“omigod, this is so exciting!” i said to myself, while inside, the kid in me was beaming from ear to ear.

it’s probably the last place you’d expect people to be gushing about but there i was, in the middle of the buzzing noise and the chaos and the foot traffic of carcar’s public market and at that very moment, i didn’t wanna be anywhere else.

i was in the pulse of life.

and like a bumfire vampire, i drank that beautiful cacophony like fresh blood. i didn’t realize how thirsty i was for it.

funny how it took a trip to the public market for me to realize that life can be quite lonely here in australia. like, everyone’s just too polite and everything’s just too nice and orderly and sterile that life becomes a monotonous cycle of interaction without connection.

or maybe it’s just me.

but trust me when i say that the whole market thing was almost like a zen experience. there was me meditating with my eyes open. looking both outward and inward and consolidating all the sensory stimuli that i received into one ball of feeling: peace.

yep, peace. as crazy as the world around me was, i was at ease. i was in awe at how beautiful life (and noise) can be.

not adie, though. because the whole entire time, our little celebrity was pinching her nose and holding her breath because she couldn’t stand the smell. it was so funny. but then again, she likes malls and shopkins and nice toilets so you can’t blame the kid.

if anything, loving public markets is an acquired taste.

you know what else is good in carcar that’s got me wanting some right now?

chicharon!!! aka pork cracklings. it’s so good i had to take a picture knowing that when i’m back here, pictures will be all i have. sure, they sell it at the filo shops too but it’s not the same.

raven enjoyed her puso (hanging rice). enoyed it more than her jollibee spaghetti, i reckon. i was happy for her being exposed to typical filo food which, admittedly, may not always be healthy but, you know, it’s who she is. i want her to identify herself with the culture, even at an age she might not even remember. i want her to stay true to her roots.

to be honest, i don’t exactly have a concrete plan on how i’m going to achieve that but she can start with puso for now while i work out the formula.

that, and ensuring that she has a good relationship with her grandparents, as well. which means i need to save enough moolah for us to be able to fly home every year. easier said than done.

p.s. it’s amazing how all this happened the morning after we landed! raven woke up to the sound of roosters and chickens and cousins in a house suddenly full of plans and activity. once up, my dad immediately took her to the front yard to see her mommyla’s little poultry farm. as it rained the night before, i had her walking barefoot on the wet soil to get her dirty and boost her immune system in the process. at least there, i didn’t have to worry about spiders.

by 10am, everyone was rushing to get ready. we were on our way to moalboal.