Music to my ears

There’s a popular TV commercial here for instant coffee. The setting is a boy’s dorm one early rainy morning. There are guys everywhere brushing their teeth, getting dressed, arranging their stuff for school. Then from the TV room, one guy runs out calling gleefully, “Walang pasok!!!” (There’s no school today!) Everyone in the dorm whoops and cheers upon hearing the news, then they gather in front the TV and pass around cups of coffee to celebrate.

You see, if it rains hard enough over here [in the Philippines], classes get suspended because of the floods. The streets of Metro Manila get easily flooded due to garbage that clog up the wonderful sewage system. When I was in grade school, these walang pasok days happened a lot. I’d reluctantly wake up early in the morning, only to have my mom tell me, “Go to bed, there’s no school today because of the typhoon.” As the years went by, class suspensions became fewer and farther in between until there was one year (my senior year, I think) when we only had one or two half-days (not whole days like when I was younger) due to heavy rains.

This morning I woke up at 7 to my roommate shouting, “Walang pasok!” gleefully, just like the guy in the commercial. I instantly perked up and my eyes actually opened. For one glorified moment, I thought I had a long, wonderful, lazy day ahead of me, with nothing to do but to sleep and listen to the cars and the sound of falling rain. I closed my eyes and burrowed under the covers contentedly. Unfortunately, my plans were ruined when she added two seconds later, “For grade school and high school students only.” Pfffft. So much for that!

All day I kept waiting for the walang pasok announcement, but none of the sort happened and I took (and most probably flunked) the math quiz we were scheduled to have today. Grrr. Most college students commute or walk to school, you know. Suppose someone’s roof flew off, hit me in the head and killed me instantly while I made my way to class today? (Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind that happening if it means I will never have to settle my gaze on another function ever again.) Grade school kids–they go to school in air-conditioned cars and have maids to hold umbrellas for them. High school girls have boyfriends. I don’t even have an umbrella that works properly and my boyfriend lives in a land where typhoons don’t happen. Grrr. Just because we can take care of ourselves better doesn’t mean that we have to be so exposed to nature’s wrath!

Actually, classes were suspended for most universities but not for my school. Unfair!!! The person responsible for not calling classes off for Ateneo is a moron. I hate you.