The Philippines was great, it always is, and I'm finally getting better with my bisaya (my mom's dialect). I'm paying more attention, listening for words, reading things online, and looking things up or asking about them when I don't know what something is. I'm doing so well, my cousin felt the need to comment on how many short conversations I had understood while in a car of 3 people speaking bisaya. I felt very proud, and want to impress the rest of my family with how much I will continue to learn.
The holidays were also wonderful, as they usually are. I got to see lots of family members, and catch up with people and bake zucchini bread, as I've always done in years past. Granted I made a lot less than usual, but I'm getting better at making it vegan now, and it's still irresistible. I also got to see Lauren while she was in LA and it was great to just hang out, catch up, and hang out in East LA. The New Year went well too, as my sibling turned another year older, and we finally had the whole family around for the first time in a couple years. We counted down, made a lot of noise, and ate a lot of food, before finding our way home around 3 am.
That Sunday was the baptism for my newest nephew, Cal, and since getting to the ceremony was going to be difficult, I went straight for my cousin's house to be nice and wait for the food while everyone was gone. There were a lot of family members, a lot of pictures, and a lot of food I couldn't eat. It got late and the bus stopped running/my cousin needed to sleep for work the next day, so I joined the party and slept over too. I got to spend the next day with aunt and uncle, cousins, and nieces and nephews. We hung out, played games, got haircuts, and I made eggs. I also got a call back about a job interview I had, and was starting work the following day!
This family has always lived relatively close by, though with me being in school and all over the place, I've only recently gotten to spend more time with them. The kids are remembering my name now, which is awesome, and I'm bonding more with my cousins. I love them a lot, as I do with most of family, and I'm going to really try to spend more time with them. If I have any sort of resolution, it's to see people more often now that I'm home. I spent 4 years away at college, sort of MIA to people here and now I'm going to work on fixing that, and with the help of a bike, and the metro it shouldn't be too bad.
The only difficult part is that I'm at work/in transit from 745 am to 7pm, which leaves me barely enough time to eat and relax a little before sleeping to get up and do it all over again. The nice thing is that I do get to read on the bus/listen to Rosetta Stone or whatever music/talk to people and I walk 2 miles everyday up and down hills. I work for a small company that helps people get their passports and visas, generally we're an expediting service, but sometimes people pay the extra fees just cause they don't want to do it themselves. While I'm doing general office stuff like answering the phone and processing paperwork, it's somewhat cool cause it's all travel related and I can live vicariously through other people going to China, Brazil, India, Bora Bora, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc. And hey, I'm getting paid, which is probably the best part because I needed income.
So lots of new things for the new year, but all good I would say. I don't really make resolutions, other than the one I mentioned earlier to see people more, cause I just want to live a good life and be proud of myself and what I do. And hey, I'm still a Virgo!
No comments:
Post a Comment