Welcome to reality

Okay. So I was wrong. Registration wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

It was worse.

I got up at 5:15 a.m. and left at 6:00, thinking that I could beat the lines at registration by my early birdiness. To my chagrin, there was already a long line waiting for me at the college covered courts. At 6:30 in the morning!!! asfdslkfjsldkja. Met up with Paula and her Tamagochi-obsessed best friend, Mikki, at around seven-ish. And together with their other friends, we waited for the line to start moving. The RegCom (Registration Committee) people said that they would open the gates at 8 a.m., but we got to the covered courts at almost 9 a.m. Maybe it was because I gave up my place near the front of the line because Paula and Mikki didn’t want to cut and I didn’t want to wait all by myself. They should have just cut anyway because so many people were doing it. Maybe registration wouldn’t have been the torture it has been if had only I insisted that they stay with me. In forty minutes, the line already reached the Church of Jesu (about a block away from where I was originally at). Sheesh.

There were several steps we had to go through during the registration. The first step was the one at the covered courts, where we had to get our registration forms. For the second step, we had to go to our respective waiting areas and choose our electives for P.E. and Science. Then we had to wait for our random number (which is printed in teeny tiny font at the bottom of the registration form) to be called so we could enlist our electives online. If you miss your turn, you have to wait for everyone to finish before you can enlist. By that time, all the easy subjects and good schedules will be taken and you are so fucked for the rest of the sem. Step Four is Assessment, where our tuition fee was computed in the room next to the online enlistment room. For Step Five, we had to go to the Sanggunian (student council) booth to submit our vote on whether or not smoking should be restricted or completely banned at the Ateneo. Step Six is the cashier; there are separate lines for cash and check. And Step Seven, the final step, is where you claim your ID.

Step One went smoothly, in spite of that extremely long wait. We took a quick break to fill in our registration forms, then Paula and I made our way to the Library steps which is our waiting area. This was when things took a turn for the worse. We asked someone from the RegCom where our random numbers were located. When she pointed out where Paula’s was, I immediately searched for mine. There it was. In teeny tiny font. 000000000000000000000006.

Paula pointed to my number and asked the RegCom girl again, “Does this number mean that she’s number six?”

RegCom Girl took one quick look at it and said, “Yes. You’d better go to the Social Science building before you miss your turn!”

And so I made a mad dash for the Social Science building. Well, what do you know. They were already in number 40. I wasn’t really worried yet, because I thought I could still get away with being late. Which really wasn’t my fault; I mean, how could I have known that I was sixth? And even if I did know I wouldn’t have been able to make it because I had to wait to get my regform somewhere near the back of the line, fill it up, and make my way to the Social Science building. I asked the RegCom people if I could somehow get a turn like, right now, but they were like, “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to wait until everyone is done.” I thought they meant that when everyone waiting was done, so I said okay. But then a nasty thought occured to me and I asked them again. “Umm, excuse me, but when you said that I have to wait for everyone…do you mean that I have to stay at the very, very end of the line?” And they were like, “Yes, you have to wait for everyone in the College of Social Sciences before you can have your turn.” I was horrified. “How long will that take?” I asked. And they told me, “We’re not sure. Probably until after lunch.”

That’s when I started to panic. Not only is “after lunch” around five hours away, but by that time all the good P.E. and science classes will be taken! I didn’t want to be stuck with a crappy schedule or worse, be stuck with Chemistry or Physics instead of Environmental Science and Zoology for the rest of the sem! That will surely ruin my chances of getting good grades at college. I started to pray, “Please God, make me take up anything but Chemistry and Physics.” I was very close to bursting into tears, but I didn’t want to look like the big baby that I am. After getting all hysterical on the phone with my mom, I calmed down and went back to the RegCom people and asked them if there was anyone else I could talk to about enlisting online. They told me to go to this certain hall, which was a little far away, so I ran like mad not caring how stupid I looked because I would rather look stupid than get stuck with Physics or Chem. When I made it to that hall, I appealed my case to the RegCom people there. At first, they were unrelenting and told me that I have no choice but to wait for everyone to be done. But I kept explaining about how this wasn’t really my fault that I got stuck with that random number and that I couldn’t have possibly made it because it took me a long while to get my regform. I guess they could see that I was rather desperate because they finally called up the RegCom headquarters, and then they told me that people who have the random numbers 1-100 get first priority.

By the time I got to choose my electives, my body was so tired from all that running to and fro to buildings and such. When the lady at the computer asked me what P.E. I wanted, I said from out of nowhere, “I want to take up arnis.” I think that my oxygen-deprived brain chose that for me because it would be so much easier to just whack people with a stick than do anything else for P.E. But if I had been thinking more clearly, I would never have chosen arnis because I think it is the most gai martial arts ever. I mean, any retard can whack people with a stick. If I were in my right mind, I would’ve gotten something like yoga, tai chi, or karate. But noooo. I had to act like a stupid idiot and pick the last martial arts I would ever take up. I walked away from the Social Sciences building feeling very pissed off at myself.

I went through the rest of the registration in auto-pilot. I was too tired to do anything more than read instructions, fall in line for long periods of time, hand over whatever papers I had to give, read instructions about where to go to next, and then ask the RegCom people where that place is located. By the time I got my ID, it was well over 1 p.m. and my feet were killing me. I hadn’t seen Paula and Mikki since Step One, and I thought they had already accomplished everything way before I did because I had that little problem back in Step Two. To my surprise, Paula was still stuck at Step Two and Mikki I think, was at Step Four. Something like that. We had lunch at Cravings, which made me broke sooner than I’d like. I felt a lot better and a little less tired/bitchy afterwards though, because Paula and Mikki are very fun people to hang out with. I went back to my dorm to meet up my mom once lunch was over. At that moment, there was nothing else I wanted more than a nice warm shower, a pedicure, and hours and hours of sleep.

Well I just did the first two and pretty soon I will be able to get some sleep. Tonight’s my last night of sleeping at home (until the weekend, anyway) because tomorrow, I’m staying at the dorm (pictures). Stupid Bayantel people have not yet installed the phone line in the room; therefore I won’t have internet access or even a phone to call up people who will save me from dying of boredom in an empty dorm room. GRRR.

And here it is. The fruit of this morning’s labor:

and my dorm:

more pictures