Ironically nostalgic…

It’s been 6 days since I came back from China and surprisingly, i’m still not “at home”. As shallow as this may sound, the realization hit me when I bought a 1-piece chicken meal in Jollibee for lunch. I’ll get to that in a while, drama muna…

It’s like a part of me is still in Sun Yat-Sen University (our school there), refusing to go home because it’s still enjoying all the things that that place has to offer. Not that I lost my nationalistic pride or something. I’m an all out proud Filipina by choice. What i’m referring to is the kind of life that people have there. 

Life there is peaceful and serene. The atmosphere is relax and comfortable. It isn’t as stressful and as fast-paced as it is here in the country.  There you can take your time, no hurries, no worries. Not like in our country where everything happens so fast and people are burdened with so much anxieties that it hurts to waste even just a minute of your life. This may be the case because we stayed in Zhuhai province, but i’ve been to their cities and even their cities aren’t as crowded as ours. Their streets are clean and free from traffic. People prefer to walk or use bicycles, and they are more disciplined when it comes to taking care of their surroundings. Apparently, pollution is a foreign sight. (I wonder why we, Filipinos, can’t find the initiative or discipline that other people have.) In addition, their weather is love! The cool breeze just makes you want to go out and have fun. You don’t have to hide indoors for fear or irritation of the piercing heat of the sun’s rays.

But that’s not all. Here comes the lunch connection….

The cost of living in China is so much cheaper than ours. You can have a decent complete meal (rice,two dishes, veggies, desert, beverage) for as low as P50. And if you’re on a diet and you just want a good serving of dumplings/noodles/chao fan, take out some coins that would add up to Php21 and you’re good to go. And this is why that 1-piece chicken meal which consisted of:

• a small chicken breast covered with so much *bread crumbs* (or whatever you call those ingredients that make it crispy looking) that makes it deceivingly big but in reality only had just enough meat to fill up a small serving spoon
  
• 1/4 cup white rice that hardly reached my throat and 
  
• a regular-sized bland iced tea submerged in countless ice cubes… 

made me regret handing over Php95 to the cashier. I mean seriously! super “WTF?!!!”. I gave almost a hundred bucks for a meal that left me unsatisfied and extremely annoyed. Aside from this, their dorm/house rentals and hotel accommodations are also cheap. You can get a room with aircon, cable, free wifi, bath/shower with heater, two beds and toiletries for as low as Php250. Here? “ASA boy!”. You’d be looking at a “short-time” accommodation in cheap motels if that’s your budget. Lastly, their transportation system is so organized and well-thought of that it only costs Php15 to travel a distance comparable to that of Quezon Ave to Alabang. Talk about heaven!

I mean if all that is possible at the other side of the world as what people usually refer to China, why can’t we have it here in our very own country? Obviously, we can’t have their weather but what about their cost of living? lifestyle? environment? I don’t wanna start pointing fingers and I don’t wanna go rambling about the government with all its animosities. 

I love the Philippines and all its imperfections. I guess I just want everyone to experience what I experienced without having to set foot elsewhere…

~Cy~