A Berkeley Weekend
i flew up north this past weekend with my family to watch our little bro Bud perform in his first PCN (Pilipino Cultural Night). it brought back memories of when i did PCN my freshman year at UCLA. i remember crazy hours of practices and stuff for the show...which is why i never did PCN after that. i had forgotten what a big production it was!
we were lucky to get some great weather while up there...and we even got some pretty cherry blossoms to see. i think that's what they were. how embarassing to post pictures of them if they aren't...
here's lem & cyn (and baby -uel)
and me & pops...my dad got that hat on his recent trip to italy. he's convinced he looks really cool in it 
i know bud put a lot of time and effort into this show. and what a cool show it was! unlike traditional PCN shows with long-winded stories, their PCN was broken down into mini-skits that touched on different issues of Filipino-Americans. it was both funny and entertaining as well as touching and thought provoking. props to CAL's PCN crew...even though they aint got no love for UCLA up there  . i was a little sad to hear a bunch of boos whenever UCLA was mentioned  . bunch of haters  not that i'm bitter or anything...i'm just saying.
so, bud did this traditional dance on some benches (Sayaw sa Bangko) that's him in the middle with the faux-hawk comb-over.
the benches kept getting higher! i had never seen this dance before...pretty cool 
so...i knew my brotha was a pretty good dancer...after all, he's our brother right  ?...but when we were watching him do the modern dance(hip-hop...or in my dad's words "heeep hope"), i was pretty impressed! i kept turning to lem saying "hey, bud's pretty good!" maybe it was his mohawk that made his movements look so sharp  i'd post video clips if i knew how. great job, bud! we're so proud of you!!
here's a shot of a bamboo pole dance (Panalagay ha Pattong). the guy balancing on the poles on the right is Ben Lachica...my brother and cousins met him up at Berkeley and although we didn't know him or his family, we're convinced he's our cousin 
probably one of the funniest parts of the show was this character named "Fo-Shiz"...he's based on the character "Sho-Nuff" from the movie "The Last Dragon". if you've ever seen that movie, you would've thought Fo-shiz was hillarious. i was crackin up!! too funny that's him in the middle with the big fro and the guys behind him were his goons who followed him saying "Fo-shiz! Fo-shiz!"
post-show, we got to see the star dancer up close and personal. what could be worse for moms & pops to see their son in a mohawk?....seeing their son in a mohawk WITH make-up  we had to clue them in that make-up is needed for being on stage
i thought he looked good in eyeshadow. i always said bud would be a pretty girl
a family picture...
the Berkeley kids...Bud, newfound cousin Ben, Lex & Lauren
we visited bud's dorm room...wasn't nearly as clean as the way we left it when he first moved in when mom had scrubbed down everything she could with lysol wipes. in fact she would have died to see it that day...good thing she didn't come with us . hey bud, you guys gotta throw out all that trash!! here we are hanging out in there.
we spent the rest of the weekend hanging out near campus. i finally got to visit what they call "asian ghetto". bud always talks about it and says "it's not much"....uh, he was right . just good cheap asian food for starving college students. we ate at Thai Basil...pretty good.
i was in shock at how cheap boba drinks were there! only 99 cents  ! that's $1.29 with boba. that's some low-down ghetto prices, man.
tiring but very fun weekend! i thought it was interesting that the one guy who didn't dance in PCN, didn't drive all weekend, and didn't have trouble sleeping because their siblings snore too loud...was the one who was most tired again, not that i'm bitter or anything...but i'm just saying
good times | 
. i just couldn't keep up with all the posts...although i have been enjoying reading all your cool posts out there in xangaland 
? haha. 
. pretty good considering i could barely run 2 miles when we first started training. so, we went. we finished. we had such a good time hanging out...especially after the marathon 
. seriously, we were all a little stressed out about the marathon the night before...saying how we'd enjoy maui so much more after we finished. we were pretty good about training up until 2 weeks before the trip. most of us didn't run at all the last 2 weeks and i think it took it's toll. but we all finished.. i think it was all the 60+ year old runners passing us up that motivated us to cross that finish line 
? the marathon was actually not too bad in the beginning. we started at 5:30am so it was dark and cool. and those first 6 miles were pretty easy since everyone is trotting along. it was the halfway point when the sun and humidity kicked in, that i started to feel the struggle. after 10 miles, i was having a hard time. but i tell ya, seeing some older people pass you by will make you want to finish. so i had to turn up the music on the ipod and bring it home. it was a great feeling passing that finish line and hearing them announce your name!
. she cooked us up a yummy pasta dinner and salad. 
actaully i think we cleared out the local Long's stock of slippers 
