I'm Back

I have landed in my new home country and have settled just enough to have an apartment and internet access of our own. I think this one sentence summary of how I'm doing so far is a huge understatement of the emotional and mental upheaval that I've gone through these past two weeks of my so called "adventure". I'll try to write about it in my next blogs. For now, I need to fullfill the promise I made.

During the last week before I left, my friends treated me out for dinner. On the way to the restaurant, I blurted out that I couldn't wait to leave, this is after weeks of taking the local transport (as we have already sold our car) in the middle of the hottest summer ever plus all the other reasons which I will list out shortly. Then Rose, for whatever "evil" plot she's planning for me in the future, made me promise that if I really meant what I said, I'd write them out in this blog. Me eating my words in the future for one, is at stake. (which I could already imagine, she will be asking me to be doing it in this blog in the future as well) So here it is..

Top Things I Will Not Be Missing about the Philippines:
1] I will not miss the very HOT and Humid climate specially the summers - it has become much hotter every year and this year, it really bites. Being in a cold country is much better than being in a hot and humid one...(they are giving me 2 winters to retract this statement.)
2] I will not miss riding the jeepneys, tricycles and buses, ever. - I will not miss the smoke belchers and dust, the endless traffic, the constant stopping anywhere, the squeezing and sardines like packing of people inside these moving tin cans, the constant vigilance for pickpockets and snatchers, all the wading and waiting to get a ride.
3] I will not miss the great big malls, the constant hum and loud music that bombards me the moment I enter them, the waves of people to wade through, the long lines in the counters, the monotony of the items available for sale.
4] I will not miss my nosy and noisy neighbors who feel like everyone and everything is in their business to know and that they are doing their neighbors a great big service by providing loud music for free (special delivery early in the morning).
5] I will not miss the traffic officers who seem to appear everytime you are confused about all the signs they have put up to confuse people so they can either scare you with their tickets or have you take the lesser evil instead (starts with "b") and who, like Santa's elves, appear to multiply a thousand times during Christmas season.

After listing these, I wouldn't want readers to get the wrong impression. I am missing the Philippines a lot. Here are some of the things I miss.

1] I miss my friends, my family and the comfortable chaos of an environment that we have there.
2] I miss the patience, underlying resilience, acceptance and understanding of people and strangers. Just the other day, my aunt here in Canada (60+ years old), was getting a bottle of coffee from the grocery counter and had accidentally nudged a woman (in her early 20's). She shot us her peircing eyes and in a voice at the edge of rage, uttered her warning to my aunt to not do it again. I was shocked. I couldn't imagine any teen/younger woman back home, talking to an old woman like that even if she had ran her over with a bulldozer.
3] I miss my work and the poeople I worked with.
4] I miss the beautiful beaches and lazy afternoons.
5] I miss my daughter's nanny (yaya nimfa)...not having to do laundry, cooking, washing the dishes and doing household chores.

I miss home.