Happy Birthday Pepe

Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda
Born: June 19, 1861
Died: December 30, 1896

I remembered taking my 5:30-7:00 PI 100 class where we were "forced" to read Noli Me Tangere and El Fiibusterismo (both in English translations) the whole semester. Yeah, there was no RGEP so we were required to enroll in GE courses with unpopular professors (read: nambabagsak!). Back then, I was burdened to read and dissect the novel. Imagine reading three chapter every day, while I also have to compose working Fortran codes, learning Modern Physics, and connecting bridge diodes..whew! Suffice to say, I didn't get to enjoy it. But after reading the masterpieces of Tolstoy, Dickens, Dosteovsky, Austen, etc., I realized that Rizal's two novels are really at par with the Classics. Thereby, I confess that after my PI class, I re-read the whole saga and enjoyed it immensely the second time.

FYI. Surprisingly, I did get a decent grade in my PI class.

Photo above was taken from Wikipedia.