I've moved to Laguna in 2005. And the only person I knew then was my husband. I didn't have any friends or even nodding-basis acquaintance. I made Laguna my new home, knowing no one else but my husband. I felt fine at first, and since we were still on the honeymoon stage, we were cocooned in our own happy world. As time passed, I slowly longed for friends of my own in Laguna and I missed going to a place and seeing friends, like I used to in Makati.
Gradually, I began to expand my network in my new home town. I made friends with a few neighbors, with our broker. I already have suki in the palengke, the parlor and the massage place. I met a few of the hubs' officemates who were quite nice. I then met some parents at my son's school. And then quite recently, joined a taebo class. I'm also on speaking terms with my bus mates, even got to car pool with a few of them.
To me, the true test of being local is when you go out either to the mall or palengke or well, Starbucks, and see a few familiar faces and speaking to those familiar faces. Now, when I go out, I always bump into people I know. A few weeks back, I went to SM and saw a couple of friends. Just tonight, I saw a taebo mate at Starbucks and also saw our instructor. I'm officially a local!
