Been ages since my last post. Trying to establish roots in a foreign soil is never easy and I’m struggling daily to summon the nerve to wake up and put out a brave face.
Writing to say that I miss everybody back home would be a cliché and I don’t want to miss them more that I do now. There will be time for that later.
I was one of those lucky ones that found work within the first 2 weeks of being here (first week, if I count that one I turned down).
The people. Women are being stared at. I got 4 marriage proposals my first week. I got invited for a dinner date in an elevator, in front of my 3 roommates (imagine the endless heckling I got after that). Taxi drivers are rude, they will drive you around and pretend they don’t know the address you gave them (actually, somebody told me, they do, every nook and cranny, every roundabout, they know by heart. It is a requirement for getting your taxi driver license).
It is normal for Pinoys to call you “kabayan”, even if Tagalog is not your dialect. It is a must to shop at a store that sells, lucky me pancit canton, 555 sardines, ginisa mix, bottled bagoong, pork tocino, pork longanisa, anything pork, miswa, happy toothpaste, anything pinoy.
It is necessary to brace yourself from the strong stench of body odor when you’re in a busy street or place. It is a must. My first week I was hesitant to cover my nose with a handkerchief lest someone think my action as offensive.
It is a must not to acknowledge when a male looks at you and a must not to smile and nod, you are inviting a conversation to which it is very difficult to get out of. Language barrier situation.
It is a must to bring an umbrella just to lessen the impact of a 52-degree heat. A must to have comfortable loafers or flipflops, anything that can make your feet comfortable.
It is important to remind yourself all the time that, everything you learned in grammar, you have to unlearn, pronto.
‘Where I put?” - my co-worker referring to a file she misplaced.
“Can you put paper on the printer? I want a head letter?” – here she was referring to letterhead.
“Is it paining?” - the phlebotomist asking me if I was in pain after inserting a needle into my arm for a hematology exam.
“My uncle expired.” - reason for a leave application after one employee’s uncle died.
“I don’t like my shedul” – schedule anyone?
So much so many. I’m afraid I am becoming one of them. I said the other day, “Can you not hang the curtain like this? Actually you can do it like this, this, that, that”. My roommates collectively said,”What?!?!”.
