Stick it!

Rodic’s tapsilog. Fried rice, egg and spiced beef. Shopping Center, U.P. Diliman. 

One of the many things I appreciate about Ateneo is how near it is to U.P. Diliman. I could take a jeep outside and arrive in a few minutes (or hours, depending on the traffic). Of course, I love the Ateneo experience and being an Atenean but there is also some space in my heart for U.P. My eldest sister is from U.P. Diliman and our Christmas break was filled with occasional wisecracks against each other’s school. Fun! Now, a lot of my high school barkada go to U.P. and its a relief from all the stress seeing them every once in a while.

U.P. is definitely not an Ateneo, and Ateneo is not U.P. Its filled with a different crowd. I wouldn’t use pros and cons with people because I never believe in subjectivity when talking about crowds. In the photo below, you could see a wall from their Shopping Center, a place I frequent for the kwek-kwek and is known for the abundance of photocopying services.

But this post is not about U.P. Its about the postal office in U.P. As you might have seen in previous posts, I enjoy sending snail mails to my parents in Iloilo City. I am assuming they enjoy it because when we talk about it on the phone, the enthusiasm and silliness in their voices are overwhelming! The postal office in UP is this small building just across to the right of the Kalayaan Residence Hall. Its a rather old hall, nostalgic in purpose and aesthetics (skinny Roman columns!).

The inside isn’t necessarily a pretty place but it works. Its au naturel for something like this in the present day and age. It just shows how the business is striving in a world where a lot of people think IMs, BBMs and e-Mails are as magical as they can get.

Below is a very short video I got of my favorite part from the last time I sent out stuff (a thank you card and a state-of-the-only-son letter to my parents) with the help of a friend.

It just feels so amazing sticking those tiny little squares of fancy photos. It triggers a sudden flow of the past, particularly memories I don’t have, of the postal services of this country.

Just to prove how viral this new hobby of mine is, in a span of less than 20 minutes, I was able to convince my friend that it is worth a try and it is fun. So we bought her an envelope to keep one of her paintings. She is sending it to her father in Iloilo.

Because we enjoyed sending out things, we bought some really cheap U.P. Diliman postcards and sent it out to our high school advisers (I sent one to my sister) just for fun. When we went home, my friend shared her first snail mail experience on Facebook. One of the teachers we sent postcards to, in an attempt at humor, said how the snail mail might turn into hermit crab mail. It wasn’t funny but we know that once the postcard we sent him arrives, he might laugh, remember it and even - hopefully- never attempt a pun ever again.