This weekend was the only time that we could find to fit in a visit to a museum this month, as the majority of the month will be spent traveling for Christmas (One more week! I'm so excited that I'll be in Myanmar soon.) and next week I am in the provinces with a group of students for a week of community service.
Hanging Zen Garden
Needless to say, with all of the stress and busyness that comes with the end of the semester we did not want an all day commitment for our museum visit. Turns out that there is a second museum in Makati, one of the closest neighborhoods to where I live, and so we set off to visit the Yuchengco Museum. It is a fairly new museum, having been started in 2005 to house the private collection of Ambassador Alfonso T Yuchengco. Located on four small floors, the museum seems to be mostly dedicated to changing exhibits with a few small rooms of permanent works on display. One of those permanent installations is a hanging zen garden of paper rocks that was a definite focal point.
Special Exhibit: Blessing Manila
Butterfly symmetry
The exhibit on display during our visit was a entitled Blessing Manila and had two floors of work by the Taiwanese artist Yang Ding Xian. We were absolutely enthralled by his symmetrical butterfly pieces that resembled kaleidoscope images on the third floor. Then when we hit the ground floor and came across some mountain inspired work a woman stepped up to us and said "You know, that is the artist right there." So we had the unexpected pleasure of spending 20 minutes talking with Mr. Xian about his work and his inspiration while a nice older man generously translated for us. I will admit that having that opportunity not only made me appreciate his work a lot more, but made me realize just how special it can be to truly understand what an artist is trying to represent with his work. I would have never dreamed that our random museum choice would result in a one-on-one discussion with the featured artist, but it definitely made for a special visit.
Katie listing to Yang Ding Xian
Yuchengco Museum
RCBC Plaza
Corner Ayala and Senator Gil J. Puyat Avenues
Makati City, Metro Manila
Hours: Mon-Sat 10 am-6 pm
Entry Fee: 100 pesos
I thought that perhaps it was time to add an update on Christmas decorations, so you could get a sense of how over the top things get. It has taken me a while to get this together, so this is an idea of where things were in mid-November. Towards the start of the month I noticed that the red star and green Christmas tree had reappeared on the stop lights in my area of town, making me smile as I wait to cross the street.
SM Aura's sea themed decorations
The malls have gone all out. The one closest to me choosing an underwater theme this year, which I suppose is appropriate for the Philippines. I must admit their decorations are beautiful, even if they don't exactly evoke a Christmas feeling to me. I was a bit confused when I waited in line the other day to enter the display only to find a wrap around screen showing basically an aquarium tunnel. No Santa's snorkeling, no reindeer or snow. Not at all what I expected after last year.
Powerplant mall is decked out
Of course other malls have gone the traditional route. With hanging lights and green trees. In fact Powerplant Mall was so decked out I found it a bit overwhelming. Green garland decked hallways, a huge tree....and then African Saharan animals with scarfs. Ummm...okay. The penguins on the other side of the lobby made a bit more sense to me. Until you start to think that no part of the Philippines gets cold enough for those birds. Sometimes you just have to suspend your sense of reality and enjoy the festive holiday spirit for what it is.
I guess I shouldn't be too surprised at the over the top decorations this year. After all I saw them last year. When we ventured out to a local market recently it was just stall after stall of Christmas, more Santas then I had ever seen together before. It does just make me wonder where do all the decorations go the other 8 months a year? I do need to get myself out after dark to a couple of places that will begin sound and light shows with the start of December, giving me the opportunity to realize that it does continue to ramp up as we get closer to the holiday.
We headed out this weekend with very little in mind for our museum trip. Rather a realization that November was coming to an end and we were running out of time if we wanted to follow through on our goal. So I went looking for a museum that was open on Sunday, and decided upon the National Museum. Turns out the National Museum has a couple of building, having taken over some of the old legislation sites in Manila. I decided upon the National Museum of Fine Arts for no real good reason except that it was there and I could find the name of it to look up when requesting a taxi. Needless to say I had no idea what we were getting into with a visit to this weekend. But hey, it is open, and as an added bonus is free to the public all the time.
Bright walls!
I was not prepared for the bright walls that greeted us as we explored the ground floor galleries. Although I suppose in some ways they helped to brighten up the sometimes dark 18th century paintings. I'll admit I wasn't all that into the painting that were on display. Although I did find it interesting to note that the portraits, at least, were of Filipino people, easily distinguishable as they wore the recognizable traditional pina fabric made partially out of pineapple fiber. I was also fascinated by the sculptures that were made from concrete, marble being too expensive or not available. To be honest though, I found myself more distracted by the bright walls than engaged in the paintings.
One of my favorite statues, although I don't think this one was concrete.
So then we had to decide if it was worth heading upstairs to check out another level of galleries. We're here, might as well, right? I was relieved to find the work on this floor more colorful (and the walls less colorful) and modern, more to my taste. In fact I found some work by Vicente Silva Manansala, the National Artist for Painting in 1981, that I quite liked. Not only was the majority of his work of local scenes (landscapes, cock fights, religious ceremonies, etc) his use of color and shapes were quite appealing to me.
Isda, The Philam Life Manansala Series (No 7)
All in all we spent about an hour and a half in the National Museum. It was worth a visit, especially if you enjoy old buildings. I particularly liked the stairwell near the entrance and the handles on the gallery doors reminding you that you were in the National Museum. All in all, a pretty good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
One of the things that I really enjoy about the area I live in is that there are a pile of murals (just ask my mom, when she came to visit I made her go walking to see most of them) and new ones are getting painted every year. It seems that there is a mural festival in BGC every year, not that it is all that well advertised, nor it is easy to find out where new murals are going up. But in some ways that just makes it more fun, more of a discovery when you realize that there is a new one over there, behind that building.
Stranger Things inspired mural on my walk to school
When I was walking down High Street recently I saw the top of a mural (the first picture) that I had not seen before, which led me on a wander around the fort to see if there were other new murals up. I found three, and saw two more this weekend that were in the process of being painted, although I know that it is not currently the mural festival, that happens sometime towards the end of the school year.
Traditions inspired
In any case it is fun to have something to "discover" when walking around the neighborhood, and I love being able to watch the evolution of some of them go up. (Although I will admit I'm not so thrilled that they are painting over my favorite one.)
October always seems to be one of those months when life and work just get busy. It has been great in some ways, as I feel like I'm finally out of my apartment more than I am in it, but frankly it is a bit exhausting. I'm very much looking forward to the week long break we have coming up, and can't wait for a bit of down time.
Katie and I outside the Ayala Museum
Things have been so busy that it was a bit difficult to find the time for Katie and I to get out to a museum this month. So we chose to stick close to home. Heading to the Ayala Museum in Makati, a short 10-20 minute taxi ride away. I really had very little expectation for this museum, having no idea what they might have. Only knowing after a brief search on their website that I could actually get in free if I brought my teacher ID with me. Not a normal part of what I carry on the weekend so I was glad I had read that. Otherwise, the only other thing I knew is that the Ayala's are one of the business tycoon families here in the Philippines - having their name on many malls, and so it isn't really a surprise that the museum is at a shopping complex.
Spanish galleon replicas
A little to my surprise, the museum was quite nice. Particularly the two floors that housed the permanent collection. The top floor with a fairly large collection of Chinese pottery that seemed to have mostly been found at archeological sights in the Philippines. An extraordinarily large gold collection was the highlight of my visit. It was mostly taken from burial sights in the Philippines. We were wondering how there could actually be that large of a collection here, in a fairly small museum, but upon reading we realized that most of it was discovered after 1960 when archeologists began working in the Philippines. The second floor had an extensive set of dioramas detailing important events in Philippine history. I will say I learned a bit more about that topic, since I didn't know very much at all. Although it gets a bit depressing to realize just how much war and violence is part of their notable history. All in all quite an enjoyable two hours visiting the museum.
Sculpture outside the museum
The Ayala Museum
Tue-Sun 9am-6pm
Entry: free for teachers with id, price ranges from 100p to 425 p
Makati Avenue corner De La Rosa Street
Greenbelt Park, Makati City 1224
About a month ago I agreed to go with a friend to Guam. I didn't really want to mention it at the time, because you know, North Korean missile scare and all, but after some careful research and talking with parents at school who regularly do business in Guam, we decided to go ahead with our planned trip. I'm so glad we did! Guam wasn't really on my radar as a travel destination, but my general attitude towards any new location is "why not?" A four day weekend was a perfect amount of time to explore the island. After all it is only about 30 miles long (so you won't be surprised that we drove around the island more than once). I didn't really know what we would find when we arrived, except that it was supposed to have nice beaches and that there was a large US military presence there. So it was a true trip of discovery.
First impressions: This is America! Being from the continental United States I've never really thought about Guam much at all, nor have I ever considered it a part of the US. However after one visit, it definitely is. As you go through immigration the wall behind the immigration desks declares "Welcome to the United States of America." The island definitely felt like I was (sort of) back in the US. With a huge K-Mart (yes, we went shopping), numerous restaurants that I would find back home, but also with a certain amount of businesses catering to the large number of Japanese tourists that come through. Guam became a territory of the US first in 1898 when Spain ceded the
island in the Treaty of Paris. Although Liberation Day on July 21, 1944
when the Americans reclaimed the islands from the Japanese seems to be a
much more popular date in history.
In fact while I was in Guam I learned quite a bit about the role it played in the War in the Pacific. There is a national historical park (definitely the most far flung national park stamp I've collected yet) that protects sites around the south side of the island. Since the majority of our weekend was rainy, I spent a couple of afternoons visiting the majority of locations, seeing left over (decommissioned) guns protecting the harbors and high points, bunkers dug into rocky hillsides, as well as memorials to the local lives lost. While there were not a huge number of locals actively involved in the war, it did affect a huge number of Chamorro (native people) and Guamanians when they were forced into working for the Japanese and then marched inland to concentration camps where many died or were injured. As in any war memorial, I found the memorial walls, with the extensive list of names of those affected sombering.
My weekend wasn't all about war history though. There are a couple of natural and historical sights that worth seeing. My two favorite being the Inarajan Natural Pools, a peaceful swimming spot on the south-eastern tip of the island, and checking out the lattes in Senator Angel Leon Guerrero Santos Memorial Park. No, I don't mean a latte you can drink. A latte is an original stone building block of the Chamorro. They were used as supports upon which the roof and sometimes the entire building rested upon. They are not widely used now, but are protected as part of the history of this island.
Of course I also spent time on the beach relaxing. Did a lot of eating. As well as a fair amount of shopping. Guam was a truly relaxing weekend away.
A few weeks ago I headed to Hong Kong with a friend for a long weekend. We didn't have much of a plan, but just wanted to go somewhere where we could walk around, eat good food, and get around fairly easy. Hong Kong fits the bill for all of that. It does make me miss having good, quick, public transportation, especially with how much easier it makes exploring. I've been to Hong Kong before so I wasn't all that interested in doing most of the typical tourist things, although I will admit I was excited to get to ride the world's longest escalator this time around. Although that is a bit of a deceptive title. It is actually a series of travelators and escalators that work their way up the hill from the harbor. The idea was to make commuting a bit easier for that area of town.
Colorful Choi Hung Estates
What we did do was go out and find all sorts of interesting spots for photos. The process of which reminds me of just how much the internet has changed travel. Most of the places we went to, we would have never known about before the plethora of photos that are now posted online. Andrea, the friend I was travelling with, was great at mining Instagram for idea of spots that we wanted to see. Those included the colorful Choi Hung Estate, an apartment block that is a literal rainbow of colors as you look up, as well as the Yik Cheong Building which is that quintessential snap of densely packed humanity that you expect from a huge Asian city like Hong Kong.
Yik Cheong Apartments
Perhaps my two favorite spots though were visiting the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, where the over ten thousand Buddhas was not actually the highlight (hey, one large number is as good as any other, right). No, for me the highlight was the over 500 golden statues that lined the path up. Upon returning I had to do a bit of research, as I was pretty sure that these statues weren't actually Buddhas. Seems I was correct, they are Arhan statues, images of individuals that are fairly advanced on the path to enlightenment but have not yet attained the level of being a Buddha. These showed a wide variety of features, and even situations. I saw one that stood out with its super long arm and others that were standing on animals (tiger, turtle, ox to name a few). It definitely kept the walk up the stairs interesting and entertaining. Although at one point I was wishing I had a statue by statue description so I knew more about each one. Of course then I might never have made it up the hill.
Arhan statues at Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery
Perhaps the most interesting and different stop was a quick walk through what is called goldfish street. A street that sells...goldfish. Something about seeing all those fish bagged and hanging from grates was just fascinating. Although I couldn't help but think about the guy in Turkey who used to sell goldfish from the top of his car close to my school there. So perhaps my fascination had something to do with memories. Or maybe it was just about how the bag changed the perspective on many fish. In any case it was a memorable street to explore. And seemed well tied to the goldfish that we saw being sold as part of the Mid-Autumn Festival decorations as well.
Welcome to the ber months. That is what they call them. As in September,October, November, and December. In other words, Christmas has come to the Philippines. What, you think it is too early? There is no such thing. Signposted countdowns began with 99 days until Christmas (my personal theory is that they only wanted to do 2 digits, otherwise it probably would have started earlier).
Trees are going up in stores and malls around town
I will admit that September really only brought out the Christmas music...just about everywhere. I've been grading in coffee shops to carols for the last month now. As soon as you enter the mall you're sure to hear the recognizable tunes. September also brought out Christmas decoration sales at many stores, after all, they have to help people get ready for the ber months too. However, once the first of October rolled around the Christmas decorating stepped up a notch. Each time I walk around town I notice a bit more going up. Slowly large trees are being set up and decorated. The lights are going up on the streets. Malls are starting their decorations. Even with that though, I know it will only continue to ramp up as we get closer to Christmas. After all the two story decorations in the mall aren't up yet, the street lights haven't turned into trees and stars yet, and there aren't huge red decorations on the grassy areas of the neighborhood yet. But it is just a matter of time. Welcome to the ber months in the Philippines, Christmas is almost here.
"We'll come and tell the people, we're going to start a war
We're going to start a riot, bigger better than before."
That refrain was on endless repeat yesterday at school, as the Junior took a part of their batch (grade level) cheer and turned it into one of their standard cheers throughout the day as they dove with high energy in B.o.B or Battle of the Bearcats.
Batch of 2017 getting ready for their cheer
Battle of the Bearcats is a bit difficult to describe to someone who hasn't ever had the ear shattering experience of being on campus for it. It is a one of the few days when our high school students stop worrying about academics and actually act like kids for a while. They complete as grade levels (9 vs 10 vs 11 vs 12) in a variety of competitions for spirit points, which are often earned by the batch that is the loudest, initiates the most cheers, encourages the other batches and has a sustained support through an event. Unless you can picture a exuberant group circled around 8 students that are participating in the final event of the day, speed painting, you will never have a prayer of understanding this school tradition.
The end of speed painting.
How varied are the events? I'd almost guarantee way more than you would predict. Here is the list of activities for this year: batch cheer, 7-second challenge, badminton, basketball, bearcat challenge, bearcat idol, bearcat's got talent, board games, volleyball, capture the flag, chess, cupcake decorating, debate, dodgeball, escape hunt, recycled fashion design show, FIFA 17, graphic design, gym baseball, human calculator, jeopardy, League of Legends, Lip-sync battle, Mario Kart, NBA 2k17, photography, poetry slam, Quidditch, rap battle, robotics, rock climbing, short story competition, So You Think You Can Dance, soccer, speed painting, Super Smash Bros 4, swimming, table tennis, tennis, touch rugby, track and field, ultimate frisbee, water polo, and Whose Line is it Anyway (improv). I honestly think there is something for everyone on that list, which is good as pretty much every student is required to participate in something, and can at most take part in 2 events.
Winning Junior cupcakes (the horrible green color is because of the shade cover we have...
As you can imagine, this also requires quite a bit from the teachers, as we volunteer for activities to oversee/judge, serve as advisors to individual batches and be a presence as they work on their cheer in the weeks leading up to the event. This year I put myself down to judge the cupcake decorating challenge where I was quite impressed by the junior's team who brought in all hand made decorations, including sugar glass flames to go with their batch theme of riot. Along with rap battle, a bit of a disappointment this year, but then I'm always amazed at what kids are willing to get up on a stage and try. I also ended up helping out with the end of the recycled fashion event, where teams were given newspaper and packaging tape to create an outfit out of. It was actually impressive what some of them came up with.
Sophomore recycled fashion design
I do think, though that my favorite activity of the day is the opening ceremony with the entire high school in the gym when each batch gets a few minutes to perform their cheer, and I think overall the cheers were of a much higher quality this year. I manged to record three of four, just to give you a sense of the high energy that persists the whole day.
It is an incredible, almost indescribable day, although I have to admit I'm quite happy to be alone in my quiet apartment today recovering from the over-stimulation that encapsulates B.o.B.
Well so far, I'm doing well on my resolution to visit a museum a month this school year. Month two, museum two. Last weekend I headed out with a friend to visit the Pinto Art Museum. Located in Antipolo, about 11 miles away, it was a half day outing taking about 45 minutes to get there (have I mentioned traffic in Manila is bad?). However, as soon as we walked onto the museum grounds I could feel myself let out a sigh of relief and relax just a little bit. Set on the grounds of a private residence (?I'm not sure about that, it is surprisingly difficult to find clear information about this private collection) that reflects a Spanish colonial style with white washed building covering multiple levels on the hillside, rooftops that have been turned into verandas with seating area, and a lush garden.
One of the six galleries
There are sculptures scattered around the grounds, and there is a very real sense of the outside coming in. The 6 galleries are open to the air, with a few large fans to cool off the space. I have to admit to wondering how in the world this was conserving the artwork, after all the Philippines is an extremely humid place. At the same time I enjoyed the sense of openness in the galleries. Wandering in and out of the building, going up and down stairways to explore each corner of the museum.
My favorite sculpture
The museum is a private collection of contemporary art, all of which I believe are done by Filipino artists. There were definitely some pieces that captured my attention. The metal webbed people, were perhaps my favorite, but I also like the oversized work of a fiber artist who used layers of yarn to create slightly three dimensional images. I also found the full room installation mimicking a bamboo forest with dripping water, an escape to relax, mesmerizing.
Exploring every nook and crany
All in all, I have to say that this museum was well worth being on my list to visit and it provided a great escape from the busyness of the city for a morning.
Pinto Art Museum
1 Sierra Madre St, Grand Heights Rd, Antipolo
Open: Tues-Sun 9 am - 6 pm
Entry: 200 pesos
Mulitperson rocking ball...took them as long to get on as it did to fall off
We've had three long weekends in a row which has given me plenty to think about writing about, but not a lot of time to do the actual writing. The good news is that I have enough to keep me going for a while! Two weekends ago I headed up to Subic Bay with a group of 9 friends to take part in the Amazing Jeepney Race (more on that later, still waiting on the official video to give you a better idea of the day). The race was only one day, so that left us some time to have fun around Subic. Now what to do?
Katie and I before heading out
It turns out that there is an inflatable water park, Inflatable Island, yes it is exactly what it sound like...think of the giant bouncy castles and slides that you see at a kid's party. Except it is floating on the ocean.If you think you might have trouble balancing on a regular bouncy castle imagine how much much more difficult it would be on a wet slippery surface. I'll be honest I spent more time falling off the platforms than I did getting around from island to island. Of course, that is probably why I managed to get so many fun pictures of other people slipping, sliding, jumping and crashing.
Katie flying off
Perhaps the craziest thing you could do was to go lay down on the end of a giant pillow, and then have someone else jump off a platform a floor up and launch you in the air. When our group decided that they wanted to try, the workers at the park decided to send two of their guys up to jump down together to make sure the ladies got air. By the time I watched the third person get launched and end up heels over heads (literally!) I knew this was not going to be something that I tried. I wasn't looking forward to the crash landing.
Ari getting flung off a giant pillow
So what is more my style? A few obstacles perhaps? Oh, a large rocking chair thing, perhaps that is more my speed....well, as long as I can actually get up on it? I feel like I spent a lot of my time trying to pull myself up, at least my arms have gotten stronger while I've been in the Philippines, so I actually had a chance. Although after an hour and a half in and out of the water I was definitely getting tired.
Rocking water toy
But, wait, it is a giant narwhal...I've got to at least give a shot at getting myself up to ride it. (If you don't know when I was teaching in Paraguay my students used to draw random narwhals all over their tests, starting a bit of a fascination with this long toothed fish - really, you should do some reading about them if you've don't know much, they're fascinating). It was a probably a good thing that our two hour time slot was all but up. It was fun playing around like a little kid, but two hours was plenty of time for me to feel it in my legs. The addition of the storm rolling in brought our wet and wild experience to an end.
