country girl, city girl

it's been 3 weeks since we stayed with our foster family in Barangay San Pedro, Sto. Tomas, Batangas as part of our community medicine rotation.  It's another weekend again and I find the shift in momentum as I drive through South Super Highway.. going back to the rat race that is Manila..

I could tell you that life in the province is much simpler, even if we don't have many of the comforts and technologies we find at home. no maid, no hot shower, no microwave oven.. bedtime at 9 pm- the night fading as the sound of big trailer trucks coming from Lucena and buses from San Pablo City pass by. As my blockmates Tiger and Paul would put it, "The Simple Life: Interns"  I have learned to cook and clean after 3 weeks.  My simple joys would consist of eating kalihim and ensaymada which cost 1 peso each from the nearby bakery, buy corn for 4 pesos and a plate of miki-bihon for 30 pesos.  I have learned to adapt and I have gotten used to waking up in a house not my own. 

There is nothing much to do except talk to the people, watch all the telenovelas and wander around. Most of the time we just walk around the barangay, along the Maharlika National Highway. We've never really gone elsewhere yet because my partner/housemate doesn't like going on gimmicks and our preceptor does spot checks every week. I feel the disparity when I go home to Manila... from kapeng Barako to Coffee Bean English Breakfast tea.  I just get the feeling that everything I have gotten so used to don't seem that essential anymore.

I challenged myself to spend less than 500 pesos in the community for a week.  It worked, and that already included a Hazelnut Latte in Seattle's Best, and dinner in Dencio's Tagaytay. And the momentum changes again.. here i go, back and forth... maybe if there are some things I will miss about Batangas, it will be the neighbors who bring me biko for merienda, the kids who wake me up early in the morning with their incessant singing, watching Deal or No Deal and eating the soft, pink freshly baked kalihim.  I've met really interesting people in Batangas, sometimes unconsciously I speak with their accent already and acquired the expressions they use.  There is something about this place that makes you forget who you were in the city.

In 3 weeks time, we'll leave Sto. Tomas and begin our OB-Gyne rotation... but until then, PGH seems to be nothing but a distant memory.