Episode Five: College: OGEC

I was a Fine Arts student.

When I was starting out my college career I was advised by a girl friend of mine (girl-friend not girlfriend) to enjoy the days as it will come as fast as it came. Need not to say her prediction seemed to me as true. Coming from a Catholic school with very strict environment, college was very refreshing. I had all the time in my hands nobody was rushing me, there was no torment. Maybe that's the reason why I appreciate FEU more than my kindergarten, grade school and HS alma mater. Although I must say that the high standards that my school gave me prepared me well fro the college algebras, english, and a lot of the basic stuff. That I am most thankful.

Also in FEU I got to have a wide variety of choices when it came to meals, not only do FEU have a canteen but students were allowed to lurk around the whole of Manila if they wanted to buy foods elsewhere, in my former school sadly that was not the case, it's either you rely on your "baon" or go to the gold-digging canteen where meals are served at the minimum at a very high price!

I think FEU gave me the school I wanted all along. As I said I respect my former school but compared to FEU I love the latter more.

Ok here's some story about my days in FEU:

When I was in FEU there was this OGEC curriculum (OGEC stands for Office of the General Education curriculum), it was imposed to all first year students so that most of the minor subjects could be taken up during the first year without any major subjects so that if a student decides to pursue a different course different from his/her first choice he/she won't be hassled changing courses because all subjects taken up are minors. So you see it was not known to me until my very first day. So to my surprise when I got into the room designated for me when I applied for my schedule, there were guys who were into accounting courses, psychology, nursing and others.... I was like "Whoah! am I in a twilight zone?" turns out I was one of the only few who did not know of the current policy.

Within the next few days I assembled a new group, comprised mainly of a geek, a coño, a pasaway, a nerd and two stoic guys (one was me). Our favorite "ulam"? Monggo soup by Manong Dugyot. Our geek friend had this shack apartment just beside FEU and we would camp there during breaks, at the lower portion of the apartment was a mini canteen by Manong Dugyot (I codenamed him that because he was like an arabic guy that don't take a bath), there were 6 of us and the coño guy can't argue with our preferential place for food or be doomed to eat alone. That how we were until we finished the first sem of the first year.

Around this time I realized:

1. I had this character to bring people together, even though not as leader but as a bridge.
2. Girls get attracted to me, even I don't know why. I'm stoic remember?
3. I was still in the upper levels of each of my class.

It was the first in a long while that I had girl friends (again not the romantic side but friends), and I love them they were morale boosters for me. Alas, Come 2nd sem all the allies I rallied to my side were lost to me. We ended up not being classmates anymore, and I was left by my lonesome again without any classmate from the previous semester.

2nd sem, First year: I had new friends whose image were meaner, bigger, we had a grand time tripping. We were not the "It" boys but my pals had the making of Mafia members. They looked brute but are really friendly. It was at this time I had my first difficulty in college. Logic.

Logic was easy, problem was that subject's schedule was too early for a teener coming from Cainta to abide to. I was most of the time tardy at sessions thus not understanding the subject altogether. At mid-term my grades for the subject still hangs in the balance, last time I checked I was near 5.00 or failure. It was also true for half of the class. I felt so tense, nearly hopeless. I even informed my mom that I might flunk it... But then again, I think the "One Above" never wanted me to fail, I doubled my efforts of coming to school our class was at 9:00 and now I was waking up at 5:00 at 6:00 am I was on my way to school. Fuck the LRT-2 then, the traffic that it's construction yielded was just too much sometimes I would arrive at my designated room 5 minutes before the Logic subject. Imagine a 3-hour travel everytime!

Somehow I sighed some relief as I was quickly getting the groove from the subject, although I would sometimes arrive weary-eyed, sleepy, I still was catching up with the lessons. Finals came and I had 2.50 voila! What was wonderful for me wasn't for my other classmates a quarter took the plunge.

First year is finished at last. OGEC was over, on with the next nightmare!

But that's for the next ish peeps! Until then... Don't break a leg.

About the Author: Episode Four: College, the application

Year 2000 AD. I was in a mad dash of applying to a new school, You see our school (Cainta Catholic) is offering college courses but none of those interests me, you see I'm into the arts and the courses offered there is for teachers, another thing is that I already abhor being there being in the school since Kinder it made me too familiar to be happy... I need to be in a new environment.

The first university I tried out was none other than UP. Here's the story: UPCAT was held every August if I'm not mistaken. The school made it very easy for us since they volunteered to do the test enrollment for us, we just added a few peso on their account for them to do so (it's better and it's hassle free).

After we got the schedule for our test me and a friend of mine whom we fondly call "monyo" (that's demon in a different lingo)went to the UP wars. Unfortunately for us we got separated with our classrooms where we would take the test, so I took with me my mom and my little sis (I hardly know the UP compound which has the biggest cusp of land if I ever saw one) to accompany me to the battle field. My loving mother, concerned as she was as always gave me a hamburger meal as "baon". So on to the testing area I went. Before starting the exam the proctor asked us to surrender all our means of communications as to defeat any temptations of fraud during the exam. To my surprise everybody got up (except me) and surrendered their cellphone right in front of the white board area. I felt a little slighted by this gesture which kinda hurt my pride.

On to the test, due to the earlier incident I was hardly able to focus and would entirely cram every time an exam is about to finish (subjects for the exam include general science, math, english, history and social sciences and current events), on that tense moment I remembered my "baon" so I slipped my hands to the side of my bag's pocket and began to unwrap the burger goody (it was allowed to eat inside since the tests began at exactly 12 nn up to 3 pm), it was then that I realized that the aroma of the burger was already traveling fast inside the air conditioned room and my test mates where already eying my booty, I then concluded that they forgot to take food with them during the duration of then exam... Ay! Caramba! Sweet Revenge harhar!

I also tried out other colleges such as: PUP, FEU and TUP.

The most challenging for me was PUP, we excused ourselves for our classes for 4 days just to secure a slot for it's entrance exam... Why? The process includes falling in line behind a kilometer long barrage of students, all those student form different schools and different provinces trying to cram their way into what remains to be one of the most cheapest and notable state colleges in the country.


Next stop for me was FEU... FEU is a one day stop and process is amazingly fluid. Maybe because it was a private college. TUP was the last stop, my mom forced me into it although it was not very preferential for me (I get up late and the school is in Taft I don't know what time I had to get myself up just so I can make it in time during classes).

Courses I penned for the entrance exams at the schools aforementioned:

UP: Fine Arts
PUP: Architecture (Fine Arts was my supposed to be course but it was to be offered the next year prior to my enrollment)
FEU: Fine Arts
TUP: Fine Arts

Results:

UP: Flunked but had a score of 2.50, I think their passing rate was 2.25.
PUP: Got 99% in history. Average of 88% for the test. Lowest was Science at 80%
FEU: Never got the grade but they said I passed. I felt the test was for formality and they were getting me anyway.
TUP: Guess what I finished the whole exam at exactly 45 minutes... With surety in my answers, the proctor was stunned, I said their test was so easy. He got my paper and kinda separated it... I was thinking I got politicized there.

Overall the hike and traffic and the stress got the better of my 10 pounds as I became much lighter when we finished the entire process.

So I got .500 batting mark. College here I come! (I guess you know what college I chose later, if not look at the picture above and get a hint.)

Disclaimer: Picture not mine. Got it from the net. :D

Enjoy the next issues! :D

About the Author: Episode Three: The High School Strikes Back!

Epilogue: High School life is said to be the most joyful time of your life... For me? Heck it's another grueling journey towards the fulfillment of your study life.

Story: First Year High School. Shaved my head last summer. It's as skinny as you can get. My classmates looked at me as if they have just seen a shaolin monk. You see I have Chinese features all over me, chinky eyed as I was, yellowish as I was. I had a lean 5'5 frame at the time (A grade 6 classmate of mine would tease me about a commercial who had a chinese man as it's model).

You see I am a little introvert and I don't like anybody staring at me... especially someone scrutinizing you from head to foot.

First day, First year, First disaster. I helped myself sitting at the first seat available to prevent more scrutiny. Days as a High schooler goes on so fast, I grew my hair as long as the Beatles had their mop tops, I collected quite a band of friends... Actually almost all of the boys in the room were "barkadas" at the middle of the school year at one time we did something naughty that it could have been lifted from a scene of a comedy movie.

Here's the scene: we have this enemy teacher (the commandant of the CAT officers), who seem to be on our tail all the time, annoyed by this autocratic authority the boys devised a plan to get even. You see this commandant loves watering our school garden, the plot was to take the hose off the nozzle of the faucet. And that they did (I was not able to join them it was recess and I was busy chewing my hotdog lunch but I was able to see them do the plot as the scene was not that far from where I was eating). As the poor guy was watering the plants he was surprised to find that hose suddenly ran off of water. Maybe contemplating what happened he suddenly placed the end of the hose close to his face... And the naughty boys plugged the hose once again and WHAM! Water splashed into that poor guys face.
Naturally he was angered by this and hunted us down, and when he saw us threw us at the guidance counselor's office. My guys protected me (as they know I wasn't part of the deed) so I was spared from the Armageddon. I forgot to tell you that we called our section "Tondo". That's how rowdy we were at the time. It was also at this same time that I developed crushes even if I didn't know it at the time (I had a longing for that one seatmate of mine after we were separated due to seat re-arrangement, It was then I knew that I grew fond of her). At the end of First Year I realised that High School was a new phase, a new life, and it's true to some degree.
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Second Year. I developed a new hobby. I created an Anime inspired comics with me and my new friends as characters, It somehow gained some notoriety as a few more of those I knew copied my idea. It was by then that I developed a increasingly addicting hobby of buying NBA trading cards. It was 1997 the height of the Bulls dynasty. Naturally we were in the middle of a basketball frenzy as almost all of the Philippines idolized Michael Jordan. NBA trading cards is not only a hobby but a business opportunity as well, I had one rare Jordan card once and traded it for one whole box of trading cards which I sold to my classmates 10% off prices then of a pack was 50 PHP I sold it to them 45. So in a weeks time I collect about 500 pesos enough to buy another box and sell it the week after. Great business, Great business and that was how the second year was... Our room was turned into a mini-casino with so many betting opportunities to choose from (I wouldn't tell the participants one is near our house and he might get me if I sell him ha!
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Third Year. Somehow I felt that a lot of girls was crushing on me I wonder why (hey no joke!), It was my first time to be invited to the intramurals as a basketball player, Had talented classmate in Louie Glenn (he's a great sketcher), and was part of the Dating Daan group (my classmates tagged us as that, maybe because of our intense knowledge of the Bible? I don't know). You know what if I have read Ambeth Ocampo around this time I would have contested my teacher's claim about Rizal during the time (we all know that there was a required reading of Rizal in Third and Fourth year).

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Fourth Year. I had a crush. I think she had one on me too, too bad I was so lame at the time and didn't grab the opportunity. The last year of High School and I was so focused of rushing to college... I had no time for fun, no time for crushing (just kept it inside)... I was so determined of getting good grades. I loved debating matters, had respect from my peers was one of the teacher's pets. I felt like doing it at the time because I believed my whole college life would depend on how I'd handle my Fourth Year. Love could wait, that was what's on my mind (though it kinda frustrate me up to today). I had good grades but happened after that is not what I expected.

Things I did bad in high school:

1. Tried smoking.
2. Drank gin dry, in the hot afternoon sun.
3. Didn't study for the exams and came up copying my seatmates answer. (In line with this, I developed a philosophy then: I wanted to test if I was learning something, so if I review my lectures then I did not learn enough up to college I would carry that trait).
4. Broke many hearts.
5. Cursed my teachers at their backs.
6. Fantasized women and their big fronts.
7. Cursed a lot.
8. Felt like a rebel.
9. Didn't conform with the PE uniform (it's so baduy!)
10. Grinned everytime I saw a bouncing boob.
11. Wore gel.
12. Occasionally late, fourth year was the peak (we had to do lots of chores because of this).
13. Faked illness.
14. Faked reason for tardiness.
15. Faked Parent's signature.
16. Questioned authority.

Well that's what I remember right now... Don't worry I'd add something more if I remember them. haha! Until next time. Chow!

About the Author: Episode Two: The Pupil wars (formative years)

Epilogue: Why do I enjoy reading? Is it because I enjoyed my father reading me panels of the highly addicting Funny komiks as a child? Yes, comics was my vehicle for studying how to read. I tired real hard just to be able to read one by myself. After my nursery class (which I shared earlier, the class where I became.. Ahem valedictorian), everybody have high expectation for this new child prodigy (if I really was in the first place) And here we start our new chapter.

Story: Like all kids experiencing the trauma of boarding another school, I had to highly impress my new teachers with my in earth charisma. During the first meet and greet session I had to make an impression by exhibiting to them my counting expertise (I was not ahem valedictorian for nothing aren't I?) What traumatized me was when they asked us pupils to dance in front of them (what are we babies?!), I tried my best twisting and turning as far as I could (I'm no dancer as I have two left foot, hehe). Needless to say I marked a good one on the obese teacher that interviewed us. Or maybe because I flashed my killer smile that kept her at awe (haha!).

After I enrolled in the new school, I was a consistent top 1-3 student in every class. It seemed like those days were so fast, I barely remember those days now. One thing I could note though is my teachers then. If my techers weren't obese, they always carry extra baggages in their belly (translation they're pregnant), or they are old misers that are as thin as their bones. (imagine a scene from the twilight zone). One time I had an adviser whom I had for a week only mainly because she was due to deliver the week after...

The old hags you call as teachers are terrible ones they make fun of you, like old hags do (haha). One more thing to note about them is they burry you with lots of homeworks... Sometimes I wanted to shout more in order for them to notice that they have written the entire two blackboards with their crappy homeworks.

Come grade three the pupil wars began. (star wars theme here)

I was highly confident that I'll be at the top of the class when I stepped in. But when I met my would be teachers I couldn't help but be terrified at the same time smile. Smile because I had a teacher whose surname was Militar (English term is Military) and another one surnamed Base (base) so combine them and you have a military base (gasp!). Terrorized because I literally had a terror Teacher her name is P-A-D-I. First glance at her and my tail was cut off. She handled Math. MATH. It was so pain staking it felt like hell during her period. Addition and Subtraction were easy I mastered it from Grade 1 -2 even Kindergarten, but multiplication? subtraction?

She demanded that we mastered the multiplication table from 1 up to 30. She gave the demand Friday and it was to be met by Monday. As Monday came I was praying the whole rosary before her time.. Dear Jesus, Please spare me from the recitation. Amen.

Jesus is ever so considerate, he heard my prayer I "pooped" in my sit maybe out of horror. The stench flowed over the classroom that my seatmates ultimately yelled "Ambaho" (Too stinky).

Padi in shock, shouted at the top of her lungs "To the CR, fast". Me? I couldn't move, out of shame and horror, I knew I would be the talk of the town for the rest of the school year, I just knew I'm screwed.

After the humiliating experience I went straight home, did not attend the following three days and upon my arrival the imminent came. I had my ear screwed by Padi for not memorizing the table. My ear was so red and hurting it felt like it was ran down by a burning iron.

You know what? I pooped the second time in the next weeks... So the humiliation only intensified after then. I had low morale, I felt like having a real lightsaber to stop the pestering kids who taunted me. It was because of that, that I became adamant of my studies often absent in class and it did't help that I had measles at the very end. Good bye top 3... The only thing I could grasp was Top 7 and it wasn't good enough for me.

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Grade four. Saving Grace. I have no classmates who knew the embarrassing moments of my life. I had a fresh start. But was in no condition to compete for top honors yet.

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Grade Five. The Struggle. I am slowly returning to form thanks to my friends Cyril and Ryan back then. I noticed I'm still a cut above the rest, I now re-enjoyed holding a book, reading especially Math and History. Yes math, I love Math in Grade 5. It was then I realized that Padi had the right motivation but wrong instructions.

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Grade Six. Battle Mode. Back to business, Thanks to the two years that passed I was battle ready once more. It was at this point that I gained admirers (some even sent me love notes), which was not really my priority then (but my priority now haha!). At this point I felt the pupil wars was over because I was back at being confident with myself.

Parting Notes:

To my readers, thanks for reading and keep on reading for more as I will be posting some more stuff in days to come. Thanks! May the force be with you.

About the Author: Episode One: The Phantom Kid

Epilogue: October 25, 1983 at 2:00 at dawn heaven's sent... Adrian Barcia (yours truly!). Martial Law is still in effect. Doctor's who caught me in their arms said: "What's this a Lizard?" (maybe owing to the fact that I was so puny when delivered hehe (If only the late Ernie Baron was alive I could have asked him does the sand man truly exist? I'd ask this because later in life, my mom said that after I was born they found many specks of sand in my eyes).

Story: I'm a happy child. Very happy indeed. I have two pet dogs, my constant companions and great protectors. I just don't know if they do it because of loyalty or because I have some stinky shit over my diaper. What I just can't imagine is what my mother told me that I was forced fed with lizard (it's said to be an old cure for asthma, I'm asthmatic as a kid). I was so sickly that my parents brought me to Roxas Boulevard (now what kids nowadays fondly call Baywalk) to catch some fresh air, There I would sip my "Yakult" and my "Magnolia Fresh Milk" in a bottle (it was bottled then). My body was so sickly even Johnny Midnight's toning water never helped me. My doctor's would punish me by sending a foot long injection needle on my butt (of course you know it's exaggeration but for a boy of 2-3 it don't matter how long, it hurts!).

Not so long after, or a thousand injections later, I learned to fight back, I remember punching a nurse who was getting a blood sample (Early on I should have taken boxing as a sport), I did the same to the kid who tried to grab my paper aeroplane, not only did I punch him he also received a mark for weeks (a black eye).

Here's the incident: The kid has an uncle who obliged to our prodding of making us the paper aeroplane, so a good boy as I was I took 2 new bond papers form my stock. As soon as the first paper aeroplane was finished the other boy took it, And that was when he come to the unfortunate end of tasting my straight jab hehe. I was never violent, but I guess I have a knack of protecting what was mine.

When I turned to school, In nursery I gave my mom the best gift I could give her on the first day. a "zero" on my first examination paper. She was so proud she didn't let me sleep in the afternoon and gave me dozens of lectures and mini-tests to ensure I never have "zero" on an exam again.

But to tell you the truth, it never changed what was to become of me in the end...

A valedictorian (naks! I could hear the winds starting to blow alittle stronger now).

I have so many more to share... Just watch out for the continuation. Until then. May the force be with you.