Just Another Day

I had a long test on Histo II. It's the first test I had in any of my subjects this semester. It's not hard, but I did have mental blackouts on some of the terms like the Thai boats which serve as floating markets. I was thinking of writing "sampong" but I knew it wasn't that. Good thing I kept the number blank because the word was actually "sampan". Quite far from sampong. Mentally associating ideas for hard-to-remember-words doesn't always work (I thought of the Filipino word for ten (sampu) while memorizing "sampan"). The remainder of the test was relatively easy. I take pride in my ability to name all the countries in West Asia, particularly that in Middle East, and their capitals. There were two particular questions that made me smile while answering it. One is to name "the country with the highest GDP in West Asia." while the other is to name the tiny piece of land on the map adjacent to the humongous Saudi Arabia. The answer to both questions is obviously the United Arab Emirates. I light up whenever I hear the letters U.A.E. It's my nostalgia.

After school, I patiently waited outside Robinsons because I have to give something important to my classmate. She told me to be there at 2:30. I was there at 2:15 because my professor in my Soc Sci class dismissed us early. It's very predictable that she would be late so I gave myself 30 minutes. I had no means of contacting her and I didn't plan to wait the entire day so I said to myself if she's not here by 3:00 I would go home. It reminded me of the bad habit we Filipinos have. We even coined a term for it. Filipino time. When you say "Filipino time" it's actually showing up 30 minutes or more after the scheduled time. It happens a lot. Even with Filipinos abroad. I know. I'm guilty of doing it sometimes. As a corollary, people give themselves the excuse of not showing up on time because the would say to themselves "wala pang tao doon" or "mamaya pa sila magsisidatingan." It goes to show how we Filipinos are lazy and tardy. Joyce didn't show up. Ate LeeAnn went to school early to tell me that Joyce couldn't come at that time because she had important things to do. Thank God it was only 2:40. I didn't want to waste 30 minutes standing outside Rob for nothing. I went home after that.

A mother with her child entered the bus I was riding in. All the seats were full so they had no choice but to stand.

I would gladly offer my seat to a lady or a senior citizen if the situation allows me to. Let me explain. If the lady or a senior citizen or even a kid you want to offer your seat to is too far away from where you are, it's pointless to stand up and offer your seat, because the moment you stand up a guy would come and take your place. Today was different. They stood right next to me, and at that moment I got up and gave my seat to them. The mother thanked me and gave me a smile and I felt like a thousand bucks. I smile whenever I see men offering their seat to women, and now I got to do the same act of a gentleman and it felt great. I didn't mind standing for 40 minutes all the way to Cavite. The very thought that I helped someone is better then me slumping on a bus chair.

Anyway I made a discovery today. I found out that San Agustin buses are offering student discounts. Instead of paying P23 the trip only cost me P18. That's P10 per day. Multiplying that to the number of school days and I could actually save P200 pesos per month. That's huge savings. It's enough to buy me the book I found in the bookshop near the entrance of Rob.

This entry was posted on January 11, 2005 at 4:34 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.