Rochie in the city: Crosswalks

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"Daddy, Mommy, who is Ped Xing? He's got a lot of streets named after him." 

I usually bugged my parents about these Ped Xing Streets whenever we travel along Taft Avenue. There, in black letters against a yellow background, were the signs that I had always thought was a name of some rich but unheard of Tsinoy who must have donated a whole lot of money to warrant recognition via a street named after him (or her). Years later, in college, as I was going to the Philippine General Hospital with my classmates, I noticed for the first time that the "street name" wasn't on a street perpendicular to Taft Avenue. Instead, it's above a crosswalk. Hmm... that's strange, I thought. Then it hit me.


Ped Xing wasn't a person. Ped Xing meant PEDESTRIAN CROSSING!!

The embarrassing part: I was thinking out loud. My classmates and one of my professors, who were in the van with me, actually heard me exclaim.

Really slow, Rochie, really slow.

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