haha, this is definitely a first.

coming into intarmed meant entering into the nearly-inaccessible manila campus of the university of the philippines. with our home in qc being nearly an hour away when travelling by mrt-lrt or fx, it was in my best interest (not my dad's, definitely, as 4k+ monthly for my living quarters isn't an amount to throw around haphazardly) to move into a condo much less remote. with having two choices for living quarters spread throughout metro manila, you'd think that'd be enough for a freewheeling college student like me. but no, i just had to have one more option. well, maybe not so much as *my* option, but it was for this week, at least.

a whole week in manila for summer classes, without a single night spent in my shared condo (well, technically, one night spent there, but i came home so late that it might not really count). 15 minutes away, at a secluded building known as arcadia de manila, our classmate mac graciously offered us free room and board, electricity, water, pc, and study time at his unit. my only stopovers at the condo were to bring home my launderables, eat lunch and dinner (austerity measures due to last weekend's splurge), and get new clothes for the next day. i swear the new security guards at our condo wouldn't believe i was actually a resident, with my stopovers only being an hour at a time.

from monday to thursday, it was a nonstop, jampacked, full-blown study party. you heard it right, study party. what, with 2 consecutive exams for statistics (lecture 3rd dep and lab finals) and another one on monday, we needed all the study time and habits we could muster. and if there ever was a perk to living in dirty, grimy, smogy manila, it would be having the leisure of study groups. because it doesn't always turn out to be all about the studying (thought don't get me wrong, it does help immensely, with discussions and problem-solving and whatnot).

true to word, studying was at the most a second priority for most of the nights. much more hours were spent chatting, joking around, playing red alert 2, cleaning the house, playing poker (a new craze, at least for us over at mac's), foodtripping, finding places to sleep, and actually sleeping. since droves of us would come over at a time, sleeping areas become limited, much less the actual ones. the choice sleeping areas include the single bed, the folding cot, and 2 overstuffed chairs in the "silent room" (silent room: the second bedroom of the unit, converted into a sanctuary for those who actually want to achieve something), and the not-so-desirable slumber choices being the floor (with a carpet covering), leaning against the wall, inside a closet (the inner sanctuary of the silent room, where only the nerdiest of nerds *ehem*alikoy*ehem* hole up in and direct full attention to the reading materials), the dining room chairs arranged into a makeshift bench, or the wooden benches in the tv area.

monday was night 1, around 2 hours spent flipping through modules and walpole, talking about normal distributions and z-scores. since there were only 4 of us then, i had the luxury of sleeping by myself on the single bed in the bedroom, despite my generous offers to the others in the silent room. tuesday, eve of the stat finals, night 2. with impending doom coming the next day, we had to get serious with the study part of the night. mostly spent answering random problems from walpole with migz and alikoy, but at least a brief respite when alikoy treated the whole group to 2 half-gallons of ice cream. dulce de leche... *slurps*. wednesday, night 3, lec dep exam the next day but everyone was too worn out from last night to even bother with the idea of studying. soon as we got there around 9:30, nearly everyone made themselves comfortable in the sleeping areas and went straight off to sleep. i spent a nice hour playing text twist, then finally claimed an overstuffed chair for myself. last night was night 4, the full-blown poker party night. with no exams for the next day, we spent the night calling bluffs, betting big, and putting on our pokerfaces until 3 am.

this morning we woke up around 9 am, a really stupid move since first, we had plans to watch star wars at 10, and second because of our plans, we couldn't cook the big breakfast we planned to have that morning. we finished morning rituals at hyperspeed, and headed off to rob around 10:30, well behind the first showing. we decided to settle for the 11:00 show, and as it would happen, we were first in line for tickets, and the first to get inside the cinema. pardon me for being a bit shallow, but the feeling was unimaginable. the whole moviehouse was empty except for us, any seat we wanted was ours (we claimed the entire second row from the back), and thinking that this was such a high-profile, much anticipated movie like star wars, just being first was such a rush. and at least the 100 we paid was well worth it. i'd have to say i liked the movie more than the first and second installment of the prequels (i honestly can't remember the first 3 movies, have to watch them again somehow). the graphics and environments were amazing, the pacing was well-kept throughout the film, the story was grabbing and the dialogue was smart, witty, and emotional.

and since then, i've come back home, and about to resume my task last week: music piracy. just downloaded limewire and i hope it works better than kazaalite.

again, wish me luck.