City in Heels

My brother and I just moved into our tiny but happy little apartment. And as we, well he and my cousins, were carrying all our things from one place to the other, (btw all my cousins who helped with the move actually agreed that I have enough clothes and shoes and stuff for ten people which I pointedly ignored) I realized a lot of things about the city I live in. Like a few reasons why I love and hate it at the same time. 

 Like, during the move and the hauling truck stopped right in front of my house, and I realized… IT STOPPED RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE!!! As in it was just at most five steps from the road to my doorstep. And it was amazing!!! (Please read on and let me prove how I am not as crazy as I already know you think I am… or maybe let me prove that I’m crazier.)

I’ve moved five times in the course of my life and in each and every single one of those places there had to be at least 10 meters worth of walk from the road to my doorstep. Don’t get me wrong, for MOST of those places, there is a road, but cars don’t dare venture because it’s too steep on the way there.  So the fact that there were only five steps from the road to my door was new and surreal and amazing. Cue choirs of angels.

It may not be something new to all of you guys but it is for me. In this magical city I live in, the mountainous, chilly and rainy place that it is makes it so that there will always be places you will have to walk, climb and or hike to. And when I say climb, I mean CLIMB. As in AT LEAST two flights of stairs, climb. As in you do NOT have a choice climb. 

In this city there are houses and places that are only accessible after a few minutes of hiking. We’re all used to this. We enjoy the walk because of the weather and the trees and because we don’t really have a choice. Plus it’s exercise.  And it’s all we’ve ever known. 

The only time I actually realized how effort-full it was to live in this city was when I went through puberty and fell head over heels, pun intended, in love with high heels.  I mean seriously, have you ever tried walking on uneven rocky ground in stilettos? Have you ever tried climbing even one flight of stairs in heels? Without wobbling. Or taking a nose dive? Have you ever--- well basically it’s HARD with a capital H. 

At this point, some of you might ask Loridor, why bother? Why torture yourself? Why subject yourself to the arguably patriarchal social pressure to look good? Why? WHY? WHY?!!? If you have to ask you are either a heterosexual male, who I will claim to be a hypocrite because we both know you find girls in heels to be hotter than not. (Assuming the woman walks right in heels. I will not be held liable for those women who waddle. I do not waddle. I will write a separate entry for rules on wearing heels.) OR you might be a woman (or woman at heart), who has never found the right heels. Heels make you magically, temporarily, lose pounds. They give you an immediate boost of confidence and they make your butt look AH-MAY-ZZING. Not that mine needs a lot of help. *eye brow wiggle* If you do not fall in either of these categories, feel free to take it up in the comment section. :P

But anyway, that was the first time I realized this city was not as perfect as I thought. It’s hard to be a shoe-holic in the mountains. O.O

The second awakening was around the time when I had to start buying my own groceries. I do the groceries twice a month. So that means I have a large haul each and every time. And this large haul needs to be carried from cab door to my front door. Can you imagine carrying at least four kilos of items on each arm? (Yes where I’m from we measure weight with kilos, go find an online calculator to convert it to pounds if you need it). Now imagine having to do that for 10 to 15 meters. Now add stairs. And there you have it. EFFORT.

It is the same reason women from this city develop huge leg muscles that are famous through out the land. Logs as some people would call it. (Mine aren’t logs yet thank goodness!) I mean good for the men that the hike helps them avoid “chicken legs” i.e. super thin legs in proportion to their whole body but still, for the w omen of this city it Is a pain to live with. 

But like I said, these are epiphanies. They are not something people who grew up here realize immediately. Until confronted by an outsider. But then it’s not so bad compared to all the good things that are in this city. It may just be a fair trade. What are the good things about this city you ask?

The weather.  (Or is it climate?) I love the cool weather. It’s the only place in this tropical country that has free air conditioning 24/7. Why? Like I said, beautiful weather. It’s just the right temperature, not too cold, not too hot. I mean it could get a bit cold but nothing a light jacket, a brisk walk or a cuddle wouldn’t fix.

Second thing to love about this city is how tiny it is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the smallest city out there. But compared to all the other metropolises out there, this is small. Other people want to live in big cities. I don’t. There’s a comfort in knowing most of where everything is and how to get there. The whole place is home. Also this city is not so busy. It’s a city that sleeps. A bit early in fact. But still. I love the relaxed atmosphere it has. (After the rush hours of course). 

And the tiny-ness of this city leads me to the third reason I love it. You can walk to anywhere. You don’t have to take a train or the bus because its all within walking distance. And a walk in this city is lovely. Lots of trees and flowers and again, the goldilock effect of it all, not too warm, not too cold. 

If you really have to get a ride, I believe we have the nicest cab drivers in all the land. Ding ding ding! That’s number four. (Fine, 95% of them are super duper nice. You may still meet a tiny amount of douches.  But that’s still better than the statistics elsewhere.) They will not drive you in circles to jack up the fare. Nor will they refuse to give you change. They will give you your 50 cents back if you don’t tell them to keep it. Unlike cab drivers elsewhere that would REFUSE to give your 20 bucks back. Why do I feel like I’m the authority in this? It’s because of my job. Which forces me to leave the house at weird hours of the night. Which means I take the cab often. Which is a testament to my intelligence, because really, even if I can walk to my work place, it’s still not a smart thing to do at midnight or three am. :P

Another innocuous, not so obvious reason why I love this city is… the produce. We get fresh veggies and fruits A LOT and we don’t have to pay through the nose for them. I love veggies. I’m not a vegetarian but I understand the need for fiber in our lives. And I like the fact that just a quick trip to the market provides me with the healthy and yummy. Among other things. This is a city of thrift stores too. We call it the Wagwagan (Wag like tail wag, and Gan like the gan in gander so, wag-wag-gan.) Why is it called that? Because you would have to dig through piles of items (depending on what you’re shopping for, it could be clothes, stuffed toys, bags, shoes etc) to get what you want and once you see one you like, you shake the dust off of the item. That action is wagwag in the local language. Anyway as I was saying, these thrift stores are popular throughout the country. You can get branded stuff for a really really low pri--- well you probably know what a thrift store is. 

Hmmm and lastly, I like the name of my city. It’s unique. And it stumps a lot of international visitors. Here it is: Baguio City. *smiles evilly* Now tell me how to read that… fine, because I’m nice I’ll tell you how. You say it like Bag-yo. Bag like bag and yo as in the yo in yoyo. Did you get it right the first time? 

 

And there you have it. A quick Get-To-Know-My-City post. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want you to move into the city. Yes that’s right. I said DON’T move into the city. Why you ask? Because I don’t want my city to be crowded. But feel free to visit. Visit anytime. And make sure not to leave messes. Don’t make me “accidentally” step on your toes with both heels.