End of Semester

Time flies so fast. I feel like it was just yesterday when I got my high school diploma. And now, the first semester is ending. Classes are over. Only final examinations and requirements are left before the semester finally ends.

Before I entered college, I was really nervous of what will happen to me especially that the school I was about to enter is very prestigious and it will be the first time that I will be away from my parents. I have never thought I can say this but I can say that somehow I successfully did the first of my (hopefully) eight semesters in college. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. Honestly, I am proud of myself that I have experienced many things in just five months. From academics to solo experiences, everything was memorable. Obviously, by the time I'm home, I will be telling so many stories and I will be asked so many questions.

If you are with me now, you will really feel that I am very excited to go home. I am ready to forget the daily things I do here and to do the normal things I do at home that I used to do before I went here. I am very eager to eat the delicious home-cooked food - may it be vegetables, meat or seafood. Also, I want to fill my stomach with all those sweet and juicy fruits that I normally eat before. I really think I will gain weight when I return here. I am thrilled to see my family, friends and old classmates. I am pretty sure that I will be mostly out of our house to meet them. Even I am not home yet, I already have many invites from my friends. That's the edge of having many friends.

It's not that I don't like it here but there is really no place like home. Of course, for sixteen years, I lived at the same place so it's normal for me to miss it. Even everything I need is here, I will still remember my memories there that will make me visit it or even let me stay there. Same is true for most of my dorm mates here. Most of them even goes home weekly and for others like me who came from far places are also excited to go home. There are even some who will go home earlier than me. I believe that this feeling will be felt by anyone who will be away from their hometown.

Being away from your family and friends is hard. But I think, this is a way to know within yourself who you think is closer to your heart. For almost five months that I am gone, I realized that the one I miss the most is my family. As a teen, I am really close with my family, opposite with most teens. I miss the time that we eat, go to church, watch television, stay up late night or just talk together. I am excited to cope with them. Also, some of the people that I miss are my close relatives, close friends and my former classmates in high school. Being away sometimes is a good thing. 

I will surely miss this semester. Because of the many things I experienced, this will be very long if I mention them. At least this proves that I made the right decision of studying here. Since I enjoyed my first semester, I am looking forward to a meaningful second semester.

Hell Week

As the end of the semester is approaching, different requirements and exams are bombarded to students. For students with "understanding" teachers, it is not a problem. But for others, especially for us UP students, it is very stressful.

In the culture of the UP students, there is something called the Hell Week. Hell Week is the our term for the final examination week. But as what I observed, I think it is not. It is rather a term for a week full of exams and deadlines of different requirements. During these times, most of the students don't have enough sleep or worse do not sleep at all. Usually, because their brains are full of terms and formulas, the students are "out of their minds" or "sabaw" as they coined it. Also, most of them are "high" due to the caffeine and all other food they ate or drank just to keep them awake.

For me, my Hell Week is this week since I have 4 examinations and there is also a fifty percent chance that my papers will be submitted this week. It is a very crucial week because of the fact that two of my examinations are final exams; one is a long exam in which I only have few notes and the PowerPoint Presentation are not yet uploaded; and the other one is the fifth long exam in Math. Even if my hell week is not really bad compared with the other students, I still think that I must mange my time well and try not to lack sleep. But, despite the pressure, I am still thankful that I will take one exam per day so there is no day that I have double or multiple exams. That will be more stressful.

At least with that kind of schedule, I am able to give equal time in every subject I need to study. I can also work with my other requirements that are due next week. Moreover, I can focus more on the other final examinations that are scheduled during the final examination days. With all of the advantages I mentioned, I can say that I am very lucky. It is because I am adjusting to college life and it will be very difficult if a very stressful finals week will go along with it.

If you noticed, I did not write anything about last week. It is maybe since I cannot think of something good to write about or I just simply don’t feel writing about the events last week. There are times that I believe that nothing really significant happened for the whole week.

I know that the things I experienced or will experience in college so far like the Hell Week are still few compared to others. But at least these little experiences, either good or bad, will somehow affect me. I cannot imagine how I will react when I went through many things especially those negative. Maybe I will be greatly affected emotionally. On the other hand, however, I know that I can still handle it.

I really hope that I will survive my first Hell Week successfully.

Tickets

Yesterday, I watched the most awaited event of the UP students – the 2012 UAAP Cheerdance Competition.

Months before the UAAP (University Athletic Association of the Philippines) Season 75 started, I am already planning to watch the CDC. I have two reasons, first, I wanted to watch the UP Pep Squad live and second, I wanted to watch and support one of my best friends who is a cheer dancer of the Adamson Cheering Squad. And because of her, I got to know when and where the CDC will happen. So, I already planned the things I need to accomplish before watching it.

As the event came nearer, I constantly searched in the internet for ticket prices and authorized sellers. I also tried to ask my friend if the tickets were on sale already since I haven’t heard anything about the tickets here. I just can’t miss it. Then, by the time I knew the schedule for the selling of tickets, I immediately asked some of my friends if they are going to watch. To be honest, I am not really familiar with the College of Human Kinetics since I am only taking PE 1 and our class is held at the Vanguard Building. So in that way, I will have company in going to the CHK Gym. According to the information online, participating schools will start selling last Monday. So, my friends and I decided to go there in the morning. When we reached there, we were disappointed to know that the tickets were not yet on sale. But, thanks to it, I became aware of how determined UP students are just to have a ticket.

With the very small chance of getting a ticket, I immediately contacted my friend. Luckily, she had two tickets. These tickets were supposedly reserved for her family. But since her family is in our hometown and her nearest relatives in Cavite cannot watch, she decided to sell those to me. Of course, I right away decided to reserve it for me. Why not? Even if I will sit together with the Adamson fans, I don’t have to get up early in the morning just to queue in the CHK Gym for the tickets. Then she agreed to come here last Thursday to give me the tickets. Unfortunately, that day, they had to show their performance to their school officials so she couldn’t come here. Instead, I chose to go to her the next day.  I, together with my cousin, went to her just for the tickets. It was really unplanned. Fortunately, I only had one class that day. I was able to go there early.

Before really deciding to go there, I thought of not watching it since it will be hassle for her to give me the tickets or for me to get the tickets. But my mind changed. While we were texting, she really insisted that I must watch. She said, “Ikaw na nga lang ang family ko dito, di ka pa manonood.” I really pity her when she said that. Ever since she had dancing competition, there is always one family member or friend who watches her. As one of her best friends, I cannot ignore her. I really need to support her.

With what happened, I learned that true friends will always stay together no matter what consequences they will encounter. And you will really know who your true friends are. They are those who will never leave you.

P.S.

I really enjoyed watching the CDC despite the fact that I was seated together with the Adamson fans, only saw the back of the performers and my heart was hurt because of the unending drum plays. I am looking forward watching it again next year. 

Sleep, Sleep and Sleep

If you have been reading my blog for a while now, you might read about a post where I mentioned that I was very sleepy for the whole week. I remembered that because last week I was not sleepy but I just want to sleep.

It all started last Monday. I woke up early because I knew I have many things to accomplish. So after I took my breakfast, I immediately started to work. I did it for almost three hours. By the time I finished it, I decided to take a nap before taking a bath. I am used to do it especially when I feel that my eyes are tired. So, I set the alarm and napped. When the alarm rang, I looked at the time and decided to continue to nap for a few more minutes. But this time, I didn't pushed the snooze button. I was confident to wake up after that few minutes. As I woke up, I realized that I did not have a nap, I had a sleep. So, I straightaway took a bath and chose to eat my lunch first before doing my other agendas for the day. But that's not all. After knowing that I cannot do the my other tasks, I again took a sleep. I don't know why I want to sleep that day. I was not even sleepy. And even I had more sleeping time than usual, I still did not have problems sleeping in the evening.

For the past week, we did not have classes in English because of the consultation for our position paper. Since it was my last class and it was in the afternoon, I was happy because I don't need to go out of the dormitory. So after I took my lunch and rested for a while, I again slept even I am not sleepy. I think this tendency of mine to sleep even not sleepy is because I am used to sleep in the afternoon every time I don't have classes or I don't have activities. 

Since I was little, my father really want me and my brother to sleep in the afternoon. When I reached the age that most children are starting to be awake in the afternoon, I know that I did not belong to them. It is because my brother was still young so he needs those rests and he refuses to sleep if I will not sleep. So, I became used to it. Even when I reached high school that my father was not anymore strict in sleeping and my brother doesn't have the afternoon sleeps, I still continued the habit. I feel that every time my mind knows that it is afternoon and I have nothing to do, it tells me to sleep. I chose to follow it since I know that if I won't, I will feel tired.

I know that it is very unusual for teenagers like me to spend my afternoon sleeping. I don't care if anyone tells me that I am wasting my time. At least when the time comes that I need energy, I know that I always have it.

Exams

Do you know the feeling of studying very hard for an exam but when you were taking it, you realized that the things you studied was not related to the questions or simply was not enough? I really felt that over the past week during my Math 17 and Lingg 1 exams. I never thought that I will be very stressed after taking those exams.

My first exam of the week was the third long exam in Math. Since I realized that I must somehow get a score higher than my previous exam, I devoted my weekend studying for it. I almost answered every exercise in the module. After answering most of it correctly, I was a little bit confident because I really felt that I understood the lessons. Then, I just consulted some of my friends for the things that I did not understood. When the examination day came, I was shocked that the questions given where not given as examples before. Most of them were complicated that you will never thought the answers were very simple. You must study each item to be sure that you were doing the right thing.

That exam is very crucial to the subject because that will tell you if you must drop-out or stay. Dropping the subject will at least give you the opportunity not to get a grade of 5. Also, it is a chance to get higher grades when you take it the next time. As of now, I still don't know my class standing. I will still contact my teacher about it. Even I will got low scores in the past exams, I still think that I can pass the third exam and pursue the subject. Besides, I don't want to take Math 17 twice. That will be very depressing.

Two days after, I took my first long exam in Linguistics. In this exam, my classmates and I had no idea of what will happen since we never had a quiz and that was our first exam. So we asked our teacher how difficult it was and she said that it will be easy. Also, she said that there will be no problem solving. (Yes, there is problem solving in Lingg.) All we need was to study the readings she gave. So we studied it. We memorized terms and tried to understand them since we really didn't have the idea of what will happen. Before the exam started, we discussed some terms and others were cramming to study. Then we took the exam. We really did not expect what she gave. The items were give the definition, comment and essays. It was slightly difficult because most of the things she asked were not in the readings. She got it from the things she discussed verbally. At least I know that I answered it the best that I can.

These two exams really made me stressed that I want to end the week immediately. I really think that after all of these, I will rest and just enjoy my day even for just a day. You really never know what will happen. Just like examinations, you feel that you already have studied well. But when it came, you realized that it was not enough. It is better to be prepared at all times.

Bothered

My past week was very stressful. And for the whole week, I was really bothered. The two reasons were I became very sleepy during classes for the whole week which, believe me, my first time and my org interview last Saturday.

Last Tuesday, I was a little bit excited because during my first class which is P.E., we will exercise. Excited since I really want to lose weight because, this is surprising but true, I am overweight. It may seem untrue but the last time I had my body mass index checked, I was over by two points. So then, I dressed myself with exercise clothes and went to the University Theater which was our meet-up place. Even though I came on time, our student teacher was not yet around. My classmates and I thought that he just woke up late because he normally goes to class ten minutes early. So we waited for him. Then one of my classmates realized that twenty minutes had passed so that means it was a free cut. Immediately, four of my classmates decided to leave. It was because there was a time that he went to class thirty minutes late but we still waited for him and by the time he arrived he said that it was not a free cut. With what happened, we learned that when it is already a free cut, we must directly go or else we will have a class. When we met him the next meeting, he told us that the reason he was late was he thought that our class will start at nine. I realized that our decision was right otherwise we waited there for nothing.

Then, disappointed, I went back to the dorm and changed. After which, I went to the Math Building for my Math 17 class. At first, I was attentive but as the class went on, I felt very sleepy. So sleepy that I saw everything around me doubled. I thought I was going to faint. Then, I just realized that the class was over. I experienced that for the whole week except my subjects before my lunch break. I really didn't know what was happening to me. It was my first time to experience that. Very worried, I right away consulted my mother about it. She said that maybe I was still tired from our Geog Camp or because I forgot to drink my vitamins for almost a week. Fortunately, tambay in the org was not allowed that week because of the interviews. Therefore, by the time I reached my room, I directly took a nap. I thought that it might somehow lessen my sleepiness. But having almost eight hours of sleep and vitamins, I still got sleepy. As a result, I decided to seek professional help when it will still continue this week. As I observed, it was slowly gone. Maybe my mother was right. At least now, I am not worried that I will be sleepy during my classes.

As I said earlier, I had my interview for UP PsychSoc last Saturday. According to the members, this is the most difficult part of the application process. We need to study everything because we don't know what will happen. But since I was bothered by my sleepiness, I was not focused in studying. The only time that I can say that I seriously studied was the night before and the morning of that day. Well, I cannot blame myself for what will happen. My brain really cannot hold more information. And besides, I was very nervous that I might forget what I studied. Another thing that added to my nervousness was I started very late. My original schedule was two in the afternoon but I started at three because one applicant had a very long interview. Even feeling bad that I didn't answered some questions, I still got a high score according to my panel. I was very relieved after that. I really felt that I must immediately rest after that very stressful day.

After everything that happened last week, I felt very comforted. I was very happy that I almost forgot that I have two exams this week. Well, I guess that's life, I will start a new challenge every time I finished one.

Geog Camp

If you noticed, this entry for last week is late. I usually post them during the weekends. The reason behind it was we had a camp for my Geog 1 class for the whole weekend.

It was my first time to go to a place farther than Manila. My family and I just go to different parts of Visayas and Mindanao for vacations and outings. We have never reached places beyond Metro Manila and San Jose del Monte, Bulacan. So I was very excited despite the fact that my family is not with me. I really tried to be awake for the whole trip going there to observe the places we will pass. Fortunately, I was wide-awake. Before, I just sleep during travels since I easily felt dizzy especially when passing zigzag roads. But as I grew up, this feeling slowly vanished.

I don't intend to offend but honestly the roads, except highways, going there are small just like most roads in Visayas. Most of the two-lane roads looked liked one lane in Mindanao. I really think that this is because of the substandard construction due to the low budget of the government. I have said this since the Americans and the Koreans constructed most of the roads in Mindanao. This is really one of the things I want to observe during travels.

I was shocked of how far the camp location from the highway. It is part of a community but the community is small and very rural. There are no stores around. The phone signal is very rare. Good thing, our teacher already informed us about it so I didn't bother to bring my laptop with me. The place was so secluded that we were motivated to do the activities.

By the time we reached there, we were only given a time to fix our bags and take a lunch. After that, the activities immediately began. Knowing that we have many athletic classmates, we were very confident in physical activities. We were right. We almost won every activity that needs manpower. But when we had the activity that required vast knowledge in geography, we were losers. We did not expect how intelligent the other teams are. We got the last place in all those games. We really felt disappointed.

Despite having the feeling of losing, we still tried to do our best in the class presentation. For the first time, I really felt that we are united. This is because before the camp, we almost don't know the names of each other. I feel that every time I attend our class, my group mates and some course mates are the only people who know that I am in the class. Even landing on the second place, since the two other teams tied, at least we got the first place in the class presentation. It was a very good opportunity to know our classmates more.

In this camp, I experienced many firsts - like I said earlier, going to Northern Luzon; riding an ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle); watching a paintball fight; playing airsoft; doing and obstacle course; and many more. I really did not expect that I will achieve (yes, achieve) all of these this early. But I think it was better when I am with my family.

This really proves that having bonding moments will be a way for acquaintances to be friends. This will give them memories that they will remember. This is a chance for people to know more about the people around them. This will encourage unity that they never thought possible. This is a way to just enjoy the company of others.

I really love this kind of activity. It helps me to explore the country . It is a chance to discover things that I can suggest to anyone. I do hope that I will experience more activities like this.