Updates

TODAY is the 26th day of January, year 2008. Ms. W is in Stony Brook, New York to begin a second masters degree. She just moved into a new place where she shares a dorm apartment with another Chinese student and two Indian students. Ms. C was informed that there was no funding for a new position in the large IT company that interviewed her and she is now preparing to return to Indonesia and planning on looking for work in Singapore. And I have settled into somewhat of a routine at work and am starting to make new friends and seeing possibly new adventures here in the Denver area.

No longer scared of weekends

I have lived in my one-bedroom apartment for about four months. I still have no major furniture, like a bed or sofa. But little by little it's starting to feel like home. No longer do I feel the need to fill my weekends with activities so I won't be lonely in my apartment. I don't dread weekends or holidays as much. I know that if I plan ahead, I could have at least one adventure per weekend, whether it be seeing a new museum, going to a meet up, spending time with other Filipinos or maybe dragging J off to see a movie. I also feel now that there are warm mornings when I don't want to be outdoors. All I want to do is take it easy at home, putter around and lounge with the cats, like I am doing now.

Still, I'll admit that it is a challenge to make new friends when you're new in any city. However, I feel it is easier here in the Boulder-Denver area than it was for me during my short stay with family in Las Vegas. There are more people my age in this area than in Las Vegas. There are also more varieties of people in different lines of work. Now, it's true that Las Vegas is more diverse. But then when I was there, it just seemed that too many people were in the real estate industry.

When one seeks the company of strangers-who-could-be-future-friends

Yesterday I went to a "meet up". I'm registered in a website called meetup.com and chose different activity categories. I had gone twice to my Denver museum meet up and liked the time I spent with other museum-goers. Last night, it was the northern Denver group and the scheduled activity was a stand up comedy show. I met a woman named Nancy, a guy named Shawn and a couple whose names I have forgotten. I thought there wouldn't be much time for socialization, but Nancy, Shawn and I got to chat before the show started. I like them both a lot. They seemed nice and genuinely pleasant people. The comedy show was very good too. All three comics. The opener, the featured comic and the main attraction (who happened to be the writer for "Cow and Chicken", a favorite cartoon of mine in Nickelodeon). I wasn't really in the mood for going to the bar next door after the show finished. Neither were Nancy and Shawn. But I guess the odd part was how the goodbyes were awkward. You chat all evening, get to know their jobs and likes and even some bits of their personal philosophies and then after that you never really know if you're going to see them again. My Filipino self wanted to ask for their contact details. But I have lived here long enough to know that sometimes first meetings are like that...and sometimes they aren't.

Still, I felt a certain connection with Shawn and I wonder if it's because his ethnicity is Asian. I didn't ask him where his family was originally from because, from his accent, he sound like he was born and raised in the US. But some of his humor and his manners where somewhat Filipino. It's a kind of humor or carino I also associate with men who grew up in my province. He flatters, but in an endearing and non-threatening way.

I also felt a certain disconnect at his very, very American accent. An Asian face and a non-specific but nonetheless pronounced American drawl. It as a combination I felt I was resisting or even rejecting.