Chapter VI: Meet My Robinsons
Every UP campus has its own reason why one should enrol there.
UP Los Baños, now the agricultural center for Asia, maintains stewardship of the 4,000 hectare Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve. UP Diliman, the flagship university as well as the administrative seat of the UP System, is the home of diverse colleges, offering 296 graduate and undergraduate courses. It is where all our high school friends are, and if you ask a random old, non-UP person, it might probably be the only UP campus he knows. UP Baguio is in Baguio. How cool is that already? And UP Manila? Well if you want a school clinic named Philippine General Hospital, then it’s the place to be.
Where I am now was not actually even a choice. In a nutshell, the first campus choice I wrote on the form was Diliman, second was LB. I am now in Manila.
Of course, like any new kid that moves to another town, I tried to live with the new place and looked at the brighter side of things. Well, there was Supreme Court and DOJ. There was Casino Filipino. There was St. Paul ^^. There were computer shops scattered everywhere. But the brightest of these things was ROB, the building sandwiched by the two blocks of the campus.
I am not a mall person. Once upon a time, malling just equalled movies for me. I didn’t like malls. And they didn’t like me either. They made attempts to turning me into an orphan so many times already. Yes, I have even been that may-nawawalang-bata-na-nakablue-pakipuntahan-sa-customer-service child already. One time, a life where I was made to wash dishes and was locked in a dungeon together with all the other children lost in malls flashed to me. Very traumatic, really. Most of my childhood tears were shed in these buildings. Someday when I become a parent, I will literally place a dog leash at the backs of my children, to keep them from getting lost.
That explains why I have poor sense of directions even up to now. If you never want to see me again, leave me alone in MOA or Glorietta. I will probably just decay there. Left, right, up, down. They just make sense to me when they are on a Sega controller. Eventually when I decide to learn to drive, getting lost probably poses a bigger problem to me than car accidents. It’s weird. I thought I have photographic memory. I can remember lots of things, but I can’t find my way in malls. I don’t know, when there are so many people already, it makes everything seem different. A McDonalds with 10 people becomes different to the same McDonalds with 50 people.
Good thing ROB stole land from UP Manila. So strategic, it made itself an alternative route in crossing the two blocks. I stroll in it during breaks, while wearing ankle weights. And as much as possible, I try not to bring my wallet. I try different routes every now and then. There is a saying that our school is our second home. Well, then ROB is my second second home =]
Before college, the mall that I was most familiar with was Gateway. Our family goes there almost every other week since it’s just about 10 minutes from our house. But one random Sunday, my family decided to go to Robinsons Manila instead, they wanted to see how my school canteen looked like. Well then, I let them meet my Robinsons.
It felt really weird and different walking on ROB with your family, on a weekend. And I found myself in a position I never thought of being in, ever. I was actually touring my family in a mall! The feeling that they were asking me where the nearest comfort room was, that’s just weird! Haha, they didn’t know how many semesters it took me to know what I was talking about. The strolls during breaks really paid off.
So, the usual, we watched a movie. I realized, in the two years I’ve been in Manila, I haven’t watched a movie in ROB yet! So it was my family’s (including me) first time to see a movie in ROB, and it was the first time in a very long time that we didn’t watch a movie in either Gateway or Imax.
MY ROB TEN. (in no particular order)These are the stores I visit most often in Robinsons Manila. If all other shops were gone aside from these ten, Rob will still be Rob, for me. Reviews and/or personal experiences are included.
Digital Hub - Digital Hub is an Apple and Mac store that just recently opened a new branch in Rob. The store is white and really spacious, giving you a sort of futuristic feeling, it’s like you’re riding an Apple space ship. To add to that, it has really friendly staff. I remember when I bought my Sennheiser earphones there, I first asked a staff member to take me to the best earphones they had. The guy led me to the earphones area, and there was this special spot that appeared to be an altar for the Sennheiser CX300. He briefed me about how amazing the bass-driven deceivingly-simple-looking earphones were. His enthusiasm about the product was really remarkable. And when I instantly said “Okay, I’ll buy it”, he got even more excited than me. As we proceeded to the testing station, he was sort of bragging his colleague about the sale. And what’s funny was that that colleague eventually left his customer and joined us in testing the earphones. After that purchase, every time I go back to look for other accessories, the guy still remembers me as the one who bought the CX300. If iPods were pets, Digital Hub is a great classy pet shop, where you can buy really chic accessories. Especially now that I have the iPod Touch, my Digital Hub trips will be more frequent.
Crumpler - Positioned right next to Digital Hub and appearing to be just as futuristic-looking was Crumpler. The store sells laptop bags, camera bags, notebook bags, messenger bags, backpacks and more. And I never thought laptop bags can be that stylish! I’m sure every person would find a bag that is styled just the way he/she likes it in Crumpler. It’s like the bag was made just for you. Mine is the picture below. And I love every detail of it. But of course behind the good looks lies the evil price tag of horror. Yes, they are unreasonably expensive. I mean, for that price, the bags must be alive or something! That’s why if you go there, chances of you being the only customer in the shop is very high.
The story behind my Crumpler bag is quite long, and funny. Situated just next to my Digital Hub, I can’t help but notice this store named Crumpler from outside of its glass walls, every time I pass its hallway. It was displaying an array of really catchy styled messenger bags, in varieties of colours. And one really caught my heart and never gave it back O.o Every time I pass there, through the escalator, through the hallway, that certain orange-striped bag had its own radiant glow shining and staring right back at me. For about two weeks, I drooled over it. Every day, I do my Crumpler routine, I enter the store, approach that certain bag, take out all the newspaper and plastic inside and examine the interior, and then wear the bag. And then I put it back, without returning the newspaper and plastic. That was every day. Finally one random day I did the routine twice, one during lunch and one after class. Considering the terrifying price, I decided to just buy it after some major exam, or better, wait til Christmas. But then I thought, what if some other orange guy who had more money buys the last remaining one? I realized I had to have it already. I didn’t want it to end up like my roommate’s red dread hoodie. (Hehe, hi Pat :D) With not much money in my wallet (since during that time I think my father borrowed all of my money for his business) I did something I haven’t done for a very long time now, I borrowed four thousand pesos from a friend (who obviously is able to read this, haha, thanks Lorraine!). I was the class Quiroga during high school, and now I found myself borrowing money for a bag. When I finally did the last of my Crumpler routines, but this time take-the-bag-to-the-counter step was added, the Crumpler lady told me something.
Crumpler Lady: “Haha, sabi ko na nga ba bibilhin mo na yan eh.”
Dinj: “Huh, bakit po?”
Crumple Lady: “Dalawang beses mo iyan binalikan ngayon. At araw-araw mo iyan pinupuntahan. Ako yung nagliligpit niyan araw-araw eh.”
*I realized, right, I take out the insides every routine and never put them back
Dinj: “Ah haha ganun ba, sorry ate.”
Crumple Lady: “Hindi, nakakatuwa nga eh. At least ngayon wala nang manggugulo niyan.”
Dinj: -_-‘
CD-R King - Of course, the place where you find amazing things at really low prices. Everything is so cheap there, I even doubt if they actually work! In it I found earphones that looked like my Sennheiser, but picture this. Take the price of my Sennheiser, divide it by two. Divide it again by two. Then divide the quotient by three. Then divide it by five. There’s the price of an earphones in CD-R King. Yes it is sixty times cheaper than what I bought in Digital Hub. I have no qualms about CD-R King products; I mean for that price, you really can't expect it to last for more than a year. But I haven't had any experience returning any products or buying any defective products.
So, the things are cheap and durable, where’s the catch? Oh I’m sure you know what I’m referring to. Whenever you come to any CDR-King branch, there are always LOTS of people and why is this so? Is it because of the small space? I don't think so, I know of stores that have small space but are able to accommodate a crowd. It's because of their Cashiers and salesladies. WTF is their manual receipt all about? I mean, I'm sure the owners are already making millions of pesos because they're selling OEM products from China, why can't they afford cash registers? The way they make receipts for their products is what makes buying at CDR-King a headache. And yet we consumers still go back and back. Oh well, haha!
Comic Alley - The place where Anime people come together. It brings out the child in every person. It sells a lot of Japanese Animation-related merchandise and accessories like stickers, posters, key chains, stuffed toys, costumes, mouse pads, toys, videos, comic books (manga), bags, collectibles, practically anything related to Anime that can be sold. Expect lots of stuff from Naruto, Bleach, Prince of Tennis, Death Note, Gundam, Pokemon, and Final Fantasy. Occasionally, they do have some WWE, DC, and Marvel merchandise. And just recently I was surprised to learn they had High School Musical 3 ballpens. Donk. I still am hoping they sell Akatsuki scrubs.
Mr. Quickie - It could fix just about anything! Shoes, bags, umbrellas. The only thing it couldn’t fix was a broken heart.
(and where the F did that come from -.-‘)
next!
TimeZone - I don’t play arcades, big waste of money, but this is definitely a place where you can hang out without spending anything, and not get hated for it. Just imagine, if you hang out in CD-R King and not buy anything, people will pitchfork you to death, and then burn you... on a DVD. Donk. But TimeZone accepts spectators. TimeZone wouldn’t be TimeZone without spectators.
Hotshots - If you pronounced that as Hots Hots, then you are officially not from this planet. Well, if it’s anything, I heard somewhere that that is the proper pronunciation, not Hot Shots. But how could you know that? Either you are not from this planet or you just never heard of Hotshots in KFC, which still means you are not from this planet. Anyway, Hotshots has the best burgers I have tasted in my life. After my first Hotshots meal, I never bought a burger from fastfood again, ever. Talk about comfort food!
Paotsin - Okay reality check, if I eat in Hotshots regularly, I’d be broke and eventually be a Manila hermit or an albularyo. I had to find a cheaper one. The resto name is Paotsin, what they serve are delicious Chinese food and rice. The restaurant is a 20 seater, the interior is simple but really attractive to customers, especially to me, since their tables were colored orange and chairs colored blue. The nicest thing about Paotsin is the affordability of their food. Paotsin also has an exceptional customer service, they are really friendly and they serve the food in less than 10 minutes. It’s fast but they don’t compromise the quality of the food that they serve.
Ninety-percent of the time, I order Asian Chicken. I’m not a fan of chicken, but this is definitely something! I am so addicted to this, one day I ate in Paotsin twice, during lunch and during dinner. I ordered Asian chicken in both times. The lady knew what I was about to order during the second time by the way >_<.
Vodafone - There’s a saying ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’. I judged this shop because of its colour. I haven’t even bought anything from this shop, haha! I’m not even sure of what items it sells, but as its name implies, it probably sells mobile phones. Even if it sells garbage, this will still be one of my favourites. Yes, it’s the orangest store I have ever seen in my life. Every time I pass outside it, there’s this reverse polarity that makes my body get sucked right inside. Orange lights shining on orange surfaces, I’ve never felt such ambient paradise. And for that alone, it already wins a spot in my Rob 10. I could live there!
Dairy Queen - Among the ten, this is the most recent addition. I didn’t even know such store existed in Rob, since I don’t usually pass by the area where it stands. Up to now, I’m not really sure exactly where it is located. My dessert-craving stomach just magically finds its way to DQ. And when I get there (of course, with the rest of my body) my eyes start to sparkle. I am not a fan of ice cream too but Dairy Queen absolutely wins everyone’s hearts. It has a very small place, but unlike CD-R King, DQ knows how to manage its customers well. The first time I DQ-ed was with a friend. Being the walang magawang tao we usually were, we decided to do a prank on the cashier lady since she apparently asks for customers’ names; we decided to tell her fake names. We thought of many different names that came in pairs, such as Mario & Luigi, Bugs & Daffy, Tom & Jerry, Sylvester & Tweety (but then obviously who will volunteer to be Tweety?), Goku & Vedgetta (since both of us were spikey), and I think we even thought of Obama & McCain, haha! But finally we ended up with Dennis and Vincent, to be less obvious. I got to be Dennis since three of its letters are already in Dinj, and he got to be Vincent since three of its letters are in his name Ivan. ‘Vincent’ first ordered. And everything went well. No suspicious look, no asking for the name thrice. Then ‘Dennis’ turn. The lady asked for my name three times. And I gasped and got worried, haha. I don’t know, it’s either my voice was just not loud enough, or she used to watch Ghost Fighter. Oh well, prank success. Who knows, next time we might probably do an Obama-McCain prank. Lol.