immersion round 2

i am part of the facilitating batch for this sembreak's internship program of the ateneo human rights center. so for two weeks, i was away from home. for four days, we were in tagaytay, after which we proceeded to socorro, oriental mindoro for the immersion proper, and lastly to puerto galera for the RnR. i will concentrate on the immersion part.
as a facilitator, our job was to make hatid the new batch to their community and in the middle of their immersion, to visit them. me and sir ry were tasked to hatid two pairs (meaning two sites as well). we left headquarters at around 2:40pm, rode the van until happy valley, then proceeded to walk, cross the river (like, 28/29 times!) and climbed the mountain. night fell when we were still on the road. we arrived in the first site at 7pm. so we decided to stay for the night, and to continue the journey the following morning. and this is where the torture session began. upon arriving, we were presented with banana which was somewhat similar in taste to fried saba or something like that. anyway, it was really good. the problem was that there were 6 of us and each ate 2 pieces lang ata. of course, that ain't enough. especially for an appetite such as mine. hehehe. buti nalang on the way, we bought skyflakes and a can of sardines. so to supplement the banana dinner, we had one individually wrapped skyflakes each and a piece of sardines. still not enough of course. in the morning, nobody cooked, buti nalang i brought nova, so that was my breakfast.
after "breakfast" we left for the second site. we crossed the river like 9 times i think. we stopped for a break, and sir ry gave me a piece of his energy bar. and then our travel up the mountain, as in dun sa daanan ng kalabaw. so maputik, madulas, and we even had to use a walking stick and rope just to climb up. grabe talaga. and to think that it didn't rain that day. buti nalang. otherwise super hirap talaga. halfway up, i took off my mojos since it kept on sinking in the mud. actually, hanggang binti ung putik. we arrived in the second site around 11:15, so three hours kami papunta. upon arriving, there were very few people. our lunch consisted of buko. imagine the hunger i felt! grabe talaga. going down the mountain, we travelled through a different route. but it was so slippery as well. in front of me was sir ry so i observed which areas he slipped so that i could avoid sliding as well. also, good thing that there were many "kuyas" who accompanied us. so going down, i held on to two of them. one on each side. hehehe. oh! one last thing. there were limatiks in the area going to and fro. limatiks are somewhat similar to leeches. they suck on blood. but if you take them out when they haven't bitten onto your skin, then good for you. well, i had a total of 4 limatiks, but none were able to suck my blood.
overall, going to the site and getting back was difficult, but it was a great experience as well. and super fun. so no regrets my volunteering to join the immersion as facilitator :)

sembreak's here, but still not much time to relax

final exams lasted one and a half weeks (from October 12 to 21). but i didn't get to relax yet after finals was over. coz i had to contend with my secreg paper and my torts digests due on thursday (October 22). nywy, i finished them at almost 1AM. by then, sabaw na utak ko, not to mention that i was soooo sleepy na. after all that was done, i slept of course. but sleep was not enough to make up for the lost sleep that i had to endure during finals. i know it's not healthy for our brain cells when we lack sleep, but much as i want to, it always seems as if i lack enough time to study, so where else would i take that extra time but to deprive myself of a few hours of sleep just to be able to read and finish studying the coverage? today (Friday), morning was basically a time to just be lazy, but by afternoon, back to my hectic sked. at noon, i had to do my groceries with my mom, even before i had my breakfast and lunch! that's because we have to use her credit card. after groceries, i had my delayed meal. after an hour, i went to binondo to buy supplies for my org, for the tagaytay part of the internship, and also other stuff that we were going to send to the communities we went to last year. after an hour of rest, i had dinner with friends/churchmates since Kim was about to leave for London. sadness actually. 2mrw (October 24), i need to buy more materials (notebooks and whatnot) to give to the communities. have to bring them to makati so that i won't have such a hard time later in the evening when im going back to makati with my stuff. and then, Kim's despedida is from 4-7pm. and then after that, as mentioned, im going back to makati. sunday morning - start of sembreak internship program. and then we come back on november 6 - friday before the start of classes. so basically, i have no sembreak because of the sembreak internship program :(

medyo masipag magblog

Here I am once again, blogging. Don't have much to tell really. It's just that I got nothing much going on here at home.
I was supposed to go to Catarman, Samar tomorrow to conduct a training, but then it got postponed (for the second time). It was supposed to be happening on May 23, but then our contact said that it would be better if we did it on June. And then they decided on June 11, since their classes start on June 8. But because of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus, lots of schools moved their opening of classes to June 15, and theirs did as well. So like I said, my trip got postponed to who knows when.
So, my second to the last week of vacation, I have nothing to do, except accompany my grandma to UST for her therapy sessions, watching movies, and reading novels.
But this last week is a bit different, especially since I was able to buy my Asus eeepc netbook. And I'm using it right now. And I'm loving it.
Since my eldest brother was here for the past week and a half, he copied all his movies into my netbook. So now I have almost half of my hard disk's memory full of movies from my brother. And that's what I've been doing almost the whole day yesterday, since my other brother told me that it's important to use a new laptop for three whole days. But aside from watching movies, my only use for my netbook is the internet, since school hasn't started yet. But I'm sure once it does, me and my netbook would be buddies, day by day.

last day at work

finally, i have come to the end of my apprenticeship. this is my last day here in the law office. as of this writing, i officially have one and a half hours left. that's because i end at 6pm. though i'll be staying here until around 6:30 before going home. but it doesn't help that it's raining right now. which will definitely mean more traffic. i just hope that when im waiting for that bus to take me to buendia, id still be able to secure a seat.
that's the difficulty in makati. at 6pm, eventhough there are a lot of buses, there still does not seem to be enough to take in all the people. which is why i prefer to leave a little later, at 6:30. by the time i reach the loading area for buses, there aren't as much people coz those people who are hurrying to go home have already gotten onto the earlier buses at 6. they prefer to get on the buses eventhough there are not enough seats to accommodate all of them. me? i don't like standing up. that's one of the things i avoided that is why i get up at 6am so that by the time i leave the dorm or my house at 7, there still aren't that much people riding the buses, and that means i get a seat. unlike if i leave earlier just in time to get to the office by 9, i would most likely have to stand up, which i really prefer not to. so, i just make a little sacrifice and wake up earlier.

work, work, work

I started working on april 13 for my summer apprenticeship in a law firm. Now, it's my 23rd day. 7 days to go, excluding this one. My apprenticeship ends on may 29.
We started out with 5 of us as apprentices. Now, we're down to 2. The first 2 ended last may 4 - their 2nd half was with a different firm. The third was going to (and is now in) the US of A. So he lasted only until may 8. And so, like I said, there are only 2 of us left.
During the time that there were 5 apprentices, i.e. the first half of our apprenticeship, work was not so heavy, obviously since there were more of us. I felt how heavy our work load was the first day when there were only 2 of us left. Imagine, by the end of that day, I had 4 pending work to do! That doesn't happen often, thank goodness. Most of the time, I only have 2 pending work before I call it a day and go home (rather the dorm).

Because of work, I went to San Fernando, Pampanga last thursday (may 14). That took most of the day. And I was almost sent to Zambales today, but it didn't materialize. Sayang. Gusto ko pa naman sana pumunta talaga. Kaya lang, when sir J asked me yesterday if I could go today (the other apprentice also had work to do kasi), I unfortunately had work to do din, and it was kind of urgent (meaning, my deadline for that work is today, and it was only given to me yesterday), so I couldn't go. Sayang. It would have taken the whole day. And I love going outdoors too. Because that meant you're working at the same time getting paid and at the same time a bit relaxed.
Well, I just hope that before I end on may 29, I would be able to go outdoors one or maybe two more times. That would be cool. That's it for now.

Food Sale the Second Time Around

I was head of the first HR Batch Marino 22 Food Sale last December, which coincided with Human Rights Week and the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE) international conference. I expressed how I felt burdened the whole of that week. So they promised me that I would have a co-head the next food sale. And so the second food sale happened last Feb 9to12 with a co-head, V, assigned. So I thought that things would be easier. I told V that I really need his help especially since I would be busy with the upcoming summer apprenticeship and interviews. But boy was I disappointed that week with V. It was as if I didn't have a co-head at all. Why?
Strike One: He texted me the morning of Monday (first day of the food sale) that he was still on his way back to Manila from Sagada and so he couldn't help me. The thing is, I assigned him to help me set up. He should have texted me like Sunday night or something so that I could make arrangments.
Strike Two: His food sale shift is on thursday, starting at 10am (set-up). He arrived at 11am.
Strike Three: His shift is from 10to5pm. He didn't tell me that he had CLED duty from 2to4. (As HR interns, we are required to render two hours service per week). The problem is, only two of them were assigned for that day's shift. And based from experience, even three people manning the food sale is difficult enough. And now V was going to leave C alone in manning the food sale? If two of my blockmates didn't cut, I don't know how C could have coped up with manning the food sale all on her own.
And what's more difficult that day was that it was the second day of my period. So just imagine how awful and uncomfortable I felt that day.
But anyway, me and V our now on good terms. Don't want to prolong the "fight". Well actually, hindi naman fight, inis lang. Napuno lang kasi eh.

after a week's worth of hard work

it's christmas break once again. finally. after one week of stress and toxicness.
my org is the Ateneo Human Rights Center. we are the newest batch that is why we are considered the strike force of the Center. the Dec 8-13 week was a busy one not just for us, the newest interns (members), but for the other interns as well. not only was it HR week where we had food sale headed by me, and other activities throughout the week, but there was also the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE) conference, the first one ever to be held in Asia, with over 150 delegates from all over the world participating. so doble kayod for us. sobrang hirap. kulang sa tulog, for most of the week, i had an average of 5hours only. once i only had an hour's worth of sleep. hindi pa ako nakakapag-aral ng matino. buti nalang hindi ako masyado natawag throughout the week.hehehe. pero medyo nasira study sked ko. sobrang pagod lang talaga and stress, pero can't complain kasi eto ung pinili kong pasukan na org eh. pero overall that one week's worth of hard work paid off. the food sale was super fun and a bonding experience for the batch as well. and we got to stay in the hotel twice that week. so rewarding experience siya.