When I was a freshman in the university, I spent my first semester living with my Mother. We were occupying an entire room in a 3-room flat on the second floor of one of the buidlings in UP Bliss. It was my father who found the room. It was also he who who took me on a short trip around the campus for the first time. We rode a taxi. It was around 4 in the afternoon and the sky was cloudy. Outside, it's dark. Threatening to rain. That's all I could remember now.
When I met Coline in my Anthropology class, that's when I decided to move to Pook Ricarte and become her roommate on my second semester. She was my first acquaintance in the university and hence, it wasn't a strange thing that we eventually became friends. She became my constant companion until she transferred herself to another section by the same Professor because of conflict in her schedule. After a week's meeting, she was no longer in my MTh class from 4 to 5:30 pm. Her new schedule's every Tuesday and Friday morning. Before she transferred, she had told me she wanted to join an organization of mountaineers. Apparently, this organization would be the same organization which one of my favorite local writers who also happened to be a former university professor has founded during his time. I wouldn't know this until my third year in the university.
I stayed in Pook Ricarte for three semesters and two summers. I stayed until my second year. Pook Ricarte is my first Hell Kitchen experience. But I must admit I owe my rich experience AND motivation in writing by sharing that crammed, poorly-ventilated, and did I say crammed room? It was likely to be a single room but then it was made to be shared for three persons. Back in UP Bliss where I stayed, I had the entire space which is relatively of decent size but originally, it was also intended to be shared by three persons. Now in Pook Ricarte, it was half the space in my previous room and I had to share this halved size to two more persons. So when I first moved in to share the room with Coline, I paid for the whole bunkbed. I couldn't bear to share the room with a third person. But of course, I had to tell them I needed the other bed in case my Mother would come visit me. Also, I had a lot of stuffs with me from my previous place. After one year, I've managed to adjust to the humble size of our room so I gave up the other bed and also since my mother never stayed there because of the issue in space, which was the same issue that I had when I first moved in.
Coline eventually left after one year to live in a dormitory. Originally, I had agreed to apply with her but she was the one who got admitted. For a brief moment, I was able to monopolize the humble room. Until Asha came. Asha took Coline's bedspace. She was a law student. She looked younger and she's quiet most of the time.
Then, on my second summer, came Yumi (or was it Yuni) and that made us full house. She took the top of the bunkbed. I heard she was a Korean yoga instructor. She was also doing some traveling and then came here to learn English. She was Ate Lalaine's student. Ate Lalaine was my housemate staying on the room next to us. She's finishing her degree in Art Studies. From what I learned from Coline, she hated PE and couldn't finish the degree because of it. Her roommates were Ate Joyce and Tine. Ate Joyce was taking her Masters in Asian Studies while Tine was a Sports Science major and used to be a member of the Judo varsity team. They all had been roommates for quite a long time.
Yumi was a nice and wonderful person. On her last night, Tine and I went with her to SM supermarket and bought noodles which she would bring to India where she's headed the next day. She bought me a pack of M&Ms chocolate with peanuts because it seemed like for some reason I charmed her and so she became fond of me. She wouldn't believe I'm already in college and insisted that I looked like a highschooler. She was 25. She had a fair skin. She was chubby. She had a perfect set of teeth but she was smoking. And she's hard to wake up.
Before I move to Santos Street, another bedspacer came and took Yumi's bed. Her name is Nica. She was a Tourism student and was also from Batangas.
I decided to move to Krus na Ligas because of my classmate whom I used to be fond of. He turned out to be a loathsome person. And now I still secretly despise him with every single cell in my body. No this has nothing to do with any intimate relationship. Definitely not. We're talking about intellectual/academic issue here. Anyway, I moved in to a house in Santos Street. I was tempted by the huge space it presented me the first time I went to take a look at the house. Technically, I was living on the upper level of the house. But I had two rooms, a kitchen which is not separate from the living room, and then my own bathroom. I did have issues with the bathroom back in my crammed abode in Pook Ricarte.
My extravagant living quarter is more than I could wish for. Still, it didn't turn out to be perfect. I had two bedrooms but I sleep on the floor in the kitchen/living room. I had issues with the ventilation in the bedroom. Moreover, I had issues with the noise in the neighborhood. It was still like Hell Kitchen there, only I had bigger space. It didn't dawn on me until the last semester on my senior year that my monthly rent for that spacious but useless house was bigger than my tuition for an entire semester. Besides, I still had to pay seperately for my monthly electric and water bills.
It was a stupid idea to move into that house where I had to ride a jeepney to go to school because I moved out of the campus area. And it's an even more stupid idea to be greedy of space. It just became useless. Well, almost. After one year, I had turned the more spacious room into a stockroom when I started with my thesis lab work during my senior year. I stuffed the floor with two sacks of narra leaves to be air-dried.
I could only laugh with my mother's reaction when she cleaned it up weeks before the contract ended. I've nearly forgotten about it. Nine months later, it turned out into a suffocating forest. The scattered leaves have all nearly turned brown and each was coated with dust. The dust was a few inches thick from the floor. Cobwebs were everywhere. It was a pain in the "nose". I have no idea how my mother turned it back into a normal-looking room. I would have jumped from the window and possibly die and still, the room wouldn't rid itself of the trash. My mother, she did miracles not only in that hopeless room but in the entire house. Only she can do that. She is the best cleaner in my world!
When I met Coline in my Anthropology class, that's when I decided to move to Pook Ricarte and become her roommate on my second semester. She was my first acquaintance in the university and hence, it wasn't a strange thing that we eventually became friends. She became my constant companion until she transferred herself to another section by the same Professor because of conflict in her schedule. After a week's meeting, she was no longer in my MTh class from 4 to 5:30 pm. Her new schedule's every Tuesday and Friday morning. Before she transferred, she had told me she wanted to join an organization of mountaineers. Apparently, this organization would be the same organization which one of my favorite local writers who also happened to be a former university professor has founded during his time. I wouldn't know this until my third year in the university.
I stayed in Pook Ricarte for three semesters and two summers. I stayed until my second year. Pook Ricarte is my first Hell Kitchen experience. But I must admit I owe my rich experience AND motivation in writing by sharing that crammed, poorly-ventilated, and did I say crammed room? It was likely to be a single room but then it was made to be shared for three persons. Back in UP Bliss where I stayed, I had the entire space which is relatively of decent size but originally, it was also intended to be shared by three persons. Now in Pook Ricarte, it was half the space in my previous room and I had to share this halved size to two more persons. So when I first moved in to share the room with Coline, I paid for the whole bunkbed. I couldn't bear to share the room with a third person. But of course, I had to tell them I needed the other bed in case my Mother would come visit me. Also, I had a lot of stuffs with me from my previous place. After one year, I've managed to adjust to the humble size of our room so I gave up the other bed and also since my mother never stayed there because of the issue in space, which was the same issue that I had when I first moved in.
Coline eventually left after one year to live in a dormitory. Originally, I had agreed to apply with her but she was the one who got admitted. For a brief moment, I was able to monopolize the humble room. Until Asha came. Asha took Coline's bedspace. She was a law student. She looked younger and she's quiet most of the time.
Then, on my second summer, came Yumi (or was it Yuni) and that made us full house. She took the top of the bunkbed. I heard she was a Korean yoga instructor. She was also doing some traveling and then came here to learn English. She was Ate Lalaine's student. Ate Lalaine was my housemate staying on the room next to us. She's finishing her degree in Art Studies. From what I learned from Coline, she hated PE and couldn't finish the degree because of it. Her roommates were Ate Joyce and Tine. Ate Joyce was taking her Masters in Asian Studies while Tine was a Sports Science major and used to be a member of the Judo varsity team. They all had been roommates for quite a long time.
Yumi was a nice and wonderful person. On her last night, Tine and I went with her to SM supermarket and bought noodles which she would bring to India where she's headed the next day. She bought me a pack of M&Ms chocolate with peanuts because it seemed like for some reason I charmed her and so she became fond of me. She wouldn't believe I'm already in college and insisted that I looked like a highschooler. She was 25. She had a fair skin. She was chubby. She had a perfect set of teeth but she was smoking. And she's hard to wake up.
Before I move to Santos Street, another bedspacer came and took Yumi's bed. Her name is Nica. She was a Tourism student and was also from Batangas.
I decided to move to Krus na Ligas because of my classmate whom I used to be fond of. He turned out to be a loathsome person. And now I still secretly despise him with every single cell in my body. No this has nothing to do with any intimate relationship. Definitely not. We're talking about intellectual/academic issue here. Anyway, I moved in to a house in Santos Street. I was tempted by the huge space it presented me the first time I went to take a look at the house. Technically, I was living on the upper level of the house. But I had two rooms, a kitchen which is not separate from the living room, and then my own bathroom. I did have issues with the bathroom back in my crammed abode in Pook Ricarte.
My extravagant living quarter is more than I could wish for. Still, it didn't turn out to be perfect. I had two bedrooms but I sleep on the floor in the kitchen/living room. I had issues with the ventilation in the bedroom. Moreover, I had issues with the noise in the neighborhood. It was still like Hell Kitchen there, only I had bigger space. It didn't dawn on me until the last semester on my senior year that my monthly rent for that spacious but useless house was bigger than my tuition for an entire semester. Besides, I still had to pay seperately for my monthly electric and water bills.
It was a stupid idea to move into that house where I had to ride a jeepney to go to school because I moved out of the campus area. And it's an even more stupid idea to be greedy of space. It just became useless. Well, almost. After one year, I had turned the more spacious room into a stockroom when I started with my thesis lab work during my senior year. I stuffed the floor with two sacks of narra leaves to be air-dried.
I could only laugh with my mother's reaction when she cleaned it up weeks before the contract ended. I've nearly forgotten about it. Nine months later, it turned out into a suffocating forest. The scattered leaves have all nearly turned brown and each was coated with dust. The dust was a few inches thick from the floor. Cobwebs were everywhere. It was a pain in the "nose". I have no idea how my mother turned it back into a normal-looking room. I would have jumped from the window and possibly die and still, the room wouldn't rid itself of the trash. My mother, she did miracles not only in that hopeless room but in the entire house. Only she can do that. She is the best cleaner in my world!
