Travels and Travails of the Eternal Wanderlust

I am part of a family of multiple cultures.

I am from the Philippines. I am married to a full-blooded Italian, who is an American citizen. We have two kids - fraternal twins named Nicholas and Antoinette - who are Filipinos and Americans by citizenship, and Filipinos and Italians by blood.

We live in Guangzhou, China.

How did I end up here? This is the short version. I wanted to learn Mandarin Chinese because it seemed like the hardest language in the world. I got hooked to the 2008 Beijing Olympics ever since I saw that opening ceremony of 14,000 performers. In 2009, I had a scholarship that allowed me to live in Shanghai. In 2012, I got married to a man, who worked for the Beijing Olympics and lives in Guangzhou.

It amazes me how different the China I know from the China that many people picture it to be. "Communist" is still a word that is attached to the country but when you live here, you hardly feel it. Here you see top fashion brands and high-end malls co-existing with pagodas, temples, nature parks and museums. Not many people speak English. I like that because it pushes me to practice my Mandarin. I live in a city where the locals speak Cantonese so our home is a crazy mix of people speaking in at least five languages. I often times find myself confused.

Chinese cuisine is one of my favorites but nothing beats street food, where chao fan (stir-fried rice) and jiaozi (dumplings) are like air and water to the Chinese and... the students.

I usually spend time in parks because it's a place that makes me think. A green space is a luxury that I do not have back in the Philippines. In the park, you'll see the grandparents with their only grandchild - the little Emperors and Empresses. The art of calligraphy is evident in Hanzi, the Chinese way of writing. I learned to read, write and speak Chinese. Challenging but I enjoyed it. Speaking is one thing, writing is another matter to discuss (perhaps in a separate post?). If only for their system of writing, it is no wonder that China is a civilization of its own.

My Mandarin is far from being fluent. Every other day, I practice it with the cleaners, with the people at the open air market, with the apartment's security personnel. I get frustrated most of the time, Mandarin is a tonal language - get the tone wrong and you are saying the wrong word. But I always find comfort in the fact that with disappointment comes the promise of finding more reasons to love this city I now call home.