Tag: rural

manila vs pili

manila has a certain charm for me. i know i ran away from the pollution and the heavy traffic and the rush hour and all the pressures of the urban life but still there is a part of me that would long for a taste of manila life every now and then.

i know it is not the things i ran away from that attracts me to it. i believe what i find charming is the lack of a dull moment in manila. it seems the city is awake 24/7 and there is no fear of being stranded anywhere due to lack of transportation. living in the heart of urbanization for 5 years then suddenly making a complete turn around to live in a rural spot does indeed highlight a lot of differences.

but i guess the greatest charm manila offers me is the thought of independent living. living here in bicol places me under my parent’s roof and within their easy reach. not that i am complaining. i love having someone cook for me and do my laundry and look out for my daily needs. i know how difficult it was looking after one’s self when one is living alone. i know how difficult it could get when one is so tired from a day’s work only to return home and find out there is laundry to attend to and there is food to cook.

so i guess for now i am content where i am. manila is charming. yes she is. and every now and then i will be returning to her – experiencing the charm she offers. but for the meantime, the rural lifestyle is working hard to charm me as well.

Home Again

I have never imagined that after 8 years of being away from home I’ll be integrating myself again. It was a hard decision to make – coming home after being away from so long, turning my back on glorious job oppurtunities and teeming social life. But the choice was between family and that (jobs and a social life). A family that would soon get separated in not more than five years. So I guess the choice was pretty much made up for me. I chose family.

And for the past weeks I have integrated myself back in. Moved all my stuff, and squeezed myself in. They didn’t expected my return too judging from the fact that I had to find some space for myself. There was absolutely not much space for me and my stuff. But I managed.

And whence I thought it was hard, it was actually easy. Being away from my social life was not as bad as I imagined it to be. I am still jobless but I haven’t really started seriously hunting so I cannot judge anything about that.

The pressures of home are surprisingly manageable also. Afterall if I chose to run off to Manila and hide from all this, I would be a real coward.

So I guess I am fine. Yeah what a word. Domestic living has its own colorful adventures.