Mezza Norte @ TriNoma

For 3 nights (so far) this summer, me, my brother, cousin and ninang have been eating at this food night market called Mezza Norte (Mercato) at TriNoma already and I thought, might as well blog about this place I guess, plus, I've got nothing much to do, or even to post about. :)

First time I went to this place, I can't recall but it was last year during the ber months since there were Christmas decors in TriNoma back then.

This is a good place for dinner for 3 reasons: 1) The food here is inexpensive (though it does depend on the stall) 2) The food's also good and 3) There's a lot to choose from but now, maybe because it's summer or something, there are less stalls that remained here from the first time I came, but nonetheless, all of them still offer diverse choices. Probably in the future or something, more stalls are gonna come here, or probably around the ber months. It's open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 4PM-3AM.

Taken (I think) last May 17th. There were more people then.

The rest of the pics were taken last Saturday, May 24th.

Trinoma

Going to the Sayaw sa Obando 2014

The month of May is known to be a month of fiestas and I don't know what made me, some college student think about it for a while, but I decided to go see the Obando Fertility Rites in Obando, Bulacan, one of the well known fiestas in the country. Well known to even be referenced by Jose Rizal himself (guess it was already famous back in the day), the feast is a 3-day celebration held on May 17th-19th honoring the 3 patrons of Obando; San Pascual Baylon, Sta. Clara de Asis and the Nuestra Senora de Salambao on those 3 days respectively. During the feast, couples come to this town to dance to the song "Sta. Clara, Pinung Pino" in hopes of having children in the future. People and tourists come to the feast as well and dance along to the music to have their prayers answered, or at least see this in person. It's so popular that people from all over come to Obando in these 3 days of dance and merrymaking. I have never been to this fiesta... until now.

Now, I have already been to Obando before, just once though, but I have never been during the feast. Since it isn't that far from our place and not wanting to miss an opportunity to see a good fiesta up close, I thought of it for a while and I decided to go there for the 1st day of the feast. It was exciting also because it was the 1st time I'll be going there in person and by the way, I went there by myself :). I left the house at 6 am, had breakfast at a Jollibee near Munoz and arrived in Obando at around 7:30 AM. The mood was festive, vendors were all over and there were a few puddles on the way (dunno why, must've rained before). When I came to their church, a beautiful old church, it was already packed because of the people attending the mass and waiting for the procession. It was later that I found out that the procession started earlier at 7 AM, and people were waiting for it there. I had to ask where it was and went around to look for it along the procession route when I saw it. For the 1st time in the feast, I heard the tune of "Sta. Clara Pinung Pino" and saw people dancing to the song. From a distance, I saw the image of San Pascual Baylon (but not yet Sta. Clara and the Virgin Mary) and after that, I headed back to the church. I saw what I came for in Obando. The procession made it's way to the church and it was there where I saw the other two images in the procession, accompanied by bands, dancers and hundreds (if not thousands) of people. By the time the 8 AM mass ended, the images of the Saints entered the church and everyone in it started dancing to the hymn to Sta. Clara. I cannot deny, it was a powerful moment, seeing a great expression of faith and the joy was just infectious. I left Obando around 9:30-40-ish, tired but happy.

I'll share some pics of the experience.

Festive mood all over Obando

San Pascual Baylon Church, Obando

Inside Obando church

The 3 patrons

It's more fun in Obando

Performing the Hymn of Sta. Clara

Sayaw sa Obando

Dancing to "Sta. Clara Pinong Pino"

San Pascual Baylon

Sta. Clara

Nice bamboo instruments

Nuestra Senora de Salambao

Some of the dancers

San Pascual enters the church

As the images enter the church, the people erupted into dancing to the music of Sta. Clara's hymn

Dancing to Sta. Clara Pinong Pino. A beautiful moment. Pic is blurred though

High altar of the Obando church where images of the 3 patrons are enshrined

What an awesome experience to be there. At least, in a way, I was able to go out of town this summer (Well... it's in Bulacan, so... :P). Next year, hopefully, I am coming back. :D

Seeing Eat Bulaga's Juan for All, All For Juan today =D

What could've been a rather hot, boring Summer afternoon became better because I was able to see Eat Bulaga's Juan for All, All for Juan up close and personal, not to mention seeing the "dabarkads" as well. Although it wasn't our barangay, still... :)

It was lunchtime and I tuned in on the TV to see the popular show "Eat Bulaga" and the show started with the "All for Juan, Juan for All" segment. For the unfamiliar, this segment features a barangay somewhere in the country which will be visited by the show's co-hosts Jose Manalo, Wally Bayola and Paolo Ballesteros (though sometimes other dabarkads substitute) and what they do is they give the residents of the place a chance to win instant prizes, such as cash and in addition, the segment also tries to instill a sense of "bayanihan" and discipline to the people and of course, give people an opportunity to be seen on TV. Personally, it's one of my fave segments of the show because the hosts' antics and jokes are funny, gives hope, teaches people (in a way) and it's an eye-opener too.

It just so happened that today, the lucky barangay was San Antonio, Quezon City which was just next to ours'. It was so near I just couldn't miss this opportunity to see this in person, so right after having lunch, I headed there and when I saw umbrellas in the distance, I knew that that was it, I even had to ask someone there if that's it. When I came, they were in the middle of their segment and there was Jose and Paolo (didn't see Wally then, though I did later). Many, if not some of the fans were screaming and cameras clicked. But moments later, technical problems started to happen on the set. I went around and captured scenes. Security was tight and it was a bit chaotic there. Whenever Jose, Wally or Paolo came out, the fans were trying to reach out to them, some were having fangirl moments and others took pictures of them. I left the place before they started their "sugod bahay" part.

Here are some photos I took.

Jose and Paolo.

Fan signs

Paolo Ballesteros and fans

Wally and Paolo.

Jose Manalo. (pic is blurred >_<)

The street where it pretty much took place

In the end, what I can I say? It was nice being there, despite problems and the heat. Congrats to their barangay for being the one visited for the day. Hopefully ours' or another one nearby can be visited sometime... :) (although, our barangay doesn't really need to be visited though, considering our residents' status ^_^,)

edit: I kinda decided on this... I thought about it and decided to lessen my watching of "Eat Bulaga". I have my reasons why. I might watch some parts of it or take a look at times. At least, I got to see some of the dabarkads. :D

Another edit: Uh.... Rather than lessen, I might as well, not watch EB because of personal reasons. I might come back to it, dunno but yeah. That said, I guess I'll turn to some other noontime show, then?

Unang Biyernes ng Mayo sa Maynila

Today, for the first Friday of May, I headed to Quiapo, Manila. I went all over the place, heard mass at Quiapo church and captured the scenes there in Manila. While it was hot today, good thing the weather was a bit overcast so it's not too hot and it didn't rain. :)  I'd like to share some pictures that I took when I was there in Manila. I was tired when I came home but it was great. ^_^

Pahalik

Kiddie balloons

Panyo

Candles

Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno, dinarangal Ka namin!

Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno, niluluwalhati Ka namin!

Sta. Cruz, Manila

Don Roman Santos Building, Sta. Cruz (I had to look it up somewhere)

Escolta street. Once upon a time, it was one of Manila's most prominent streets.

Now that I think about it, one of these days, I should learn how to put a watermark on my pictures... :/