Piayot Goes to France

Daylight Saving Time Victim

Blooper of the Day # 1

I woke up this morning at 9am, or at least I thought so, because the two clocks which were in my immediate vicinity this morning displayed 9am. My class today was schedule to start at 10am, so I rushed about, a bit afraid that a moment of laziness may cost me my attendance in one of the last meetings for my subject MGE.

As a final touch to my outfit, I put on my wristwatch, and toink! The time was only 9:00 am. Grr. I checked my laptop for the time and yes, it was 9:00 am. I asked my friend Karol online what the time was, and he confirmed it was 9am. I'm a victim to the daylight saving time scheme again. tsk2. I forgot that I didn't adjust my two big alarm clocks. Oh well, at least I had time to go about my other room chores (I would have said household chores but I only have one room so that's it. hehe).

Blooper of the Day # 2

After my daylight saving time ordeal, i went to class from 10am to 5:30 pm, with a 1.5-hour break during lunch. Anyways, since my class was in French, I could only understand segments of the sentence and a seatmate would explain to me what the teacher is saying. Anyways, at the start of the afternoon class, the teacher said that we would be having an early dismissal since some of the students wanted to watch the football match in Paris (Yup, if some Filipinos are addicted to basketball enough to buy thousand-peso tickets for a UAAP Game in Araneta, some French students are addicted enough to football to go all the way to Paris from Lille [mind you, 36 euros na ung papunta palang ng Paris ha... ung actual ticket price, that's another story].)Of course, being the "excitable" person that I am, I was looking at the clock every so often. Anyways, 5:00 came and the students started to stand up. So I grabbed my bag and rushed to the door while pictures of food paraded in my mind (Hehehe, I was pretty excited because I was going to the grocery to buy a week's supply of food after class). But Juliette held on to my bag, and asked me where I was going.

"To my dorm and then to Carrefour" with a grin.

"We're not allowed to go yet. We're going to have a discussion for the promotion."

"Hehe, you're kidding me. Really now..."

Juliette smiled and I was really convinced she was tricking me. "Look at everyone, they're standing around but their bags are still on their seats."

I looked around. Yup everyone was having a chat with their group of friends - and yes, their bags were there on their seats. *Gulp. I hope they didn't notice my big pink Jansport perched on my back when I was on the way out.* What's worse, I remembered seeing a puzzled look cross my seatmate Bertrand's face when I said "Au revoir" before I grabbed my bag. After 5 minutes, I was back in my seat by his side, still a bit dazed about my foiled grocery exploration mission and trying to forget that I tried saying goodbye just a few minutes earlier.

posted by Pia @ 11:18 PM 1 comments

BalikBayan Box Tales

I separated this entry from the previous one because they're so funny they deserve an entry solely for them. These are the balikbayan box adventures of Tita Myrna which were disclosed to us during dinner that's why our jaws ached so much from laughing last night.

Tale # 1: Apple Green Shampoo

Tita Myrna's mother called her after she sent a box.
Tita Myrna's Mom: "Myrna, ang bango naman nitong shampoo na pinadala mo! Salamat!"
(translation: Myrna, the shampoo you sent smells good! Thank you!)

Tita Myrna: "Ha? Anong shampoo?"
(translation: Huh? Which shampoo?) Tita Myrna couldn't remember putting shampoo in the box.

Tita Myrna's Mom: "Ung green. Nakalagay sa harap Apple Green."
(translation: The green one. The label says Apple Green.)

Tita Myrna: "Naku nanay! Hindi yan shampoo! Dishwasher yan!!!"
(translation: Mother! That's not shampoo! That's dishwashing soap!")

Tita Myrna's Mom: "Diyos ko! Buhok ko!!!"
(translation: My God! My hair!)

Tale # 2: Douche

Tita Myrna received a call from her family about a week after she sent her BalikBayan box.

Tita Myrna's Mom: "Myrna, ano ba itong pinadala mong gel? Nagkabalakubak ung pamangkin mo!"
(translation: Myrna, what kind of gel did you send? Your nephew has dandruff because of it.)

Tita Myrna: "Gel? Anong gel? Ano nakalagay? Pakispell."
(translation: Gel? What gel? What does the label say. Please spell it out) Again, Tita Myrna begins to wonder what gel it was because she doesn't remember sending gel.

Tita Myrna's Mom: "Eto o. Gel douche. D-o-u-c-h-e."
(translation: Here. Gel douche. D-o-u-c-h-e."

Tita Myna: "Naku! Hindi yan gel para sa buhok! Pang-shower yan!"
(translation: Oh no! That's not gel for the hair! That's a gel for taking showers!)

story extension: There's a funnier story behind this tale. When Tita Myrna's relatives received the package, the nephew immediately saw the gel and claimed ownership to it. He put it on immediately. Neighbors and friends commented that it was fantastic - his hair was all shiny and it smelled really nice. Being generous, he gave some to all his friends and they all wore it. They've been wearing it for a week already when rainy days came. The nephew went home exclaiming, Nay, bakit bumubula buhok ko! (Lola, why is my hair bubbling!) The lola was worried that's why they called Tita Myrna. Of course, the nephew stopped using the gel on his hair after that, but since he and his friends have been using it on their hair for a week, they later developed dandruff. Too much dandruff in fact.

posted by Pia @ 8:38 AM 0 comments

Halloween Celebration

Back in the Philippines, I spent Halloweens with my family in MegaMall, accompanying my cousin Joshua (when he was still small because now he's taller than me already) go around the shops shouting out "Trick or Treat!" We would go home carrying loads of candies which we would then distribute to our other cousins at night when we have our own version of Halloween celebration. This celebration is a yearly event wherein each house in the compound would take turns decorating their houses with booby traps and frightening sights, and then invite the kids (and sometimes even the adults) from the other house (2 houses in the compound). It would be similar to going into a haunted house in the arcade, only this time it was better because it would be our uncle, or tita, or my cousins who would be spooking you. Afterwards, at the end of our explorations, we'll all settle down, exchange candies, eat whatever food has been served by the adults, climb up to the room of one of us kids and share ghost stories while chewing on our newly acquired candy treasures.

Trick or Treating at Mega Mall ended when my cousin was too old already to partake in such events in the mall. This year however, I regained my chaperone status! I, together with one parent, accompanied Nicolas and Clara (Tita Juliete's kids), and Clara's friend Cassandra, go around Linselles buzzing the doorbell or knocking at the door, watching them shout out "bonbon monsieur" (i have to edit this... i don't know the exact thing they were saying because as you know, I'm still not fluent in French) when they were lucky to have someone open the door. We went through 2 streets only but we ended up with almost 3 kilos of candies. Hehehe! Success!!

Afterwards, we returned to Tita Juliete who had prepared a nice meal for everyone since there was a small Filipino reunion during the night also. (Oops, now that I think of it, it's not that small because there's Tita Juliette, Tito Olivier, Natalie, Clara, Nicolas, Tita Myrna, Dominique, Fritz, Antoine, Sophia, and I - 11! But compared to the typical Filipino reunion here which is comprised of 15 or more than 15 people, 11 is small. hehe). Tita prepared Raclette, salad, monggo and palitaw!

(Comments:
1. Raclette is a fancy french dish. You bring out your raclette cooker, place cheese(the kind of which is often called raclette) in small pans, put them back on the cooker, chat with your friends and remove the skin from the potatoes while waiting for the cheese to melt. When the cheese has melted, you pour it over your potatoes and place cold cuts to wrap the bunch, and there you go! Yummy!
2. Yes, there's monggo! Yehey!)

Since I was going a bit crazy, I shaped the last palitaw as a heart. And then, we remembered Fritz' birthday was last October 30, so we thought of making it her small cake, sprinkled candy on top and placed a candle on it! Hehehe. It was so funny but cute!

We exchanged stories until half past midnight. At the end of the party, our jaws were so tired from all the laughing. Whew. :)

posted by Pia @ 8:11 AM 0 comments