Philippines, 2006

January 31-February 14, 2006

I was invited to the wedding of my cousin to his beautiful wife in the Philippines. They invited me to be a part of their wedding entourage, and since I hadn't seen these guys in almost 9 years, this was going to be a great opportunity. This is my photo blog of my two-week journey.

Work, work, work...

Crunch time for my thesis, so I took my laptop and work with me. I guess I got pretty mad whenever Word gave me formatting headaches.

The Wedding

You might say my cousin had a Hollywood wedding--minus the celebrities. Here are photos from the reception. You'll see me sitting at table with one uncle that resides in the Philippines. In the other photo, I'm making a feeble attempt at dancing.

The Reunion & Our Birthdays

We gathered all of Mom's brothers and sisters, their children, and their grandchildren, for a big reunion. We also celebrated several birthdays: two uncles, a cousin, and me.

The "Trip Around Jerusalem" (a.k.a. musical chairs)

Intramuros

Our trip included a tour of Intramuros. This is the historic site where much confrontation between Filipinos and the Spanish occupation took place. Here I'm standing next to a present-day guard (note the sidearm) dressed in a vintage uniform.

We hopped into a "calesa" or horse-drawn cart and explored Intramuros.

We made a stop at the alma mater of my mother and uncle, the Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT).

We then went to the Jose Rizal memorial in which I learned about this great Filipino man. His spirit lives in the heart of every Filipino. Someday I'd like to write an essay about him. This picture shows me standing next to a glass case. The case contains the lamp in which Rizal hid a letter to his family while he was in prison, awaiting execution.

Here we are, outside the museum by some native fruit trees.

Buting, Pasig

I stayed at the home of my aunt and uncle. There I met Frankie, their very cute live-in. Here are some shots of the two of us.

This picture was taken the night before my other uncle (center) went back to the U.S.

Tagaytay

Went to a country club where my uncle and aunt are members. One of our favorite pasttimes there is bowling. As you can see here, I'm not too good....

We had lunch at the club's fancy restaurant

From Tagaytay, we made a pit stop at a sidewalk cafe overlooking the Taal Volcano. This one cafe served a pretty good halo-halo. What I craved was something a little more "bottled up"

Makati

Makati is the center of "fun" in Metro Manila. Here I was at a Brother's Burgers restaurant. These guys are a newly established burger joint that specializes in juicy flame-broiled burgers. That night I had a double Brother Burger (2 1/3-lb. beef patties), chili-cheese fries with jalapenos, and a Coke.