Very long read. Proceed if you dare.
1) Have your boyfriend go to Quezon City Hall to check on the requirements. You already know what is actually required since you checked it out already here, but you wanted him to have some semblance of doing something for the wedding.
I keed, I keed.
Better have him check out the schedule of the family planning seminar, the location of the civil registry, where to get the sedula (because you don't have one!), and the best parking location for the day you get your license, because the two of you are going to do a lot of walking that day.
Have him put an umbrella in his car just in case it rains.
2) Make sure you have your birth certificates, 1x1 ID pictures and a valid ID. Since you don't have a valid office ID yet, bring your university ID. Puede na yan.
3) Arrive by 9 AM.
Too early you say? No, because you have to line-up for the sedula, you may have to line-up for the marriage license application form, and you still have to look where the family planning seminar will be held.
As I said, it's good to bring an umbrella, because it's going to rain. Wear comfy clothes and shoes also, because you're going to do a lot of walking.
4) Get your sedula.
Line up carefully because *all* the lines may be for the sedula window. And of course, don't let anybody cut in line in front of you. Give him a dripping-with-bitchiness "Excuse me", with a very icy irap.
5) Go to the Civil Registry to get the Marriage License Application Form.
Head straight to Window 9. This is where you get the details regarding the form. You have to pay for the form first before you can get it. So you go to Window 15. Pay for the form. Return to Window 9 with the receipt. At last, you have the form!!!
6) Fill up the form.
Your fiance will try to say something not so good about your writing, even though your hand is already cramped, and you're having a hard time writing on a chair while kneeling in front of it, but suck it up and swallow your pride (yes, it's a jagged little pill). You are getting married after all. Expect 50+ years more of that.
7) Ask the guy behind Window 9 where the Department of Health is located. That's where the Family Planning seminar will be held.
Follow his directions, that is, go straight ahead. Of course, go ahead and ask questions from official-looking persons as you *go straight ahead*. You will then learn that you don't have to reach Kalayaan Avenue to get to the seminar room in the Department of Health.
8) Reach Kalayaan Avenue without finding the room. Loiter around the premises, try to make uzi with the hoard of people there for their lab tests and results, and just plain look around without asking questions. You will then learn that it's their 15-minute break. Goodness.
9) Look for a place to eat along Kalayaan Avenue while walking. End up in Eunilaine to buy water. Head back to the Department of Health, sweaty and hot. At least you have water.
10) Ask one of the guys behind one of the many windows where the hell is the seminar. He informs you that it's on the other side of the building. Curse under your breath.
11) The guard at the other side of the building then takes your names and gives you a number, after you filled out the second page of the form you neglected to fill out. Time of the seminar: 1:00PM. You still have more than two hours to kill.
12) Argue on where to eat for lunch. He wants aVenetto in Visayas Ave. You want crispy pata, as usual, but give in to his aVenetto craving. Driving past the restaurant in Visayas Avenue, discover that it's still closed. Or may already be closed permanently.
13) Settle on SM City North Edsa.
Try the new Chef Donatello, which is suspiciously trying to be like Chef D'Angelo. You find out that the food is waaaaaaaaaay beneath Chef D'Angelo. Your fiance will comment, "It's like comparing shit to chocolate" [Paumanhin sa mga taong kumakain habang binabasa ito].
After eating, go to the Stationery section of the department store. You will find the purple corrugated board and cork board you've been searching for forever. Then go to electronic shops to buy a universal remote. Finally, go to Starbucks for coffee to prepare yourself for the loooooooong seminar ahead.
14) Go back to the chaos that is the Department of Health in Quezon City Hall.
Herd up with the other couples as they are escorted upstairs, then downstairs, then finally to the small cramped room where the seminar will be held. Brace yourself for a long, hot, uncomfortable seminar.
15) Try to lower your eyebrows when you hear these things:
Mag-anak kayo ng madami. Magandang investment yan. Isipin nyo kung may anim kayong anak, tapos yung dalawa nasa UK, yung dalawa doctor, tapos yung dalawa ay inaaalagaan kayo.
Whisper to your fiance: "Are we going to raise slave labor?"
16) You will learn what daluyang punlay and punong katasan means. You will also learn that they call the cervix leeg-leegan [which in English, Dar says, is neck-neck mo :P].
17) By 4:30, the lecture will finally be over. Do not run out of the room as fast as you can when the lecturere says, "Good-bye". He will distribute the certificates, the main and only reason for enduring a long, hot and uncomfortable seminar!
18) Rush over to the civil registry to submit your requirements. Try to race the other couples, ala Amazing Race.
19) You will then learn at Window 9 that you need photocopies of your birth certificates.
Your fiance will then look for the photocopier while you sit on a chair directly in front of the fan. Ahhh... coolness.
Submit everything at Window 9.
20) Get your marriage license after 11 days! :)
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