And now, a moment of silence

Please forgive me while I take a trip down memory lane. Last night I was talking to my friend Joan, who still lives in Hangzhou and works at Zhejiang University of Technology. She's a former Princeton-in-Asia fellow who decided to stay and make her life in China.

Last night, Joan had some devastating news. Our favorite neighborhood restaurant -- nicknamed "the Standby" -- closed. I can't tell you how many delightful meals I ate at the Standby in one year in Hangzhou. I have so many memories of dinner at the standby with the other foreign teachers -- laughing about our students, whining about our crappy love lives, daring each other to drink the "snake jiu" (an alcoholic beverage with a preserved snake inside), desperately trying to get the attention of one of the waitresses, who was usually looking in the exact opposite direction of our table any time we needed anything.

Here's Joan's standby "obituary":

Hello friends,
I am writing with some bad news - - "The Standby" restaurant has closed it's doors. As most of you know, this restaurant has served as my favorite source of delicious meals for over 5 years - through thick and thin - SARS -great reunions - visiting friends - lots of laughing - many wonderful PiA-ers, free dishes from the owner (Man Man Chi)- the hard-working waitresses who always treated me like a special friend - the memories are sweet and savory. Even the tables full of smokers seem appealing today.Lazi Ji, Suanmiao Liji, Danhua Nangua, Tieban Niuliu, Suanni Bocai, ShuizhuRoupian - ah - I will miss all of these. Those of you who have spent time with me here will understand the depth of my sadness. It is a great loss for me and all fine dining fans in Zhaohui Liuqu! I've attached a couple photos - one taken today and one from a special lunchon a snowy day last year. A final toast to great food in an environment that only enhanced the
dining experience.
Joan

Quintessential Manila

It's feels like ages since I last posted on this blog -- so I thought I would start posting again with a quintessential image of Manila. This isn't just an image of Manila, it represents a way of life here: traffic.

The traffic here can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. It's a blessing when you want time alone to think. What better time to ponder the nature of the universe than when a usually 20 minute cab ride turns into an hour and a half trip? But it's a curse when you actually need to get somewhere at a certain time.

Residents of Manila use the traffic excuse every chance they get. Why was the CEO of a large company two hours late to his own board meeting? Traffic. Why did you spend an evening home alone when you could have gone out with friends? Traffic. Why were you late paying your phone bill? Traffic. Why did the chicken cross the road? Traffic, of course.

(By the way, this photo was taken on EDSA, the main highway that is notorious for being more of a parking lot than a highway.)

It’s Christmas…already

In the U.S., I complain that stores start pulling out Christmas decorations and start advertising Christmas sales earlier and earlier every year. To me, ever the cynical one, it’s just more proof that Christmas is little more than a time to buy more stuff that no one really needs.

Little did I know that there’s a group of 7,000 islands in Asia where 90 percent of the population celebrates Christmas for four months. Christmas in the Philippines, I’ve learned, starts in September and ends around Valentine’s Day.

(I’m not sure why Christmas finally comes to an end around Valentine’s Day. Other than the possible Christmas fatigue that could set in after four months of egg nog, my only guess is that the one thing Filipinos love more than two of Christmas’ main activities - eating and shopping - is love and romance.)

Well before I had a chance to cross the last day of October off my calendar, big displays of Christmas decorations, wrapping paper and cards started popping up in stores. And I believe it was the first day of November when I walked into work to find a huge fake Christmas tree, already decorated, in the lobby. Signs in the hallways were decorated with fake sprigs of evergreen, pointsettas and ribbon. I can’t go to my grocery store anymore without hearing some version of "White Christmas," which is funny enough to hear in late October and early November, but downright bizarre in a place where Christmas Day will be 90 degrees and humid.

Now, two weeks into November, Christmas is in full swing here in Manila. A week ago I told a coworker that I had consumed an average of one piece of chocolate cake a day for the last week.

"Well, it’s Christmas," she said in a tone that made it sounds like she was explaining the most obvious thing in the world.

Right, it’s Christmas. How could I forget?

To top it all off, I’m experiencing a bit of holiday anxiety. Usually this doesn’t kick in for me until after Thanksgiving - when I realize I have to actually think about Christmas presents and possibly attend numerous awkward parties.

Christmas in China was sort of a relief. No pressure to buy presents, no parties; just a big dinner sponsored by the English Department. The only reminders of the holiday were a few Santa head cutouts affixed to restaurant windows around town.

Here it’s expected that everyone gives Christmas presents to practically everyone. I get panicky when I think about how many people my list could possibly include. I can’t seem to escape the notion that Christmas is rapidly approaching -- and if I don’t get all my shopping done now I risk suffocatingly crowded markets and malls!

I’ve been doing my best to ignore it. And when I feel like it’s too much to take, I can escape to Starbucks, where I can get a peppermint mocha in a red paper cup decorated with snowflakes.

Reality

American cultural imperialism at its best. Except that I read somewhere that the Big Brother show started in Europe. It's good to know we're not the only ones spreading mind-rotting reality TV around the world.

Pinoy Big Brother, broadcast by my host organization, is really popular here. It even has its own catchy theme song that I hear everywhere. (And other PIA fellows work for NGOs that try to do things like protect the environment, increase literacy and stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. I, on the other hand, get to do much more important work -- like wander the halls of a media conglomerate that broadcasts the Philippines very own Big Brother.)

Other American reality programs -- especially The Apprentice -- are extremely popular here. At a baby shower last weekend I was completely left out of a conversation, not because of a language barrier, but because my hosts were having a very detailed discussion about The Apprentice.

What's in a name?

During a break in a meeting last week, one of my bosses started joking about the name of a man who had just been arrested for involvement in a bombing in Manila. His name, which is now Dawud Santos, used to be Tyrone del Rosario Santos. (And let's not forget about his brother, Ahmed Santos.)

Her point was that Filipinos who have converted to Islam often have hybrid names. Muslim first name, Christian last name. And we just happen to read about these men when they're suspected of bombing a bus or ferry.

Case in point: Three men were recently sentenced to death in Manila for bombing a bus in February in Manila’s business district. One of the three men is Angelo Trinidad. The name is so common here that there are probably thousands of Angelo Trinidads in the Philippines. But his alias is Abu Khalil and he is linked to the Abu Sayyaf group, which is known for kidnapping 20 or so guests from the upscale Dos Palmas resort on Palawan – including the Burnhams, an American missionary couple that was held hostage for more than a year.

The names are so strikingly different that Reuters felt it necessary to insert a paragraph “explaining” the Trinidad vs. Abu Khalil discrepancy.

"Trinidad had converted to Islam from Roman Catholicism, the main religion in the Philippines."

The mixed-religion names end up being more than just something to joke about, but are an insight into the culture of this country. Had Spain not gone on a land-acquisition rampage more than 400 years ago, Islam might possibly have been the dominant religion in the Philippines. After all, the country is a stone’s throw away from Indonesia and Malaysia. (But that’s just speculation on my part, and not really worthy of further examination.)

More interesting is how the mixing of cultures here shows up more than just in Filipino food (heavy, oily Spanish food with an Asian staple...rice) and language (Tagalog mixed with English, also called Taglish, is more commonly spoken than straight Tagalog), but also in the names Filipinos are given or give themselves.