I got the chance to meet Kim and her husband Loren again last Sunday for late, late, late lunch (3:00pm). It was great that they still came over to see me immediately after their arrival considering they might still have been exhausted from the 5 hour drive from Michigan. Loren wasn't probably all that enthused about rushing over to pick me up just to catch the filipino buffet at Little Quiapo (Peter calls it Little Guapo, Quiapo is difficult for an american to pronounce). But Loren was an indulgent husband who obviously doted on his wife. Mind you, it's not hard at all to see why. 

Whoever has the good fortune of talking to Kim over the phone would know that when you do it feels like you are being transported 8,000 miles back to the Philippines and talking with a friend in the same town. There is no initial awkwardness with her. Every sentence is punctuated with contagious giggling and laughter.

So between bites of karekare, chorizo, fried shrimp, ginataang crab, cassava, maja blanca etc., we did some catching up since our last meeting in Michigan few weeks ago with Lanie and In-in, and also did our best to converse in English as a courtesy to Loren. It was fun having him join our talk as I got to know their romantic love story more (such as their kilig airport meeting).

Time flies when you have Kim around. It was too short a meet. I still have lots of stories and questions hovering in my throat. To Kim: "Bitttiiiiin kaayo huhuhu ". With you for company, half a day is simply not enough.

Well, looking forward to next time.

Say It Like An American

I would think that being a filipino who grew up in the very westernized Philippines and had english taught to us as soon as we started school, not to mention being constantly exposed in this language as it is extensively used by media, I won't have any problems making myself be understood here.

Surprise, suprise! I might talk in English but there are always instances locals will have difficulty getting what I'm trying to say. And it's not because of my accent, rather the words that I used. Here are a few examples on how I had to substitute very common filipino english with american terms:

• From the very basic: softdrinks, here it's soda.
• take out, carry out or to go (in answer to "for here? or to go?" )
• instead of just saying throw it (for garbage), I now have to say throw it out.
• instead of: my watch is five minutes advanced, I say my watch is five minutes fast.
• Or instead of five minutes to 2 o'clock, I say 5 til. Period.
• when driving, no overtaking is no passing here.
• ladies' purse is also pocketbook. Not a novel.
• one dollar could also be shortened to just singles. Example: "Do you have one dollar?" is wrong. "Do you have any singles?" is more like it.
• rubber shoes? uh-uh, it's gym shoes.
• transfer, say move. Example: "I had to move the car to a different spot." Not "I had to transfer the car to a different spot." Tom was very amused the first time I said this.
• loudspeaker is PA (system).
• And aircon is AC.
  

Currently listening to: Rob Thomas' "Lonely No More"
Currently reading: Audrey Niffeneger's The Time Traveller's Wife
Currently watching: Mostly Martha (German movie)