A lesson in tastes

I wish I could say that we were at Café Ysabel (see the posts of the past two days) for a romantic Valentine dinner for two, but I took those photos back in January. Dr. Fernando Zialcita, a professor at the Ateneo de Manila University's Sociology and Anthropology Department, teaches a course titled "Culture and the Senses," which is an exploration and study of the history of Filipino culture as evidenced not only by what we can see (art, architecture, and the like) but also by what we can experience through the other senses (smell, taste, hearing). For the lesson about taste, Dr. Zialcita partnered with Chef Gene Gonzalez who came up with a seven-course comparative degustation menu titled "Exploring Filipino Taste in Seven Courses" which they made available to others not enrolled in the class. The three-hour dinner and lecture traces the history and influences of dishes from different regions of the Philippines, and compares and contrasts them with similar dishes from Spain, China, Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand, India and the U.S. I found the lecture and tasting absolutely fascinating! And even with tiny servings, we were full to bursting by the end of the night—it was still 14 dishes, after all, and that's not counting the Queso de Bola–Edam Cheese comparison that he added. Now I'm curious about the other lessons in Dr. Zialcita's Culture and the Senses course…

This is where it all began

Back in November of 2009, I wrote about our office's annual Christmas outreach program called Lights for Hope. The 2010 event did not have as many children; we were a few tens shy of a thousand. Mr. Octopus the inflatable bouncer wasn't inflated on time—which is why he's still lopsided here—and soon after I took this picture, it started raining, which forced everyone to move to the alternate venue. But I have to hand it to the college kids who spent time with the public school children and the local child actors who came to spread some Christmas joy: they adjusted to their sheltered but cramped space, everyone gamely continued with the program, and I saw nothing but smiles on the young children's faces.

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I would like to apologize for disappearing without a word for two whole months. Even early in November, my schedule and work load were getting progressively worse and it was soon after this event that I had to decide to let go of something, and it just had to be my blog. I don't want to bother anyone with the details since it isn't what My Manila is for; suffice it to say that it was the first time in a decade that I had to go to work during the Christmas break and that I hardly felt the past two months go by. To everyone who worried, visited, and left messages and sent me email: thank you from the bottom of my heart. I wish I could give each one of you a real hug.

Let me say one final thing: I'm baaaaack! :)

Convenience

The University of the Philippines (U.P.) Diliman shopping center is nothing fancy. It's just a long, narrow cinder block of a building with small shops on both sides of one narrow corridor, but it's definitely a boon to its students, faculty and staff. Aside from the optical and computer shops that you can see in the photo, here's a short, top-of-the-head rundown of other stores and services found there: photocopying and bookbinding, key duplication, tailor, dressmaker, grocery, U.P. souvenir items, gift shop, barber shop, and laboratory glass supplies. Everything that young college students need.

Carillon

The bells of the Ateneo Church of the Gesù, housed in a tower separate from the church, were a gift to the university from the alumni class of High School 1960 / College 1964. Six years after the bell tower was constructed, the class has raised funds to add more bells, which I think have already been cast because the discussion now is which saints will have their names inscribed on the bells. It would be interesting to see where and how the new bells will be added to the tower.

Partners

For the life of me, I just can't get a decent photo of my own grade school and high school, Holy Family. Barbed wire runs on top of its walls and utility cables are thick all over. This is just the side of the school; the cables at the front, which is in our neighborhood's main street, are even worse. Holy Family School is run by the Siervas de San Jose (Servants of Saint Joseph), a religious missionary congregation founded in Spain, and is an all-girls school. It is separated from Claret School, an all-boys grade school and high school, by a single, low wall. Needless to say, a lot of heckling and eyelash-batting goes on around that wall during recess and lunch break.

Almost opaque

I posted a similar photo of the Rizal Library of the Ateneo de Manila University back in May, but one taken in the early evening when the windows look completely transparent. I just find the difference in the opacity of the windows—depending on the light and the time of day—absolutely fascinating.

Give praise

The FEBIAS College of Bible in the City of Malabon may be small and its buildings a bit dilapidated




but it has one of the biggest and most handsome trees I have seen in the metro




and lots of other plants besides, all of which give the small campus a certain graceful air.




FEBIAS stands for Far Eastern Bible Institute and Seminary, the original name of this interdenominational Bible school when it opened in 1948.

Camouflage

I like how the roofs of the Grade School and High School departments of Miriam College, which older Manileños know better as Maryknoll when the Maryknoll Sisters ran it, blend so well with the trees in their campus. This was taken from the matching green pedestrian overpass in front of the school during a Saturday afternoon, hence the scarcity of cars and school service vans in the parking lot.

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October's theme for City Daily Photo bloggers is Graffiti. That's going to be fun! Don't forget to vote for the November theme too!

Everything has a price

ZeKaf opened in the basement of the new dormitories of the Ateneo de Manila University late last year. With flowers on the tables, warm light, earth colors and a photo mural in sepia tones, it looks pretty good for a school cafeteria. I'd call it a café rather than a cafeteria if it weren't for the fact that their food counter still looks like those found in any school cafeteria anywhere in the world. The food's good too but, compared to the other cafeterias on campus, their prices are higher and the serving sizes are smaller. I guess ambiance doesn't come cheap.

Cross on green

This is the pedestrian bridge that crosses Katipunan Avenue from Miriam College, which is exclusively for women from grade school to college. Like its neighbor, Ateneo de Manila University, the college keeps a security guard on or near the bridge for the safety of its students. The footbridge is basically of the same design as the one in front of the Ateneo a kilometer away which I posted last month, except that it doesn't have a roof. I don't know if it was done on purpose, but the bridge's green paint happily matches Miriam's school color.

Bridges around the world: Sunday Bridges

Nurturing gifted children

Akademeia opened in a converted house in our barangay less than five years ago. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about it except what I've read in its no-longer-updated Multiply site. Having studied in a traditional school as a child, I really like the idea of small class sizes and individualized instruction with special programs for gifted children. If you have three minutes, do take a peek at the "Another One Rides the Bus" video posted in its old Multiply site—the two little boys are talented, hilarious and absolutely adorable!

Over the bridge

So what's beyond yesterday's little blue and white bridge? The greenhouse that I remember from my youth is gone and has been replaced by this pretentiously named Biological Research House. (I warned you it was a disappointment.) Whatever the students have in there, it seems that they have to be protected from too much sun; those are black garbage bags tied over the windows. I couldn't take a peek inside because the structure is completely surrounded by a chain link fence with padlocked gates. I guess their projects have to be protected from vandals too.

To read or to relax

Just when most of the northern hemisphere starts its summer break, students in the Philippines go back to school. Our summer months are April and May, and the school year begins in June and ends in March. Which means that the Rizal Library of the Ateneo de Manila University is full of students again. Though whether they're inside to do research or outside hanging out at the water feature, is another question altogether.

Reading lamps

When I posted a photo of the west facade of the Rizal Library in the Ateneo de Manila University with its sparse windows, someone commented that she doesn't like buildings without windows. In fact, it is only the east and west sides that have few windows so that the interiors do not get the full strength of the sun's heat. If you've ever stayed in equatorial countries during their summers, you can understand why this architectural design principle makes a lot of sense. However, the north and south sides of the library are almost nothing but windows, providing lots of natural light in the reading rooms during the day. Of course, they still have to use fluorescent lamps at night.

The last days of summer

During the past two weeks, Manila's daytime weather has still been that of summer: hot. But it has also started becoming very humid, and late in the afternoon, dark clouds would gather, the wind would become a little cooler and sometimes, rain would fall in the early evening. I saw this young man flying a kite in the brown fields of the University of the Philippines as the sun was setting behind the evening's rain clouds. Pretty soon, the grass of the fields will be bright green again.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

For women

The second residential hall built in the 1960s inside the Loyola Heights campus of the Ateneo de Manila University was Eliazo Hall. It was built two years after Cervini Hall, in 1968, and named after the Jesuit priest Father Jose M. Eliazo, SJ. When the university turned co-educational in the 1970s, Eliazo Hall became the women's dormitory, and it has been ever since. I can only speak about Manila architecture, but the two buildings' patterned concrete blocks just scream the 60s to me.

For men

Cervini Hall was one of two residential halls for students built in the 1960s inside the Loyola Heights campus of the Ateneo de Manila University. It was inaugurated in 1966 and named after the Jesuit priest Father Andrew F. Cervini, SJ. When the university finally turned co-educational in the 1970s, Cervini Hall became the men's dormitory. And if you're wondering about the yellow ribbons on the trees, they're leftovers from the death of former Philippine President Corazon Aquino on August 1, 2009 and not the university's endorsement of the presidential candidacy of her son Noynoy.

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Whatever your faith is, please keep the Philippines in your thoughts and prayers today and in the next few days. We go out to vote for our national and local governments today. Please pray that the elections and the counting will be clean (election cheating has always been rampant here), that there won't be too much violence (asking for no violence at all is not realistic), that the new counting machines will work without a hitch (it's the first time we're using machines—counting was always done manually in the past), and that we finally elect good leaders who will selflessly work for the good of the country and of all Filipinos (rather than those who will just work for their own enrichment).

State-ly columns

A longer view of Quezon Hall, the main administration building of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, with the statue of the Oblation, which I posted for the CDP May theme day, in its small green plaza. The University of the Philippines, or U.P. for short, is the country's premier state university.

An offering

THEME DAY: STATUES • In 1935, the fourth President of University of the Philippines, Rafael Palma, commissioned sculptor and professor Guillermo Tolentino to create a monument based on the second stanza of Philippine National Hero Jose Rizal's "Mi Ultimo Adios" (My Last Farewell) which would be the identifying landmark of the university. The result was the Oblation (noun, something offered in worship or devotion), a naked figure of a young man with face tilted heavenward, eyes closed, arms outstretched, hands open and chest forward—a grand pose of self-offering. The original statue, made of concrete painted to look like bronze, is now kept in the university's main library. The statue in front of Quezon Hall, the administration building, is a bronze replica recast from the original and unveiled in the Diliman campus in 1958.



See more statues in the virtual global museum that is City Daily Photo on this first day of May. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Lock me up!

Every now and then, our university has problems with thieves getting inside the campus. And it doesn't help the situation when students leave their things on benches or leave their cars unlocked. The latter got so bad two years ago that our security guards were spending more time checking for unlocked cars than guarding against strangers (i.e., no IDs). Yes, we all know that it shouldn't be the responsibility of the school to play babysitter for careless students, but it does become the school's problem when things get stolen inside the campus. So at the start of the past school year, the university put up reminder banners in all of the parking lots, and this simple and inexpensive solution actually helped. The incidence of unlocked cars dropped dramatically and I don't remember reading a single report about car stereos or laptops left inside cars getting stolen. I think it helped that the cartoon car looks so cute and worried. How can you neglect the safety of your pet car when he's looking at you like that?