Updates

So much has happened the past few days -- some were happy things; some are sad, heart-breaking even. I think I'll start with the most recent.

China Trip - 31 October to 4 November
Finally, our long planned trip to China was pushed through. It was a year-long planning; I thought it would just be a "drawing" but I'm glad it became a reality. This trip was especially memorable for me because it was my first time to go out of the country. I got my passport last September only and so I was excited to use it.

I am not very keen on travelling. Maybe because as a child, I used to have motion sickness. Every vehicle I rode, (with the exception of bi and tri-cycles) I threw up. Travelling has become a torture. I just got over this motion sickness when I was in college. I got used to travelling daily from home (Pacita, Laguna) to school (Taft Avenue). But then, travelling has never had any appeal to me. I tell my friend time and time again that I go to certain places not because of the view but because I want to be with friends. No wonder I don't remember the places I've been to; I just remember what transpired during those vacations.

This morning when I reported for work, my officemates were excited to know about my trip. To their eager questions, my reply was a very meaningful "It was okay". Very good answer, indeed.

The China trip, generally, went well. I liked Wuxi (my former boss' place), district in the Jiangsu Province. It is very clean and peaceful. The weather is cold. The houses are very nice -- it's like our nice villages but the houses are all highrise. There are a lot of parks. The roads are wide; all traffic lights are working; there are banks and commercial places everywhere. It is progressive and yet, life is laid back. It is relaxing. My former boss lives in a 3-floor condominium. His place is very beautiful but there are no elevators or escalators around. Imagine, we all had to carry our luggages up to the 5th floor (coz that's where he stays)!

We went to different places but I couldn't enumerate them all. I will just detail each by using some pictures.


On 2 November, we went to Shanghai via bullet train. This I enjoyed the most. The trip was true to its name -- bullet fast and yet it was comfortable.

I'm a little disappointed in Shanghai. It is a typical city -- dirty, traffic, crowded. But the night view is good. The lights and the buildings are nice.

Some of the things I noticed in their culture is that the people do not know how to say excuse me or sorry. Even if they bump into you or step on you, it's just as if nothing happened. They are also confrontational, I guess. There was this particular restaurant (the front label says "Deliciousness") that we went into. While the others were ordering, the rest of us looked for a table. We wanted to sit together (all 8 of us) so my friend and I moved one table to put them together. That made the waitress very mad. Muntik na niyang hablutin yung table and she kept on blabbing things that we were very sure were not nice at all. All the other customers were looking at us. When the "orderers" (my former boss included) came back, he explained that we needed to sit together because we were sharing food. The irate waitress still didn't want to move the chairs but still kept on talking. At long last, the chef came out and allowed us to move the tables. You could have thought that we were finally able to eat in peace but no, because the restaurant became more noisy then. More waitresses argued. Too bad we couldn't talk back.

The next two days were spent shopping and walking around the place. No untoward incident happened after that restaurant scene, thank God.


Barangay Elections - 29 October
My father ran as a barangay captain and lost. His losing could have been okay; in fact, I wanted him to quit politics. What's heartbreaking is how my father was betrayed by his so-called friends. They dropped him like a hot potato. They pushed him to run for elections and yet, when he did, they did not support him. Two of his partymates single-voted. What's so painful is that they voted for my father's opponent as the barangay captain. When the results came out, nobody even came to console or sympathize with my father. They were all in the new barangay captain's victory party.

That was so painful for me. The losing per se is nothing but to see my father alone on that moment was so heart-breaking.