Online tips for the Thomasian freshmen

DON’T forget your registration form. Memorize the school hymn by heart. Meet the “yema girl.” Beware of snatchers. And of course, expect the Great Flood.

Besides college education, so many things are in store for UST freshmen. Some call them tips, others see them more as a survival kit. Whatever the case, they now find them in a variety of social media, an honest, and occasionally irreverent, guide to Thomasian life.

Thus explains the popularity of sites such as Tumblr where Cheng Bigay posted what would become a viral blog post titled “My 30 Tips and Guidelines for the incoming 1st year Thomasians” (iamepic.tumblr.com).

Bigay, a third-year Communication Arts student, came up with her “random” tips more than a year ago, but their relevance and popularity have endured.

“My blog post serves as a tool in helping these freshmen realize how exciting college is. It also replaces their fear with motivation,” she tells the Varsitarian.

Written in conversational Filipino, Bigay’s tips are alternately candid and funny, protective but cool. She, for instance, tells freshmen to get ready for “the Great Flood of España (Boulevard).”

“Sabi nila, hindi ka matatawag na isang Tomasino kung hindi mo pa nararanasang lumusong sa tubig baha ng Espanya,” she writes. “Mas maganda kung kabisado mo ang mga lugar na may manhole sa daang dadaanan mo dahil may mga ilang tao na ring naaaksidente.”

Never leave your umbrella at the deposit racks at the Central Library or Tan Yan Kee Building. By experience, Bigay says students tend to lose them and just pick up someone else’s in quiet retaliation.

“‘Wag mo ako tularan. Nawala nang parang bula ang payong kong Fibrella, eh saglit lang ako pumasok sa library nun. Anak ng tinapa talaga, mamatay na lahat ng magnanakaw ng payong!” she says.

UST’s infamous flood situation also is not lost in “BuhayUste” (buhayuste.tumblr.com), a “tumblelog” made by a group of anonymous Thomasians featuring all things UST.

One entry is a digital art showing the Benavides statue with an umbrella. Above it are the words: “Imbued with unending rains.”

Karane Seane Batas, a freshman studying industrial design, admits having been apprehensive about college life in UST. That was until she learned more about her new school, courtesy of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

“I was able to use them [online tips] not only during the first day of class but also during the days that followed,” she says.

Tamara Pongan, an Architecture junior, acknowledges the value of online tips, which, during her freshman days, she got mainly from multiply.com.

“I browsed the internet for online tips like those seen in deviantart.com where artists and CFAD students share their experiences in school,” she says.

In her “30 tips,” Bigay includes food, particularly what she considers as bad service at the KFC branch at the UST car park building. It was so slow, she notes, that one student produced a Facebook page describing the fast-food chain’s service as “400 years of UNENDING WAIT.”

“I-explore lahat ng kainan sa UST. Hindi ka lang sa carpark makakatagpo ng masarap na pagkain,” she says.

Watch out for that “yema girl,” she who sprouts anywhere on campus to sell anything from oatmeal cookies to homemade pulvoron.

“Lahat ‘ata ng Tomasino, naalok na niya ng produkto niya. Kung saan-saan na lang siya sumusulpot, kaya ‘wag ka na mabigla kung may biglang nagsalita sa likod mo,” Bigay says.

Registration forms, she adds, are a “sacred piece of paper” for freshmen who are yet to get their IDs.

“‘Wag nyong nila-lang-lang ang reg form. Madaming nale-late dahil ayaw silang papasukin ng guard kasi naiwanan nila yung reg form nila sa bahay,” she warns.

An administrator of BuhayUste says the blog was all about helping that needy Thomasian, especially freshmen who are “afraid to ask personally because they think upperclassmen are snobs.”

“By giving answers to their queries about college life, we have already helped them without even meeting them,” the administrator says.

“The internet allows these information to be easily be accessed. The blog has helped many incoming Thomasians get through the rough stage in preparation for their new environment.” Maria Luisa A. Mamaradlo