The weekend that was
I'm sleepy, but my body refuses to sleep. I blame the C2. Or the 2 hour nap I took this afternoon. Or my missing ring. Urrgghhhhkdfskhfkshfksnskfkjd;;;; T_T. Anyway.
I had to take an unpaid leave last Friday to get my passport renewed (which takes about two weeks, aparently, for God knows what reason) in Lucena city. Ugh. I can't really complain, because, well, if you know this country, you'd also know some had it worse. I swear I love this country to bits, but if I had a peso for each time it broke my heart... well, you get the picture. Anyway, I arrived in Lusiana from Los Baños at around 11, had lunch with my grandparents, left for Lucena at about 12:15, arrived at the DFA around... I'd say 1:30, waited, waited some more, finally had my turn for the "encoding" of "biometric" data (which basically involved digital thumb prints and a mug shot, which was thankfully less horrible than my license photo), waited again, left Lucena at around 5-ish with three adorably crazy women I had met during those moments of waiting hell, and finally arrived back at my grandparents' place at around 7 for dinner. Yay long sentence. Anyway that was that. Now I'm waiting to receive my passport in two weeks, after that there's this German study visa thing to worry about, and hopefully I'd also have enough time to get a Korean visa as well. Not that I'm counting on it. Anyway. The following day pretty much involved a lot of eating and sleeping and getting fat. Oh yeah and my parents arrived from Manila also.
Sunday was... well, the town fiesta for Paete, so we went there soon after breakfast. It was raining. Not too hard, barely actually, but it was wet and muddy and the sky looked all sorts of bored. Or sulky. You know, like the kind you get when you're expecting to buy or receive something, but fo some reason things don't work out and you don't? Kinda like that.
So we went Tito Mario's first and had lunch. Ate Ada and her family were back home from Quatar, though I think they'll be flying back there tomorrow? Or is Tuesday? Anyway. We had lunch there and since we've been told that there was supposed to be a mass at 12, we walked to church right after.
There was this, how to put it, mass christening (lol pun) going on when we go there, so we decided to sit it out and wait for the actuall mass to start. A few minutes in I got bored and decided to take a stroll outside.
The thing I love about old school, provincial fiestas is that you can find almost anything being sold on the streets by these... I'd say "fiesta gypsies". They're the kind of people who travel from town to town during fiestas and put up their tents and sell all these... stuff. And when I said they sell anything, I actually meant everything.
And for ridiculously cheap prices too. Though of course, you get what you pay for.
Just before getting completely carried away with taking pictures of everything with color, I remembered my paerents were still waiting for me inside the church. So I went back in and we waited some more. Then we realized the real mass wasn't gonna happen. So we just decided to leave and visit my other two aunts. Unfortunately though, I tend to get easily distracted.
Here's the part where I tell my parents to pretend that we're in Europe. Heheh.
The side of the church was probably a dead givaway though.
And the other stuff around it. Did I mention they sold all sorts of stuff here?
Not into flowers? How about some chicks straight out of a Disney movie?
No? Tell you what, we'll throw in some hermit crabs.
It's like, on one hand, it's amusing to see all these things on display, but on the other hand... you can't help but feel bad for the animals, you know? I mean, they probably get fed and all...
But really, you know they don't want to be there. And they shouldn't have to be. :( I just hope they find a nice home somewhere.
Anyway, if you're not in the mood to buy, sell instead and earn a profit. I doubt they buy babies though.
Or well, just buy some cheap clothes. Or you know, take pictures with them like my mom, who like me, tends to be easily amused.
There was still so much to see, but unfortunately at that time, it started to rain a bit again so I had to keep the camera. Anyway we ended up finally going to my aunts and eating some more. Oh and I left my ring at tita Lina's and now I am freaking out because (a) I only realized I didn't have it on when we were already on the road back to Manila, (b) I already called my aunt and asked her to let me know as soon as she finds it and she hasn't called or texted me yet at all, (c) I've worn that ring for 15 years; I've had it since I was 9, making that officially an appendage. I feel awfully unbalanced without it, (d) Oh man if my aunt's housekeeper boy (whom I have never met and have no idea if he can be trusted or not) ever figure out what it's worth (probably not much, but the fact that it lasted at least 15 years with me probably accounts for something) I might never see it again, and (e) my aunt probably doesn't care about it as much as I do. It was raining when I called, and she was across the street from her house manning her internet cafe. Which means she probably wouldn't check it until after the rain stops, which I have no idea of knowing when. By that time she could have forgotten. *insert sound of frustration here* If it actually goes missing I can't really pin it on her, she had nothing to do with it. I'm pretty upset with myself for being so careless. Urg. I just hope I can still get it back.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Sleepy but still can't sleep. It's that darned ring. I knew it.
I had to take an unpaid leave last Friday to get my passport renewed (which takes about two weeks, aparently, for God knows what reason) in Lucena city. Ugh. I can't really complain, because, well, if you know this country, you'd also know some had it worse. I swear I love this country to bits, but if I had a peso for each time it broke my heart... well, you get the picture. Anyway, I arrived in Lusiana from Los Baños at around 11, had lunch with my grandparents, left for Lucena at about 12:15, arrived at the DFA around... I'd say 1:30, waited, waited some more, finally had my turn for the "encoding" of "biometric" data (which basically involved digital thumb prints and a mug shot, which was thankfully less horrible than my license photo), waited again, left Lucena at around 5-ish with three adorably crazy women I had met during those moments of waiting hell, and finally arrived back at my grandparents' place at around 7 for dinner. Yay long sentence. Anyway that was that. Now I'm waiting to receive my passport in two weeks, after that there's this German study visa thing to worry about, and hopefully I'd also have enough time to get a Korean visa as well. Not that I'm counting on it. Anyway. The following day pretty much involved a lot of eating and sleeping and getting fat. Oh yeah and my parents arrived from Manila also.
Sunday was... well, the town fiesta for Paete, so we went there soon after breakfast. It was raining. Not too hard, barely actually, but it was wet and muddy and the sky looked all sorts of bored. Or sulky. You know, like the kind you get when you're expecting to buy or receive something, but fo some reason things don't work out and you don't? Kinda like that.
So we went Tito Mario's first and had lunch. Ate Ada and her family were back home from Quatar, though I think they'll be flying back there tomorrow? Or is Tuesday? Anyway. We had lunch there and since we've been told that there was supposed to be a mass at 12, we walked to church right after.
There was this, how to put it, mass christening (lol pun) going on when we go there, so we decided to sit it out and wait for the actuall mass to start. A few minutes in I got bored and decided to take a stroll outside.
The thing I love about old school, provincial fiestas is that you can find almost anything being sold on the streets by these... I'd say "fiesta gypsies". They're the kind of people who travel from town to town during fiestas and put up their tents and sell all these... stuff. And when I said they sell anything, I actually meant everything.
And for ridiculously cheap prices too. Though of course, you get what you pay for.
Just before getting completely carried away with taking pictures of everything with color, I remembered my paerents were still waiting for me inside the church. So I went back in and we waited some more. Then we realized the real mass wasn't gonna happen. So we just decided to leave and visit my other two aunts. Unfortunately though, I tend to get easily distracted.
Here's the part where I tell my parents to pretend that we're in Europe. Heheh.
The side of the church was probably a dead givaway though.
And the other stuff around it. Did I mention they sold all sorts of stuff here?
Not into flowers? How about some chicks straight out of a Disney movie?
No? Tell you what, we'll throw in some hermit crabs.
It's like, on one hand, it's amusing to see all these things on display, but on the other hand... you can't help but feel bad for the animals, you know? I mean, they probably get fed and all...
But really, you know they don't want to be there. And they shouldn't have to be. :( I just hope they find a nice home somewhere.
Anyway, if you're not in the mood to buy, sell instead and earn a profit. I doubt they buy babies though.
Or well, just buy some cheap clothes. Or you know, take pictures with them like my mom, who like me, tends to be easily amused.
There was still so much to see, but unfortunately at that time, it started to rain a bit again so I had to keep the camera. Anyway we ended up finally going to my aunts and eating some more. Oh and I left my ring at tita Lina's and now I am freaking out because (a) I only realized I didn't have it on when we were already on the road back to Manila, (b) I already called my aunt and asked her to let me know as soon as she finds it and she hasn't called or texted me yet at all, (c) I've worn that ring for 15 years; I've had it since I was 9, making that officially an appendage. I feel awfully unbalanced without it, (d) Oh man if my aunt's housekeeper boy (whom I have never met and have no idea if he can be trusted or not) ever figure out what it's worth (probably not much, but the fact that it lasted at least 15 years with me probably accounts for something) I might never see it again, and (e) my aunt probably doesn't care about it as much as I do. It was raining when I called, and she was across the street from her house manning her internet cafe. Which means she probably wouldn't check it until after the rain stops, which I have no idea of knowing when. By that time she could have forgotten. *insert sound of frustration here* If it actually goes missing I can't really pin it on her, she had nothing to do with it. I'm pretty upset with myself for being so careless. Urg. I just hope I can still get it back.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Sleepy but still can't sleep. It's that darned ring. I knew it.