An Update on Christmas Decorations

Market Market's lights

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.

  

Street market full of Christmas

November's museum: National Museum of Fine Arts

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.

Murals

My favorite new mural 

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.)

Detail of one mural

October's Museum: The Ayala Museum

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

Long weekend in Guam

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.

Long weekend in Hong Kong

Random beautiful staircase we found while walking

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.

Goldfish street

Welcome to the ber months

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.

Outdoor decorations are going up this month