Things I will Miss

I haven't written anything like this for a long time. For one, I don't want to do something I could not commit to doing regularly. I hope to take this seriously. Blogging should jumpstart my getting back into the habit. This blog will chronicle my adventures and misadventures in Bibimbap World over the next few months or year/s to come.  

Bibimbap. Like the famous Korean dish of mixed rice, I have mixed emotions leaving my comfort zone and starting a "new life" in Seoul, Korea. This is my third time to live abroad with Mannie after China and Qatar. Sometimes it just gets so strenuous - packing, unpacking, moving in, moving out, adapting to a different culture, finding your way around and getting lost in translation. But life is a constant change and the right attitude is always to embrace change.

I feel excited, anxious, happy and sad all at the same time. Sad because I will surely be homesick. Maybe this post will hear a lot of comparisons between mother country and host country and a lot things I will miss....

1. The weather. How often I complain about the scorching weather of Cagayan Valley - how it's almost close to that of the Middle-east. Winter is exciting but I still have a hard time acclimating to the cold.

2. Simbang Gabi (Mass at Dawn) at my parish church of Santos Angeles Custodios. I get sentimental leaving home at Christmas-time. Who wouldn't be?

Altar of The Holy Guardian Angels Church

Filipiniana-inspired "belen" - The Nativity Scene

3. Hot pandesal (Filipino bread roll) in the morning. Pinoys are highly entrepreneurial. There must be a Filipino bakery somewhere in Seoul. I will find out.

4. Bombo Radyo. My wake-up call is hearing papa tuned in to his usual radio program for early morning news, jokes, "burburtia" (Ilocano word for riddle) and The Burburtia Song!

5. Monggo (mung beans) with chicharon and ampalaya leaves. 

6. Riding the calesa (horse-driven carriage). Yes, we still have calesas in Cagayan. Our town is one of the remaining few that still uses the earliest and cheapest form of transportation for short distance rides. I have learned to appreciate the simple, laid-back  life of the barrio after my parents retired here. Cleaner, greener, safer and more peaceful living. Manila makes me so paranoid these days.

Riding the calesa with my nephew, Raphael

7. Watching Willtime Bigtime comedy show. This is one mundane moment I really enjoy doing with my folks. I still have to cable surf and see what's available in the Korean local channels. I don't watch that much TV tough, not news or soaps. 

8. My bed and sleeping whenever I feel like it.

9. Our dogs: Bitoy, Buchokoy, Babajing....and cats: Mimingjoy, Dita and Ewok

10. Mama and Papa of course!!!