of busy days and born-agains

yesterday was a really busy day for me but i had fun the whole time.

9am to 12nn:

i had my final oral exam in my spanish class at instituto cervantes in manila. we started our class by checking the written exam we took last week. surprisingly enough, i got a low score but it was already one of the highest: 79/100. from what i saw only two people got a higher score and we were just around 13 in class. naks! oo, nagyayabang ako. hehe. nagulat din kasi ako eh. i was even able to beat my seatmate, a retired college professor with a doctorate in education! damn! anyway, the orals went fine and i just passed level 4 at instituto. i'll be moving on to level 5 next week already.

1pm to 2pm:

i defended my thesis proposal. at the time i was done with my spanish orals, i still hadn't prepared shit for my defense. so right after my class, i crossed the street and went inside an internet shop, typed and printed the text for my acetates, had it photocopied to acetates, went inside school, read my thesis again to freshen up on the info, then defended right away. whew! buti na lang i was the last to present for the day so the prof was a bit tired na and didn't feel like grilling me. not so much revisions actually, puro suggestions lang daw. oh well.

2pm to 5pm:

right after my defense, as in right after, i went down LS building and headed straight to south gate where i met up with my friends/colleagues and we all immediately drove to a meeting in mandaluyong. it was for this youth network: youth alliance philippines. i was with sina jill, elvin, cheng, kate, and ej and we all discussed how the dlsu student council and tapat could work with the network, blah, blah, blah.. hehe.

5pm to 6:30pm

after the meeting, our group headed straight to the book fair at the world trade center in buendia. i initially didn't want to go there since i didn't have money to buy books and besides, in visiting a book fair, you would need hours to actually go through everything. anyway, the highlight of my stay there was when our group visited the britannica booth. as in yung encyclopedia.

they had this projector where you could play a trivia/general info game. multiple choice, and had easy, moderate, and difficult levels. initially, we just watched and shouted to those who were playing the game what the answer was. ang masaya kasi dun ay pinapakinggan talaga kami ng mga tao! haha! tapos pag mali yung sinagot namin, sinasabi namin na taga-ateneo kami! hahaha! (oi, walang pikon ha.. hehe) kawawa nga yung iba kasi may times na 3/10 lang yung score nila kahit easy round! haha!

well eventually, dahil siguro sa ingay namin (since we were literally shouting the answers and cheering loudly if tama sagot namin), pinayagan kami maglaro. we took the moderate level test and got 7/10. it seemed low but you have to give it to us, the questions were really tough. and as a prize, binigyan nila kami ng parang lalagayan ng coins. hehe, may prize daw yung score namin for that level eh. hehe.

6:30pm to 12:30am:

i went na to makati for a reunion of my former blockmates in college. i was a bit excited to go to that dinner/inuman 'coz it has been years since my college block barakada ever got together like that. almost all of us were there: me, paolo, camille, neil, dianne, lou, kim, darcy, and miko. mga tatlo lang 'ata di nakapunta.

we were at pier one fort and we just ate and drank and laughed the whole night. yung iba nag-reminisce, yung iba naglaglagan, yung iba pinag usapan yung careers nila, yung iba pinag usapan yung job nila now, etc. it really felt good being with these people again. it was also nice to know that even if we were together for just a year (first year college lang kami magkasama kasi after that may mga na deblock, natanggal, lumipat, at nag-shift), we all still felt like we were still a group with shared experiences. i felt weird though how our conversations were changing. i mean, one was talking about banking, one about nursing, one about leaving her job, etc. i could still remember when our conversations dwelled around where we would eat and hang out for the day. sinong pwedeng kopyahan ng accounting homework. sino yung mga panget sa block. sinong pwedeng laitin sa mga dumadaan habang naka-tambay kami. haaay.. kaka-miss.

i went straight home na after. was too tired to do anything else. i probably fell asleep with a smile. cheezy.

* * * * * * * *

two days ago (friday), i was with sina rina, arnie, quiroga, muy, john, aj, jo, mela, etc. at silver kettle at makati ave. t'was my first time to ever try shi-sha (di ko alam spelling eh). it's this smoking contraption wherein what you're smoking isn't nicotine but it still gives you that kick. i've heard about it before and saw it on tv but it was still my first try. it was nice, but i find it overrated i guess. oh well, di rin kami nag tagal sa place na 'yun.

* * * * * * * *

i just came home from mass. what's weird was that the priest, during his homily, talked about the born again christians and other non-catholic-pero-christian-group-pa-rin people and how/why they don't believe in the virgin mary.

he sounded like an activist of sorts, convincing us or at least trying to make us reaffirm our belief and devotion to mother mary. not that we needed it since we pray the rosary almost 3 times a week going to work or school, but that was the second time in these past few months that the priest actually made some strong comments about the born again christians. the other time was when i had mass at don bosco in makati.

i would understand how a catholic priest would be appalled by a group not believing in mary but believing in jesus, but i can't understand why priests would have to give out some strong comments about them. i felt like it was already bordering on paninira eh. personally, i've never had problems with born again christians or protestants since i have some really good friends who are really active in their own christian communities. (although, i question yung "real god" banner ng new life center sa alabang but that's another issue altogether).

weird lang how priests can't respect the beliefs of other people.