truculent - adj. 1) Feeling or displaying ferocity. 2) pugnacious. 3) aggressively self-assertive.
Is it the tenth? Not so sure? I am in the Philippines. I got the phone call from my parents just yesterday. Within twenty-four hours, I had packed a week's worth of clothes for the the trip. I had forgotten extra pants and shoes and socks. Fortunately, my dad and I are the same size.
More than anything else, I feel the humidity and the pervading smog, best seen from my dad's nine story view of Metro Manila. It reminds me of every time I arrive in San Francisco at the Monterey Boulevard on-ramp, I lower my side window and take in a nice healthy breath of air. Once I disembarked from the airplane, I was immediately reminded of that foul smelling sterility I can only associate with Filipino hospitals. I sit here now in Barangay Bel-Air and can feel the rainy season, the wet air that mitigates the otherwise oppressive heat.
More people here are uniformed in loose-fitting white button-downs and slacks (for men) and 90's styled two pieces (for women). The evening I returned, I saw an airline stewardess walk boldly through a busy thoroughfare. We had nearly grazed her, yet both she and my family's driver seemed totally unphased at the time of near impact. I think about my commute to Davis, and how I'd mutter obscenities under my breath when a driver would get to close for comfort for my rear view. I am guessing to the average Filipino driver, I would seem unreasonably paranoid.
Behind me our water tank whirs on and off to continue supplying water to my uncle in the shower and the maids who are at work, probably preparing our meals. I am waiting for my sister to get dressed so we can see my grandmother in Cavite.
It's a quotidian perspective on Filipino life, an outsider's one, definitely. Everyone comments on the weather.
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