Monday, June 05, 2006

mitch's guide to the philippine lifestlye. part1

HAVING GUESTS-
the good: the food. it's that time where all the BIG RECIPES are laid out, those SPECIAL DISHES made... be prepared to pig out.
the bad: you spend a minimum of one week cleaning up the place for their visit. every nook and corner will be inspected
another bad: cleaning up after the visit/party.
another bad: you might have to move out of your room to accomodate the guests.
seriously, the food more than makes up for all of the bad... i think.

TRYING THE FOOD-
be warned. it can get extremely addicting and.. fattening. 'death-on-a-platter' fattening. think cholesterol. crispy pata. lechon. yuuuuumm....
it can also get weird sometimes, like dinuguan (blood pudding), isaw (pig's intestines)... but all that aside, food is wickedly awesome.
in particular, one american lady had this to say about leche flan (a filipino dessert) -- "IT'S BETTER THAN SEX!!!". lololololol

GETTING TO KNOW THE CLAN -
once you get into a filipino family, be prepared to know a loooooooooong list of relatives and friends. yes, you will be expected to know each of them. do you remember this guy? he is the cousin of your dad's uncle. aside from the name recall game, be prepared for long family stories as well. reunions can get scary.

REGARDING DADS/FATHERS -
whatever age you may be (26, 29..), you will always be 16 to him. ALWAYS.
on the plus side, when he says it's his treat, he really treats. take advantage of the situation!!!

REGARDING MUSIC -
filipinos love music. if you happen to be musically-gifted, good for you. you will be treated very well and liked very much. will always be sought after during reunions. math genius, pooey. you sing/play instrument, you DA STAR! (of course, it has it's downsides as well. expect to perform per reunion). always have an 'impromptu' show to do (example, the duet for "something stupid").

REGARDING TECHNOLOGY -
it's always up-to-date. if not, it sure has truckloads of features. if you run out of topic, look no further than the cellphone. the owner will only be too glad to show/display/describe it to you, with matching story of how cheap/expensive it was.

REGARDING GREETINGS -
whereas americans, and maybe other races, would greet you with "how's the weather?" or "what have you been up to?", the filipinos way of hello is consciously calling attention to your physique -- "hey, you look great!", "wow, you're so thin already!", "wooooooah! you got huge!!"... my personal fave (sarcasm) -- hindi ka naman tumaba a... (hey, you didn't grow fat...)". EVERYTIME. it. never. fails.

more in future posts.
btw, i went to washington this weekend. as chance would have it, it was also the time for filipinos to celebrate 100 years of philippine migrants to US. sooo, there was a parade, music, and lots of stalls. regretfully, not tiangge prices, but still pretty good stuff, tho. pictures to follow!

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