it's like music to my ears

Today at the restaurant were two Filipino customers. They were surprised when I suddenly spoke to them in Tagalog (my native dialect), and bursted out "Filipino ka pala! (You're a Filipino)" They said that I look like some other Asian race. I told them that they, too, look more Chinese than Filipino, and I wouldn't have known had I not heard them speaking in Tagalog.

It is not very often that we have Filipino customers come by. In fact, it was the second time only. The first one I met there is a first cousin to the Sottos in Manila; known both in the showbiz and political arena. In a place where people speak different languages, and English of different accents, it is relaxing in a way to hear my native language being spoken. It feels like home! :)

birthday with shelves of books

It's my birthday today, and I spent it by starting on a new casual job tending a bookstore in one of the largest malls in the area. It was pretty good. I got the chance to have small chats with some shoppers. There was an old (German) man who approached and started a conversation with me. He said I sound American with how I speak my English (thanks to my country's history for that, I guess), and encouraged me by saying that I would be able to find an office job, just as I wished. He even invited me for a cup of coffee, but since I was the only one tending the store, I had to decline the invitation. It was a nice chat, I would say, with a lovely man, old enough to be my grandfather. :)

For dinner, husband and I dined at a small Chinese restaurant nearby.

I'm missing home at this very minute, yet I am excited to be where I am today.

3rd month

I have just recently stopped importing blog posts into my facebook account to give myself freedom again to write about anything I think of. Family members, relatives and long-time friends seem to worry about my state when they read any of my writings that somehow, they think, reflect a not-so-good condition.

Nothing to worry about me, I am A-ok. It's been three months now since we arrived here. I would say that my circumstances haven't changed that much yet, but I am coping up. The weather has been getting colder, with winter starting in less than three weeks from now. I have joined a library, and now few pages away from finishing the first book I borrowed (The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho).

Today is extra special because I have received a package from my Kuya (big brother), and even more special because my nephews sent their handmade birthday card for me... the first presents I have received for my birthday on Monday. :)