| Today was the first day of school for the second semester at the seminary. Looks like a good semester! I have two classes, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. Morning class started off slow, but my first impressions of the teacher was pretty good. I thought he might be one of those bookish theology teachers, but after he cracked his first joke, I knew this class would be great!
We were told to introduce ourselves, say what college we went to and what discipline we took so that he could have a working idea of what backgrounds we would be coming from. As an added bonus, he wanted us to tell something about ourselves that most people didn't know. When my turn came, I told the class that I liked to dance. A lot of heads turned. Those that knew me from before looked at me as if to say, "Si Mark ba 'yan?" (Is that Mark?). That was fun...
Now for the joke I was talking about, there was this other student who introduced himself and built up his introduction pretty well. When it came to revealing his secret, he just mentioned something about him being a pastor's kid. Personally I was thinking he would say something more interesting, but apparently not. I felt like he just fumbled up the delivery of his punchline. And then suddenly in front of the whole class the teacher blurted out, "Walang ka-kwenta-kwenta naman yang secret na yan!" (That's such a pathetic secret!), which I think was pretty much on the mind of every one else in the room! The whole class burst out laughing! This teacher is such a joker.
The afternoon class is pretty ok since I know the professor and her brand of teaching. What was exceptional was the number of students in the room. Normally we would have around 25 in a class. This one was over 50! It got steamy inside the room and I swear, I probably nodded off more than a dozen times during that class.
But probably the highlight of the day was during the lunchbreak. After lunch, I was thinking of heading over to the library to read the newspapers or to nap a bit, but I came across several buddies, and among them was this guy named Jesse. I didn't know Jesse, but he was playing the guitar, and man! This guy plays pretty well! He says he used to be lead guitar of a local rock band, and I don't doubt it. As one friend commented, "Grabe, parang gagamba mga daliri nito!" ("This guy's fingers are like spider legs!") We spent the lunchbreak singing songs by request: Guns and Roses, Parokya, Side A, True Faith. It was fantastic. It was like we were in some kind of bar or jazz lounge. One guy even came up to us and joked, saying, "Sir, pwede bang kunin ko na order nyo? Baka gusto niyo ng mani tsaka San Mig?" ("Sir, can I take your order? Would you like some peanuts and beer?") That was really fun. I enjoyed my first day in school. I hope Jesse comes back next Tuesday... and hopefully bring along his guitar and a couple of Song Hits. |
