Weekend Mate from Shanghai, China

The world is too big, yet at the same time so small. Isn’t it ironic? Or this is just what technology (or I must say the internet) is all about. To make us connect easily to other people. But sometimes, it makes us more attached to our social media life than our real lives. I can’t blame you, sometimes I fall into that hole and just post good things on my social media accounts to make my life more interesting. This is the truth that I recently realized; my life is actually more interesting than how I showed it on the internet.

If I can just post everything I’ve been doing and put captions on what I learned from the person I’m with, I’ll be dead tired of letting my Facebook friends what I’ve been doing lately. This is also part of my dilemma. I want people to know what are the things that I learned. It is better to share it with others than to keep it all by myself, right?

So in that case. I want to share with you the things I did with my new friend, Eva.

Who is Eva?

Eva is from Shanghai, China, and came to the Philippines to teach Chinese class at a winter camp for Korean Kids. She studies finance at Shanghai University. Eva is very, very talkative and very funny. She uses the word “Stupid” a lot. Also, the Cebuano words she knows are Ate, Kuya, Buan,g and Bogo. Hahaha.

How did we meet?

So here’s the story.

Last December, I posted our Christmas is Jesus Campaign in Couchsurfing where I attached my blog post about it. Eva on the other hand is looking for an activity to volunteer so she found my post about it and contacted me. Just because I was too lazy to check my emails, I did not answer her right away. Instead, she contacted the CLM Page and sent a message about the volunteering activity and (everything in between) she participated in our campaign, but we never met until the next year, January 2017, during our Thanksgiving Party in the formation Center.

At first, I was quite shy about how I would approach her, but of course, if I felt that way, maybe she did also. We had some talks and on that night, she gave her testimony to us and we thank her for participating in our campaign. Not knowing that it was the beginning of our friendship. Our buang (crazy) moments.

Where did we go?

Chinese New Year in Fo Guang Shan Chu Un Temple

Before Chinese New Year, Eva asked me if there was someplace in Cebu that celebrates the Spring Festival. As I searched it, Cebu City actually doesn’t have any big events regarding this celebration. Luckily, I found this temple in Guadalupe that has an event and other activities to welcome the Chinese New Year.

I decided to come along with her since she had no one to celebrate it with.

We met in IT Park and on our way to the temple. She gave me some biscuits. Snow Cookies and Rice Crackers.

Both biscuits are sweet and salty at the same time, the snow cookies are more on the sweet side because of the white coat of sugar that looks like polka dots. The biscuits are also crunchy!

Upon arriving at our destination, we paid the entrance fee of Php20.00 and then roamed around. I didn’t expect it to be so crowded. I also realized that it was my first time celebrating Spring Festival. And maybe, if I hadn’t met Eva I would never have experienced this kind of thing.

It was actually good to know Eva even better. This time she was very talkative. She speaks a lot and I mean it in a good way. I’m not complaining since I have the same manners as her. I talk a lot not just a lot, but very loud as well. Haha. I guess we’re a match!

According to her, Chinese New Year is celebrated with family. They will serve a lot of delicious food! Believe me, it really looks very delicious, she showed us a lot of photos from her WeChat. Speaking of WeChat, it is their social media which works like Facebook but is more private. Also, she asked me what’s my year, and I said the year of the rooster. Eva said that if it is your year, you should wear red underwear. I guess pink wouldn’t count. Haha

Hernan accompanied us to the temple and we bumped into Christian the same night. We welcomed the New Year together and we decided to visit the museum where Christian works. He invited us and if someone gave an offer, all we had to do was say Yes!

A piece of history in 1730 Jesuit House

I was surprised when I got to this house because it is located inside a warehouse.

Basically the Jesuit house is the oldest dated house in the Philippines. Inside it has an Año 1730 mark which means that it was built in that year.

The best part of our tour of this museum is that we have the best curator! Christian is very good at what he does. He explained the history of the house in detail and in a way that the visitor will listen and learn about the history and what happened hundreds of years ago. He will be featured in an inflight magazine. Watch out for that!

Our tour was fun since it has some Chinese history also. In this case, Eva is the one telling us what’s written in the Chinese letters inside the museum. She said that they write in two ways, Traditional Chinese and Modern Chinese. She managed to read traditional Chinese even though it was hard as she describes it. Good job Eva!

We went late during our visit and I guess it was meant for a good reason. We met the owner, who also discovered the Jesuit house while reading some history books in his school. Woah! Lucky us.

Day Hike to Mt. Kan-irag

The next day, we went for a day hike. I never thought I would go hiking again after being dead tired the first time I went. Believe me, I did think about it if I pursued it, but hey, I did not regret doing it for the second time around.

Honestly, since it was raining the night before, the water was more aggressive compared to the last time during summer. It was more difficult. Plus, we did a different route before, this time we needed to pass by big boulders.

Hooh! I’m just glad we did it after 7 hours of hiking. Haha.

Eva on the other hand is enjoying the difficult moments. Haha. We are all dirty and the following days, our bodies can’t move. My number one enemy during the week after was the stairs! It was such a torture.

Tedx UP Cebu

It was my first time attending a Ted talk event. I actually had a lot of first time with Eva. Haha.

It was a four-hour event, but I did enjoy it. The speakers are fun and knowledgeable in their field of expertise.

To the South, we go!

This time, we went to South Cebu with my Friends. We met Johanna from Tacloban with her friend Kana from Japan. It was kind of an international trip.

Our First stop: Osmeña Peak

I have to tell you that during the 20-minute hike, it was very funny! There’s one time that Kana is taking a picture with the blanket where the wind is blowing and she poses like Rose in the Tinatic, then Eva wants to take a picture of herself with the same pose. We were all laughing. It was likea Japan versus China moment. Hahaha.

We got to the peak where we found a lot of people lining up to take individual photos.

Can’t deny that Osmeña Peak has a very scenic and beautiful view.

Then we went to Obong Spring. It’s a freshwater spring near the sea. A lot of people were in the area, but it was still good. A good company makes every place better.

We actually did a lot together, got a massage, went to the mall, walked in Colon Street, went to a movie house and decided not to go anyway, hitched on a truck after we climbed, ate a lot of food like smores, pizza, ice-cream, Chinese food in dim sum break, chicken and fried tempura and squid ball in Colon street, fried chicken and palabok in my favorite restaurant.

I’m still looking forward to more actually.

So to my friend Eva, here’s my message to you.

I know that a few days from now you will go back to China. As you describe it you’ll be back to your reality. But always remember Eva, all the things we did here are also your reality. It also means that we can choose our own path and destiny. Like we talked before. We have our freedom and choice. It only means that destiny is both a chance and a choice.

As you said to me, what if you did not see my post on Couchsurfing? What if you did not contact the CLM Page and just waited for my late reply? What if we did not meet? Can you imagine what it would be? Because I can’t.

So my friend, as we shape our future together in a different way. Always remember that you have a soul sister who is tanner than you. Haha. I will keep my promise that I will attend your wedding day (if you will invite me) and visit you in Shanghai then we will go to Disneyland, also we will see Machu Picchu together in South America. Until then, see you soonest my friend.

Your weekend mate,
Roneth