Day in the life of an IP Student

          Little black heads bobbing up and down as each kid chases one another and the sounds of laughter filling the halls. Yep~ Iskwelahang Filipino has officially begun!

     Every other Sunday, over seventy five students (and their families!) from all over the Boston area flock to the quaint town of Bedford, Massachusetts, where traditional Philippine elements of cooking, dancing, culture, and language are taught by mothers and fathers alike. All students are divided into five categories based on age: binhi - preschoolers, ilang-ilang - kindergarteners, sampaguita - elementary school students, Bonifacio - middle school students, and finally, Rizal - high school students. As a student of Rizal, I start the day off in cooking class. Everyone works together to create scrumptious dishes like pancit, adobo, sinigang, and so much more.

Making pancit in cooking class!

As a group, we then move on to a more artistic aspect of the culture - dance! This year's Rizal is dancing the "Sayaw sa bangko," a traditional dance between a girl and boy done on a bench. Although some of us aren't the best of dancers, I think I can say on behalf of the whole IP community we all genuinely enjoy gettin' down together!

Practicing "Sayaw sa Bangko" in dance class...unfortunately without the bench

In addition, the school offers merienda, snack time, for everyone to interact and enjoy eating food together. Rizal ends the school day with culture and language. Pinoy pride is the reoccurring theme this year, and our wonderful teachers do a great job of teaching us the importance of heritage and different peoples' backgrounds.

Merienda time! Time to eat some yummy Filipino (and non-Filipino) dishes!

No matter what city or town we're from, we're all one big happy, Pinoy, family!

With my buddies, Sierra and Rosie, before merienda!     

Lauren Granada