Happy New Year to All!
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2006
1
18
55
Trip End
Oct 05, 2008
La Trinidad, Benguet,
Philippines
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
While spending my first Holiday Season away from home was difficult I feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful host family to spend it with here. Being that Filipino's do not celebrate Thanksgiving the preparation leading up to Christmas here begins in September. So I have had my fair share of Christmas music the last few months but nothing compared to the recent days leading up to Christmas. Being that I live next door to the Catholic Church I got my share of the 6am blasts of various Christmas tunes during the 12 days leading up to the holiday. While at times a bit jarring in the early morning hours, it was a nice reminder of home and my Mom dancing around in reindeer socks decorating the house for the season.
On December 23rd I cooked my host family a traditional thanksgiving meal, and it was a huge success
Another shot of PVC's at the farm
. You never know how American food is going to come across to Filipino's, but everyone really seemed to enjoy it. It was very fun to share some of our culinary traditions with them. It was also a first for me to cook in an oven that was outside between two of the houses on the compound. It is rather rare for Filipino households to have an oven. This being said my host family kindly found the old oven they never use and set it up outside since there was no space for it inside the house. Quite the site, me running between tow houses with food and the oven outside! Very fun!We spent most of Christmas Eve morning relaxing and about mid afternoon one of my host Aunties arrived home with a frozen Butterball Turkey. Quite a surprise and it was fun to set up our own charcoal pit and turn the turkey attached to bamboo sticks. It took a long time to cook but we all enjoyed turkey the next few days (a first for most of my family). I also attended Christmas Eve Mass with my family and got quite teary eyed singing many of the traditional Christmas Songs and thinking about how I missed being with my family. However there were these adorable little kids sitting next to me that kept on asking me questions and giggling every time I would respond in Ilocano. They kept me smiling throughout the Mass. After Mass we went around from house to house and ate more food and enjoyed each other's company
Auntie Marilyn and JR checking out the Turkey
. In fact similar to home the holiday's here seem to be surrounded by food, food and more food. Needless to say I have been well fed during this holiday season. On December 28th about ten other PCV's and I attended the US Ambassadors Annual Christmas Party at her beautiful residence in Baguio City. There were some rather big names at the event including the President of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. While I tend to not agree with her politics it was a big deal to get to meet here and in my classic smoozing style I even took a photo with her! The next day about seven of us headed to my host families farm and enjoyed a day of hiking and relaxing in the beauty and peacefulness of the farm. I was so happy to get to share the space with some fellow PCV's and for them to see its beauty. We then headed into Baguio City and brought in the New Year together there. It was really nice to be with fellow PCV's and even though Filipino's don't seem to do to the classic count down to the New Year, we sure did!!
Wishing each of you a peaceful and blessed 2007!
PACE
Sherry
Comments
Happy New Year!
Sounds like you had a fabulous 06, and will be having an even better '07 overseas! Miss yah lots and I hope to be sending you alittle something sooner than later!
-Diana
Happy new year!
sounds like you had a wonderful holiday season! miss you and i hope that when you get back to the states we will get a chance to catch up!
-tina
SHERRY!
I apologize that it has taken me a year to register on this site. As you know (I'm not sure if you remember) I have had sparatic computer acces b/c of a certain past situation! haha. Anyway...speaking of a year!!! I cannot believe it has almost been that long! I got your postcard/xmas card a couple days ago! Thank you SO much! It was SO nice to hear from you! I am so glad to see that you are enjoying yourself and that you have a wonderful host family. I love reading your logs and hearing about all your adventures. What a great experience Sherry! Please keep in touch when you can/have time! We miss you!