there was a time, not so long ago, where i, fascinated by the lack of traffic, the easy laid back life, and the general cheapness of everything, contemplated on moving my entire life to cabanatuan city. i'd take over one of my aunt's guest rooms, park spike in the garage, and set up practice in the city or somewhere, or probably work for the local government, or whatever. cabanatuan city, then, seemed like a perfect mix of semi-urban life (with the mall now boasting of a body shop) and rural living (egg caldo and halo-halo at the corner of my lola's street).

but then, i got into this crazy habit of going home every two weeks. this first weekend, immediately after the bar, was lovely. i hung out online, drove my aunt around, and visited this nice derma who got rid of the little warts i got on my cheeks.

the second trip home was equally lovely. my cousin and her kids were also on vacation, and i got to bond big time with my only female cousin. we had hot oil done, and a back massage. we drove around, had coffee and cake, and watched bad television such as pinoy big brother.

the third trip - this trip - made the entire "home in the province" dream lose its novelty. by this time, my cousin's other kid was also here and she had just given birth to a baby so i had to deal with one one-year old girl and two boys who kept follwing me around the house. when they left, relieved as i was, i had to deal with being polite to my aunt's boyfriend, who's nice to me all the time, but still isn't family. i camped out in the other bedroom and had to deal with imagined surot preventing me from sleeping soundly. i also had to deal with a parlor that was closed (i had been oh so looking forward to getting a body scrub) and an internet cafe that feels weird (dark curtains and moaning ghost sounds cause it's halloween).

so there. the tiangge here may be updated enough to have a faux louis vuitton happy cherries wallet and there may be a cafe with a pretty decent tiramisu. my aunt's house may be a shelter that i wouldn't mind living in. but as long as the internet cafe has flying surot, i think i'm going to stay a manila girl for some time more.