ULOG: The West and the East and All the In-Betweens

It’s nice to have a taste of the western country’s ways of living if you are living in the east and vice versa—and my new-found friend really tried to “try” it all.

(Photo credits to Az.She really love this photo)

Meet Aznive, my Canadian friend. She’s as intern doing part of her Master’s thesis here in the Philippines. She’s really nice and I find her character quite nice. She’s very simple but adventurous and can easily ride on my humor (hahaha!).

I have learned a lot from her during our free time when we used to talk about things and life over lunch. She used to compliment Filipinos and our culture as well while sharing her background and the ways of Canadians.

Now that she has already finished her work, she will be heading home to her country soon. She has already visited different provinces and tourist destinations of the Philippines and we really earned her heart with those majestic natural beauties. She was awed by our natural treasures along with the warmth of the people.

With this once in a lifetime opportunity being immersed in Asia, she will be maximizing her stay by having back-packer’s trip to different countries such as Korea, Hongkong, Cambodia, Thailand and more not just to have a vacation but to have deeper learnings about people and culture (Ah yes, I forgot to tell you that she’s pursuing International Studies 😉 )

I missed her presentation last week because I was in Manila attending a conference so I personally congratulated her this morning. To my surprise, instead of me giving at least a token for her to remember her stay in our office, she simply handed over a nice keychain from Canada.

Nice, isn’t it? But what made this more special to me is her pure intent of giving something as a token of friendship in an unexpected time. I did remember one of our speakers during the conference who mentioned about the “best gifts”, and he said it is usually: personalized, given with love, and unexpected. This present had these 3 elements for me 😊

We will surely miss her. I do hope we can still meet somewhere somehow, and I hope she can pursue her dreams and be guided. She will be kept in my heart and be treasured just like all of my friends, for I believe that friends are also gifts from God.

Have a nice day ahead!

Hugs,

Green_Glitter