No Green Card for you!

So, I was depositing some mail at the post office, which is basically a stall in the middle of the Market Mall labeled "Post Office" and I ended up getting hassled by the postal worker. I tried to speak in tagalog but had to give up halfway through it. The guy kept asking personal questions, and when it came to "Do you have a boyfriend?" to which i replied YES to avoid further hassling, he said well i'd be the perfect girl to ligaw (or woo as you english speakers know it) because I'm a U.S. citizen and I could bring him to the states. But then he already was married so too bad, but hey he has a sixteen year old son who's really handsome. Um yea mr. first of all that's a bit illegal, and second of all I'm not into dating someone who's using me for my citizenship status. Move along buddy! Then he asks if my boyfriend is "puti" (white) which i said yes (well why not. when you're in the states... do as the romans?) and then he asks me why i don't like Filipino boys. *sigh* Really there's no right answer to avoid people prying into my business.

NuRock Awards and Despedida

On Friday, I was invited out to the NuRock Awards with KM and her friends at the World Trade Center in.. Pasig i think. Actually this is the largest concert I've been to really. Although I like live music, I usually prefer smaller venues. Anyway, it was a pretty long event, beginning at around 8:20 and ending close to midnight. It was an awards ceremony for the popular filipino bands, including some old faves that I actually recognize: Kamikaze, Rivermaya, Bamboo. I also found a couple bands, Imago and Sinosikat? that i will probably buy a couple albums of. They're fairly alternative and definitely Tagalog. The hosts for the show were Asia something (softcore porn actress) and a local comedian. They were somewhat amusing, but i think the girl was pushing it with the sex references. Tacky and not really entertaining.




Rock Awards pictures.

Afterwards, Noelle, another intern from CATW was going out for last drinks before she left for Bohol, so I took KM and Simon with me to Greenbelt. We met up with Noelle, her friend Craig, and fellow fulbrighters Rafe, Andrew and Will at m-cafe. It's a lounge abutting the famous Ayala Museum and this evening was sort of a ..brazilian house music. We danced a bit, but it was too crowded for my tastes. Also, I met up with Mackey, who was a fellow partier the last time i was in the 'pines. Later on we went to my previous haunt, Absinth. They were playing mostly hip-hop and the tiny dance floor got ridiculously crowded later in the evening. We had loads of fun and I found out that Will is a dancing maniac. It was really strange to have four guys over 6ft around. It felt like I was back in the states.


Noelle with the dancing machine

Afterwards, KM Simon and I headed out and met up with Will, who had previously disappeared. We ended up at McDonalds for some late night merienda.


Will found a frog and had to tamper with it.

Vampires!!

Last night, I got plenty of rest. Since I was sick the whole day yesterday, I slept so much, then called it a night at 10pm. However, I woke up groggily around 2am and felt sort of itchy all over. I turned on the lights and somehow I managed to get bit all over my legs and one right in the middle of my back. I looked around and there were two mosquitoes floating lazily around the room, obviously drunk on my blood!! After giving them a violent end with a rolled up magazine, I applied some Tiger Balm to my dime sized bug bites and grumbled back to bed.

Hopefully I wont contract some bugborne illness.

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