The Arrival

(Alicia Tower Residences at Brgy. Banilad, Cebu City)

(Laughing Buddha inside the dormitory)

I arrived at Cebu City around 7:30 a.m. on March 23, 2008. It was easter Sunday. There, waiting at the dock was an old acquaintance of mine - ate Glenda. She was our neighbor at Linamon, where I grew up. My mom, knowing that she was also in Cebu, contacted her and asked her if she could accompany me to my soon to be dormitory. I was relieved to have her. I couldn't imagine how I would find my dorm alone. But then lucky for me, miss Mimi was also there to fetch me. Miss Mimi by the way is the Human Resource (HR) person in charge of my training at Lexmark. She had booked a company van to fetch us from the ferry and bring us to the dormitory.

We reached the dormitory quickly for there was no traffic. After all it was easter Sunday. When we reached the dormitory, it was still too early for me to check-in. The clerks weren't around yet. So miss Mimi decided that we should get some breakfast first. We ate at the Chowking - Gaisano Country Mall branch. I ordered beef chaofan, ate Glenda had coffee and so did miss Mimi. After finishing my first meal at Cebu, we went back to my dormitory - Alicia Tower Residences. There, I was received by the clerk and some procedures were done. While waiting for the clerk to finish, some OJT's saw miss Mimi and went to greet her. There were 3 of them. I was loosely introduced to them and them to me by miss Mimi. For some strange reason, the only name I could remember well was "Jobert". I thought that the reason was because his name was quite common and that it was fairly easy to remember. He seemed to be a fairly friendly person. Funny though is I couldn't really remember the faces nor the names of the other 2 who were with him. Lack of sleep maybe? Yeah, that would've probably been the reason.

The clerk finished my papers and it was time for me to bring my things to my room. After putting my things in my bed, I asked ate Glenda to come with me to SM Cebu because two of my friends had arranged a meeting with me there. We had lunch at McDonald's. A few hours after that, I was on my way to my dorm again. My roommates weren't back yet so I had no one to talk to.

I spent all my afternoon doing nothing. I can't recall how I made it through that whole afternoon without even talking to anyone. I kept to my room and only went to the store to buy some junk food and I went straight back to my room again. The thing is, even though I was alone that time, I didn't feel depressed. I even felt indifferent. I didn't really care.

Evening came and my roommates still weren't back. So I decided to have dinner at the cafeteria. That was pretty much it. I didn't really do anything else. I waited for my roommates and it was around 10 p.m. that they finally arrived. Both turned out to be from manila and had a hard time understanding Cebuano. Lucky for them, I was born in a Tagalog family and that I was fairly OK with speaking in Tagalog despite the fact that I grew up in Mindanao. One of my roommates as I found out was at the same age as I was. And that made me happy. I now had a potential friend to make.

Tired as I was, after our introductions me and my roommates went to sleep. Tomorrow would be a Monday - March 24, 2008. It would be my first day on my training. I was excited. I didn't know what to expect. I was very optimistic. I was very much eager to prove myself worthy of being chosen as one of the selected few engineering students to have their training at Lexmark. The time to take center stage was near. I was ready.