Basyang's surprise

Again we were surprised with Basyang.  According to Pag-Asa, Laguna was just going to get hit with Signal 2.  But when night feel on Tuesday, the winds were crazy howling.  I couldn't sleep!  The electricity went out at around 11pm.  Feel asleep at around 12am.  When I woke up at 4am, the winds were still howling like hyenas.

Early the next morning, we saw the full effect of Basyang.  We didn't have electricity and water.  Good thing our village was prepared, the maintenance guys already cut most of the hanging tree branches.  On the way to the hubs office, we saw fallen trees and leaves everywhere.  It was very chaotic and unsafe. 

Though the weather improved later in the day, we still didn't have electricity and I had to go out by 10am since I had a call and needed to submit a report.  Dragging my little one and my sister, I first went to Starbucks, thinking they probably have wifi still since they have a generator.  But they didn't, although I was still able to charge my Blackberry and make the 10am call haha  3 days after, I realized I left my charger there and when I went back, no one surrendered it.  Too bad :(

On to my wifi quest.  I remembered back in December, when I needed to submit another report, I stayed the whole day in SM Cagayan de Oro.  Their wifi is fast, free and available everywhere!  I ended up working in a coffee shop in SM Sta Rosa, while my little one played endlessly in Tom's World with my sister in tow.

Being local

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! 