Fitting In
Magandang Hapon! (Good Afternoon in Tagalog)
Sorry for not posting in a while, I have been doing quite a bit lately. Adjusting to a new country is definitely easy. So! Since the last time I posted, I have found a new host family. I moved in with them Exactly two weeks ago, today. A little about my host family! Technically I only have one host parent, Daisy, I call her Ate Des, however, she lives with a companion and she is essentially another host mom, her name is Ate Nance. So, I essentially live with two host moms in a two bedroom apartment in the center of Cainta, Rizal. My school, CCC, is a five-minute walk away and I love being able to walk to anything. I live too close to the school to even take public transportation because the closest jeepney stop is my school, it is so great. Aside from having a nice house, my host family is pretty awesome. One of my host moms, Ate Des, is an English teacher at my school. Ate Nance manages some kind of business and works Monday - Saturday. Ate Des works Monday - Friday but is currently getting her masters degree, so she commutes to Mandaluyong City in Metro Manila, which is only 7.5 miles from our house, but because of Metro Manila traffic (it is seriously awful), those 7 miles take about 2 hours. So, on Saturday's I am pretty free. Last Saturday I went with the other American, Kiki, hosted in Cainta and her host family to Tay Tay (the garment production capital of Asia) and then to BGC (Bonifacio Global City) which is the really wealthy, western part of Manila. It was super fun, we ate Middle Eastern food, gelato, pizza, and hung out on the streets watching a local street performer until like 10 pm. On Sunday's I have mass at 9 a.m and then after mass, we eat lunch together and I use the rest of the day to just kind of chill out and read books and get caught up on rest. I am really happy here in Cainta and I have begun to adjust. I don't feel like a tourist here in the Philippines anymore, I know more about the culture than an average tourist, but I also do not feel anywhere near like a local. I am looking forward to the day in the coming months when everything feels normal. I am excited to become an actual member of the family and I am excited to delve into the not so surface cultural nuances of the Philippines. Anyone will notice the fact that Filipinos say po after every word, or that many eat with their hands, or that there is absolutely no regard for traffic or safety laws, but they wouldn't notice the deep respect for elders, the reason for Filipinos being so religious, or the way that Filipino culture is so incredibly relationship based. I'm excited to explore these things and hopefully use this as a platform to discuss them. My goal is to post weekly so I will see you next week! Thanks for reading.
Sorry for not posting in a while, I have been doing quite a bit lately. Adjusting to a new country is definitely easy. So! Since the last time I posted, I have found a new host family. I moved in with them Exactly two weeks ago, today. A little about my host family! Technically I only have one host parent, Daisy, I call her Ate Des, however, she lives with a companion and she is essentially another host mom, her name is Ate Nance. So, I essentially live with two host moms in a two bedroom apartment in the center of Cainta, Rizal. My school, CCC, is a five-minute walk away and I love being able to walk to anything. I live too close to the school to even take public transportation because the closest jeepney stop is my school, it is so great. Aside from having a nice house, my host family is pretty awesome. One of my host moms, Ate Des, is an English teacher at my school. Ate Nance manages some kind of business and works Monday - Saturday. Ate Des works Monday - Friday but is currently getting her masters degree, so she commutes to Mandaluyong City in Metro Manila, which is only 7.5 miles from our house, but because of Metro Manila traffic (it is seriously awful), those 7 miles take about 2 hours. So, on Saturday's I am pretty free. Last Saturday I went with the other American, Kiki, hosted in Cainta and her host family to Tay Tay (the garment production capital of Asia) and then to BGC (Bonifacio Global City) which is the really wealthy, western part of Manila. It was super fun, we ate Middle Eastern food, gelato, pizza, and hung out on the streets watching a local street performer until like 10 pm. On Sunday's I have mass at 9 a.m and then after mass, we eat lunch together and I use the rest of the day to just kind of chill out and read books and get caught up on rest. I am really happy here in Cainta and I have begun to adjust. I don't feel like a tourist here in the Philippines anymore, I know more about the culture than an average tourist, but I also do not feel anywhere near like a local. I am looking forward to the day in the coming months when everything feels normal. I am excited to become an actual member of the family and I am excited to delve into the not so surface cultural nuances of the Philippines. Anyone will notice the fact that Filipinos say po after every word, or that many eat with their hands, or that there is absolutely no regard for traffic or safety laws, but they wouldn't notice the deep respect for elders, the reason for Filipinos being so religious, or the way that Filipino culture is so incredibly relationship based. I'm excited to explore these things and hopefully use this as a platform to discuss them. My goal is to post weekly so I will see you next week! Thanks for reading.
Comments
Post a Comment