D’Arvit!

Laurinburg.

I’ve been in this small city for exactly 25 days, and after that little shock and depression I got on my arrival, I can now say that I’m beginning to like this place.

Laurinburg. Laurinburg, North Carolina, USA 28352.

But what’s the use of yabbing away all about Laurinburg if I can’t even give you a decent picture of it? Then allow me to paint you a picture of my new home.

Picture if you will, a sprawling country road, vast green fields of grass and cotton plantations, outlined with trees of all types–in fact, lots of it: oaks, birches, poplars, maples, and most
dominant of all, pines. Trees everywhere, in many colors of autumn ranging from the very golden oak leaves, to the deep auburn of the burning bushes. Trees in many shapes and sizes; trees that I could not name. Trees that are all so beautiful, and just the mere sight of them is enough to move one’s heart, or inspire one to create poetry. It is in this predominantly tree-ish backdrop that the small city of Laurinburg thrives. Add the beautiful southern climate [it's relatively warmer here: "Baguio" weather, in fact], the unpredictable weather [you never know when it'll rain--well, okay, we have the Weather Channel for that, but still], and honest-to-goodness friendly people, and you’ve got it, folks: a slight idea of what Laurinburg is like. I honestly now think that it’s a beautiful place; it just took some getting used to. And besides, coming fresh from beautiful urban Chicago–and the totally metro Manila–with all the malls, and glitz, and nightlife, and all the excitement, my first brush with Laurinburg in that lonely and very homely hotel room felt just like an undeserved slap in the face.

Staying in the hotel for around 10 days and hunting around for a house or apartment has made us appreciate and thoroughly explore the nooks and crannies in this town. The main street of Laurinburg is a highway running across the whole city, cutting cross-county and state. The sidestreets lead to subdivisions and large turfs, beautiful country-style houses set against the pine tree backdrop that, as aforementioned, dominates this place. Now I know why there are people who declare their undying love for trees. I used to find it hard to comprehend why such people take a liking to hugging trees or “worshipping” their mysterious beauty, but after seeing West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina’s landscape, I think that I have turned into one of them. There are times, while gazing at the woods, I believe that elves or hobbits would sudenly appear behind those beautiful trunks and boughs. Yes, it’s that beautiful. Never have I been fortunate enough to be surrounded by such natural beauty.

[copied from my email to my siblings:]
Let me tell you about our neighbors. They’re all white people. The only Asian here is a Japanese person who’s a professor at UNC Pembroke…and we haven’t met him/her. So yeah, they’re all whites. We live in Apt. #1, right? Well our next-door neighbor in #2 is an old man, Mr.Charlie. Now Mr.Charlie lives all by himself. He looked nice and friendly when we met him, but then again, we never see him go outside. Dad would sometimes bump into him while bringing out the garbage [naks, American family na talaga tayo eh! The Dad brings out the trash, just like all the American dads!! haha!], but aside from that, he never leaves his apartment. There was even one time, we were afraid he slept straight for two [or was it three?] whole days because he never picked up the newspaper that was sitting on his front door. In a way, kawawa rin yung matanda. We codenamed him, “Tatang”.

Our next neighbor is a middle-aged man named Mr.Gary Springs [or was it G/Jerry?] who lives on #5 [right ABOVE our unit]. Anyway… Mom and I met him on our 2nd day here. He was very friendly: he offered help in getting me in Pembroke or any school, he offered to lend us his telephone or directory or just anything, etc. On our meeting, he also told us to pardon the noise that he makes–it’s just him exercising on the treadmill, he says. We didn’t know what noise he was referring to, because as far as we know [that's a day's worth of knowledge at that time], we didn’t hear any noise. But then again, we were wrong. His treadmill exercising doesn’t bother me nor Dad, but its vibration kinda bothers Mom and wreaks a tiny havoc in her ears. I’ve come to conclude that he’s naturally a LOUD man, because he has to do everything loudly. He walks–no, lemme correct that–STOMPS his feet around his apartment and when he vacuums, he REALLY vacuums! It sounds as if he throws his furniture all about the place! Mom says she wants to complain, but it’s not THAT bad anyway, so nevermind.

The last ones are those who live beside Mr.Springs’ place, at #6, codenamed “Lolo & Chase”. The “Lolo” is old Mr.Jim Hayes who is divorced from his wife. His 15 year-old grandson [who's at Scotland High School--we think that you'll be classmates, Arjay, when you get here], Chase [pamS!! Jonaks alert! Jonaks alert!! hehe], stays with him, but Mr.Jim brings him to his granny sometimes. Nothing too interesting with these neighbors except “Lolo Jim” and his amazing black car, an impala. He’s a really old man, but he’s quite obsessed with his car. He loves cleaning and shining it, and every single day, we see it shining brilliantly as ever. There was one time, we went early to drive Daddy to work, and as we went to the car which got all icy and wet due to the morning dew [just like ALL the cars in the parking lot], we saw “Lolo” vacuuming his black car which was as clean and shiny as ever. We figured that he really wakes up early in order to have enough time to clean and beautify his black car. He loves his car so much, that’s what.
[end of email excerpt]

So basically, my life here is pretty boring since I haven’t enrolled yet…though hopefully if my UP transcript could get here on time, I’m gonna enroll in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian College [this private school less than a mile from where I live] or at the University of North Carolina in Pembroke [a good 20 to 30 minutes' drive away]. I was really bent on continuing my pharmacy course here, though there’s a voice inside me that’s making thing compocated. Well, you see, I’m not really good at Chemistry [it was the subject that shattered my dreams and ruined my high school life! Seriously! Ask the people I know!] and I’ve talked with some people here, and as far as I’ve heard, most students give up on the subject Organic Chemistry and quit their pharmacy course altogether. And another thing, my “first love” is Biology [I was about to enroll in BS Bio Honors in ADMU, remember?], and Chemistry was never my kind of thing… But then again, I also love writing and English and journalism and anything to do with communications… But then there’s no money in that, of course… And I also love web design and graphics, computers and film and art and animation.. And yeah, that’s not going to give me a stable job and a secure financial future… I have to be honest you know.. I wanna get rich and drive kick-ass cars and live in a huge fancy mansion and own numerous homes and estates, and the surest path towards that is pharmacy… But as I’ve said earlier, I don’t know if I can hack through the course.. I don’t think I’m smart enough….

Help me? Please?

’til next time, folks!

PS: I don’t have internet yet. We were staying at the hotel for the past few weeks and they have a WiFi network there, so my internet’s free… But ever since we moved here in our apartment, we haven’t signed up for cable internet service yet, so right now, I piggyback on unsecured wireless networks and sort of hack my way in… So yeah, right now, I have internet… Sorry I haven’t been in touch lately. Hopefully we’ll get our own internet real soon.