I still vividly remember…those times…..times when we lived with our cousins who like us were studying in manila, first,we lived in san juan,metro manila in an old apartment,life was exciting, eventhough we lived with a housekeeper,we had our duties in the house,we used to go to san juan public market which is so scary( if i think of it now) and dirty, my cousins from romblon and me and my siblings exprienced going to the market in the middle of heavy rains.wading in the flood waters…we experienced going to divisoria market at dawn just to catch the cheap prices of goods..,
we hail from the little barrio Calima in Pola,oriental mindoro,while my paternal cousins are from romblon, my mom would bring us a lot of vegetables whenever she came to manila for a day or two visit…she would always have fresh presents..bananas ,and other vegetables…my aunts also would visit my cousins once in a while….
when my cousins moved to roxas district, my younger brother rey and i were left alone in the apt.it was scary,only two of us in the second floor,the lobby going up and down was dark as if somebody would grab us ….few months later, rey and i moved to my eldest brother’s house, it was a relief,at least may kasama na kami ulit na dalawa..nakakatakot kasi at nakakapaiyak sa hapon pag kami lang dalawa.and it was fun living with our niece claudine,
my sister worked as a flight attendant for SAUDI airlines, it was my utmost dream to be a successful surgeon, but i failed to be one,and i blame no one , maybe it was destined ..my sister then was sending me to school,i took a pre-med course because i wanted to be a doctor, among my circle of friends of six,i am the only one who passed the NMAT(National Medical Admission Test),i was so happy, i passed the university entrance test,had an interview in one of the medical schools and on that day i was encouraged to join a fraternity.hehehe…..but when my sister stopped working as a flight stewardess,my dream collapsed…until now it’s still my biggest frustration..but then i know there is a reason why i didnt become a doctor, because i am not meant to be one…there’s something better….
when we moved to roxas district in 1991,we lived close to our cousins again,we would play pictionary,scrabble and other board games, it was really amazing how well we did, very funny and exciting…i know a lot of words but i can’t put them in paper,that’s one thing i am very poor of…drawing….i also miss playing chess, but here in korea,i have no one to play chess with,ah.there was one person i could play with during our college days but he never won against me…
few months later we had to move into a bigger place,a compound with other foreign nationals..it was there when i heard of monkey bananas..because our neighbors asked us about "saba"..there are lots of varieties of bananas in our farm…it was then when i started teaching koreans…i have been with koreans since 1992…grabe…16years ko na pala sila kasalamuha….at kaututang dila.
i met my husband in 1996, .through a good friend Fham who also got married with a korean she used to teach english in QC,we’ve been here in korea since 1997,but i havent met them in person since then…ako lang kasi among our circle of tutors ang napunta dito sa jeonbuk,most of them are in kyeongsangdo….
my husband was a pre-law student,and i was a pre-med student,we met and we couldnt pursue our dreams but he told me that the reason why we couldnt fulfill our dreams was because we were going to meet and have a family, and he is right..had i become a doctor,i wouldnt have kids,had he become a lawyer,we couldnt have met each other.and we would never be husband and wife..
