school of economics week

the school of economics finally ended. it's not that i want to end right away. actually, i would like to extend it for two more weeks - and that's how much fun i had from the week. it started with the get-together with dr. bernardo villegas, who just arrived from his break at spain, last tuesday august 12. he told us the vision of the IEP program 39 years ago, which was to be the leading think-tank here not only in the country but also in the world. he also shared to us how his life was when he was spain - comparing it to boston, where he had his graduate studies, decades ago. it was quite enriching. actually, i dubbed that tuesday, 12th of august as my talk day. i had a talk regarding the state of the nation address organized by polis, political economy's org. it featured speeches from dr. anthony golez of the government, adel tamano - the spokesperson of united opposition, alex brillantes - representing the academe and dean of a college in UP, and gov. salceda of albay. the next activity for the school of economics week was the SEC night. it showcased the talents (and the sabaw-ness) of the iep students and faculty. our batch, the juniors, presented a dance choreographed by bl and ralph tomenes and a cheer prepared by rjude. the seniors had a mini-skit with dances in between, which actually followed the theme of the event: superheroes. the super-seniors, i mean 5th year, presented a wacky puppet of paul and john plus a dance portion. certainly, the faculty also presented with recognizing the economic superheroes of the school of eco. awards, such as jumper mobility blah blah award, for each batch were given between the presentations and before the announcement of winner. the fourth year won the presentation. a sabaw dinner followed with people having pictures taken with the personalities of iep such as dr. villegas, dr. U, supermanzano, dr. abola. that night did not just end with the dinner. the juniors were "initiated" by the super-seniors, john, nikko, and paul castillo. composed of drew, ralph, bl, rjude (the new recruits) and me (initiated already during the ewer awards) beat the super-seniors in a counter-strike match for "one hours." lastly, they also introduced us to the BI(buhat-inom) lifestyle by sharing a round of red horse and extra joss. although a holiday, most of the iep, abep, and faculty of SEC went to ua&p for the School of Economics Sportsfest. starting with a torch relay of the students and faculty, all of us ran for a fun-run around the campus, played futsal, volleyball, table tennis, basketball, dodgeball. it was really tiring but all the work was paid with free lunch from mcdonald's and pizza from yellow cab. it was fun taunting at the upper batchmen and even to the faculty. we ranked 2nd behind the fourth year. i just wished i got to know my crush. i had the opportunity but i let it go coz she gave me her excess slice of pizza (if i could just frame the slice). thanks to UA&P-BEA for the wonderful week.