Discovering Manila

A few days ago, 2 of my cousins, Jen and Jackie, came over to visit Manila for the first time. They were born in America and lived there their whole lives. They've never been here and I've never been to the States yet, so this is the first time that we'll actually get to meet each other. They were my age and I was really excited to show them around.

One nice thing about having foreigners (balikbayans?) over for a visit is the way they get excited over the smallest things -- things that we take for granted and don't really notice anymore.

They were curious about:

... the jeepneys (Jackie wanted to take a picture of the jeepneys to show her brother, who wasn't able to join them)
... Tricycles and Padjaks
... MRTs and LRTs
... Dinuguan, Sisig and Lechon
... Halo Halo (and Ice Monster.. haha)
... McDonald's spaghetti and Burger McDo
... Street vendors selling sampaguitas
... Star Apple / Kaimitos (they've never even heard of this fruit before)
... Maids and Drivers ("I'm not used to having people around to cook and do the laundry.")
... our language and the fact that almost all Filipinos can understand english
... and even Text Messaging! (they are amazed at my texting skills: texting while not looking! haha)

All their little discoveries and realizations about our culture made me look at Manila in a completely different perspective. Not good, not bad... just different! :) Hmm... Come to think of it, I must be the same way when i visited Thailand and got excited over seeing elephants and toktoks.