Travel in the Philippines
My fiance works on a cargo ship which sails across many seas. We will get married in a month. I met him at a get-together, when a group of us went to celebrate my friend's birthday. He sang passionately and I fell in love with his voice. I also enjoy singing, so we sang many songs that evening and we ended up exchanging addresses and telephone numbers.
Filipinos can be very romantic and my fiance is no exception. The word for romance in Filipino (Tagalog) is romansa. I told my fiance that he must have inherited a romantic gene because he is so nice. He laughed and said that that might be so. He speaks Tagalog (Filipino); a language spoken in the Philippines. Filipino (Tagalog) consists of Spanish, English and words native to the Tagalog language.
I still remember that night when my fiance serenaded me with "love songs" (awit ng pagmamahal) on his guitar. Every time he visited, he would stand outside and sing. He would bring me flowers and chocolates and leave them on the doorstep. That was so sweet.
Because he works on a ship, I rarely get to see him. We communicate mainly by email. During this visit he had been on a two month vacation. I decided that I wanted to get to know him better before he sailed away. My father met him and immediately liked him. The news that we were to marry spread quickly in my neighborhood. My mother overheard our neighbor saying, "Siya ay nanliligaw sa kanya" (he is courting her daughter). Traditionally, in the earlier days, a man would have to court the whole family if he was interested in the girl. In Tagalog the word for "marry" is pakasalan and "marriage" is "kasal." Today, men and women use their cell phones or computers to text each other with romantic phrases. In Tagalog the word for love is pagmamahalan.
Our big day arrived and we finally got married. He has one month of vacation left before he leaves to go back to the ship. He has promised to quit his job within two years and find permanent employment on land so that we can spend more time together. Among the things that he and I enjoy doing include going out and watching movies (pelikula). He does not like heavy drama (matinding drama) so we watch action movies and I like them too. During one movie he whispered, "mahal kita" which means, "I love you," and I replied, "Iniibig kita" (I love you). Both mean the same thing and the meaning is different than that of "liking" someone. If you just "like" a person, you say, "gusto kita."
My husband and I have made plans and among them are: we have decided that we would buy a house instead of renting and paying rent. We have also planned to move to another city.
Time flew quickly and my husband had to leave to join his ship. He confessed before leaving that he was a little nervous about leaving me but I felt reassured when he said the following romantic Tagalog phrase, "mahal kita ng buong puso ko." which means, "I love him with all of my heart." I made him promise to call me whenever he had the chance so that I could hear his voice. I wished him a safe trip and I was very sad when he left. I already miss him. I am now counting the days until he returns.
