Fall Florals + Filipino Fun Facts

Join me today in wishing my sweet husband a Happy Birthday!!! I have no idea how I would get through life without that amazing man and I am wishing you the best day ever boo!

I really wanted to dedicate a whole blog post of all the reasons why I love that man, but PDA is not really his thing so…visit my instagram stories or snapchat to catch a glimpse of the mushy stuff that he woke up to this morning! 🙂

Okay, now onto today’s post! If you are a lover of floral prints like me than I think you are going to love this dress that’s under $25!

Shop the look: c/o Dress (wearing a medium for reference) | Belt (similar here and here) | Shoes (similar) | Braided Headband

Last week I was back in California for work. Long story short, my company is putting together some marketing collateral for some of our locations that are heavily populated with the Filipino community. I was so excited that they asked me to be a part of it and some of my sweet family members got to be models too. Let me just say, they are totally naturals already. It was a blast shooting with them!

Some of the folks at the shoot were asking for my help in picking out the props for the shoot. Simple things like what plates to use, if coffee cups should be on the table and what food should we incorporate. See, what they were trying to accomplish was to replicate what a weekend morning around the table with a traditional Filipino family would look like. So I started to think, how funny that something that seems so natural to me isn’t really the same for everyone else. I know this goes for many cultures and even many families within the same cultures. So I thought it would be fun to share some fun facts about my culture. 🙂

10 Common Filipino Things That You May Not Know:

1. We call everyone auntie and uncle. EVERYONE. If my parents were having a party and I invited you over I would literally introduce everyone to you as uncle and auntie. The downside is, you may never know who actually is my aunt and uncle. The upside? You don’t have to remember everyone’s name. 🙂
2.  We are expected to “bless” our elders. Blessing is where you grab the elders hand and put it to your forehead. Just a tap. It’s a sign of respect. What you don’t want to do is “bless” someone who doesn’t want to be considered as an elder just yet LOL.
3. We LOVE to eat and love to feed you! If you have ever been to a Filipino’s house you have been asked if you were hungry about 8 times within the hour. Just eat because we won’t leave you alone until you do.
4. During informal settings, many Filipinos eat with their hands. They won’t eat with their hands when they are out of their house or really even when guests are over, but when it’s just your immediate family things get comfy and utensils are out the door. Hey, less dishes right?! LOL
5. The Philippines has 8 major dialects. My families dialect is Tagalog and it’s my parents first language. My oldest brother was born in the Philippines and could probably speak it the best out of all of us kids. My second oldest brother and I can understand it, but don’t speak it fluently. Unfortunately. And for some reason my Mom is teaching my husband all the bad words first so don’t ask Brandon what he knows LOL
6. Dancing is a huge part of our culture. My oldest brother may be the only one of us kids that can speak tagalog, but you better believe we learned every cultural Filipino dance before the age of 7. We were a huge part of the Filipino American Association in our county and our association would perform at every.single.festival.
7. Out of respect I don’t call my older brothers by their name. I call my oldest brother “Kuya” which basically means older male or brother and I call my other brother “Diko” which means second eldest brother. They just call me Lynn :/ BUT if I had a younger sibling they would call me “Ateh”.
8. Jollibee is like the Chick Fil A of the Philippines and OMG we actually have one in Houston.
9. Filipinos love their karaoke. Probably just as much as they love their dancing. I can’t carry a tune to save my life! But hey, I can dance. Kind of. Also, did you know the first person to make and patent the karaoke machine was a Filipino? It all makes sense now.
10. We are such friendly people. I’m not just saying that! 🙂 Also it’s like some unwritten rule that if you meet another Filipino they basically become instant family. It’s the craziest (most awesome) thing. I’m laughing right now because I remember being somewhere with my blogger friend Nicole from Lipstick and Brunch and as we were chatting this Filipino lady walked by smiling and said Hi! Nicole was like “do you know her?” I was like no, but it’s because I’m Filipino! Ha! So funny but so true guys!

Okay, I’ll leave you with these 10 fun facts today. Did you learn something new? Would love to hear!

xo, Roselyn