One Month: 101s, Shower, Dishes, Ice Cream, & City
- You wouldn’t find anything in a bookstore that tells you exactly how to survive living in a foreign country, and if you were like me who lived 25 years with family yet never considered himself domestic, you’d need hands-on training and not just reference materials from someone who has been there and has done that. Thankfully, my housemates here offer their help: Laundry 101 (how to operate a washing machine/dryer and appreciate liquid detergent), Commuting 101 (with basic how-to-cross-a-street and how-to-ride Sky Train and public buses) and Shopping 101 (actual price is equal to tag price multiplied by 1.12 where peso conversion, is ‘cannot be’), the list goes on.
- One of my mother’s advices to her children growing up was not to take a bath at night. She’s neither a doctor nor a witch doctor but she told us that this will decrease blood pressure level and could cause “pasma”. The bathroom in our current apartment here is small but has bright lights on top of the mirror (think celebrity make up rooms), has warm and cold shower (the control is annoying at times), a tub (except that it doesn’t have a stopper for bubble bath). Nonetheless, it was just hard to pass on taking baths at nights. Here, I learned to appreciate toiletries better. I enjoyed citrus scented body wash at nights, nut-flavored scrubs or cream soaps during day baths. Undeniably, this bathroom inspires me to be more hygienic and makes it worth disobeying my own mother’s advice.
- I rarely wash the dishes back home, but here since I don’t cook meals and I don’t want to eat on the same dirty plate everyday, I volunteered that I’ll do the dishwashing and befriended Palmolive (yes the shampoo brand is a dishwashing liquid brand here). This is the household chore I enjoy the most, my hands are busy yet it gives my mind free time to think, reminisce and travel. I have tried cleaning the bathroom as well. Although this was more laboriou, it gave me a sense of fulfillment a regular dishwashing can’t whenever I’m able to get rid of a difficult stain.
- There’s a tradition amongst the Filipino IT employees at CHQ– the ice cream treat. I was lucky to be oriented about this before coming here, it could be a form of celebrating a birthday, a milestone or as trivial as random peer pressure, but the subtle kind. I have not seen an ice cream that says on its label “No therapeutic claim” the way most food supplements do, but I eat ice cream almost everynight (Bryers, Haagen Dasz, Nestle, Ben&Jerry), both for comfort (in the absence of good friends) and belief (that eating lots of them will make me gain weight).
- I was able to take a break from suburbia and experience city living for 5 days and 4 nights. I accompanied a fellow assignee here who moved into a high rise condo unit along Cambie St. in Vancouver about 20 minute drive form Burnaby. I must say that I enjoyed my stay (the bathroom is bigger and better than ours, the bed was nicer) but I was careful not to make my stay too comfortable because I knew every moment was fleeting. Highlights: getting lost in the parking area, entering a fire exit of the building and almost getting trapped, buying groceries in SaveOnMore without a shopping list, exploring the city streets by foot and finding a place to have dinner at, the Bento meal at that Japanese restaurant, being on a passenger seat with Maggie (short for Magellan the GPS).
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