Field Trip
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Went to the National Library with Pubey Boy today for thesis research.
We actually went on Thursday, but since the both of us have a sucky sense of direction, we ended up circling the whole of Manila, winding up as far as Binondo. I was a bit happy to see the architecture, though, to Pubey Boy’s chagrin. When we finally got to the library, it had just closed and that section of Manila had fallen into a power outage, and we ended up eating at a pitch-dark Wendy’s. Thanks to the brownout, it had a candle-lit kitchen that was very Chungking Express.
We still got a little lost today, but we did get there on time, at least. Battled with the three hags manning the Filipiniana/Thesis section. The Furies, we called them. The Sourpussies. Big glasses, frail bodies, skin the color and texture of kikiam, with acid dispositions typical of female government employees. The xerox boys were much nicer, making my countless visits to their machines happy, feeling-productive moments.
You’d think that the xerox boys would be the cranky ones, since they were holed up in the darkest, warmest part of the second floor, flipping pages, pressing buttons and stapling stapling stapling for several hours straight, while the FuriesPukiesSourpussies had their chairs and air-conditioning. All those hags did was whine: whinewhine request slip mo whinewhine mali call number mo whinewhine mali pa rin call number mo whinewhine hoy, bawal ka dyan whinewhine hindi pwede, bumalik ka sa online catalog bawal ang walang call number walang thesis na ganyan ang call number mali mali dyan ka lang sa shelf 66 bawal ka sa ibang shelf hindi puwede dyan wala nang thesis before 1999 hoy tawagin mo nga kaibigan mo hindi pa kayo nagfifill-out ng request slip mali ang pagfill-out mo ng request slip mali mali ulitin mo yan. The xerox boys just get laid more often, I guess. The light flashes and toner smell probably turn them on.
I did get a good chunk of research done. Thank you, Juan M. Borra, thank you. Thank you for your thesis on The use of literary approaches in teaching the analysis of the film narrative in liberal education, which you had written in July of 2004 and was in partial fulfillment of your MA degree in Liberal Education, thank you, thank you, thank you, whereevah yew ahhhhh. Oh, ahv ahhluways deypenduhd own da kaaahhhndness of sturaynguhhs.
The best part of the library, however, was the decor. Felt paper cut-outs, cartolina and all those other heart-wrenching tidbits from grade school arts and crafts—the perfect contrast for such a roomy, gloomy building. The best piece was on the first floor:
Oo nga naman, Margie. What says “bastion of the Filipino people’s knowledge” better than coño speak?
posted by marguerite @ 6:30 PM
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