The Pinoy Jeep Blogger hard at work!

Sierra snoozing after a full night and day of non-stop blogging. Sorry, although parents are not allowed in this blog, it's just too tempting to post this "action" shot :o) Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

-- Tom Dad,
    the unofficial IP Rondalla photographer.

July 9th: This Old House - A Day with the Pastor Family

IP Rondalla kids pose for a group picture at the grand staircase of the historic
Pastor family house in Batangas City.

After our performance at St. Bridget College, we took a short drive to the Pastor family's historic "Bahay Na Bato" house for a "Macabayan" (Nationalist) workshop. The Pastor house is about 150 years old and is of the few remaining Spanish-Filipino architectural style house that survived the bombing of Batangas City during WW II. As we roamed around the house, we noticed a number of old relics, pictures and artifacts, including a full sized statue of Jesus Christ and a working karawahe (the house-pulled version of the modern Jeepney). During the first hour, we were treated to native, sweet desserts as we listened to the Pastor brothers' tenor rendition of classical, Filipino, and modern Broadway tunes.

Following the refreshments, we moved to the adjoining hall where we had a an open discussion on the artifact that most interested us in the house. Our moderator helped us piece the different artifacts together in its role in the history of the house and the Philippines. After a hefty discussion, we were exhausted and craved for more of the delicious delicacies of Batangas. We went back to the old house where we were served adobo using the original ingredients, "dulong" (locally available freshwater goby), sapin-sapin, and ginataan. Yummy!

July 9th: St. Bridget College - Ceci

High school students at St. Bridget College giving us a warm welcome song. 

Another successful rondalla performance at St. Briget College.
The nuns were surprised at how ecstatic their students were
with the IP Rondalla performance -- especially George!

Ceci: The friends I made at St. Bridget College

So, that was Aaron. And now it's me again! Yesterday we went to St. Bridget College. When we first arrived, a group of students serenaded us with their welcome song. Afterwards we checked out the auditorium and went to the stage to start blocking and rehearsing. As usual, the crowd loved Ewan/Marry You, Just Give Me a Reason, and the "heartthrob" of the rondalla, George.

Ceci and Lander, or may I say, the
person who made his profile pick
on Facebook a picture with Ceci!

Following the show, we had lunch with the students. Katrina and I ate lunch with Mickey, one of the students and his friends. At first it seemed like we had nothing in common. We listened to pop, such as One Direction, he listened to rock. However, we had a really good time and Mickey was really nice. He offered to buy us Japanese cakes and even sang "With a Smile" by the Eraserheads.

It was sad to leave. Before we left, Mickey taught Katrina and me a special handshake so that if we ever meet him again, we would remember each other. As I left, many students wanted to take pictures of me. It was surprising to see when we had wifi at the hotel that one of Mickey's friends even made a picture of myself and him as his profile picture on Facebook. In the end, we had a fun time at St. Bridget.
Peace ~ Ceci

July 9th: St. Bridget College - Aaron

Aaron: Aaron's Tagalog Lesson

At my stay at the St. Bridget College, the students took us on a tour around the campus. I walked with my good friend Jaeryen and two of the students. They tried helping us with our Tagalog. However, my Tagalog still needed a lot of work. It was really fun socializing with the other students but it was very hard to understand them because they were not really good at speaking English (just joking...they're good but my brain was still asleep).

Speaking Tagalog is very difficult to do in my opinion. I would have to deal with less trouble if I had my book...can't find it at the moment. The "Conversational Tagalog" book helps me understand Tagalog better, but since I don't have it, I am probably going to have a hard time understanding. Bye… That's it ~ Aaron

The conversational Tagalog book that Aaron
was referring to. It was part of the welcome package
provided to IP Rondalla kids. 

Reyna: IP Rondalla's Youngest Member

The iconic Philippine "Jeepney" similar to the one that Reyna and the IP Rondalla kids rode while in the provinces.

Here's a little interview I conducted with Reyna, the youngest member of the IP Rondalla tour. She is so excited to share her jeepney and food experience with you!

Reyna with her "tarsier" neck pillow busy playing
videogames while en route to Cebu from
Tagbilran, Bohol on a fast, twin hull ferry boat. 

"Hi. I'm Reyna. I'm five years old. My brother does Rondalla. He's in the group and he plays the guitar. I don't play in the rondalla, but I'm a member of IP. I went with the rondalla group on all of the bus rides. 

"I love riding the jeepney, because there is no door but there's a railing that you can hold on to at the top. It had different colors on it. There were two sides, and one side facing the other side, and you can see on the other side of the window, but the people sitting there have to twist their head back to see outside. 

"They were telling stories in the bus, like my dad searched for some stories about Manila and read it to the group. In one of the buses, we had foot rests and tables and then we didn't go to Jollibee, but we got Jollibee stuff from somewhere. 

"One day, I went to McDonalds for breakfast, and I had pancakes, and I had pineapple juice. And one day when I was at COA, I had a delivery from Jollibee, and I had chicken with rice and gravy. And for my drink, I had water. I like Jollibee because they had chicken and gravy, and with the chicken. It's different from American because in the Philippines, everybody speaks Tagalog, and in Massachusetts, people speak English. My mother or my dad speaks tagalog for me, so I go with my mom or dad to order or I stay at the table while they order. 

"Trips are fun because if you're going somewhere, you should always hold somebody's hand, and if you don't hold somebody's hand, and you're suppose to, you might get lost. 

I'll see you soon." - Reyna

July 8th: University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB)

Tita Cris, IP Founder, welcomes the Los Banos High School students to the IP Rondalla's outreach performance at
 UP Los Banos. The UPLB auditorium was packed to the brim with an SRO crowd of cheering, shrieking, and
highly pumped up audience -- a good indication that "Rondalla Rocks!"

Mural inside the UPLB auditorium.

                                                                         I just came back from three tiring but worthwhile performances at the beautiful campus of the University of the Philippines at Los Banos (UPLB). So far, this was definitely the most memorable performances for me on this tour. I met a plethora of extremely intelligent and amiable students from UPLB, some of whom performed during our welcoming ceremony the night before and our performances today, I was able to revisit UPLB, a place close to my family's heart, and I was able to be reunited with many of my family's friends and professors. 

July 7th: Villa Escudero & arriving at UPLB

The girls on the last day in San Pablo City posing in the backyard
of the Rubico-Jamir family's house

Hello, my name is George, and I am a Banduria 2 player in the IP Rondalla. What a week it has been! A large concert at Resort's World, a courtesy call and special performance at Malacanan Palace for President Aquino, two TV/radio appearances on ABS-CBN, two performances at Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and so much more were all packed into our schedule -- and that's just for Manila. We are now in San Pablo City, 87 kilometers southeast of Manila, nestled in the foothills of Mt. Makiling, Mt. Banahaw, and Sierra Madre mountains. After such an intensive week, all of us needed a refuge for rest and relaxation. That refuge would be the breathtaking ranch resort of Villa Escudero.

July 6th: SM San Pablo Mall & PPP

One big, happy family eating a hearty breakfast at the Rubico-Jamir
family's house. Early morning wishes to Victoria's 16th birthday!

Our morning began at 8 am, (well, actually this is how my morning began) when I was awoken to the tune of "Happy Birthday" for our own Victoria who turned 16 today! Several families were booked in my family house in San Pablo the night before. My parents and I hadn't been to the house since it was renovated, so we didn't realized that it would be quite crowded (considering the tons of stuff we have to carry along), warm and humid (the air-conditioning was delivered late). But once everybody got settled in, we all woke up the next morning rested, refreshed, and as always - hungry but in very good spirits. 

July 6th: Meeting the Kids at Paaralang Pagibig at Pagasa

IP Rondalla posing with some of the PPP teachers in front of the

school compound.

IP Rondalla kids looking at the friendship 

bracelet they received from PPP kids.

Hi, this is Hollie. Today is Saturday, July 6th, and we just finished our visit at Paaralang Pagibig at Pagasa (PPP). The PPP is a school for children with learning disabilities, for example, those who are visually impaired, have hearing disabilities, or are intellectually challenged. We were able to meet and interact with some of the children who will be performing with us later in the afternoon at SM San Pablo City Mall. Getting to know some of these kids was amazing. When I saw the smiles on their faces as we sang together and had lots of fun, I felt unlike I had ever felt before. I knew I was giving something back to the community while receiving something valuable from them as well...and it felt so amazing.

Tita Cris conferring with the faculty and staff of PPP where
they exchanged ideas and experiences regarding teaching
 special education to children with various learning needs.

Next we had the chance to visit the children with hearing impairment. When we met, I wasn't sure how I was going to communicate with them because I don't know any sign language. Their teachers gave us a quick study on a few basic signing skills.  We felt a little awkward at first in this quite unfamiliar world, but the kids seemed to enjoy our presence and this made us feel more at ease.

We gave them some gifts, mainly from Sierra's collection of stuffed animals from her dad's travels around the U.S. We realized that many of these kids had never had stuffed toys before. As we gave each of them our gift of stuffed animals, their faces lit up with expressions of happiness that I had never seen before. I remember one of the stuffed animal (a monkey) made loud monkey sounds. Curiously, they put it up to their ears so that they could feel the vibration. They started giggling as the kids pushed the play button over and over again. We also gave some of the toys to the visually impaired kids. Everybody had lots of fun.

Right before we left, the kids also gave us individual gifts of friendship bracelets that they themselves made. This experience was amazing, and I couldn't have asked for a better day. 
Talk to you next time, Hollie.

July 5th: Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP)

PUP Banda Kawayan in action. 

After a few pictures with Korina, we headed out to the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP). We left later than we expected, and with traffic and a quick lunch prepared by PUP consisting of kare kare, milkfish, and rice, we had only a half hour to get ready before the first of two shows scheduled for the day. We threw on costumes and make up and made our hair as neat as possible. And then we were ready.

This show also marked our first taste... of fame! The college crowd seemed to be more involved in our show than the audience at Resorts World. With the smaller auditorium, we were able to hear the crowd sing along with the Filipino folk songs in the first half of the show. However, the highlights of our show happened in the second half. While the first half is mostly traditional Filipino songs, the second half showcased our contemporary side. The first amazing reaction we got was during the girls' song "Just Give Me a Reason" by Pink and Nate Ruess. From the opening measures of the song the crowd cheered in recognition and sang along the loudest of any song of the night. Next, we played our "70s Medley" which consists of themes from various 70s movies. It starts with an exciting Star Wars theme and then moves into "Hopelessly Devoted to You."  At this part, George pulls out a flower from his pocket to give to a girl in the rondalla. However, this time the girls (and even the boys) in the audience started SCREAMING. Absolutely fangirling. From that day on we incorporated George going into the audience to hand deliver a rose to a girl.