QUOTE(DeepQuant @ Aug 6 2004, 08:25 PM)
Aku, makaintindi ku! I understand when people converse in Kapampangan, but I don't speak the dialect myself. My mom's from Barrio San Isidro, Guagua. We used to spend our summers and holidays there but haven't gone back in years. Where are you from, Angel?
I had a few batchmates who are Kapampangan (or half, like me).
It's true that Kapampangans cook very well. And the women are pretty.

The misplaced h's is true too. I have an auntie who's lived in Germany for decades. She's been all over Europe and speaks German like a native, but she still says
Heiffel tower.

A lot of nice things come from Pampanga - the best pindang, suman and abyerta I've ever tasted. During holy week, there were a lot of grand processions and flagellants. And of course during Christmas, we went all around the barrio in our best clothes making mano and getting money in return. I don't think I can still do that, though. It was sad when Pinatubo erupted and the lahar came. We went home and saw people evacuating their homes (and the Americans evacuating Clark). A lot of good houses were buried, and during the rainy season the floods were phenomenal.
i was born in Cabanatuan Nueva Ecija, my dad is from Iloilo (Ilonggo) my mom was born in Tondo but lived in Pampanga all her life cos her dad was kapampangan.
we transferred to angeles when i was five tapos now we live in san fernando. along macarthur hi-way lang, so it's technically between angeles city and san fernando proper.
apl.de.ap of the black eyed peas: APL - allan pineda (something L) DE - spanish for "Of, or coming from" AP - Angeles Pampanga! woohoo! i'm what is known as BALID-- can understand kapampangan completely, can talk a bit, but can't really engage in a 100% kapampangan conversation. medyo pangit pa yung accent. wala yung certain thing na parang they're speaking mandarin... yung mabilis na matataas yung boses, especially of aunts and mothers na matagal nang hindi nagkikita. haha.
anyway, a bit more about pampanga, as i posted in another thread. (yeah! i'm not ashamed to say i love my roots!)
QUOTE
Some people in Ateneo, supposedly mature enough to decide whether to be good or be safe (you know what i mean), still think that provinces are so rural in the meanest sense of the word. I come from Pampanga, where almost all the places are now officially cities. San Fernando. That's where I live. Where subdivisions and villages sometimes look even better than most found in Loyola Heights.
Angeles and San Fernando, the two key cities na magkatabi kaya pagsasama ko na, have these:
1. one SM mall with Annex, two Robinsons malls, so many theaters/cinemas at par with that of Theater Mall (some even better)
2. Days Hotel, Holiday Inn, Mimosa, Fontana, a whole lot of golf courses,
3. Clark Air Base (where Duty Free and all that used to flourish) and Airport where you could even ride hot air balloons
4. relatively good schools (in that the system of education and the lessons taught are comparable to good schools in manila)--the Special Science Class (parang Phi Sci) of Angeles City High School where intelligent/achiever Ateneans went to in high school, OB Montessori, St. Scholastica's Academy, Don Bosco, and Chevalier School (which has sister schools in Nueva Ecija, France, and other places)
5. fully cemented roads and highways
6. at least two franchises of all the leading fastfood chains, open 24 hours sometimes
7. a fly-over and wide intersecting roads
8. NO TRAFFIC (you can get from house to school with the distance of ortigas - ateneo in only 15 minutes at 7:30 in the morning)
9. less pollution (kahit mag-jeep, masarap huminga at presko)
10. less crime (you can go home, commute lang, at midnight without fear of any evil entities lurking around)
11. more beauty everywhere: the people (daming artista/model na kapampangan), the greenery (acacia trees line the super super super duper long mcarthur hi-way kaya malilim sa hi-way), even the roads and urbanized areas talaga (astig ng mga kotse, walang basura sa kalye, walang lubak, walang BAHA).
agyu tamu! (fave one-liner ni Angeles ex-mayor Ed Pamintuan)