My busmate gave me a flower today. It’s sitting in a cup of water by my phone.

I met her the first day that I took the bus. She was very friendly and helped me get off at the right stop, since it was her stop. Then we discovered that we work for the same company.

Now she is my friend, She is very careful for me on the bus, and when I get on, she makes sure to point out a good seat for me, if the one next to her is taken.

Once, when I was sitting next to her, we passed by the chinatown farmer’s market. I told her that I was fascinated by the different asian fruits and vegetables, but I had no idea how to cook them. She said she was philipina, and she knew how to cook all kinds of things.

This led naturally to a later lunch date…We had dim sum. It was great! she showed me the best places to go. Since I usually am intimidated by the different foods, I was really happy to have her there.

But today, she brought me a flower! It’s very beautiful and it smells really nice. She called it a Camia.

I’d never heard of that kind of flower before, and since her accent is a little thick, I wasn’t sure that i had heard the name right.

But I found out about it on the net:

“Millions of flowers of all colors and scents bloom all year-round throughout the Philippines. For this reason, many authors call the archipelago the “Land of Flowers”. There are about 10,000 species of flowering plants and ferns in the Philippines. Among the beautiful flowers are the lovely sampaguita, the charming cadena de amor, the romantic gardenia, the milky-white camia, the bewitching dama de noche, and the majestic bougainvillea of various colors. “

That was ALL I could find on google.

But that makes it seem more rare and special. Only philipino people know about camia.

And me.