A Rainy Day

A SPECIAL SCHOOL

Today I woke up to a really dark and stormy morning. On the way to school, I got text messages from various people saying that their respective schools suspended class. I got text messages from my classmates asking if we had classes or not. We were all clueless. And then I got another text from my Mom saying that the street my school was on was flooded. Oh great.

On the first day of school, the welcoming committee consisting of one professor told us what made our school special, or rather, specialized. It's actually the only school here in the Philippines that offers only one course. Cool, huh? Well, this morning, I got to learn just how special our school is. While it was pouring cats and dogs, while the street just outside our school was flooded, and while most other schools have cancelled classes, we still had ours. Wow, how special!

But honestly, I don't mind. I love the learning. And I'm thankful for the fact that I don't have to come all the way from Cavite or somewhere else far away and have to commute every day like my other classmates.

Oh, I just got a text message from a classmate:

Wlang pas0k nati0nwide t0m,
dclred by pgma, prv8 n public in
ol levels. Sure na yn. Confirmd
na. Pls pass.

Hmmm, I wonder.


SUPERSTITIONS

In class this morning, we talked about some superstitions (mostly Filipino and Feng Shui beliefs) that people have about the design and architecture of their homes/buildings. Being mostly a non-believer, it was the first time that I heard of many of the examples.

My favorite superstition came from my seatmate -- Crazy cut tiles in the home will bring bad luck or will result to a broken family.

What are crazy cut tiles anyway? Ah wait, lemme google up an image...Here:



Or something like that. Haha. I don't know, it just sounds funny to me. Crazy cut tiles? Broken family? Really crazy!!!

Here's another interesting story from class which my professor recounted to us:

Because of the Western belief that the number 13 brings bad luck, most buildings do not have a 13th floor. But when Don Ortigas built Emerald Building, he wanted to have a 13th floor. He did not believe in the superstition, but instead thought that the number 13 was lucky and unique. And so he got his way. What do you think happened? Well, the thing was, no one rented out any of the space on the 13th floor! Apparently, no one wanted to start a business, have it fail, and wonder endlessly if being on the 13th floor had anything to do with it. The 13th floor of the Emerald Building remained empty for 10 years! And only after those 10 unproductive years did Don Ortigas finally decide to not have the 13th floor. From a business perspective, he could have earned off of those empty 13th floor spaces if it simply wasn't called the 13th floor. So yep, you guessed it, Don Ortigas ordered that the 13th floor would now be the 14th, the 14th floor would now be the 15th, and so on, and so forth. This was not an easy task, especially for all the businesses that had to update their addresses and send it out to everyone. Hassle!!!

So whether I like it or not, I have to think like I believe in the superstitions that my clients believe in, or else I could end up losing a lot of money and projects!

But you know what? You could help me! Reply with any superstitions that you practice or know of when it comes to your homes, or buildings in general. Please? C'mon guys, let's make this interactive a little bit.