Philippines Part 2: Isdaan and the Wedding

On the way back from lunch, we stopped at the internet cafe to find some sheet music for me to play at the wedding. The internet cafe was nice (it was actually air conditioned). Plus, there was a wonderful view of a field in the backyard. Joyce told me that the plants in the field are the same as the leaves that I ate at lunch earlier (crispified into a nice chip).

Matt and Jonah left us at the hotel to rest for a bit while they picked up Jonah's mother. Then we went to dinner at the Isdaan Floating Restaurant. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me. Imagine a bamboo hut with a grass roof, floating on a bamboo raft. Now put a table inside of the hut, and that's where we ate--right on the water, in a little hut. Nothing was served on plates or platters. The restaurant uses banana leaves. We were also taught to eat our food in the traditional Filipino way--with our bare hands (after sanitizing them with Calimansi--a citrus fruit comparable to a small lime--first). The restaurant had tons of statues, and other artistic stuff all around, including a bicycle made of water faucets. There was also a wall to help release any anger you might have. You decide what the target of your anger is, then you yell "Tacsiyapo!" and throw a ceramic plate at it. I didn't have any built up anger, so I just did it for fun. I think I threw the plate at the media. I would have to say the Isdaan Floating Restaurant was definitely a slice of paradise.

The next day was the wedding. Matt and Jonah had asked me to play Pachelbel's Canon for the wedding march. It was nice to be involved, and I was grateful for the opportunity. The wedding had a couple of speakers, who spake in "Taglish"--a cross between English and Taglish. I later asked why, wondering if it might have anything to do with being sensitive to those who only understood one language. I was told that it's easier to speak in Taglish than just speaking in Tagalog or English, and they usually speak in Taglish at church and other places. With what seemed like every other word being spoken in English, I had a pretty good idea of what was spoken the whole time, and even laughed at some of the humorous comments.

I was in for more surprises when we got to the reception. I felt quite honored to lead the toast as the best man. I was only nervous about what dark liquid was in the glass that I was handed, but was relieved to taste that it was just coke. Instead of tossing the garter and boquet, the people in charge of the reception have a tradition where you pass it around like a game of hot potato. It was about the time that I won it that I suspected the game might have been staged to land on me and the maid of honor, Joyce. So, we had to play a game where we mimic the bride and groom as they demonstrate the 3 levels of a kiss. My mom took a video with her camera about halfway through. You'll have to watch the video to see if the emcee really made us go through with the last kiss (this version is a little longer than the one on Matt and Jonah's blog).

All in all, the wedding day was a really great day. Jonah was glowing every time I looked at her, and she looked very beautiful. Matt looked as happy as I've ever seen him. I was very glad to be a part of the whole thing.