Internship Day 1: Postponed

20th of April, 2009

AT 6:20 in the morning, I'm still lying on my bed, waiting for my phone to wake me up. I decided to rise around 7 a.m. to be on time for my internship at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan.

It will take me about two hours to reach my destination. I will battle the noise, traffic, pollution and rush hour of the metropolis to survive just the first part of my training-- commuting.

I have never gone far south in NCR before. I frequent Makati because of my scholarship at the Inquirer, but other than that, South Manila is unknown to me.

Just to make sure I reach the right police camp, I have even practiced going there via bus. It's a good thing I did because I found out that MRT's still a lot faster, though less comfortable.

My phone beeped at 6:30. Still too early, I thought. I pressed the snooze feature which delayed the alarm for another 10 minutes. At 6:40, my phone alarmed. I delayed it again. Finally at 6:57, I received a message from my partner reporter.

"Gud am. tol bukas n lng tyo mgkita arnd 10 am s camp bagong diwa sa taguig. tnx."

Whoa!? His message jolted me to my senses. I'm already a week delayed from my OJT and he's postponing it for one more day.

I sat on my bed trying to process the new scenario. I am so prepared and excited for my first day so this turn of event disappointed me gravely. Will I be able to finish my 150-hour requirement? I recalculated the days and hours. If my goal is to finish my OJT on the 20th of May, a day before my deadline, I'll have to work at least 7 hours a day. If I work at least 9 hours a day, I'll finish it in 17 days on the 13th of May.

I don't object to working 9 hours a day, but I have to consider the travel time. I live in UP Diliman in Quezon City so if I work 9 hours a day plus 4 hours of travel that's 13 hours. Whoa!? That's a lot of working-time. I don't want to consume my entire summer doing just my internship. I want to do a lot more.

So after processing all these in less than 10 minutes, I decided to take a bath and to go to the Inquirer office in Makati. If I can't go to my internship today, I'll just pass my remaining requirements for my internship. I also want to practice commuting again so that my body will get the hang of it.

I rode the MRT at Quezon Avenue station and I managed to survive the multitude squeezed inside the cramped train. I figured out the trick long before. Just position yourself in the current of people entering the train and they'll force you inside, no sweat. Once inside, I had to be very alert for pickpockets. I also shed off my personal space; nothing's left of it anyway.

The train loosened up after three stations. Many people left the metal snake at Ortigas station, giving room for us left to breathe and to move. I left the train at Magallanes, that's the second to the last station. If my internship had pushed through today, I would have ridden a bus bound for Sucat, Bicutan or Alabang. There are numerous along Magallanes. But I had to postpone this until tomorrow. Instead, I rode a PRC jeep to Inquirer.

I passed my Inquirer requirements and headed north again through the same route. I'm anxious about the number of hours I need to finish. This will surely be a tiring summer, but I know I'll learn a lot from it.

In the words of Star Wars, I'm officially a padawan (trainee) and Marlon Ramos, my Inquirer reporter-partner, is the Jedi Master. Internship here I come [again]. :)