Day XYZ: It becomes more real each day

Hello there!

So as you might have observed, I wasn't able to blog for the last three days. I have been here in Manila for 6 days now and I guess this would be my last blog until God knows when I would be vacant again. Charrss I didn't come here for vacation afterall but for - by far - the most crucial battle in my life. So I guess I should start getting serious with my review now since I am now practically settled in my dorm what with all the shopping and touring that transpired for the last three days. 

Day 3 -  May 16, 2014

My roomie Michael finally arrives with his aunt. We had lunch together and since his aunt bought us all softdrinks, I wasn't left with any choice but to DRINK it. You know why this is such a big deal for me? You see, I have this NO-SODA-FOR-2014 as my New Year's resolution which I have been faithfully fulfilling UNTIL that day. You guessed it right. That was my first soda for this year for which I couldn't refuse drinking because Michael's aunt already bought it and I couldn't say no anymore because it would be too embarrassing already to decline. #sadlife

After dropping Michael off, his aunt then went back home. Michael and I then went to SM Lazaro to shop for stuff and went to Liana's by evening to buy some stuff again. Hahaha. We finished the day by tidying up our room and by the time we finished, our room was already decent enough to be liveable. Hahaha.

Day 4 -  May 17, 2014

Michael and I went to SM Manila by 10am to buy some dormer's essentials that we haven't bought yet. We then went to Isetan, a Gaisano-like mall located somewhere in Recto and then proceeded to buy Michael's books still at Recto. He was able to buy 12 books for a price of Php2200. A certain book of the same kind which I bought from a legit bookstore for Php430 was bought by Michael at Recto for only Php180! Our seniors definitely were not lying when they told us that Recto has it all (at unbelievably cheap prices)!

Also that day, some of our friends arrived-Christelle, Catherine, Gladys Mae, Yenyen, John Ed, Randy and Sol. By afternoon, I accompanied Yen, John Ed, Randy and Sol to SM Lazaro for their turn in shopping and doing their grocery. It took them ages to finish and before we know it, it was almost 10pm when we got back to Espanya.

Day 5 -  May 18, 2014

I finally met up with Christelle and Gladys by morning as we had breakfast together. We then attended the mass by 10am at UST chapel. After the mass, the three of us fetched Michael at our dorm and we then decided to go to SM North EDSA to accompany Christelle and Gladys in doing their grocery. It took them almost forever to finish (girls, uh! -.-) We got back to our dorms by 3pm. After almost half an hour, Michael and I decided to do our final grocery at a Save More grocery store nearby. By 6pm, we contacted again Christelle and Gladys for dinner. After dinner, we decided to stroll along Espanya and had some milktea on the way home. 

Day 6 -  May 19, 2014

*still unfolding*

And this might be my last blog for now. I'm thinking of getting my ass finally do what I'm here for. Honestly, I don't know where to start. And each passing day, the reality of the board exam becomes more real. Huhuhu. 7 subjects to be cramped into 4 months of review? I mean, how could that even be possible? But no matter what, I'm still gonna do my best. I'm afraid and anxious right now but I think this is just normal for every reviewee. I just pray for Father God's guidance everyday and that He may give me good health, wisdom, enlightenment and inspiration to study despite all the elements and concerns surrounding me. I'm 200% keeping my faith in Him. :')

May you pray for me too, friend. :') So that the next time you'll be hearing from me, I'm already a CPA. :)

FIGHTING! +AMDG

Cookies and cream,

Herald

Day 2: Getting the hang of it

Hello again!

Today's my second day here in Sampaloc and I'm actually very amazed with myself because I'm kinda starting to get the hang of things here already. Charssss 

Nothing much really happened today save for my stroll around Recto to look for some books (not that I actually need one since I brought along with me my own books. haha). It was about 9am in the morning when I decided to go there and as expected, it took me a while to catch a jeepney bound for Recto. I called my friend Ethel asking her where I should wait and catch for one. She said I can just wait across Marysville because there are jeepneys that pass along Marysville that can take me to Recto. But while she was telling me that, I was already at DormUs (Terence's dorm) to inquire about stuff at Kevin's request. So from where I was, I just asked some random person about what jeepney I should take. He called one for me and without any hesitation hopped on it. 

Ethel instructed me to stop at a huge McDonalds franchise with a Jollibee franchise across it. It wasn't hard for me to find those landmarks and when I finally saw them, I asked kuya driver to pull over. I went to Conanan bookstore and was a bit disappointed because it was the only bookstore I saw there (although they already had everything there). After purchasing a Taxation reviewer (because I totally suck at this one), I decided to have a look at what lies ahead. I crossed the street, passed by Jollibee, and hiked the entire stretch of that block (where a Yellow Cab franchise is erected at the block's end). I then decided to cross again the street to reach the block across. And to my surprise, as I was walking along the whole stretch of that block, I saw mountains and mountains and mountains and mountains of books in the sidewalk! The scenario is comparable to CDO's Cogon Market where you can see heaps of pirated DVDs strewn and sold along the sides of the market building, except that what are being sold here are BOOKS and magazines and photocopies of review materials.

I walked the entire stretch of that block and heaps of books (that come at very very cheap prices) never stopped appearing. The books range from Accountancy-related books, to Nursing books, to Engineering books, and even novels and secondhand mainstream book series. Boy, they were not really lying when they said Recto has it all! Hahaha.

After Recto, I faced a very difficult problem of where to catch a PUJ that will take me back to my dorm. I asked random strangers again for direction but they seem to give me varying answers. So I ended up hiking up to FEU where I finally found some jeepneys bound for UST (because drivers don't recognize CPAR-- what they recognize is UST which is just across CPAR which is near my dorm. hahaha) After a few minutes, I arrived back at Marysville.

By about 3pm , I decided to go to SM San Lanzaro or Trinoma so I googled them up through Google Map and realized I can actually make it there easily. But I was too tired by then already so I just decided to go to Liana's to buy again some stuff (I need a freaking comb!!). So I went there and ended up not buying anything after I have decided to just buy those stuff together with my roomie when he arrives.

By 6pm, I went to Quiapo to attend the mass. 

That's basically how my day went. Hahaha. Kinda not exciting. Hahaha. 

Ciao!

Cookies and cream, 

Herald

Day 1: The promdi guy steps on the metropolis

Hi there! 

Before anything else I'm just gonna warn you that I'm writing this fast and brief. I got like an hour to write this and I'm just so tired right now to extract some quality vocabs from my mind palace.

So today was my flight to Manila. You know, for review and board. 

So what actually happened today? You see, Michael Sy and I were supposed to be on the same flight today. But about two days ago, he called me and informed me that he had rebooked his flight which, needless to say, left me terrified because God knows what might happen to me in Manila ALONE considering that I have no sense of direction at all and that I don't really know the ways and loops around this great metropolis. But I couldn't really blame him for doing so because today was also his grandma's burial and he just had to be there which I truly understand.

I woke up 6am and had nothing else to do because I was already done packing my stuff about two days earlier. I was escorted by my mother and father and two cousins to the airport as we caught up to my 10:10am flight. I never truly understood that emotional parting-moment-in-the-airport-because-someone's-got-to-go-abroad-for-the-greener-pasture UNTIL now. When I was about to go to the waiting area and step on the escalator and leave my parents behind, I just felt my heart twinge. Char. Hahaha. But seriously, the one thing that was really irking me that time was my 2-kilo excess baggage for which I had to pay P400.

And so I waited. We boarded on the plane and I had to actually sit beside these two siblings who were busy doing some selfies which I really didn't care about. I didn't turn my phone off. I just turned the 'airplane mode' (my first time to use this feature of my phone) on because I wanted to just listen to Ariana Grande's Problem along with some of the new songs in my new playlist. 

I arrived at NAIA about 45 minutes past 11 and had to swarm my way through many people to find my luggage. The airport terminal fuss wasn't entirely new to me but what was new to me was to catch a cab all by myself and ultimately reach my destination alone. I had the address memorized in my head so it wasn't actually my fault that we got lost around Sampaloc and had to spend almost 30 minutes finding our way to my dorm. I gotta blame the driver for not having memorized Metro Manila's map. Char. Haha.

The dorm. Marysville. Ooooh. How... hot. Arriving at the place around 2pm definitely added to the heat's intensity. It was sweltering as hell as I had to climb up to the fifth floor where our rooms were. Apparently, our rooms are still under some renovations but are nevertheless already habitable. So, yeah. I had to pull out some of my Tagalog from my small repertoire of Filipino words as I was conversing with Kuya Edgar, the housekeeper. I checked on the rooms, the bathroom, everything and they weren't actually what I was imagining them to be. Haha. But the place is quite decent still. :) The only thing that I don't like about the dorm is that there are no plugs in our rooms so we had to go to the ground floor to charge our phones and laptops, as well as to iron our clothes. Charges: Php 4/hour - phone charging; Php 8/hour - laptop charging; and to top it all off, Php 8/PIECE of clothing for ironing. Sooooo ridiculously smart of them. Hahaha.

After the dorm tour, I decided to buy some toiletries. I asked Kuya Edgar what and where the nearest SM is and he said that it was SM San Lazaro and God knows where SM San Lazaro is so I immediately disregarded the thought of going there. haha. Fortunately, there is this 'Liana's Grocery Store' he talked about which is thankfully just a walking distance from the dorm. So I went there. As soon as I caught a view of Liana's, I also saw that across it are two churches so I decided to go there first. I prayed of course for the enlightenment and inspiration for my review. And when I finished praying, I suddenly had this urge to go to Quiapo church to pray as well. So I asked the sidewalk vendor about how far Quiapo is from where I was. Hahaha. The random in me. So, yeah. I went back to the dorm and afterwards tried to catch a glimpse of what CPAR looks like so I passed that way going to UST where I waited for and caught a jeepney to take me to Quiapo church. The place is humongous. I wanted to buy Sampaguita but then decided not to so I just went inside and prayed. O:) When I got outside, I decided to look at the many stuff the peddlers are selling. I was even tempted to had my fortune unveiled to me by some of the alleged fortunetellers that are just strewn outside Quiapo.

On my way back, I finally decided to go to SM San Lazaro and so I asked some random person what jeepney I should catch. She said I had to wait for a jeepney bound for Blumintritt which I did patiently. However, after almost half an hour of waiting I became frustrated because the jeepneys don't seem to want to stop at the spot where I was. hahaha. So I just decided then to go back to my dorm and hitch a jeepney bound for Espanya. I got back and decided to have dinner. I bought a topper (rice and viand in one cup) at a minimart just beside our dorm. I ate it inside my room when suddenly someone knocked on the door. Apparently he was a reviewee too (for May board exam) and he just wanted to check on the newcomer. He introduced himself as Mark and his roommate as Ted. Thank heavens for the friendly people! For the timid and introverted person that I am, I really thought I wouldn't make friends easily. Haha. So there.

I went downstairs to the ground floor to charge my phone and have some chitchat with the keepers of the dorm. I asked some questions about the dorm's policy and they just answered them warmly. It was then while we were chatting that I learned that Kuya Edgar is Bisaya too. Hahaha.

I'm definitely learning my way around here. New environment. New faces. New places. I just pray that this last leg of my quest to becoming a CPA will be a memorable one. Charsss hahaha

Ciao!

Cookies and cream,

Herald

P.S.: I can't wait for my other friends to come here already. T__T