EXCESS BAGGAGE

The Beginning

7am of September 5, 2017

I woke up the usual time and cooked breakfast for my family. I remembered my dad planned to visit his brother who just came in the Philippines for it was his 70th birthday. Well, this day I had no class to attend to, so I prepared and dressed casually.

FYI: I am an English Instructor and I am a Professional Nurse too.

We travelled around 2 hours from Laguna to Quezon City by car. The location was behind Broadway near Gilmore LRT Station. It was a hectic ride because of heavy traffic jam. "Alam naman natin na traffic lalo sa EDSA."

Anyways, when we came to the condominium around 10am, I was astonished to the person I have seen.

This guy is a Chinese businessman who is 32 years old. His name is Yuri Song.

He walked directly towards me with a smiling face and he held and shook my hand. I barely know him, so I was indeed shocked with his gesture. "Sino siya? Feeling close lang? O mabait lang tlaga?" questions in my mind.

After which, I just went straight to the room of my uncles and aunt to have a short conversation.

My Aunt Lyn told me, "Di, I know you have plan for New Zealand. But can you just pursue going to the US."

I told her, "I will still think about it, cause I wanted to go to NZ than in the US. Even I know I have to sacrifice great amount of money."

Then suddenly, my Uncle George asked, "Have you seen Yuri? He is actually looking for English teachers for his school in the US and China. Do you want to apply in his school?"

I just answered "No thanks Uncle, I would like to go back to my real profession as a nurse."

Then he kidded aside something, "He is single. Baka pwede ligawan ka niya?"

I just nervously stated that "I am sorry. But I think I will not be his type, for he is a pure Chinese. We know Chinese only marry to the same nationality."

After this I went to the living room. Yuri was there, and my Aunt Lyn told him that I am an English Instructor. So he was so happy to talk to me for he explained it was his first time to visit the Philippines and he was looking forward on hiring Filipino teachers.

I just blurted out, "Well, that is great idea because Filipinos are great English speakers." Proud Filipino kaya ako noh!

Then he asked me, "Do you like to apply in our school?" I just answered, "Sorry but I am not interested, I became an instructor for I am just fascinated on mentoring students but I just missed being a nurse."

Uncle Rolly, "Hey, that is enough. Let us buy first our lunch. How about Chinese Food?"

Yuri stated, "Yeah. My treat. I want Uncle George to have a great birthday."

Then my dad just insisted to go already.

So I, my cousin Nikki, Yuri, Dad and Uncle Rolly went downstairs to our car through an elevator. While we are inside the elevator, Yuri was guessing my age.

He had guessed that I was only 23 years old. "Nice guess. But I am a little older already. I am 27 turning 28 this November."