The Pisay Movie 2 (Or Our Inadvertently Long Trip to CCP)
Making a movie about PSHS showcasing the iskolar ng bayan should be a big deal to the Main Campus. When school officials permitted the four batches (three on Friday, July 27) to watch the film right at CCP, I wasn’t surprised, even if it was the week before the first quarter periodic exams. I know that the class advisers will have to play a key role in this event, especially when I learned that the Batch 2010 PTA couldn’t provide buses for the sections. Apparently, the cost per student is around P250 for the transportation alone.
A student will just have to show up and watch Pisay (directed by Auraeus Solito; I misspelled his name in my previous post); the advisers, meanwhile, are in the thick of preparations even the week before the screening. Each homeroom class was surveyed if they were willing to watch and pay the ticket at a discounted price; all 30 Thy Kingdom Camia students said yes. Next came the reply slip and payment for the tickets. It’s a good thing that the class officers (Juan and Portia) took care of this one with my minimal intervention.
The biggest problem was the transportation. Batch 2010’s plan was carpooling, and as of Monday before the screening, Camia only has two vehicles. Even if there were enough cars already, monitoring all vehicles - if they are in the proper route, or if they are spared from any accident - is such a logistic nightmare. I have signified to my other sections (from Hello ARCI) that we might have to hitch a ride with them just in case we cannot find enough cars. Fortunately, Camia produced 6 cars by Thursday (courtesy of Kit, Aldrich, Aveline, Justine, Marckie, and last minute Josh).
Next came the vehicle designations. Who rides which car and with whom? Haha, I thoroughly enjoyed this part, to the point of spending too much time that I forgot to do my Abstract Algebra homework (bad, bad). This might be one of the finest real-life Operations Research example which imposes constraints and tasks the solver to maximize, in this case, space and fun. These are the constraints, some given, and some self-imposed:
1) Each vehicle owner should ride his/her vehicle. Easy.
2) Each vehicle should have at least one class officer or the adviser on board, as required by the batch adviser. With six officers plus me, this is still attainable, even if the set containing car owners and the set of class officers intersect. (sigh I miss Venn diagrams)
3) Kit’s Filipino 2 groupmates should stick with Kit. Apparently, Kit wanted to bring his groupmates to their house in Parañaque from CCP after the viewing. This means that we will have less cars heading back to Agham Road, so I might as well pack Kit’s van with his groupmates. However, Aldrich is a groupmate too, so that means two less cars for Camia! Well, I have to assign non-groupmates in their cars (who will ride other cars going back to Pisay) to satisfy the first two conditions.
4) Vehicle owners should have a say as to who they want to ride with. Well, with three more important concerns, the other car owners do not much options left in the end.
5) Spread less-space-consuming students evenly. Meaning: size matters.
6) Spread potentially rowdy boys evenly. From elementary Physics, a lot of external factors may cause potential energy to become kinetic energy.
7) Participating parents will have to be designated too. Parents (each a vehicle owner) expressed their intention to watch with the class. I didn’t anrticipate this, and since they owned the cars too, I simply assigned them to their respective cars and displaced some students (little did I know that they wanted to be together; they eventually agreed to my assignment).
Come Friday, the front lobby was swamped with students, mostly bagless, from the three batches. The sophomores were in the flagpole area, with yellow cloth distributed to each student for easy recognition, and yellow stickers on the windshields of carpool participants (for convoy purposes). This looked like a prelude to Family Day come September. After minutes of checking attendance and grouping by cars, each “team” headed to their respective vehicles. I assigned myself to C5, with Aldrich, David, and Conrad.
I was busy texting the officers in each car that I didn’t notice that we took the EDSA route to CCP (we were following car I2); all other Camia (and Ilang-ilang) vehicles took the faster España route. Of course all of them reached CCP way, way before we did as I anticipated, and told Juan to take over first. We were stuck in classic EDSA traffic, and when we were in busy Buendia, the time interval of class president Juan’s calls were becoming shorter and shorter; they were being told to line up already. Of course they were concerned about us, but they care for themselves too; all Camia tickets are with me (even those of parents)! It was really fun at first, since we do not have to suffer the long wait just like the others did, but the excitement was just too extreme. We lost sight of car I2 and saw them many minutes and stoplights after, and realized that Ilang-ilang tickets were also with them. It’s a good thing that the batch adviser just made a way for the students to enter without the tickets at hand.
When we were three right turns away from CCP, we then hit another problem: there were road barriers positioned such that we cannot alight the vehicles right in front of the theater. This is a super so-near-yet-so-far moment, and I know that the screening is about to start in a few minutes. So cars C5 and I2 were about to perform the three right turns again to CCP, when a speeding vehicle behind is honked its way past us. The driver is so much in a hurry this means only one thing: the car is from Pisay too. And true enough, it’s R6 from Rosal (as I remember it).
Sometimes when things couldn’t possibly get worse, they will. As R6 was about to make its second right turn, it collided with a motorcycle. In front of our very eyes, the bike wobbled, and the rider and its passengers were on the ground seconds after. Thankfully, there was no sight of blood or hurt people getting wild, only evil stares. Of course, running late is less important than the safety of the people riding R6 and the motorcycle riders, so we slowed down to check on them. Apparently, aside from the driver, only Mr. Espinas (Adelfa adviser) rode R6. He went to our car and asked us to go ahead while handing the Adelfa tickets. Wow: tickets of three sections were late.
So we proceeded on our photofinish journey. There indeed was no way to alight right in front of CCP, so we just walked a fairly long distance just to make the screening, under the blazing sun. Since we were late, we were accommodated in the balcony already. Seconds after we entered, the national anthem was played. Wow. We were very much on time (for the screening).
As expected, the Pisay crowd became restless and noisy during the film viewing: when the title was flashed onscreen with a nice shot of the flagpole area, when an extra turns out to be a friend, when matters discussed are actual class lessons, or when there will be an inside Pisay joke or comment. Solito was again present at the end, and he received a standing ovation. He acknowledged Shayne again, and asked the extras to join him onstage. Claps.
After the film, the sections again assembled at the lobby, and Camia had nice class pictures at the CCP stairs. I like class pictures. We were actually one of the last sections to leave CCP. Back in car C5 heading for Pisay, Aldrich, Conrad, and Jethro (traded for David) were soundly sleeping after having a few bites. My body was feeling tired too, but somehow, recalling what had happened hours earlier amused me. I learned that real-life (accident-free) adventures filled with adrenaline rush are very much welcome especially when the predictability of routine kills the fun already.
The sight of Agham Road signalled the end of today’s journey. I wish that, after watching the movie, the students realize the hope that they carry. And may each of them master the roads and sidestreets of Metro Manila.
A student will just have to show up and watch Pisay (directed by Auraeus Solito; I misspelled his name in my previous post); the advisers, meanwhile, are in the thick of preparations even the week before the screening. Each homeroom class was surveyed if they were willing to watch and pay the ticket at a discounted price; all 30 Thy Kingdom Camia students said yes. Next came the reply slip and payment for the tickets. It’s a good thing that the class officers (Juan and Portia) took care of this one with my minimal intervention.
The biggest problem was the transportation. Batch 2010’s plan was carpooling, and as of Monday before the screening, Camia only has two vehicles. Even if there were enough cars already, monitoring all vehicles - if they are in the proper route, or if they are spared from any accident - is such a logistic nightmare. I have signified to my other sections (from Hello ARCI) that we might have to hitch a ride with them just in case we cannot find enough cars. Fortunately, Camia produced 6 cars by Thursday (courtesy of Kit, Aldrich, Aveline, Justine, Marckie, and last minute Josh).
Next came the vehicle designations. Who rides which car and with whom? Haha, I thoroughly enjoyed this part, to the point of spending too much time that I forgot to do my Abstract Algebra homework (bad, bad). This might be one of the finest real-life Operations Research example which imposes constraints and tasks the solver to maximize, in this case, space and fun. These are the constraints, some given, and some self-imposed:
1) Each vehicle owner should ride his/her vehicle. Easy.
2) Each vehicle should have at least one class officer or the adviser on board, as required by the batch adviser. With six officers plus me, this is still attainable, even if the set containing car owners and the set of class officers intersect. (sigh I miss Venn diagrams)
3) Kit’s Filipino 2 groupmates should stick with Kit. Apparently, Kit wanted to bring his groupmates to their house in Parañaque from CCP after the viewing. This means that we will have less cars heading back to Agham Road, so I might as well pack Kit’s van with his groupmates. However, Aldrich is a groupmate too, so that means two less cars for Camia! Well, I have to assign non-groupmates in their cars (who will ride other cars going back to Pisay) to satisfy the first two conditions.
4) Vehicle owners should have a say as to who they want to ride with. Well, with three more important concerns, the other car owners do not much options left in the end.
5) Spread less-space-consuming students evenly. Meaning: size matters.
6) Spread potentially rowdy boys evenly. From elementary Physics, a lot of external factors may cause potential energy to become kinetic energy.
7) Participating parents will have to be designated too. Parents (each a vehicle owner) expressed their intention to watch with the class. I didn’t anrticipate this, and since they owned the cars too, I simply assigned them to their respective cars and displaced some students (little did I know that they wanted to be together; they eventually agreed to my assignment).
Come Friday, the front lobby was swamped with students, mostly bagless, from the three batches. The sophomores were in the flagpole area, with yellow cloth distributed to each student for easy recognition, and yellow stickers on the windshields of carpool participants (for convoy purposes). This looked like a prelude to Family Day come September. After minutes of checking attendance and grouping by cars, each “team” headed to their respective vehicles. I assigned myself to C5, with Aldrich, David, and Conrad.
I was busy texting the officers in each car that I didn’t notice that we took the EDSA route to CCP (we were following car I2); all other Camia (and Ilang-ilang) vehicles took the faster España route. Of course all of them reached CCP way, way before we did as I anticipated, and told Juan to take over first. We were stuck in classic EDSA traffic, and when we were in busy Buendia, the time interval of class president Juan’s calls were becoming shorter and shorter; they were being told to line up already. Of course they were concerned about us, but they care for themselves too; all Camia tickets are with me (even those of parents)! It was really fun at first, since we do not have to suffer the long wait just like the others did, but the excitement was just too extreme. We lost sight of car I2 and saw them many minutes and stoplights after, and realized that Ilang-ilang tickets were also with them. It’s a good thing that the batch adviser just made a way for the students to enter without the tickets at hand.
When we were three right turns away from CCP, we then hit another problem: there were road barriers positioned such that we cannot alight the vehicles right in front of the theater. This is a super so-near-yet-so-far moment, and I know that the screening is about to start in a few minutes. So cars C5 and I2 were about to perform the three right turns again to CCP, when a speeding vehicle behind is honked its way past us. The driver is so much in a hurry this means only one thing: the car is from Pisay too. And true enough, it’s R6 from Rosal (as I remember it).
Sometimes when things couldn’t possibly get worse, they will. As R6 was about to make its second right turn, it collided with a motorcycle. In front of our very eyes, the bike wobbled, and the rider and its passengers were on the ground seconds after. Thankfully, there was no sight of blood or hurt people getting wild, only evil stares. Of course, running late is less important than the safety of the people riding R6 and the motorcycle riders, so we slowed down to check on them. Apparently, aside from the driver, only Mr. Espinas (Adelfa adviser) rode R6. He went to our car and asked us to go ahead while handing the Adelfa tickets. Wow: tickets of three sections were late.
So we proceeded on our photofinish journey. There indeed was no way to alight right in front of CCP, so we just walked a fairly long distance just to make the screening, under the blazing sun. Since we were late, we were accommodated in the balcony already. Seconds after we entered, the national anthem was played. Wow. We were very much on time (for the screening).
As expected, the Pisay crowd became restless and noisy during the film viewing: when the title was flashed onscreen with a nice shot of the flagpole area, when an extra turns out to be a friend, when matters discussed are actual class lessons, or when there will be an inside Pisay joke or comment. Solito was again present at the end, and he received a standing ovation. He acknowledged Shayne again, and asked the extras to join him onstage. Claps.
After the film, the sections again assembled at the lobby, and Camia had nice class pictures at the CCP stairs. I like class pictures. We were actually one of the last sections to leave CCP. Back in car C5 heading for Pisay, Aldrich, Conrad, and Jethro (traded for David) were soundly sleeping after having a few bites. My body was feeling tired too, but somehow, recalling what had happened hours earlier amused me. I learned that real-life (accident-free) adventures filled with adrenaline rush are very much welcome especially when the predictability of routine kills the fun already.
The sight of Agham Road signalled the end of today’s journey. I wish that, after watching the movie, the students realize the hope that they carry. And may each of them master the roads and sidestreets of Metro Manila.
posted by mardan at 8:54 PM
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