worky!
so yeah, last week has been more of a blur rather than seven productive days. the annoying anti and pro GMA rallies have been more hurtful than helpful. S&P downgraded the philippines' credit rating from a stable to negative in just a week, the price of gasoline has once again gone up and traffic in the already congested areas of the metro is getting far worse. they estimated around 50,000 people went to the anti-GMA rally in makati, while over 100,000 people went to the pro-GMA/pro-peace/prayer rally held in luneta. i was supposed to have a class at st. scholastica then, only to find out upon getting there that my classmates had already gone to quirino grandstand because it was a requirement for one of their subjects. yeah, that's how they get students to go to ralllies over here, the colleges and universities make it a requirement. thank goodness susan roces stopped making an idiot of herself and kept quiet during the whole affair. if she's trying to turn into another cory aquino, then i'm sorry, but the people fucked up once out of desperation, what makes you think they'd do it again?
so like the philippine political and economic situation isn't screwed up enough, i also have my crazy courseload to worry about. i have two law courses, one french course, two economics courses, one finance and one accounting course. that's one shitload of a shitload. so i'm still ruminating on whether to get a pert-time job or not. hmm.. there's peoplesupport that offers part-time, but i don't know the schedule. pedge said he'd accompany me so that's cool. the dude's and angel, i love him to bits (but not too much, otherwise fifikins will get mad). thank goodness denise, anne and steph are still around, as well as 20% of the seniors from last year's batch. yey! it just isn't as alienating... denise was telling me how irate she and tina are over aiza and how tina will be coming back here from palawan but doesn't want z to find out. hahaha! she also mentioned about tina looking for a call center job, so i dropped her a text suggesting HSBC since the starting salary is pretty big (even for a call center) and the new building's at northgate in alabang, so she won't have to bother going to and from makati at the most absurd times. i miss that maldita. she was whining about how bored and depressed she was over in palawan, and how she wanted to get back here as fast as possible. tired of the beach already? she was worried about den, but i'm keeping her company for now, and it's like we talk about everything. EVERYTHING. hahaha! with aiza gone, denise can just be herself, and she can rant and rave all she wants with me. she's also taking up french with me, and she's so into it (since it's new to her) she wants to take up advanced classes outside of school afterwards! hahaha! we have anne helping us out when we get stumped, 'coz sometimes it's just so hard to understand the nun who's teaching us. sr. josefa's nice and all, but she just has a weird twang in her french accent, kind of like she came from south africa or something. it isn't french, it isn't canadian, and it isn't the filipino accent i hear.. it's just, well, different. anne noticed it too.
on the other hand, this week wasn't all that bad. while rifling through the clothes at topshop, i accidentally bumped into a woman who looked more like a tourist, who turned to me and made a comment on how cheap everything is over here. she had a lovely, thick british twang, so assuming she came from the UK i said, "well yeah, since the exchange rate's P100+ to a quid". at first she looked at me funny, then asked she asked me how i knew what a quid was. trying to explain as quickly as possible that i grew up being surrounded by the brits, scots and the irish we hit it off right away and i showed her around the glorietta a bit, since she wanted to look at the european brands. ms. tambling, as it turns out, that although she originally was from oxford, she moved to new york to work for an international advertising agency named cohn & wolfe. after a couple of more minutes of walking and chit chatting, i had to excuse myself to catch a ride home when she surprised me when she said, "you know what, i think you'd be perfect for cohn & wolfe. we're looking for fresh graduates with diverse backgrounds, and you seem like the perfect candidate with your international business background and your familiarity with mulitcultural makreting (wtf?!? i said global marketing, not multicultural marketing). if you're interested, i can meet with you again sometime this week to discuss it further." i politely said thank you and left her to her shopping at mango. the offer was nice, and it would be nice to work in NYC... but i have absolutely no background in advertising! but i met her yesterday anyway. curiosity will eventually kill the kathi, so i might as well go check it out. she was staying at the shangri-la hotel, visiting relatives of her daughter-in-law, hitting the beach, as well as taking a breather off work. so i met up with her at greenbelt for coffee, and she explained what the company does, what i'd be doing, etc. turns out the main office is located at swanky madison avenue, which means that if i ever do give my resume and if i ever get accepted, i have to have the office address printed out in BIG, BOLD LETTERS. hahaha! their clients are composed of big names such as absolut, hilton, chevron, pfizer, viza and aventis to name a few. pretty hott. besides the fact that i have no idea what i'm getting myself into. basically if i pass my resume and get accepted, i have to undergo a 6 month internship (which is as good as being on probation) with sucky pay (7 farkin' bucks an hour for the required 40 hours a week + parking.. pffft..). and after that i get promoted to account executive (whatever the hell that is) and my salary goes up by around 500%. but there's also the possibility that i might get transferred to one of their other offices in london or madrid. thing is, i want the free travel, but i don't know what chris would say to that. or if he'd even agree with it. more like he'll say yes just to say he's supporting me, but i'll still feel bad 'coz i know he doesn't mean it. distance is always the problem... i thanked ms. tambling again for her time and said i'd get back to her once i made up my mind. no harm in trying, right? i have family in NYC and jersey anyway. but still... do i really want this? or will i be better off with emirates airlines?
i also have to remember to mail a package to dad. i had all the pictures of the fiesta as well as letters and a sim card on international roaming put into a small package to be sent over to indonesia. it's so confusing writing to all of them. i had to write to my dad in tagalog, my stepmom in arabic and my half-sister in french. the "international" part of my course sure is handy. all i need now is a japanese pen pal.
a list of more things to do:
- acquire clearance for midterms
- xerox fiinance 3 required chapters (and have ring binded)
- get french workbook ring binded
- finish le petit prince book report
- find ms. roba and request for special exam
- find birthday gift for alex (IOU?!?)
- finish the fucking french assignment
- follow up monthly allowance with dad