Prague, then and now

If you couldn't already tell from my previous posts about it, touring Europe with the Ateneo College Glee Club was a life-changing experience. There is nothing like being 19 and traipsing all over Europe for free, getting to see and experience things tourists don't, and doing what you love everyday with people who will become your friends for life. 

My memories of Prague from over a decade ago are all tour memories. And those memories were so good, I couldn't help but try and retrace our footsteps.

The Philippine Embassy organized a concert for us inside the National Museum, which was pretty awesome. 

It was kind of hilarious to go back to the National Museum and find another bunch of lost, badly dressed Asian tourists carrying plastic bags in front of it, exactly where we were 11 years ago. 

I had to take a picture of the KFC in front of the museum because we all have memories of nearly dying of hunger there while waiting to be served by the slowest, rudest, most disinterested staff of all time. Working for an American fast food franchise must be the kiss of death for proud Europeans. 

We were the Glee Club "kiddies" back then. We all went up to Prague Castle but didn't go inside because it was already closed. Rehearsals and performances took first priority, and we tried to do what sightseeing we could after official business was over.



Me in the same spot overlooking Prague, sans kiddies. We all live in different places now: Manila, Singapore, the US, Amsterdam. Miss you guys and wish you were all here with me.

Another guardia civil. This one is not allowed to move or smile, unlike the friendly one at Charles Bridge. P.S. I remember being very worried about looking fat in this outfit 11 years ago. I was very conscious about my arms. Pakshet.



This time I actually got to go inside Prague Castle on a walking tour with Sandemans New Europe. We had a very enthusiastic, entertaining and knowledgeable guide, a Czech student named Filip. Here he is passionately questioning why the biggest pillar-less hall in Europe (on left) is no longer used for its original purpose: indoor jousting.



Filip also pointed out that the immense St. Vitus Cathedral was started in the 1300s, but remained unfinished until 1929. That's the reason why, quite bizarrely, the likenesses of four men in business suits are carved into its Gothic exterior (top right). They were the committee who spearheaded the completion of the church. Very quirky, and almost... Pinoy. I kind of like it.



A young, pre-bangs, pre-hair color, pre-upper lip wax moi on Charles Bridge. Rina had just chopped off four inches off my hair that morning. Incidentally, Rina also brought me to get my first dye job and upper lip wax at Azta Salon many years later. Haha! Also, note all the high waisted mom jeans in the background.

Eleven years later... I think I actually look better, although I wish I had stayed skinny. Or maybe I just have a better camera now!

Aside from the 30 statues lining Charles Bridge, there are also a number of bronze plaques that are supposed to bring you good luck if you rub them. At the time, all of us rubbed them with the aim of winning a big international competition... that we subsequently lost. But I also recall there was one you rubbed if you wished to return to Prague. I think it's the one I'm rubbing in this photo.

Well, I don't know if I rubbed with the wrong intent. But it worked... I did return to Prague! (I have also done this in Paris and Brussels, and returned each time.) I made sure to rub another one just in case. And I made Marlon do it too.

I don't know exactly what we were rubbing them for. But if they grant me either good luck or a return trip to this beautiful city, I won't complain!

Home alone

i just dropped marlon off at the airport for a four-day business trip to kobe (as in beef). and while i love coming home to the quiet solitude of our little place with its cozy lighting, newlywed furniture and manic kitten, i could use a sleepover at someone else's house just about now. 

agree or disagree: sleepovers are a staple of a girl's life. do guys sleep over as much as we do? i don't think so. 

my sleepover history started in second grade, when my mom and her then-BFF tita nettie decided to introduce their daughters to each other, spawning a lifelong friendship and a spate of almost-weekly sleepovers. i still remember my first sleepover at chiara's house -- she told ghost stories that ingrained in me a staunch refusal to sleep with (1) my hair spread out over a pillow, (2) feet pointed towards a closet or door, (3) with closet doors open, and (4) in front of a mirror, to this very day.

i think i stopped sleeping over at friends' houses when i lost touch with chiara and nash, two of my childhood best friends (probably because my mom didn't trust any of my school friends enough for me to go and sleep over at their houses). 

in college, when my mom decided she would rather entrust me to friends then make me commute home in the dead of night after glee club rehearsals or performances. thus began a sleepover renaissance, and my kaladkarin days: sleeping over at leo's, pia's, dianne laserna's, justine's, gids', lesley/mags', eunice's, gutsy's, chris', gp's, maggie's, mimoy's. (omigad ang dami. i'm sure kulang pa yan.) 

while they were mostly necessities, college sleepovers were also the most fun i ever had. maybe it was because they usually were with big crazy groups of people, involved cry-your-eyes-out laughter and eat-till-you-burst food, and were flavored with anything from adversity (preparing for a tour, reviewing for philo orals) to whimsy (midnight baking frenzies) or obsession (marathon tv series) for that extra kick.

what do you know, i started out sleepy -- now i'm just sentimental. that tells me that it's time for bed. good night.

Friends and strangers

spotted midweek at the mac store in cathay cineleisure on orchard: leo!

how i wish. but this random dude was a shockingly close doppelganger, down to that green t-shirt leo always wears. he even had a starbucks kwofi in hand! 

this happens to me often -- i've seen a spitting image of maggie crossing the road, a demi-pia in a magazine (wearing capri pants and a giant fuschia pink bag no less), a jett from behind (down to the shuffling walk, big jeans, and ponytail! marlon quipped: "well, it couldn't have been jett if she was awake"), a female jonel, even a male rina.

friends showing up in strangers, and the foreign almost always turning into a reflection of the familiar. i guess i must be missing home.

Spanish Saturday, subtitle Sunday

firefox shut down on me unexpectedly and i just lost a long, happy, impassioned post i wrote about starting spanish lessons yesterday and subtitling my portfolio today.

syet. feel na feel ko pa naman siya.

i'll recreate it when i'm not so bummed anymore. besides gotta get back to work. (work on extracurricular projects, not work work, so don't worry.) in the meantime i'll post something i wrote today that's not so long, but packs quite a punch.

toodles.

Meet the kiddies

from left to right: me, gids, pia, leo, maggie and jonel. m.i.a.: tor (off being a fashionista in nueva york), mimoy (off being a fledgling opera singer in indiana) and loi (off being an aspiring music student/auditionee at time of photo).

a brief history of the kiddies: we were the youngest members of the glee club when it spun off into being the acs; some of us had just stepped up from being trainees. as the tendres (late-thirties and above) and the semi-tendres (mid-twenties and above) seemed to naturally aggregate in and out of our little sphere of choral music, so did we. i don't remember who started calling us "kiddies" (short for "glee club kiddies" or "acs kiddies) , but it kind of fit, since we -- and others -- would always see ourselves as the kids of the group.

the kiddies are the friends i thought i had. until recently, when i had the great pleasure of rediscovering that they are the friends i really do have. i won't expect that to make sense, but that's what it is.

these photos were taken at our march kiddie dinner in north park -- the first of the monthly kiddie gatherings that i'd ever been to. we had another one just last week at maggie's house, when loi got back, where we sated ourselves with pizza, loi's lomi, banana walnut praline cake from roshan samtani (incidentally maggie's neighbor), pugon, red iced tea, and wonderful company.

landmark ladies: me, gids and pia

bisayas + papista: leo, mags and jonel

over lomi that night, pia declared: "i love being with you guys! i'm so lucky to have you!"

i didn't say it then, but i agree with her. i guess these these photos are like a delayed outburst of my own.

i'm the first among the kiddies to move into a world that's not so kiddie-like: away from the world of school and first jobs into marriage and the eventual family of my own. but i take immense joy in the knowledge that part of me, the part that loves these guys and fully enjoys the friendship we share, will always, always be a kiddie.