Immersion

After six weeks in a different culture, the girls have started showing the effects of immersion.

• When they accidentally drop their utensils or bump at someone, instead of oops!, they now exclaim ay!

• They have started enjoying cold, fresh-from-the-tap showers, even in the cooler evenings. Incidentally, that could be their second shower for the day too.

• When they think of entertainment for the evening, it could mean plugging the Magic Sing, the videoke microphone. They've long forgotten their reticence in performing and easily belt out pop songs.

• The tricycle is not anymore this strange contraption but a quick way to go to town--never mind that it's loud and that it isn't air-conditioned. The 2-kilometer ride costs PhP24.00 (or around $0.50).

• At a fast-food restaurant, they're not likely to ask for burgers though those are available, even in the local eating places. At their only trip to McDonald's, the favorites were chicken with rice or spaghetti, and pineapple pie with ice-cold pineapple juice!

• Ordinary objects have gained new meanings: turquoise-colored flowers have become fairy slippers; prickly weeds are shy and fold when touched.
  

• Geckos? They expected to scream at the sight of their first one but instead, they tsk'd-tsk'd in imitation of its call.

• The little one has visited the city library, considered one of the best in Metro Manila. She doesn't mind at all that she's required to remove her shoes before curling up with a book at the children's section.

• If they cringed when I first offered it, they now clamor to have it for dessert: queso ice cream! That's right, cheese-flavored ice cream.

• Purple? For the girls, it could only mean food. Ube!