Tuesday, March 10, 2009

9th Week: Successes and Failures: To Comply and To Interact

Last weekend, Sir Emil sent me an "invite" to KAISA's Victory Party at Monday night. Since I knew beforehand that my mom will allow me, I replied to the number specified that I would come. After all the tralala's, I asked Regina if she received the same invite to which she was negative. We came into a conjecture that the people who knew her number ran out of credits. So from that point I insisted to drag her along because in the first place, she is the more active member of the organization than I am.

Supposedly, on Monday, I should be attending the recognition of CS at CS (Catch my drift? They're College Scholars and College of Science, respectively.) by early morning. But I purposely woke up at 9AM, the usual time I wake up on Monday mornings. I packed a few shirts and towelettes and bagged in a few extra stash of cash. I told my mom that just in case I found a place to stay overnight, I will do so. Surprisingly, she agreed. And I knew that for a few days, I will miss my authoritarian mom.

So there, I went to the mall first to buy some stuff before proceeding to my class. After it, since it's too early to come to the party, I first asked Sir Basilla about a few tweaking details. Disappointingly, I failed to find the answers that I need. So what does that mean? Prior to everything, I "enlisted" myself to be an 'advisee' of Sir Basilla. But since I found myself "incompatible" to the Great Lord of IM (Institute of Math), I told myself to go to either Sir Takenouchi or Ma'am Vallejos (when I speak of the latter as my thesis adviser to my friends, they will be shocked and they are telling me if I am serious of the matter, on which I'm positive).

So Regina and I talked while waiting for the time to come. After some time, she received a call while she was taking a nap. From her responses, it seemed to be a member of the org trying to tell her about the party. Talk about official invitation!

So we went to KFC Katipunan Ave, the supposed meeting place 5 steps away from the venue. From there we met Sir BJ, the VC of Sanlakas Youth. Well, that's just the start of me meeting new people. To exaggerate, I already met hundreds of KAISA members just at KFC! And after I queried about my dilemma, they said that I can stay together with a few people at the headquarters of KAISA! Problem solved!

At the venue (it was, if I remember correctly, at Xanland), I met more people and got to know some of them. And there was a problem regarding the number of people in the venue. The place can only hold 50 people but 150 people are expected. I was surprised when they were packing and headed for their Plan B!

The venue was actually moved to Ma'am Steph's house. Since there were a lot of people, the place somehow became small. After the general "program", there were games, food fest, people being thrown to the pool and lots of [wild] dancing. They started by 8 and packed up by 1. What a long night!

So we now headed to the HQ where I stayed. The "living room" was a bit messy due to election paraphernalia lying everywhere, but I managed to get a spot and eat a little before I go to sleep. At a corner of a room, I snugged myself and slept. Everything went normal, and Tuesday came. I woke up early and took a bath. I left to school with a few people, including Sir Jose (or should I put it Councilor Jose, whichever you prefer) and we walked together to Math Building once we're at UP.

I don't know, but it's like a social aspect level-up for me. Within a night, I got to know a lot of people. They were a lot that I actually forgot some of them (sorry!). I guess that's one thing I have to improve on: name recalling.

Ma'am Vallejos dismissed us early so I grabbed that time to talk to her and tell her that I want her to be my thesis adviser (which she affirmed, and gave me a topic) and from that point on, I became happy, knowing that my thesis work will have a direction[al vector]. Why her, you asked? It's because I want to do numerical analysis and I want to employ something which has algorithms, and I found her perfect to be my adviser. So from that night on, I researched on what topics do I want to tackle.

When I went home, my mother is suddenly experiencing mood swings. She easily gets angry and gets back to being authoritative. But it's just some days before when I told myself that I miss my authoritarian mom. I should be careful what I wish for!

By Wednesday, as I am to come to my Korean class. I met Ma'am Laura and she recognized me, so we somehow greeted each other. You may say that it's a trivial thing so just pretend that I'm a child and it's my first time to interact with other people aside from my family, friends, and teachers. Seriously. My social aspect has never been like a bomb!

Thursday came. Sir Takenouchi asked our class who will be his 'advisees'. He said he can accommodate three students. Precious and Goegie claimed the two spots and left the last one hanging. Sir Takenouchi asked Kai about who's her thesis adviser, to which she replied "Sir Basilla" and Sir Takenouchi commented that he is good. He then asked me the same question, and I said, lying, that I'm still undecided. He told us that our class was his top priority and some students who are not in his class want to be enlisted as his 'advisees', so he's basically "waiting for me" and that thwarted a hole in my heart. He then asked me who I'm still considering, and I told him the one that I talked earlier.

No classes on Math 150.2 so we were dismissed early. Jan and I saw Kai and Precious so I joined with the two ride a jeepney to SM North (Jan was riding a jeepney to Pantranco). It has been an hour or so before we hailed a jeep and we keep on calling myself the jinx, the one who brings bad luck. Surprisingly, I thought someone was waving at me (or I think it was my imagination). To my surprise, I saw Sir Bong (or should I put it Councilor Bong, whichever you prefer). I waved back.

By Friday, Sir Takenouchi sent me an SMS, telling me if I have decided on who will my adviser will be. Somehow, I felt negatively different. I cringed while replying that somebody else can take that slot. He then sent a reply telling me that "It's ok. You should choose the one who gave you your favorite topic." It's kind of heartbreaking so I came to a resolve that I will do my best on this thesis. I told Regina what happened while she was teaching me some Math lessons.

It's night when we were done. While I was walking home, I saw my friends from UP Tomo-Kai. Apparently, it was Luke's birthday and she gave me some charm for studies. She also invited me with her friends for her treat at Yellow Cab, which I agreed to joined. It was at Katipunan Ave so while traversing the way, Monday's events sank in again. Well, the dinner was fun and cute. I thought we caused some chaos there since we were too noisy and we were playing a game. And note: we are on a long table!

Somehow, I've been ecstatically happy and I am busy lately. And if you've been asking if I address the people by Sir or Ma'am, it's just because I'm intimidated to write about them by first-name basis.

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