bayawman in new york

i'm glad i took everyone's advice to check out new york, even for a brief moment. i got a call from gina one night, and the following morning everyone in the office encouraged me to check out the big apple.

and so i did. after a four-hour bus ride from northampton, which crossed connecticut, i finally got in new york at around noon. gina was there at the gate to meet me, and it was a whirlwind from thereon.

before it even got dark, i visited three bars/restaurants at the village: joe's (john's--i forget) pizza place at bleecker street (where bob dylan used to do the rounds of bars), the white horse tavern (frequented by dylan thomas--who collapsed there--and our own jose garcia villa; also the second oldest bar in ny), and a place called chumley's. yup, before it even got dark, i had three glasses of beer... yeah!

after a short tour of a small part of central park, gina brought me to the metropolitan museum. and for an art history student, it was quite an experience. i got to see--up close, real up close--a lot of the works we only got to see in books and microfilm. and i'm talking about paintings only. i didn't get to see much of the sculptures. but the paintings--oh my god (i felt like a freshman art history student!)--picasso's, chagall's, degas's, matisse's, monet's, seurat's, i can go on forever!

that was just the met. the following day, after brunch at this ukranian place called veselka at the east village, we went to moma (museum of modern art) where i not only saw more of the important paintings in modern art, but i also saw one of my all-time favorites: gustav klimt's hope ii. bayaw, my jaw almost dropped to the floor! it was overwhelming enough to see many of these significant works in just under two days, but to see a personal favorite was just priceless. i nearly cried! (keep it together, keep it together...)

aah... new york... i fell in love with the place...

but i have to say that what i instantly loved about new york was the village. new york is very interesting to say the least, you know, the sights we all hear and see in movies, tv, etc. there are great great scenes: the empire state building, the chrysler building, the ny public library (awesome library!), times square, the subway, grand central, union square, washington squeare, rockefeller plaza, radio city music hall, etc. beautiful. all of 'em beautiful. but the village, now that is something else.

it felt new york, and yet not so new york. there's no bustle of uptown and midtown new york. there is a mix of many, many peoples. there's an interesting place at every corner. buildings are shorter, and each is as beautiful as the next.

ah, amazing. just amazing. on my way back to northampton and even as i type this, i wish i can have an opportunity to come back to new york, especially the village. and stay a bit longer. words aren't just enough to describe the feeling.

you have exceeded your credit limit

that was one message i received the other morning. dang. i don't wanna know what's on my next bill.

before i left, i asked my network to activate my roaming, and also, which of the networks here in amherst would be the most cost-effective one (i.e., cheap). the guy at the other end of the line recommended t-mobile, but also told me that the rates he was looking at were 8 months old. sheet.

so i limited myself to text messaging only. then i received this message while waking up to a cold, cold, cold morning.

my cellphone just became a table clock, and will remain so until i land my feet back in manila. hay... nagcellphone pa 'ko dito... buset...

bayaw brew, episode ii

so thursday night arrived. and all i could think of was the ipa (indian pale ale). it was turning out to be my favorite beer here.

first we had dinner, a small group composed of ida, monica, mary, and jon. i had this bison burger, with fries (half sweet, half salted), and i keep forgetting that i was in the states, where everything is served big. so my burger arrived, and yeah, it was big. the damn burger patty was so thick, and so stocked with bison meat, that it was a monumental effort just to chew. i wasn't even halfway and i was full! i gave up on the burger about 75-80% of the way. and i didn't even partake of the sweet fries (monica took over the fries).

with dinner done, we went up to the second floor (the name of the place is abc) because we couldn't bring any food or drink upstairs. jon was telling me that massachusetts has the strangest rules when it comes to booze and bars. like, this one: you can't bring the beer you're having in the first floor up to the second floor--finish your glass where you got it, then go up/down.

so anyway, we went up, where we played pool. the place was packed with mostly college students (they look like college students), but we managed to get a table. we played with another group, and well, i tried to shy away from playing. i ordered an ipa (yeah baby!) and started to enjoy it (wasn't the same as last night's brew but it's still ipa). when i returned to our table, our team was on the losing end of a game of eight ball. they took turns, and i just enjoyed my ipa (aah...). then i found myself holding the stick. eh, what the heck, might as well.

i got to the table and found that we still had to sink about 5 balls as opposed to our opponent's two (or three). i lined up for the easiest ball, struck, sank the ball, but prepared poorly for the next. our opponent sank a ball, missed the next. then our luck caught up. after trading misses and a few scratches (we were up against sharks), i managed to even the count. then our luck ran out... temporarily.

our opponent managed to sink the rest of the balls and was lining up for the eight. at that point, i just put the stick down and grabbed my glass, fully knowing that the guy on the table has enough skill to sink the last ball. guess what, he missed! monica and mary called my attention to it (hmm, beer... oh, wha'?), so i picked up the stick.

fortunately, the cue ball stopped at a very good position for all three balls (our last two stripes and the eight). one striped ball was at the other end, close to a corner pocket, the other striped ball was on the opposite end, a bit farther from the other corner pocket, and the eight ball was somewhere in the middle and can be pocketed at any of the four corners. lucky. very lucky. any novice pool player can sink these balls with no english necessary.

so i lined up, used the necessary english (naks) on each shot, let the natural trajectory of the cue ball dictate where to sink the next one... and before i know it, the eight ball was right there for the picking. the cue ball stopped at a not so natural angle with the eight, but i figured i could sink it at the upper lefthand corner pocket with a slight top english. i usually hesitate after establishing my bridge and practicing my swing, but at that point, i knew luck was on our side. so i struck. and the ball glided diagonally across the table, straight towards the designated pocket. jordan fakes, shoots, swish! and that's the game!

hehehe.... balik sa beer....

i went back to my beer and we had to play a mandatory second game. i let them play that one, so i can savor the victory kunyari. we lost the next one badly, but i still had my ipa. like the other night's ipa, this ipa shot to my head (just one glass). after finishing my glass, we stepped out for cigarettes (ida and i), and right on cue, the others joined us, and we called it a night.

inside the bar, my head had alcohol in it midway through my only glass of ipa. but once i stepped outside, it was gone. the damn cold air snuffed out the alcohol in me. and i was just freezing. if i remained stationary, they would have to carry me home! bayaw, hindi tayo sanay sa lamig, namputsa! making it inside mary's car was just a relief, especially when the heater was turned on. i never thought i would love heat coming out of aircon vents.

i got to ken's and we had a bottle each for nightcap. well, he was in the middle of his sierra nevada pale ale, and he gave me a different beer (pilsener, uhm, palm victory i think is the name?). that was my third (we had sierra nevada before i left for abc). and for the first time, may pulutan bayaw. we still had some bratwurst sausage left, and i just have to have it. di kasi uso pulutan todits, bayaw.

ken called it a night moments later, as he has an early morning class, and i lounged around with my pilsener, bratwurst, and cable tv until about 3am. i didn't get drunk, but the new beer experience was just great. hehehe...

a few minutes ago, during lunch, we (well, julie actually) shopped the idea of one last drinking night with yours truly. that's next monday night, eve of my flight. we gathered the troops, and it was set pretty much right away. monday night, julie's place, rob's brew (yeah!), and mostly everybody from work.

episode iii coming soon... (cue music here)

bayaw brew, episode i

somebody here spread the idea that beer should be in the lineup of activities for yours truly. i'm not as big as a beer fan than most of my bayaws, but i do love my beer. and my beer buddies. so bring on the beer!

so my colleagues tell me that thursday night we'll hit this local brewery and indulge. well, last night, i had a dry run of sorts. after dinner at ken's, where we had a bottle of sierra nevada pale ale (ken says it's a "it'll grow on you" type of beer, but i liked it right away), we drove to this place called the moan and dove. "it's kind of a weird name for a bar," ken said, to which i agreed. "one's a verb, the other's a noun... must be some dada thing." then it hit us, a dadaist bar sounds like an interesting idea! hmm, bayaw gawa tayo ng dadaist bar. the dada bar. has a nice ring to it. (or have we thrown this idea around already?)

anyway, we got to the bar, and julie and rob were there already. then came the choosing the beer. the bar makes its own brew, so there is a variety of options. they were urging me to take samples of some before finally deciding on what to get, but with too many choices, i just decided to get what they recommend. so i got this ipa--indian pale ale. got a tall glass, started drinking, ate some peanuts (ang laki ng mani bayaw! alang bastusan, literal yun), had some small talk, and the night was on.

i liked the ipa, but what i didn't realize was that it shot right up to my head by the time i finished three-fourths of my tall glass. at that point i knew i needed a smoke, pulutan, or anything to keep me from doing anything but taking more gulps. yup, cardinal sin, i forgot to pace myself. no i wasn't drunk--i didn't get drunk--but i knew the beer was going to my head, not my stomach.

so i figured i should try a milder brew. julie offered a sip of allabash white, and its fruity aftertaste was enough reason for me to go for it. besides, all the beer brew sounded greek, so i just had to go for what is immediately accessible. so i got a second glass, it was indeed a milder brew, but with this bayaw loaded with ipa, i knew a third glass would be it for me. "oh-oh, i think i'll get drunk tonight..." which means two things: i could get really animated, or if i don't stuff my mouth with anything other than beer, throwing up is just around the corner (especially since i didn't pace myself well).

i checked my watch, and realized that it ain't even midnight yet. not even close. and if these guys drink like my bayaws do, i'm in for a long night, probably an embarrassing drunken stupor, and a terrible hangover the following day. "what the hell, no one knows me... but an asian dude does stand out in this part of the states... yikes..."

oh, and all of a saging, i fell silent for the most part of the second glass. i realized i was fervently listening to rob, julie, and ken--and i distinctly recognized each and every word they said--but i could not, for the love of me, connect the meaning of one word to the next! bad sign. bad sign. and i could feel a growing ball in my throat...

what saved me from further embarrassment/humiliation (?) was an early work day for all of us. so as i labored somewhat to finish my allabash white, i was relieved to know that i was saved from embarrassing myself. on the way back home, i just felt bad for falling into a black hole all of a saging. two glasses of water was enough to bring me back to sobriety, and after a few sticks of cigarette in the freezing porch, i was off to sleep.

tomorrow, i said to myself, i'll be ready for episode ii.

bayaw: a manila man in massacusetts

people around me changed from the moment i was in the predeparture area yesterday morning to the bagel shop this morning.

at the predeparture are, i was with fellow pinoys, and a few foreigners. on the plane to japan, the flight attendants were mostly filipino. when we deplaned in nagoya, i was walking around the airport now with a mix of pinoys, japanese, and caucasians. when we got in the plane for the continuation of the flight to detroit, the flight attendants were now either americans or japanese, and the passengers are now mixed. the in-flight announcements were no longer english and filipino, it was now english and japanese.

when i landed in detroit, and got through immigration and customs, there were still asians in the airport, but now we were outnumbered by americans (all kinds of 'em). now i really felt i was in foreign territory.

on the flight to hartford, i was one of only two asians. in the office, i was one of only three. and in this tranquil university town, i am the only bayaw.

mga bayaw, ang lamig dito!

the bayaw adventure will continue!

ehehehe.....

body clock

woke up at 2am here in amherst after a long flight from manila. i immediately dozed off once my body got in contact with the bed, after repeatedly telling my colleagues that i was feeling neither tired nor sleepy. guess i was really tired after 16+ hours in the air, alternating between sleep and food and movies on the plane.

by far that was the longest flight i have ever taken, but i never really felt the hours pass by until i landed in nagoya, detroit, and finally hartford. that was when i turned my phone on (i don't have wrist watches), and when the captain reported what the local time was.

i left manila at 7am, october 18, and i landed in hartford, connecticut (30-minute drive from where i am now) at 330pm, october 18. in the middle of those hours, i experienced nighttime and dawn on the plane, and and had an entire day's meal, with snacks, on the northwest flight.

that was weird, to say the least. i mean, we all hear of jet lag and time differences, and all that. but actually experiencing one is really weird. which is why i kept telling my colleagues that i was feeling neither tired nor sleepy. i felt like i left this morning and got here in the mid-afternoon.

then, my body just shut down, and i was off to sleep. when i woke up to a chilly air this morning, i realized i didn't even change clothes (i still had my shoes on), and didn't even pull up the blankets. checked my phone, and it wasn't even close to dawn.

i knew then my body clock was messed up. now i have to force it to sync with the local time.