Campus Cribs

MANILA, Philippines - Back to school means away from home to some. This week, Young Star plays visitor to student housing, where the fast times of dorm dwelling and free ways of apartment autonomy make up this strange yet self-sufficient space.

The Tenants at Taft

In a place where going to college means living in an episode of British teen show Skins (think broken beer bottles and sexual spontaneity), a group of bright-eyed kids are re-branding the idea of cool. 

It’s not hard to be charmed by Hong Kong-born Tiffany Wong. Her diminutive frame may suggest a garden sprite, but this girl is a double knockout, already in her second year as a psychology and marketing management major at De La Salle University. 

Instant social glue, that she is can get along with anyone she meets, instantly making anyone within a 10-mile radius of her feel like family.

It didn’t take freshman psych student Carlos Martinez long to feel right at home in the group, taking his place as a sort of male Jenny Humphrey. “Carlos knows how to dress well. He (manages) to put together a good outfit every time he goes out,” remarks Tiffany.

Then there are childhood buds Carl Graham and Laurice Plando, both multimedia arts students from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde; Carl bordering obsessed on typography and font design, Laurice a watercolor wunderkind.  

Carl has assumed the role as the tacit leader of this not-quite-bratty brat pack, while Laurice claims that her practicality and rationality has turned her into the group’s mother. Their match made in platonic heaven apparently has some romantic roots attached: sixth grade puppy love gone awry after Laurice caught the eye of practically every other boy in school, including Carl’s own BFF! Laurice and Carl, however, would end up the closest of friends.

For a group primarily brought together by nothing but geographic conveniences, they are a surprisingly close-knit bunch.

These laidback Cebuanos have been able to make for themselves a nifty little home right at the nucleus of an alien metropolis, sans the rowdy frat parties or early morning gagging. And you know, it seriously doesn’t get any cooler than that.

Tribal tenant rituals:

Laurice Plando: “We meet occasionally to chill and hang out or just to get away from the ‘Manila-ness.’ Cebu was chill, while here it’s go, go, go every day.”

Carl Graham: “We hang out, talk about school and what’s going on. Sometimes I invite Tiff and our other friend, RR, to talks with priests or religious brothers. It always feels like a fruitful use of time afterward.”

House rules:

Tiffany Wong: “Well, I’d be roommates with Laurice... she knows when to have time for herself and she’s neat. That’s really important to me. You have to be neat.”

The downsides to distant homes:

CG: “Meals have been something I’ve had to think about more since college. No one prepares your breakfast for you or cooks you dinner when you live alone. (Then there’s) cleaning up and cockroaches.”

TW: “I decided to come all the way here, because I saw it as a perfect opportunity to try something new. Although alone time is good, having too much gets me feeling lonely and when I feel homesick or sick, I don’t really have anyone to take care of me. I have to make sure I’m doing things right.”

The upsides to lone living:   

CG: “I’ve learned a lot of things that I see you only learn from living alone and away from home... My dad quit school when he was around my age: he got a Harley and traveled the world, paying tuition to the university of real life, graduating with flying colors. My life seems a lot more traditional, but I suppose this is my version of the freedom and independence he got — and I’m grateful for it.

“(I’ve) run under an 18-wheeler while it paused on the roadside. I suppose the freedom went to my head. I then proceeded to tell my parents of my daring feat — I now know to do neither of the two again.”

Carlos Martinez: “New experiences, independence, and fun new things — these are making me a better person. I haven’t done anything crazy yet, but I have (a lot) more years to come.”

The Dormers at Ateneo De Manila

Clean slates are a funny thing. You travel far from your home, grasping ideals of independence and learning and growth; and next thing you know, you’re traversing the pockets of mud forged by an untimely downpour. All on your first day back to school.

Some may call it the first leg of college’s series of unfortunate events, but if you see folks who aren’t bothered that they’re sans umbrella, it’s probably because they live closer than you think. Welcome to Ateneo’s University Dorm, where clean slates start to be tampered and tainted by the doodles of debauchery.

Living in a college dorm, you’ve got unimaginable freedom, which leads to inevitable drama and a boatload of takeouts. It’s just how you imagined it to be but with a curfew. While Trina, the introverted information design major, likes to keep a low profile, Aldo hangs around only long enough during his down time, when he’s not training on the basketball courts. And while Dana rushes off to lend her mad piano skills for her theater org’s rehearsals, Kylie, with her statuesque frame sure to turn some curious heads, concludes her day by chatting with her friends. And Carlo, well, Carlo’s just the guy everyone seems to know. If the walls, plastered with countless Post-its, could talk, you’d hear quite a blab. 

One look around the lobby and you’ll realize that this is more than just a scholastic penitentiary, but more like liberated lodging for juvenile delinquents; the ultimate escape from the prying eyes of parents. A place where sweet sovereignty is only a walk away, where the word “No” is just a challenge to get more creative, and access to alcohol is as easy as heading out to Katipunan. Or even just stepping outside your room. Inside these dignified blue gates, the dormers are feeling anything (and everything) but blue.

Dorm drama:

Carlo Atendido: “(My former roommate) was a stout Chinese genius who annoyed the crap out of us. To the extent that we would have an open forum twice a week, where we would discuss our weekly problems with Bado. A grunt was his reply. I bought him earphones (for his late-night movie viewing) and in the span of a year I bought him five earphones in total because he ‘loses’ them. We were like water and oil. The taunting and scheming would go on to the last day until we voted him out of the room. I took the liberty of kicking him out and making the papers. It was one of my greatest decisions in life. If he would have stayed we probably would have killed each other. No kidding. He had intentions. His friend told me.”

Trina Khio: “(There’s) the stress of going out of the communal bathroom with just a towel on and you find out that there are visitors in the receiving area of the dorm.”

Dana Marquez: “It was our first day and here are the upperclassmen shouting orders at us. We had to do a lot of things.”

Fast times and freedom:

CA: “Weekends start at Friday and end at Sunday morning when you wake up with a hangover realizing that the next day is the deadline for that seven-page paper you’ve been delaying for three weeks.”

Aldo Gamboa: “Everyone was getting wasted after Orsem ’09.”

House rules:

CA: “In the ‘foster program,’ there are a lot of activities that the freshmen have to do. Such as the mud crawl and signature sheet signing and so on...we are bonded, almost like family, but we tend to gravitate to people of the same origin.”

DM: “We all went through a lot — we had to wear silly costumes and go through an obstacle course. We have a 10:30 curfew during weekdays. Not everyone follows it, though. In fact, a lot of people break it very often. We have this thing called Open House. It’s when everyone can go inside the dorms. Like guys can go inside the girls’ dorms and vice-versa... There’s this thing we usually do, it’s called balcony hopping. We do it when we get locked out of our own rooms or leave our keys somewhere else. We pass through other rooms and use their balconies to get to our own.”

The downsides to distant homes:

CA: “Food is expensive. Oatmeal is cheap.”

KV: “The next thing you know, your dirty dishes pile up, the floor becomes your closet, the takeout boxes fill up the desk while you worry about your homework and paper due the next day.”

The upsides to lone living:

KV: “It’s a place where you don’t get lonely, and if you do, just find someone to be lonely with...Dorm events are so much fun, imagine a party where you know almost everyone.”

TK: “I can go out anytime, without having to worry what time to go home. I have a self-imposed curfew.”

CA: “Sometimes my roommates wake up 10 minutes before their first class and still make it! There’s a kind of beauty in that. In the dorm we have no parents, no limits, no one to tell us ‘No, no, no.’ In the dorm we have ‘Yes, yes, yes!’”