The Drift

Yesterday afternoon, me and my review classmates decided to have our very own endurance test for the upcoming British Council IELTS examination which is next week. Writing, speaking, reading and listening skills are measured in the test. We've realized that one skill practice in a day is not enough for our preparation and four thousand bucks for that review did not pay off. Maybe it's their way of preparing students, limiting the pressure. Well, I got something from that review it's just that it is so insufficient and a waste of time and money to go to the city and take one practice test of one skill in a day. I commute everyday paying 15 bucks from home and vice versa and I make sure that all of my appointments in that day is done. I make sure that all my itineraries are structured base on the route and time. I have to go before the traffic goes bad. We have a very good traffic in Cagayan especially during rainy days and rush hours I tell you. :D Rainy days are like hell in front of an original Kagay-anon shopping mall. The city's drainage system is excellent! An hour of downpour will create an expanse of man-made Yangtze River but it's more like the Amazon not to mention that it came from the sewers beneath the city. I just can't imagine the different colonies of microbes in it. These are the discomforts you experience in a third world country but no matter what I do I live here and I have to survive. I reckon survival here is innate. You have to fight. It may be an insufficient, expensive exam preparation or walking across a flooded sidewalk you have to make it. For as long as you have the motivation surely you'll get yourself through it. I remember a few months ago, Adam and 2 of my confused girlfriends who are clandestinely dating together planned to go out for malling on a sunny Sunday. Malling and window shopping are synonymous to broke. Unfortunately, it wasn't a sunny Sunday at all. A few kilometers from home, a cyclone hit a neighboring town and everything was overflowing with brown waist-deep water. The flood that I'm used to was knee-deep high like the ones in front of the city's premiere shopping mall. This one was appalling. We were craking jokes about the end of the world, the deludge and all but seriously it was horrible. We were thinking about the shopping mall we're planning to wreak what it looked like with the flood waist-deep high. Did the mall float gondolas around to take in shoppers? We reached the mall with the usual knee-deep flood and the bus detoured in the premises. We stopped by a place where the water was ankle-deep. I was wearing shoes and I don't have plans of contacting fungal infection from soaked-wet socks and shoes. The three were wearing flip flops and Adam decided to carry me on his back and that was embarrassing. Even right at this moment, I feel like I'm a weakling at that time but somehow it was fun. Another moment to treasure with old friends from 8 years ago. My point here is that no matter the circumstances are a very good support system helps a lot in facing this rushing waters, the great rapids of the drift called life. The experience I had on Adam's back was a perfect symbol that no matter what you are and what you're into they are always there to support you and that's fabulous. This posting is dedicated to someone from the past that until now is blinded from the value of relationships. I hope you two will patch up the pieces together.

The pic was taken at the Cagayan River where white water rafting is showcase whole year round.