stoned

a poem I wrote in la salle while waiting for crim. yeah so this is all I'm going to say bout the 3rd sunday.
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you are the stone I swallowed

small and smooth because it fell
with rain I never see coming

hard to catch in palms that bruise easy
the way it sat in my stomach long

after it slowly climbed up to sit
on top of the wall, a humpty dumpty

on a heart that needed
just one more

brick

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anyweiz…. i didn't sleep the night before as usual.  When I got my crim exam paper I looked at the first question, skip, second, skip, flip the page, third, skip, fourth, skip, five, skip and then back to 1. Skip again, two, three, skip again. 

So I decided to rest my head on the armdesk thingie over my booklet…to think… and…. FELL ASLEEP. It was short, maybe 10 mins or so. But woke up and just started answering anything that came to mind, halfway through the sentences I would slip back to sleep and find the sentences I wrote jumbled like grammar and syntax wise! and like i answered the question with the facts from another question thinking it was still the same page i was writing on because i had already fallen asleep again in between sentences. 

By 3:30 I got my hanky and wet it with water from my bottle and splashed my face right there on the seat and just started editing. I erased most first paragraphs of my answers and tried reparing everything in the time I had left. Anyway suffice it to say, I gave up adding more to each answer when I ran out of space to write. (Since I had only allotted 1 page each when I skipped).  So i passed my paper and went straight to the bathroom to breakdown. So there. That was my 3rd sunday. crim is my weakest subject in law school you see. sigh. anyway at least its over.

Caveat Emptor: Big Apple Express Spa

I'm thinking of starting a series of articles for customers to share their not so wonderful experiences with the service. For all the advertising they do and the fact that most of us believe what they say, its just frustrating when we really don't get the kind of service/product they promised us. As I'm in the middle of the bar, my classmate Kaka shares her horrible experience at Big Apple Express Spa.

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 I went to SM Mall of Asia yesterday after my bar examinations hoping to get a well-deserved break. The bar exams in civil law and taxation harassed me and so I scouted SM MOA for a spa offering affordable massage services. And that's when I chanced upon Big Apple.
 
The P299-poster caught my eye. (It's the TipidTips girl in me!) I went inside and talked to the Chinese-looking woman with curly hair. I asked her if I could be accommodated that day. I asked for the P299-massage asking what it entailed. She offered me instead the P590-massage since it was a combination massage. I told her this was the first time I would to go to Big Apple so I would like to try it out with the cheaper version.
 
She said the only available slot was 9pm. It was only 6:30pm at the time but since I sooo needed a massage, I told her I'll go get that slot and would go watch a movie to wait for my appointment. She said that there was only a 10-minute grace period and if I weren't there at the scheduled time, I would lose my slot. I gave her my cellphone number so that she could text me if there was an opening and I could rush to the spa immediately. She wrote it in a piece of paper along with the kind of massage I wanted (Manhattan) and my scheduled appointment. She said she would text me even earlier if there was a sudden opening so I could be squeezed in. I said thanks and off I went.
 
After the movie, I went to the Big Apple for my appointment. I came at around 9:15pm. I was wondering why she hasn't texted me yet so I just went inside. After standing around for 5 minutes, the Chinese-looking woman without so much as a glance at me since she was giving a receipt to this other girl, finally looked at my direction. I said I was there for my appointment. She said I lost my slot since I was late and the 10-minute grace period applied. I told her I never received a text message from her and I even watched a movie so I could pass the time waiting for my appointment. She said that since I wasn't there at the scheduled time, she gave my slot to someone else. I tried to peek inside, saw the girls in uniform eating, another one on the phone and no other customer in sight. I asked her if that was it and she said yes.
 
So "that was it" was all she could say when I wasted almost 3 hours to wait for an appointment. An appointment that I lost by a mere lapse of 5 minutes after the grace period even when I specifically left her an instruction to text me so I could rush from wherever I was in the humongous Mall of Asia to get my much-deserved massage. I said that if this was the way they do their business, it definitely left a very bad impression on me. It was my first time to try Big Apple Express Spa and I am very much disappointed. And angered. How dare she waste my time?!
 
People go to massage spas because they are stressed and they want to be relieved from that stress. They don't enter a spa wanting to get into an argument and to get angry. But that's exactly what happened to me in my Big Apple encounter. I had a really tough day like you wouldn't believe. My experience in this "spa" was the most horrible way to end my day. I didn't deserve it. Even my toughest enemy didn't deserve it. If people in the service industry were all like this person I talked to, heaven forbid, we are all in a very pathetic situation.
 
My family owned a spa business like this a few years ago. We had to close it down because after 6 productive and income-generating years, the proliferation of spas and massage parlors everywhere took its toll. But we survived and earned so much during those 6 years because we took care of our clients like family and they would always come back, if not alone, with their friends and families.
 
There's no worse aggrieved customer than one who is an uber-stressed bar exam taker.
 
And with that, I end this. This has taken soo much of my precious time off studying for criminal and commercial law.
 
PLEASE LET YOUR FRIENDS KNOW AND BE FOREWARNED.

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I'm not sure if the Consumer Act of the Philippines applies to spas or salons. But I know that one should at least be made, especially because of the proliferation of these high-end establishments, who charge a lot mind you, and advertise in such enticing ways. (I'm a sucker for massages, thai, swede, acupressure, sports massage, u name it I've tried it) Some sort of consumer protection must be done. I know a lot of stories of salons that mess up people's hair and skin because of it. There are always the tort, contract, damages laws we can fall back on, but really it should be time to have a special law for bad services and not just for goods. I particularly like this provision in the consumer goods act, it's couched in liberal terms capable of wide interpretation:

Sec 52. Unfair or Unconscionable sales acts or practices- An unfair or unconscionable sales act or practice by a seller or supplier in connection with a consumer transaction violates this Chapter whether it occurs before, during or after the consumer transaction. An act or practice shall be deemed unfair or unconscionable whenever the producer, manufacturer, distributor, supplier or seller, by taking advantage of the consumer's physical or mental infirmity, ignorance, illiteracy, lack of time or the general conditions of the environment or surroundings, induces the consumer to enter into a sales or lease transaction inimical to the interests of the consumer or grossly one-sided in favor of the producer, manufacturer, distributor, supplier or seller.

in determining whether an act or practice is unfair and unconscionable, the following circumstances shall be considered:

xxx

c) That when the consumer transaction was entered into, the consumer was unable to receive a substantial benefit from the subject of the transaction 

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I find it frustratingly ironic that Kaka went to a spa for relaxation and got the opposite. Instead of relaxation, it turned to frustration. Now that kind of mental injury, especially from someone coming from a stressful 2nd sunday bar exam just sucks. Should this be a case of damnum absque injuria? I don't know, I'm no lawyer. I certainly hope it isn't. But for practical purposes, no one really goes after them. So we turn to blogging instead. I'm just ranting but I for one know that there are more serious injuries out there because of these establishments. Send in your stories. It's all just advertising anyway. Seller beware.

round 2

my whole body, (especially writing hand), mind, pocket, ego hurts. Defeated by that question on Insolvency in civ and the BIR ruling and a lot more open and bleeding wounds from all the other questions that my mind has conveniently forgotten. so are trees and flowers planted on a platform of wood and metal immovable property? Wait… if I had LBM and had to run to the bathroom, can I still witness a will signing? I wanna throw up. Tax had too many estate tax in it, i just stopped breathing coz I conveniently skipped that chapter to study remedies which was nowhere in sight. egad, i wonder what next sunday will be like… I have a feeling the examiners for this year got a hold of Beda's tally of frequently asked questions and decided "hmmmm, lets ask something thats NOT on here."

commercial law: my knees quiver
criminal law: you think they'll ask about illegal logging and dynamite fishing and some other obscure law?

sigh

bar mortality rate

casualties this September

1. social life

2. love life

3. friends

4. self esteem 

Round 1

My first Sunday was a very spiritual event. It all started 7 years ago. I decided I would be a lawyer. Something happened that made me want to be one so I took the steps and am now almost there. The biggest hurdle is coming up.

    Funny back then I started playing basketball again for UP dorms and teams. I chose the #77 for my jersey. 7 was my favorite number. Always has been.  Funny that it would take 7 years for me to finish law school. Take the bar in the year 2007. But hey, I think it’s a good sign. So last April I enrolled in the bar review class. Had to sign up on a notebook thing. Funny when it was my turn to sign, the slot on the notebook was #77.  And so my law center review ID bears that number. Looks like I’ve been branded.So I found it also funny that in Manila Bulletin when the list of bar examinees came out I’m conveniently #763. In numerology one adds those numbers together until you get a single digit. 7+6+3=16, then 1+6=7.  7 again.  Funny.

    Then come saturday check-in time I am handed my hotel key. It was near the elevator so I knew it would be disturbing to have that bell going off once in a while when the elevator reached my floor and barristers would be chatting all the way to their rooms. I didn’t mind though. I was absorbed. I didn’t forget to hear mass. I felt the need to. It would be the only saving grace, having not finished 1st reading for labor. So I prayed. Then on my way up I struggled with the keycard and as I stood there outside my door I stopped and stared at my room number. #502.  5+2= 7. I calmed down and took it as a sign God will be with me during my first Sunday. And I should trust and believe.

    So I crammed my usual way. My bestfriends arrived and I had the best resources for asking explanations for difficult concepts like party-list computation and illegal recruitment and injunctions. By this time, the text messages were pouring in… well wishers and prayers. I’m really lucky to have a good support system. (Multiply friends included of course) Thank you so much everyone, you guys gave me strength when I was about to break down again at the hotel and at mass. Hehehe yes jam, umiyak ata ako sa mass. Anyway I didn’t sleep. I crammed and I crammed, all those advice about what to do the night before I didn’t follow. I crammed, I didn’t sleep, I ate A LOT. I lit a candle in my room and would stare at it when I couldn’t absorb information and would just pray.

     By 3 am I couldn’t take anymore so I just listened to praise songs on my ipod while going through the codal. (did I forget to mention the song at mass was one that had been playing in my head the day before and almost everytime I think of the bar)    Had a shower and went down to the LSG and PY saw me and shoved the tips right at me. "Read that" she says. And so I crammed some more. On the elevator, while eating breakfast, on the bus, in the queue on the way inside La Salle. I was so nervous. I think my heart was as loud as the gong drums that was playing in the background. I forgot which school. Then I went inside my building St. La Salle and had to look for the list of rooms and which one I had to be in. So here comes another list. I searched for my name.  There it was. #124.  1+2+4 = 7. I’m not kidding. You can check.

    So I crammed some more in the classroom, at lunch, by the stairwell, in the bathroom. And for me I think it was all these factors that made me survive my first day. God, my family, my friends. It’s humbling to be at an emotional point when you know you can’t do anything anymore. It’s miraculous to find someone else pick you up and carry you to the next post like a pass the message thing or those concert style passed around to the next person high up in the air to get to the stage. Anyhow as for the exams I didn’t really think about it after, whether my answers were right or wrong. But I’m so thankful my mind wasn’t blank at all. It would be safe to say I wouldn’t be disqualified on the very first Sunday. That at least I can now fight and cram just a bit earlier for the next Sunday.

Stats:
(for poli I read bernas a month ago and half of nachura and stopped studying. labor I didnt start at all till just last Tuesday and took Wednesday off to sleep after breaking down, then crammed again the next day, Friday I went to Quiapo church and the chapel in recoletos. Then went home to cram all the way to bar day. A total of 5 days for my 1st reading mind you)

time finished
poli: 10:53 am
labor: 4pm
hours spent awake: 40 (from Saturday 4am-Sunday 9pm)

Maybe next entry I’ll talk about the number 9 the number of completion. That’s the other number that keeps popping up in my life.