FIESTA!!!

June 28, 29 & 30 marked the 163rd year our parish has celebrated its patron saint's (St. Peter the Apostle, known to us as Apong Iru) fiesta. Fiesta season starts nine days before the 28th day of June for the 9-day novena, you'd know and feel it coz of the divisoria-like stalls that pop up along the street, then on the 28th Apong Iru is paraded from his ancestral home/shrine in Capalangan to the town parish church (a 410-year-old Spanish-built cathedral) in San Juan, Apalit.

Since I've been away studying in Manila before, then busy with my classes and hospital duty later, this is my first time after so many years in participating in the fiesta. I felt somewhat like an outsider, to tell you the truth; especially with vendors of Apong Iru's images flocking to me to buy their wares for pasalubong or remembrance or whatever the heck reason they could think of to make me buy those scapulars and etc.

In any case, the 27th was started with me waking up at around 2am coz mom, Tito Toto and I were scheduled to buy flowers from Dangwa early in the morning. We got there at around 4am, bought miscellaneous white flowers - 2 stargazers, a bundle of orchids, anturiums, wild chrysanthemums, roses, and aster - went back home at around 6am, then arranged the flowers for the remainder of the day till early in the afternoon. Mom and Anna were busy cooking; just in case may dumating na bisita mahirap naman na ala kaming ihahanda para sa kanila di ba?

The 28th found us watching the fluvial parade as the Knights of St. Peter pulled Apong Iru's barge through the river towards the cathedral where he'll be staying for the duration of the 3-day fiesta. Apong Iru's barge is accompanied by private boats and bangkas so the river's one chaotic and noisy mess of people throwing water-filled balloons at each other.

The 29th, the fiesta proper, was spent cooking some chili-garlic shirmps for Tita Pes (pandagdag sa handa); then went to mass and proceeded to the cemetery where Peter and Paul are buried. It was the twin's birthday that day. Their first birthday since they died last November. Kinda odd eating lunch at the cemetery. It's not really our custom to do, not even during All Saint's Day, but Tita wanted to celebrate the day near the twins so... *shrug* We spent the day there. It was quiet inside the cemetery, there weren't a lot of people visiting their dead though there were a few. Paul's classmates at Kester came, so did Peter's UP friends. Nicolle and Grace were also there. I don't know why but I don't really feel like socializing with those people. They promised to come each year on the twin's birthday and day of death but I really am doubtful they'd keep that up for more than a year or two. I mean, Grace - Paul's gf of two years - has already found another guy, and I don't blame her for trying to move on. I wouldn't wish any of them to continually grieve for my dead cousins, I want them to move on with their lives, and eventually, I know they will. And that however good their intentions are about visiting and supporting Tita Pes, Tito Toto and Camille, they'll eventually find less and less time to do so. Am I just being negative about them? Anyways, that's how I feel so I don't want to socialize with them, pretend they're friends or anything of the sort coz they're not.

Anyways, today's the 30th. The last day of the town fiesta. Wala sanang magtampo na hindi ako nangumbira kasi wala naman talaga akong kinumbira kahit na sino. Didn't feel like it coz nga of the twins. Mom didn't invite anyone either so... Mom and I went to the 8am mass, then waited and watched as the Knights shouldered Apong Iru to take him back to Capalangan through the same route they used on the 28th when they brought him to the cathedral. Hindi na kami sumama sa paghahatid kay Apong Iru, although the festivities would have gone on at Capalangan once the Knights got Apong Iru inside his house.

Funny thing I learned this year: pinapayungan pa pala ng mga Knights si Apong Iru! I don't see the logic of it. I mean, sure he's an important image/rebulto but it's not like iitim siya or magkaka-sunburn if nainitan siya, right?

Stolen from Noelle's LJ:

What color is your soul painted? Green Your soul is painted the color green, which embodies the characteristics of youth, wealth, vigor, aggression, coldness, jealousy, greed, corruption, sincerity, hope, growth, stability, money, luck, prosperity, fertility, cooperation, employment, and healing. Green falls under the element of Earth, and symbolizes our planet's fertility as well as life itself. Click Here to Take This Quiz

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Anime Marathon 2

I mentioned in the previous post that I was watching Ai Yori Aoshi, right? Well, I didn't finish it. Kinda surprised with myself that I hang on till episode 24 (with gritted teeth and eyes rolling heaven-wards at the sheer cheesy-ness of the story) before switching to something else.

The something else was another mushy story, though thank God that Yuu Watase ended it like that so it had a bit of a saving grace to it. What I'm talking about is Zettai Kareshi. No, I didn't watch it. Dunno if there's even anime available to watch; I just read the manga. Liked the bittersweet ending, that's all; although it's similar to Touya telling Yuuhi to take care of Aya when he's gone. I had to bear with seeing Tamahome's face for the entire 6 volumes, so it was somewhat a torture to read. I never really liked Tamahome in the first place, I'm a Tasuki fan, remember? And is it just me or did all the characters look alike with just a slight difference to their hairstyle? They all looked good, but geez...

Next was Hana Yori Dango manga and some of the anime (since I don't have all the available episodes). I stopped at episode 10 (I have 32 so far) of the anime coz the BGM grated on my nerves. And I hated Makino's voice. So monotone! Settled for reading the manga. I kinda wasted my time in doing so coz I basically just read the story of the jdrama. I LOVED Hanazawa Rui though! I totally enjoyed it when he was no longer Makino's love interest and was just her friend. He's hilarious! Though maybe I'm partial to him coz Oguri Shun plays him in the jdrama and I LOVE Oguri Shun hehehe ^_^

Then read (yes! I read it. The title of this post really shouldn't be anime marathon but manga marathon, ne?) W-Juliet. I *heart* male Makoto! And Ito's older twin brothers! Waaah... my one wish, if I ever get reincarnated, is that I get older brothers like those two wheheheheheheh! They're so fricking cool!

Next I watched Gundam Seed Destiny. *sigh* I kinda wished I didn't. I hated Shinn as the main character. That boy had a serious attitude problem and was so easily brainwashed. Then again it's kinda cool how good he is when he goes into seed mode (he's so fricking strong!) and even managed to win against Kira's Freedom. Of course I hated him for going after Kira but then there wouldn't be a story if he didn't so in the end it's okay ^_^; Besides which, for a main character he didn't get that much air time compared to Athrun. And his character development suffered a great blow when the writers/director/producers or whoever the hell is responsible for the darned script decided to switch to Kira as the main character during the latter phases. Also hated that the ending was so rushed.

Anime Marathon

My eyes hurt. Ever since I came back from our 10-day stay in Manila, I've been doing nothing but fret about the NLE results. To get my mind off whether I passed or not, I started watching the anime series that I've been able to download before. So far, I've finished watching:

Black Lagoon. Watching this made me wanna rewatch Cowboy Bebop ^-^' Dunno. Revy and the gang were okay and all but the series didn't really sit well with me.

Gundam Wing (plus Endless Waltz, and I've even re-read Episode Zero and Battlefield of the Pacifist manga). May I just say that I understand the story and characters a heck of a lot better now compared to when I first watched it back in high school. I actually like Relena now. Well, she's still not my favorite GW character (that spot still belongs to Duo heheh ^^), but I appreciate and understand her more now. I actually found her encounters with Heero funny, as in I was chuckling ruefully at them funny, know what I mean? I'm happy that though they're not exactly together together, they at least understand (and suit) each other so well that there's hope for them truly getting together in the future.

12 Kingdoms a.k.a. Juuni Kokki / 12 Kokki / Record of 12 Countries. I adore Rakushun!!! Heheh ^____^ He's just soooooooooo cute!!! I want a plushie of him! The mouse version, that is. His human side's not bad looking but he just doesn't evoke that girlish-squealing wanna-pinch-his-cheek rub-my-nose-on-his-whiskers and just glomp him feeling that I get whenever I see that cute gray mouse ^_^ But it bothers me a great deal that the anime didn't finish Taiki's story and just left it hanging like that. I can't find the novels anywhere and I don't plan on buying them since they're in Japanese - since I can only read a few Kanji - so unless I find an English translated copy of those novels (they're novels, not manga, mind you) I'm stuck with where the anime left off haaaaaaaaaaaay...

Gundam Seed Ahh... this one had me crying, shouting, laughing, and staring-at-the-screen-helplessly speechless at certain parts. I'm just dumbstruck at the death toll of this story. Geez... it's so fricking tragic, and hope-filled at the same time. One of the better anime titles, surely. I really needn't say anything more. Although I find it nice how different the Gundam pilots are in this show compared to the GW boys. Without their Gundams, Kira and Athrun wouldn't probably last too long if forced to go against Heero, Wufei or Trowa; but in fairness they'd probably pummel the GW boys if they were to fight with their Gundams.

I was thinking of giving myself a break from all the heavy war-driven plot lines of those three series so I'm now in the middle of watching Ai Yori Aoshi, but darn... all this lovey-dovey mushy LoveHina-ish stuff is giving me a toothache and migraine. I hope the plot gets better coz I'm only at episode 8 and I already wanna switch to another title.

Thinking about watching Gundam Seed Destiny next. Or Kiddy Grade. Or Blackjack. Or Kekkaishi. Or maybe I should rewatch Fushigi Yuugi now that I finally got my hands on a copy of the 3rd OAV? There's also Mushishi... and some of the other titles Jean told me I should watch.

Waiting for a month for the result's making a couch potato out of me gaaahh... I need to get out more often, wonder if any of the girls would wanna play badminton with me? Hmmmm...

Kyoto International Manga Museum

Waaaaah! I wanna go see this place!!! Wonder if I can actually open the manga on display and read on the spot? I'll probably never leave!!! That's it, darnit! I'm adding it to my list of places to visit.