! I’m yours, you’re mine


4. 1st Term 08-09- Hartds Hyun Ho!

          Hyun Ho Lee’s my seatmate next to Trish and Genesis and was also one of my reporters which he covered topics under Gothic Architecture. I think he’s an MMA student. I was really flattered when he commented on the hard work I put for our group presentation, saying that I really put my all in this. He also complimented me knowing a lot of things (Wow!).

Share this post

J Pics D40 Pics: May Umu-USTe Sa’kin nung Linggo

Posted on by
12

JM: Sinungaling ka talaga! Hahaha!:))

Raymond: Narinig kita, lumngon pa ako pero hindi kita mamukhaan kasi nagmamadali pa akong dalhin iyung kapatid ko sa UST High School sa may Benavidez Bldg niyo. Bumalik naman ako para tignan kung nandun ka pa rin, wala ka na. Nagstay ako ng ilang sandali sa lugar na iyon bago umalis.
—–

Pictures I took during the latest set of entrance examinations took place in he University of Sto. Tomas last Sunday, December 7. Jorge took his wherein he’s applying for a BS-IT course (sa CSB, he’ll apply for BS-Information System). I left for a while around 7:30 and came back at 10:30 to bring with me my D40 since it’s going to be ashame not being able to take pictures of this almost replica of a European-style oasis right inside the heart of Manila.

Share this post