The Very Cultural Day: Bazaar And Music

- November 18, 2012, Sunday.

- I had been itching to visit the yearly one-day-only (every third Sunday of November) international bazaar at the PICC forum, organized by the different embassies in the Philippines. Later on, I discovered that it was also on the same day as "Forte @ 40," the anniversary concert of the Piano Teacher's Guild of the Philippines (PTGP,) where my piano teacher and some friends, among 300 other pianists, were to perform.

-  My parents accompanied me to the international bazaar this morning. Honestly, I thought last year's bazaar had more interesting finds than this year's bazaar. Many countries did not participate this year too; Russia, Bangladesh, Greece, and probably some others did not participate. However, countries such as (South) Korea participated this year.

The mandatory photo with the fake motherland booth. Haha.

Origami sushi!!

Italian (and Filipina) in costumes. Haha!!

Santa, you're a bit early, don't you think?? Haha. Nice to see you though!!

The mandatory photo with the real motherland booth. Haha.

- At noon, we decided to buy savory beef cakes and nasi tepak from the Brunei booth (chicken, rice, egg, sweet sauce,) and kimbap and a small platter of assorted tteok (sweet rice cakes) from the Korean stall.

- After going around the bazaar once more, and being able to buy myself a pair of Moroccan slipper-shoes, my parents dropped me off at CCP to watch Forte @ 40.


- Forte @ 40 is a special concert, since for the first time in Philippine history, 40 pianos were brought in the CCP stage, to be used by more than 300 pianists ages 8 to 80. It was a unique concert, because some pieces were specially-arranged "popular themes," such as the Harry Potter theme, or the Super Mario theme. The highlight was the finale, where my piano teacher participated, entitled "Mga Gintong Pamana." The piece was arranged especially for this concert, and so this piece has its debut performance today.

- After the concert, I was able to meet some of my friends who played in the concert. I later joined my piano teacher, Teacher Julie, together with teacher Lilibeth and Irene, at Iceberg at the nearby Harbor Square.

- My parents fetched me, just as Teacher Julie had to hop back to CCP for her gala performance. As for me, my legs are dead from today's trip, but it's always worth it when I get to travel the world in a day, and get to witness an extraordinary event in music/piano/Philippine-music history.