Day 06 - Of College Tuition Rates and Creepy Office Silence

Today's the day I tread this internship trail alone. Claire has gone off to Eastern Europe on a two-week family vacation she couldn't squeeze herself out of, and so I'm stuck to being the single intern for the rest of my internship hours.

Sir Marlon texted this morning, amid alarm clocks buzzing at 9am, that we won't meet today. So off I went to get some more precious snooze which I'm missing a lot on these days. But somehow, I couldn't get myself to go back to sleep and got up instead.

I decided I'd go straight to the office for the 1pm-9pm shift. I passed by UP first for some errands but found out that offices were closed, thanks and no thanks to the four-day work week being implemented in the university. Frustrated, I hopped on an MRT jeep and went straight to the office instead.

Somehow taking the trip to the office alone was a bit... depressing. No, wait, that's such a heavy word. It's not that depressing, but more like, lonely. Ugh Claire why did you have to go??! I'm having withdrawal symptoms of you. Hahaha. Just kidding.

When I arrived at the office, only Ate Cyril and Ate Eliza were there. Ate Kate and Ate Schatzi (wahoo, finally found out what the spelling of her name is!) were on their respective day-offs. I sat on my post and read the newspaper. Minutes later Ate Cyril gave me some tasks to accomplish.

Sandiganbayan Ate Cy asked me to call this Sandiganbayan division and ask them about the status of a certain case. Whew. First task of the day is quite chilling to the spine. I looked for their telephone number online and called their office. At first try, I was transferred to another line. On the second try, I was able to talk to someone from the division but she transferred me to another lady, maybe somebody of authority. I asked her about the status of this certain case and, in all adult-ish tone and conviction, she said that she can't give me that information and it would require a letter of permission for us to obtain it. I told her I wasn't looking for details, but merely the status of the case. She said, I can't answer that positively or negatively for you." So yeah, that was a major bitch slap, but what the heck. I promptly thanked her and hung up the phone.

Somehow there's this air of confidence that using the name of a major broadsheet gives you whenever you talk to officials or anyone famous for that matter. When I mentioned that I was from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, I somehow felt that the voice on the other line turned from soothing calm to a bit nervous. Haha. More on this later.

After that task, Ate Cyril told me to start calling colleges and universities to ask for their tuition rates. We'll run a story on this sometime soon, so we need to get the figures.

Colleges and Universities So off to calling people I went. At first try, I was a bit nervous. I was stammering between words and was sweating like crazy because the office aircon was only half-on. I didn't know what to say when confronted and had to think of quick ways to evade my integrity being questioned.

After a dozen calls, I got used to it. As I said a few paragraphs before, the name of the company somehow gives you that much-needed push. Whenever I introduce myself as someone from PDI, the voice on the line would either turn concerned, listening, or, as I said above, a bit nervous. Hehe. Some of the people I talked to gave me the information I needed. Some of them told me to call so-and-so to obtain the information. Some, still, asked for formal letters of communication before revealing vital data that they have. It's okay, I understand.

Somehow, I got a feel of the usual people from two ends of the line: one, I felt like a citizen being trapped in this bureaucracy of things, judging by the number of times I've been passed from person-to-person, department-to-department. It's a bit teeth-gritting at first but just like before, I got used to it. Two, I felt like a call center agent with the number of times I had to repeat myself to n number of people just to get the information I needed. Again, it's a gruelling task, but I guess somebody has to get used to it.

There's also one more thing I was forced to get used to: the different accents and tones and enunciations of several voice recordings whenever I call their schools. I'm telling you, this part is the most gruelling of all! I'd cringe at the way they'd pronounce a certain word, and would just have to laugh at the different tones they used. One was a bit alluring, others, well, just plain irritating. Haha. But the one from San Beda definitely stood out. While other schools would open the line with "Welcome to chever chever school, if you know the extension number...," San Beda's trunkline welcomes you with "Peace be With You." I swear I almost fell off my seat when I heard that manly voice say Peace be with You on the phone. It felt... weird. Haha. Like God talking directly to me, except in an eerily-deep manly voice. You should try it!!! Search for the number in google. Hehe.

After being the office call center agent for the afternoon, I ended most of my tasks at 5pm, since offices were closed already. Ate Cy and I prepared the letters of communication to be sent to the different schools tomorrow. After that, it was just all laid back tasks here and there.

And the office became eerily quiet at around 7pm, when only three of us were left in the department. I'm so not used to this.

Hours covered today: 7 1/2 hours