AMIDST THE terrifying scene wrought by a Filipino hostage taker and the electrifying win brought by a Filipina Miss Universe charmer, the passing month has marked special milestones for me. It was in August that I began living the itinerant life in three cities across Asia: Haifa ten years ago, Dubai five years ago, and Kolkata three years ago.
Looking back before the decade began, I can't imagine how the idea of living outside Manila could have been a comfortable thought. Now I'm thinking of how far, literally and figuratively, we all have come since then. From HTML email (which I started using in Haifa) to Facebook (which I started using in Kolkata), electronic media is the only way that can keep us conveniently in touch with each other at all times. And it has made the world much smaller than it has ever been--so much so, that with today's ease of access to almost any part of the globe, my apprehensions about living overseas in 1999 now look truly absurd.
I'm keeping my eyes peeled to August 2020, which would probably reach me more speedily than I expected. There’s much more to come . . . and probably more cities to live in!
