Down the Rabbit Hole

This has got to be one of the weirdest dreams I've had... it's so weird (and vivid) that I woke up and wrote about it! My sister was riding my bike in circles in a grassy area (probably our house's backyard). I was in the garage when something so noisy grabbed my attention. When I looked towards the backyard, I noticed what looked like a mini Space Shuttle flying unsteadily and dropping lower and lower; low enough that it went below the roofs of my neighbors' houses. I thought that it was going to crash somewhere but the roaring noise similar to that of an airplane's could still be heard, as if the mini Space Shuttle was flying very low above the roofs.   As the noise was getting louder (and closer), I just had to run across the garage towards the front yard and the street to see what it looked like. Strangely, none of the neighbors milling around got excited as the aircraft's nose cone scraped the road! I was so near that I could see the details of the...

Two back-to-back long weekends in August. Yes, they came and went so fast that it may have felt like having the carpet pulled off from under one's feet. At times like these, I wish for more long weekends: lots more chances to lounge at home, to go on road trips, or to catch up on watching and folding my laundry. Just like my mom and my dad taught us siblings:  Habang nagpapahinga, naglalaba, nagluluto, naglilinis. (In English: While resting, wash clothes, cook food, clean the house). When Tuesday, the first day of the week following this last long weekend, rolled in, I somehow remembered Pippilotta Longstocking, the heroine in a series of children's books written by Astrid Lindgren. I first encountered Pippilotta -- Pippi, for short -- in a short story in grade school (through the Young America Basic Reading Program). In the short story, Pippi wasn't attending school. She had decided to go to class one day after learning that her two friends, Tommy and Annika, took...

In the movie adaptation of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, Professor Robert Langdon got introduced to cryptologist Sophie Neveu and police officer Bezu Fache in one of the darkened and cordoned off hallways of the Louvre. Beyond the police cordon was the body of the late curator, Jacques Sauniere.  Anyway, I got to think about the Da Vinci Code movie while I was at the National Museum. I had been attracted by the stained glass artwork in the museum so I thought of getting a closer look at them. That's when I stumbled into this vacant hall somewhere inside the Museum of the Filipino People.  Perfect location for a movie set, huh? Yeah. The hallway reminded me of the Louvre as shown in Da Vinci Code film adaptation. Now all this hallway needs is parquet flooring and it could double as a really old museum. Or maybe not; after all, the floor in this hallway also speaks of the past.

Middens are locations were ancient humans threw away their domestic wastes (and may have acted as toilets, as dumps for food scraps and broken cooking and eating gear). These middens are treasure troves for archeologists because they give clues about ancient man's diet and eating habits ( 1 ). At the Museum of the Filipino People, a shell midden indicates that the pre-historic Filipino (if he/she can be already called a Filipino) ate a lot of shellfish. This is far from surprising because the country has a very long coastline. That is thanks to the thousands of islands surrounded by water. According to the caption of the exhibit, shells last longer than bones and may provide more information for archeologists. Ancient man's domestic waste dump Somehow, I imagine that archeologists have to get their hands really dirty to understand what the ancient Filipino was up to. Imagine being excited about their domestic waste! I only shake my head at disbelief. In the...

It must be difficult to be a tourist at the Sistine Chapel. One, the masterpieces are so intricate that I'm sure I'd look at the ceiling paintings for a long time. Two, there are so many things to see that I might be overwhelmed by all the artwork. Three, there are huge crowds all the time, surely, since it's a famous destination. I've never been there; it's still in my bucket list. The closest that I've been to the gawking-at-the-Sistine-Chapel-ceiling-experience, as of yet, was my visit to one of the National Museum's exhibits: various photographs or paintings of features of ceilings of old churches of Bohol. The way the artwork are displayed reminded me of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Yes, there are pieces hanging on the walls like normal paintings but there also are pieces that are suspended horizontally near the exhibit area's ceiling. Alas, I couldn't lie down on the floor; that would just be too weird to the other visitors. I wish ...

On my most recent Manila trip, I had nothing planned for after lunch. I thought that it would be cool to say hello to Juan Luna 's opus at the National Museum so I went there after lunch. Unfortunately, the art gallery (the supposed highlight of my impromptu field trip) is closed until the end of September . So I contented myself with the more anthropological, historical, and biological exhibits at the Museum of the Filipino People. There were several exhibits there during my visit but none of them, thank goodness, became alive in broad daylight!  In hindsight, I wish I had a guided tour. That would have been fun and informative. However, roaming the galleries on my own did allow me to take more time looking at the exhibits that interested me more and then scan the others that didn't interest me as much. This was fun too. One thing's for sure: going around the Museum of the Filipino People as an adult made me appreciate the richness and the roots of my culture a bit mor...

Judging by the image below, not much. Out of the 7, 107 islands, I've only visited six (Luzon, Marinduque, Boracay, Panay Island, Cebu, and Mindoro). I haven't even been to Talim Island, and that's close to where I live! This just means that I still have 7, 101 islands to see and to explore just here in the Philippines.  How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan ! Created by Eugene Villar .