This is a story of a near-death experience…
Pre-NLE
*So I was with the package deal of my review center for the NLE. We went to Ioilo last June 7 and my parents gave me only 1, 500 Php. Argh! So there would be no pasalubong.
*We stayed at the Riverside Inn. It was half-hotel, half-dorm. Dorm? For the elites perhaps. And ohlala…temptations downstairs such as a videoke bar, liquor and coffee bars, internet café, and pizza place.
*I was at room 308 with Mimi, Kakay, Jerjer. On the first night, we encountered a problem with our CR’s doorknob. Utility came and…OMG! He became everybody’s crush. Nyahaha.
*We had recaps for two consecutive days before doomsday. Just bullets of the topics. Venue was at the Residence Hotel which was beside ours. The two hotels were separated by a weird structure which seemed to be deserted. Later, when we explored the back of the buildings, we discovered that the weird structure was a haven of myriad mahjongeras.
*There was a pretty bridge near our place. I tried to ask what was the name of the bridge but no one seemed to know. Well, we wished on the bridge as we threw some coins into the rushing murky odorous waters.
*The day before the exam, we attended the mass at the Church of Our Lady of Candles (Candelaria). I was glad because my mother insisted me ever since to visit the church at least before NLE. So I was there at last and whoa…t’was populous. When the priest called all the NLE takers to come near the altar for a blessing, well, 80% of the people moved. Nyahaha. After the mass, we lighted some candles and said some prayers. Trivia: The church was the fourth destination in our pre-NLE church-hopping.
*Hmmm, we prayed the rosary. One of our friends brought with him a glow-in-the-dark rebulto of Mama Mary.
Peri-NLE
*We woke up as early as 4am on June 10. I was the first to go to the bathroom. And after our breakfast, I drank Lipovitan. Echos. That was to boost the multivitamin tablet I took the previous night. I was paranoid with my narcolepsy.
*It was pandemonium at the bulletin boards where the room assignments were posted. Damn PRC! They just posted them dawn that day. I entered the stampede and almost suffered a respiratory distress. OMG! I saw my past crush and it was dedma. I also saw my other past crush and whattaf….he and my present crush are close friends! What was that? A reunion?
*I arrived at my room on time. Argh! I was having extreme anxiety. I voided two times before the exam began.
*If our proctor is a fruit, then she’s none other than, a jackfruit. She instructed us to write our SET number. We were confused. There were only SET A and SET B and there was no SET number. Maybe she meant SEAT number because she was dyslexic. Oh, pardon me. Actually, she’s nice and approachable. I rated her with 4s and 5s in the evaluation.
*Nursing Practice 1 was an appetizer which turned out to be a dessert.
*Nursing Practice 2 was a firing squad.
*Nursing Practice 4 was a nuclear bomb.
*The review center warned us not to discuss answers after the first day because it would increase our anxieties. But discussion is inevitable.
*DEM! While the exam was in progress, I noticed that there were some tiny insects flying in front of mah face. They were irritating because, aside from distracting me, they were small enough that I could inhale them. Argh! My theory was that I might be sweating too much which made me smell like Payatas. But when one of my friends complained the same, oh, well, it wasn’t really my pheromones. The campus was infested by those savage levitating arthropods!
*So my anxiety indeed towered after the first day. I was constipated. It hurts to drop a bomb. And I got running nose courtesy of the Arctican aircon. Argh!
*Nursing Practice 3 was an advance gift for my birthday on June 29.
*Nursing Practice 5 was a disappointment. It wasn’t that traumatizing as I expected.
*After the exam, I felt so light. I felt like being born again. I felt like a horse out of the ranch. I felt like ending my enemy’s life with a garrote. I’M FREE! To hell with the results. If I pass, then it’s a miracle. If I fail, it’s still a miracle.
Post-NLE
*I ended up ill as I arrived in the hotel. My running nose progressed to flu.
*I slept undisturbed for three hours until my friends woke me up for SM. So we shopped. I bought two shirts and a book.
*Later in the evening, I fixed myself for the nightout. The post-NLE party was part of our review center’s package deal and it was held at Flow in Smallville. I drank a bottle of beer, ate pizza and pica-pica, and danced with sweaty bodies. T’was wild.
*Before I end this post, I would like to thank my review center, NGRTCI, for the satisfying package deal. I can say that my 6, 000 Php never went down the drain. The hotel was nice and the food and the transport and the friendly reviewers and the candies and the free water container. All the best!
I wonder what ego defense mechanism I will use when the NLE result arrives. LOL.
