My mom wasn’t my best friend growing up but she certainly is now. I was a stubborn teenager (and should be adult but dili pa gyud gihapon) and even if I should’ve listened to my mom, I really didn’t. But she was always there for me and she let me learn from my mistakes while indiscreetly nagging in the background.

We just got back from our wonderful trip to Hong Kong and it really was an eye opener. I had soo much fun and I cant’ wait until the next time we get to do something like that again. So in the meantime, here are a few things that I learned about my mom from our 4 day trip:

1. She is very Arianna Grande about her photos. She will ask you to take a bunch of photos of her, go through each and every one of them and tell you which photos you can and cannot upload. She doesn’t know how to operate her Instagram or Facebook but she knows how to delete a photo.

Sorry, mom. You didn’t approve all these photos :p

2. She REALLY likes pictures. Is this an Asian mom thing or just an Asian thing in general? She’s a selfie queen and will take selfies on the bus, on the plane, in the room- God knows where else and will also make it her cellphone wallpaper.

3. You will also fall victim to her selfies (because you NEED 20 pictures of yourselves in different location EVEN if you CAN’T see the background) even when you plead her to stop.

4. And when you tell your family about it… she will deny EVERY allegation and tell them that I exaggerate too much. Psssh, sure mom!

I’m tired of your selfies, MOOOOM!!

5. She also like blotting oil paper and will carry it around with her and use it openly.

6. And when you comment on it she’ll say, “So what?! I don’t even know these people…” And she’s kinda right about that.

7. She’s traveled to more places than you have and even if she’s been to Hong Kong for the nth time, she’ll still go around with you cuz she loves you. harhar. (P.s. She chose Hong Kong, not me.)

8. She will make you come up with an itinerary, figure out how to get around with NO help at all and when you get lost (because it was bound to happen anyways), she will surprise you with her ninja navigation skills.

9. And then she’ll say it’s because she wanted you to learn.

10. She has a bajillion scarves which will come in handy when travelling because you own none.

11. She has a bag for EVERYTHING. Little bags inside of a big bag and coincidentally so do you! Now I know where I got it from. Except, she is waaay more organized than I am.

12. She likes dragon fruits and knows how to peel them by hand. Not that other people can’t do that but… I just never thought that she knew how. :>

13. She will pry while you’re on social media and will constantly ask you things like, “who was that?” or “what was that status about?” as if she knew the person even after you explained it to her. #MYOB

14. She will also ask to borrow your phone to look at the photos you just took and will end up going through ALL your photos, like ALL your photos.

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15. She is everyone’s friend. She’ll say hi to the janitors, talk to the flight stewards and if she runs into a friend; you can see how excited they are to see her. She’s always that person that people love to talk to and listen to when they need some form of entertainment. I bet she was a clown in her past life.

16. She’s kind of racist, tactless and blunt and will take advantage of this on public transportation by talking in Bisaya while saying, “so what? It’s not like they understand me anyways.” She is also right about that, too.

17. She will lure you into taking a photo of her by simply saying, “Ate, that’s a nice place to have your photo taken. Do you want me to take a picture of you?” And when you decline, she’ll go on about it for a while until you realize that she actually wants you to take a photo for her. #themoves

18. She will also try to take your photo a lot and teach you how to pose with matching, “stand up straight, this is for your blog!”  Well, I can’t complain. It shows she’s supportive. #stagemom

19. She LOVES bread and bakeries. Odd because I do not. She will literally stop by every.single.bakery even if she’s already been to it like 3 times already.

20. Also, she will exaggerate this by shouting, “I really love bakeries, noh?” when you point it out. #artistahin

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The selfies really were non stop.

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21. She can take a pretty decent photo and she will take your photos for you in the middle of the road despite the heat and the fact that you are lugging around a huge luggage. She loves you, supports you and will do anything  for you. You are lucky!

22. Going to Ocean Park will not make her appreciate the ocean more. In fact, it will make her crave for fish even more. After Ocean Park, she literally devoured an entire fish.

23. If she is in a good mood, she will buy you anything. Well, almost anything. So DO NOT get on her bad side because it can get really annoying, really quick. #naggerella

24. She loves you so much that she would walk the ENTIRE Ocean Park with you and not complain even if she’s such a reklamador! She’ll even go on some of the rides with you cuz you don’t wanna look like a loser going on rides yourself. She supports your inner dork and she’s also a badass for getting on a roller coaster with you.

25. She always puts her children’s happiness first. She’ll only buy herself nose strips while buying her kids toys and whatever they asked for. And she’ll bad feel about not getting Mr. Bean’s teddy for your siblings which is kind of cute because nobody would actually use it anyways.

26. She likes to eat. The best part about HK was the dinning experience and she won’t skimp out on meals either. “You want that? Ok, but you better finish it. You can’t finish it na, Ate? Ok, mine nalang ni.” hahaha. life is so easy with my mom around! :))

27. Everyone will think that we are sisters- even Chinese people with a very limited vocabulary. Each time she will smile as if it is was the first time she’s heard it and she will sound so kilig. She knows you dislike this comment but she’s having her moment so you just let her be.

28. She is always often times right. I hate to admit it but a lot of times on the trip I wanted to do certain things my way but once my mom would step in, everything just became easier. I guess it’s true, you do become wiser with age…

29. I will always be my Momma Bear’s first baby. My two other siblings got nothing on me. She will still hold your hand in public and hug you if you ask her to. She will also scream at you in public if you piss her off…

30. She has nice armpits. And she’s not ashamed to show em off. Werk it, girlfriend.

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If you’re a teenager or you’ve never really taken the time to get to know your mom, I really suggest that you do. Take a trip. It doesn’t have to be somewhere far, as long as you go together and you’ll be surprised at how much you’ll learn about each other and how much you actually mean to one another.

I’m really glad that I got to do this with my mom because I feel like we got to know and understand each other so much more from this experience. So if I haven’t said it enough, Thank you and I love you, mommy! xx

Always,