One way tickets.

by Armando Angulo (Philippines)

I didn't expect to find Philippines

I was working in Beijing already one month and a half and my warm Mexican blood started to adapt to the extremely cold Chinese winter. One thing is that I liked it, enjoyed it and loved it, even I used to receive the falling snow in my tongue when nobody was watching, and another very different was that my body agreed with me. I was extremely happy discovering the city, visiting very interesting places and even learning a little Chinese (I master to say from 1 to 10) when the Spring festival (The Chinese New Year) arrived, which means basically 15 days of vacation for me. Without even think about it I booked my flight to visit my friend Anastasiia who is working in Manila, Philippines. She warned me about a lot of things, specially about the traffic jams. I was thinking, yeah, ok, can't be worst than Mexico City. On the way to the Manila airport to her office I realized that indeed, it's absolutely crazy. In general I was having a blast. Getting lost in the city as usual for me, visiting museums, palaces and going to the beach, surfing, getting drunk... Maybe a week after my arrival to the Philippines, the Corona virus outbreak exploited. Everything started to change in a weird way, like in a movie. I am in a WeChat group with all my co-workers and even my boss in China, and we received instructions to report ourselves every single day, to mention our location, our health status and to mention if we have fever or not. I'm still doing it. My flight back was for January 31 and I had to cancel it expecting news from my office. My 15 days vacation were extended from 15 to an indefinite number of days, which at the first couple of weeks was extremely cool for me to be honest. But my money of course started to vanish in the haze. Completely broke, Anastasiia told me that the last thing to do in this case is to freak out. I should be thankful about a lot of things. I chat with my friends and colleagues in Beijing and of course they're living very hard times. On the edge of despair and nervous breakdown, she convinced me to take free sample lessons of wherever is available. Yoga, painting, karate... So I did. In my second free yoga class (I managed to have 5) I met a guy who immediately recognized me as Mexican since his best friend is Mexican. We started to talk and he was in shock for my story. He introduced us, to their girlfriends, to another friends... My situation became a common topic among them and suddenly every one helped me. Freelance jobs, food, a very cool apartment one week, a hostal another week... Filipinos and people from different countries are still helping me, since, writing this words I am (I was about to say stuck) happily and indefinitely living in this beautiful country that amazed me every day.