the necessity of seeing the world

my nephew j.j. was playing in the opera 3 saturdays ago so i took the 2.5 hour chinatown busride over to delaware and spent the weekend there. was an ok show in an i'm biased coz my nephew's there sort of way. the after-show get-together at my sisters' was genuinely good though. loved the food (loved it a little too much for my own good though) and enjoyed listening in to the conversations. in one corner, my delaware father-side tito and tita were talking to my australia mother-side tito and tita about their travels around the world. they spoke of great italian art & architecture, russian communism and poverty, french dining and sensibility, etc. i had enjoyed listening into the "grown-up" talk, ending up much more inspired to explore more of the world. just dont know yet how and when.

dutch food (yes it's food)

the sunday after gave me a great taste of things to come. it was it's a small world day at my nephews' school. there were different countries' tables with activities around. and kids brought in food native to their countries. we brought lumpiang shanghai, or egg roll as is customarily known here. i was able to sample food from india, australia, ireland, ghana, france, italy, etc (all americanized versions of their authentic originals im sure)... pleasant surprise was the boerenkoel met worst coz i had always wondered what a dutch friend of mine would often describe as a mixture of potatoes, carrots, veggies. sausages... for something that looks like mashed vegetable puke, it actually tastes really good and healthy (pardon the language, im practicing my dutch humor here, ha...). it was good to try all those international food. not something i would do on a daily basis but the exposure was a treat. well worth the tummy ache after.

it is always enriching being exposed to other peoples' cultures coz as you learn more about other people, no matter how seemingly insignificant it is, it ultimately results to a deeper understanding of oneself, one's own roots. things about oneself which may have gone easily unnoticed for they were simply assumed as normal all of a sudden become much more concrete. things that i have somewhat realized and continue to learn--like how unhealthy filipino food really is in general with all that propensity for grease, salt and pork. or how indecisive we could get especially when it comes to decisions about spending that hard-earned money. or how tardy we could get and how creative we are in explaining the reason for our tardiness. or how soft-spoken and warm we are as a people which could be sometimes a weakness too as we deal with people who are a bit more expressive with their thoughts. or how family- and people-oriented we are which is always a great thing. or how fun-loving we are which is a great thing too. or how hardworking we are which though a good thing in itself could lead to a really bad habit of ours of equating how good we are doing with how good/bad our work is going; or worse, how much we earn. or how much influenced we are or at least our thinking by american culture (heck, im even writing this entry in english, leche).

the greatest plus of living in new york city is exposure to its diversity. ive never seen a place as diverse before (although of course that may be because i may not have seen enough of the world). there's something about being exposed to as many people. sure, the differences can be at many times overwhelming, leaving you yearning for "home" but uncomfortabity aside, and with groundedness in ones roots in place, the differences could be very enriching. filling the need to see the world which springs from an insatiable innate need to know thyself.

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temple in naritasan, japan

before coming back to the city back in january i had spent a night and morning in narita, japan. wasn't able to see a lot but i tried as much as i could. in the morning, i was able to walk through a village (after stopping by the everything in japanese mcdunaldo) and was able to see a buddhist temple. the japan pit stop was a very pacifying experience, especially for one who was in some sort of limbo--leaving the home known as manila to go to the home known as new york. it was strange in a very fun way being alone and getting lost in a city that hardly spoke english... im looking forward to my upcoming august visit to holland, especially after being enlightened that there's more to that piece of land than their windmills, clogs, cheeses, tulips, marijuana and red light district. i definitely need the lesson or two from those great dutch folks about not taking life too seriously, what with all this feeling reflective blogging, ha... but ive been forewarned though not to stay there for more than 2 weeks coz otherwise i end up wanting to live there. we'll see. in the meantime, i better get some rest. otherwise, i end up being late for work again. wouldn't want to add any more support to my natural predisposition for being late. ha.. and i wouldn't want to be kicked out of corporate america prematurely. ha..