Are you one of us?

Early yesterday, I had to go to San Francisco's Citizenship and Immigration Services office for an appointment with an immigration officer. The consultation lasted all of three minutes but I left totally happy.

Hubby and I made it a point to get there early. Lines to get into that office can be notoriously long, and standing outside in the cold is not one of my favorite activities. Luckily , there were no queues when we got there, and we were ushered inside in a jiffy.

The guard was nice, very polite and businesslike, and has this Filipino accent. There was one person in front of us who didn't quite understand the guard's instructions. After a couple of minutes of fumbling around with this things and the little plastic tubs for the x-rays, the guard decided to help him with instructions in Tagalog. This guy ahead of us was Filipino, too!

I asked the guard where he is from. Cebu, he said. Bisaya si Manong! Parehas mi! Woohoo!!! We could not chitchat for very long, but I was positively impressed. This guy is guarding one very important building. And doing a very good job. And he is/was one of us! Bisaya jud siya do! Buotan pa jud.

I strive to be friendly with everyone here. More so with Kababayans. I figured, I get so happy if people from the Philippines would be friendly with me, so I should be friendly and nice to my Kababayans. Not surprisingly, there are some that are not as nice. Some are annoyingly not nice. Some are the funny kind of not nice.

Perhaps the funniest is this one girl I saw at the mall. I asked her if she was from the Philippines. She said, "Noo, I wass boorrrn heeerrrr." Right. I could not decide if I wanted to laugh or get really annoyed. Better leave before that decision is made.