Take Me Back

Thanks to jetlag, I've been a lazy motherfella the last two days. All I've been doing is watching DVDs, sleeping, and eating. All that in China time, mind you. My current sleeping time is about 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. I wouldn't complain, but my butt needs to be up and running in local time by Monday because there is a huge pile of work for me to do in the office. Ugh!

Anyway, oh China, I miss you so. Like I told Pen when I was still in Hong Kong, I felt at home there in a superficial way. Everyone looked like me and no one even gave me a hard time about my pale legs. That's acceptance, man. LoL! Everyone thought I was Chinese anyway. Even when our board member told the waitress that I need to get an English menu also, the waitress didn't bother, thinking that he was joking. So by the time we got to mainland China, I didn't even bother acknowledging the waitresses anymore: I just let them take my plate, re-fill my glass, whatever the heck they want to do because it would take a longer time for me to go "English only, please" and have them blink their eyes at me twice before it registered to them that I'm really not Chinese.

And I really think that the Chinese has more of an influence on the Filipino culture than we give them credit for. The way they like gathering around lots of food, the way they make sure everyone in their party gets taken care of, their humor...all so Filipino, don't you think? We were spoiled rotten alright.

After two weeks of just watching Channel V, I swear I'm in love with Mandarin music and music videos. Even when I was coming home, my headset was on Channel 12, the "Route to Asia" channel. I would kill to have the playlist tracks listing, by the way. And eventhough I didn't see Ken, I did see a famous person. He was eating in the same seafood restaurant as we were in Guangzhou. Only one of our people got a pic taken with him; I was already hallucinating from cold medicine by that time.

I love Hong Kong and if I had more time, I would've probably loved Shanghai, too. These cities are as modern as they come and the only thing I really wish is for Manila to get its act together and be like one of these cities in the future. Better late than never, right?

Anyway, I will be back in China in 6 months. It's a shame that I'm going to the very same place that I've created a slogan for: "Say No to Guangzhou."