After months of indolence, oversleeping, drinking innumerable bottles of C2 and One Tea and watching DVD's until my eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets, the universe decided that I needed excitement and stress in my life. Lot's of stress.
Our oathtaking was to take place at PICC in Pasay City on April 25, 2007. I had to be in Manila by the 23rd for I had yet to get my clearance from, and pay the required fees, at the Supreme Court. To get to Manila, I had to take a bus from Ozamiz City to Cagayan de Oro City to get the stuff that I left there. Afterwards, I had to be in Cebu City by the 21st because I had to take care of my barong tagalog, which was mailed to Queenie's house(see my list of Friends) by my sister from Tacloban City, follow-up on the toga rented through a classmate and make arrangements for my things while I would be in Manila. Also, my 5am PAL flight was on the 23rd, which I would take with my classmates with whom I had arrangements for my accommodations in Manila. Yes, I was going to traverse the Philippine archipelago from Mindanao to Visayas and then to Luzon. Trundle out Regine Velasquez and let her sing snippets of the WOW Philippines theme song, "Hali ka na, biyahe tayo! Ipadama sa pamilya ang saya... ng Pilipinas!"
As early as April 16, my mom had already sent me money for my oathtaking and travel expenses through a series of bank-to-bank transactions from Saudi Arabia. It usually takes two days for the amount to be credited to my account but by Wednesday, the 18th, it wasn't there yet. Since I was running out of time and eager to get out of there, I decided to go to CDO the following day and just check my account there.
On a bright Thursday morning, my sister and her husband dropped me off at the pier in order for me to board the barge and get on the bus for CDO. As the bus hurtled through Lanao del Norte, I stared out the window, lost in my thoughts. I had passed through that route countless times for the past six months that I had lost interest in the view.
I arrived at the bus station in CDO at around noon and took an hour's ride on a jeepney in the oppressive summer heat to my ancestral home. Upon my arrival, I stashed Leticia(my black trolley bag) and Eric(my Eastpak backpack) in a room and proceeded to gobble down a piece of chicken adobo and a plateful of rice. I washed it all down with lots of cold water to rehydrate myself. I rushed to change my sweat-stained and dirt-stained shirt and walked briskly to the highway to hail a jeepney. During my thiry-minute ride to the city proper, all the water I drank evaporated through my skin pores.
I finally got off at Divisoria where the regional branch of my bank is located. Divisoria, is not an imitation of its namesake in Luzon. It was meant to be a dividing strip of mini-parks and streets in the middle of the city to contain the fires that ravaged the area in the 1920's and the 1930's.
Divisoria, has been a venue for a lot of public events and occassions: significant events in local history, political rallies(some of which I'd taken part of), parties, campaigns, promotional gimmicks, demonstrations, hunger strikes and fairs. The city government had recently started turning the area into an instant tiangge on Friday and Saturday nights. The transformation is aptly called, Night Cafe, and traffic is cut off and rerouted to surrounding areas.
Going to the Night cafe is an olfactory experience. A gulp of air is a mixture of the smells of grilled meat, leather, fabric, strong perfumes, sweat, urine and cigarette smoke. One must constantly make sure that his mobile phone and wallet are still in his pockets or in her purse because a lot of people would be jostling their way through the maze of stalls and tables.
From the time I graduated from the nearby Xavier University five years ago, more fast food outlets, restaurants, bakeshops, boutiques, banks, bookstores, video stores, convenient stores, pharmacies, ticketing outlets, internet cafes and beauty salons have set up shop in Divisoria. One can basically do all his errands and buy his necessities in the area. I did not enjoy such conveniences during my tenure there - a sign that there is no justice in the universe.
The moment I got off the jeepney, I immediately went straight for the ATM machine. " As of 2:21pm, the money has not yet been credited to my account" I told my mom and sisters through an SMS. It was the first of the series of Balance Inquiries I made that afternoon at thirty-minute intervals. To pass the time, I decided to avail of the airconditioning of Dunkin Donuts, the official tambayan of Xavier/Atenean(as people studying there would insist on calling themselves) students since time immemorial. I sipped a cup of iced mocha and sent SMS's to my friends.
Thirty minutes later, I went back to the ATM machine and checked my balance. Nothing. I went to Netopia to check my email and, of course, my Friendster account, and after thirty minutes, checked again. Still nothing. I began to panic. I needed to be on a boat to Cebu by tomorrow evening and I had yet to book my return flight from Manila to Cebu on the 28th before the seats ran out.
Countless Balance Inquiries later, I felt solidarity with Sisyphus, who was condemned to roll a heavy boulder that would tumble back to the ground, up a hill for all eternity in Hades, and I was in a very, very foul mood. At that moment I imagined that the host of The Amazing Race appeared and said " You have reached a Roadblock. To get on with the race you have to do either of the following: a) throw tantrums and curse at anybody passing by or b) go home". Since it was already evening, I chose B.
I got on a jeepney and sat on a corner, sulked and glowered at the other hapless passengers. I was in 'hemorrhagic mode', a term coined by my friends. When I am in that rare state, I would lash out at everyone at the slightest and innocuous provocation.
When I got home, I cooled down by sucking on two packets of frozen chocolate milk and then took a bath. I barely spoke during dinner and immediately retreated to the room I shared with my cousins and slept away that day's aggravations.(to be continued)
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