“Pit Señor sa mga Teachers kini.”
I woke up with a pound at the door. It was a really loud knock and I did not know how to feel about that. We had a long night of brainstorming and lesson preparation. Being awaken by that loud sound reminded me that it was already the Sinulog Festival back in our home. This is the first year that I am away from home during this festival. Because my friend and I were feeling very nostalgic about the festival we decided to play the Sinulog music and dance to the beat of the drums in our own room. In a way we had our own little festival there.
The loud knocking that we have heard came from our Taiwanese friends. They invited us to head to a traditional Indonesian market. My friend form Cebu, Larissa, and I declined to go because we were calling our parents back home to greet them “Pit Señor.” Our friend Margie went and when she came back, she bought ingredients to make chicken adobo. She said that during their fiesta, they would cook chicken adobo so she decided to cook some. Even though I enjoy eating Indonesian food, I missed the classic flavor of Filipino food. The lunch we had was very satisfying. We were very happy to have eaten and shared Filipino food with some of our buddies and their friends. They also bought a couple of Indonesian snacks from the market and we had some sort of food exchange.
During the afternoon, we went back to business. We prepared more about our topic, we finalized them and we got them printed. Our lodging had printing shops near it and we got to explore the different stores near the university’s front and back gate. Whenever we go somewhere people would always stare at us or do a double take. Maybe they can really sense that we are not Indonesian even though we have some similar features.
Overall this day was just a day of staying in, finishing up our responsibilities and sharing our culture. As teachers we are responsible to share our culture with others and educate them about how wonderful our own culture it. Even though we only did something small like sharing food, I think it brought us together. The wonderful conversations, the new taste and experiences made us form a bond that I will treasure forever.