Roger and DAPO

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Entries for the time being will be short, just so I can get caught up until I have a more stable internet connection and can expand on the outlines.

Afternoon Sunday, traveled south to Paranaque, one of the cities that makes up Metro Manila, see Tito Roger and family at Manila Memorial Garden, where my Lolo (Grandfather) Tomas is buried, along with young Manuel, a brother of my mom's who died when he was young. Families set up canopies, parasols, folding chairs, and picnic blankets to enjoy a day with their ancestors. Roger says the Garden is covered with families who pitch tents and stay overnight to celebrate All Saint's Day on November 1.

At the Memorial is also entombed Ninoy Aquino, a chilling and solemn white tomb above the earth covered by a simple stone canopy. Ninoy's supposed assassin also used to be entombed next to him, but he is no longer there and none of the groundsmen knew where he had been moved.

As an aside, my maternal grandparents both unusually share cemetery plots with nationally recognized figures. My Lola (Grandmother) is buried in Salinas about 100+ yards from John Steinbeck.

Had lunch in Paranaque at the famous Max's Chicken, a Filipino staple. Enjoyed a variety of exotic dishes, most notably two dishes colored green: green mango smoothie, a tart yuppie delicacy that has garnered recent popularity, and buko pandeng, a tapioca/young coconut dish in green-colored coconut milk. Also liked the fresh lumpia ubod, a spring roll wrapped in a tender, cool moo shu-like wrap, surrounding shredded heart of coconut. Still am not a fan of bagoong and kare kare (which I know will inflame the Filipino readers of this blog), though the lichon (pork) and even the daing na bangus (fish) was tasty.

Went to Global City, formerly a part of Fort Bonifacio, to visit a model of the Bellagio condominiums, where my parents are considering purchasing a unit for their retirement. Bellagio looks over the Manila golf course, and the two-bedroom unit was a favorite. After the brief tour of the Bellagio models, we stopped at the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati to finalize our reservation there later in the week.

Traveled Sunday evening to Quezon City in northeastern Metro Manila to celebrate the reunion of my father's fraternity at UP Los Banos, the Fraternal Order of the Grange. En route to the gathering, we took EDSA and marveled at the expansion of supermalls (as immense as the giant malls of New York City and Los Angeles) on the main drag; my parents said in their time, there was nothing along this part of EDSA but fields.

Inducted new scholars into the Fraternity who are receiving scholarships for academic excellence. Met many of my father's brods (frat brothers) and their children, as well as the President of the University of the Philippines, Emerlinda Roman, who gave the keynote talk at the reunion. President Roman is a college friend of my father's, and we planned to see her again in her office at UP Diliman, my mother's alma mater. I also gave a brief talk to the scholarship recipients, and met the first Filipino to scale Mount Everest. Had dinner with Mark and Michelle, children of Tito Aloy, one of my dad's brods; both are training for nursing, though Mark currently works at the technical help call center for XBox 360 in Manila. Mark and I had a good conversation about video gaming, and our interests in RPGs and strategy games are parallel, though he has much more experience in the Final Fantasy series than I do. Lots of picture-taking and socializing followed, and the party broke late. We traveled back to Charter House and slept, having finished a full day.

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Photos

Buko Pandang
Because it's green.

Everest Inspiration
L to R: TJ (Rudy's son), Dale Abenojar (climber), me, Tito Rudy (pulido)