MISSING XAVIER

I honestly don't miss the Philippines. I don't miss my house in New Manila, I don't miss Power Plant. I don't miss the traffic. (I do miss Divisoria when I see the outrageous prices of clothes and other things here in Sydney!) But what I do miss terribly is Xavier.

I've been here for almost nine months now, and 75% of my dreams involved the Xavier building, my students, or my colleagues and friends at Xavier. In some dreams, I am back to work for a while, in others I am just passing through. But in all those dreams, I am happy to be there. Almost every day, I check the website, just to see what's going on. So I am very much updated about new appointments, new developments, etc. I even have an inkling of which of my students is undergoing a crisis, who is sick, who needs prayers. I am aware when there are no classes -- be it due to typhoon, public holiday, PTC, SGA, FDA, or whatever other reason. Isn't it obvious, I miss it so much?

The other day, Edge put on the VCD of the A-day celebration where he, Rey Aude, Jay Perez, Vanni Marte, and Alex Santos performed Mr. Suave. I felt a pinch in my heart because I knew that I couldn't just get up and go to the MPC. I can't just pick up the phone and call up my friends. I don't have that camaraderie that I found in Xavier.

Seeing the MPC made me recall the fun times I had with my Grade 6 students in their Bukas Palad nights, and when they went to Grade 7, their Ignatian Nights. I think that experience served as a bond for me and my other Grade 6 teammates. I was in Xavier for 10 years, but it was in that year that I made REALLY good friends, the kind I felt would last even across the miles. It also deepened my spiritual life and helped make me closer to God. I didn't know that the recollection's objectives were also applicable to the facilitators, and not only the participants. That was the best time of my teaching life.

I love chatting with my students on YM. I guess it makes me feel good to know that they still know me, and still care to talk to me. I die a little everytime one of them asks me when I am coming home.

I am not in a hurry to go home. I don't really need to go home, because my family just visited me a few months ago and they will all be back in December. There are a few people I would like to see again, but it does not cause me any heartache. But a month ago, I was reading an e-mail from Baby Sison-Simpliciano, who used to teach in Xavier and now lives in Melbourne. In it, she said that she was going to Manila at the end of May and that she would probably visit Xavier. Again, I felt that pinch in my heart. She tried to make me jealous by telling me she would have lots of Lapid's chicharon and Jollibee Chicken Joy with gravy, but what made me jealous was that she would get to go to Xavier.

When I do go home, I have a list of things I must do.

10. have a day of shopping in Divisoria

9. schedule a day at the parlor -- haircut, dye, pedicure, manicure, the works!

8. eat sisig at Congo Grille (I had a craving for that specific sisig the other day)

7. watch movies every night even if we have to pay

6. drink lots of calamansi juice -- enough to tide me over until the next time I come home

5. shop (again) at Bench, specially for underwear!

4. eat lots and lots and lots of Eva's cooking (turbo chicken, friend chicken, chicken curry, bok bok bok bok...)

3. visit Xavier High School (all my students would be high school by then)

2. visit Xavier Grade School faculty -- see all my friends!

1. party...party...party....with my Xavier friends

I MISS XAVIER! ! ! Need I say more?