Friday, September 10, 2004
manila manila
as i went home from PGH where bestfriend's dad was confined, i can't help but reminisce how a few years ago this place, manila in all its smell and glory, was once a home to me.for a while there, riding the LRT felt alien to me. it felt smaller and hot. it felt like i was in a time warp or something. and as i passed by luneta, escolta , recto and of course, blumentritt. memories kept crawling back to me.
i remembered how hard it was to commute from UP to my aunt's house in Tondo, where i used to stay. how HARDER it was to commute from Meralco Ortigas to Tondo. how many of my bags were slashed by thieves. how i had to brave the murky floods to get home. how i short of whisper "Balut" to the taxi driver whenever i decide to ride a cab, whispered because i thought the name of the place sounded really bad and that somebody else might hear it. and how taxi drivers refuse in a heartbeat when they realize where my destination is.
but manila is not all bad memories for me. not at all. this is where i had a great time with my cousins. we were like girls living in a ladies' dormitory, watching dawson's creek, tabing ilog, having crushes, talking till the wee hours and just bumming around.
and ofcourse there's bestfriend and our historical cum cultural tours during our first months. on hot saturday afternoons, we circuit the National Museum, Intramuros and yep, Nayong Filipino. we always joked how we looked like house helps on their day-offs.
manila will always have a special place in my heart. it brings back memories of youth both fun and freewheeling...of adventure and of love blooming.
and somehow as i got off the train, i was bemused of how something so familiar can now be so foreign to me. and then i realized that so much has changed in my life...aptly put, so much has changed in me. life has been more complicated yet more meaningful. still, it's freeing to know than i can always look back to manila when life what simpler.
Manila, I keep coming back to Manila
Simply no place like Manila
Manila I'm coming home
babyburn at 9:24 AM