This Frakked-Upped Enrolment

Ever since I arrived in Manila, it seems that I have been dogged by a series of unfortunate events.

Yesterday, I was planning on withdrawing my enrolment money when the PNB ATM went offline. The fierce rains kept me from journeying beyond the Shopping Center.

Today, I woke up early hoping that the line at the bank would still be short. Turns out there was no line. The reason: the ATM was still offline.

But I consoled myself with the fact that I could still enroll myself as payment is the last step in the process.

Lining up at the grad school office to get my Form 5 was a bit of a hassle as the support staff was still a bit frazzled and disorganized. But thankfully the line was short. When I got my forms I snuck inside a vacant classroom and proceeded to fill them out. So far, so good...

Next, I made my way to the History Department's office to have my forms signed by our designated graduate studies adviser. I was spared the long queue since graduates students are accorded a certain privilege - naks...and so I was patiently waiting inside the office for my name to be called when all of a sudden everything went dark.

At nagkabrownout pa! walang kuryente, walang access sa CRS! Sh*t!

In hopes that the power would eventually return, I bided my time in the dark recesses of the Kas office, assaulted by the delectable sight and smell of the office staff's merienda. But there was good news -- I was directed to the office of Prof Veneracion who was gracious enough to sign our forms. Made me think twice not taking his course -- ang bait pala ni Prof Jimmy...hehe

When I was about to step out of the department, I realized that I did not have my trusty umbrella with me. Frak. I went back to the Kas office but it was not there. Then I remembered...

I left it inside the vacant classroom.

I went back there but my umbrella was already gone. Which was not surprising, considering it was one fine specimen. At sino ba ang hindi gugustuhing makapulot ng sosyal na payong, no?

But, dammit! This frakking day has been one disaster after another!

To relieve the stress of this day, I spent the next few hours roaming Trinoma and SM North. I bought myself a new umbrella and as luck would have it, an Underworld DVD was on sale at Odyssey at THE Annex. Nothing like Beckinsale in spandex to chase the malas away. hehe

I decided to return early to UP since I imagine the power cut wouldn't last long. I made my way to the library for my clearance. Earlier I had been there but the power outage meant that they were unable to access their records or whatever. I was expecting a flurry of activity since they would be making up for lost time but the library seemed bare -- and dark.

"Sir, closed na po kami. Half-day lang kami ngayon." the guard informed me.

*Sigh*

Volvere a mi Profesora

I'm stuck at the boarding house due to the weather. Nothing to do but surf the net and read. Good thing that I checked out the CRS to see updates on my preenlistment. Last night when I checked it out, there were only a few Spanish courses available for preenlistment. This morning, however, a number of elementary courses were available and it's a good thing that there were a few Span 11 classes open.

Of course I had to enlist in a class of my former Span 10 prof. Now I'm hoping that the new 'ranking system' of the CRS would work to my advantage. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my selected classes will be approved...

I'm not too worried about the MA courses since hindi naman yan pinag-aagawan eh. I decided to take a cognate course in anthropology so let's see how this turns out next sem...

My Enrolment as A Descent into Hell...Dante Alighieri Style (The Expanded Edition)

First Circle: Office of the Graduate Program, mahaba man ang prusisyon...

I didn't realize that there are a LOT of graduate students in CSSP. The long line snaking its way from PH 111 and almost reaching the other end of the lobby proved na marami pala ang mga dakilang mag-aaral ng programang gradwado. A few undergraduates unwittingly strayed into our queue, mistaking our line for the validation of their Form 5's. A nervous-looking Geog major who was standing in front of me was such lost soul, meekly exiting our line then coming back insisting that our line was for student validation. I patiently explained to her that she should be lining up on the other door farther down the corridor. I was eyeing her as she was making her way to the direction I pointed out and I was thinking, "kung lalampas ka ng Female CR, patay kang bata ka..." Luckily for her, the validation area had an imposing placard spelling out V-A-L-I-D-A-T-I-O-N.

Second Circle: FC Second Floor, The Hall of 'Lost' Souls

We were the 'lost' souls awaiting the arrival of our dear History Department chairperson. Undergrads and grad students were lounging about the hallway, some standing, while the others assumed positions reminiscent of a sit-down strike. I found out that the undergrads and I shared a common problem: difficulty gaining access to the oh-so-exclusive Spanish language courses. Unlike the undergrads, however, I gave up on my Span plans for this semester. The wait was so long that I took the opportunity to text several acquaintances -- resulting to a deluge of text messages that kept me busy during the wait.

Third Circle: Inside Dr. Llanes' office, a weird staring contest

Dr. Llanes finally arrived, looking a bit harried as this was a busy day for him. He immediately dispensed with the 'lost' souls -- telling the undergrads to submit a letter regarding their troubles while the grad students he faced one-on-one. When he got to me, he glanced at my Form 5 then gave me a stare that seemed a cross between an art critic viewing an abstract painting and an amateur astronomer trying to spot Jupiter in the night sky using only his naked eye. I, on the other hand, tried to give him my best Close Up smile hahahaha I must've looked halfway decent to him since he let me go with no hassles

Fourth Circle: Palma Hall Lobby, the Amazing Student Planner

We have to pay the Student Fund. In return for our kind contribution, the CSSP Student Council gave us THE AMAZING STUDENT PLANNER. It was quite a good decision of the Council to provide their constituents with a planner that had the necessary info regarding the Academic Calendar for the whole school year. Having said that, there are just some things about THE AMAZING STUDENT PLANNER that concerned me. On the left-hand corner of the pages of the Calendar were typed the words: "ONLYN NA TAU" with the council webpage address indicated below the words. It took me a second to realize that the letters meant "ONLINE NA TAYO" just spelled in text-English. Goodness gracious, there was so much space on that part of the layout, why can't they put the phrase in its proper spelling? Then there was the misspelling of EXCERCISE as in Commencement Excercise. Hello...But despite those gaffes, I still appreciate the gesture of the Council giving us THE AMAZING STUDENT PLANNER. Thanx --este -- Thanks.

Fifth Circle: Palma Hall Lobby, Close Encounters of a Familiar Kind

Nagkita ulit ang mga bloggers. Met Pebi while she was lining up to pay for the Student Council Fee (or was it for the Library Clearance?). Pebi was evidence of the stifling heat that day as she was literally covered in a layer of sweat...parang libre sauna bath ang look ni Pebi hehe

Sixth Circle: PH 117, PH 111 -- which comes first?

PH 111 should've come first, but in our excitement me Ate Angie and I went straight to the Validation. The kind staff-in-charge informed us that we jumped the gun and we should've gone first to PH111 (Office of the Grad Program) for the checking of our Form 5. No matter, as we just did the process in reverse. We had our subjects checked after they were already validated.

Seventh Circle: Palma Hall Lobby, I have to pay WHAT?! How much? ...sonofa*itch!

The tuition fee for undergrad subjects had increased to P1000/unit. And since I am taking 3 units of undergrad, there was an unexpected increase in the payments. Luckily I had withdrawn an additional amount prior to the enrolment. But still, the extra P1500 took its toll on my fiscal planning for the week. Damn the tuition fee increase!

Eighth Circle: OUR Third Floor, all my fiscal planning for this week goes down the sh*thole huhuhu

The LONG walk from Palma Hall to the Office of the University Registrar(OUR) was something I wasn't looking forward to. The climb to the Third Floor wasn' fun either. The prospect of losing a substantial amount of money plus the unceremonious tuition fee increase made this last leg the literal eight circle of hell moment for me. Plus, the room where the cashiers were was airconditioned so I really felt like I was in Dante's frozen pit of hell. What got me through the ordeal was imagining a flock of tibaks descending on the OUR with their banners, placards and screaming their lungs out in angry indignation over the commercialization of state education. If only I could turn my thoughts into reality at that time...