It's the fourth night of the last month of the year.... and barely 21 days to go before Christmas.
Time flies so fast, indeed. Early this morning, my sister went back to the US. Tomorrow evening, it's my other sister's turn to go back to Guam. And oh, how can I forget my newest nephew's 3rd month birthday also tomorrow? Good to have him with us here at home today until tomorrow. The little boy's (he's also my godson) such a charmer and a darling!
Truly, the recent month that has passed was extremely busy for me and my family because of our various family occasions. All went very well and how I wish I can post some of the photos from those memorable gatherings.... perhaps that could wait for my future posts, hehe. Besides, I currently don't have the digital photos with me yet. (Although I've been bugging one of my OFW sisters not to forget to burn me a copy of the photos before she goes back to Guam)
Among the things I've been expecting to do but have not yet started doing is learning Mandarin Chinese. God knows how much I have wanted to start but unfortunately, I am still waiting for the slots to get filled so that we could proceed with the classes. I think I better follow it up tomorow.... otherwise, I might consider another language school. Lucky me, my OFW sister from Guam will be my generous sponsor. :)
Anyhow, I've finally met my students in graduate school last Saturday. Good to experience teaching in a very serene and relaxed atmosphere inside SBMA (Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority) in Olongapo. My classes are easy to manage as I only have a few students. In my morning class, I only have 12 (not everyone's present though since a couple of them were volunteering for the ongoing SEA Games). On my next, only 7! I find my students very warm and respectful... well, the latter despite the fact that I'm still young (ehem!) and even look younger than my age (ehem again!).
Hey, my co-lecturers were a blast, too! They're fun to be with and yeah, never a dull moment even if our regular travel time one way (from Quezon City to Subic, for instance) was almost three hours. Of course, it helped that one of them (we're the only two ladies among the lecturers) is someone I've been very much familiar with and in fact, a former colleague from an alumni association I used to be a board member of. We were also accompanied by our Program Director (also the one heading UP extension program in Clark, Pampanga), a true-blue Capampangan like my Mom, our efficient Administrative Officer, and of course, our very good Driver. I did experience a very comfortable trip inside the Hyundai Starex van together with 7 other fellow mortals and warm souls. :)
And so you think that it was just purely academic teaching for me and my colleagues last Saturday?
Haha, not at all. Here's why....
We didn't head straight back to UPD (in Quezon City) after our Subic stint ended. Although it was a bit traffic, our group headed to one of Pampanga's cool towns named Guagua. I learned that most of the early settlers here were of Chinese descent. It was very traffic once we have entered the town proper but we reached our destination just the same. We had a sumptous dinner at the big and beautiful abode of one of the UP Professors who's a good friend of our Program Director. It is actually the Professor's retirement home and boy, it is really huge and lovely! Oh well, I have to admit that the house style is very Western, especially once you come inside. Talk about a centralized aircon, whew!
The thing is, our adventure didn't end there. Our next stop: Duman (a.k.a. Pinipig) Festival at Sta. Rita, Pampanga, a nearby town from Guagua. :)
Now that was one helluvah fiesta celebration! The setting was at the church patio.... all the fiesta perks were there. There was a huge stage to host the evening's presentations (which, by the way, we weren't able to witness anymore....it was getting late and we still have to travel back to the city). Not to mention the various booths selling different Pampanga delicacies (yum-yum!)... Do you know that Capampangans are best known for being such good cooks therefore they are also synonymous to great-tasting food? You bet! Anyway, there were also several tables and chairs set up along with the booths. So it wasn't so surprising to see many people gathered together enjoying all those great food and drinks offered by the people of Sta. Rita... And of course, the "shopper and food connoisseur" in us just came out. We bought different sorts of delicacies, from duman, to homemade sorbetes ice cream, halayang ube, suman, bibingka, puto bumbong, tsokolateng batirol, etc... What's more, some of us (including me, hehe) stuffed our stomachs again with some of these. I, for one, had my favorite and freshly-cooked puto bumbong and matched this with the yummy drink -- what else but the tsokolateng batirol! I can't help but remember my late grandma (of course, also a Capampangan) who used to prepare tsokolate with her ancient and precious batirol made of pure bronze during Christmas season. I remember those times after attending those Simbang Gabi masses at dawn and coming home with puto bumbong bought from the friendly stands near the church. And there would be my Lola Apu's (yup, that's one way of calling our loving grandma) best-ever tsokolate drink to match our yummy food!
Ooops, going back to the town fiesta. As I have mentioned, we didn't stay anymore to watch the program proceedings. We had to drop off our Program Director to Angeles, still one of the towns in Pampanga. And since we had another stop-over at a famous store of Pampanga delicacies (Tita's), we had another round (good thing, it was our last, promise!) of shopping spree... I bought tamales, suman, skinless longanisa, vigan longanisa, tamarind (sampalok de asin), and choc'o flakes. Of course, all of these are to be shared and given to my loved ones. :)
So there went my looongg and fun-filled Saturday! Hey, look it wasn't just Subic, Olongapo after all. I wonder what we would be up to next week.... ;)
Advanced Merry Christmas!!!
ELIJAH PAUL T. ACA
