february 2025: winter in the philippines
Hi ! I’m restarting my newsletter and you’re still on it. I hope that’s okay. 😬 It has a cute name now!
Anyway, I really wanted to tell you about our recent awesome trip to the Philippines.
I’ve never been to the Philippines before, but it’s the place where my family is from. I’ve only heard stories about it while growing up: how clear and warm the water is, how massive the malls are, how fresh the fruit was, how cheap the goods could be…
My parents and grandparents went back every few years. I don’t know why they never took me and my brother. There was one summer when I was a kid, probably when I was 5 or 6, where I remember saying I was afraid to go because my mom had told me about the mosquitos that bite you, and I didn’t want them to bite me. So they left us to stay with friends and cousins while they spent most of that summer there. They came back with a box full of Sanrio toys and Paula Abdul cassette tapes.
I’m on the verge of turning 40 this year, so I decided it was time. And I really wanted my mom, while she still can, to show me around and tell me about her life there. It worked out that she was already planning a trip to go back for her college reunion, so Matt and I booked our flights to join her for two weeks in January (perfect time to leave Chicago for 80-degree weather).
The Philippines is everything I’ve heard about and more. What a beautiful country with friendly, welcoming people and a rich history and culture.
We did a day in Manila, a week in Cebu, a couple of days in Maasin, and finished off in Cebu before flying back. The country is made up of more than 7,000 islands so all of this trekking required flying or ferrying in between.
Matt and I made it a goal to learn a new word or phrase in Tagalog or Visayan each day and incorporate it into a real conversation. The furthest we got was learning how to introduce each other (“Ito po si Matt, bana ko!”) and saying thank you (“Salamat po!”) but it still seemed to impress everyone we met.
We have so many stories and photos from the trip, but some highlights:
Eating vegan Filipino food
Swimming with whale sharks in Oslob
Visiting my ancestral home and looking at old family photos
Meeting cousins for the first time whom I’ve only known about through photos and stories. They were sweet and funny and I wish we could’ve hung out more.
Getting a surprise early birthday party!
Getting lost in a gigantic mall (they really are four or five stories and go in circles)
Mom pointing at things in museums saying she used that growing up
Going to my mom’s 50th nursing school reunion and seeing an old childhood friend I haven’t seen in 30+ years
Matt and I have more observations about things we also found interesting about the country, like the infrastructure development, the class divide, the mall culture, the sentiment toward Magellan and the introduction of Christianity and Spanish colonialism, and how Americans are seen as liberators although that history and relationship are way more complicated.
But really, I loved it, and I want to go back as soon as I can. I’d love to go with my brother, and perhaps next time we could explore where my dad’s side of the family is from.
More snaps:
Next Ovef Ow shows:
March 28: Dekalb, IL at 7th Street Space w/Babe Report (cool Chicago Pixie-ish indie rock)
April 11: Chicago, IL at Tone Deaf Records w/Paper Mice (our 10th anniversary party! Whaaaat??)
April 25: Chicago, IL at Cole’s Bar w/MINKA (Philly yacht rock)
March 1: I’m DJing live on CHIRP Radio from 4-6pm Chicago time. Tune in on chirpradio.org or through the app! I’ll probably play a few things we bought in the Philippines along with a bunch of new music from FACS, Sharon Van Etten, Japanese Breakfast and Squid.
March 11: I’m DJing the after show for J. Bambii, m.e.h. and Tasha at the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel. Swing by!
Somehow I’m in the middle of four books, but I recently started Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler.
Feb. 24: The Anniversary at the Empty Bottle (never got to see them in the early ‘00s. Sweet Marie!)
March 24: Yasuaki Shimizu (of Mariah, who released the excellent Utakata No Hibi in 1983) at Thalia Hall
March 27: Michael Rother playing NEU!, Harmonia & solo works at the Empty Bottle
March 29: KRAFTWERK at the Auditorium Theatre (50 years of Autobahn, in 3-D!)
Anyone get tickets to the sold out Patti Smith performing Horses tour this fall? 😭
Our new favorite travel activity is visiting other countries and finding the record stores. Record store = cool local neighborhood. And we made it a rule to try to not buy anything easily available back home.
Some of the great finds we brought back from Manila and Cebu:
Japanese pressings of 7” of Get Back / Don't Let Me Down by The Beatles, Nigai Namida by The Three Degrees, and Honey Chile (sic) / Show Me The Way by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
Sleeper's Paradise, a comp of contemporary Filipino reggae, dub and ska
The self-titled release by Hikashu, a late 70s/early 80s experimental pop/rock band from Japan
Hi-Nology by the Terumasa Hino Quintet from 1969
Nina Simone’s 1974 live album It Is Finished
