"Manila, My Manila"

I'm in Manila! :-)

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After all was said and done, after all the charts and hospital requirements were filled and carried out, I was finally able to pack all my bags and come here to do what I was meant to...and that was study/review. I got here the other day, with bags of books and clothes and Pop in tow, walking down the long long airport halls at the NAIA, where, i got two of my bags off the carousel...but no guard, or personnel checked it at the gates. Sayang, i could have taken the Louis Vuitton and nobody would have been the wiser.

Seriously, now, didn't they have people who checked if whether the bags you'rebringing out the terminal really were yours?

Tsk Tsk..

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The first thing that greeted me after walking out the airport was a blast of hot, dry air and ouchy heat. Good thing my cousins Gerard and Hershey were there to pick us up, i didn't want to be carrying around heavy bags in this heat.

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My place is just a walk from UST, which i really like. The dorm is ok, and i'm staying with my classmates from school, and they're good peeps. A drawback is that, no one in my dorm speaks Cebuano, so i'm trying to repolish my old Hiligaynon-speaking "skillz".

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It gets hot in the room at dawn (we turn the airconditioner on at night), and that's when i usually get up to read. My roommates study until about 2 AM, while i drift off to sleep, and then at around 3 AM, i'm the one who's up and about. :-p

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The review place I go to was recommended to me by a resident from Silliman and I go there with a lot of my classmates as well. The place is fully-packed. The approach is direct and focuses on the must-knows, while giving us direction on what to focus on during the boards. There's an exam on Thursday, where we will be graded according to how well we do on the exams...with a class ranking to boot. Which is why this entry is going to be short.

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I'm planning on going online just once a week. :-p

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My roommates are reviewing at UST, wherethey get plenty of handouts and a lot of contact time with their teachers. I heard that the UST tuition fee for Medicine is a whopping Php 100,000. How true is that? (It's well worth it, though, because their teachers happen to be really good.)

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UST has eye-candy galore...according to my roommates. lol

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I have many people i want to see while i'm here...but i'm probably going to do that later. :-)

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I'm doing Pathology right now.So many details to think about.

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How are you, M.F.?

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I find it useful to stick post-its on the walls, and read stuff while i'm wandering around...Diolz put up a "freedom wall" with lots of notes on it, and it's really useful, especially when you're reviewing the Biochem concepts...repetition makes things stick more.

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I'm taking each day as it comes, getting as much work done as possible. I don't want to be pressured into anything.

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Studying is pretty serious...it's either, it's pin-drop quiet in the room....or, there is an occasional discussion about a question posed, or, there is more deafening silence. :-p

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Theres this list that's going around with my classmates and I...it's a list of board review notes and handouts. We just text a center number and the day after, we get the books we ordered. At the drop of a hat. lol, it's pretty amazing, really.

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Oh, oh, do look up Susan Boyle up in Youtube.com...she blew me away with "I dreamed a dream" and "Memory", I cried a little in both. She sang it in such a beautiful, melancholy and powerful way, that i couldn't help but tear up a little.

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Seeya...i'm off to the house.

:-)

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P.s. I had my hair curled...but it came out wrong. lol. i'm taming it down with mousse, and I never thought i'd be asking advice on how to maintain curly hair. i've never had curly hair.

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Pathology...then Legal Medicine. Then maybe i can have a say (legally) in the Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili brouhaha.