Making The Connection.....
                                                                 my hometown in the Philippines, around 7 summers ago     

Just came from Manila, left it for good after 6 years of working there. My biggest and most fragile baggage was my less than a year old PC. Several days after my arrival, my brother got me connected to the internet. I didn't even know how to use it then. Gboy showed me the ropes in signing up for email accounts and stuff like those. I was excited.

Around 1993 I saw an episode in Phil Donahue about internet dating. I remembered wishing that we had those in the Philippines. Somehow, I've always known that I will marry a foreigner. But unless I work with them or bump into few in a bookstore (this was how I've romantically envisioned meeting my future husband) the chances of crossing paths with a tall, light skinned, light haired and light eyed guy were practically nil. But then again, computers were so expensive.How can internet dating be accessible and affordable to an average just-starting-her-career girl like me?

It didn't take too long, after 4-5 years internet cafes started mushrooming in Manila but by this time I wasn't anymore tempted. It was still expensive to me. The ones in Robinson's Galleria cost around P80 for just an hour's use. That's just too much. So my internet love affair was put on hold.

But here I was back in my quiet hometown where I got a 30 hour monthly subscription for around P800. So I got started. I went into Yahoo personals, read the profiles and didn't connect with any of them. The people were too serious and seemed desperate to fall in love. I didn't want that. I wanted a relationship that would be based on friendship. So I clicked into another page, and another, and another until I came across with what had many listings for a pen-pal club. Hmmm... pen-pals that sounded harmless enough, I thought. And so I began writing my introductory letter, clicked several profiles (both men and women), copied their email addie, pasted it into my draft and clicked send.

So I had done my part. Now did Mr. Right respond? The waiting began.

                                                                                                                           click to continue reading...

Passing Glance

For  the past couple of weeks these guys has been working on the trees of our street from 7-9 in the morning. They are trimming them. Makes me wonder if the Philippines had as many trees as they have here in the city, where will they get the budget to do the trimming. As you can see this is no ordinary truck. Maybe they can really pay guys to climb each tree one by one and whack the overlong branches with a bolo.

This reminds me during my stay in Shenzhen, China where I saw maintenance workers dusting the traffic lights in the middle of a wide, busy street. You won't see those in the Philippines either. We just hope that the rain will take care of those.

Currently listening to: Stan Getz CD
Currently reading: Frank McCourt's Teacher Man
Currently watching: Tuesdays With Morrie