Pagbilao Fiesta

So I went home for the weekend because it was the Pagbilao Fiesta on the 25th. What does that mean? Well, the fiesta is in honor of our patron of the town, St. Catherine of Alexandria, who is incidentally also my confirmation saint. Anyways, it's a chance for the town to celebrate. In reality, it's more an excuse to eat and drink a lot. Here are some pics from my weekend.

First thing's first, I arrived on Saturday afternoon and went out to see a movie with KM (one of many cousins) We watched Beowulf, which was a bit underwhelming and for some reason our hero just wanted to be nude all the time. Afterwards, we ate dinner at Mug Cafe, which is the hotspot of Lucena. On weekends, they have an acoustic band playing.

me with some of the viewers

On Sunday, Tito Eddie picked me up and dropped me off with Kuya Jally and his fam. I got to hang out a bit with my godson and his other kids.


Jolo, Manel and Dimples. I just want to ship them back to the states to hang out with me

(ok now really onto Kuya Jally's crew)

This is Junior, Kuya Jally's youngest. He was a bit wary of me first, but started flirting with me a bit later.


my godson Fuego

After hanging out with them, I went to the fair with KM, her friend, Popot and Amiel




Pagbilao Church -apparently there were 40 babies being baptized that day. insane!


I don't know where they got this idea... but baby chicks are always being sold in fairs, and for some reason they like to dye them weird colors. Not very cool for the animal rights activists.

So, tradition is that everyone lays out a buffet and you just go around visiting at people's houses and keep eating.


This is Betty. She owns a funeral parlor.


us hanging out with the coffins. hopefully these are empty



In the afternoon, we started drinking the san mig, which is also part of tradition i guess. We hung out with KM's friend at her kubo



mmm fishball pulutan




Krisha




encouraging a little cannibalism here, I was feeding the prize winning cocks roasted chicken. mm

We continued the festivities and went back to Betty's funeral parlor, where we ended up having drinks with some guys who were more than a bit tipsy and quite excited that the balikbayan was hanging out with them



grilled shellfish dipped in vinegar, the perfect complement to Red Horse beer


close up of one of those dyed chicks