Tags
ariel allera, art of making friends, backpacking in cebu, backpacking in Philippines, California, cebu blogger, ceres bus, ceres liner, cereserye, Ceresseries, Chicago Manual of Style, CMOS, Dumaguete, Filipino writer, moalboal, Oxford comma, Phil Anderson, Phil Anderson San Diego, places to stay in Cebu, places to stay in Moalboal, power of words, random encounters, San Diego, serial comma, Siargao island, Siquijor, things to do in Cebu, things to do in the Philippines
I wish I could find the spot-on words to describe how much hotter he is in the flesh than in this photo we took while chancing upon each other on Ceres bus yesterday afternoon.
When I said hi to him and he took off his earphones and then turned around to face me, it became apparent to me that he’s not just some pretty boy endowed with those delicious blue eyes and pearly whites. He’s a charming American online entrepreneur from the city of San Diego in California state.
“Hello! I’m Phil Anderson. Nice to meet you,” he greeted back.
“So, let me guess: your real name is William, isn’t it? Most Bills were actually christened as William,” I blundered, I realized later on, much to my chagrin.
He smiled, saying “Oh, no. My name is Phil, not Bill. But that’s O.K.”
I blushed.
You can’t blame me, because Bill—er, Phil—and I were competing with Jordana Brewster who was screaming from the movie titled “Furious 7” showing on the five loud boob tubes inside the bus.
But thank goodness that I was able to redeem myself by making more sense in our eventual tete-a-tete, especially as we started ventilating various topics such as the prevalence of student loan as well as the educational system in the United States, the number of gay population and the mushrooming of the business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines, his interests and mine, but mostly about yours truly because he seriously grilled me, especially on things that mattered most and least to me, which will certainly cause your phone battery to drain if I share them here and you have to finish reading. So never mind.
“Ariel, tell me. Do you think it helps to improve your English-speaking ability that you use the language every day when talking to your customers over the phone?” Phil asked, something to that effect.
But I answered, “Personally, no! Not really. That’s because I, for example, feel restrained to think freely, considering that I can’t use phrases and idiomatic expressions which I normally use in writing. Most of me would have to keep groping for the simplest words possible in order to get across to the customer. And I find that paralyzing, to say the least.”
Phil was all ears, his eyes causing mine to melt because, as Dr. Phil may have said in one of The Oprah Winfrey Show episodes, you have to maintain eye contact when talking to someone hot or not. Remember?
I continued, “I’ve been coached more than enough due to engaging overly, and so now I’m afraid to think out of the box and be more creative. Which is why I love it when I’m talking to a foreigner like you—because I can be myself, I can think aloud, I can laugh out loud, I can be very spontaneous without worry about getting marked down or reprimanded for saying this and that. That, for me, is the true essence of communication.”
Your American entrepreneur Phil Anderson and this blogger, Ariel Allera, on Ceres bus bound for Moalboal and Cebu City