From Manila to Munich

Two Sundays ago, I spent a good hour conversing with my second cousin who came home from Germany. Meet our cousin, Kuya Harald.

He's not sad. He's posing. Now do you see a hint of similarity? ;)

He looks completely German but he is screaming PINOY. If he were on a billboard, the perfect tagline for him would be "I'm Filipino".

If you ask him if he could sing, he'd proudly tell you, "Of course! I'm Filipino!" Then ask him to sing "bahay kubo". I'm assuring you he won't do it. His mom, Tita Ning, made him sing it too much when we were kids. ;)

One time he went to Boracay with his girlfriend, Lina, who is 100% German but loves Pinoy stuff (balut, shopping at 168, and wearing tsinelas among many other things). I am even amazed by her Filipino sounding name.

While at the beach, Lina asked him to put sunblock and Kuya Harald's answer was (with pure kayabangan): "I don't need to wear sunblocker (yes, he really calls sunblock "sunblocker") because I'm Filipino. I don't get sunburnt because I'm Filipino." In Germany, he was proud of himself for being able to walk around under the sun and not getting sunburnt. He would just tell his friends, "I'm Filipino".

But no matter how adorable it was of him to say that he's Filipino and doesn't need a sunblock-er, Filipinos do need sunblock too (especially in the Philippines and at the beach)!
He learned it the hard way. After one day in Boracay without sunblock-er, his face started to peel all over and his pretty girlfriend had the last laugh. Hah, Pinoy pala ah!

Going back to my interesting conversation with him, we endlessly compared stories about our educational systems, language, currencies, telecommunications, work, travels, boyfriend/girlfriend, shoots, islands, and anything that you could think of (including the weather). Imagine not being able to talk to your cousin for several years. (He even thought I was my Ate Monica at the start. I told him I was Lala and he was startled. Yes, it was that long.)

And then I asked him if a lot of people blog in Germany. He said yes but from his tone, I knew that he wasn't a big fan of blogs. For him (and I must emphasize that it's his opinion, not mine), blogs are ridiculous and useless. He thinks that a lot of blogs are just ways for people to keep on writing about themselves (ouch!).

But really, I must say that there are A LOT of meaningful blogs out there. One just has to be discernful. And it's really a "to-each-his/her-own" thing. It's our Freedom of Speech!!! I am guilty of blogging a lot and sometimes writing vague or nonsensical posts that are only useful in the sense that they actually make me feel better afterwards. But sometimes they do make sense, even for just a few readers.

Going back to Kuya Harald, he's staying in Manila until August because he's doing his internship here. They were asked to apply for an internship overseas where the language is English. Among all the English-speaking countries out there, he chose the Philippines. See? How can you not love this guy? (Even if he is not pro-blogging, ;-p)

But really, I am proud of Kuya Harald because he is so proud of and happy about his Filipino lineage. I think he had always been raised that way and would stay like that for the years to come.

To Kuya Harald, although you're not fond of blogs, I'm sure you'd still be amused to know that among the many blogs in the world, you could find one blog post made just for you... And because you're so proud of being PINOY, it's even made in the Philippines!

At pagbalik mo sa Germany, mababasa mo itong pangungusap na ito at maiintindihan nang lubusan. :-D