jayrsjournal

[jayrsjournal]

First Christmas in the Philippines

It’s my first time celebrating Christmas in the Philippines. It’s also my first Christmas without my parents or my friends back in Dubai.

Honestly, my Christmas festive spirit in me has died down. I am not sure why. Is it because I am getting older or is it just because I don’t have Christmas decorations around my place? I hope it’s the latter because I hate to see that kiddie spirit in me die down.

Anyway, at the start of Christmas Eve, it was a Sunday so I have to go to church. Knowing that it’s going to be a feast later in the evening, I decided to eat some cereal with Ate Mott.  

It took a while for my cousin Kuya Troy to pick me up, which I was grateful for because I needed more time to dress up.

We grabbed a quick snack at McDonald’s because I was super hungry. This is why I don’t eat cereal in the morning folks.

I arrived at church, listening to the sermon and sitting behind of my aunt Mommy Velma. After church was done, I was surprised to learn that there is going to be a Christmas lunch in the church. I don’t want to completely abstain from eating so I took a little as I can. I realized that I have been avoiding rice the whole day to avoid adding more calories.

Afterwards, me, Ate Debbie and her boyfriend Kuya Anthony went to the mall again to have the leggings of my pants altered to my liking. We were told previously that it will take an hour so we agreed that Ate Debbie and Kuya Anthony will just give me the pants at dinner with the rest of my relatives.

I went back home and took a long nap. I woke up with Ate Mott calling me that the relatives has arrived. I quickly greeted my relatives a Merry Christmas and grabbed my finished pants as I went back to my room to dress myself for the occasion.

The food was amazing, especially the chicken that was cooked by Ate Mott, despite her reservations that it felt soggy. I called my parents overseas to greet them a Merry Christmas as well as update them on my newly adjusted life in the Philippines. I gave my aunts a couple of minutes to talk to my mom and give them an update to my mom from their perspective.

Moana was playing on the television, much to the delight of many of the cousins.

As soon as the movie was done, everyone was slowly preparing themselves to leave the place. As soon as they were gone, Ate Mott went for a quick nap as we wait for midnight for Christmas Day. As soon as midnight hit, me, Mommy Babes, Uncle Ogie and Ate Mott greeted each other Merry Christmas and hugged one another.

The next day, it was Christmas Day and it’s time to have a Christmas Day lunch, this time with the Villanuevas hosting. During this, we were watching this new Netflix movie called ‘Bright’ starring Will Smith as well as plans for the aunts and uncles to watch the new Filipino movie ‘Ang Panday’ starring Coco Martin.

Overall, my first time celebrating Christmas here is alright and I am grateful for my relatives that welcomed me here with so much hospitality and love since I arrived here.

[jayrsjournal]

Vinta vs. Jay-r

This is my first time staying in the Philippines where it’s not going to be a short vacation trip. So I have no idea what to expect other than to take caution when I heard the news that a Tropical Storm Vinta was on its way to Iligan City.

Just as I was about to sleep, there was some heavy raining, which indicated the storm was on its way or was already here. Around three in the morning, I was waken up by a really loud siren noise. I quickly traced where the noise came from and it turns out it was from my backup phone. It turns out I received an emergency alert that a landfall was made by Vinta in Davao Occidental.

Around seven in the morning, I was waken up by a young house maid named Angel, telling me it’s time to eat breakfast. I did some quick phone checking before I proceeded to the dining table with my cousin Ate Mott, my aunt Mommy Babes and my Uncle Ogie. Not too soon after, the electricity and water went out. That’s when we knew that the storm is in the city. We continued our breakfast under these conditions with some flashlights around us.

Because of the storm, the clinic they operate obviously had to close down for the day. Because of the storm, we really didn’t know if our lunch with the rest of my relatives that day would go through.

During those two hours, me and Ate Mott debated whether Vinta is a tropical storm or a typhoon, talked about how her pet dog/son named Bom Bom gets scared when there is rain and planned what we would do for the rest of the day during the storm that made us short on electricity and water, should our lunch not go through as originally planned. Ate Mott decided to use her sudden day-off to rest and wait for Ate Debbie’s call whether the lunch will go on as planned or it’s cancelled while I continue reading John Green’s new book ‘Turtles All The Way Down’, which I had no time reading due to college.

The storm slowly died down and Ate Debbie called us that the mall where we were going to have lunch will go through as originally planned.

On our way to the mall, there was a road where it was totally flooded. The shock in my relatives’ face indicates they never seen this type of flood in the city for a long time.

Ate Mott wanted to grab a quick snack so she ordered shawarma in a different stand called ‘JM Shawarma’. I took half of my share and we both agreed that it’s better than Turks but it’s still not shawarma. But it was close!

After that, we met up our relatives in this restaurant we were planning to have lunch called ‘Boy Zugba’, which is a trendy, modern Filipino restaurant. This lunch is a special one as we are celebrating the anniversary of my aunt Mommy Velma and Uncle Manny as a married couple. As we wait for the food that Ate Debbie has pre-ordered the food for us to eat, the restaurant provided us a bucket of signs for us to take picture with. The restaurant certainly knows their demographic as Filipinos loves to take group pictures and selfies.

Our food arrived, which turned out to be a huge feast for us. It was a combination of pork and fish, which most of them are fried from what I noticed. What was really weird was that the green vegetables were fried, which I didn’t think it was really needed because it takes away why those veggies are healthy.

Anyway, it seems like we were not done with our lunch as we went to another restaurant called ‘Kuya J’ that also serves the same type of cuisine, albeit the interior of the restaurant is more westernized. The solo purpose of us going there was to get this popular Filipino dessert ‘Halo-Halo’ as dessert. The serving was larger than I expected and as soon as I finished it, I feel like my stomach was about to explode.

Afterwards, we went grocery shopping to buy some food for the upcoming Christmas Eve dinner as well as Christmas Day lunch. As we were done, Ate Mott, Mommy Babes and Uncle Ogie decided to go back home ahead as me, Mommy Velma, Ate Debbie and her boyfriend Kuya Anthony decided to shop for pants for me, which was generously gifted by them. We found the pants that I wanted. However, the leggings were too long. Thankfully enough, the department store has an in-house altering station where they could make the leggings shorter. 

Unfortunately, we are running out of time so we decided to visit the mall some other time to have my pants altered.

As I was dropped home, the electricity is still gone. I took a short, sweaty nap as the day slowly turns to night. At six in the evening, it was completely dark outside. Mommy Babes was informed that the electricity is going to be restored tomorrow at the earliest, which is going to be a short struggle for me as there is nothing other than John Green’s book to keep me entertained.

It turns out we got our electricity earlier than she was told and we went back to our usual routine.

Overall, I don’t think the storm has scared me that much. Unfortunately, I can’t speak on behalf of the people who is badly affected by the storm. I am sending prayer and thoughts for them and their loved ones.

[jayrsjournal]

The Day I Finally Watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi (no spoilers, I promise!)

From left to right, top to bottom: Ate Mott, Ate Debbie, Oliver, Kuya Anthony and me.

It was December 20th and I could finally watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi after avoiding spoilers online like plague. It came out in the Philippines on December 13 and I had the choice to watch it on that day. But I decided to wait for my cousins to be free so we could watch it together.

So it’s finally the day and we were all wearing t-shirts around the theme of Star Wars. Some of my cousins, Ate Mott, Kuya Jason and Kuya Troy (In Filipino culture, you call the people who are slightly older than you Ate [female] or Kuya [male] before saying their name since) were wearing the same exact t-shirt that has the image of the Star Wars logo composed of the head of the stormtroopers, which I thought is very cool. Ate Debbie was wearing a simple red t-shirt that said ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi and her boyfriend Anthony was wearing a t-shirt that has the quote “Trust Me, I’m a Jedi’. I thought that was a quote from a character in a Star Wars movie or TV show but I googled and no one in the Star Wars franchise has ever said that. My second cousin (I consider him as my nephew) Oliver had not one but two t-shirts with him. The second t-shirt is basically a sweater with Captain Phasma in it.

Everyone was pretty much hungry when we stepped in to the mall so after we got our tickets, we went to this snack stand called ‘Turks’. They’re one of the well-known places in the Philippines that sell shawarma. As someone who hasn’t eaten shawarma since leaving Dubai, I was curious to see what it tastes like.

I ordered a chicken shawarma with cheese, which is a very weird thing to add in a shawarma. I took a bite and while I liked how it tasted, it’s definitely not shawarma. They’re supposed to taste more aromatic especially how strong the garlic flavor is. The shawarma that I tasted from Turks tasted sweet, which shouldn’t be the case. I was not too disappointed by this though. I expected that the shawarma here in the Philippines will never live up to how good it tastes in the Middle East. I definitely see myself eating there again, I'll just call it chicken wrapping sandwich rather than calling it shawarma.

So after we grabbed some snacks to eat inside the cinema, we got our seats and not too long after, the movie started with the Lucasfilm logo. I was like “This is it. It’s here!”

It seems like many of us enjoyed the movie, except for Ate Mott, who said it was boring and slept at some parts of the movie. How do I know? I sat next to her. To be fair on her, she had a busy day at work earlier.

I went back home with Ate Mott and read up how everyone else felt about the movie. I was surprised to see how the movie getting polarizing responses on the internet. Even more so than The Force Awakens where many people agreed that it felt like a bit of carbon copy of ‘A New Hope’. There are people who liked the movie, even considering it their favorite Star Wars movie (like me). And then there are people who hated it, the to point there is an online petition for Disney to strike the movie out of the franchise canon.

I shouldn’t be surprised by this because the Star Wars fandom are a bunch of crybabies who nitpick everything. If ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ is released today, the reception would have been similar.  Just saying.