Big dinner tonight at home. Relatives who came here last week from the US for the grand fiesta in Gen. MacArthur (E. Samar) are leaving tomorrow, so my mom threw them a farewell dinner.
I like these people. They are so warm and they just love us to pieces, hehe. Okay they love my mom (everybody does), but the affection kind of overflows, and that's just dandy for me. These relatives are the kind that won't give you a hard time, and don't act all cocky and smug just because they live in another country now. They really are who they are and have fun being themselves and being with family. I grew up with a lot of my mom's relatives hanging around and it has always been like this. Food, music, dancing, lots of alcohol and laughter. Even if nobody has a single peso in their pockets, they always manage to have fun. It's a sweet, sweet life.
In the din of loud 60s music, with loads of crab, prawns and chicken on our plates, my grandmother's cousin invited me to go visit them in California. Said it would be really nice, their house is half-empty anyway, I would get to see Disneyland, visit relatives, maybe find a job and shuttle back and forth the two countries, etc. Uhh, well...hmm.
US isn't really on the top of my list of places to visit. Europe, yes (think Italy, Greece). The rest of Asia, definitely (I've been dying to go on an Asian tour). But the States? Not my favorite country. I don't really want to go into a detailed discussion on politics or economic exploitation or neo-imperialism, and I really don't want to draw any hasty generalizations, so let's just say I have my views. And it is such that my present social consciousness forbids me to further expand my American experience by actually settling there for a long period of time. No offense to my relatives and even my oldest friend who's living there (and, from what it seems, is enjoying her life there for all its ups and downs, which I think is fantastic), but it's just not for me.
Then again, it's just a vacation, right? What harm could it do?
So I'm thinking, maybe next summer. Just for a couple of weeks. What I really want to do is see Adeline, hehe. That would be such a thrill. I mean, it's been 11 years!!! Plus, I'd like to go the the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley. Find out how the course is tackled in that part of the world, get insights, maybe sit in a class (hah, I wish). Sir Peter Hall, the author of a book I read for class recently, is a faculty there. It would be super cool to actually meet him.:)
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I just fininshed browsing through UC Berkeley's website. I looked at the admission requirements of international applicants to the graduate program. It required different levels of academic and professional accomplishment for different countries. Practically the entire world was listed there. Australia, Canada, Latin America, East European States, France, Ireland, Germany, Former Soviet Republics, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore, China, Hongkong, Tawian, Thailand...but wait, no Philippines?!
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