“Isem, Isem, umisem ka man biag ko.” [Smile, smile, please smile my life.]

This is how I spent my holidays

December 24, 2008
My sisters cannot celebrate Christmas with us; so instead, we went to their house to celebrate Christmas with them. I finally received the book, Train Man (translated version of the book Densha Otoko), which I asked my sister to buy for me. For awhile I thought that she’d give it to me as a Christmas gift but then she still asked for the payment. I decided not to read it yet.

December 25, 2008
Since we didn’t really prepare for Christmas, we have initially planned to spend the day at the Star City but since Glorietta is nearer we chose otherwise. While we were strolling along, I saw an eight-year old girl in pink dress. For awhile I thought she was just wearing an ultra uncomfortable dress as she scratched herself until I discerned a bulging figure on her chest. It seems like she put a pair of golf balls under her shirt. She kept on cupping the artificial breast to keep them in placed and caressing the area where her breasts’ cleavage should have been. It was incredibly funny. And when she finally realized that we were looking at her she made an obvious attempt to push her chest outward to make the area look fuller and I guess more noticeable.

December 26, 2008
Though the province of Isabela is like 12-hour trip away, my father wouldn’t waste any opportunity to be reunited to his mother. So off we went.

December 27, 2008
Ilocanos are known for their huge appetite for vegetables, in fact there were times when my grandmother served dishes she calls Inabraw (any soup made of leaves is an inabraw) with herbs and leaves and even flowers that I have never seen or tasted before. However since the Ilocanos, especially those who live in Cordillera regions, have constant contacts with the indigenous groups like the Igorots, Ifugaos, Ibanags, and others it is inevitable for them to imbibe the appetite for foods or ingredients that are somehow too exotic for the ordinary people (like dog meat or tinola with blood toppings).

I slept through the breakfast and I was already hungry when I woke up. My cousins were nice enough to leave a bowl of roasted pork with mayonnaise on the table for me. I was half way eating my breakfast when my grandmother entered the dining area and asked me if I liked the pork and “utek.” I thought I heard the word as u-tEk. I thought it was an ilocano word so I asked her what utek was. She couldn’t find the synonym of the word until I realized that she mispronounced the word utAk or brain. I smiled weakly at my grandmother and decided to eat the inabraw instead.

December 28, 2008
I went with my cousins to Cauayan City, a “city” in Isabela, to buy the ingredients needed for the offerings for a dead relative. It was probably for my great-grandmother.

December 29, 2008
I was awakened by my cousins voices amplified a bazzzillion time as they sing a Jolina Magdangal hit in the videoke. I was always shy when I am with strangers and has always kept my hidden talent hidden. But singing in front of my cousins is not something I’d be embarrassed with. As soon as I was through with m breakfast I took the microphone and hit “Let it Be” by Paul McCartney. I was at the chorus and having my time when my father grabbed (GRABBED) the microphone saying “nakakahiya ka!” (You are embarrassing!) and he sang the rest of the song. Apparently, my cousins agree that I should have kept my hidden talent hidden.

Not long my cousins invited us to the Daya. The whole village is at the center of a really huge land of rolling plain of rice fields. Each family owns a piece of the land and it is incredible that even my youngest cousins know who owns a certain piece of land from a certain point to another (the land starting from that tree to that ambuklaw [a tower] at the horizon is owned by so-so family.) My father owns the land in a place they call Daya or East in English. It is peculiar for a Tagalog or English speaker to say “C’mon let’s go to the east.” or “tayo na doon sa Silangan.” But in this part of the Philippines it isn’t. Here you can go to Daya (east) Amyanan (north- the tagalong word Amihan for the Northerly wind coming from Siberia during winter came from the word Amyanan) and there are two other words which I have already forgotten.

When we got there I realized that the homes of the peasant who works for my grandmother were not there anymore. Apparently their little huts were demolished by a storm last year. My father gathered some coconuts near the empty fishpond. We ate some at the area. One of my cousins raved about a type of noodle (pancit cabagan) which can only be bought in a certain store far away, so in the afternoon we went to that store to eat the dish.

The dish is as watery as lomi with thinner noodles and more toppings, nevertheless both taste the same. It was night already when we came home. My grandmother was furious. “Paano kayo kakain ngayon eh busog na kayo?” (How are you supposed to eat dinner when you’re already full?) I felt guilty since she seemed to have been really preparing for the dinner and it disappointed her that our cousins refused to eat again. Though I was really full I sat down and joined them. My sister and I made an unspoken agreement to make some extra compliments on her cooking prowess.

December 30, 2008
Isabela is at the center of the Cagayan Valley. There is nothing but a vast plain of rice fields with the mountains forming tiny waves of purple silhouette at the horizons. The rice has just been planted and the green color against the backdrop of the gloomy, cloudy sky added with the cool air comparable to that of Baguio was just breath taking. I accompanied my sister to walk through the ricefield. We were already in the middile of nowhere and the houses were just flecks of brown and grey at the distance when I finally felt like doing number 2 at the bathroom. It turned out that my sister also felt the same.

I have written about the CR three years ago. There are two CRs situated outside the house ten meters away from the nearest water source. One has locks but too dirty and the other was a little bit cleaner but doesn’t have any lock. Lately, I try to prevent myself in doing the number two. But if I really can’t help it I always use the cleaner CR.

Just as I said we were in the middle of nowhere. My sister joked about doing it on the deserted rice field. We both ran to the house and as we went we laughed. When laughing the diaphragm pushes the abdominal wall further down giving the poop an easy exit. I ran faster and more determined not to breathe or laughed but my sister kept on dropping jokes until… until… GOD IT WAS TERRBLE!

December 31, 2008
My sister bought a pirated CD of action films. I have never seen Kill Bill before so I was really engrossed when I saw it for the first time. I fell in love with it immediately.

January 1, 2009
During the Media Noche (New Year’s Eve’s dinner), my cousins tried to pore on my grandparents’ love story. When my grandfather was still alive he told me that he used to sing a serenade for my grandmother to be able to woo her, so I asked if she can sing the songs that my grandfather used to sing for her. She was really embarrassed by the subject so she kept on changing the topic by commenting on the fireworks outside. So I teased her, recalling a particular Ilocano folk song that I heard earlier, I sang- “Isem, Isem, umisem ka man biag ko.” Her face, which was already pink, turned if possible even redder as she blushed more as we all sang in chorus.

January 2, 2009
We finally have to leave Isabela. I bought a bottle of homemade strawberry wine in a souvenir shop in Nueva Viscaya.