Second weekend

Monday, September 10, 2012

Hello all,

            Here are some highlights from the past few days:

            This past Thursday we went up to University of the Philippines – Dilliman. We studied our maps and thought we found a good way to walk there that avoided most of the busy roads in the area. While the walk was supposed to talk an hour we ended up meandering quite a bit more than we expected so it took about an hour and a half. While it really wasn’t that hot (probably only in the mid to upper 80s), the humidity meant that we were thoroughly soaked with sweat after about 30 minutes. It wasn’t that pleasant of a walk and when we told some locals what we did they looked at us like we were crazy. So next time we’ll just hop on a jeepney that goes straight up Katipunan to UP campus.

Everyone we’ve asked recommended Chocolate Kiss as the restaurant to try at UP. We were not disappointed and look forward to trying it again next week. 

            We went to UP to attend a concert given by the UP jazz ensemble that featured some compositions by some of the Philippines’ well-respected jazz musicians such as Angel Pena. Before the concert I met a number of people I had been in contact with and some others who seem like great contacts to have. The UP has what seems to be a very vibrant ethnomusicology program so I might try to get involved there a little bit (for example, they’re bringing in the famous ethnomusicologist Tony Seeger for a talk at the end of the month). The concert was really quite impressive and the place was packed (despite the broken air conditioner). We’re heading back this Thursday for a concert of late nineteenth century Spanish/Filipino music.

            After the concert we wanted to take a taxi home since we weren’t quite sure of the jeepney routes and definitely did not want to walk (the sun goes down every night around 6:00 and by 6:30 it gets very dark). It took us about twenty minutes to snag a taxi but there were many jeepneys heading to Katipunan that passed us (next time…). When we finally did get a taxi we wound through some small roads that led out of the UP campus out onto some much larger roads to get back to Marikina City. Katipunan, for example, has five lanes of traffic going each direction. Let me just join everyone else and say that traffic in Manila can be pretty crazy. Our six minute cab ride home was probably one of the most harrowing trips I’ve ever taken. Cars were packed inches apart and as soon as a space would open drivers would aggressively fling their vehicles into the space, regardless of whether or not it was going to cut off other people or was in a part of the road actually going in their direction. Shile we were sitting there white-knuckled, waiting to get into an accident, our cab driver started singing calmly in falsetto along with the radio. Did we mention yet that Christmas season starts here on September 1? So while he was navigating through the mass of cars, vans, trucks, tricycles, jeepneys, and motorbikes, our driver quietly sang: “Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away…” Next time we’re going to take a jeepney back to Ateneo and then just walk through campus.

            

             A few other things: there are many street vendors in our neighborhood and, against the recommendations of all the Americans we know, we bought a turon from the woman in front of our building. Amazingly delicious. We felt fine afterwards so looks like I may have found a new favorite dessert.

            There’s lots of music in the air, whether from loud radios, home karaoke systems, people singing in churches, our Japanese violin-playing neighbor, or other sources. Yesterday morning we heard a brass band off in the distance practicing in the cemetery near us. They were playing a number of familiar march tunes, including "76 Trombones."

            Speaking of karaoke: yesterday we went to SM Mega Mall (one of the biggest malls in Asia) to get supplies. We went into one of the giant supermarkets there that sold many things, including home karaoke sets. In order to move product they have an employee whose job is to demo the karaoke every day. When we walked in, he was singing a Filipino version of James Taylor’s “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight.” We were shopping for tupperware nearby and asked a worker about him. Turns out he's there every day and, she added, he's terrible. He actually didn't sound so bad to us but I can see how that might get grating day after day. [Here's a video of a non-employee singing at the same supermarket that somebody else posted a while ago. The guy we heard was much more a laid-back crooner...]

            Many more stories to come. Thanks for tuning in.