Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Valentines Day 2010
Valentine's Day was so wonderful this year that I was really sad when Austin had to go to work the next day. I didn't want him to go and I was sad the whole day. I woke up at 6:30 am just to watch him get ready for work. That's how good the day was for the both of us because he missed me too. I am very blessed to have a wonderful partner, best friend, and lover.
Because my brain can only remember so much, I don't remember every detail of my three Valentine's days. For the first one, I remember getting 30 Nancy Drew hardbacks and oriental lillies. He surprised me with the flowers because he said that he didn't believe in cut flowers since they die and he didn't want that to be a symbol of our relationship. I was very happy that he got them for me and I jumped onto him for joy. I love that he went to Half Price books, found as many as he could, and got them for me. Then there were other things that we did...like eat and stuff but the details I'll keep to myself.
The second one, I don't remember as much because it was the middle of our busy season and we were both really stressed. I do remember doing something fun because I told my co-workers about it and they gushed and I got flowers of course--red carnations or roses. I don't remember because our anniversary was 2 months after that so I am confusing my flowers at the moment. Anyway, I searched through my gmail chat history and I found in my chat with Arnie that we made dinner together (sockeye salmon, garlic mashed potatoes, red wine, red velvet cake, and grilled asparagus). I just remembered that he got me a life jacket so I wouldn't drown for our trip to Hawaii! He is so sweet.
For this year, we started out with making breakfast together. He got up early and surprisingly went to Pike Place Market to buy fresh produce like bell pepper, garlic that looked like green onions, sweet onion, wild mushrooms, mangoes, and croissants from La Panier. For flowers, he got me the fragrant paper white. Because I requested chocolate pancakes, he bought chocolate pancake mix and because I love mangoes, we had orange mango juice. Thus for brunch, we had the freshest omelet that I ever had, fresh mangoes, warm, buttery croissants, orange mango juice, and chocolate pancakes. Then, we watched the Blues Brothers because it was on the list of movies I had to watch to understand American culture and some of Austin's movie quotes that tells me sometimes. For dinner, we went to Purple in downtown. We got to dress up for the occassion, had fresh oysters that had red fish eggs on top(colored for the occassion), mixed salad in berry sauce, I had rack of lamb while he had steak, wine from France, apple pie with cardamom, and brownie cooked with syrah. We finished it off with a tisane for me and tea for Austin. The rest of the night was just as wonderful and I didn't want to sleep because it meant the night would end. But I had to finally sleep because he had to go to work the next day.
Our dates, celebrations, and holidays are always centered around food. I went into great detail about what we ate because we both love to eat and cook together. I love exploring the culinary arts with my boyfriend and cooking together has taught us that we are two different cooks but we somehow find a way to work together and come up with something delicioius. We have tiny tiffs sometimes when we cook but we get past them.
We realized that we don't have as many activities that we share but one thing we do that is most important is food, cooking, reading, and learning. Thank goodness we have those since he's not into dancing as much as I am and I'm not into video games as he is. We have different tastes in music and going out on a Friday night means different things to the two of us.
But I love what I have right now and I hope that it stays like this forever.
Because my brain can only remember so much, I don't remember every detail of my three Valentine's days. For the first one, I remember getting 30 Nancy Drew hardbacks and oriental lillies. He surprised me with the flowers because he said that he didn't believe in cut flowers since they die and he didn't want that to be a symbol of our relationship. I was very happy that he got them for me and I jumped onto him for joy. I love that he went to Half Price books, found as many as he could, and got them for me. Then there were other things that we did...like eat and stuff but the details I'll keep to myself.
The second one, I don't remember as much because it was the middle of our busy season and we were both really stressed. I do remember doing something fun because I told my co-workers about it and they gushed and I got flowers of course--red carnations or roses. I don't remember because our anniversary was 2 months after that so I am confusing my flowers at the moment. Anyway, I searched through my gmail chat history and I found in my chat with Arnie that we made dinner together (sockeye salmon, garlic mashed potatoes, red wine, red velvet cake, and grilled asparagus). I just remembered that he got me a life jacket so I wouldn't drown for our trip to Hawaii! He is so sweet.
Our dates, celebrations, and holidays are always centered around food. I went into great detail about what we ate because we both love to eat and cook together. I love exploring the culinary arts with my boyfriend and cooking together has taught us that we are two different cooks but we somehow find a way to work together and come up with something delicioius. We have tiny tiffs sometimes when we cook but we get past them.
We realized that we don't have as many activities that we share but one thing we do that is most important is food, cooking, reading, and learning. Thank goodness we have those since he's not into dancing as much as I am and I'm not into video games as he is. We have different tastes in music and going out on a Friday night means different things to the two of us.
But I love what I have right now and I hope that it stays like this forever.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thoughts About Being Pinoy
There are Pinoys who argue who is more Pinoy. I want to say that I am not one of those who argue about this but I do. I am embarrased to say that when I see someone who is usually second generation pinoy, I start judging them. I belittle their actions that I do not consider to be pinoy such as showing off and acting what Austin says is hood rich. Then I realize pinoys in the Philippines do act hood rich. Acting hood rich trancends race, countries, and cultures.
Austin's lolo said that the SU kids are stuck up thus acting Tagalog (I am Ilokano, which is a region in the PI while Tagalogs are from the capital. Thus, it's a regional rivalry). He is a proud Ilokano man although blood wise he is not but culturally he considers himself ilokano and values ilokano ideals. He is an interesting man. So then, we are in a discussion about how being pinoy mean different things depending on where your fanily grew up in the philippines. Then the issue is regional versus the philippines as a whole.
So why do we argue about it, whether out loud or keep it bottled in our head like I do? I think a possible solution is that those here are afraid of losing their link to the philippines and the culture that they need to rank themselves against others to make themselves feel better. Another possible explanation is that pinoys just like to compare everything. I grew up being compared to people. My actions were always compared to someone. That was how I knew where I fit in the social standing.
But why do I do it? Before I did it bc I was embarrassed with their actions like cutting class, smoking, having sex at early age. I did not want to be associated to them But I realized those vices trancend to other cultures too. Now I think I do it bc I can speak the language better than them. But I try not to do that anymore. I am going out with a fourth generation pinoy and I learned a lot from him. Most especially that he doesn't need to be first generation to understand me. The foundation he received are similar to mine and he understands the culture. If he doesn't, then he is wonderful enough to respect it and I am thankful for that. The more I interact with the second generation and those who have been here longer, I found that they are alright. They understand me better than I expected and vice versa. However, the stuck up pinoys are still here so I try hard not to deal with them too much. I have great pinoy friends and I am surprised that I am friends with this many because until college, I was under the impression that all pinoys who moved to America lost their Pinoyness. In middle school and high school, I was not friends with one except Ahlem (who was gay but I didn't know that). They told me I wasn't pinoy enough bc I didn't join their gang or participate in their misdeeds. The audacious nerve that they had. At that point I was still a newbie and well protected from being americanized by my parents. So I was more pinoy than them. But now, I think we are on the same level. It is sad and good at the same time.
It's sad because I fear that I am slowly losing my culture. On the other hand, I plan on being an American for the rest of my life and I do not want to fight it. I love being American but being American slowly erases my culture and my past. It's a constant discussion between Austin and I because he is fourth generation but I'm first generation. In him, I see what will become of my great-grand children and although I love Austin just the way he is, I can't fully accept yet that my future generation will most likely not look, speak, and eat like me. Culturally, the PI will be foreign to them and it'll only be through luck that they'll probably visit the PI. The PI will always be alien to them. I fear that my future generation won't be proud to be Pinoy and won't understand what it means to be Pinoy. If my kids are anything like me, they'll most likely marry someone who isn't pinoy because they will like to try different people from different backgrounds.
I wonder if it's possible that I'll get a red-headed great-grand child?
Austin's lolo said that the SU kids are stuck up thus acting Tagalog (I am Ilokano, which is a region in the PI while Tagalogs are from the capital. Thus, it's a regional rivalry). He is a proud Ilokano man although blood wise he is not but culturally he considers himself ilokano and values ilokano ideals. He is an interesting man. So then, we are in a discussion about how being pinoy mean different things depending on where your fanily grew up in the philippines. Then the issue is regional versus the philippines as a whole.
So why do we argue about it, whether out loud or keep it bottled in our head like I do? I think a possible solution is that those here are afraid of losing their link to the philippines and the culture that they need to rank themselves against others to make themselves feel better. Another possible explanation is that pinoys just like to compare everything. I grew up being compared to people. My actions were always compared to someone. That was how I knew where I fit in the social standing.
But why do I do it? Before I did it bc I was embarrassed with their actions like cutting class, smoking, having sex at early age. I did not want to be associated to them But I realized those vices trancend to other cultures too. Now I think I do it bc I can speak the language better than them. But I try not to do that anymore. I am going out with a fourth generation pinoy and I learned a lot from him. Most especially that he doesn't need to be first generation to understand me. The foundation he received are similar to mine and he understands the culture. If he doesn't, then he is wonderful enough to respect it and I am thankful for that. The more I interact with the second generation and those who have been here longer, I found that they are alright. They understand me better than I expected and vice versa. However, the stuck up pinoys are still here so I try hard not to deal with them too much. I have great pinoy friends and I am surprised that I am friends with this many because until college, I was under the impression that all pinoys who moved to America lost their Pinoyness. In middle school and high school, I was not friends with one except Ahlem (who was gay but I didn't know that). They told me I wasn't pinoy enough bc I didn't join their gang or participate in their misdeeds. The audacious nerve that they had. At that point I was still a newbie and well protected from being americanized by my parents. So I was more pinoy than them. But now, I think we are on the same level. It is sad and good at the same time.
It's sad because I fear that I am slowly losing my culture. On the other hand, I plan on being an American for the rest of my life and I do not want to fight it. I love being American but being American slowly erases my culture and my past. It's a constant discussion between Austin and I because he is fourth generation but I'm first generation. In him, I see what will become of my great-grand children and although I love Austin just the way he is, I can't fully accept yet that my future generation will most likely not look, speak, and eat like me. Culturally, the PI will be foreign to them and it'll only be through luck that they'll probably visit the PI. The PI will always be alien to them. I fear that my future generation won't be proud to be Pinoy and won't understand what it means to be Pinoy. If my kids are anything like me, they'll most likely marry someone who isn't pinoy because they will like to try different people from different backgrounds.
I wonder if it's possible that I'll get a red-headed great-grand child?
Not a smartphone so can't send photos to blog
So I found out that my cell which is not a smart phone cannot send pics from my phone to my blog. Sad because I like to take pics and videos on my phone as a photo diary which I could've shared with you guys. I back up the photos and videos that I take on my phone so that if I lose my phone, I don't lose the photos that trigger memories.
.
.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
