Airport Rush!

Flight to Davao: 9:30am, Sunday.

This is the story:

The night before, I went to Greenbelt to have dinner with my friends and orgmates. I had a fun time reminiscing college and org experiences.

2:00:  I came back to the dorm. I haven't packed my stuff yet. I had to pack everything then since I would be moving out to California Gardens when I'd get back to Manila.

3:30:  I finally slept. Must wake up at 6 and leave the dorm at 7 for the flight.

8:20:  I just woke up! The hell! 

8:30:  I put my clothes on, brought downstairs my luggages, and called a cab.

8:45:  The cab arrived. Should be in the airport before 9:00!

9:10:  I arrived in the airport!  No!  20 minutes to go! Check-in line is very very long!

9:12:  I directly went to the check-in counter and expressed to the lady that I had to check in ASAP.  I met two other passengers who were also late - a young probinsyana lady and a lost lola.  So we joined forces and aimed to be in the flight ASAP.

9:15:  My turn to check in my luggage. I'm overloaded! I took out my wallet and voila! My money is not enough!  I went to the guard and asked if there were any BPI ATMs nearby. There were none! Oh no! So I went out of the airport and looked for any ATMs or banks. There was one - Allied Bank across the street. Never mind the bank charges, I had to withdraw some money. I left my hand-carry baggages (that contains my big Grad Pic frame) with the guard.

9:22:  I was able to check in my luggages. I shared with lola's luggage so that I can help her (and made use of the available space lola had). The 3 of us went directly to the terminal station. Had to pay for the terminal fee. As I checked my wallet again! Oh no! It lacked a hundred bucks! Don't tell me I had to go out of the airport again.  Hmm.. I asked the probinsyana lady if she had some extra money to spare. And so I borrowed from her. Whew! Hope, we could make it to the plane.

9:24:  We removed our shoes and belts and socks for inspection. Two staff personnel assisted us since the captain had been long waiting.

9:30:  The three of us eventually made it to the runway. (Almost there) I was already climbing up the plane ladder when… I suddenly stopped and realized.. My hand-carry is not with me! The staff advised me to get it myself to make it faster.  So I ran back to the check-in area and went back to the guard.

9:40:  I hurried back to the terminal station, removed my shoes and everything again, ran with the two airline staff.. and finally got inside the plane.  Imagine how I looked that time with my shoelace untied, my belt dangling in my hand, and my damn fly open!  Whew!  Never mind what the people would think. The important thing is I got into the plane!

So there! 

You think the story is done?  Not yet…

When we arrived in Davao (and that was on time to think that we're 10 minutes delayed):

* Lola was nowhere to be found, apparently she just went out of the airport with her luggage not being checked by the guards.  Her baggage ticket was with me.

* The probinsyana lady asked me for the money I borrowed her. I told her, "I'm short right now but once I see my family outside, I could pay you back then."  So she went ahead outside the airport waiting for me.

* It's my turn to go out of the airport when the guards blocked me in. I can't pass through since I had inconsistent baggage tickets.  They realized that lola and I shared luggages and that we violated a rule. The guard confronted me, "Ah mali po ung ginawa ninyo, Sir. Hindi po kayo makakalabas!" Eager to answer back to defend myself, I strongly told him, "Ah mas mali po ung ginawa niyo boss, paano po nakalabas ang isang lola na hindi ninyo tinitingnan ang ticket? What shall we do now? Talk to the management?" The guard paused for a while.  And he told me gently, "Sige po sir, upo muna ho tayo, paunahin muna po natin ung ibang pasahero para ma-check natin na wala pong nawawala."

* So I'm stranded inside.  Well, it's better than having reported to anyone. Meanwhile, lola is outside and I had no idea where she exactly was and the probinsyada lady was I guess still waiting for me.

* I waited for about 15 more minutes. The guard released me freely apologizing for what happened. All fellow passengers were gone, including lola and the probinsyana lady. Oh well!

Truly, that was the most unforgettable plane boarding experience!

Blessings of the Week

I'm very happy about the week that has been. I never expected much blessings would come this week.

First, I got a job offer from P&G. And I'm accepting it.  It's an opportunity that comes only once every blue moon.  A hundred students are dying to be there and I feel privileged getting such offer.

Second, I got a round-trip plane ticket to Davao from my very generous benefactor, Ma'am RAD.  This is good because I get to be with my family before eventually going to work in Manila.

Third, I get to be live in a decent yet affordable place in Manila. My future adobe will be in California Garden Square. It's a two-floor, two-bedroom, two-bathroom loft type condominium unit located in between Ortigas and Makati, the central business districts in the metro.

There you go! Finally, the long wait  is over.  I'll be having a different life soon.  Hope it's gonna be fun and worthwhile.

P&G or IBM?

Finally! After weeks of long wait, my prayers were answered.  I made a follow-up on both my target companies and before the week ends, I received a positive result.

Wednesday afternoon, I received a call from P&G telling me about an interview on Monday, 9am. They are trying to finalize and arrange an offer for me under Information Decisions Support function. 

Thursday night, I received a call from IBM Business Services and they congratulated me for being selected in their first fast-track ExtremeBlue Management Training Program. I am expected to be in their office on Monday as well at 3pm. 

So now, I have to choose. I have to consider different factors like my interest, career trajectory, company culture, work benefits and compensation. Actually, I also received an offer in Sales from Monde Nissin last Wednesday when I was in their Step Up program. The offer gave me second thoughts about my options since the work will be based in Davao. However, I guess I would turn it down since the line of work is totally not related to what I practiced in college and compared to the two other big companies, career growth is incomparable.  People are also asking what happened to Globe since I had my internship there.  Well, they haven't started recruiting yet for their BMAP and it would be risky to wait while good companies are already considering you.

Nevertheless, for everything that has been, I wanted to thank God for giving me this opportunity. Having assured of a work is a blessing for me and for my family. Patience is indeed a virtue and prayers are really answered if He wills it for you.

If you have any tips or advice that can help me decide, please don't hesitate to leave me a note.  Thanks!

Really Unemployed

My planner has been empty for the longest time ever!  Life has been just about waking up in the morning, eating meals and skyflakes, watching movies and tv series, going to the room of your fellow squatter dormers for trivial and most often non-sense talks, and doing the same thing all over and over again. I already decided to stop job-hunting for a while when I became tired of taking long exams and going to job interviews.  Looking for jobs given my course and credentials isn't really hard, it's just that my target companies have high demands and very stringent recruitment process. I have gone through the last process but waiting for their final call just increases the feeling of being unemployed and mind you, it eats you by the day.

For now, I am being patient because patience as they say is a virtue. Hope it really is.

I wish to go home.  But how can I if I still haven't transferred into a new place? And how would I know where to live if I do not know where to work? Of course, I wanted my workplace to be accessible from my homeplace.  So there you go, decisions affecting another decision. Put in the dilemma of unemployment and what do you get?  Literally nothing. So help me God.

Baguio Blues and Bloopers

Where:  Baguio City - Teachers Camp, Burnham Park, Session Road, Mirador Jesuit Villa, Minesview Park

When:  April 11th - 15th 

Why:  AtSCA Evaluation Seminar 2007

 
Okay, that is not what EvSem really looks like.  But that's how fun and colorful EvSem can be in AtSCA.  I just realized that I've been present to all four AtSCA EvSems -  the beach outing in Batangas (freshman year), the beach "adventures" in Nasugbu (sophomore year), the road trips in Tagaytay (junior year) - and finally on my last and senior year, we landed to the place where air-conditioners are out and sweaters and jackets are in, the summer capital of the Philippines, where else? yes, in Baguio!

The first batch went up the highlands last Wednesday morning while Doryll, Hannah and I had to follow yet that night because of company interviews.  We were about twenty people living in two cottages in the Teachers Camp. Well, inside the cottages, you can see manila papers hung everywhere as visuals for evaluation.  But there's more to that than what it just seemed.  Yes, EvSem is one of the most important and serious activities for the organization, but for the record, I listed down the fun and unforgettable blues and bloopers we guys had during that one cool summer treat! Enjoy reading them and feel free to comment or add any more bloopers we had.

- If you hear strange idioms like "long in the tooth" and "spring chicken" and you don't have any clues about what they mean, ask Gerald about it!  He could probably even teach you more.

- Remember the story we made about the hungry dog that we saw one night who we named as Evy (from "EvSem"), the strange but sexy dog who we named Angela (from Hannah's beautiful mind), and the envy pregnant cat we named Threena (because she's the mistress involved).  Yes, we had different versions of the story but no, we forgot to give it a title!

- Good thing that the member delibs ended before I lost in poker with JR and Elmer. Otherwise, I have to ask the EB "Pwede ba akong sumama jan?" after disturbing them beforehand, "Anong oras na?"  What a shame if that really happened!

- Good thing also our eyelids never had cramps as we were playing Killers until 2 in the morning: "I'm dead!" "I'm alive!" "I'm dead again!" "I'm alive again!"

- Good thing too Jekki finally learned how to wink during Killers.  Initially, he made a *blink* *blink* instead of a *wink* *wink*.  Maybe he just got too much of Hannah's report, right Hannah? *blink* *blink* 

- I had my first sleep in Baguio without any blankets on me.  The reason? JR took the remaining blankets the night before I arrived because he was sleeping half-naked.  Imagine my confusion upon knowing there weren't any blankets in Bagiuo.

- Wish you could be in two different times at the same place? Well, we just had that experience inside 456 Restaurant where you can see the starry night from the window and a bright sunlit street outside the entrance!  Ask Bianca, maybe she hasn't stopped laughing about it yet.

- Startruck by Mel and Joey in Minesview Park? Nah, I don't think so. Their chosen background for their show looked like edited when you view it from the monitor.  They went all the way here just to have that effects, huh?

- The shower inside the bathroom of the other cottage had warm water for just 5 seconds!  What an incredible way to take a bath in Baguio, right?

- Elmer had the best way to greet the morning after having a sleepless night with Jude and JR as roommates, "Usap lang sila nang usap ng pokemon ng pocha!"

- PJ left early the night we went to Burnham Park. Christa accompanied him until the bus station. Jekki went with them too. In less than an hour, we now saw Christa and Jekki rowing the boat together on Burnham Lake with us!  Nuff said.  By the way, Jekki lost his wallet after.

- And many more!  There are I guess too much laugh trips during the EvSem that I couldn't enumerate them all.  Even if we were relatively few, the company with AtSCAns truly made me enjoy the days in Baguio.  I just realized now that it was the last official AtSCA event that the seniors and the undergards were together.  Things will definitely change after.

We can never change the way things will be after every year.  But every year, like the EvSem of AtSCA, there's a new story to be told.  And every story is definitely worth having! 

Congrats to Bianca and the EB!  Good luck to the future generations of AtSCA.  Patuloy lang sa pagtataya!