June 14, 2005

3 Days Into UP Life

Yey!!! It is good to realize that all in all, today was a good day. 

Though it ended well, it started quite rocky.

Ang aga kong nagising kanina to get ready for school. Siyempre, I want to change na, I don’t want to be late anymore. Although UP Manila is just quite near I need to be up and awake early kasi I am kinda slow ako mag-move pag-morning at saka matagal ako maligo kasi natutulog pa ako sa CR. Still groggy pa ako during that time.

Anyway, I was really ready for school na by 6:15. But then yung mga brothers ko di pa. They were still sleeping at our couch. Since Dad would fetch us all to school I had to wait for the two pa. Ang tagal pa nilang dalawa mag-move kaya there nauubos na ung time ko. 

7:30 is the start of my class today and Mrs Recio is my prof for Nursing 1. I don’t want to be late kasi she had the reputation of being a terror. Ayoko nga mabato ng eraser sa face. And I don’t want it for that day to be the first one kaya pinapagalitan ko na ung dalawa kung kapatid para bilisan. 6:45 na kami nakaalis sa house. Mga 7 na kami nakarating sa Don Bosco Technical Institute, the new school of my brothers.

Since it is a big school with many rich kids that also ride cars going to school, clogged ang road to the said school. Kaya we, my mom, yong and yeng were forced to go down na lang sa may nearby place para pwede kaming mag-walk para mas mabilis, while my Dad drove the car along the traffic. Since it is a big school ang hirap maghanap ng room nila. Mga 5 mins pass 7 na un kaya tapos na ung pila for the Grade 1 students. It took us a long time pa to look for their room kasi we don’t know the place naman. 7:15 na eh hindi pa namin nakikita ung room/pila ng 1st years kaya nagdecide na lang si Mommy na pahatid na ako kay Daddy.

Grabe Don Bosco was still quite far from UP Manila with 10 minutes to spare na lang before 7:30. Aaaah, Late na ako!!!! Kulang na lang lumipad na ung car namin just to arrive on time. Goodness, I was really stressed tlaga.

I arrived sa Pedro Gil mga 7:40. I rushed to the College of Nursing Building mga 7:45. Nako late talaga ako. Buti na lang hindi naka-lock ung room namin at nakapasok ako unnoticed by Ms Recio.

Yes!!! Hindi ako nabato ng eraser. Masaya talaga ako!!!

Kumain kami sa Rob. As usual sa food court para cheaper kaysa sa mga resto. Late din kami sa Soc Sci pero good thing is wala ung prof kaya masaya. Nakipagdaldalan lang ako. Kakaiba kasi noon sa MakSci natutulog ako pag-free time. Ngayon di ko mapigilang dumaldal. Hanggang Math 11 daldalan pa rin kahit nasa corridor kasi wala rin ung prof. 

Yes ang saya talaga!!! Puro daldal lang ang ginawa ko kanina. Hehehe!!!

Bago umuwi nagpa-photocs muna ako and I ate Ice cream at Rob. Wala lang.

That’s it. Later mag-rerewrite na ako ng notes. Wala lang.

Obvious na ang daldal ko noh!!! Hehehe!!!

So many things have happened the past week. So plenty, that I almost forgot to blog about them. Haha!

***************

Last Wednesday, my friends and I played badminton. I was with Alvin, Joseph, JJ, Adel, Eli, Dremon, Karla, Mark and Jonas. Only the first five people really played. The rest just watched us play and they just loafed around the area.

I really enjoyed such badminton escapade because I have missed this sport so much. It is just so bad that I have become so noobish at it.... again... Haha!

On a more positive note, I won most of the matches. Out of 4 matches, I only lost 1! Woooohhh!!!

****************

Talk about impromtu

After the badminton session, JJ invited us to go swimming at his condo's pool. At first, I was not really buying such idea because I did not have any extra pair of shorts and undies with me. Also, the badminton shorts I was wearing was relatively thin in terms of the material it was made of. And, such pair of shorts is colored white.

As we all know, white clothes when gotten wet, would become see-through.

White undies + White Shorts + Water = No Dignity for Eian

Waaaaahhhh!!!

Even with all these obstacles presented, I gave in to my friends' coercion. Haha! With UPCN's busy schedule, it had been ages since I last did some swimming activity!

So what happened to me, you ask?

• Lost my dignity.
• Did not leave the pool until it was time to go home, in the hopes of preserving whatever dignity was left of me.
• Took a shower
  
• Squeezed water out of my undies
• Squeezed some more
  
• Squeezed like there was no tomorrow
• Wore my undies like nothing happened
• Felt uneasiness on the perineal area
  
• Ignored the uneasiness
• Drove home
• Exerted much effort to ignore the uncomfortable eeky feeling
  
• Took a bath immediately after arriving home
• Thanked the heavens for new and fresh undies
• Slept
• Suffered DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) upon waking up

Whew. Such experience that was!

****************

Actually, that was my first experience of swimming in a pool, using ordinary, cotton undies as part of my swim wear. I tell you, it was a state not worth trying again.

Guys, next time there will be a swimming party/session, please do inform me of such event at an earlier time. I'd be very happy to prepare for it the night before.

Putting the undies experience aside, I really enjoyed all the activities we did! I hope we do it again soon! But let's do it in a less impromtu-like manner.  Come on! Kamon!

 

It is nice to realize that you have made improvements on a task you have once dreamed of learning.

This afternoon, I sat at the passenger seat beside the driver of the shuttle ride home. I do not usually sit on this spot of a public vehicles because I do not feel so comfortable on such seat. As you know, many public vehicle drivers are usually on a rampage when they are on the road. So, sitting on such spot is one of the most hazardous areas on a public vehicle. Also, my Dad prohibits me from sitting there because of the risks it presents to passengers. But because of certain circumstances, I had to sit on such spot.

While on the road, I saw a car with a signage on its rear, reading: "Caution: Student Driver". The car was skidding and halting speed at a very awkward manner.

I thought to myself: "The driver is indeed a student driver."

I remembered myself when I was just starting to learn how to drive. I was worse. I sucked at driving. Big time. The engine would die down after every intersection. I always forgot to put the gear back to the neutral position. The clutch and gas play was always unschynchronized. I was driving at a very slow pace. I would have even lost from a race with a snail at such rate.

I hated driving at that time. I was really frustrated at myself because I felt so noobish with it. I was not confident. It even came to the point that I did not want to drive at all. I felt such an imbecile on such endeavor.

Time passed. I practiced. It was partly by force with a mixture of pride. My ego could not take the possibility that I shall fail. I kept practicing.

After a million engine die-down episodes and a multitude of curses from other furious drivers, I can drive a vehicle by myself. I can now drive alone and unsupervised.

I'm still noobish.
But I know, I have progressed.

This is one endeavor were patience and perseverance really really really come into play.

Nursing anyone?

Dilemma is up about.
Too many tangles to iron out.

Faith shall decide fate.

*************

We had our data collection at the municipality of Pateros today for our N199 research paper about children's immunization. Because I loathe taking ordinary (no air-conditioning system) buses which travels through EDSA and SLEX *Read: Smoke=Death*, I opted to bring our family car.

Bringing it was not a big deal because I had brought it to Pateros before. Also, since this day was a weekend, not much vehicles were out in the metro jungle. So, it was relatively a less "dangerous" ordeal.

There was no problem whatsoever with my driving process.

BUT, if there was, I would have enjoyed free accommodations on a JAIL CELL.

It was not until I was about to go home from UP Manila (After doing data collection stuff in Pateros, we went straight to Manila because we had to meet with my other classmates for our other "responsibilities" *Read: Toxicity*) did I realize that I was driving illegally!

I did not have a license!

My driver's license was nowhere to be found among the rubbles of my oh so organized wallet! It was not there! As in! You see, I keep all my ID stuff including my license on the card slot of my wallet. However, since my wallet is so dilapidated already, there was a great chance that it fell off somewhere.

I was very nervous as I was driving home because if I get caught, I'd be dead! Waaahh!

Thank God! I was able maintain proper street decorum at that time. I was able to arrive home safely.

I am still a free man!

Waaahhh!!!

I failed to realize that I left my license in my room.

So noobish...

I guess I'll deviate from my "blabberful" posts for some time. School work is consuming the majority of my time, so I'll have limited time to talk about the stuff I am currently doing if I will be talking so much. But then, I'll try to squeeze blogging to my tight schedule, as much as possible. This is to keep track of what I am currently doing as a reference for my future self; and, at the same time sharing my experiences to the world (as if people all around the globe reads my posts! Asa!)

So here is the pilot run for blog posts on the run:

(this is totally random)

• Attended first day of duty (Ward5) of the year... on time!
• Got late on the second duty day of the year
• Was on time for the rest of the duty days. Yey!
• Made papers for Ward 5 duty
• Had a patient with a spinal chord compression with Pott's disease
• Had  four 10 mins breaks after every 2 mins everyday of duty
• Used the 10 mins to follow Ma'am Paguio (our Clinical Instructor) around as a pseudo C.I.
• Performed suctioning through an endotracheal tube
• Performed  straight catherterization on a patient
• Made more papers
• Had a quiz on Earthly and Heavenly cities
• Had microsleeps while listening on a report
• Made even more papers
• Removed a foley catheter (the catheter that has a urine drainage bag connected on the end) on a patient
  
• Slept on a shuttle ride going to school
  
• OC-OCed on a particular paper
• Sold our old car
• Cleaned a dead man's body
• Bought a new car
• Removed an endotracheal tube from a patient
• Removed a bloody nasogastric tube from a patient
• Did enless chartings
• Thanked our CI for being a great mentor for us
• Ate Dairy Queen ice cream....hmmmm... twice!!!
• Played with our dog
• Finished the 3rd season of Grey's Anatomy
• Rode our new car as a passenger
• Wondered when I will drive such car
• Continued sulking on my haircut
• Placed a reserve order for the UP centennial planner
• Went to Kanlungan sa ERMA (I forgot what ERMA means)
• Walked a thousand miles (Yes, I am exaggerating. But it felt like such.) in an area in San Andres, Bukid, Manila
  
• Ate at World Chicken
• Ate Krispy creme doughnuts
• Was not able to attend the kick-off celebration of the centennial year of UP because of stupid papers!
• Woke-up 1 min prior to an alarm ring
• OC-OCed our CD stack in the house

Woooh! Finished! I did not realize I did so many things in just less than a week! Remember: the things listed there are completely random! The order of such list is only based on the things that came onto my mind as I was writing this entry!

Details will be given if requested!