Semana Santa

semana santa is a Spanish term for Holy Week which is the English term for Mahal na Araw;

basically we Roman Catholics drag our families (optional, you can go alone) to a) 7 different churches wherein we go through 2 stations at each church b) 14 different churches with only 1 station allotted  for each church c) 14 churches while completing the Way of the Cross in every church 

We do it every year and the last time, it was so hot that we had to text our maid right away to turn up the AC so we could suck in the cool air and my dad had to leave the car running so we wouldn't be cooked once we got back. So, when my dad stood by the doorway in my room and said, 'Dadalhin mo ba camera?' (Will you bring the camera?) flashes of sticky and sweaty scenarios specifically images of me lifting a camera strap off my sweaty neck came to my mind, he then added, 'Wag na lang may ipad naman' (Never mind, we have the ipad). My mind was set before I knew it. 

Family picture: a staple

So we did our usual Visita Iglesia thang. In our first church which was very close to our house, after 2 stations (because we always go for option A), we bought food from the vendors. My sister and I each got a cup of corn; hers was buttered and mine was cheese flavored and booooooy did we crack a LOT of Chiz/Heart jokes inside the car hehehehe. But after 2 churches that's when things shifted and my boycotting of the camera proved to be a wrong decision...ooh suspense...

Hehe just some road I took a picture of and edited to be all hipstery

Me in this super pretty church hehe

POPS AND HIS 'RUSSET' HAHAHA so cute!!!!

After visiting our 3rd church, we spotted the row of super cutesy and nicely colored houses on the side of the road and since we weren't in a hurry and the weather was so nice earlier, we drove around inside the village and had a looksy! The houses in Marina ____ (I forgot the second part of the village's name I am quite dumb) were so nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I swear I wanted to buy one hehe as if I could but still I couldn't help but fall in love with the very Westernized as in white-picket fence/no-gate-at-all-complete-with-a-front-lawn-that-kids-in-movies-never-want-to-lawn houses.

Bidding the houses farewell, we found ourselves in Manila oh Manila. We went to the Malate Church and got sidetracked by the heaps of paintings just scattered in front of a statue all sun bathing. They reminded me of all the youtube videos of street painters that I've seen and it had me taking 'see a live street painter in action' to my bucket list.

I don't usually wear sunglasses because I have a weird fascination with squinting like it makes me feel.......good and thankful that I live in a place where it's sunny and not gloomy hehe

We looked for a restaurant called David's Tea House which was supposedly beside the church but then after a bit of walking and asking we found out it got renovated and so we trudged on like tiny soldiers in the valley of towering buildings. We formed a single file with my dad in front, me next, my sister and my mum covering up the rear and so I was walking walking walking when I saw a familiar scene above my dad's shoulder. WE WERE IN REMEDIOS CIRCLE!!! It was so weird to see it NOT through the glass windows of our car hahahaha. We ALWAYS ALWAYS as in everyday we pass through that place and I've never been it sans the solace of our vehicles hehe so I was all ecstatic and shocked especially when we saw this seedy KTV thing called Bedrock that I always find amusing and lo and behold David's Tea House was right in front of it!!

We ate and bonded and visited Feliz and Kuya Ipe and had merienda and visited our last church and prayed and when I got home I finished watching Silver Linings and I have been talking to my friends and I feel good hehe. I may not be THE most religious person, but being this happy and contented with my friends, my family, myself, my hobbies basically my life, I feel all spiritual and I thank God for giving me all this and I hope that you feel good too. And I hope you be happy hehe.