Because no firewall lab can replace the chaos of a sidecar almost hitting you while buying lumpia.
So there I was — mid-study break, eyes glazed over from too much subnetting, trying to convince myself that PowerShell is fun — when out of nowhere… I started missing Quiapo.
Yes, that Quiapo. The place where you can buy a rosary, a fake diploma, and lumpiang shanghai — all within 5 steps.
Why do I miss it? Let me break it down:
The fried food aroma that hits harder than my coffee
The vendor voice combos: “CELL PHONE ACCESSORIEEEES! ANTING-ANTING! DVD!”
That one stall that has 50 versions of the same rubber slippers
Traffic? It’s part of the scenery.
The Black Nazarene. The street prayers. The side quests involving balut.
The slight paranoia that your phone might disappear if you blink too slowly :))
And the underground book market?? My happy place.
Where else can you find:
A dusty Python programming book beside a “Secrets of the Third Eye” manual
A hardbound Windows XP guide proudly displayed in 2025
A guy selling used keyboards with character
Look, I love studying. But sometimes…
…I just want to:
Buy kwek-kwek without judgment
Dodge a man selling pirated Adobe CS6
Sit by the sidewalk and judge who’s buying “pampalaglag”
Bargain for a secondhand HDMI cable that definitely came from a government office
Quiapo isn’t just a location. It’s a lifestyle.
It’s the only place where:
You can get baptized, cursed, and blessed — all before lunch
It smells like prayer and fishballs
There’s always someone yelling “diskwento!” even if you didn’t ask
TL;DR:
Studying for cybersecurity is great
But I miss Quiapo
Not even Wireshark can capture that kind of packet loss (aka, my heart)
If you see a vendor selling calamares near Raon, tell them I said hi
Coming soon on TeoEspero.com: “Debugging While Craving Kwek-Kwek: A Survival Story”
Until then, I’ll go back to my Azure lab and pretend the fan noise from my laptop is the buzz of a Quiapo sidecar.
