Thursday, March 5

Familiarising myself

to what Manila has to offer.

You see being away from this country or city for so long. You get to lose the essence of what you know then. The familiar places were either still standing or replaced with something new... sometimes better.

You might say but you have been coming back year after year.

That is true.

However, it feels like I have lost my understanding of the place. Add to the fact that I am not in the place where I used to live. I now reside a jeepney and a tricycle away from what I know as "home". We now live in R's area.

I don't mind because in Dubai, we were so used to moving about that you do not even have the chance to really get to know the place you are in. At times, the people you have lived with for a few months will say goodbye and you will be introduced to new neighbors so I guess moving here was not really a big deal.

The city that I sometimes miss (photo taken by R)

Unfortunately, being away made me feel a bit lost in this city. The only landmarks that I know are of shopping malls because when we were still OFWs, we frequent the malls to meet up with friends we have left behind or just to cool down because of the unbearable heat.

Aside from that fact, I am also taken aback by the prices of food and its portion. I need to understand that the word "to share" in the menu depends on who will eat it. The amount of money that you need to spend in order for us to finally say that we are stuffed (unless of course, we were just laughing out a lot that air fills our tummies temporarily).


Taco Bell experience with my mom - totally deserved a seperate blogpost!! 
The number of people that I see on the streets - of all ages and races. A mix of the working class and the people who try to find a way to steal from the working class (sorry but it is true).

There is still a lot of getting used to...and to re-acquaint ourselves with what the city looks like now.

At times, it's hard. You tend to compare and yearn for the days when we were still in that oil-rich land. I shrug it off because this is the present and we should start living in it.