Down the Rabbit Hole

It was a cold evening, that Christmas Eve... perfect for the party's theme: "ugly" sweater... I put quotation marks for ugly because the sweaters, despite being pretty, are deemed stereotypes for the holidays. I didn't know that there was a theme until my mom insisted that I get a Christmas-themed sweater... so I got one with Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer. The host for this year's party is Tita Babie and family. As always, her house is fully decked for the holidays. So many fairy lights outlining her house even in the dead of night! Inside the house, the party atmosphere was in full swing. The kids were all playing, the adults were all catching up with stories over delicious food. Tita Babie's house is also fully decorated for the holidays with angels, Christmas villages, and lit gift boxes. It feels like being in a crowded Santa's workshop, methinks. Except that there are no elves tonight. Ate Maddie brought some desser...

Christmas Day is typically for opening gifts and lazing around the house (in our family). But because I was around for a limited time only, this year's festivities included going to the beach in winter ( again ). We went on a road trip to Monterey 's Cannery Row area for Christmas lunch. After lunch, we had a few hours of sunlight left so we extended our road trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea  and ended up by the beach. The last time I was here, I walked around the city with my parents. This time, we skipped all that and proceeded straight to the beach where we all enjoyed watching the sun slowly set on the Pacific. As soon as the sun set, we had to rush up to the road again because we only had a few minutes of light left. We didn't want to be stuck on the beach without a flashlight on us, after all. It's a unique Christmas, certainly... my family's complete for the first time in a long time. Cold, sand-covered, and winded. But happy. One of my wishes...

This Christmas season is one of the biggest for my family. It may not be a white Christmas, depicted by this snowman at Alliance Française de Manille , because we're not staying where the Christmas storm is falling today (e.g., New York City, Boston, Detroit, Chicago)...   ... But it's the first Christmas in many years that my family is complete. My parents are obviously very happy that their kids are together for the holidays, despite my brother, my sister, and my mom going back to work the day after. At least we're all in the same country this time. My dad is avid about maintaining health. Since we were little, he has been encouraging us to choose playing outdoors than staying inside the house. True to form, instead of us hitting the gym after our breakfast, we ended up hiking along the rolling hills in Lime Ridge. Mommy stayed at home though. I suspect that there will be more feasting because the holidays has just begun. 

In August 2017, I was within three kms of what is touted as the world's best restaurant, Noma, because I was Copenhagen for a few days. In the Philippines, I've had the honour of befriending some of the best chefs in the country because of Madrid Fusión Manila  and of the Heirloom Rice Project . In each country I visit, I make sure that I eat at some of its best restaurants, just like Zeughauskeller  (Zürich), Rokurinsha  (Tokyo), and Bhojohori Manna  (Kolkata). However, I typically choose where to eat when I get to the city (or my family does the choosing), rather than planning where to eat before flying in... because on many occasions, the best food are found in holes-in-the-wall  and the discovery of something new is always a good feeling. There are hits and misses, of course. If we take Wikipedia's word, I can be described as a "foodie", someone who seeks new food experiences as a hobby ; although I also do eat out because of convenience and hunger....

This holiday season, I'm visiting my family again. But as always, I choose to visit a new airport en route. This time, I flew into Newark, New Jersey. It's my first time to be in the East Coast, I think... the closest I've been to here was when I flew in to Detroit  in 2012. I arrived at night and had quite a bit of a lay-over before my flight to the Pacific Coast. The airport wasn't as crowded as I expected because I came during the slow hours.  As my flight's boarding time neared, I noticed that the crowd starting getting bigger. A lot of people flying into San Francisco, I see... My flight is at sunrise; hence, the glorious view outside my window. Sitting back and settling into my seat, I was getting excited about seeing my family after several months. As United, my airline of choice for this trip, promises: it's going to be a season of happy holidays indeed.

My exposure to African cuisine is quite limited. There was that random lunch at Le Kilimanjaro in Newtown (upon searching, I learned that this restaurant has since closed). Then there's Asmara Restaurant in Oakland. So, to improve my exposure to this continent's food culture (I know, job hazard ), I just had to try Beninese cuisine when I stumbled upon it. The first thing I noticed? The food choices I made were not as exotic as I was expecting (thanks to the Ethiopian food I've tried previously). It's almost like eating Filipino food!  I tried fried golden tilapia . But instead of pairing it with steamed rice, I ate the fish with a mix of couscous, green peas, and carrots. The couscous reminded me of that time (many years ago) I was with Ate Maddie, Kuya Mitchie, Anna, and Biboy at Cafe Mediterranean in Rockwell. Kuya Mitchie definitely didn't enjoy the couscous... and I understand now why: we don't know how to properly prepare couscous! The couscou...

As a child, I used to play the board game Monopoly with my siblings and my friends. It's a good game to learn how to add and subtract but my memory is now blurry about how we built houses and hotels in the different properties around the board. Two decades later, I was once again sitting in front of a Monopoly board... but this time, the places referred to were in France. Champs-Élysées is one of the most expensive spots on the board, for instance, instead of Boardwalk (in the standard version). The cards and the player guide were also in French! The kids I was playing with speak French as their native language and weren't used to speaking in English. I, on the other hand, could easily shift from English to Filipino but my French listening and oral skills are still shot. So it must have been interesting to see us play the game, even if it's such a slow one. There were a lot of interruptions as players flipped through a French-English dictionary; as questions were ...

I have only encountered a dust haze once before, in South Korea , because I don't think that it reaches far into archipelagic Southeast Asia . So when I arrived in West Africa, I found the ambiance quite different... ethereal, almost. I could even point my camera directly into the sun to take a photo! This haze, called Harmattan haze, is actually caused by dust swept up from the Sahara and blown over West Africa. It blankets cars with reddish brown dust and keeps the sky grey. The lake and the sea looked like there's a storm coming... or at least that's what I'd associate grey skies with. But the weather was hot and dry, so I knew that it wouldn't be raining any time within the day.  The gloomy early hours were always  replaced by glorious golden hours, thanks to the particulates that scatter light in the sky. I found the sunsets very pretty... remembering the glorious  Manila Bay sunsets that always stop me in my tracks. 

Hello again, Atlantic Ocean!  It's a good, balmy day to hit the beach. But when I saw how strong the waves were, I decided I wasn't brave enough to step into the wet sand. The strong tide reminded me of a nugget of wisdom given by my tour guide in O'ahu last year: if you don't want to get swept by the tide, stay on the dry sand. No wonder there weren't any swimmers in the water... and the beach wasn't peppered by people sun-bathing or walking. A strange sight because I'm used to seeing beaches with people, even in winter . But what the beach lacked in people, it sufficed with wildlife. No, I didn't spot many  birds (not like in O'ahu) but I was able to see crabs in the sand. When the haze cleared up a bit, I noticed a man sitting by the beach, seemingly deep in thought. And I also spotted fish being dried right on the beach. No idea what these fish are though. But the guy who caught the fish was guarding it and was quite ...

While at the library of Alliance Française de Manille , I sat through an afternoon session of a children's French class. I was utterly speechless because I heard these kids speaking the language better than I do! A child was speaking about the contents of a book, starting with "Regardez..." and then continued on . Thus, I thought that maybe , it would be fun to learn how to practise with children because they aren't afraid of losing face when they make grammatical errors. So when I had a chance to be surrounded by children who only  spoke French, I grabbed it. They were indoors while their parents were talking outdoors. Because the kids (there were three girls and one boy) might knock down artwork or break glass, I was tasked to distract them. No worries, I thought. In the worst case scenario, I'd do charades with them, the same way I communicated in Hong Kong when my cousins and I couldn't find the hotel we were staying in. And then the conversation start...

After a thought-provoking visit to the sea , it's time to have a bit of adventure on a lake. Les Rives de Toho. I initially thought that kayaking on the lake was on the agenda (and I wasn't exactly wearing waterproof clothes) but it turned out that the highlight was lunch on a floating restaurant somewhere in the middle of the lake! So, donning a life jacket, I took my seat in the motor boat and looked forward to a good ride on the water. Looking backwards, I instantly remembered wakeboarding on Caliraya Lake .  But because there's no wakeboarding in the agenda today, I enjoyed taking photos of the view instead. One thing I noticed was that boats on Lac Toho did not have those outriggers ( katig )   that Filipino boats typically have. I'd be quite intimidated to ride the outrigger-less boats because I think that they can easily tilt over. At the same time, I admire the balance of the fishermen, the boat driver, and the passengers of such boats ...

Bénin used to be known as the Kingdom of Dahomey before the French colonised it. Prior to this trip, I got intrigued by its involvement in the slave trade... that has led to the diaspora of Africans into different parts of the world, mostly in the Americas. However, my knowledge about this is highly limited. I have encountered stories of African-Americans demanding for equal rights and justice... and I've seen the monuments erected at San Jose State University , lauding African-Americans who, in the past, weren't recognised for the achievements they earned. But I know very little about how it all began. My interest was piqued because the Philippines didn't have a strong history of slave trade despite the Spaniards colonising the country. There must have been some slave trade in the country when warring tribes had prisoners of war... but this has not been discussed in detail in history class. The African experience was more widespread and documented. For people inter...