ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank the following, for without them, I will not be able to make it.

To the Almighty God, the provider of all wisdom and knowledge, who allowed me to pass, regardless of the unforgivable sin of missing one fire exit, and the guessing game written exams in the earlier days.

To my parents, for their unwaivering support and for feeding the unemployed pennyless reviewee...

To my mom, for preparing my favorite coffee jelly dessert, as my official food before going to review class.

To my mentor, Arch. Annie Guevara, for the tips for the exam and for signing my magical logbook.

To my driver Dino, for all the overtime work in taking me to school and to the board exam venues.

To the people who lent me their reviewers...
To Brian, the 1st person who handed me the box of knowledge.
To Janrey, Michelle and Lesley, for sharing the Venus compilation and more.
To Mumty,... I really dunno how she can source out such great amount of reviewers. She must be very sociable.

To Janrey, Denin and Michelle, for the tips.

To Ros, for the drafting board.

To my study group partners.

To Betty, for the Arkiboard blog.

To my enthusiastic classmates at JPT,... Sheila, Gino, Jericho, Vanessa, Joanne etc.

To Anna, for the positive outlook. "Ano susuot mo sa oath taking?" This is the only question I've heard while reviewing.

To my regular ym-mates, Risha, Charol and Chow... for the brainless talks on Sunday nights...

To Charlie the cat and Penguin the penguin, for entertainment.

To my fellow new architects, congratulations!

BOHOL TRIP

Clockwise from upper left:

Let me begin by saying that I'm not an animal friendly visitor. It's an afternoon when I visited the tarsiers, which are nocturnal creatures. I forgot to turn off the flash of my camera. The result... wooolah!... My nicest tarsier shot!

I did not expect tarsiers are sooooo tiny. They're only about the height of the head of my penguin.

While the tarsiers are tinier that I expected, the Chocolate Hills are much larger that what I imagined.

All floating restaurants have live entertainment. This guy here looks like a Mexican, though he's a Boholano.

Kids swimming in the river would suddenly show up and jump back into the river.

Waterfalls in the Loboc River terminates the route of the trip.


I had foot massage under a coconut tree... heaven....


Though I went out with oldies... they're cool! They're a bunch of old people who have nothing to do but to travel. On our flight back to Manila, they're already planning their next trip to Cebu, Davao and Laoag! It's interesting to be exposed in a different crowd who have been through a lot of tough times and with so much insights in life.

MEET GARFIELD

My brother borrowed this cat from my uncle. Isn't he cute?! For the first time, Charlie scratched the walls to mark his territory and showed his aggression towards this foreign kitty.

CHARLIE THE BIG KITTY

Meet Charlie, my sis-in-law's kitty. Looks innnocent? Don't be deceived. He jumps on people's lap to get attention, bites people (but only the playful bite), makes himself comfortable on our beds, steals butterscotch bars and the list goes on...

I'M NOT A SPONGE

It's only been almost 2 weeks since the board exams, but I'm now numb about it. I guess the outcome doesn't really matter. It wouldn't affect my life that much. It wouldn't help me achieve more or do less in the future. Why did I waste 5 months? Because my sister and my mom told me so.

Last Friday, I'm supposed to join the Young Professional Group of Grace Christian Church. I wasn't able to attend their night / jogging at UP coz my dad said I cannot go. I cannot go out at night because it's not safe. It's very embarrassing to be an abnormal kid here. Imagine me... telling Enoch Hya..."Sori, di ako pinayagan ng dad ko." Hey, we are talking about a *Young Professionals' Fellowship* here, not fellowship for teenagers or kids.

I just went out with Ros that afternoon. She's the only friend who's still in school and the only person free to go out while the sun is still out. The rest of people my age are out there working 'til sunset. After Ros graduates, I'll be alone, since everybody goes out only at night, unless by good chance, there's no overtime work for some people on Saturdays.

It feels lonely often times, not being able to get out with friends. Everyone's free on Sundays, but that's my self-imposed family day. That's the only time people in the house have time to go out.

Tonight is my 1st attempt to ask my dad for permission to go to China to study. He said "no". He suggested that either I go back to my former work and stay in White Plains or work in his office. By the way, he said this while watching tv. I couldn't even get pure attention. I'm getting fed up. I feel deprived of good opportunities in life. It's so easy to be a rebel right now.

Imagine if I just do everything he says... I'll just be a big looooooser here. Getting a license for architecture wouldn't matter. It wouldn't even make a difference if I did not finish any degree. While other people are being pushed by their parents to achieve things, I'm deprived to pursue things that would give me that sense of achievement. Right now, other people of my age are having a quarter-life crisis about work, worries about board exam results, etc. Good for them, they're all far ahead of me. I'm still having the same problem as that of a grade school kid asking a dad for permission to go out with friends after school when the sun is down.

I believe I already gave up a lot just because my parents said so, and some of them are not easy to accept. I don't know how far should I go to do what parents say. I don't sense a good reason to wake up in the morning if there's nothing to do that would make life challenging. If I were a sponge, I would have appreciated it. I can sleep all day and live on my allowance...But I'm not a sponge!