It is 4:50am.
My little boy decided he would not go back to sleep without some comfort around 4:00am and the task fell to me this morning. Now that he is back sound asleep I find myself in a sort of limbo between a dream state and partial consciousness.
While deciding what to do with myself in this surreal state it occurred to me that I had not written a blog post in quite a while. This is to be blamed on the “little stink” mentioned above as well as that online scourge World of Warcraft whose snare I’ve fallen into yet again. It can also be blamed on outright laziness.
Well, perhaps it is not 100% laziness. I’ve found myself reading and watching a lot of documentaries lately. When one has experienced the world and read (and watched documentaries) as much as I have, one comes to the realization that one really does not know very much! Some people would call this a big step towards wisdom, those that understand how little the really know contrasted by those who believe they have the answer to everything yet ironically happen to be the most ignorant!
As this feeling of not understanding very much really does not go away, I feel a bit apprehensive to sit down and start writing, since who would want to read a post from someone who does not know very much? It creates almost an aversion, a kind of mental block to writing since I feel I can be sure of nothing.
Yes, that is a much better explanation to my lack of blog posts than simply being lazy! 🙂
But, let us get to one issue that I can be pretty confident in.
I like Filipinos.
If you have read this blog much at all then you understand that I know Japan, speak Japanese and have a preference for that country in general. My second favorite is Vietnam due to my experiences there.
In this post however, I want to tell you that I also really like Filipinos!
Here in the Bay Area we sure have a lot of them. Daly City is known as “little Manila” and you cannot go to Costco without hearing Tagalog as well as being a complete white minority.
So why do I like them so much?
The first reason, hands down, is that I find them to be incredibly friendly. It seems as though they always smile and generally like to do so. Filipinos like to laugh, like to be around family and seem to be generally interested in speaking with me as though I was with an old friend.
As an example, I go to a small barber shop here in Pacifica where the ladies are all Filipina. I go in, they greet me with a big smile and unlike the polite Japanese it actually seems like a true smile that comes from the heart. I sit down and these old ladies always caress my neck and call me handsome.
Perhaps that is it. I like old Asian ladies who caress my neck and call me handsome. It is impossible to find anything disagreeable with that. They also ask if I’m married and tell me I should find a nice Filipina woman.
I then point out that I’m married to a Japanese. It seems to please them that I have selected an Asian for a wife but I get a very small inkling that they still believe I would do better with a Filipina. 🙂
The second reason I like Filipinos is that the females can sometimes be outrageous in terms of big, in your face fashion and general merchandise. Imelda Marcos and her many thousand pairs of shoes comes to mind as well as does my bathroom.
My bathroom you ask?
Well, I recently had a plumber come to my house to inspect the shower. True to form being in the bay area he was a Filipino and asked if the bathroom was designed by a Filipina woman.
He was correct.
The previous occupant had a Filipina wife and she did indeed designed the bathroom. The plumber commented that it looked like something out of Las Vegas with it’s “sunflower” shower head that completely soaks you and two Imperial Rome looking sinks. Yes, two, why settle for one in the bathroom when two will give you twice as much?
Big, gaudy and over the top. If it can be bought and costs a lot, then it should be acquired perhaps characterizes the Filipina female’s purchase decisions. No modesty what-so-ever and they wear/show off these things with the greatest of pride.
Just thinking about this gives me a huge smile. Their eyes light up and they want everyone else to notice. It is very cute.
In Filipino culture, you never do anything by half measures. If it is shoe purchases you buy as many as your closet can fit and then some. If it is a house you make it as big as possible. If it is Christianity then you wear a big cross and some even have themselves nailed to one during Easter. If it is a tattoo then you cover the entire leg or arm! If it is love then they completely devote themselves. If it is a break up then a horrible, world ending tempest will ensue for a very long time.
I love their passion. It can be for love, family, shoes or bathrooms a Filipino/a will definitely put their entire being into it.
I like when I go to shake a Filipinos hand that they use both hands and really make you feel welcome.
As I mentioned, perhaps this is a characteristic of the warm countries, especially the South Asian ones. I can find many similarities with the Thai in regards to general warmth. This is very hard to explain in American culture where we can be friendly (especially in the small towns) but we retain a bit of formality a bit of distance.
I’ve never had an American barber (barberess?) caress my neck and call me handsome.
Yes, I like Filipinos indeed.
Thank you 🙂 It is really true :).. I find the old ladies amusing but I would definitely say “touche” on your comments for them
Hey, handsome, as what you had stated in your article, hahaha… I’m a proud Filipino from Manila, and I read your article with so much smile on my face. I want to thank you for writing this, indeed we are friendly and we always love to give compliments to others. Thank you for appreciating our characteristics. We always welcome every people, even those refugees who come here in the Philippines. We always assure that we can make them feel at home by sharing the fun and laughter. Again, thank you and Mabuhay!. 🙂