some of my family from far away

haven't written for a while, because i've been sick. but before that, have to tell you about some of my family that visited from the US lately. i believe i talked about my tita (who is the wife of my dad's brother) who visited a few months ago. well, this time around, she came over with her two daughters, lian and stephanie. they're both just a few years younger than me. their older brother, chuck is a year older than me. (yeah, good luck guessing my age. that's really not the point!)
anyway, they spent about two weeks in the province with their mother, and just made time to meet up with us june 13th, which was declared a holiday. we spent the entire day with them. we met up for lunch in greenbelt, and i finally got to eat at sentro. yehey! (i love that my parents trust me enough to entrust meal arrangements to me. i mean, it's not like there's a wide range to choose from. my mom can't eat high cholesterol food. my dad doesn't like complicated and, according to him, "exotic" food. my sister and i pretty much eat a wide variety of food. though, obviously, she eats MUCH LESS than i do.) thankfully, i chose well, this time.

we had the sinigang na corned beef, the sizzling tofu, and the steak. their desserts there are amazing too! aside from the great food, we were all happy to find that my cousins aren't the ultra-americanized types. they've eaten the requisite balut, know how to kill a live chicken, and though they don't know that much tagalog, they're willing to try. i had only met lian once when i was 1 or 2 years old, and stephanie, when she was 6 i think. so really, we had no prior knowledge of each other, save for pictures exchanged over the years.

i thought it was amusing how they kept looking across the table, trying to figure out who my dad resembled--their dad, our uncle, our grandfather, or our aunt? the way they called me "ate", i mean, with a different accent, was also amusing. not weird, just different. we talked about the other places they could go, and stephanie wanted to stay to go to boracay, but she has to go back to san diego because she was moving house.

we walked around greenbelt, passing by the theaters, where they were bowled over by the price of movie tickets. lian said "it was $11 for star wars!!!" then we stopped inside music one, where they bought OPM CDs! i was so proud of how in touch they are with local entertainment. then they told me how they went to ASAP and met celebs backstage. it made me think, once again, how sad that many filipinos would find such activities baduy. after CD shopping, we walked around a bit, then my dad suggested i go with them to divisoria.
once there, they were all game to walk around, and we emerged with arms full of goodies. love divi!!!
afterwards, we got on a cab to go to aristocrat, where we were meeting my parents for dinner. we talked more about places to go to on their next visit, what they did in the US, and had a discussion about whether or not filipino identity is lost when you don't know the language. we had their super-delicious chicken barbeque. and my sister and i tempted stephanie to have halo-halo. then we walked around baywalk.
i was so happy to find that my cousins are smart, sensible, and fun people to be around. i hope to see them again soon.