WHEN MARS AND VENUS ISN’T ENOUGH! CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love is blind. Love has no bounderies. Love has no race. True! When two people from the other side of the world fell in love both has to deal with the so called “cultural differences”.

Sometimes I find myself thankful to the Spanish and American colonization at least the culture where I came from is not much different from the rest of the world. My husband asked me about the giving of “dowry” because as he read about Asia he came across of giving “dowry” before marriage. He asked me if it is being practiced in the Philippines. I said no. (I should have said yes, maybe he’s willing to give dowry lol) As Philippines has many western influence and being an archipelago in south east Asia, we are far apart from the culture of our neighboring Asian countries. I guess even the looks I’ve always been mistaken as Spanish or “latina”. I forgot I have Asian nose lol. The only Asian thing in our culture I guess is eating a lot of rice and noodles.

My husband is Italian. I’m a Filipino. My husband is from a developed country and I am from a developing country. So here are our cultural differences.

TRAFFIC. When my husband is driving just 3 or 5 cars in front of him he starts complaining of traffic. Oh! we should have not take this road can you see the traffic. While on my end, where’s the traffic? My idea of traffic is when you are totally blocked and cars are not moving. lol He complain about too many traffic lights while on my end there are some places in my country that even needs traffic light but due to lack of funds or corruption cannot have it.

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THE ITALIAN WEDDING

Hello beautiful people of the world! I hope you are all having a great day especially this Valentine’s day. Saint Valentine reminds us about love not only the courtly love but the kind of love everyone deserves and I want to share my life changing Valentine’s day two years ago.

It was a rainy winter, Valentine’s day of 2013 in Ancona, Italy (a city in the marche region central Italy) when I made the decision of getting married. I had my not so secret Italian wedding. 🙂 Feeling so hollywood right?! Yes, just the sound of Italian wedding. Mind you, it is a very simple celebration of love because we are planning another wedding in the Philippines that’s why we opted to kept it secret from our friends so that they will be there on our church wedding. It was magical and romantic. Just me and my husband, our solemnizing officer and our two witnesses.  After the ceremony we had lunch at my favorite restaurant along the port. The fact that I’m having an Italian wedding is the best of all. 🙂

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