10 Snippets of Pilipiana cultura

10 Snippets of Filipino culture brought to you, of course, from expereince...

1) fiestas are like huge city-wide family reunions, people line the streets, visit homes, eat a lot, and buy used American stuff

2) mosquitos are bigger here and they like the outside of mosquito nets, and my legs

3) if you don't know the word to say during conversation, you can substitute it with the word "quawn"

4) young people are expected to bless their elders by taking the elder's hand and touching it to their forehead; it's a sign of respect

5) a meal is not a meal without rice. even breakfast must include rice. if it doesn't have rice, it's a snack. people don't ask what you're having for supper, they ask what your "viad" is- what meat or vegetable you're having with your rice. at McDonalds you can order just spagetti as a snack, or order it with rice as a meal.

6) cock fights are a normal form of entertainment and gambling. big "stadiums"/rinks are all over where you go to watch a fight

7) on a smaller scale, people fight spiders. kids, and sometimes men, find spiders and fight them, making bets on which will win.

8) never motion for someone with your palm up; that's for a dog. you motion for people with your palm down.

9) everything stops on Good Friday, and Saturday. except for the silent parades of people walking the streets listening to their hail mary's on a loud speaker

10) eveything also stops when the filipino boxer, Manny Pacquioa, has a fight.