Don't sweat it

Just got back from Manila last night. I managed to find a room and get my admission slip over at the College of Science. Boo-yah!

I'm having second thoughts about my room, though. It's cheap, but incredibly cramped. I was told to call it "cozy." But really, it's cramped. When people ask me to describe it, I say it's like Harry Potter's cupboard under the stairs. There isn't a window either. I wonder if a fan is enough to conquer the heat. Or one day, I just don't wake up. I get baked alive in an oven for a room. That is a very messy way to die. *knocking on wood*

The lady at the CS Graduate Office was very nice but raised an eyebrow at me when I couldn't produce the original copy of my transcript. I didn't think I would have to bring it anymore, since I'd already sent in a copy (I had to grit my teeth through all the threes and fours) with my application. Despite that, I don't think our relationship has soured. I feel she and I have struck up the beginning of a very fruitful friendship. (Anyway, the next time I see her, I'll have my OTR.)

My friend Joyce was kind enough to accompany me all over campus to get things done. I noticed that apart from her and me, everyone else seemed fresh and unbothered by the heat. The both of us had sweat running down the sides of our faces and we were sticky icky. How girls in Manila keep their faces oil- and sweat- free is an impressive feat.

The girls who've been in Manila long enough to unlock the secrets to sweatless skin look as if they'd just come out of the shower. Whereas there are the other girls who might as well have beads of sweat on their foreheads forming the words "I'm not from around here." You can tell who's used to the heat and who isn't. It's a strange dichotomy.

Joyce and I were talking and have decided that the reason girls from Baguio sweat more is because our pores feel deprived. Pores aren't vestigial organs merely awaiting their evolutionary end. So in a hot place, they tend to overreact. They are desperate to show that they are actually worth keeping around. In Joyce's best singsong voice, the pores cry: "Yey, useful na kami!"

Another friend Aimee thinks the reason for all the sweat is the six-hour exposure to airconditioning on the bus traveling from Baguio to Manila. The airconditioning sucks all the sweat to the surface. Or something like that. By the time you get to Manila, all the sweat just overflows to the surface.

Got a better theory about where all the sweat is coming from? Let's hear it, friend!