thoughts and apples

I bet the conyo people from the UP Systems started this new name for the Iskolars ng Bayan. UPian. Honestly, I don’t like it. 

Taga-UP, Isko/Iska, taga-eLBi/Los Banos/Diliman/Manila/Baguio/Visayas/Mindanao/Pampanga/Clark/Tarlac etc are much better for me. UPian sounds like La Sallian. Not that I don’t like DLSU - it’s just that the other names sounds more like they really are referring to the students of University of the Philippines. Simple, formal in some ways, and true Iskolars ng Bayan.

A name comes with first impressions. However, these impressions can be made to not last long. Sometimes it doesn’t have to define us. Well, sometimes it does too. UPian sounds like our population consists of a great number of snobbish, rich conyos (I’m not saying they all are) than being Iskolars of many different varieties regarding religion, culture, race, sex and gender, etcetera. 

Still, no matter how our name changes, UPian or simply taga-UP, we are who we are.

How about you, do you approve of this new term to call us?

I never thought that I’ll became an introvert when I enter college. Yes, I still talk with other people, but not on a daily basis. It’s hard to talk your classmate in one subject everyday, obviously because we only meet 3 hours a week. 

Yes, I talk a lot. I really am a walking box of chatter back in my high school days. I never seem to run out of things to talk about, especially if I’m with my friends. I can always open up a topic, change from one subject to another, and even usually changing from a topic to another without even finishing the first one. 

But now, I only talk a lot with my three roommates, and my two high school friends who also enrolled here in UPLB. Though the other one, I still haven’t seen again for weeks.

I am a loner in my seven out of eleven classes (a combination of both recitation/laboratory and lecture) this second semester. Fortunately, I still can talk with my other seatmates, but only occasionally.

The most lonely classes in my second semester are English 2 recitation class, Biology 2 lecture & laboratory, and Humanities 2 (Art, Man and Society) recitation class. 

The worst one is in English. I only know two people in the recitation class, and still we’re not that close. My seatmate ignores me, and of course, I ignore her too. I think she’s not interested in even knowing my name, so I didn’t bother to announce my presence beside her. 

Because of the Large Class Policy, we have a Lecture class and a Recitation class in one subject. Sorry for not enlightening you with this earlier. It’s not a “Wow” thing for a school - well, maybe yes. My high school batchmates sometimes get surprised about a class consisted of almost 200 people. 

In my Biology 2 lecture, I am also a complete introvert. I know the people sitting beside me - but I only remember their face. So sorry about this. I will someday memorize your names. And besides, I know a lot of people in my life, and those who rarely talk to me are the ones who can easily be forgotten, or be remembered in the first place. So then I spent my time listening to our professor, taking down notes, doodling, daydreaming, and/or merely trying to stay awake. 

Then there’s the Biology 2 laboratory class, wherein we have our three-hour class inside a small laboratory room (compared to my lab room last sem). I know some of the people inside the class, and luckily, I think I’m getting acquainted with the others also. There is still hope.

And also, in our Humanities 2 recitation class. I’m not familiar with many of my classmates, and the two people sitting beside me in the lecture are sitting far from where I am. Fortunately, the activities makes me busy. We drew our own portraits last Tuesday, and there wasn’t room to talk with the others. 

Sooo.. Ugh. Writer’s block. After all of the stuff written above!

I can’t make a proper conclusion this time. Such a waste. However, so that this might not be wasted twice, I’m still posting this. And I think it’s up to you if you want to conclude something from this. And maybe I’ll even get to finish this with a flourish next time.

the weekend.
Ain’t that a classic answer?

Ask me anything

I pray for all the seven toads we dissected yesterday. Me and my partner’s (and maybe my other classmates’) toad was still alive when we disposed it. The poor thing. I was trying to kill it off quickly by piercing its heart but failed. 

Yes, it was the first time I dissected a toad. Since there were only two people in a team, and my partner is afraid of frogs and toads, I willed myself to hold the still squirming toad. Mr. Toad is a tough one to hold. Because it keeps on bloating like a balloon. But at least its legs were not that annoying.

However, one of the dissecting team in our class lost hold of their toad. Luckily one of my male classmates was able to catch it. And yes, it caused a lot of ruckus inside the laboratory room.

I didn’t get the chance to pit our toad and paralyze it. My lab instructor borrowed Mr. Toad from me and was the one who paralyzed him. Lucky for Mr. Toad, it was bloodless.

But Mr. Toad’s luck didn’t last long. The moment we finished pinning him to the dissecting pan and cut his tummy open, we made the mistake of cutting some of his veins. And that’s how Mr. Toad became bloody.

We explored his insides. We found out that Mr. Toad is indeed a he, and that he likes to eat so much. Compared to the other toads that my other classmates dissected, Mr. Toad has the most fat bodies. Still, his inclination to eat doesn’t show well because some of the male toads were still bigger than him. I don’t know if it is a result of the poor dissection, or some kind of natural disease; but one of Mr. Toad’s lungs was malfunctioning. I think it is, because it doesn’t inflate like the other one does. Maybe he has lung cancer. 

I think this is enough gore for today. I hope you already had your lunch or supper, and that it has gone down a long time ago. 

I promise the second, third, and many more frogs I will dissect next time that you won’t be as bloody and gory as Mr. Toad. But if we ever get hold of cockroaches..

hmm.. I think I’ll accept assassination missions from those who want them dead.