Tag Archives: Pinoy

Maligayang Pasko

I’ve been meaning to post more the past week in preparation for Christmas, but work has been killing my time. And to think it’s almost time for the long weekend. Nope, all of our clients are rushing to get their websites ready for 2008, and we just have to comply because…that’s what we get paid for. I hardly have time to write anything at all.

But as much as work can be a lot tiring, one thing’s got me all energized and all that: Christmas! Even if I am not yet done with my Christmas shopping (I keep on forgetting to check this place out for a gift for the parents, and the items I ordered are still not here), even if traffic is horrible, and even if the it’s so cold outside that it’s not funny anymore, Christmas never fails to cheer me up. :) There’s just something about this season that makes me giddy inside — perhaps it’s because it’s His birthday? Yeah, most probably!

And if there’s anyone who knows how to celebrate Christmas, it’s us, Filipinos. I remember spending Christmas with my family in Guam. It was fun because I was with my family, but it was sad because nothing is going on. Imagine — my brother and I were lying down on our beds at 9:00pm Christmas Eve! Ack. I knew then that nothing beats a Filipino Christmas. :)

Aileen started this list of why she thinks Christmas is best spent in the country, and here’s my own list of why a Filipino Christmas is the best Christmas:

Instructions: Just share a warm, fuzzy Pinoy Christmas story or anecdote or photo or whatever it is you love about Christmas (as a Filipino). Link to this blog post so I can share your story in my compilation. Copy and paste the instructions (this paragraph) and then leave a comment so I can check out your post.

  1. Like Aileen, the first one in my list is Simbang Gabi. Althought we did have Simbang Gabi when I spent Christmas in Saipan, it’s filled mostly with Filipinos who live there, so it’s definitely a Filipino tradition. I’ve completed the novena about…four times, I think, and hopefully I complete this year’s. :) One of my favorite times of attending Simbang Gabi was during my junior and senior year in college, where DLSU hosts the first two masses inside the campus since it usually falls on the last days of finals. I remember waking up really early in the dorm, getting dressed (no need for shower yet because it was cold!) and then heading to the ampitheater for the mass. LSPO then serves breakfast for everyone — hot chocolate/coffee, pandesal, puto bumbong. Yum. :9
  2. Caroling. One of the things I wished I did when I was a kid was going Christmas caroling around the village. Since I was the youngest and a girl, plus all my friends are also girls, we couldn’t go far from our street. My brother, however, has lots of Christmas caroling adventures: being chased by dogs, setting some fireworks to some houses who do not give, and of course, earning cash. I remember we used to make the bottle cap (tansan) tambourines. This year, no one’s doing any Christmas caroling at our house; I have a feeling it’s because of Batman, the angry dog. :))
  3. Food! Nothing beats Pinoy Noche Buena. :D Although here at home, our Noche Buena is smaller than our Media Noche (did I spell this right?). Noche Buena at our house for the past five years or so usually consists of KFC Bucket Meal, pizza/pasta, Coke and ice cream. For the past year, though, I’ve insisted on having cake. Why? Well Christmas is His birthday, and it’s just right to have cake! :)
  4. Kris Kringle/Exchange Gifts. I’ve had my share of bad gifts received during exchange gifts, but I love this tradition. There’s the secrecy that is never really followed, plus the thrill of receiving gifts from your “mommy.” It would have been more fun if the people would really cooperate. I remember one time during high school, my “daddy” did not buy me a gift at all. My teacher demanded he give me something…so he gave me P150, since that was the worth of the gift. T__T But even so, I like doing this. I like buying presents for people be it something really hard to find or cheap, like wholesale flowers. :) That and the thrill of trying to get what your baby likes without him knowing you’re his mommy and knowing that he liked your gift after — just priceless.
  5. Christmas shopping. As much as I love receiving presents, buying presents is more than fun! I love getting stuff for the people I love and seeing their faces once they open the gift and it’s something they really like. :D
  6. The Christmas decorations. I love how Filipinos go overboard (in a nice way) with the Christmas decorations. Dark streets glow with life during Christmas because houses are all ablaze with lights. Glum corners become bright and lovely because of all the shiny decorations. I loved hanging out in DLSU’s ampitheater back in college during Christmas because it was just so pretty. :) There’s also the wacky decorations, like this dancing Santa that starts dancing whenever someone goes near it back in my old office, and most especially the Belen. :) There’s this really funky Belen at the office right now that I love seeing everytime I pass by that area. I’ll take a photo of that to show you guys how cute it is. :)
  7. Sending and receiving all the Christmas text messages. Haha, I remember reserving a specific folder for Christmas greetings in my phone and writing them all down after! Then there’s also the telltale network lag, where networks get congested because of all the text messages being sent. :D
  8. All those Christmas specials on TV. Couch potato alert. I love watching all those cheesy Christmas specials on TV every year, especially the Pinoy shows. They never fail to show the importance of family, of giving and most especially, the real Reason for the season. These shows give me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over. :)
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Eeeh, writing this post has made me even more excited! :) Too bad my dad won’t be here for Christmas (but he will be for New Year!), but it’s okay. This Christmas is bound to be memorable — after all, 2007 has grown to be quite a memorable year!

How about you? What’s the best thing you like about Christmas in the country? Or if you’re not Filipino, what’s your favorite thing about Christmas, wherever you are?

Proud to be Pinoy

I was never tagged to do this survey (and I was waiting for a tag, hmph!), but since the holiday’s fitting, I’ll have it up now, regardless of the nontag. Today is the 109th year of Philippine Independence, and yes, that is disregarding the fact that the Americans and the Japanese took over our country afterwards. This is a day that we all celebrate, for we are finally free of the 300+ years of Spanish rule.

And because of this holiday, I’ll be stealing the survey that some people has done for the past weeks, 3 reasons why I’m proud to be Pinoy. I don’t know if I can stick to three reasons only, because being a Filipino is something I am really proud of. :)

  1. Strong family values. I love how Filipinos have strong family values, about how one entire clan can live inside a single compound. It’s not only in the own family, but also in the way other people are treated — everyone of my parent’s friends are my Tito/Tita (Uncle/Aunt), and deep friendships are often compared to brotherhood/sisterhood. Filipino family values run deep, which is a really amazing trait that we have.
  2. Our ability to find laughter in any situation, even at ourselves. It’s not about making fun of people or the situation, but finding the brighter side of each circumstance. I love how even in the most dire situation, Filipinos can still crack a joke to lighten everyone’s moods. :)
  3. The Food. I know I’m an Italian food lover, but seriously, nothing beats Filipino food! Filipino meals are a different combination — the appetizer (soup) and main course are put together in one viand, and one can have as many servings as is permitted to him! The colors, the tastes — one cannot visit a Pinoy home without being full. And then dessert comes. :P Yum!
  4. Our color. I used to dislike my brown skin color, but I realized that this color is something that I should be proud of. For one thing, I am not that susceptible to skin cancer, plus when I go swimming or get exposed to the sun, my color goes darker, but then gradually lightens up. No redness, no peeling skin.
  5. The flexibility of the language. My friends and I were talking about this before, about how alive Filipino language is. It’s already amazing how many dialects there are in the country, and the other thing is that how the language can adapt to other languages. Like how most of our words are influenced by Spanish words — we got their words and made them our own. Or how we can mix Tagalog and English now without sounding really bad (I’m not talking about those who make tusok-tusok the fishball, that’s different :P). Another thing is how our language is not sexist, by having a gender-neutral pronoun to talk about something (i.e. kapatid = brother/sister, asawa = husband/wife).
  6. Flexibility of the people. Put a Filipino in any country and pretty soon, he’ll fit right in. I find it funny how some people I thought were locals or Fil-Ams in Saipan and Guam turn out to be Filipinos who can still speak the language. :) Filipinos are hardworking people who can do everything for the family, which is probably why a lot of people sacrifice for their families in other countries just to help. Mabuhay kayo!
  7. Beautiful, beautiful country. Despite all the traffic, pollution and whatnot, the Philippines is still a beautiful and colorful country.
  8. Bayanihan. It is only in the Philippines that we have this, bayanihan. The picture of people carrying a house to move it to another place is priceless — only Filipinos do this. :)
  9. GK houses in DingalanGawad Kalinga. And since we’re talking about Bayanihan, I could not fail to mention Gawad Kalinga. GK is started by a Filipino to rid of poverty in the country and also in the world, as GK is already present in Papua New Guinea. Being in a GK community is a really different experience. Even if the houses aren’t as grand as the ones in San Diego Real Estate, GK houses are still beautiful (and no doubt, colorful!) in their own way. :) GK is also not about building houses but also building homes. GK works, and I’m not saying that because I’m a volunteer, but because it is true. :) Don’t believe me? I’ll bring you to a GK site one time. ((Which reminds me, I told Pierre I’d plan a Blogger GK visit. Will get to that soon :P))

Well, I went three times the suggestion, but that’s because there is just so many things to be proud of in being a Pinoy. :) That’s why no matter how old and overplayed that Pinoy Big Brother song is, I still feel a kick of Filipino pride every time I hear it. :)

MABUHAY ANG PINOY! Happy Independence Day! :)

Filipinos are Special

It’s not a hidden fact to everyone that I am a Pinoy Big Brother viewer. I don’t think I’m a fan yet since I haven’t subscribed to 24/7 or went to any eviction nights, so let’s just stick to viewer. :P

Anyway, in the light of the recent event that a member of Slovenian Big Brother visiting the Pinoy Big Brother household for the Big Brother Swap, here’s a little tribute to Filipinos that someone posted in the PBB Forum ((No, I am not registered; I just subscribed to feeds. :P)) about how Filipinos are special.

This entry also goes out to Mae, maybe as an affirmation of sorts for what she just posted. :) [Warning, long read! But really, worth it.]

Continue reading Filipinos are Special

2007 Philippine Blog Awards

I’m kind of late in blogging this…but better late than never!

Philippine Blog Awards 2007Early in my days of webdesign, when I was all so into cutesy pink kawaii stuff (Now who remembers that word? :P Kawaii!!!), I joined this site competition thing called The Site Fights (or was it something else? I think there was something like this called The Royal Rumble…wait, that’s wrestling… or The Site Rumble or whatever. Haha I might be wrong), where you join, your site gets evaluated, and once you’re in, there are different levels where you have to get into until you get to be TEH ULTIMATE SITE FIGHTS CHAMPION! Or…something like that. ;) To get into the different levels, people would have to vote for you and the winner with most votes will go to the next level while the rest will remain there. I remember getting into the second to last level, but I couldn’t move out from there because there was this site that looks so…um, kawaii, that everyone votes for it more. And it’s hosted on expages (I was hosted on gurlpages back then :P)…how can she beat me?! Arrogance aside, her site was actually quite…cute. Cuter…er, more kawaii than mine that is. Imagine lots of pink sparkly things, small iframe to hold her tiny text and shaking links…you know? Oh, and everyone still thinks the “Me, You, WWW” is still teh coolest thing for site navigation back then. ;)

When I realized that I might never move out of that place, I gave up and didn’t want to work on it anymore, until I moved to another host and forgot about it altogether.

But that’s not my point. The point here is…the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards is totally different from this. ;) I quote:

The Philippine Blog Awards aims to recognize notable FIlipino-owned blogs in their respective niches. With topics ranging from the arts, culture, technology and politics, Filipinos have become more abreast because of the fast growing blogging industry here and abroad. The Philippine Blog Awards is a venue to showcase notable blogs with quality content that engages readers from around the globe.

As Shari and Darwin said, this isn’t some contest you join and you’d get a blinkie to display on your site. No, no, this is bigger, better and more exciting, especially when you see the prizes! A trophy is better than a blinkie, yes? Of course.

And that 30GB iPod Video again. Lord, will this be my chance? Pleaaaase?

Nominations are open until February 28, so go and nomitate the blogs you think are worthy of winning the best in the these categories. :)

From the Blog Parteeh ’07 to the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards…2007 sure is shaping up to be a great year for the Pinoy Bloggers. :)