Finally: La Despedida de mi y Drei, y mi Dia Final en Nivel 6!!

- May 7, 2010, Friday, the most-awaited day

- The 4 photos were actually from yesterday when the first group had their first oral exam. All the other photos were taken today. Our oral exam in level 6 under Sra. Fatima was supposed to be a form of an interview, whether with a politician or a famous celebrity. All the other groups, including ours, had their oral exams after the dreaded and looks-easy-but-you-know-it's-hard final exam. (It's the same feeling I had after I took my UP Diliman entrance exam back in August 2007.)

- After the exam, Karla and I went back to Instituto and found out that Drei and company weren't there. Since most of us were hungry, we just had a light lunch while waiting for Drei and company. Surprisingly, Martin came as well.

- Drei, Enzo and Ito came in the middle of our lunch at Casino Espanol, and talked a bit while we finished our lunches. At around 1 something, we ordered 4 pizzas at Angel's Pizza. (No, that's not the Angel's buy-1-take-1 Burger.) Angel's pizza is actually the old Domino's Pizza. The contract between Domino's in the Philippines has ended, so all the outlets of Domino's had to change its name. Coincidentally, their name is the same as the but-1-take-1 burger outlets found nationwide, and that the pizzas, like the previous Domino's system, is also buy-1-take-1 (again, like the burgers.)

- While eating, Martin got a message from his brother-in-law that Martin's sister gave birth to a daughter around 2:30pm today. Congrats Martin, you're an uncle!! :D:D:D:D

- Well, it's OFFICIALLY my last day - as a student and as a becario (though my becario days ended last Dia del Libro,) but the people in ICM (Instituto Cervantes de Manila) will be seeing my again next week when I pass by to pay my debt to Karla, and when I'll be distributing Instituto stuff in the LRT stations, along with the other becarios. :D:D:D:D

La Despedida de mi Bossing Querido - PART DOSSS!!!! :D:D:D:D

- April 29, 2010, Thursday

- After my Spanish classes, I had lunch again with the interns before going back to the Instituto for my boss' second despedida, this time, courtesy of my boss himself.

- He ordered a lot of cakes for us, and it wasn't obvious that everyone was waiting to indulge themselves in the good-looking cakes. While we stared at the boxes of cakes, we just tried to keep ourselves busy - including me messing up Drei's hair, and Drei messing up Martin's camera and making an obscure short film that happened to be disturbingly funny. :D:D:D:D

- We ate around 2 something in the afternoon, a little before my boss left the building. At the same time, Ma'am Nanette, the librarian who just returned to the Philippines from her month-long teacher training in Spain, told a lot of interesting experiences from her stay in Spain.

- I do hope that my boss arrives safely in Spain. :D:D:D:D

La Despedida de mi Bossing Querido :D:D:D:D

- April 28, 2010, Wednesday

- After my morning Spanish classes, I had lunch once again with the other interns before heading to RP to buy my friend Melissa's gift. Apparently they were shocked to see me order just ONE meal....but had a biggie soda and a large frosty. :| :| :| :|

- I went to RP after, and wandered around endlessly since I couldn't think of anything to give to Melissa. Luckily, I was able to find one in one random store. No names, and no pictures, obviously. :D:D:D:D

- I thought of going to Da Mul Grocery, the Korean grocery across RP, and checked to see if they had the Korean Nooda-crunch thingie with a different SHINee member on the package. Luckily, I was able to find a whole bunch of Taemin nooda-crunch packs, and bought one for myself, for Kaye (another kpop fan) and my dear friend Margarette.

- I returned to Instituto earlier than expected, and bought some ice cream for the potluck surprise despedida party for my boss, Senor Fons.

- I snuck the ice cream in the kitchen freezer, and snuck in the office without my boss noticing me, luckily. Moments later, he went to the pecera and saw me there. Surprise fail. Anyway, I just shouted "SURPRISE" with a matching "tada!!" hand gesture. He asked how I was doing....and that was followed by him giving me a stash of Dia del Libro folders to fold for Manolo P, the head librarian. Oh well. That was his surprise to me. Hahahaha. (Yes, he literally shouted "surprise" when he gave the the bunch of unfolded folders. Haha.)

- After everyone sneakily prepared the dishes in the kitchen, we all went to the kitchen and waited for Jose. We had paella, palabok, ice cream, barbecue, pichi-pichi and Banoffee pie. (I was lucky to have tasted the Banoffee pie, since it obviously was a bit hit to everyone....and I've never tasted the famous Banoffee pie before today- to everyone's surprise. Yes, I'm such a loser. Hahahaha.)

- After eating with the staff and the professors, Martin shot my "Mi Palabra Favorita" (My Favorite Word) for El Dia Espanol this June. Hehe.

- Hasta luego, hasta luego. :D:D:D:D

Instituto Cervantes Week 6 (Days 17-21)

- April 19-23, 2010 (Monday to Friday)

- Monday gave me a headache, LITERALLY. Not only was the extreme temperature difference bad enough (extremely hot outside, and frigid cold in the office,) but the big pile of newspapers given to me made things slightly worse.

- TJ wasn't around this Monday, since his granny was confined in the hospital. (Hope she's doing well.) Because of this, his almost-daily work was given to me: scan for Instituto-Cervantes-related articles in the gigantic pile of newspapers. Now, I wouldn't really mind doing it normally, but since it was a Monday, the pile of newspapers was thrice the thickness of the usual pile. It was a Monday, and I had to check all the newspapers from Monday's papers, as well as papers from the previous weekend.

- Yunji was supposed to help me, until she was asked by our boss to accompany the Spanish poet (yes, he hasn't left the country) to RCBC in Makati. Everyone else was busy as well, so I was left to drown in the pile of newspapers.

- I also had to check all the newspapers as quickly as possible, since Director gave me a 12noon deadline. It was supposed to be 11am actually, gladly he gave me an extension. Even better, Enzo came shortly after 11, and I desperately begged him to help me. He did. Haha.

- After lunch, waited for the eco-bag person to arrive. She told me that she'd be arriving around 1 in the afternoon, but she arrived at the office around 3-ish in the afternoon.

- Things became complicated when my boss told the eco-bag person that he wasn't allowed to give the 50% down payment to the lady, as part of standard procedures. The lady reasoned out that it was their procedure to get the 50% down payment from their customers. I on the other hand went in between my boss and the lady, since I was the lady's contact person.

- Since my boss assured me that he really couldn't give the down payment, I had to tell the lady to trust my boss that he'd be giving the full payment upon delivery of the bags. Thankfully, the lady trusted us, and went on to discuss the bag size and design with my boss.

- Things were settled quickly, and I aired my aching head for a while before going home. I left the building with Yunji, and rested the moment I got home.

- Even though my headache, as well as everything underneath it almost tore me apart this Monday, a few good things still happened. Aside from my article being published again in another Chinese newspaper, I was officially enrolled at the Instituto without having to spend a single cent, a benefit I had for being an intern.

- I was supposed to enroll at level 7, but the classes for level 7 in this cycle would be done during the night. Level 6 on the other hand would be done during the morning. Better. Haha. It's OK though, at least I'd get to review my Spanish. After all, I didn't take formal Spanish lessons aside from my Spanish 1 class in Ateneo. :D:D:D:D

- Tuesday was sort of Monday's opposite. Things ran smoothly, and I wasn't as stressed out as the previous day. I got published again in another Chinese newspapers, and it certainly made my boss happy.

- I was later asked by Martin to proofread the print out of the Bersong Europeo sample copy, and see if there were any errors. I proofread the blurbs of the authors, as well as the poems and the translations. It was a bit difficult since I also needed to proofread the poems themselves, written in their original language - including a Greek poem written in Greek. I guess my slight knowledge in reading Greek letters helped a lot in proofreading that two-paged poem.

- Other than that, I had a slow afternoon inviting people to the upcoming Dia del Libro. (Please come :) :) :) :) )

- Wednesday was a teeny bit the same as Monday. I was asked to design some item and price signs for Dia del Libro, and I thought hard on how to make the signs attractive, convincing, and clear. After thinking and designing two signs, my boss saw what I was doing and immediately told me to change it. Turned out, he wanted the signs to be plain.

- I revised my work a lot of times that it was a bit past my lunch time when I finally finished my first task of the day.

- Later that afternoon, the eco-bag person came to pay us a visit with the sample eco-bag to be sold this Saturday. I must say, the sample looked simple, but great. Everyone liked it too.

- Like before, I was the messenger between the eco-bag person and my boss. The eco-bag person was sitting in the second floor, while my boss was with someone at the Cafe de las Letras at the ground floor. I didn't have a choice but to relay one's message to the other while endlessly brisk-walking up and down the stairs.

- Finally, everything was settled, again, and we were told that the bags would be delivered around late afternoon this Friday.

- My other task was to edit the SMS announcement of this Saturday's event written by Enzo the other day. It didn't take long before I finished editing it (along with Kaye.) After I gave the edited version to my boss, he sent it out to hundreds of people in his address book.

- Thursday was not a stressful day, unlike the previous days. Since I already started my morning Spanish classes, I only come to work in the afternoon. It's a good thing that my Spanish classes were credited in my log time; I think they consider the Spanish classes as a part of training in working for a Spanish institute like Instituto Cervantes. During the afternoon, all I had to do was send a short invitation via text to all the people in the Instituto contact list. While doing that, I also helped Martin in taking pictures of our model/student/volunteer Franco Imperial. Franco is also an Atenean, an incoming sophomore from MEco. We shot a series of photos showing the "10 Reasons to go Dia del Libro."

- Martin later decided that the photo series should be made into a video slideshow. Since Martin didn't know how to do one via Moviemaker, I volunteered to do it, since I'm used to doing video slideshows. I did the slideshow Thursday night, after Martin sent me the photos. As I was doing the slideshow, Martin gave me instructions - all I had to do was to turn his instructions into reality, and upload it in youtube using the Instituto Cervantes de Manila account.

- Now Friday was a surprisingly not busy day. I expected Friday to be very busy, since it's the day before one of Instituto's most elaborate annual events. I was tasked to print out the ballots sent to my email by Martin. The ballots will be used for the Photo del Dia contest during the Dia del Libro. People would use that to vote for their favorite entries.

- Aside from that, the eco-bag person delivered the eco-bags, three hours earlier than expected. That's a really good thing I guess. Since I was responsible for the eco-bags, the big bags of ready-made eco-bags gave me a big sigh of relief.

- What added to the un-busy ambience was the lack of people in the office. Some of the other interns went elsewhere to deliver more flyers, and our Spanish bosses had their regular late-lunch. (It's their culture to have a later lunch.)

- Though supposedly a bigger event, I think I didn't feel the pressure - unlike the preparations for Berso sa Metro - because the Instituto started preparing for this event long before I started my internship. At least things were done one by one, until all of the pieces of the puzzle have been placed in their respective places. The only thing left? Dia del Libro itself.

Instituto Cervantes Week 5 (Days 12-16)

- April 12-16, 2010 (Monday - Friday)

- Monday was a not too busy day. With the upcoming Berso sa Metro event this Saturday, volunteers were called up by my co-interns, and Ea and I fixed the press kits for Tuesday's press conference that would be held in the Salon de Actors of the Instituto. Aside from that, we were asked by our superior to join the contest of the Berso sa Metro event. All we had to do was to create a blog entry about this Saturday's event, and the winners will get free Spanish lessons (1 level,) awesome Dia del Libro t-shirts, and a mystery prize. I was teamed up with Kaye and Karla, and Enzo was teamed up with Ea and Tina. :D:D:D:D Good luck to all of us.

- Oh yeah. Antonio, my boss' secretary came back to Manila recently, and brought a ton of pasalubong from Leyte. God. The (edible) pasalubongs were GREAT!!!! Haha. It's not also obvious that I ate a lot as well. Haha.

- Interesting thing I learned this Monday was how to photocopy. I always wanted to learn how to operate a photocopy machine. Gladly, I, as well as Ea, had the opportunity to learn how to photocopy things, courtesy of TJ, one of my co-workers.

- Tuesday was one heck of a day. I was welcomed by a task upon arrival, and started doing it at once. I was supposed to write summaries of the lives of the poets that are going to present their poems this Saturday. It was a good thing that I was able to finish this before we were asked to attend the press con at the Salon de Actos.

- The press con went well, though attended by a few mediamen. After that, my co-interns and I ate at the Cafe de Las Letras (Instituto's Cafe.)

- After lunch, I was again asked to do something even more tideous -> BUBBLWRAPPING. Why is it tedious? We had to pack several GIGANTIC movie posters painted on wooden canvasses, and a lot more smaller (and more manageable) ones.

- Bubblewrapping took up my afternoon, and I even had to go overtime since I needed to help TJ with the press kits for the press con the following day in Mandarin Oriental.

- I also realized that I barely spoke to my boss, and the only time I was able to talk to him was when I was about to go home. :| :| :| :|

- Wednesday was a slightly different day. I arrived at the Instituto, almost seeing no one, since my boss and some other people went to the press con in Makati. I was just tasked to do a book and DVD inventory again.

- Come afternoon, and with all the people back at the Instituto, pizzas, ice cream tubs and soda bottles galore arrived. We had a pizza party in celebration of LV's belated birthday. :D:D:D:D YEY!!

- It was also nice to see our Spanish bosses just "be themselves" during the party. They looked so cute when they talk to each other, and joke around about stuff that I barely understand. Hahahaha. Oh well.

- Thursday was all about preparing the video for the Berso sa Metro event this Saturday. Martin was all set up with his video cam and all, despite having a slight flu. Originally, I was tasked to be the "photographer" while Enzo and Drei were being shot. Since the fake jeepney couldn't stand on its own very well because of the wind, I was asked to "be the driver" of the jeepney while Drei and Enzo were being shot. In short, I didn't have any lines. Haha. It was fun though.

- Friday was the busiest (not to mention the longest) day of the week. Everyone was preparing for the Berso sa Metro with much pressure. Enzo and I were tasked to fetch the poet from the nearby Manila Pavillon Hotel, and Enzo was later asked to tour the poet around Intramuros. I badly wanted to tour the poet around, but I had my Spanish diagnostic with the other Atenean interns.

- Aside from that, I was asked by Ito to prepare the things to be brought to the venues tomorrow. I felt like I was in a game of scavenger hunt, since I had to look for items on a list given to me. Aside from that, Kaye and I updated the eco-bag manufacturer about our orders. Oh well.

- I went home around six, since Ma'am Isabel had her despedida. (She'll be going to Bataan.) I went home around 6, and waited for around 10 trains to pass by. Sigh much. Too many people. Haha.

Instituto Cervantes Week 4 (Days 8, 9, 10 and 11)

- April 5-8, 2010 (Monday to Thursday)

- This Monday, the Instituto was splashed by a wave of Atenean interns. I was joined by EU Studies students Enzo, Karla, Kaye, and Drea. Honestly, it was better having more interns around, since I had more people to talk to (a good way to kill boredom.)

- We were tasked to arrange some books in the Salon de Actos since Congressman Angara and his wife would be arriving that afternoon to get them. Those books would be donated to public libraries and schools in Baler.

- Aside from that, Monday was pretty much a slow day full of chitchat and sabaw moments.

- Tuesday and Wednesday were insanely busy days. We all thought about one liners for the t-shirts, rolled posters, stuck stickers on hundreds of envelopes, and wrote invitations in preparation of the Berso sa Metro and Dia del Libro. Due to the sudden blackouts that lasted for around 2 hours, we tried to be as productive as possible despite the scorching heat. (How hot?? My boss came back this Wednesday and brought small Toblerone triangles from Laos. Just moments later, all the triangles melted inside their plastic packs. :) :) :) :) )

- I also found out about two um, "paranormal" activities that occur in the Instituto. However, what really made my week was when I was informed that interns could avail fee lessons from the Instituto. Yippeeeee. :D:D:D:D

- Thursday was a stressful day. My boss asked Drea and I to cut the Inipit-like cakes from Laos in the kitchen. Funny, because the German ghost opened the lights for us - no kidding. The stress however, starts in the afternoon, when I was asked to bring flyers to A Different Bookstore and Fully Booked in Serendra. It was my first time commuting to Serendra, and I got lost within Fort Boni, since I got off at the wrong bus stop. Oh well, at least I was able to find my way around and go back at the Instituto safely. :D:D:D:D

Instituto Cervantes Week 3 (Days 5, 6 and 7)

- March 29, 30, 31 (Monday - Wednesday)

- Since it's the Holy Week, things have gone quite slow for a while. I came to the Instituto on Monday, and automatically headed for the box of envelopes and stickers that I was supposed to do last Friday. (My boss gave the task to me just as I was about to go home. He told me to do it this Monday instead.)

- It was fun to see that some of the stickers had names of Atenean persona on; some of them are even my professors. After lunch, the Yunji, the La Sallian Korean intern, went ahead and finished my sticker-envelope job. I was given a list of poets, and my boss asked me to write the summaries of the poets' lives to be placed in the 2010 European verses booklet for the Dia. I managed to finish them in an afternoon.

- Since I heard that my boss, along with some people from the other departments, would be leaving for vacation, I asked him if I needed to go yesterday and today. He said yes, and told me to "help around" with stuff.

- Tuesday and Wednesday (today,) turned out to be the most unproductive days of my stay in the Instituto so far. My Spanish boss is currently in Laos, and everything I needed to do was already done. Many of my co-workers were a bit bored already, though they still needed to do something. I ended up eating up by watching Skins. Haha. I finished the whole 4th season in 2 days. Hahahaha.

- Then again, I became a teeny bit productive when we needed to pick pictures of Julio Iglesias' visit to the Instituto to be given to the newspapers. :D:D:D:D

Instituto Cervantes Week 2 (Days 3 and 4)

- March 24,26, 2010 (Wednesday and Friday)

- My second week in the Instituto went well, gladly. I was tasked by mg Spanish boss to edit my Wikipedia article on the Instituto's annual film festival called "Pelicula," as well as the Chinese article about Dia del Libro that I am about to send to the newspaper companies in a couple of days. (Just in case you're wondering, my boss edited the English translation of the Chinese article I wrote. Hehe.)

- I also had the opportunity to meet a Korean intern from DLSU named Yunji, aka Tina. She was initially confused when I attempted to talk to her in Korean. Then again, she was nice enough to teach me some Korean things. Yey!!

- Our department tried to come up with something short and catchy to be places behind the Dia el Libro invites. :D:D:D:D

- Friday (today) wasn't too bad either. I called up the participants for the Dia and confirmed those who haven't confirmed if they would be going to the event and sell their books. Aside from that, I also helped Tina with the volunteers for the Dia. By the way, I met Ea too, the other La Sallian intern.

- We had lunch at the Cafe de las Letras, the restaurant/coffee shop inside the Instituto. I was surprised that the dishes weren't as expensive as I thought hey were. The prices were around 100+, the dishes were filling, and they were also perfectly made. The Cafe served pasta dishes, pizzas, sandwiches, sausages, and other small dishes. Not too Spanish-y though, but still worth a try. :D:D:D:D

- My afternoon was pretty much boring, since my boss can't think of anything for me to do. By the time he had thought of something (sticking stickers for envelopes to be sent elsewhere,) it was already time for me to go home. Hahahaha.

- Oh yeah, I also made my first actual phone call....in Spanish. HAHAHAHA. I frantically searched for words in my noggin. :|:|:|:|

Instituto Cervantes Week 1 (Days 1 and 2)

- March 17, 19, 2010 (Wednesday and Friday)

- I went to the Instituto on March 17 - the first day of my OJT. I was welcomed warmly by the staff, including my boss in the Cultural Affairs Department. I was not told beforehand that I needed a laptop, even if I asked them in previous emails if I needed to bring anything. "This is a problem.." My boss said.

- My Spanish boss simply asked me to open some boxes of books donated to the Instituto from Spain, sort the books, and count how many of each kind were there. He asked me to type the items on his computer, since I didn't have my own.

- For two hours, I was able to do the things he asked me to do, and had lunch with my co-workers in the cultural department. They're a bit older than me, but I so far, they're nice to be with. (THEY'RE TALKATIVE....hahahaha)

- After lunch, my boss asked me to write something about the Instituto's annual Spanish film festival, and post it on Wikipedia. We were able to borrow a laptop from the technical room, but the laptop gave me a major headache. It wasn't functioning very well, and wouldn't connect to the internet even when the internet cord was plugged in. *Hurray unproductivity*

- Four o'clock came swiftly, and I was more than glad to go home and study for my philo orals (that I think I didn't do too well in.)

- The day after (Thursday,) my parents and I bought a laptop. Here's the thing. I was already canvassing for laptops prior to my internship, since my dad would be needing the desktop in the province. I never knew that I needed to have a new laptop at once. Good thing I was able to get a nice one.

- Come Friday, as I entered my boss' office, I told him at once that I had my laptop. I could sense an invisible sign of relief from him, and asked me to write a Chinese article about the Instituto's upcoming major event, the Dia del Libro (International Book and Copyright Day.) The article would be sent to the Chinese newspaper houses, and hopefully, they'll publish my article. The Instituto wanted to reach the Chinese people, since the Instituto is not well known to the Chinese community (for obvious reasons.)

- I TOILED on my article for 5 hours, luckily having my English-Chinese dictionary beside me for more technical terms that I couldn't translate on my own. I managed to finish my article, though I immediately asked my mom to edit it for me (as well as my neighbor's mom who happened to be a Chinese teacher.) God. I think I gave them major headaches as well.

- Currently, I'm waiting for my boss' go signal before I have it sent to the Chinese newspaper houses. I do hope to have a better second week, until my OJT ends. :D:D:D:D


** Dear Charmaine's (my neighbor) Mom. THANK YOU!!!! :D:D:D:D