THE MONK & I

When I was told that the man is peculiar,

 I thought, that must be an overstatement.

I share China with an old man who seem nice naman. He gave me my keys to Shanghai and had lunch with me on my first day there. Before, I didn't get to notice how much peculiarity the man must have because I only report to the chamber when I don't have classes (I teach part time, and slept bigtime before my stint in China)---that 's about 4 times a week. He would explain things to me when necessary other times, he would just duck his head on his sudoku.

Summer came & with class skeds  tucked back in my drawers, I devoted myself to spend the whole weekdays in China. And there I finally noticed these "pecully" things about him:

1. Early Bird.I came to the office 3x earlier than he did on my first summer week and admittedly, i liked that and was intending to do so consistently. Next thing I knew, the man would be reporting to shanghai as early as 7:00 am--sometimes, even at 6AM. What on earth will he be doing in the office ng ganun kaaga? Bahala ka jan! O , di ikaw na, ikaw na!
   
   
   
2. Onions! Onions in China!One day, when I came back to the office from an errand, I noticed that something wasn't "smelling" right. Gosh!the room has onion rings in every single corner of it and atop the steel cabinets!....Para daw mawala ang amoy! Huh? I dunno if its his way of saying na hindi niya gusto ang amoy ng lotion ko o ang amoy ng kape ko! Grrrr....so everytime I grab some coffee, I make sure to settle myself in a corner at the lobby.
   
3. Thank God for "Please be careful with my Heart", the monitor in China would spring up to life when the clock strikes 11:45. Before & after that, the old box just feeds you the sight of a boring street. Funny how this man gets so kilig over the story of Ser Chief & Maya...as in! You should hear him chuckle!
   
4. He would suddenly become  busy as a bee and he just wouldn't tell you why oh why! If you wanna know why, call the queen bee and ask her why!Kung hindi, hindi mo malalaman na may namatay, nabuhay at ano pang na---- pala sa Shanghai!
   
5. The man just wont speak!He's only got a couple of words for me: "eto oh!" --when he makes abot a paper or two.That's my daily dose. Any more than that and its a BINGO! If you offer him something, he would just shake his head ( almost no nodding as he declines whatever you have to offer him) or show you his palm upright as if saying: "STOP right now, thank you very much!"
   
6. The 4 o'clock habit!He would slowly pack his things up, jump out of his white shirt and change into something he had on in the morning. And then he flees from Shanghai even before you are able to  say "B...." ("Bye!") Ahhh, Sir, Puyde  pud baya mananghid!
7. He would go to the loo and lock the office up. Errr, like its only about 30 steps away??? 
   
   Now, now, you have been warned. The man is peculiar. Isn't he?

Oh, yes he is. He definitely is!

So live up to it!