Dream a Little Dream (less weird)

Despite the fact that I have four blogs, I couldn't find a place to put this in. The Weird Bunch blog just recently published the Alice Part II episode and I didn't want to overpower or mask that post with this one. My Theory of Life blog has nothing to do with dreams, and the Story of My Life blog is private (although it addresses readers) and since this dream was related to college, I thought, why not here?

At the risk of masking last night's post about Childhood, here is the weird dream I had:

The first thing you need to know is that, in this dream, I am extremely sick. I had the whole respiratory congestion going on, and I remember I looked in the mirror and saw that the bottom lining of my eyeballs were blood-red and my cheeks and throat had swollen up so bad that I looked like Monica in the fat suit.

Another thing you should know is that I was in college already, obviously, and that I was living in a place I shared with--here's the weird and random part--my TLC from MEA's Prep Course, Bea. Well, anyway, I remember being really sick that I was asleep for most of the day.

The reason I said "place I shared" is because we seemed to be living in a house because after one particularly long sleep, I awoke in my bed, which was near a window, and pulled aside the curtain to look outside and see the dark outline of Bea ringing the doorbell (as though she had forgotten her keys). I only saw the blurry and dark outline because my eyes were also swollen shut.

Somehow I let her in with a push of a button and went back to sleep. When I woke up, I looked in the mirror (that's when I found my face all messed up) and was devastated. I then went outside my room and saw that the whole place was cleaned up. I had no basis on what it looked like before, but it was obviously cleaned up. In the dream, it was assumed that Bea had done it, which is very nice of dream-version Bea, so thank you, dream-version Bea. She had also resupplied stuff like milk and some biscuits (like my Mom does... that's weird).

But when I had gone out, she was gone. I guessed she went to school already. There were some transitions... I went on Facebook... and then BAM, I realized I was late for my Math LT! I thought it was a Thursday and it was already 12:45 PM. I realize now that my Math during Thursdays is scheduled at 10:00, but in my dream it was at 1:00, I think. I could have made it by immediately going down (this contradicts the earlier moment when I thought I was in a house) and taking a trike straight to school, but then I'd have skipped a shower and not to mention, I'd have gone to school with a freakish face.

Then I realized I could have gotten the dates wrong, and that it was only Wednesday. So I checked on my computer and indeed, it was only Wednesday. It was the first day back to school. I realized I had cut Biotech that morning and was in the process of missing Math class. Math class during Wednesdays are at 12:30. I then panicked a bit because the lesson that day might've been crucial to the LT the next day, but there was no helping it; I had missed Math class and that was it.

So I decided to get ready and attend EngLit. At least I wouldn't have cut the whole day. So after I took a refreshing shower, I looked in the mirror again and saw that my face size had reduced significantly, but my eyes were still bloody.

I got to school and felt sick as ever and I found myself lying on a sofa in a dark room with full-length windows (Imagine the Rizal Library Information Commons without all the computers and with the lights off at sunset). Sir Roy had us doing a singing contest (like in Glee) and there were three groups.

I was exempted because I was in Marching Band, yes, we had gone back to being in HS, but I chose to help one group (which I did back in the Rock Band project for Music class back in HS) of my friends. I don't remember who was in the group in the dream because it was very blurry.

Anyway, I was so tired and my head felt so heavy that I ended up falling asleep while they performed but subconsciously listening to the three groups' singing. In my head I knew that our group (who sang 2nd) was the best; they sang an energetic, bubbly, happy song while the guys (who came before them) sang an emo song, I think, and the girls who came after them sang one of those dramatically long Celine Dion-esque songs.

I knew I was going to be the one to decide who wins, because I was exempted (I don't know why). Also, I knew that my group was thinking I wouldn't choose them because of what happend last time (fictionally, in the dream). Apparently, last time there was a competition like this, I chose the other team to win because they were better. But this time, in my heart, I knew that my group was the best.

I never got to announce the winner because the scene changed again and I found myself in front of a mirror in a make-up room (think behind the scenes) and my dad had called and asked why there was a girl living in my house/flat, and I told him we were dorming together since the beginning, but she usually went to sleepovers and stuff that he had never noticed her actually being there. My dad also noted that she had resupplied the fridge and stuff and I said yes.

Obviously he wanted me to do something nice for her, too, so I said I'd buy her some dinner to-go. I think I bought Yellow Cab because it came in a nice brown paper bag and I put a sticky note with 'Thank you' written on it and left it on the dining table. I remember I did this for my brother (without the note) on the night before he flipped out on me because he thought I changed his password.

I think that was where the dream ended. The weirdest thing was that it was Bea, the second was that I had thought I missed the Long Test, and the third was that I was sick when it could have just been a really big allergy attack.

Childhood... and other thoughts on bird-shooting, young love, and manipulating fruits.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about childhood memories. Obviously 9GAG has been a great influence. They have this thing called the "90's kids" which I am technically not, because I was born in '94 and so I'd missed more than half of the 90's altogether.

But never mind that. Whether or not you are a 90's kid, you still have childhood memories. Heck, my dad's childhood memories are those of shooting birds outside and playing with wild animals (he is that old). My childhood memories consist mainly of cartoons, video games, and habits (as observed by 9GAGGERS worldwide).

Recently I've delved into a particular childhood memory: Digimon. Well, to be fair, only Digimon Tamers, the 3rd series/season. I wasn't old enough to reach (funny how backwards that is, eh? How could I have 'reached' it, go back in time?) the first two seasons which, judging by YouTube comments and my brother--and the fact that I haven't seen them, were the best.

Just listening to the opening and ending theme song was enough. It's that feeling... that feeling of clarity, and, oddly, cleanliness (or perhaps purity) I get when I reminisce. I feel like a kid again and I don't really know why. Maybe it because the weight of the world is lifted off your shoulders and for one fleeting moment, you haven't a care in the world about anything.

So then it got me thinking about the other posts in 9GAG, about how the children are today with their Facebook accounts, their iPods, make-up, and way-too-young-to-have relationships and their knowledge of profane language (these may be just Americans, but I don't know). If I ever get a chance to stand in front of an audience filled with these kids, I'd tell them to cherish their childhood days, REGARDLESS of whether it's unlike the 90's kids' or mine. Just as long as they don't stress themselves out because of it.

Different generations have different childhoods. As I mentioned earlier, my dad's had him hunting birds and coming home from school to make his own snacks out of stuff he picked in the wilderness (jeez, how old is he?). I remember him telling me one day that he was proud to be one of the only families in his village (village? Is that right?) with a TV. In my generation, every family has a TV. If you don't, you're either poor or your parents wanted you to study like hell and probably received news from newspapers and stuff.

So back to my point: cherish your childhood and don't try to rush into growing up because I gotta say, and many experts will agree with me on this, sometimes (but almost always) growing up sucks. As usual, "no pain, no gain." I really don't know if it's true that kids can't wait to grow up, but if they do, that's really something you should think about.

The greatest thing about being a kid is simply that you had no worries.

When I was a kid, I had weird worries. But who knows, maybe someone on 9GAG had the same worries as I had. I worried about school a lot. Not my grades (pfft) but about how people thought of me, especially my teachers. If I had said or done something that day, I would stay up at night thinking about how a other people would see it through their own eyes. Like if I had said something out of line (which wasn't unusual despite the fact that I was an extremely shy kid) I would worry about whether my teachers' opinions of me would change, whether they would see me as a rebellious kid or whether they would see me as 'outspoken' (it has happened, people).

I also did a regular check-up on my dad by asking myself "what do I have to worry about?" And the answers usually ranged from 'are Paolo and I still friends tomorrow' to 'how will I get out of doing my Filipino homework tomorrow.' Yes, I once lied to my teacher and told her that I had left my workbook in school, which was why I was "unable" to do my homework--I AM SO SORRY, MRS. DIMLA BUT REST ASSURED IT WAS ONLY THAT ONE TIME. And to prove my remorse, I still think about that day seven years ago.

Anyway... the worries I have now? Well, I am still a college student but the worries are now ALL about school work. 'Will I pass the long test?', 'what if my topic isn't approved?', 'I can't think of anything to write!', 'I'm not good at writing in Filipino, how the hell am I supposed to publish two essays?'

I am quite thankful I don't go through normal adolescent problems concerning relationships and what I believe to be "bland and untrue" love. I consider myself very naive on that topic. BUT I don't ditch the idea of finding love at a young age, so don't misunderstand me. My eldest brother actually met his wife back in high school. He went to college in ADMU while she stayed in Pampanga and studied in HAU but they stayed together for years. And now I have a nephew whom I bought a P3,000 motorcycle for.

I'm straying off topic...

Main point--again: Don't be in a hurry to grow up because you'll find out soon enough that you WILL be missing the days when everything was just soooo easy. BUT you can hurry growing up in terms of, like, being more responsible, learning to pay the bills and stuff... I'm contradicting myself a lot so I never really get to lay a solid point.

But life's like that isn't it? As I've told my best friend once, you can't really say what's going to happen five, ten years from now. Life's what you make it (I just realized that line is in Hannah Montana's song) and whatever it throws at you (like lemons), it's up to you to figure out whether it's a blessing (lemonade) or you know... bad luck that can turn into something great (turned out to be an oblong grapefruit so you made an apple pie).

*clap* *clap* *clap* what a great philosophical ending.

The 21st of December of the year 2011

Hello again. At the moment I am enjoying my Christmas break by playing video games and getting on my mom's nerves for having a rather untidy bedroom and a closet that looks like a secret agent had recently been rummaging around, looking for something hidden deep inside.

I recently purchased a book written by one of the Math professors of Ateneo, Dr. Queena Lee-Chua. It was written (and published) long before she was married, I think, back when she was just Queena Lee. The book is entitled Eureka! and it is a compilation of various articles, researches, fan mail, etc. from her column at the Sunday Inquirer.

I purchased the book mainly because it dealt with matters regarding, what else, Math. I fancy myself a Math enthusiast, however, I do not possess the vast knowledge of numerous Mathematical ideas, nor do I have the capacity to. Frankly, with all things considered, I am a very, very, slightly-above-but-only-slightly-that-it's-negligible average Math ... student? Er...

I can only pride myself with the title of slightly-above-but-only--you get it-average Math student simply because of the fact that I got into Management Engineering so... yaay for that. But, like I said, all things considered I am just average. I don't know exactly WHY I'm telling you this, nonexistent reader, but I have an inkling it is related to the reason I bought Eureka.

And indeed it is. I bought it because I had read in the Table of Contents that the last bit was about some helpful hints and tips on how to survive the Math that I am currently undergoing. I thought it would at least be helpful. BUT this book was published, I'm guessing, in the mid to late 90's and so... yeah, there might be a lot of outdated things in there...

For example, Dr. Queena Lee-Chua's research on whether the Chinese are better suited for Math than Filipinos (or the rest of the world for that matter) or whether boys are better than girls at Math, etc. I find those articles very interesting and have come to the realization that I had it half-and-half.

The book talks a lot about "math phobia" and how students' (and parents') predispositions towards the subject may be a cause of problems in the subject itself. Looking at my educational career, I see that I have always been told by my father that I was good at Math (because I was, at least, I was good at O.B.'s Math) while my mother rarely talked about my proficiency in any subject unless it was "cards out" season. Therefore, I have no reason to have this "math phobia" because my parents never really gave me a reason to fear Math. And to be honest, the Math in OB was as easy as breathing (I may be exaggerating but that is how I see it now that I have experienced Ateneo's Math). THERE. I said it, and in saying it I have found the reason why I am only average in Math.

It is because of O.B.! Yes, let the wave of bitter rage begin! The reason I feel like shmuck in Ateneo is because I was not given enough in my high school. Our Math, though slightly more advanced that Ateneo's in terms of the vastness of its curriculum, was very simple, very straightforward, much unlike Ateneo's wherein you must THINK, and think HARD, for the solution to the problem. Also, O.B. does not offer much options. Not that I am in favor of this kind of education but O.B. doesn't have any advanced classes or anything so if you're good, you're kinda stuck in the same section as those who aren't (I totally meant no offense in that) so you don't have the chance to broaden your horizons because it would be unfair to those who cannot.

I know, I know, there are things that I could have done myself, like read up on more textbooks and stuff, but seriously, I was a high school student and I BARELY studied on Exam days, much less on regular days. Do you really think I'd go out of my way to buy a Math textbook and learn stuff? Hellz no.

But now that I am in high school and well aware of the situation I am in, I am kinda in the mood to broaden my horizons NOW. I want to learn more, I want to know about cool Math tricks like how to win at chess using Math, stuff like that. I find pleasure in the THOUGHT of doing these things, especially in laying on my bed answering exercises, but that's just it. I only THINK about it, and never actually DO it.

I am a painfully lazy person and I am not kidding. When they told me you couldn't be lazy in college and that you had to study for Math 18 a/b and Math 21, I thought

and I did! I may have started the school year answering exercises over and over, reviewing and reviewing, but towards the end I sort of gave up. And now I'm back to studying only before the test.

I am no psychologist or sociologist or anything, but I still blame these bad study habits on O.B. haha. They made it REALLY easy to get high grades. And so I never really tried. So, anyway, that's my ramble on O.B.'s system.

Oh, and you might be thinking, hey, this girl doesn't study, she should be flunking out of college, eh? Well fortunately I am NOT failing YET. As you might remember, I got a barely-passing C with Dr. Garces AND (I am actually more proud of this than I am of the grade) I passed by him in the corridor once and HE said "hi" first. I am glowing with happiness, seriously. I was planning to, of course, but he was talking to a student so I wanted to be polite and not bother him, but he saw me coming and gave me recognition. I got a C, but he is still very awesome about it.

P.S. I also got a B on my first LT in Math 21. Not exactly groundbreaking but hey, I'm doing all right.

So I don't really know what this post is about. I guess I just needed to tell someone about how I felt about Math on this day, the 21st of December of the year 2011. Hang on... in a year, wouldn't the world end on this exact date? Hahaha. Anyway. It would also be fun to look back at this when that time comes. And if ever I do... couple of things I want myself to know about how I spent the day one year before the supposed end of the world.

1. I woke up at around half past seven because my eldest brother came over to pick up Blake who slept over last night. He was still wearing his long-sleeved, soft, jammies.

2. I cleaned my bedroom and closet. Yes, the ones mentioned above.

3. I played Bleach: Soul Ignition and leveled up a lot of characters in order to unlock most of the level-up grid pathway things.

4. I watched How I Met Your Mother season 5 and 6.

5. I went on Omegle and chatted with a racist party company driver. We talked about his work for a couple of minutes and then when he asked where I was, I told him 'the Philippines' and he disconnected without another word. I don't know if he was being racist or not, but let's say he was.

6. It is the first time since I had returned home that I used the desktop and will continue the Alice episode.

7. I also read Bleach manga.

Thank you and good day.

That Awesome Moment When You Play with Toys Again

Especially boy's toys. It's a dark and stormy night here in Katipunan, my dear non-existent reader. And on this dark and stormy night, alone in my flat (apartment to you) I had done something I hadn't done since a few months ago: I played with toys.

I was just getting ready to pack up the props needed for tomorrow's play when suddenly, I realized that the bag we were using for the luggage scene was a highly conspicuous black bag. I looked around at my other props, and saw the gun and a wad of cash.

My mind's face went like this--

And then I began stuffing my bag with the money--

--the walkie-talkie--

--some handcuffs--

--the blueprint of the evil Plan--

(which zoomed in, looks like this)

--some highly poisonous suction stick-things--

--and lastly... the murder weapon.

All placed in this very suspicious black bag.

I carried that bag around my flat, thinking I was Angelina Jolie, a member of Ocean's team, getting ready to hatch the next Italian Job, with only a speaker phone to instruct me on my next mission.

So the next logical thing to do would take out the gun and the poisonous suction bullets and do some target practice with this guy:

Who I named Randy for the fat outer-portion shots , Nonna for the middle portion with the crotch shot, Esteban for the head shot, and Limbo for the 50-point gut-busting shot.

Obviously aiming for the gut-shot.

I made a video of the shot, but you'd probably just get bored with it so I decided against uploading it.

Good night!

May Katwiran ang Katwiran Practice

Today was the second to the last practice for our Filipino play. I know I've been saying the past few days that this sucks, it's a pain in the ass, and that it is because of this I wasn't able to go home for the second consecutive weekend, but I am sure I'll someday miss this.

So what better way to start missing it than to read about it in my College Blog, eh? So for the purpose of reminiscing some three or four years from now, this post and the following posts will all be regarding our Fil play practice.

First off, I would like to show you my effing awesome helicopter:

Suitable for one (1) human being.

Yes, we made that out of just one (1) Balikbayan Box. It may not look like a helicopter now (probably because the other propeller segment magically camouflaged itself with the tiled floor), but just wait and see 'til we add THIS to the combination!

Yes! You might be wondering what is a military helmet thing doing here? How is it related to a heli... hmmm. Actually, they are a lot more related than if I were holding a tiny watermelon that I pierced...

Well, anyway. After HOURS (about 20 minutes) of screwing this helmet (haha) with my brother's (it was broken when I saw it) compass, I managed to puncture a hole--

(I can see through the hole)

--enough to fit a split pin in it so that I can have THIS:

placed on top of the helmet to create THIS:

And so the propellers could actually spin. I've always wanted to do this! I hope the expectations meet up with reality, though. I finished this about an hour ago, and I could've gone down to buy the split pin but I was too lazy.

Speaking of lazy, it sucks that I have all this free time--I already memorized the opening song for the play and done the awesome job of puncturing a hole in the helmet, I have also created a spreadsheet on Google docs with a list of props and their respective prices (if applicable) so that in the end we would know how much to pay whom.

I realize now that the only thing left to do would be to text each of them individually to remind them again of the props that they need, and to wash the dishes in the sink. This is totally a productive day!

God Bless The Child

As melancholic as the title of this post is, do not worry. The title is only in reference to Michelle Featherstone's song of the same name, and not my inner depressed feelings.

The term has unofficially ended two days ago. This is a reflection on the past four or five months marked as the first college semester of my life. In order for me to do this in an organized way, I will begin by re-grading my professors/teachers. If you can recall (which I doubt you would since you are nonexistent), I posted shall I say 'advisory grades' for my teachers the first time I ever met them. And after five months of getting to know them, I can now make a more accurate evaluation.

Chem 1: General Chemistry, lecture

Sir Leo Yambot

The first teacher I had graded was Sir Leo. Yes, we call him Sir Leo. After five months, I must bring his grade down to a B. Perhaps that is because... that's the grade I expect I'm getting haha. But no, seriously. Teaching-wise I guess he's okay. He never deviated from the PPT road. He occasionally had 'demos' where he did some really quick chemistry experiments. His PPTs, which end up as PDFs on the Yahoo! Groups site, provide only the gist, and if there is a question on problem solving, the space is blank. That's not much of a problem, but I find it annoying that I can't check if my answer is correct or not.

The biggest flaw Sir Leo has is actually in his personality. He is still the same cool, chill teacher I labeled him as in my first post, but he just has such high expectations from us just because we're ME students. And he is somewhat sarcastic, though he had never displayed any acts of sarcasm. He has the ability to make you look really stupid haha. It never happened to me but... well, it's really annoying. Another thing I find impossible about him is his LE's or Long Exams. Problem solving is easy, it's a wuss, but when it comes to the multiple choice... it's EASY, but somehow my answers are incorrect. And the problem with that is he only gives us back our answer keys, but not the questionnaire, so I don't have the option to complain if ever there were a mistake or something.

Grade: B

For future students: He's not totally hard. You just have to study and have a background in Chem that's already good. I didn't study as hard as I'd like to have, but I had a pretty decent background in Chem from High school. If you have him at 7h30AM like I did then try not to fall asleep. Or maybe that was only me... if he feels the class isn't listening he's gonna give you a quiz or ask you a lightning-speed question that will make you feel stupid if you weren't able to answer it. He somewhat scorns the smart students (Ryan Yu especially) I have no idea why.

Chem 2: General Chemistry, laboratory

Eunice Biteng

I gave her an advisory grade of B+ the first time I met her, which I now up to an A. That's also not because I got an A, okay! There seems to be a trend but it will break in the next one.

Ma'am Eunice--actually that's not what we call her at all, I bet only about 3% of the class know her actual name without looking it up at AISIS--is awesome! I thought she'd be moody but she remained consistent all throughout. She's not an OJ teacher, but neither is she grumpy. She wears an expression on her face that makes her seem angry and unapproachable, especially since she's always fanning herself with whatever's on her hand (it's not *that* hot in the lab...). But she makes the occasional, light joke and she prefers NOT to make final exams so she tries to give everyone an A.

In Chem lab, we have a workbook thing with lab reports at the end of every experiment. So the trend goes, we do the experiment and pass the lab report the next week. Our lab report isn't, like, an essay or research paper-type thing. It's a table of data that we fill out while doing the experiment, with some short essay questions about the principles involved in the experiment. It's really hard to fail it, but you won't always get perfect. Take note, I said 'perfect'. Usually these things are out of 30-40. If you didn't get 40 (which is, if you think about it, REALLY easy to get) you'd just get like 39 or 38. You must be really dumb already if you get like, 28. No offense.

Grade: A

For future students: She's a gem. If you do the experiments correctly, submit your lab reports with substantial answers from legit resources (that are cited), you'd get an A for sure. Even if you'd get low on her midterm and reporting. I got a 28/40, bombed the reporting because of lack of research outside the book, but I still got an A. In our class, only 5 people weren't fully exempted from the midterm. Three of those five were B+, exempted with the option to take the test risk-free, and the other two really had to take it.

Math 18 a/b: Principles of Modern Mathematics I/II

Dr. Ian June L. Garces

Oh, dear Lord. I can't explain this. If you're *really* brilliant in Math, you'd find him enjoyable because he challenges you. But if you're scraping the bottom like I am, you're gonna have a hard time keeping your head above water. But this is on the academic level. As a person, Dr. Garces is an absolute delight. The fear I felt the first time I met him, and the dread I felt of meeting him again everyday, was replaced by... eagerness to see him everyday. He was never mean and he is very virtuous, you know? He's firm in his beliefs and he believes in what's good and that it doesn't matter if you're smart, as long as you do the right thing always. He also makes a lot of jokes, and when he laughs or smiles you just feel like laughing and smiling with him too.

The grade I decided to give him is a B+. And obviously, it is not my grade, it's not even close haha. I cannot give him an A because it's sometimes confusing when he discusses since he doesn't follow the book. And he's also very sensitive, so you always have to be careful of what you say and how you act because he can just threaten to walk out of your class. There isn't much I can say about him.

Grade: B+

For the future students: You've all heard it, he's a terror, he's a terror. Don't take that into heart because he's actually really nice. Just be careful of what you say. Do NOT be noisy in his class, don't hum or sing, don't EVER interrupt him unless you raise your hand to ask a question. His tests will be hard. If you love Math, you'll appreciate him because he loves it, too. He gives you a lot of fun Math trivia. If you're afraid you're not that good at Math, just... keep calm and keep swimming haha. You'll get out of the water eventually. And if by chance, you were eaten by a shark or something, you can't say you didn't try.

English 11: Communication in English I

Sir Roy Agustin

First of all, I retain my grade of an A. He is still by far the coolest teacher I've had. He reminds me of Ted Mosby Bob Saget version. He always has some interesting sings to say albeit rather repetitive. You do learn a lot from him because he knows what he's doing. The only problem is that he gives relatively low grades. He never gives an A. He gives B's if it was okay and B+'s to those who have both depth and content. But the fact that he doesn't give A's... kind of doesn't make me want to lower his grade haha. My expected grade for this subject is a B because that was my advisory grade, and he has nothing else to base our grades on besides our feature article, evaluation paper and the bonus magazine. I realize we only had like four or five papers the entire semester.

I'm happy to say he's still my teacher next sem, yes, I said happy. I may not get an A, but there's always the saying that it's not about the grades, but it's about the learning, right? And I don't know if I'd learn as much with another teacher. He has had a lot of odd jobs, that I find amusing. Of them he mentioned: working for his dad's construction company, overseeing the remodeling of fancy hotels in Manila (where he had numerous encounters with ghosts, he can't see them but there's always a construction worker that can), working for his dad's laundry company (where he got into a verbal fight with a customer who complained that the lady my teacher's dad's company sent was rude), and as an editor for a bunch of books. I guess the last one isn't that odd.

Grade: A

For future students: If you're in it for the A, avoid him if possible. If you wanna have fun in class and have your teacher sit on the teachers table and talk about interesting stories, then he's good for you. He's an alumni, so he can tell you about what's hidden under the Church of the Gesu ;)

Lit 13: Introduction to Fiction

Miss Rachelle Torreon

I also upped her grade from a B+ to an A because she's awesome. She's very nice. In our class, we're always laughing (most times though not with her). She doesn't like noise but she can take it up to a certain level, and then she'll get mad. She thinks all your ideas are good, regardless if they are incorrect haha. She's one of those teachers who communicate with their students well. She likes all students. I think partly why our class is very fun is because of her chemistry with Mark Koa hahaha. It's nothing romantic. Mark makes a comment and Miss Torreon gives him a glare and we all laugh. You had to be there. Oh, and she's also my Lit 14 teacher next sem--yay!

Grade: A

For future students: She's great. Try not to make fun of her (oh, you will find the opportunity) because she's really doing a good job. You can push her, just make sure you know where the line is. Wait, don't LITERALLY push her. You can push her to curve your grades (although this theory still needs proof, we only managed it once when she gave back our quizzes and seatworks). HAHAHA what a coincidence, she just accepted my friend request on Facebook.

Fil 11: Sining... blabla.. Pakikipagtalastasan... blabla

Dr. Michael M. Coroza

I never gave him a grade, but I'll give him a... B, I guess. He's not terrible, though. Actually my first impression (without seeing him yet) was that he was a terror prof because according to my TLC, Aldrich, he was one. He was arrogant, and he digressed from the topic a lot, which was true. But week after week of more Coroza I began to kinda like him. Sure, he did digress A LOT. We'd be talking about one thing and end up talking about Titanic. He is arrogant but in the joking way, like, "Well, I did win a Palanca award..." and stuff like that. A bad thing about him is that, compared to my other friends taking Fill 11, he has no... curriculum or something. He has a syllabus but it's just about ten pages of suggested readings and how we should write our papers. He doesn't follow any flow. The closest thing to a flow was he gave us copies of all his favorite poems and then we'd discuss them every meeting. But then he'd end up digressing again and ask us to watch Forrest Gump. True story.

Grade: B

For future students: If, like me, you're not good at Filipino, you'd have a hard time but it's manageable. You do your papers at home so there's Google Translate for that. And for the seatworks well, you're on your own. But they say that it doesn't matter how deep your words are, as long as they contain the stuff you want to say. Hopefully he will see that in my final exam... oh, and he asked us to do a play and scheduled it on the first Monday of the semester, thank you very much for that.

PE 106: Table Tennis

Dr. (?) Alex Torres

Yes, I was shocked, too because he mentioned he was a doctor on the last meeting. I'm definitely sure he didn't mean Doctor of Medicine haha. He's the best PE teacher ever! My expected grade is A, but since it doesn't affect the QPI I wouldn't mind getting a B+. But I think I deserve an A because during the tournament I only lost twice, once to Gillian... er... Yap? No, no... Tan? Er.. it's something Chinese anyway. And the other time was to Promil Kid. They call her Promil Kid because she's an amateur table tennis player, I THINK. She could be professional, but I don't know. And when I fought Promil Kid, I got up to THIRD SET. Yeah, yeah. Haha. But sir wasn't there to see me, I think :( But anyway, it was definitely worth it.

Grade: A

For future students: If you don't get him, you're weird. And not in the good way. If you totally suck at hand-eye-coordination or just table tennis in particular, don't worry because he never gives a grade lower than a B. However, my friend Cha is one of the lower players--haha no offense, Cha--so after she gets her grade, I'll get back to you.

Well, that's it for my first semester teachers. Stay tuned for my next sem teachers!

By the way, I'm supposed to be studying for my Chem finals, but ughhhhh.

What was, what is, and what will be

No, don't worry, this is not a lesson in grammar (as much as I'd like to give a few to certain others), but--from what can be deduced from the title--it is the past, the present, and the future. Well, not in totality, of course. Just from a few days back to a few days forward.

The Past

This past week has been depressing, mainly due to receiving our advisory grades. Turns out I'm not doing so well. I just remembered that Honors Programs require a minimum of 2.5 QPI, and so far, I haven't reached that. Tan-tun-tuuuun. Well, I'm a 2.3--oh wait! I just computed, I'm a 2.53... that can't be right... well of course, I'd love to reach the minimum QPI. Well, anyway. It's only the advisory grades (they say), the final marks will be far from these (they say). I just have to work hard (ugh, typical) and do my best.

So I got a C in Chem lecture. Yeah. It's Chem lecture! And it's EASY! It's not super easy, but it's not something you get a C for. I know the answer to my C, by the way. And it ticks me off, too. You see, our seat works are made 'by pair', meaning you and your seat mate work on usually one or two problems each. You can already see where this is going. My seatmate is, to be polite, as duller than a rubber ball. And I don't mean dull as boring.

So imagine this, we're given five minutes to answer the two questions (per pair so that's just one question). I take the five minutes for my own question, of course, the teacher never makes it easy so I do need my time. I finish, look over to check if she's done, she gives me a blank look and asks me what to do. I cram the last few minutes to answer her, but of course I can't write the answer myself (we sit at the front, right in my teacher's line of sight) so I have to wait for her to write it down and then check, and then tell her what to do next, wait for her to calculate, wait for her to check her Periodic Table before I tell her the charge of Oxygen is -2.

Most of the time, I'm unable to help her in the time left so majority of OUR scores are only 50%, and sometimes a little more because of partial points. So, naturally, that merits a grade of C. And my 1st LE didn't go flawlessly, I only got a B, so that's still a C (somehow).

Big SIGH...

I think my teacher understands my situation now, though, because on the last paired seat work he only gave 1 item to work together with and I did it all on my own and just explained it to her afterward. And he may have noticed that my grade is a C, even though I know what I'm doing.

So that's the highlight of my advisory grades. Oh, and I got a C in Filipino--I was expecting a D. But yeah, Coroza curves well. I also got a C in Math (expected), and A in Chem Lab (soon to go down because of that disastrous lab reporting), and B's in English and Lit. My Lit grade is expected to be raised to an A because our beloved Ms. Torreon curved most of our seat works and quizzes. Also, she is currently rechecking our Midterm and gave no grade lower than a 7/10 in the essay portion. And based on the answers she discussed, I have gotten most correct.

The Present

The 4th Math LT is over, and I'm feeling slightly confident. I got some answers (I think) and I'm just eager for the results. I don't want to jinx it, or get my hopes too high, so I'll avoid talking about it here. Sorry for bringing it up in the first place, you just needed to know the present.

Tonight, we OB kids are having dinner at Shakey's for... nothing really. It's not really the celebration of Alex's birthday (tomorrow), it's probably like a celebration of the end of their 2nd LT and their midterm (also tomorrow), though 'celebration' may not be the right word.

We don't have the same Math, BTW. Mine is still Math 18.

There are some things I have to do today, like check how the Canadian Dollar is faring in the market (for AIESEC), and read The Company of Wolves (for Lit). Also, the last 2 days have been spent with minimal to virtually no Facebook, in preparation for my 4th LT. And I found it nice, studying more.

Proof of this: I spent last Monday afternoon reading my Filipino--take note, FILIPINO--hand-out to prepare for the following day's discussion on the poem 'Kahit Saan'. I read that thing like a boss! I understood every line, every metaphor, etc. Our prof came up late last Tuesday because of traffic, so today was supposed to be our first meeting for the week, but he didn't show up instead he sent his--what I like to imagine, "understudy" and she wrote down the exercise he left for us.

So earlier today, when I was packing my bag, I took out my purple folder where I keep all the readings (papers) because I know we don't have English or Lit today, so it would just be dead weight. I totally forgot that my Filipino hand-out was there as well, so I answered the seat work without my notes, but thank goodness I had spent all those hours studying 'Kahit Saan' so I didn't need it at all. I may have missed one metaphor about the bird, but since they were all saying the same thing, I don't think it mattered.

So moral of the story is: I'm going to start studying now.

Odd. I tried that back in high school, ended up stopping because I was effortlessly flying through rainbows then. Now is a different thing, I bet.

The (Near) Future

So on Monday, I am going to Marquee Mall to meet up with my high school batch mates. It's gonna be the first time to see some of them since graduation. I'm very excited to see Jill again.

This weekend is also a long, four-day one. And I am so happy about that. There is no long test to review for, so I can relax all four days. Unfortunately, this is the last scheduled holiday for the term. Unless of course, a major storm hits us and classes are further cancelled. Not that I... would want that to happen...

Of course, I need to plan my weekend accordingly. I can't afford to waste time. I'd love to play tennis, but Paolo isn't returning home until Sunday evening. I think I will start planning my weekend tomorrow after INTACT.

That's all for today. See you next time.

HELL WEEK INDEED

Oh, my God. What a week this has been.
You know, at first, I didn't even consider this a hell week. Because honestly, it was--I dare to say--just a long test followed by a midterm the next day. But boy, I never expected it to be this bad.

Let me start with the 3rd Long Test. I'm going to be honest with you right from the start. I failed it by 4 points. I guess I understand why I failed that test, but what annoys me the most is that I wasn't expecting it! When I was answering that test, it didn't feel like I was getting the wrong answers, but apparently there are hidden holes that Dr. Garces planted around his questions that brought my grade way down.

After receiving our papers, needless to say we were majorly depressed. We got our results the day after we took it, which was also the day of the midterm. So after Math class, my other depressed (hopefully average as well) friends and I went over to JSEC to attempt to study. We knew we were in dire need of a pull-up grade on the midterm later that evening.

After leaving Math class, I computer for my letter grade average. Including the 3rd LT, my average was a mind-effing C, borderline D. If I cancelled the 3rd LT, it would only get up to a C or a C+. That was no 'safe zone'. I badly need a B on the midterm. It's crazy to hope for anything higher now. I remember being so depressed, sitting on one of the metal JSEC chairs, staring into nothing, my stomach wanting to vacate its contents, my head swimming filling with worry.

So I did what I always do in these situations, which I think I have already mentioned previously in this blog. I told myself it didn't matter. I could still save the world without being an ME graduate. It would take a longer time, of course haha.

So I got to know the two bloc mates I was with better: Bridget and Lizle. Well, I hang out with Lizle pretty much all the time, so I got to know Bridget. She... somehow... makes me laugh. Or she makes me want to make her laugh. I noticed that when we were studying together in the library earlier that day. I couldn't concentrate because I kept shaking with laughter at some random funny noise I made, or some stupid thing we didn't see in our solution. So anyway, I found out more about her, like she plays the violin, she's interested in Volleyball but not part of their school's varsity (like me, but now not so much), she doesn't watch Filipino movies/shows (like me, although her reason is because her family doesn't allow her to watch non-Chinese shows on TV), and her favorite color is blue.

As we left JSEC, I was feeling much happier, more carefree. Shifting to Management wasn't the worst thing that could happen to you.

Let's skip to the time after the midterm. I was feeling pretty confident, but not smart. I know I didn't get a something-to-be-proud-of grade, but I felt like I could pass this thing. Yeah... unfortunately, when I woke up at 5AM today--I have no idea why, but I had one of those Jimmy Neutron Brain Blasts. I somehow realized that 2 of my answers were incorrect, and so I lay in bed for thirty minutes cursing myself for being so carelessly stupid. That's at most 40 points down the drain. And I still had to make room for errors! The most I could get now (but improbable) would be 160/200. And I really doubt that the rest of my answers are correct. I can reduce that to 140/200. I remember Lizle telling us we needed at least 130 something to get a grade of C+ so yeah, can you understand how I'm feeling now?

But enough about the midterms and long tests. Would you believe if I said that that was not the reason I call this week 'hell'? This week has been hell for us, not because of the tests, but because of our professors.

Prior to college, I've heard of horror stories about professors who fail you just for not liking you. That was one reason I was afraid of college, actually. Another thing, professors in college are horrible teachers. Some of them may just write stuff on the board and expect you to understand it on your own like *snap*. My friends have some of those kinds of professors. But I never imagined that... what would scare the crap out of me... was a walk-out from your teacher. Walk outs are... well, something dramatic. And I never expected it to come from Dr. Garces.

I worship Dr. Garces. His talent in Math is limitless, but he manages to remain down to earth. I have the utmost respect for him, and it breaks my heart that something like this has happened.

I won't go into the details, because I'm pretty sure this is something that the person involved would want to forget. Heck, all of us would rather forget this whole thing. No one meant to disrespect Dr. Garces, if that was what he was thinking. The last thing I ever want to do is disrespect a teacher. Ever since high school, I always had and gave respect for my teachers. And only those who deserved it. Which is why, Ms. Sarmiento, if you happen to come across this blog, please know that the reason your advisory class rebelled against you is because you lost our respect. But I'm not going into that either haha.

The sad fact is, Garces was one of the nicest professors ever. People call him 'terror' but only because of his tests. He's funny, tells funny stories, and teaches us good values. Good values... perhaps that's what set him off.

Many times, he has told us that if we were smart, if we were exceptionally brilliant geniuses, then just show it on paper. Don't ever act like you're the smartest in his class. Don't ever try to show off that you know everything. I hope he knows that we would never dare do that in his class.

Another painful thing is how cheerily he left us. He left with the same "okay, so see you Monday!" sort-of smile he gave us and walked out in that cute strut he has. I couldn't tell if he was angry inside, because his face certainly didn't show it. Neither did his voice. I think he was glad of the effect he had on us. My mouth was literally open in mid-laugh. None of us thought he was serious. Only two seconds after he had walked out did it drop on us like an atomic bomb.

Perhaps it slipped his mind that it was only Thursday today, and that we were going to have a meeting tomorrow. Hopefully he did forget, because if he didn't then that would mean he doesn't want to see us tomorrow, and there's a possibility that "Monday" could be any Monday.

So the plan is, we're going to go to the class as usual tomorrow, and if he doesn't come, we'll just study on our own in the classroom. Maybe he'll pity us then. But my bloc mate asked for advice from the upperclassmen, and they said we should sit-in on another class, preferably another terror, so that we can at least learn something more difficult because Garces is bound to increase the difficulty of our tests.

It's a really depressing thought. But I can't help but feel happy about one result. A few minutes after Dr. Garces walked out, the AMF students went their separate ways, but our bloc still stayed in. We just hung around, talking. Comforting. Worrying. When one of my bloc mates, Nico, urged us to play charades. I was Game Master, so I got to choose the words they would act out. It was a great Girls vs Boys game, race to 10 points. I loved how everyone was participating in the game, every boy and every girl had a turn. The girls won, of course, and that had nothing to do with my being Game Master at all... ;)

We finished playing at 12 noon. That was the time our class was supposed to end. I headed home feeling happier than I had ever been that week (except perhaps the time when I was laughing my head off with Bridget at the library). That is, until I heard what Jesse said about the other professor ordeal.

My science subject is Chem. My other bloc mates chose Physics. Every M-W-F, we have our classes beside each other every morning. Last Wednesday, perhaps around the time my eyes were failing me and I was starting to drift off to unconsciousness, Lizle could hear yelling coming from the other room. Our rooms aren't air conditioned, so we leave the doors open. Lizle sits at the back, and the Physics room is behind ours. Apparently their teacher was having a psycho meltdown.

I also won't go into the details, because I'd rather not mention names. But I can't understand how a professor would have the decency to call two of his students 'bitches' because they were talking loudly, others 'bullshit' for asking a question, or an offensive Filipino term for 'idiot' for coming from your high school!

I can't stand it when people of a higher position think they can do whatever they want! I imagine myself in that class, seeing and hearing him call two of my bloc mates 'bitches', or calling one of the smartest and nicest guys 'bullshit', or verbally attacking a student just because he came from Philippine Science High School... and I wonder if I'd defend them. My blood boiled when my other bloc mates told me what happened. But honestly, I wouldn't do anything. In my head, I'd tell the teacher to stop it. But in reality, I'd just sit there, clenching my fists, grinding my teeth, and sending the teacher death glares.

They were talking loudly. If it bothered him that much, he should have said something beforehand rather than doing what he did! Not only that, he treated the whole class as though they were idiots. Showing them how to spell his name... The professor flipped out so much, he gave them a 100 item quiz in 15 minutes, a 1000-word essay, 7 impossible problems to solve, all due that night.

I'm comparing the Physics ordeal to the Math ordeal. Since I'm not a Physics student, I don't know everything that happened so I can't judge which situation was worse. But I know this, I feel sorry for my Physics bloc mates who also had to endure Dr. Garces' walk-out. It seems like everything's just falling apart for them.

And so I end this poorly written blog on a sad note. Sure, the bloc bonding was great, but it was just a pain-reliever, it's now back to the pain. Hopefully Garces will have a good sleep on it, and try to understand that we didn't mean anything bad by what happened. I feel sorry for my bloc mates involved, because this will forever be etched in their memory.

And through all this, one word keeps popping up... "nadamay". This is an all for one and one for all thing. We're in this together, through the good and the bad. We've yet to see if that in itself is a good thing or a bad thing.

Pre-Midterm

In less than 12 hours, I will be having my first midterm in Math 18. We all know how hard that's gonna be. However, last night, I was answering the previous Midterms and one (if I'm not mistaken, it was the '08-'09 one) was so easy! I was able to answer most of the questions without needing to check if I was on the right track. I was surprised at how easy it was, and also afraid because I may lower my expectations for the midterm. I have a four-hour break in the morning, so I'm going to dedicate that to studying with my blocmates.

I must agree with what my English seatmate and friend, Sarah, said about Math for ME's last Monday. It does seem that ME students (the freshmen) think Math is the only subject they are taking. The rest are just easy, so focus on Math, right? Yeah, if only life were that simple...

Thank God my Lit teacher gave us a free cut so that we may have an hour to prepare for the midterm since our Lit class ends at 4:30 and our midterm was scheduled at 4:30 as well. To make things worse, our Lit class was at Bellarmine. Every Atenean knows that Bel is the farthest building from civilization.

I'm going to start getting ready in a few minutes. I don't feel like reviewing much anymore. I'm getting that feeling in high school, the feeling that, if you know all the concepts (in Math), you don't need to study anymore. I wonder what changed for college Math. I understand the concepts. I guess it's just that the questions have a clever way of making the concepts as useless as a sponge in a flood.

So anyway, wish me luck!

Refresh

Okay, a lot of my recent posts have been crap. This blog is about my life as an Atenean, not a record of my... hang on, it IS a record of my college life. What it is not is a blow-by-blow account of everything that happens.

I never wrote a fifth week or sixth week post. If I'm not mistaken this Friday, August 5th, marks the end of my seventh week at the Ateneo. Seven weeks have passed and I have already had 3 long tests (two in Math--both passed, one in Chemistry just yesterday) and still have not received a freaking LETTER GRADE. Seriously, my O.B. classmates have been getting their B's, their A's, and I have NOTHING. I don't know my academic standing, and it's worrying me quite a bit because I don't know what to expect when I log on to my AISIS account and see my grades there.

In Math, Dr. Garces never gave us a syllabus. He said he would after the first two 'elimination' Long Tests, but I guess he forgot. He also forgot to assign a beadle, but that's not a problem because he erases his own work at the end of class. Like I said, he never gave us his syllabus, so I don't know how he grades. But I think I'm pretty much hovering around the C to B area.

Being a former straight-A (I actually am not, since O.B. doesn't give letter grades besides their E, AS, S, NI, P thingy, but you get the idea) student, it's still kinda hard to adjust to being one of the lower-ranked students in your Math class. I don't mean this in an arrogant way but, honestly, back in High school, I was one of the best in Math. We Math whizzes didn't study Math at all because once you were familiar with the concepts, the rest follow through. So what is so different about THIS Math? This freaking Math 18: Principles of Modern Math II?

I know the answer. That was a rhetorical question. The answer is that back in High school, we weren't trained to THINK. We were simply trained to answer the problem given, follow certain steps, taking note of certain rules. My Math Long Tests would almost never simply ask of us, 'what is x?' Instead, they will ask us some of the most impossible things to answer at first glance.

I can still vaguely remember my experience with the first Long Test. I tried answering the first, hit a snag, so I skipped and went to the second. The same thing happened again and again, until I realized I ran out of things to skip. That mental wall that you just hit triggers your panic mode. You start to think "oh my God, I can't answer a thing!" another voice in your head tells you you have probably an hour and a quarter left after your useless skipping. You mind starts getting blurry (I'm serious) and for a moment--just a moment--you forget totally everything. Your mind goes blank and you can already see yourself failing the test.

After snapping out of that, I started back at number 1. This time I got an answer, I moved on. Realizing that this could be solved by doing that, the rest just came naturally. Of course, I didn't get ALL the items, but I got enough to make me feel comfortable enough. I even guessed my exact score. I got 6 out of the 7 questions but my score was only 75 because I made a mistake in writing the final answer. Well, I knew when I was writing them that something was wrong anyway.

So my Math midterm is this Wednesday. The day before, Tuesday, is my 3rd Long Test, all about Functions. So far, I don't think they will cause me much trouble, because I have been able to answer much of the exercises given in the book. However, my Math teacher is Dr. Garces, one of the infamous GCF terror profs (though, as I have already said, I don't get the point because he seems really nice) and he does not give just any other Long Test. You see, the first two LT's are Departmental, since they are the elimination LT's, so it has to be fair for all of us. But after the shuffling of Ma 18 classes, the profs are free to do whatever LT's they want to.

This weekend I will be studying hard for my Math LT and Math midterm. I am thankful that I've been granted even just a little Math prowess from my genes, and from God. I only wish that my skills would have been honed even more in High school. Not that I'm dissing O.B. They just don't have a solid curriculum, that's all. I would have liked to know Math like this back in High school, rather than repeat a lot of the lessons. Although, 4th year Math was actually a lot related to my Math now.

Nobody reads my blogs, but if ever there were, I'm sorry for ranting about Math in almost every one of my posts. It could be an exaggeration, but it's a really huge chunk of what bothers a lot of us. So if you're a high school student, reading about Management Engineering, you'll know what's in store for you.

I remember during the Prep Course, one speaker told us to begin with the end in mind. Remember what and who I'm doing this for. I've been getting increasingly nervous because sometimes the 'end' in my mind is simply being rich and being the head of a multinational corporation. I had to remind myself that that is not my plan, my plan is to change the world. I am wise ENOUGH to know that you can't do that without money or power. You could, but what are the chances of that? I want to graduate ME so that I can finally start helping people.

Also, like that Tibetan Personality Test Paolo asked me take, I apparently value pride a lot. And perhaps that is true, but pride for the right reasons. Aaaand maybe a few bitter ones. Over the summer before college, when I met my relatives, they asked me what school I'd go to. I said Ateneo. Immediately, they were impressed. I guess my English teacher is right, the name does come with a certain effect. They asked what course. I replied with 'Management Engineering'. I hadn't expected my relatives to know what that was because, honestly, I didn't know what it was either, only that it was a hard course, that it offered a lot of job opportunities, and it brought in tons of money.

After my relatives found out I passed ME, they started talking about how good a course it was, and that, yeah, you could get a lot of money. I sat there quietly nodding as they gradually expounded into a wider range of topics (my uncle who graduated from a similar course but in La Salle) and I shifted out of the conversation. You COULD say that I am anti-social, but I just really don't talk to my relatives that much because I speak English and they speak in Kapampangan. Don't blame me, blame my parents for raising me in English.

And because I didn't speak in Kapampangan, my relatives hardly spoke to me as well. And I am at this unfortunate age where I am the second youngest of all my cousins, the youngest was in the fifth (now sixth) grade. So I wasn't the kid, and neither was I employed. So basically, they had nothing to talk to me about. Instead they fixated on my brother, the architect student. I have a cousin who's already an architect, so he and his family talk to my brother about all kinds of architect stuff. Meanwhile, I'm left to talk to the youngest cousin about kiddy stuff, which I am too old for already.

So my point here is, I guess I really want to graduate ME not only for the chance of earning money and having the opportunity to make a difference, but also because of my pride. If I graduate from ME, my relatives who think nothing of me but the girl who doesn't talk will start to look up to me because I'm freaking rich haha. So yeah, that's the pride part about graduating ME. I guess I'm not surprised that I'm focused so much on pride. I've never really had anything to be proud about--scratch that, I've never had anything to BOAST about. That's also because I'm an extremely humble person by nature. HAHAHA.

It's half-past ten at night. Tomorrow I will begin my studying in Math. I think I'll wake up early and grab some breakfast at McDo. This is my first time (I think) staying the weekend. I love the feeling of independence, but I also fear it. Typical teenager, eh?

Good night.

Fourth Week Review

Okay, I know my last few blog posts seem like they were written by a half-asleep zombie or something, so I'll make it up to you with a much detailed account of my fourth week.

MONDAY

Highlight of the Day: Received the results of my Math 18 Long Test #1

If you have read my earlier posts (or if you know me), you'd know that I'm an ME student, yeah, and our Math subject is called Math 18 a/b or, you know, we just call it Math 18 or write 'Ma18'. So anyway, it's Principles of Modern Mathematics. It's basically a review of high school Math.

In ME, they have this rule that you must garner a total score of 100/200 in the first two Long Tests in Math 18. Our classes started on June 13; our first long test was scheduled for June 30. That gave us about two weeks to learn pretty much the hardest Math I have ever experienced--so far. Our topics were quite simple, really. First was Proving. I'd like to show you a little something about what proving is like, if you don't mind haha. If you do, you can just scroll down.

------------------------------------------

Proving goes kinda like this... everything you do has to have proof, so there's this thing called the Law of Trichotomy. It means that for any real number a , exactly ONE of these can happen:

a < 0, a = 0, or a > 0

There is also a rule that goes, if a > b, then a - b > 0

And simple rules like: a + c > b + c --this is called the Order Axiom (ii) , and ac > bc -- Order Axiom (iii).

So remembering these rules, we are asked to prove stuff like...

If a > b > 3, prove that b^2 + 6a - 2ab < 9

SOLUTION

Since a > b, a - b > 0. Similarly, b - 3 > 0 and by transitive property, a > 3, and therefore a - 3 > 0.

By Order Axiom (iii), we have

(a-b)(b-3) > 0

-b^2 + ab - 3a + 3b > 0

Also by Order Axiom (iii), we have

(a - 3)(b-3) > 0

ab - 3a - 3b + 9 > 0

By Order Axiom (ii),

(-b^2 + ab - 3a + 3b) + (ab - 3a - 3b + 9) > 0

-b^2 + 2ab - 6a + 9 > 0

Therefore,

9 > b^2 + 2ab - 6a + 9

*The words do have to be written like that.

-------------------------------------

So besides Proving, our other topics for the first Long Test 1 were solving inequalities, I don't need to tell you how they are...

The last topic was circles and lines, but not just your ordinary circles and lines, my friend! Can you imagine trying to solve for the equation of a line that passes through a circle at some random given point, or trying to find the equation of the circle instead, given a line tangent to the circle at some point. Well, now that I think about it, it's kinda easy... but that's just 'coz I know what to do. At the start of the term, I had no idea how I would answer something like that.

So the first Long Test consisted of 7 items, the last one is always Proving because Proving is the hardest and the professors put it there for only the smart students to answer, which I find entirely untrue because I was able to answer it and I'm not a smart student haha. It's a lot easier if you work backwards on your scratch paper. So anyway, we took the test last... Thursday, June 30. I remember I wasn't feeling extremely nervous to the point where my heart wasn't beating wildly, nor was it frozen like the first time I met Dr. Garces. But I remember I was nervous enough to have my hands shaking while answering item #1.

One annoying thing about being nervous DURING a test is that you seem to be looking ahead, instead of focusing on what's right there, right then. I tried to answer a number, and then I'd hit a snag--by snag, I mean I realized this would either be a long solution, or my solution so far was incorrect--so I moved on to another item. I find out that I need a lot of thinking time to answer this item, so I move on to the next one for fear of running out of time. And move on to the next one, the next one, and back to the other one. The annoying part was that I KNEW I was wasting time hopping from one question to another when I should try and focus on answering one question and finishing it.

So our answers were to be written in bond paper. Before the test I took out a bunch of papers and wrote my name on all of them to save time. Everyone was doing it anyway. So blablabla I answered everything except for one where they asked me to prove that two circles did NOT intersect by giving us their equations haha. I just scribbled a few solutions, like finding the radius and the midpoints, etc. because I knew I'd get 'partial points' and damn right I did. I got 8 points for that item (out of 15) just for getting the radius, midpoint, and distance.

So MONDAY, we had our Math class at a computer lab, which was fun because Dr. Garces introduced us to a program kinda like Word but for Math equations and graphs and stuff. It was really fun because it was mixing Math with Computers, we even got to do this wicked.. 3D-like parabola thing that reminded me of the behind-the-scenes footage I see of animated films or video games (like SSX!) and it was really cool...

So at the end of the class, Dr. Garces handed out our results. I got a measly 75 out of 100, our highest scorer was Sylbeeeeert who got 90 out of the hundred. I guess I could've gotten 80 or something if I knew how to write the final answer properly on those inequalities... dammit haha. I dunno if you're supposed to get the intersection or the union of the sets, you see. And in one item, we were supposed to write the equation in slope-intercept form, I didn't know the thing I did WASN'T the slope-intercept form... o.O

So that's it for Monday's highlights.

Other stuff we did on Monday: Chem Lab experiment where we mixed different solutions and recorded our observations. Another experiment where we measured unnamed solutions of different colors, solved for their densities, and put them in a test tube to see the layers of different colored solutions haha.

TUESDAY

Highlight of the Day: Nothing

My TTH schedule is pretty relaxed. I only have three classes for the day, the first of which is Filipino at 7h30 to 9h00. Coroza (my prof) was out, so he sent a substitute, and we answered two essay questions. Next, I was supposed to have PE at 9h00 to 10h00 but our instructor was having surgery on his right forearm so I stayed at the library. My last class is a one and a half hour Math class from 10h30 to 12h00. After class I usually just go home and eat lunch there. But today I went with my blockmate Lizle to do our MEA interview.

* MEA stands for Management Engineering Association. It's the 'home org' for ME students. Similar to AMA for MGT, MISA for MIS, MACA for.. the Management with Chem in it...

So during the MEA interview, they explained to us the different projects under MEA. And they asked us what our skills/talents were.. and who our MEA crush was. I'm not gonna expound on that. But I WILL tell you what I did haha, since it was Tuesday and I had an early leave, I was itching to go home early and watch my Korean movie. So when Delfin asked if we had any class afterwards I said yes, I had class at 12h30 (it was 12h00) so they said okay, they'd hurry it up. Then 12h30 came and they said, oh Ashley has to go, so I said no, I always arrive 30 minutes early for class. So we went on haha.

WEDNESDAY

Highlight of the Day: AIESEC Orientation Seminar at the MVP Roofdeck

Academic-wise, the day was normal. Every Wednesdays I have a 4-hr break period between Chemistry (lecture) and Math so I usually stay with two of my blockmates at the Rizal Library Information Commons (where the computers are). I spent quite a lot--A LOT--of time on the internet for some reason... I think that was when I asked Paolo all those formspring questions. So with about fifteen minutes to 10h00 I answered a few Math problems, then we had lunch at Gonzaga Hall. I ordered this spicy tuna bowl from that Bento (?) stall and they weren't kidding. I kept blowing my spoon thinking it was still hot when actually my tongue was on fire and made everything feel hot.

So I attended the AIESEC Orientation Seminar because--duh--I joined AIESEC. You can search that on your own, it's too hard to explain. But I don't think you can find this online so I'll just tell you about it. There are, I think, six divisions or departments you can get in to. Outgoing Exchange, Incoming Exchange, External Relations, Projects, Communications, Talent Management, and Finance.

Yeah... I got distracted while watching Marites vs. the Superfriends =)) You should really check that out.

So I figured out that I wanna go into-----

DAAAAMN, I totally forgot about this post I was gonna make =)) And now I have no recollection of what I did last week, since it's already the end of the fifth week. Oh, well. At least you learned an important Math lesson.

College Life So Far

I think three weeks is enough to get the hang of college life, yeah?

So RECWEEK started... for the non-Ateneans who read my blog.. nobody reads my blog but whatever hahaha.. RecWeek is when the orgs start recruiting freshies, or I think not only freshies, to join the different organizations. There are 49 accredited orgs, meaning there are a bunch of other orgs (probably) but are mostly for hobbies or sports. The 49 orgs are grouped into 9 'clusters' I do not remember the names, just one: the Business Cluster, obviously because the ME home org, MEA, is under that cluster...

So I decided I wouldn't join MEA until Friday or Thursday afternoon, since I'd like to know how my first long test goes before I sign up for MEA. They do say that "once a MEAn, always a MEAn" but come on, there's no denying it's EMBARRASSING as hell to join MEA, then not be an ME student in the new few weeks.

What else is there to say about college...

Well, the classes are going well. It is indeed true that the Ateneo only hires the best teachers for us. A lot of them are PhD's or whatever, so they do have the right to be called 'professors'. Oh, but my teacher in Chem 1, I think, is still studying.

The campus is, I've said this before, BEAUTIFUL. I knew the moment I entered that I was in the right place. Hard to believe, but the first time I entered the Ateneo campus was actually... when I was confirming haha. I have never stepped foot inside the campus before that day.

I particularly like the fact that we WALK haha. Some students, like my friend Alex, probably hate that. But you're walking, you see things... it's like a mini-adventure between class. But the sad thing is that about... 60% of my walkings are done alone haha.

The food... JSEC is a given. The food there is great, but an entire lunch costs P100 (P130 - P30, haha because of the return thing). The food at Gonzaga... well I only ate there twice--and ordered the same thing on both occasions. So it's not very good. But it's cheaper than JSEC food. There are other cafeterias (like Manang's) that are cheaper and have good food, but they're out of the way, so I don't get to eat there.

I'll talk about college more some other time. I really doubt anyone reads this anyway. The purpose of this is to just record my college life, so when I'm older, I can look back at these events.

Just a Quick Tuesday Post

My first class for today was the dreaded Fil 11 with the famous Michael Coroza. Luckily (or unluckily), he never arrived so we got a free cut for that class. We waited for thirty minutes just in case he would suddenly arrive because word on the street was that there would be a Diagnostic Test.

With PE being my immediate next class, I found myself with about an hour of free time. I joined my blockmates (shocking) to Gonzaga Hall where we played a bunch of games like Judge-Victim-Spy-Killer (only the Spy was called 'Police' and there was a Healer), and spin the bottle.

I left for the Table Tennis area, where I met up with Cha, twenty minutes before the class. I found out one of my blockmates was also taking Table Tennis, Patty Gaw (the one who looks like Cam Ang, wait, how would you know, I never told you that). I was glad that Cha was there with me, because somehow it made meeting new people easier.

So our teacher was really cool, he was funny, and understanding. He told us that there would be no class this coming Thursday, so that's nice... His number one rule was that we should not take our friends to the Table Tennis area, only until the class is about to finish. He's not strict, he just doesn't like getting distracted.

So after PE, I went to check both the rooms on my Ma 18a/b schedule. On TTH, our classroom would be at CTC 307, so I sat at the SEC walk benches for a while, then the stairs at the CTC building, where I listened as my blockmates talked about famous Ateneans from their respective High schools.

So Math didn't go so badly, I read the book (like four times, seriously, over and over) the night before, so I pretty much understood the lesson. But understanding isn't even half of it, our topic is proving, so it requires a different kind of thinking.

So, basically, today was a very positive day. But the best part comes AFTER Math.

My totally awesome beyond all reason BEST FRIEND, Paolo, who studies (for now) at UP-M was having some sort of orientation at UP-D and was planning on visiting us at ADMU to get his transfer application--yes, I just made that public, Paolo is TRANSFERRING.

I finished class at 12h00, and had a lot of time, so I decided to go to Kodak to have my 1X1 pictures taken but the line was very long. If I had known what would happen later today, I'd have just waited for the line. Paolo poked me on my left shoulder and there he was in all his jacket-y glory. On the way to Ateneo, I told him to remove his jacket because (1) it was really hot, and (2) people would look at him funny.

He refused, of course, and so we walked to the Loyola Bookstore first, where I showed him the cheaper Harry Potter hardbounds. Then we went to the OAA but found out they were on their lunch break and would be back at 13h00. So we walked around some more and I gave him a brief description of some buildings.

So are we were walking along the red brick road, in front of Faura Hall, we met Macy (OB friend) who was on her way to her PE class. We accompanied her to Manang's where we sat down and I had a C2 Apple. At 13h00 we left Macy to head over to the OAA.

We filled out the forms, paid at Cashier 8, and received his brown envelope. After that, we communicated with Cha and Alex about having lunch together. They said they already ate with their blockmates so Paolo and I were headed to Leong Hall to leave for KFC when they texted us and said they were at the bookstore, which is near Leong Hall. So we went to them and ended up having lunch with all our OB friends haha.

So, annoying Kodak place... after our long late lunch, Paolo left and a few minutes later we left, too. Cha and I went to Kodak to get 1x1 ID pics before we went to KFC, and we just checked. They said come back at 18h00 so I went home, started reading my Lit papers, then Cha called me up to tell me she was at 7-11 so I went down and we both went to Kodak but our pictures weren't there yet. We stood there for like, thirty minutes. Our numbers were 1814 and 1816, and they were only at 1750's but lucky for us, the lady sensed I was in a hurry so she hurried ours up haha. We got ours at 18h30 and I brisk-walked back to the flat because I still had to finish 10 more pages.

I finished them awhile ago, around 8-something. It wasn't really hard, I'm just nervous about what our teacher expects us to do. I read it, understood lots of it, and I have a four hour break tomorrow to refresh my memory. So far, so good.

Hopefully the following days will go just as good, and the workload won't pile up too high. I don't have a planner so that could be a problem haha. Oh, I'll ask my brother to get me a Nestle one...

FIRST DAY

There's not much to say about the events in between classes so this blog will be centered around my new professors. No, sorry, I can't say "new", can I? I've never had professors before.

I'll be adding some anecdotes unrelated to my professors, just so this wont be boring (not like that will help... but still).

I woke up at 05h00 because I had to leave the flat at precisely 06h45. I took a shower at 06h00, and don't ask me what I did for an hour because, frankly, I don't remember... I know I went online, but I don't know what took me one hour... I think I read Yahoo, or that could've been last night...

So anyway, I chatted briefly with Alex and then left at 06h45. I crossed the overpass footbridge (I don't think that's the correct term, but I'll use it anyway) and got to Faura Hall through JSEC and more walking.

I sat in front of the classroom, F-115, and waited for 07h30 (this is really tiring, Paolo). My blockmates who chose Chem showed up, and so did those who chose Physics since their classroom was just beside ours, I think.

The teacher was nearly late, but it was worth it to have met him. His name was Leo Yambot, he's currently taking his masters in Chem at UPD, I think, and he has been teaching part-time at the Ateneo for a year, this is his second, I think. He was a nice teacher, the kind who isn't strict, you know, just chill-chill. He said our Chem would be A-able if we studied, but the regular grade would be B-B+. That doesn't sound so bad. He's 27 years old, still plays PSP (which makes him ten times cooler, AND he's currently playing Dissidia), doesn't like sports games, and has difficulty hearing.

My grade: A (if the Ateneo had A+, then he would be A+)

He dismissed us quite early, so our block walked together to ADSA for some of us to get our ID's but then they told us we should get them at Co.. something Hall, so we went there but there was no ID validation anywhere. So the others just helped those who chose Physics with their quiz/homework (lucky me, I almost chose Physics to get a good PE, dodged that bullet).

I got my ID and next we had Chem lab at Schmitt. Stephen and I were the first to get to the classroom but we found out that we conflicted with another Chem lab class so our classroom was transferred one floor up. We met our Chem lab teacher, Eunice Biteng.

"She's new." That's what's written on the notes I took down. She graduated Biochemistry from UST, is taking up her masters at UPD, I'm not sure, and is planning to take get her PhD at the Ateneo (I didn't know they had one). She was nice, strict about following proper procedure and protocol. She seems nice, but I'm sensing mood swings in the future. But I'm not psychic, so this probably isn't true.

My grade: B+

So after Chem the block opted to have lunch, first at the JSEC, and then at Gonzaga Hall, but both times were unsuccessful; they were both full. Stephen suggested we eat at McDo outside. Knowing that Math with "terror prof/ME-killer" Garces was next, I decided to just stay inside the campus. So I walked around all alone and made one of the biggest mistakes I'd made this day. I bought a Chocolate Freeze and a Turkey sandwich from Bo's Coffee. I ended up flushing 30% of the Chocolate Freeze down the toilet. I know it's a bad thing, and I'm not saying Bo's Coffee's Chocolate Freeze wasn't delicious, it was just a mistake. I hate blended drinks and everything that has anything to do with Coffee, so from the start I knew I should not have bought that drink. But don't let that discourage you from buying from there, if you do enjoy coffee or blended drinks... or whatever.

So I met up with Alex and Cha thirty minutes before my class with Garces. They sat with me on the benches at SEC walk until I saw my block again and went with them to the classroom.

Garces was terrifying. The first time I saw him, I couldn't help but think of the bad guy in Agent Cody Banks 2 haha, the bald one. I searched, he was played by Keith Allen, you can search him if you like.

I can't explain what was going on with my body the entire time he was talking. It was like, my heart had stopped beating and felt so heavy. My legs felt like jelly, even though I was sitting down. I felt sleepy, too, but not the Mr. Lumboy-class sleepy, more like... my energy was being drained.

He handed out a notice to our parents about what would happen if we were to get less than 50% on our first two Long Tests. It means immediate removal from the program. I guess I should warn my parents about that soon.

He told us that what most people found hard in the long tests was the last question. The last question was always--ALWAYS--proving. He gave us an example: x^2 + 1 > 0. He told us that writing an example is NOT proof. So we couldn't say if x = 1 then x^2 + 1 > 0 => 2 > 0 because it is illogical to assume that all things would be true by just proving one... or something like that.

So we got to writing if-then statements like: If n is an even integer, then n^2 is also even. We started off by saying that n = 2a and so n^2 = (2a)^2 or 4a^2... but whatever, you're not looking for a math lesson, are you?

I don't know what grade to give him, partly because I'm still hoping he's not as hard as they all say, but also because I believe he's a great teacher. I read a lot of comments about his being a good teacher. It's just that he gives hard Long Tests. Hopefully, I pass the first two and continue my life as an ME student.

So after class, I left the room inwardly shaking from head to toe. I headed straight to the farthest building, Belarmine for my EN 11 class. I stopped by the satellite store and bought a bottle of Coca Cola. I then sat on the bench beside a couple talking about Hey! Arnold, and read my brother's old pre-calculus book back when he was still studying.

For EN 11, our professor was Roy Agustin. He didn't say much about himself, but asked about us. I found out his dad was from San Fernando, but he doesn't speak Kapampangan. He will teach us how to write on the university level. We will be submitting papers, having class debates and little activities. He does not allow cellphones in class, either. He seems fun. He sits on the table, and makes jokes.

My grade: A

For LIT 13, we got Ms. Rachelle Torreon. She's quite strict, but has a 3-chance rule thingy. She seems very passionate about her work, and I hope to learn a lot from her. I usually like reading fiction... majority of the books I have read ARE fiction haha. But I only read popular books, not literary winners, so I may feel out of place in that class. I hope the readings she will give us aren't, you know, something I find boring. I want to be interested in them, for both the sake of my grade, and my personal... feelings..?

My grade: B+ (only because I'm a little scared that she doesn't like me, even though she hasn't yet shown any signs of that hahaha)

Tomorrow I will be meeting the famous Michael Coroza (he's not famous to me, but on the long shot that he is to you, well... congrats) who will be teaching me my most painful subject, Filipino. I really hope, I really really really really hope, that ME allows the basic Filipino track, but that is only if we will be given a diagnostic test, which, I heard, is unlikely.

Also I will be having my first PE immediately after Filipino, so I must run. It will just be orientation, and I am glad I will be with Cha.

The last class of the day will be Math for 1 and a half hours. We will be starting our lecture, hopefully I will not be completely lost.

Please, pray for me that I may graduate four years from now still in ME. :)

Oh, and in return, I will be giving you lots of money, once I become rich ;)