The Christmas event at Studieskolen was a success! I was assigned to a classroom with another member of the English team, Wynn Stewart. We were two perspectives in the sprawling category referred to as "The English-speaking world." In other classrooms, the German, Italian , Spanish , French and Polish teachers had set up their displays. On my end of the classroom, I talked about how Christmas is celebrated in the Philippines, and Wynn talked about Scotland. People wandered in, mostly Studieskolen enrolees and employees, some with their kids in tow. Throughout the two hours of the event, I kept talking, and sang "Kasadya Ning Taknaa" at least four times. Got videoed doing it, too!
I had set up one of the desks with a selection of goodies, including some hand-made pastillas de leche, some of which I rolled up in cut-out wrappers, Bulacan-style. I'm not from Bulacan, but the biko and budbud and tablea-chocolate I associate with Neg. Oriental are simply impossible to find in Denmark , not even among the shops that sell Asian products (I could have ordered them from someone in the Filipino community, but that would have taken time, and would have required a large and costly quantity). To make them I'd have had to have a supply of banana leaves, as well as sticky rice, muscovado sugar, etc. There was no guarantee they'd get eaten, either.
I made model parols -- the classic five-point star shape with the paper tails, and the Pampanga Capiz parol : a laminated printout that I stuck on the walls. These are impossible to find around here, and cost a fortune, so a model was the best I could come up with ... maybe next year, I can stick the two identical sides and wire them up with LED lights. I definitely want to do this again next year... with more information about why English is widely understood, and spoken, in the Philippines.
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