Must have been my Rest Day

Restless and sleepless as I am, I opted to stay home today and absent myself from UNICEF office after a 3-day streak. I lied down the bed but the sun does not managed to show up today due to bad weather striking the metropolis.

The Altruist-During the mid-day, I rest my head to the Altruist thinking plausible plans of actions that I will take in the near future as I officially lead the staff. By then, I came out with the following concerns:

1. what are the articles to include
2. who will consisit the Editorial Board
3. how can we possibly fund this project
4. when to publish]

Such mind-boggling concerns, however, inspired me to start editting articles I have already written (which are then used for docu purposes). I also listed down the possible contentions of the newsletter as well as the roster of aspiring staffers who will embody the Board.

UNICEF Documentation- Since Jen (Coordinator, UNICEF-FEU) was out of town for vacation, she had favored me to make the documentation for the ERMA project. I downloaded the pix stored in the yahoo!groups and began doing the activity report. I also dropped to Zabarte Town Center to have the pictures printed.

Maam Bacsal-While I was waiting for the pictures to be printed, I accidently bumped into my best science mentor way back in high school. Maam Bacsal, who is recently sharing her immeasurable expertise to her subject matter with the student of Camarin High School, has been of my fave teachers.

UNICEF Volunteer Experience-Day One

I woke up early today, prepared my things and rode a cab towards Nicanor Reyes Sr. St. in Manila. Since I have not yet taken my breakfast, I opted to stay at Jollibee Morayta to wait for my companion, Karan Grace Ballon, a junior member of Tamaraw Volunteers, and at the same time, take my long-delayed meal. While letting the time fly, I read the newspaper given to me by the cashier (together with the meal) not discounting the fact that I will be having my first debate class the next semester.

As soon as she had arrived, we left and headed toward the LRT Station via a brief jeepney ride. There had been unforeseen cashualties because of the big swarm of crowd jam-packed inside the train. Not to mention, Karan and I had even literally suffered from walking miles from DLSU to Buendia. Whoa! That was indeed exhausting.

Our 1st day at the UNICEF Office has been our training day. The presence of other UNICEF Volunteers (from DLSU, Lyceum, UST) who attended the Friday's meeting was unfelt. On the other hand, Karan and I were initially introduced with other office staffs working there. Gradually, we were taught the basics of our tasks. Happy by then, we started encoding documents for the organization. We had our lunch with Mr. Ed Vargas and Ms. Glenda who both showed their appreciation with us.

Danilo, who promised to be with me today, as speculated early, was still at Tarlac for unknown reasons. Sooner or later, he will be back but the assurance that he will be working with me at the office is rather not anticipated.

We left the office by 5:00pm.

UNICEF Volunteer Experience-Day Two

Karan, a member of my Chamber (Humanitarian Aid, TAMVOL) who also happened to be my companion during my first day working at the office was not able to do it today. That, however does not halt me from going for the second time around.

I was taught how to operate the business software solely made for selling UNICEF Christmas Cards. I was assigned by then to encode new entries for the company.

I had lunch together with officemates: Ate Ann (who doesn't want to be called "Ate"), Kuya Bong and Kuya Jomar (who both enjoy the lighter sides of life).

UNICEF Volunteer Experience-Day Three

Today is actually my third day at the UNICEF Office (31/F, RCBC Plaza, Makati City) as a volunteer staff. As expected, I had been very busy all throughout the day with all the office works assigned to me. For me to be able to arrived at the office early enough to accomplish loads of work, I was forced to wake up before the dawn broke. After a couple of hours sitting inside the airconditioned bus en route to Makati, I abruptly ran towards the one-man entry door of the RCBC Plaza. The weather wasn't so good because of the so-called Inter-Tropical Converging Zone (ITCZ) recently affecting the country.

I then proceeded to Yuchengco Tower.

It has been another long hours of sharing my precious time working for the children. I had been very privileged to be able to acquire this rare opportunity of indirectly helping them. I reckon this experience as one of my most wondeful volunteer involvements so far.

I continued encoding the contacts and company prospects to the laptop and I was also taught how to operate the photocopying machine as well as the fax machine.

Charles of UNICEF-UST and Jun of UNICEF-Lyceum have showned up today and showed their willingness to work for the organization as I do.

From the very start, my officemates have been very welcoming and approachable to me. However, since they were undeniably busy with phone calls and other stuffs during lunch break, I was forced to eat all by myself. :-(

Baguio Spree

“I deserve a break, though short!”

This has been my exact thoughts as I was traveling to Baguio with my friends the cold Saturday night. The whole semester has been full of workloads for me as a student and as a part of many organizations in the campus. It is true that the whole semester has been very busy for me. I know I accomplished much already and yet, I know I still have much to finish. And since my semester break calendar is flooded with schedules (meetings, conference, volunteer opts, etc.), I think of ways that would perhaps make me forget these things even for a short time. Baguio experience with my friends has been my solution. Call it a break. Though short. Short as 72 hours or less.

Well, the soothing wind of Pangasinan and Baguio seemed to have cured my soul [not to mention the atrocious incident on our way to McArthur Highway]. Though there were just three individuals who joined the trip (contrary to the arrangement), we still managed to enjoy the fogged city of Baguio, mind you people! (hehehe)

I see GREEN and GOLD!

Game 2 - FEU spirit, once again, filled the big dome for the Game 2 of the Championship Series of the UAAP’s Basketball Men Seniors to show support to our team. After the long battle for glory, the cagers of my endeared university bagged the bacon for the whole community. Win or lose, yelling for my team is indeed worth the effort (believe me!). Funny as it may seem, these are some of the experiences we had prior, during and after the game:

yet to start

Beware of Backstabbers? HEAR!

Hail to the Champs!

1. Glaiza, a colleague, even went to school (note here that we do not have classes and she lives miles away from the campus) prior the game just to secure tickets for the class. Sad to say, no matter how she tried to secure the tickets for the best place in the dome [Patron, Upper Box A or B], she still wasn’t able to acquire not even one. (at least we got Gen Ad tix, not bad!). We owe you one girl!

2. Exam Blues – Oh my! The game 2 sked coincided with the last day of our final examination. And worst, with our Humanities class with our most-beloved-because-he-looks-handsome Art Appreciation mentor. Guess what, we only used 1/3 of the time allotment for the examination. Well, the subject is quite easy. But how’s Sir James? I am sure people out there will gonna miss him…no more time to bid farewell! We have to fly to Araneta right away…

3. Tears of Joy?! - After split seconds when the Archer who attempted to shoot the final ball failed, hot tears rolled down into my cheeks. Whew! I just proved that I am STILL sentimental….

FEU indeed rocks my world!

Victory Party – The following day, the entire FEU community had celebrated to the victory garnered, not only by our basketball team, but also by our other competing athletes who also brought home prestige in our cup. Not to mention, the GREEN and GOLD undefeated volleyball men’s team were once again awarded as the back-to-back champions. Along with these are the victories harvested by the Table Tennis Teams as well as the insurmountable individual awards. On the afternoon of the blessed 7th day of October, students, employees, athletes, alumni, and the administration gathered at the Quadrangle to pay tribute to the Athletic Squad. After the short programme, the Cueshe Band graced the night. All in all, the experiences brought by these events made me even prouder as a living TAMARAW.

GO, FIGHT! GREEN and GOLD!

Continuing the legacy of excellence...

Poor Admission in the GREEN and GOLD University

One of the major crises FEU is experiencing years long has something to do with the sense of pride among its studentry, or should I deem, the dreaded identity crisis. Yes! For at most 2 years of my stay in FEU, I had already been geared up with umpteen reasons on why I should be proud of my BELOVED school. For so long, student leaders in the campus had tackled the probable reasons on why we are undergoing this appalling predicament. Unsurprisingly, we have come about the SOLE reason: the POOR ADMISSION.

To be able to be officially admitted in a university or in any colleges, one must allot time in reviewing for the entrance examination which is, in fact, a primary requisite. It is very sad to know that the poor admission of students in FEU has paved way to the obliteration of its credibility as a prime institute of learning in the Philippines. Much more discouraging and disheartening is that the administration purges students who are academically bare during their 2nd or 3rd year of stay in the university.

In a nutshell, I think it is about time to re-construct the admission process of the students. May they not let the carabaos or cows enter the land of the Tamaraws which are supposed to be equipped with virtues, values and intelligence. Only then we will realize that FEU is one of the leading private non-secretarian institutes of learning in the country.