Down the Rabbit Hole

Lola Bats used to say that she and Lolo Bats did not reach the highest levels of education during their youth. It was quite understandable... back in their time, anyone who finished grade school in the Philippines could already get a good job. Lola Bats did not finish grade school but Lolo Bats probably did.  Lola Bats used to tell us that Lolo Bats was a skilled mechanic. He used to work at the well-respected Batangas Transportation Company (BTCo.) during the Commonwealth era. It's one of the most prominent bus companies... it's known as the red bus. More than 50 years later, I (a pre-school student) became a regular passenger of this bus company, typically catching the bus plying the Laguna-Tayabas route (hence the new abbreviation, BLTBCo.) Anyway... Lola Bats had fond stories about Lolo Bats going to work wearing a white uniform. He used to be assigned to fix stalled engines. People in the barrio had a high regard for him because he'd tinker with the problem...

"Are you Indian?" That's the latest among a long list of ethnicity questions I've received over time. Previously, I've been mistaken (outside the Philippines) as Canadian, Korean , Chinese , and Vietnamese . I think that in cases in which I was mistaken as East Asian, the people who made mistakes were not exposed enough to Southeast Asians. Those who thought I was Vietnamese found it difficult to differentiate among Southeast Asians (yes, that group includes me because I'm also stumped at times). And that one time I was mistaken as Canadian was the most surprising yet... because the man who insisted that I was Canadian said that my accent sounded Canadian (not stereotypical Filipino). In school (UC Berkeley Data Analytics and Visualisation boot camp), a classmate asked if I'm Indian. When I said no, he then asked if I had relatives or ancestors who were Indian. Still replying in the negative, I was then asked if I understood Hindi. I said that I wa...

One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe...

One of the first things I had to do was to get my driver's license at the DMV. I had to take two tests before I could be granted the privilege to drive here. The first one was the knowledge test; the second one was the behind-the-wheel test. Knowledge test On the first day I arrived at the DMV, the queue was so long that I didn't have the time to take the test. However, I was allowed to process my paperwork (and pay the fee), take the vision test, and then have my photo taken. I just had to return another day to take the test. On test day itself, I was told that I didn't have to wait in line; I could directly go to the exam room. The technicians there remembered me because I was one of the last clients on my first visit. One of them was very encouraging and made sure that the examinees were relaxed before and during the exam. He also made sure that we understood the instructions before we took the test. I didn't realise immediately that the test was on a touc...

My first trip to Strawberry Hill , the island in the middle of Stow Lake, was not complete because we weren't able to walk around the island. The fog came in fast, abruptly pulling the temperature down. So when I saw my chance to visit it a few weeks later, I jumped on it.  It was a bright afternoon in the Golden Gate Park... not a cloud in sight. The lake was filled with water birds, turtles, and people on rowboats. Squirrels were busily foraging the path for fallen popcorn. It was an enjoyable walk. But I was really looking forward to see the hill's manmade waterfall. Huntington Falls, because it doesn't depend on rain for its water volume, had quite a steady stream of water feeding into Stow Lake despite the drought that California is experiencing. And unlike the other waterfalls I've visited before, the trip to Huntington Falls was just a walk in the park. There was no hiking involved at all. While I was reading about this waterfall, I learned that ...

I first heard about Crazy Rich Asians when the book got published but I never got around to reading it. Then, I learned that Kris Aquino was actually cast in the movie adaptation. That created a buzz in the Philippines because it's quite rare to find a Filipino in the cast of a Hollywood movie. Curious with the role Kris Aquino played, I decided that I wanted to see the movie. ... and then, the movie opened to rave reviews. So I went to the movies with my parents and Tita Babie to see what the excitement was all about. And being Asian who just moved to the Americas, I frankly couldn't relate to the people who had a lot of great opinions about Crazy Rich Asians. What I had, however, were eyeopeners. First, this movie is touted to be a movie that fulfils the demand for Asian-led movies. Perhaps this need is particularly true for the Americas (specifically in Hollywood). In Asia, there is certainly no shortage for movies with Asians portraying characters but there may be...

When Lola Bats was approaching her centennial year, her Christmas wish was to receive P100 cash gifts from each of her grandchildren. I didn't receive the memo so I ended up giving her a bigger amount when I got back to the Philippines from my Christmas trip to California (somehow, the cousins didn't tell me nor Kuya Jun-jun, so we ended up pitching in more).  Lola was so elated with her cash gifts that she kept telling us about it. Kuya Eldie, Richelle, and I asked her if she's willing to treat us to dinner in a restaurant. She said yes, so we (along with Mary Ann) went to Mandarin Palace to eat. On the way to the restaurant, Lola asked Richelle to hold her wallet for her.  In the restaurant, she started worrying about her wallet. She kept asking Nasaan ang pitaka ko? Perhaps, she was concerned that her money might go missing or she didn't have enough money to pay for all the food. We were all laughing because she asked to see her wallet every five minutes on...