So this weekend I went to my first Filipino wedding. Even though it was in Cadiz, it was about 40 minutes away. Cadiz is a big area. It was pretty much like a wedding you would see in the states, except of course, hotter. And at catholic weddings here (I don't know about back home) the bride and groom have sponsors. Sometimes up to 60 sponsors. A lot, at any rate. It's kind of like being a godfather or godmother at a baptism. So one of my co-teachers, Mrs. Sarabia, was a sponsor, because the girl getting married was a former student of hers. Mrs. Sarabia isn't catholic, but i guess you can be a sponsor anyway. This girl had about 20 sponsors, 10 bridesmaids, and 10 jr. bridesmaids and flower girls. I learned two things in the church service, which was held in Ilonggo.
Higugma means love. That's a funny word to say, higugma. And they said it a lot, obviously. Another thing i learned is that when you're texting, 143 is short hand for I love you. Because I is one letter, Love is 4, and You is 3. So if you're texting your sweetheart, you just put in 143 and they'll know what it means. So I learned two new things about how to say love. Yes, the priest talked about 143 in his sermon, texting is really a part of the culture here.So after the ceremony, we all got on tiny scary boats and took a 20 minute ride to an island where the bride lived and had the reception. It was incredibly hot. We ate lunch, and then the couple had their first dance. At the first dance, the sponsors and guests pin money on the couple.
Then they had their first drink of wine together, their first bite of cake together, etc. Then we left. Even though I had never been to a Filipino wedding, I have learned enough in the last year to know 2 things about events like this: Jeans are dress-up clothes, and we will leave the minute we can. There's no dancing among the guests or toats or anything. 
When it's over, it's over. So yep, I was wearing jeans and a tshirt, and fit right in, and the minute we could, we left. Besides me and Mrs. Sarabia, her daughter Divine was with us, and another teacher at our school, Liezel. So the four of us walked around the little island, which was where Mrs. Sarabia used to teach. She showed us her old school, which only has 5 teachers, and the teachers live in the classrooms. They go 20 feet to the beach and go swimming when they don't have class. But she said it
wasn't as nice as when she had taught there. We also walked over to the beach resort, and sat in the shade and watched some foreigners sunbathing. Crazy foreigners. A Filipina would never choose to sit in the sun for no good reason. When we were done sitting there, we went back to the wedding site and caught a small scary boat back to the mainland, then a tricycle out to the highway, then a bus back into town.
