Final Days in Manila

I got back to Manila a week ago Saturday and spent pretty much the whole day just hanging out at home. The following day I went shopping to get pasalubong for my family back in the States and spent the rest of the week starting to pack my things up (...and trying to run off all the calories I ate in Dagupan). I did have the opportunity to go to Tita Ba's though and was thankful that Lola Fanny was more than willing to teach me to cook my favorite Filipino dishes: pancit and fried lumpia. (Pancit is a clear-noodle dish and lumpia is eggroll.)

Before coming to the Philippines I had this silly fear that by the time my siblings, cousins & I become the eldest in our family, we will have lost touch with the Filipino culture. I always knew I'd want to be called "Lola" when I'm a grandparent, but wasn't sure what I could do to retain the other pieces I didn't want to lose. I want to know that the future generations of my family will be familiar with Filipino food and hope that when they hear a second language at family parties, they are just as unfazed by it as I am now...

Well people, I can happily announce to the everyone that that fear is now obliterated! Having met and spent so much time with my family here in the Philippines, a serious connection has been made. Not only will we stay in touch once I leave, but returning to see them is something I'm already looking forward to doing. And even though cooking is definitely not a hobby of mine, I decided to make sure these recipes lived on.

Lola Fanny was flattered that I asked her to show me her ways in the kitchen (she's a great cook) so she welcomed me over so I could learn. By the end of the day, I realized that the recipes for pancit and fried lumpia are not as mysterious and difficult as I once thought. (As for my fear of my future children growing up in a monolinguistic household, I've decided that won't be a problem. Whatever language(s) they speak besides English will depend on where we're living in the world...!)

Lola Fanny wrapping the lumpia. The pancit
is in the strainer right next to her.

Wrapping the lumpia was harder than it looked. After
comparing mine to hers, I asked her to show me
the technique a few more times before continuing haha.

Rolled & ready to fry!

Yesterday my family here in Manila got together for my despedida, or going away party. They cooked my favorite foods and we were all able to hangout together one last time before my flight. Many hugs and kisses were shared and we promised to stay in touch. I was asked countless times when I'd be coming back and was delighted to hear that some of them have plans to come visit in the near future.

After taking a series of nice pictures, suddenly everyone was shouting,
"Wocky! Wocky!" I looked around because I had no idea what was
happening and had to lean over to ask my aunt to clue me in. She says,
"Wocky, you know. Like crazy or silly or something." I had to
laugh at that. "Wacky," I said to myself. "Got it."