Hello, little one.

We had to go to a holiday family party on Jesse's side and he asked me to make bibingka. Normally, I bake it in a 9x13 pan. This morning, I decided to make individually sized bibinks in my cupcake pans. I was inspired by the small bibingka sold in roadside stands and outside of church in the Philippines during Christmastime that I've heard about. One of these is like having your own XXL corner piece all to yourself. They were gone in minutes. Luckily, I kept a dozen back to bring to my dad's side for Christmas Eve tomorrow night.

I'm really looking forward to the food in the Philippines: understanding origins, learning new techniques, and bringing knowledge, materials, and techniques back with me.

Packing List

Packing light? Yeah, whatever. Here's just a list off of the top of my head for what we are bringing: security waist wallets, swimsuits, snorkel gear, tsinelas, antibiotics, immodium, first aid kit, sunscreen, toilet paper, anti-bac handwipes and gel, kleenex moist wipes, jungle juice 99.9% DEET mosquito repellent, electrolyte tablets for dehydration, expandable duffel, digital camera, laptop, cell phones, all chargers, power strip, travel electrical adapters, new Canon digital SLR, lenses, extra memory cards and camera batteries, travel towels, suitcase TSA safe locks, clothes & undies, balikbayan box packed with lotions, shampoo, shower gel, towels, chocolates (50% off post-Halloween candy and Costco Ferrero Rocher packs and Toblerone), oatmeal, coffee, passports, visa, toiletries, hair stuff, contacts for librarians at UP Diliman, Ateneo, and the Filipinas Heritage Library, phone numbers for Cebu relatives, accordion file with all of our travel stuff organized by island/province...and I know we're gonna forget something.

Anyway, I told Jesse I could fit into a Balikbayan box and he didn't believe me, so I tried it. And then it took me a long time to get out.

Getting Ready for the Trip

"Boang," for those of you less familiar with Visayan pet names, means "crazy" or "stupid." There was a point in my childhood that I thought that "boang" was actually my real name, as my Grandma Conching was fond of the word, especially in reference to me, her oldest grandchild. "Balikbayan" was the name conjured up by some crony in the Marcos government who, seeing dollar signs and a way to convince Filipinos in the diaspora that Martial Law was a Good Thing, embraced the return of overseas Filipinos in the 1970s for vacations and the like and branded them (not in the hot iron sense, but in the tourism marketing sense) "Balikbayans," or, people returning to their country (balik=return, bayan=country).

So I named this blog "Balik-Boangs" because Jesse and I (Jesse, born in the Philippines but a naturalized citizen) and me (a third-generation Pinay for whom this is a second visit) are about to embark on a five week trip to the Philippines. Jesse's sister-in-law Kat said to us last weekend, "I've NEVER heard of anyone going to the Philippines for FIVE weeks!", yes, I had to agree, it sounded pretty crazy.

But with me on sabbatical, and Jesse with an enormous vacation buildup, it made sense. I need to do research for my book, both archival and ethnographic. And Jesse hasn't been back since he immigrated in 1989. So we're planning the big blowout tour -- going everywhere but Mindanao (I visited there for a week in 97, so I'd rather see the rice terraces).

We are leaving in less than two weeks, which means that now we begin the crazy mad scramble to get through Christmas and to the SFO international terminal.

Passports? Check.
Visas (for me)? Check.
Hepatitis A shot and Cipro Antibiotics? Check.
Balikbayan Box? Check.
Balikbayan Box Preliminary Weigh-in? Check. At 52 lbs, we're cutting it close already, and we haven't even bought the Body Shop gift packs when they go on sale Dec. 26th.

More to come on what it takes to prepare for a five week trip to the Philippines...