Pasko sa Philippine House

Hanapin ang bandila't mga parol.

The Philippine Ambassador to the United Kingdom hosted an early Christmas party for Filipino students in the UK at his residence on Kensington Palace Green (lovely, lovely area). We had Filipino food: pancit malabon, sapin-sapin, empanada, tokwa't baboy. A group called UMPUK performed a balagtasan that debated whether Filipinos should stay in London. There was also a raffle where practically everybody won something.

It was interesting to meet fellow students and find connections with them. There's the LSE student who was from my high school, the IoE grad student who used to work at our telco client, the two Communication graduates who were ahead of me in Ateneo: one worked in fashion and dealt with our magazines; the other is going to meet David Buckingham of IoE and plans to teach at the Comm dept.

More proof that the world is small? Irene, a Filipina involved in The Work, who used to live in Ashwell and is the daughter of the consultant in the company my dad works for (whew) was free that evening. She had been planning to meet me eversince I arrived here. She lived very near the Embassy (and actually used to work there), so we had dinner--pasta at an Italian place at Queensway. We had a lot to talk about in the span of two hours. Forgot to take photos, but she's coming to the carol concert.

We do need the practice, but it was a blessing that we didn't have choir that afternoon. We practiced onstage last night. It's a big hall, so we will need some mics.