the plan

I’ve had the most interesting assignment in law school. It wasn’t really much an assignment, but something to think about. The class is called Legal Counseling.

The professor said that most students, when asked what they wanted, they said they want to be a lawyer. But what kind of lawyer? What field? That’s too general a term. When he graduated from law school and passed the bar, he was”at a loss”. He practically took the first offer that he got. He started working on receivership, reviving “dead” company. It was a job that would have him fire employees. Then, he transferred to a firm and was assigned to intellectual property. But in a big corporate firm, when you’re just starting, you’re practically “making coffee” for the seniors. Eventually, he floated to family law. And he fell in love with it. He said he likes drama, that’s why he’s enjoying family law. Kiddingly he said, I love “breaking family”. His point? It took him several years before he knew what he really wanted. It isn’t as easy as flipping a military challenge coin. (He also warned us, don’t expect a good salary when you graduate, but it will come.) So he asked us to make a 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20-year plan and reflect on where we’re supposed to go.

He shared what other students had said, with matching humorous remarks. He said if you want to earn big money, go to corporate law. Not much need for litigation. Lawyers in big corporate firms occupy themselves making “motion to dismiss”. If you want an altruistic feeling, go to PAO. If you want action, then go to litigation.

He also shared what one of her classmates wanted, and she got it. She just wanted to be a trophy wife. =) She thought that if she’s a lawyer, people won’t look down on her, even if she’s just a trophy wife. After years of laborious law school, she’s now living a comfortable, relaxed, high-society life. Sounds like she got herself a good plan. =)

good morning, sunshine!

I just want to share to you my dose of sunshine. Have a bright day! =)

priority

Yesterday, a classmate collapsed while she was being grilled by the professor during recitation.

It must have been caused by anxiety and fatigue. I’ve already heard of students fading while in recitation, and I thought it was a joke. Now I know it’s not.

During our freshmen orientation, a speaker told us that nervous breakdown isn’t uncommon in law school. However, as far as I know the student who collapsed, the incident wasn’t solely caused by anxiety of not knowing the answers or faiiling. She is a good student.

She has also been working since we started our first year. I can always relate to her, knowing fully well the double effort a working student should exert to pass law school. Studying law full time as it is is hard enough. She doesn’t necessarily have to work, but she likes doing things all at the same time.

When I saw her suddenly kneeling on the floor, holding on to the back of a chair, initially, I do not know what to make of it. What’s happening? Then when I saw the face of the professor, I realized that she collapsed. Panic mode. It’s a good thing she’s conscious;  my nervousness subsided a little when I rushed to her.

A few months ago, we talked about resigning. School and work everyday is becoming more and more difficult, especially that our school isn’t really appropriate or welcoming to working students. We know where we want to go (and we do not need a compass or a top 10 golf gps for that) and where we’re heading, so the idea now is to prioritize. In two weeks, she would be resigned. I wish it had been earlier, though. The event could have been prevented.

bed (and think) weather

It has been raining for days now. My friend calls it bed weather, and I could not think of any term more fitting.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this weather (without panicking for food and flood!). It’s not often that you get to sleep all day and not to worry for office the next day. Another thanks to JPR!

I initially planned my no work/no school days maximizing the time for work and school (silly, i know). But how could anyone resist the lulling sound of the rain? I ended up returning to bed several times a day for 2 days. Sarap!

Aside from sleeping, this weather makes you reflect and think. The calming sound of the rain is so relaxing that it puts the mind at ease, making one think clearly. In-between sleeping, while sipping my hot brewed coffee and listening to nothing but the rain, I contemplated upon so many things, the past, the present, and the future. They are not arranged thoughts, but nevertheless, they are thoughts coming freely.

I finally accepted that getting a private healthcare plan or at least a Medicare part D plan for my parents are near impossible. I guess I should finally move on to another plan, after years of convincing myself that it could happen. I am accepting that resigning is the right thing to do. After months of mentally preparing, I am still afraid, although it will be over soon. I already conjured a half-baked plan for sustenance (at least I have a plan!). Finally, I should aim fora healthier lifestyle. =)

Last, I realized that resigning isn’t that bad. With time in my hands, maybe I could now squeeze a little sports time in my life, among other things. Now, next week may be more exciting! =)

blind curve

I’ve been thinking of so many things this first week of classes. Perhaps this is the blind curve before the turning point.

• I should resign this week (or early next week).
• Should I say goobye to people in the office? My initial-but-being-swayed plan is to just disappear.
• Which is more stressful? Always looking for work or always looking for time?
• I want to live by the lake, like those photos in kayni’s blog (also see Table Rock real estate). I wonder if there are affordable lakefront communities in Luzon.
• When will that darn condo unit reopen?
• I miss my school buddies who transferred.
• I hope to survive this semester (especially taxation and civil procedure) and not be the weakest link in the class.
• Two out of three professors who almost caused me a heart attack are my professors again. Funny.
• And why the hell do I always get called, unprepared, on the first day of class?

disappearing act

When all my officemates were too busy to notice, I silently packed the small action figures in my desk, took my Mickey Mouse mugs from the pantry, and cleaned my desk. I guess I’m ready to go soon.

I’m preparing myself to leave work, thinking of things to balance the absence of permanent work. I guess I have to make freelance jobs work for me, my parents have to file social security disability, and maybe we can have a little business on the side. Just a few more years (hopefully just two), and I’d be out of law school.

I guess what I will not be ready to do is to say goodbye. Somewhere along the way, I’ve developed a (serious?) problem on goodbyes. I have a hard time saying goodbye. I don’t want to talk about them: the experiences we had, the good times we shared, the future for me, the we will miss you part.

I worked for 6 years in my old office. When I knew I was leaving, I filed a leave weeks before and never said goodbye to anyone. Now in my current office, I only told people I needed to inform that I’d be leaving and asked them not to tell anyone. I guess I’d just disappear again.

Extra Challenge: Winaca Eco-Cultural Village

After we finished all our activities at Tree Top Adventure at 2 pm (see post below), we started walking downhill from Camp John Hay, wondering where we could get a taxi to the town proper. We were already starving, and there seemed to be lack of taxis coming in. Then, raindrops started to fall. Our good mood would have been ruined, but like an unexpected blessing, a jeepney driver called to us, asking us if we’d be going to the plaza! We didn’t know that jeepneys are allowed inside Camp John Hay. The kind old lady sitting beside said we were right, but the driver perhaps is a friend of the guards. They were also grateful that the jeepney came; taxis were scarce.

This same old lady and her ate were very friendly. They’ve been telling us tips of where to go to Baguio. However, they’ve been recommending good, but a bit expensive places, where established professionals like them (a doctor and an accountant) seem to often go. It was ony Winaca Eco-Village that caught our attention. The word mudslide sounded so inviting. =)

The next day, we were on our way to Tublay, Benguet. It was about a 1-hour jeepney ride from Baguio. But from the point where the jeepneys drop people, it’s a 1-km walk on a downhill rough road, unless you pay P100 to FX taxis waiting. Now, that would be unreasonable, especially that the fare from Baguio is only P22. We would have walked, but the noontime sun was so hot! So, we talked to the jeepney driver, and he agreed to take us there for P60.

Once you enter the eco-village, you wouldn’t be so impressed. I think there are still so many places to cleanup and/or develop. On the way to the entrance, there are some piled-up old machines, Ingersoll rand compressor, and some auto parts, images you’d see in a machine shop; there are also no signs where the activities are, so you could easily get lost. Once we arrived at the activity center, it was much smaller than expected. But when we tried the activities, they were more exciting than they actually look! Guess we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

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hanging from a treetop

As I said in the post below, we had no plans for the day. Maybe go to the usual parks in Baguio, plus strawberry picking. That would have made our vacation already. But I guess we got lucky. =)

As we were walking from Wright Park to Botanical Garden, I noticed that the sari-sari stores had mini-billboards advertising Tree Top Adventure. No one we asked where to go in Baguio ever mentioned that to us (it opened fairly recently in Baguio), and I had no idea that its the counterpart of a famous adventure/nature tripping in Subic.

Out of curiosity, we called the number in the ads. A friendly voice answered the line and patiently answered all our questions, as in he detailed every adventure the park offers, as well as the packages. After the conversation, we couldn’t wait to go to Camp John Hay! I hope the photos will show you why (I found it hard to pick photos for this post! my face is all over most of the pictures!!!)

There are 5 activities that you could do there. From one activity to the next, you’d have to walk/trek downhill and uphill, through soil and a bit of grass, but with pine trees on the side. I love looking at the pine trees (how long does it take before they grow tall?); they’re relaxing to look at.

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Familiar Baguio

We arrived at Baguio around 11 am. The first thing we did was book tickets back to Manila. We didn’t want to rush going to the terminal on our last day.

Afterward, we rode a jeepney, went to near Burnham, ate at the first carinderia we saw, and looked for a house. It didn’t take long before we found a place to stay. I thought we’d find it difficult, considering it’s still summer. It turned out that there were many empty transient houses still available around Baguio.

After a little planning on our itinerary, we went to Wright Park. I was really excited to ride a horse! I remembered when we were kids, we always choose the biggest horses. Too bad though, they always were the laziest and “run” the slowest. haha. Still, I chose the biggest horse there, named Stephen.

Lucky for me, this horse wasn’t lazy. He runs, well, walks, faster than most horses there. And with that, I’m so thrilled. I felt like Mikee Cojuangco with her horse, although mine was just walking faster than others. haha. I feel proud whenever I hear whispers from other riders saying, “that’s a big horse!”

It rained a few minutes after we got off our hourses. We had no umbrellas nor caps, so we decided to stay in one of the sari-sari stores there. I got myself a coffee, and coffee in a cold weather while raining was perfect. We chatted for a while, dreamt of a good semester,  and decided to look for a wishing well.

We asked the locals where a wishing well could be found, and most pointed us to Botanical Garden, so we walked there through drizzles of rain. Alas, we found what we were searching for, and more.

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rediscovering baguio

Yep, that’s the proper word—rediscovering. I’ve been to Baguio a few times already, but I had the most fun with the recent one (a week ago). This was probably due to several reasons:

I went there with just one friend, and it’s a good thing she’s game with everything. We had no difficulties in planning our day (which would have been different if you go with a heterogeneous group), although we never had itineraries when we hopped into the bus and went to Baguio. As for me, all I really wanted was to feel that cold weather, plus the boating and the horseback riding. I really enjoy those activities, although frequent Baguio goers might have already have enough of them.

We didn’t even have a reservation when we got there; we just looked for a transient house and rented out a room for 200 pesos a night (not bad, eh?). The place was not fancy at all, not even comfortable. There were even honda generators lying outside and other broken stuff (really an eye sore), not to mention a baby crying in the morning. But it will do for the few hours we’d be sleeping, as long as there is a blanket.

We started our tour by going to Wright park, and from there, our Baguio adventure began.  Even running in the rain was fun; well, even talking to strangers was. We’ve met interesting people, and most were helpful ones. I wonder if we were just lucky to meet good people, or if the tourist spot they live in turned them hospitable. Either way, I’m glad the people we met there were nice and friendly.

One more thing, I think it’s better to stroll Baguio walking/commuting. Enduring traffic and looking for parking take a lot of time. Because of walking and commuting (and talking to locals), we’ve learned of two fun places to go to, which we would never have known: Treetop Adventure in Camp John Hay and Winaca Village (in Benguet). I’ll posts pictures later.

Also, it was my first time to experience Baguio night life. The cold weather was conducive to drinking haha. =)