Show us your favorite comfort food.
Submitted by nosa.
After a long toxic duty, this is what I usually crave...
6:00 am: PGH patients, coming from different areas in the country (some are even from Mindanao!), form two columns as the main entrance to the Out-Patient Department (OPD) opens.
Almost a thousand patients are seen everyday in the OPD where medical consultation is free and laboratory exams are discounted. Some patients would come as early as 12 midnight, only to be seen later in the afternoon.
This morning, I came across an old portfolio. The drawings date back as early as 1990's when I was eight or nine years old. This was the time I took art lessons together with my cousins over the summer. I felt like I was a child again looking at those drawings I made.
If I am not mistaken, this was my very first painting. I was first introduced to oil pastel and felt paper. Later on, I went into sketching and water coloring.
Learning how to sketch.
School projects (using watercolor) when I was in grade school.
Water color paintings.
Using crayons.
Lastly, an oil painting.This was the first time (and probably the last) I used oil paint. The painting was inspired by Bob Ross. I used to watch his show, "The Joy of Painting", every afternoon, years ago, after school. I love this guy. He made oil painting looked so easy. Most of the time, he painted landscapes. He referred pine trees as happy little trees ("Now, let's make happy little trees"). Too bad, he left this world at an early age. May his good soul rest in peace.
Come to think of it, the last time I touched a brush or a charcoal pencil was about eight or ten years ago. I don't know where my artistic side went. I hope it's still buried somewhere not too deep.
What have you tried in life that you just weren't very good at?
Playing lawn tennis. I terribly suck at it even after taking formal lessons. =(
I've been told that nobody has black eyes, not even Asians. I refused to believe this, even though I'm a Biology major. All my life, I thought I have black eyes or at least brown-to-almost-black eyes until a few days ago.
I was manipulating the camera of my new Nokia 5610 one day, using myself and my room as the subjects when I discovered that I have brown eyes! The picture I took may be too bright but the light brought out the brownness in my eyes. I really should pay more attention in front of the mirror.
Ah. This is the life…
...which I'm going to live for the next 5 weeks.
I was waiting for my two friends yesterday to pick me up at McDonald’s when an 11 year-old girl sat across my table, about two seats away from me. She was wearing an old white dress with yellow flower prints and worn out slippers. A safety pin was attached to the partially-sewed buttons of her dress. With no one to talk to and bored as I was, I started a conversation.
“Is someone
with you?” I asked in Tagalog.
She nodded and looked in the direction of the cash register where a group of women was lined up, ready to order. I assumed she was with an adult. Probably her mother, I thought. I stopped talking. I didn’t want her mother to think a stranger was bothering her daughter. So, I continued drinking my diet soda as I patiently waited for my friends.
Then, an 8 year-old boy (I learned their ages later), holding two vanilla ice creams, one on each hand, sat across from where the girl was. He was wearing a blue ragged shirt, black knee-length shorts and frayed slippers. He handed one ice cream to the girl. Realizing that he was the one she was referring to at the cash register, I resumed the conversation.
“Kapatid mo siya (Is he your sibling)?” I asked with a smile.
She nodded again.
“Ano'ng pangalan ninyo (What are your names)?”
“Sharmaine at siya ay si…Ano nga ulit ang pangalan mo (Sharmaine and he is…What is your name again)?” She was now talking to her brother.
I laughed. “Hindi mo alam ang pangalan ng kapatid mo? (You don’t know the name of your brother?)”
“Hinde. Nalimutan ko na eh (No. I already forgot).” I laughed harder. Kids, I thought.
As we were chatting, I found out that they were half-siblings and that they had eight more siblings. They had the same father, different mothers. Sharmaine’s mother was a newspaper vendor while Ocean’s (the boy) mother was….well, I never had the chance to ask Ocean because he was constantly wandering around the restaurant (I think he might have an ADHD). They would visit McDonald’s three times a day and buy vanilla ice cream each time. Wow. It’s either they are actually big fans of McDonald’s or they are lovers of vanilla ice cream. To my surprise, Sharmaine explained to me that they didn't have enough money and the only food that they could afford was vanilla ice cream. I got confused. Surely, there are foods that are low-priced but still can make you full.
I asked them the price of the vanilla ice cream. “Twelve pesos.” Hmm. So, they are spending twenty-four pesos for their “meals”. I advised them to buy two cups of rice, worth six pesos each, and spend the remaining twelve pesos to buy a viand. But they reminded me that there was no place in the city where one could buy a twelve-peso viand (Yes, you can buy one to two sticks of fish balls or pork barbeque, but they won’t be enough). I then suggested that they should buy bread. Bread is cheap and can be tasty. But they insisted that bread was not as delicious as vanilla ice cream.
Come to think of it, bread and rice do not give the same satisfaction vanilla ice cream is giving. Besides its sweet creamy taste, in the Philippines, ice cream is more appreciated by children because it's associated with celebration – happiness. Bread and rice, on the other hand, do not have that kind of effect because they are both associated with poverty – scarcity.
I give up. This is much harder than the math courses I took in highschool and in college. Twenty-four pesos is not worth as much as it was ten or twenty years ago. In fact, it has almost no value. In this generation, ten or twenty pesos is the new piso.
Then, Sharmaine asked me, “Mayaman ka ba (Are you rich)?”
I replied in Tagalog, “No. I am not.”
She first looked at my outfit which was too formal, considering I was only in a fast food restaurant (I was going to attend a friend’s wedding), before uttering, “Pero maputi ka (But you are fair-skinned).”
I was stunned. For a brief second, I could not react. Why? First of all, never in my life I thought I was fair-skinned. Friends often tell me I am morena; secondly, this notion about skin color is what I hate about our culture. In our country, skin color dictates one’s level of attractiveness and one’s social status. White- or fair-skinned people are more beautiful. Those belonging to a higher social class are mostly fair-skinned.
While Sharmaine and I were engrossed in our talk, Ocean came back to his seat, bringing himself and her ate drinking water. How sweet. This is a perfect Kodak moment. I wish I brought my camera with me. But the water was not enough for them and they were shy about getting some more. So, I shared my diet soda with them. As I was handing to them the cup, I saw the delight in their faces. Ocean told me it was their first time to drink something other than water. I could not believe it!
“Sige, tapos na ako (Ok. I’m finished). Bye!” Ocean exclaimed after gulping his portion of the beverage. Although Sharmaine was also finished drinking the other portion, she was not as eager as Ocean to leave the place. She just stared at me, waiting for me to talk more. At this time, my friend already texted me they were near McDonald’s. Even though I liked to spend more time with her, I knew I had to end the conversation. The nuptial mass was going to start soon. So, I told her her mother might probably be looking for her by now.
She asked me, “Paano ka (What about you)?”
“My ride will be arriving shortly.” I said.
There was some hesitation at first but she eventually slowly walked away.
Before exiting the door, she looked back, smiled and waved goodbye for one last time.
I smiled and waved back, silently praying for her and her brother’s safety.
Things I lost this week:
my favorite bracelet
Mu Sigma Phi nameplate
my very-costly eyeglasses
I wonder what i will lose next.
