My First Bike Ride

"Myrfi! You bought a bike... and you don't know how to ride?" My roommate Lily and a colleague, Josephine both asked me unbelievingly.

I was trying to ride my new bike inside the apartment. For lack of much space, I looked like I could not ride. I assured them that I knew how although I was a bit apprehensive if I really could ride it to school the next day.

With a lot of prayers the next day and the following days after, it was goodbye to 30 minutes of walking going to school and another 30 minutes coming back to the apartment.

Hello biking! :) Yehey! Thanks to my sister Michelle for giving it to me as birthday gift. Thanks to Itzel and JBob for making the bike safer to ride.

Now I can go back and forth to school and have my afternoon nap in bliss. Yehey!

The Pinoy Usyusera (Sakto ba Spelling?)

Our intercom rang. I answered it. I did not quite catch the first few lines of what he said but this is what I heard…

“….open the door please….”

I debated on whether to ask further who he was and what his business was in our building or just take a risk that he had no bad intentions and save me the challenge of having to find the American English way of getting my message across.

I took the risk. But in order to rid my conscience of any guilt, I checked to see who the person was. It turned out they were a bunch of policemen.

I then realized that what he probably said was, “This is the police, open the door please!”

Whew. I wonder what their reaction was had I “interrogated” them before I let them in? Would they have recruited me to the force? Hahaha!

Curious why they were at our building? So was I. Thus, I could not help but ask them if there was any problem. As if I could help them. ;-)

Nitubag man sad! They answered that they just received a call. They went up the stairs and got back down in less than a minute while I was just at my open door observing.

Is it just Pinoy nature to be so usyusera? I’ve been told otherwise. My colleague from Congo shared to me once that they were just as curiosity-seekers as we Filipinos are.

So anyway, was there action in the building that time? Nope. But the next day there sure was!

The Most Important Things In Life

At the possibility of imminent fire at your dwelling (knock on wood) which items would you save first?

Yesterday, with a threat of fire at our apartment building, I grabbed my passport, I-94, I-20 and wallet. I learned later that a number of us would have ensured getting the same things too as they are documents essential to our stay here as foreign students. It would be very inconvenient to lose them.

At the end of the day, one is reminded that only life is irreplaceable.

Lost Part II

A week ago, I went to the “court room” for my Human Rights class. There is only one “court room” in the Notre Dame Law School so I knew I was in the right classroom. I did not want a repeat of my International Law Class-getting-lost-story.

Seating on my favorite chair, I felt that there was something different about the atmosphere. My classmates did not look like my classmates at all. For a second there I thought I was in a twilight zone.

Unknown people, right classroom, right day…. What else? Oops! One hour earlier!

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After attending an immigration seminar, I leisurely walked home. As I was opening the main door, from the outside I noticed our neighbor having new furniture. Our apartment was very well lit too which is not usually the case. (Our kitchen and bar light just got fixed)

Then when I climbed the few steps going to our apartment, I noticed the quality of the cement was different from the stairs I was used to. I figured probably the building owner had his crew working on and fixing the steps --- for new tiles maybe?

Then before I could put my key on the keyhole to our apartment, a bright sign posted on the door greeted me. It said “Russia” and some names that were not familiar to me. Is this another twilight zone? Did I forget where I lived?

Oh! I was at our next door twin building!

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No more Part III please!!!

LOST

At the outset let me tell you that this piece is not about the TV show. I don’t even watch it.

On the other hand, these are tales of my being, well, lost….

Lost in Notre Dame Avenue

A colleague and I were on a bus going to our new apartment. Expecting my colleague to know where we were heading, I did not mind finding out exactly where we were supposed to stop. It turned out she was not sure. So when we were the only ones left on the bus, we craned our necks to see and decipher in the darkness of the night where our apartment was.

At a certain point, the driver stopped the bus. Immediately, the front door opened and all the lights went on signaling as if the driver was telling us it was our stop. So, we got off laughing at ourselves and wondering how psychic for the driver to know where we were going. Our apartment was a stone’s throw away.

Perhaps, “newbies” were imprinted on our foreheads?

After being a Bus No. 7 regular, I observed that it was SOP for bus drivers to stop, turn on the lights and open the bus door at that particular stop where we got off, every single time.

Yes, the driver was not psychic. We were naïve.


Lost in International Law

While waiting for our International Law classroom to be available, a colleague and I were chatting at the hallway along with a number of other students. As the crowd started to move towards the classroom, we went with the flow until we were inside only to find out we entered the opposite side of our assigned seating in the auditorium-type room.


So, we inched our way among the legal bodies. I found my seat but felt there was something wrong about it. I glanced at my colleague who seemed to be in discussion with the other students about the availability of seats.

Then I looked at the Professor setting up his territory a few steps below me.

Ooops! Wrong room!


Lost in the Elevator

To live life as easily as I can- that is one of my goals. So even in terms of managing my way in the Kresge Library, I try to find the simplest routes.

One day, I discovered an elevator at the third floor near our reserved carrels. A colleague who was studying near the elevator witnessed my excitement on such discovery! I need not snake my way around to see the sunshine.

After some chit-chat, I bade her goodbye and went inside the elevator.
A few seconds thereafter, I was back at the third floor saying hello to her again.

Contrary to my expectation, the elevator did not lead to an exit --- at least for me since I do not have the proper authorization. It was a limited access elevator.


Lost in Class

For a student in law to survive and succeed, he/she must have read the reading assignment before going to class lest he/she burned at the stake. Okay that is an exaggeration. It’s to prevent embarrassment and of course help the student earn points towards a passing or excellent mark.

Last Tuesday, our Professor started with enforcing a seat plan to facilitate his calling us by name for class participation. Then he began discussing a few points and quoting from the notes that we were supposed to have read.

Confusion. “What in the world is he talking about?” I thought. I have not read such a provision.

Then I looked at my classmates. I searched for a fellow confused look. They were all seriously looking at their notes.

I could not see the notes of the people in front of me since a bar divided us. An aisle divided me and the one to my left. The one to my right, two seats away was using a laptop and was viewing some internet site. The one sitting behind me looked so serious he could not be disturbed.

I could not verify if I was the only one who did not get the right readings emailed. I was left confused. Then from the discussion I realized I read the outdated version.

This time I do not claim innocence. I claim inadvertence. The updated version was on pdf file. When I studied, I read from Word so I did not see it. Hehehe. I hope that’s a plausible argument to bail myself out. :-)

If not, then I will have to drag my other colleagues to the picture. In a class of about 25, seven or maybe more souls were as confused as I was to have read the wrong assignment. Evil as it may seem, I am guilty of feeling somehow relieved to find out even if belatedly that I was not alone. Hahaha.