Courtship, Filipino-style.

Over the weekend my two aunts were telling me how my dad would come to the house when he was courting my mom. They were telling me how Lolo (grandfather) would sit in the parlor room with them and give the signal to my dad when it was time to go home. They never left [...]

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Anonymous, kind of.

The one thing nice about being in the city again is that no one outside of my mom’s street knows me. In my dad’s hometown people were coming up to me (drunk, by the way) asking me to buy them a drink. If there’s one way that’ll get me pissed off in a hurry is [...]

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Ah, city life.

It’s nice to be back in the city again. We’re in my mom’s hometown now, Malabon. We’ll be here for at least another week possibly more. I’ve got a lot of things I want to see here like the National Museum, Coconut Palace (Marcos’ former guest house), and a bunch of other things that you [...]

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Reality

A couple of days ago I seriously considered attending school here to pursue a Graduate level program in Philippine Studies. In fact, I’ll probably visit the University of Philippines – Diliman campus anyway. Last night, however, I had a long talk with my dad about the money that’s needed by various parts of this family. [...]

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College

It’s official, kind of: I’ll be paying for my cousin’s college education for the next four years at Ateneo de Naga University. Assuming everything goes well with her grades I told her I can help. It sounds like a big thing but it doesn’t really feel like it. I knew this was [...]

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Manila-bound.

We’ll be returning to Manila on Valentine’s day, Tuesday. I look forward to the big city life again. I want to catch a horse race while I’m there. I’m not sure how long we’ll stay. Perhaps we’ll stay as long as two weeks. I know I want to come back to Libmanan again before I [...]

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Pau-Pau’s birthday.

Pau turns five years old today. We had a big party complete with Lechon Baboy (sp?). The pig’s head was right there on the table by the front door… just where it oughta be.
Also of note, Lovell, my 18 month-old cousin who lives with us, has finally taken a liking to me. When I first [...]

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There’s a white girl in town!

Leave it to the Mormons to import a white girl. I almost ran into a crowd of people with the van while I was trying to confirm her racial make-up. I wasn’t planning on seeing a white person until I got to Korea, my first transfer point on the way back to the [...]

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Not unlike being a kid again.

I’m walking around here with the same feeling I had when I was 8 years-old following my dad around Chicago. I’m hoping I’m saying things correctly to people and I’m trying to listen to their responses but not fully comprehending what they’re saying. It’s a bit awkward at times I have to admit. I look [...]

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Making this a part of my life.

It’s hard to imagine leaving this all behind and going back to my life in Chicago as it was. It would be different if we didn’t have the farms. It would be different if I still didn’t have family here. It would be different if I didn’t have the type of personality [...]

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