I like to talk. Even to complete strangers, I would not hesitate to respond to a curious person’s inquiry. Lest, said stranger is a leering Opa (Lolo).

One of the things that I miss about the Philippines are the kinda-intrusive but still welcome comments and questions from strangers. I do not get enough of that here in Germany. Except, of course, whenever I am with JP. I guess, alone, I am not interesting at all.

In parties, it is different, though. One of the good things about being foreign is that I am (sometimes) more interesting. The fact that I am different gives everyone an easy topic to start a conversation with and help break the ice. Discussing about the differences in culture and language could lead to a very lively discussion. Although, a lot of times I get some really strange questions. I’ve been offended before but, now that I think about it, I guess I was just being too sensitive. Most of said comments were not meant to offend. They were just uninformed about us, Pinoys.

P.S. If you’d listen to J answer some of these questions, you’d think the Philippines is a first world country, bigger than the US, with beaches prettier than Hawaii, filled with good but cheap stuff and full of extremely friendly people.