... and so, the day was arriving. Now that all is ready for the wedding, it is time to think about all the little and important things that we need for the ceremony.
For me, the only thing I have to take care of was my dress, since I cannot be there to help Bing.
She has been very busy in those days. She has to think about the dress, the restaurant, the Church, the car, the video and photos, the invitations and so on. Her days are full of duties and she had to run from a place to another one.
Without letting you feel bored with this kind of duties, let us go back to 'me' again. Since the seminar is compulsory before the wedding and, because I cannot spend there one month, the only solution was to go in the Philippines only 14 days before the 28th May and come back in Italy the day after the wedding. Only to think about this was sad, unfortunately no other solutions; in the company where I work, it is rare to have a vacation aside from the month of August, and to think that I need more than two weeks!
The month of May arrived; I really don't remember so much about the time between the moment Bing told me she had all documents and the consent from the Italian Embassy till when I left Italy to fly in the Philippines. I remember the difficulty to find a suit that was "light". I mean, in Italy April is a month not so much warm and I knew that I had to dress a suit for the temperature near 30°. At the end I was able to find something, even if not so much "light"!
On May 12 I left Italy. As usual, the flight lasted near 24 hours, including time zone (in that month the time difference between Italy and Philippines is 7 hours). When I arrived in Manila, Bing obviously was there. It was nice to be together (again) and to meet knowing that finally we would tell to each other how much we love and to promise that we would continue to love for the rest of our lives.
Only few days after, we went to Alcala. Here, I just had to follow her everywhere. For me was quite tiring. We moved a lot using "tricycles". These vehicles are composed of a motorbike and let me say a "sidecar". They use them as we use the car for taxi. In the little cabin beside the driver, there should be room for one or two (not so comfortable) people but often you can see 3 of them. At the back of the driver, when usually there is only a space for one person, there are two people. In this way, in a single "tricycle" you can have 5 passengers plus the driver!
Due to the chaotic traffic, tricycles aren't so fast and, considering how many people "on board", also the engine cannot push this vehicle so rapidly.
Bing knows how to "negotiate" these taxis and so, before hopping in, she always asks for the price and, sometimes she offers less than what the driver asks. During the 'negotiation', I had to stay far, because if they know I'm the other passenger, the driver would ask for a higher price!
I remember she literally drove me to visit many of her friends and relatives. In Italy, when you go to visit someone, you can tell you are in rush. It is understandable and if you explain that you have to move from an house to another, usually they help you not to lose time and they aren't offended if you cannot spend there long time, drinking and eating something. In the Philippines, to be polite, you cannot do the same. I remember we used to visit 3, 4 or 5 different families in a day and, every time, we had to enter the house, to drink something and to eat also, otherwise they would feel offended. Obviously Bing needed to explain, every time something about our story and so, even if I cannot understand her native language, I'm sure she was repeating the same "story" to all of them. They rarely spoke to me, in English, and the questions were obviously almost the same: what do you do in Italy? in which part of Italy do you live? how did you meet? what will you do after wedding? etc. etc. With that, every visit was heavier than the previous and, at the end you discover you weren't hungry at all to have your supper.
Anyway, visiting friends and relatives was only part of our trips. We went to choose the cake, the shirts for her uncle and the invitation cards. We went also to her University to invite her former colleagues (one of them was also my witness, even if we never met before!).
And there was another thing we must do: the seminar. Owing to my presence there, during the seminar they spoke in English. Day by day, for about two hours, we were busy with the seminar. It wasn't a priest to lead it, he was a lay person. We went to his house to listen to the things he was teaching. I know here in Italy, during the seminar, you have a meeting with the doctor, one with the lawyer and usually, a priest gives the seminar. There wasn't in the same way, probably because the doctor is expensive and the lawyer isn't necessary to explain your rights concerning divorce: simply in the Philippines divorce isn't allowed yet, so you don't need to know laws about it!
