Day 22-24: Home and A Night with Strangers

回家的路 (The way home)

After 20 days, I finally feel at home here. I now wake up early even without setting an alarm. I've gotten used to getting soil all over my clothes and encountering xx number of creatures. I've also been doing more things such as watering the plants, writing and posting reminders and arranging for the delivery service to pick up fruits. I don't feel awkward anymore whenever people assume that I'm the daughter in this house. I sometimes don't even bother explaining to clarify things. It's just easier to pretend than to explain the reason why I'm here. I feel like Auntie and I have talked about so many things - we even had a conversation about zodiac signs (which I was able to survive, thanks to a song that mentioned all of them!) Little brother never fails to greet me whenever he comes home. (Yes, it's worth mentioning because I never get that back in Manila) Uncle also finally calls me by my name, and he has promised to tell my fortune using my Chinese name.

But maybe because it already feels like home, I now want to go somewhere else. It must be the heat or that monthly visitor, but I've been feeling restless and I couldn't eat properly during the past few days. So I was ready to have a 맥주 picnic at the rooftop when Auntie suggested that I join the barbecue party of this group of students who were staying overnight. (Have I told you this family was into a lot of businesses?) They were all overseas Chinese from Malaysia, Singapore, Hongkong and Myanmar who are studying in Taipei. Oh and one of them was from Cebu! But he can't speak Tagalog and I can't speak Bisaya, so we just talked in Chinese. Fail. >.< It turned out to be a lot of fun because they were very accommodating and friendly. They sang a lot of songs which I was also familiar with. One of them was a kpop fangirl (akalain mo?) who liked to pretend she could speak Korean. I also watched them play mahjong (I didn't play because the terms and tile arrangement were a bit different). Even though I didn't get any of their names and my Chinese was super challenged, it was a fun night that definitely helped lift my mood. I guess my 맥주 picnic at the rooftop can happen on another night.

Summer is officially here!

P.S. I lost my comb again and I want to eat pandesal! Can anyone send me some?