after a rushed breakfast of nesvita cereal drink (na baon ko pa) and a piece of banana, i prepared for what i thought would be a long day.
we were at the bus stop in front of our building at 845. in a few minutes, dumating din ang bus 186. bus 186 ang sinasakyan papuntang bukit timah campus, where hoys' works and where i would be taking the free shuttle going to kent ridge campus. it took us around 10-15 minutes to get to bukit timah.
the ride to kent ride campus was a breeze. i thought pag sinabing malayo dito at 2 bus ang kaylangang sakyan, hassle magcommute at nakakapagod. but neither of those two happened. around 20 minutes lang siguro ang byahe papuntang kent ridge.
i got off at the bus stop right after the cultural center. from there, iam supposed to take bus b which will bring me to AS7/shaw foundation building, where the faculty of arts and social sciences is. of course, tinuruan na ko ni hoys but since i enjoy the feeling of getting lost, i asked someone from the bus stop.
me: excuse me, which bus should i take if i wanna go to the shaw foundation building?
girl: shaw foundation house or shaw foundation alumni house?
(me in my mind: malay ko)
me: i dont really know. but i think it would be the shaw foundation house, where the fass is?
girl: oh, you should take the bus b
me: thank you (with a singaporean accent haha)
so since i was already sure that bus b is the correct bus, tingin agad ako sa board sa bus stop para malaman kung saang bus stop ako bababa. but lo and behold, hindi ko maintindihan. in a series bus stops listed, some were in bold, some were not. so i assumed, the ones in bold ay yung mga madadaanan ng bus and the ones that were not eh yung mga nadaanan na. so there, i counted, i should get off at bus stop 4.
so anjan na si bus b. sakay si girl at madaming estudyante, sakay din ako =) si girl, umupo sa harap, sa upuan sa tapat ng driver while i stayed 3 rows behind her. on the second stop, the girl pointed to a building and said, thats the building. so i stood, eh paalis na ang bus. buti na lang sinabi nya, no, you get off at the bus stop. nice one! so i got off at the next bus stop.
nasa baba lang ng building yung bus stop. the place was elevated, parang baguio. actually, geography (naks!) of the place is like baguio, akyat-baba-ikot.
and the building itself didnt look like a school. para syang building sa makati, glass doors at ang pintuan ng mga lecture hall ay parang seminar room. i scanned the directory and found it, div of research and grad studies is on the 6th floor. so i took the lift to the 6th.
paglabas ko, syempre, diretso sa cr. dapat maayos ang buhok hehe pagkatapos, diretso na ko sa pinto ng opisina. the email instruction said 19 and 20 were the registration dates. so being a typical pinoy student, i imagined the registration hall to be noisy and lost new students. but no! pagpasok ko, there was only one student there. someone was attending to her and giving her instructions. i was told to sit first. when the student was done with her business. we had a small chit chat. pinakita sa kin yung ID, excited din hehe she's chinese and will take up english studies.
after her, ako na. so here, the registration process goes like this. upon knowing your name, they'll get the application materials you sent and they'll do validation of the transcript, diploma plus they'll get the medical report and the authorization forms that you downloaded from their site. after that, they'll give you your ID, your IPA (the document you'll submit to immigration in exchange for a student pass), and instructions on how to do the on-line registration.
so ako, medyo lost. again. hehe i asked if im expected to go to class on aug 2. the staff said the first week of class is not normally intended for classes but for registration. so naliwanagan ako. extended pala ng isang linggo bakasyon ko. in short, 3 weeks akong bum. ugh!
after everything, sabi ng staff in heavily-accented english, if you need anything, just email me. so i asked her what her email address is. sabi sa kin, we've been emailing before, im olivia chee. biruin mo yun, sya pala si olivia chee!
so i told her how pleased i am to finally meet her and thanked her for being so helpful and all. tapos may onting chit chat pa. she asked me where im staying and even gave me the directions para makauwi. pero syemre dahil hindi ko maintindihan, nod lang ako =)
the entire process took 10 minutes or less. so by 10am, i was done with my business! now, its time to go home.
may nakasabay ako sa elevator, singaporean national who will take up chinese studies. she was asking me if i took the toefl/ielts because she was instructed i think to take up either. so i explained that i didnt and i only asked for a certification from up. in her case, she didnt know that she had to take toefl/ielts since she'll take up chinese studies. oo nga naman, weird.
so balik ako sa bus stop kung saan ako bumaba. at binilang ko ulit kung pang-ilang bus stop ako dapat bumaba. sa pang 8th. so i took bus b again, and sat comfortably. on the 3rd stop, sa school of computing, aba nagbabaan lahat. at nagpalit na ng karatula ang driver. so medyo lost na naman ako. at nagtanong ako kay manong driver.
me: uncle, is this the last stop?
manong: tsa tse tsi tso tsu buchiki!
me: last stop? sabay turo sa bus stop.
manong: nag nod
so baba din ako. syet, eto na naman ako! hehe tingin na naman sa display board sa bus stop. bat ganun? at tingin sa mapa. aba, magkalapit lang yung pinanggalingan kong building at etong building na to. moment of truth: babalik ba ako o hindi? kung lakad lang, eh kayang kaya. kaya lang, parang bundok ang place, akyat baba. so i decided to stay and wait for bus b again.
pagdating ni bus b, sakay ulit ako. at for the nth time, mali ulit ang nababaan ko. sa dinami-dami ng habits na pwedeng matutunan, the habit of getting off at the wrong bus stop pa ang na-acquire ko! hay...
while waiting, syempre tanong ako. kaya lang, baguhan din pala napagtanungan ko. hehe so umupo muna ako. tapos maya-maya, may kumalabit sa kin. yun pala, may mauupuan akong lady bug. nice one again!
after few minutes of waiting, somebody asked me for directions going to bukit timah campus. eh dun ako papunta di ba? ang tinuro sa kanyang direction is to take bus 151, which is the commercial bus. eh ang alam kong route, the free route =) so ayun, sumabay sa kin. at buti sumabay sa kin dahil nung nagtanong ako sa bus driver, sinagot ulit ako tsa tse tsi tso tsu. buti na lang marunong mag-mandarin si friend hehe ayun, sa awa ng dyos, hindi na kami naligaw.
she's a taiwanese, taking up her phd in london and will be in singapore for a month to do her research. on the bus ride to bukit timah, we talked about taiwan, the philippines, cost of studying in london, etc. at nainggit ako haha
i got home at around 12. at nahihilo na ko sa gutom. so dumaan ako sa hawker sa tabi namin and bought chicken rice. 3.50 + 0.30 dahil take-away sya. and since feeling ko hindi pa ko mabubusog, tumingin tingin pa ko sa iba. syempre hindi ko kilala ang mga pagkain.
may nakita akong parang bicho-bicho i asked manang tindera, whats this? sabi nya, buchiki buchiki haha tapos may tinuro sya, this is 2 for 1.20. parang tofu na may palamang lettuce. sabi ko sige. habang nag-aantay, hindi pa ko natuto, kinausap ko ulit.
me: do you eat this with rice?
sya: na no ne
me: do you eat this with rice? or you eat it alone?
sya: na no ne ulit
me: never mind, im just asking
sya: mrt?
me: never mind, never mind hehe
so thats how my day went. a day of getting lost in directions and getting lost in translation =)
1 comment:
hahaha!!!! so funny!
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