Video looking out my office window.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Baguio Week 1, 2.8-2.14.09: Crib Search
On Monday morning of Feb. 9th, after yoga and a timba-heated tabo bath, I cautiously cross the street and – voila! – arrive on the campus of the University of the Philippines - Baguio. I lament the transient nature of my housing, since the location can’t be beat. I can only stay in my nice apartment until Thursday, though, since it has already been reserved by “a guest of the Chancellor.” Ah, well. I am optimistic about my housing search.
Taking a short-cut via the back entrance of the campus, I admire the lovely new Fine Arts, Linguistics, and Communications building as I walk past on my way to the Social Sciences building – commonly referred to as “socsci.” The familiar walkways and terraced landscaping trigger happy memories of my last visit here, for a conference in February 2008. I enter socsci and walk up four flights of stairs. When I walk into the Cordillera Studies Center Research Office, I am greeted warmly by Alice Follosco, the CSC staff researcher. She introduces me to the rest of the staff, shows me to my desk, and gives me what I need to set up my workspace, including internet access passwords. The CSC offices are airy and bright, and full of beautiful wood furniture. I do not miss the steely gray austerity of over-air conditioned Saunders.
When Ate Alice introduces me to Lolit, one of the CSC administrative staff, she tells me Lolit will be helping me with my housing search. In Taglish I tell them both how thrilled I am for the help. I apologize to Lolit, explaining that I was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, thus accounting for my busted Filipino: “Naiintindihan ko, pero dahan-dahan lang ang pagsalita, at baligtad.” Lolit and Alice look at each other and, in Filipino, Lolit says, “Well, that makes two of us,” and laughs. Alice says, “Sometimes she mixes up words in Filipino,” indicating that Lolit’s mother tongue is Ilokano – the lingua franca of this region.
Ate Lolit has already identified some “bachelor pad” prospects from the Baguio Midland Courier ads. I ask if I should make some phone calls to follow up, and she tells me, “I’ll call muna and then we’ll go together and look,” then, in Filipino, adds, “otherwise if they know you’re not from here you’ll get gouged.” I thank her, profoundly grateful.
The rest of the week is a blur of getting settled in at the CSC, searching unsuccessfully for housing, and dinners at SM. On campus I tool around figuring out the logistics for library access, which is the best canteen for lunch, and at what time of day the internet connection is the strongest for videochatting or IMing with my boys in Honolulu, my bro in the Bay, and my sis in D.C. Around town with Lolit, who is incredibly sweet and funny, I acclimate myself to jeepney etiquette as we check out apartments and rooms in Engineer's Hill, Quezon Hill, and around Burnham Park. We follow-up on newspaper ads and word-of-mouth recommendations for joints in condotels and multi-floor family compounds. It is a bad time to search for housing, with the annual Panagbenga Festival right around the corner. Tourists flock to Baguio by the thousands to participate in the revelry, snatching up all the available transient cribs.
On Tuesday night before bed I write in my journal, “Am happy, truly. Slightly surprised to be so happy, but it hasn’t even been a week yet. After this week only 23 more to go – it’s going to pass too quickly! How am I going to get everything done in only 23 weeks?” The following night I write, “Not such a happy day today. Housing search sobering. Just finished packing up to move to another temporary unit in faculty housing. Am really sick of SM. Carrying 6 liter jugs of H20 [for drinking] back from SM every two days getting to be a drag. I long for my boys, for the ocean, for my familiar, for clean air. I long to cook!... Be patient, sleep, I’ll feel better in the morning. It will all be ok. It’s only been one week. It will all be ok.”
By Thursday I’m beginning to panic about my housing situation, since I only have another week in my 2nd temporary unit (which is, incidentally, not beautiful. The bathroom always smells unpleasantly because the toilet splashes up water when other units flush. I am disgusted.). My budget cannot handle another week of meals from Max’s, and I’m not sure my immune system can handle a week of eating the oil-heavy, but delicious, myriad cheaper restaurant food. Since I have no cooking facilities, it is these options or instant noodles, should I choose to dine in my room.
At this point Lolit and I have checked out the following cribs worth mentioning (in addition to several others not worth mentioning): one the size of a closet with a hotplate on a counter at the foot of the bed – P5,000/mo; a one-bedroom joint with a modest but cute kitchen/dining area and water access 24/7, but a bedroom with no windows and dark painted walls that feels like a tomb – P7,500; a beautiful, spacious 2-bedroom place with new floor tiling and big windows but completely unfurnished (no refrigerator, bed, stove, tables, nothing) and two jeep rides from campus – P7,000; and a completely perfect, fully-furnished, one bedroom apartment with a lanai, hot water, in a wifi building with 24 hour security that is a 10-minute walk from campus, all for P15,000/mo. P15,000 is P5,000 more than my maximum housing budget but, as I said, I’m getting desperate. I hem and haw, vacillating between the P15,000 joint and the P7,500 joint – can I really sleep in a tomb?? Can I live in a place with no internet access? Should I just resign myself to getting comfy at the internet cafes? But how am I going to feel safe carrying my computer around everywhere, especially coming home alone at night? Will I be able to do research and stay connected to my people otherwise? Shouldn't my home also be a place where I can do work, think, and read comfortably? If I take the P7,500 joint, a fine place to lay my head but do little else, I'm in for more weekends and evenings than I care to imagine hanging out in wifi spots or working late at the office. The campus library closes at 6pm. It would be a 20 minute walk home. I remember ruefully a joke Krishna once made in class about the Internet being his prosthesis. Am I being ridiculous?
Feeling gouged, embracing my cyborg nature, caving in to the desire for comfort and convenience, I go to the bank Friday morning and take out more than half the money in my account to pay the first month’s rent and two months’ deposit on the P15,000 crib, with the understanding that I’ll be moving into a P12,000/mo studio in the same building after the end of the first month.
As I hand over the rent money to the manager at Ina Mansion, I feel both anxiety and relief. I walk the ten minutes back to the CSC through Burnham Park, imagining my daily commute. And then, when I’m back in the office, two miraculous things happen. First, CSC Director Del Tolentino calls me into his office and announces he has found a sublet in faculty housing for me. His friend Mng. Celia is on sabbatical and has agreed to rent her apartment to me, in the same building I’ve been staying temporarily. “When I heard you were about to pay P15,000 for a place, I just had to find you an alternative. I had been trying to get ahold of Cel for the past few weeks because her place would be perfect for you, but her cell phone was stolen so she never got my messages. Anyway, I finally talked to her, and you can move in early next week.” I’m speechless. This was my fantasy scenario. I fall all over myself thanking him. Sir Del directs Lolit to return to Ina Mansion with me and claim my P45,000 deposit, which we do without trouble.
“Wow, suwerte ka (you’re so lucky)!” Alice exclaims, when I tell her the news. “Mng. Cel’s house is beautifully furnished – but very cluttered.” I make note of her warning but am elated nonetheless. And then, miracle #2: Vangie Ram, a Psychology faculty member and friend of Alice’s whom I met earlier in the week, walks into the office and asks me if I want to join her and her students on a trip to Sagada, Mt. Province, for the weekend. “I’d love to!” I say without hesitation. “Wonderful!” Vangie responds, and proceeds to rattle off a list of required items for the trip – sleeping bag, backpack, snacks – most of which I don’t have. She concludes by saying, “We meet at the bus station at 4:30am tomorrow morning.”
I look at my watch. It’s 5:35pm. I have to get gear, pack, sleep, and be up by 3:30am. No matter. I’m going to Sagada!
Photos are of my office space and Ate Alice, who is 2 offices down from me. More photos of the CSC and other staff forthcoming.
Taking a short-cut via the back entrance of the campus, I admire the lovely new Fine Arts, Linguistics, and Communications building as I walk past on my way to the Social Sciences building – commonly referred to as “socsci.” The familiar walkways and terraced landscaping trigger happy memories of my last visit here, for a conference in February 2008. I enter socsci and walk up four flights of stairs. When I walk into the Cordillera Studies Center Research Office, I am greeted warmly by Alice Follosco, the CSC staff researcher. She introduces me to the rest of the staff, shows me to my desk, and gives me what I need to set up my workspace, including internet access passwords. The CSC offices are airy and bright, and full of beautiful wood furniture. I do not miss the steely gray austerity of over-air conditioned Saunders.
When Ate Alice introduces me to Lolit, one of the CSC administrative staff, she tells me Lolit will be helping me with my housing search. In Taglish I tell them both how thrilled I am for the help. I apologize to Lolit, explaining that I was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, thus accounting for my busted Filipino: “Naiintindihan ko, pero dahan-dahan lang ang pagsalita, at baligtad.” Lolit and Alice look at each other and, in Filipino, Lolit says, “Well, that makes two of us,” and laughs. Alice says, “Sometimes she mixes up words in Filipino,” indicating that Lolit’s mother tongue is Ilokano – the lingua franca of this region.
Ate Lolit has already identified some “bachelor pad” prospects from the Baguio Midland Courier ads. I ask if I should make some phone calls to follow up, and she tells me, “I’ll call muna and then we’ll go together and look,” then, in Filipino, adds, “otherwise if they know you’re not from here you’ll get gouged.” I thank her, profoundly grateful.
The rest of the week is a blur of getting settled in at the CSC, searching unsuccessfully for housing, and dinners at SM. On campus I tool around figuring out the logistics for library access, which is the best canteen for lunch, and at what time of day the internet connection is the strongest for videochatting or IMing with my boys in Honolulu, my bro in the Bay, and my sis in D.C. Around town with Lolit, who is incredibly sweet and funny, I acclimate myself to jeepney etiquette as we check out apartments and rooms in Engineer's Hill, Quezon Hill, and around Burnham Park. We follow-up on newspaper ads and word-of-mouth recommendations for joints in condotels and multi-floor family compounds. It is a bad time to search for housing, with the annual Panagbenga Festival right around the corner. Tourists flock to Baguio by the thousands to participate in the revelry, snatching up all the available transient cribs.
On Tuesday night before bed I write in my journal, “Am happy, truly. Slightly surprised to be so happy, but it hasn’t even been a week yet. After this week only 23 more to go – it’s going to pass too quickly! How am I going to get everything done in only 23 weeks?” The following night I write, “Not such a happy day today. Housing search sobering. Just finished packing up to move to another temporary unit in faculty housing. Am really sick of SM. Carrying 6 liter jugs of H20 [for drinking] back from SM every two days getting to be a drag. I long for my boys, for the ocean, for my familiar, for clean air. I long to cook!... Be patient, sleep, I’ll feel better in the morning. It will all be ok. It’s only been one week. It will all be ok.”
By Thursday I’m beginning to panic about my housing situation, since I only have another week in my 2nd temporary unit (which is, incidentally, not beautiful. The bathroom always smells unpleasantly because the toilet splashes up water when other units flush. I am disgusted.). My budget cannot handle another week of meals from Max’s, and I’m not sure my immune system can handle a week of eating the oil-heavy, but delicious, myriad cheaper restaurant food. Since I have no cooking facilities, it is these options or instant noodles, should I choose to dine in my room.
At this point Lolit and I have checked out the following cribs worth mentioning (in addition to several others not worth mentioning): one the size of a closet with a hotplate on a counter at the foot of the bed – P5,000/mo; a one-bedroom joint with a modest but cute kitchen/dining area and water access 24/7, but a bedroom with no windows and dark painted walls that feels like a tomb – P7,500; a beautiful, spacious 2-bedroom place with new floor tiling and big windows but completely unfurnished (no refrigerator, bed, stove, tables, nothing) and two jeep rides from campus – P7,000; and a completely perfect, fully-furnished, one bedroom apartment with a lanai, hot water, in a wifi building with 24 hour security that is a 10-minute walk from campus, all for P15,000/mo. P15,000 is P5,000 more than my maximum housing budget but, as I said, I’m getting desperate. I hem and haw, vacillating between the P15,000 joint and the P7,500 joint – can I really sleep in a tomb?? Can I live in a place with no internet access? Should I just resign myself to getting comfy at the internet cafes? But how am I going to feel safe carrying my computer around everywhere, especially coming home alone at night? Will I be able to do research and stay connected to my people otherwise? Shouldn't my home also be a place where I can do work, think, and read comfortably? If I take the P7,500 joint, a fine place to lay my head but do little else, I'm in for more weekends and evenings than I care to imagine hanging out in wifi spots or working late at the office. The campus library closes at 6pm. It would be a 20 minute walk home. I remember ruefully a joke Krishna once made in class about the Internet being his prosthesis. Am I being ridiculous?
Feeling gouged, embracing my cyborg nature, caving in to the desire for comfort and convenience, I go to the bank Friday morning and take out more than half the money in my account to pay the first month’s rent and two months’ deposit on the P15,000 crib, with the understanding that I’ll be moving into a P12,000/mo studio in the same building after the end of the first month.
As I hand over the rent money to the manager at Ina Mansion, I feel both anxiety and relief. I walk the ten minutes back to the CSC through Burnham Park, imagining my daily commute. And then, when I’m back in the office, two miraculous things happen. First, CSC Director Del Tolentino calls me into his office and announces he has found a sublet in faculty housing for me. His friend Mng. Celia is on sabbatical and has agreed to rent her apartment to me, in the same building I’ve been staying temporarily. “When I heard you were about to pay P15,000 for a place, I just had to find you an alternative. I had been trying to get ahold of Cel for the past few weeks because her place would be perfect for you, but her cell phone was stolen so she never got my messages. Anyway, I finally talked to her, and you can move in early next week.” I’m speechless. This was my fantasy scenario. I fall all over myself thanking him. Sir Del directs Lolit to return to Ina Mansion with me and claim my P45,000 deposit, which we do without trouble.
“Wow, suwerte ka (you’re so lucky)!” Alice exclaims, when I tell her the news. “Mng. Cel’s house is beautifully furnished – but very cluttered.” I make note of her warning but am elated nonetheless. And then, miracle #2: Vangie Ram, a Psychology faculty member and friend of Alice’s whom I met earlier in the week, walks into the office and asks me if I want to join her and her students on a trip to Sagada, Mt. Province, for the weekend. “I’d love to!” I say without hesitation. “Wonderful!” Vangie responds, and proceeds to rattle off a list of required items for the trip – sleeping bag, backpack, snacks – most of which I don’t have. She concludes by saying, “We meet at the bus station at 4:30am tomorrow morning.”
I look at my watch. It’s 5:35pm. I have to get gear, pack, sleep, and be up by 3:30am. No matter. I’m going to Sagada!
Photos are of my office space and Ate Alice, who is 2 offices down from me. More photos of the CSC and other staff forthcoming.
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