Life part 3

so i guess another big thing i should mention is that IM DRIVING NOW xD

which yeah is a cool thing ^^ .. but when it started, it also kinda felt like i've been waiting for it for so long that it just kinda got spoiled by them time it happened xD .. but it's ayt.. xD

thing is though, is that i'm only driving it till grandma gets back from the phils oct 31st.. after then, i'll prolly become hatid sundo again xD .. why? cuz of money xD .. gas, car insurance, and parking is definitely something i don't have money to shell out for right now xD .. just the parking permit alone is 55 bucks.. and that's only for one term....

and yeah sure, i know i'm working and making money and can use money from work to pay for that.. BUT, kinda how it is right now is that all the money from work, i have to set aside for next semester's tuition since i'm still paying out of state rates (which is x5 the in state rates.... yeah, i know.. ouch, right? xD ..)

and that's what leads to me discussing (mostly ranting xD ..) about how i've been worrying about my residency all this time on the side.. on top of being busy enough already...

i guess i'll start from quite an early stage of this whole thing and say that at one point, we thought i really couldn't get it anymore.. the residency, that is.. and that i would really have to pay out-of-state rates throughout my entire 4 years of college.. which is why i almost started going to school back sa pinas............ (as in, we even checked out ateneo, la salle, and UP and researched on how the transferring processes are and such..)

but it didn't happen (or at least, for this year..) cuz i had enough federal aid granted to me such that abot-kaya this semester and next semester..

so the plan became: go back to jax and finish this year at UNF .. try to get the residency and hopefully be able to continue... if not, pwedeng sa pinas, pwde reng d2 pa rin pero bengga sa utang.. pero when dad researched about becoming a doctor here sa states, having graduated from the philippines, is too hard to plan on doing.. so we kinda decided that it's best to at least get my bachelor's here so that i have the choice on whether i got to med school here or not... (and yeah, prolly a lot of you didn't know that i sorta decided on wanting to become a doctor already xD ..)


anyway, so what happened was that my aunt from new york so happened to know jim owen, who is the director of the student service office here at UNF, so she was able to talk to him and ask if there's anything that could be worked out for me.. (thanks Auntie Evan! ^^ ..)

so eventually (1st week of school i think it was...), i met jim owen and we talked about it..

that first meeting, meydo na confirm nga lng tlga na ndi ku tlga makukuha ung residency.. so he suggested to just go for federal scholarships next year.. BUT, for me to be eligible for those scholarships he pointed out, i have to be a technical juinor by fall next year.. which means, i'd have to take my summer semester here already, so as to have enough credits to be technically declared a junior... ultimately, that means...... can't go home this summer T_T T_T T_T

so at some point, we sorta just accepted that fact already, but again, because i was busy, was never able to announce that....

AWESOMELY THOUGH, the same week (i think it was just the next day nga lang e xD ..) .. i just so happened to pass by one stop (the student service place) to ask about a financial hold i had on my account and surprisingly, jim owen called me into his office, and only a day later from seeing him, here we are again xD ..

he researched and it turns out that if i can get legal papers declaring my uncle and aunt as legal guardian, i could finally get my residency reclassified and finally start paying in state stuition .. (YAY! xD ..)


so that's what i've sorta been on past week or two.. getting that guardianship.. thing is, is that i only have till my birthday next month to get it, so medyo time pressured.. hindi medyo... SOBRA xD ..

past couple of days, i've been calling family law firms in jacksonville asking whether majority of the lawyers think i have enough time to get the guardianship processed, and hoping to find someone who CAN do it within the fiven time frame...


so yeah, what kind of a freakin' 17 year old is is calling up lawyers up and working for his own tuition? xD .. me, i guess... but i'm prolly not alone....



anyway.. just had to get that out of me.. xD .. been really stressin' out over that recently cuz if i don't get it, it pretty much equates to about 20-25 THOUSAND DOLLARS more in tuition i have to pay to get through the rest of my 4 year college experience xD ..


yun lang nman i guess... that's pretty much how it's been lately.. that's life i suppose xD

gotta grab dinner and get back to studying xD .. later....

Life part 2

on top of all my classes, i have work.. right now, i'm working a college work-study job at UNF hall, which is a building sort of separated from the main campus so i have to take a shuttle bus to get there everyday.. no biggie..

i basically just scan documents and index 'em into the database then file them.. that and various basic office tasks.. nothing hard, really.. and it pays pretty sweetly .. 9 bucks an hour B-) .. i have an awesome boss.. really makes you feel relaxed while working.. never any time pressure.. lenient when it comes to taking breaks.. jokes around xD .. and even lets me do homework when there's nothing to do xD .. (it's only happened twice so far though xD ..) .. AND, what's great about the job, being a school job, they are very mindful of you being a student -- so they're not so strict about what times you do your shift, and you can just call in and say "can't come in today" and they'll let you take the day off..

i've also made a couple of friends and met quite a few people.. joya, justin, josh, michelle, rahim.. without other students to work with, and thus no one to talk to xD , time can get real slow in the office so it's nice workin' workin' with them ^^

so yeah work's been pretty good..


i'm working 20 hours a week though.. and 20 hours really is a huge chunk of time that's taken off from your week if you think about it.. that's like 4 hours a day that you could be doing so many other things -- chilling, relaxing, homework -- whatever.. .. which is why i'm not as on top of some things as i know i would be.. which is also why i've been pretty busy... i work everyday till 5 starting at different times, then at 5, i workout at the gym (swim on fridays)..

so basically, a regular day would be:

classes in the morning..
lunch..
work in the afternoon till 5..
workout..
get home and eat dinner, usually ending at about 7:30..
then i pretty much only have about 3-4 hours to do homework cuz i usually sleep at around 11:30 now since i'm tired from everything during the day, especially the workout, and then i have to wake up early again the next day..

chores and hw on saturdays, church and more homework on sundays xD

so it's pretty much a full sked 24/7 -- thus the busyness.. but i guess it's not as bad as it sounds.. i think xD .. i do wish i was in touch with more of ya'z.. but i understand if we're all busy...

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Life

It's been about a month since the first day of school. But for some reason, it feels like it's been months since then -- like last semester and this semester just connected without any break in between. I guess that's how fast summer was -- that frickin' fun.

ok tama na, ndi ku na kaya idire-diretso ung 'proper' na pagsulat xD ..

anyway, just an update, i guess, on how school's been past several weeks..

it's only 3 classes but 2 of them have labs, bio and chem.. bio has been ok, lots of reading and super hateful pop quizzes xD .. the past 2 pop quizzes we took, we (and i say we cuz the quiz is taken as a group) kinda sucked cuz we were sorta caught off guard each time xD .. you tend to prioritize other things for other classes, and generally, other things in life over randomly studying biology for a quiz you never know when when it's going to happen xD .. so yeah, really didn't feel like we pwn'd those suckers xD .. tomorrow is the first big bio test -- actually even the first of the semester.. been studying big time for that....... lab is good so far though.. had a quiz today which i'm pretty sure i did good on ^^ .. and today was a cool lab too cuz we went out to our school's nature trail with a big lake and and lots of trees and vegetation and crap xD .. we collected bugs and worms and other cool things, so i thought that was kinda fun ^^ .. prolly the funnest bio lab so far xD

chem II has been the most demanding class so far.. and it slowly grows more and more notorious for being a hard class, specifically cuz of the teacher.. i know so many people who dropped the class at least once before finally finishing it xD .. medyo boring kc pakinggan ung teacher e xD .. and he goes through the lectures too fast, practically just reading his notes, saying "kow how to do this" and "know how to do that" without even explaining or going through it at all, at least once xD .. past 2 homeworks have been tough, and the second one i even had to skip lunch just to finish xD .. big chem test on tuesday, tpos 3rd chem hw due on the same day.. kinda behind on my reading for chem cuz i was busy over bio, and definitely behind on the extra credit stuff too.. gotta get back on my feet....

calc has been awesome though.. 3 quizzes so far, aced 'em all.. he teaches at a REALLY comfortable pace and practically baby's us on the quizzes.. which i hope he continues doing xD



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