The REALationship Method
The REALationship Method is a comedic podcast about dating, relationships, and advice, blending tips with plenty of tangents. With stories and experiences shared by the cast and guests, it offers cautionary tales to help you avoid making the same mistakes. So sit back, relax, and maybe learn a thing or ten!
The REALationship Method
Finding Rhythm in Life's Unexpected Steps, Waking Up with One Sock, & Comfort Food with Aggie
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The beauty of unexpected connections reveals itself in this conversation with dancer and instructor Aggie, where cultural touchpoints create an immediate bond that transforms what could have been a simple interview into a rich exploration of shared experiences.
When two Filipino-Americans get together, certain topics inevitably emerge - the struggle to maintain language skills, childhood memories of rice with sabaw, and the universal annoyance of having your sock mysteriously disappear during sleep. As Aggie shares her journey as a dance instructor, she reveals a teaching philosophy centered on inclusivity: "No matter what, I cannot leave anybody behind." This approach stands in stark contrast to the cutthroat experiences she encountered during her brief foray into commercial dance auditions, where being typecast proved disheartening.
The conversation weaves through nostalgic territory - from AOL chat rooms to three-way calling - before venturing into more personal terrain. Aggie's candid discussion about experiences with sleep paralysis leads to a surprising revelation about her faith journey. "I tried everything, like everything, and then I found God and I'm like, I feel like a whole new person," she shares with genuine conviction. This moment transforms the conversation, revealing the spiritual dimension that underlies her approach to both art and life.
What makes this episode special isn't just the range of topics covered, but the authentic connection formed between two people discovering their shared cultural background, generational experiences, and parallel life journeys. Whether you're a dancer, Filipino-American, or simply someone who appreciates authentic human connection, this conversation offers a window into how our various identities - cultural, professional, and spiritual - interact to shape who we become.
• Aggie discusses how dance teaching has changed, with more diverse skill levels and intentions in today's classes
• Teaching philosophy centered on never leaving anyone behind, even if it means covering less choreography
• Comparison of industry audition experiences and why Aggie ultimately preferred teaching to pursuing commercial dance
• Nostalgic discussion of growing up Filipino-American with shared cultural touchpoints
• Insights about maintaining Kapampangan language as a second-generation Filipino-American
• Childhood food memories including egg, rice and banana ketchup as a comfort food staple
• Personal experiences with sleep paralysis and finding faith as a solution
• Both hosts connect over their parallel journeys of finding meaningful faith after exploring other paths
Introducing Dancer Aggie
Speaker 1Oh, five, four, three, two, one. Welcome back to another episode of the relationship at the podcast. I'm Chris. Today I have a very lovely guest. She's from my home state, killer, california. I've seen her hot damn on stage. I've seen her in person. I'm kind of fangirling slash boy, slash itting. Right now I got my girl Aggie on the motherfucking pod. Yay, girl Aggie, it's my pleasure man. Thank you for replying. Thank you for DMing. Thank you for being such a. How am I Without kissing your ass? Thank you for being such a. How am I without kissing your ass? Thank you for being such a genuine good person thank you, thank you you don't know me yet, no man, you know what.
Speaker 1So like, um, this is what I've been uh, doing for like the past. I'm gonna say eight years, right, um, everyone starts off like at a hundred, like they're cool and everything, but then once you start like doing some like shady or some sideways stuff, it cuts it down. So everyone's like always at a hundred, with me at the get. I don't know if that's bad to think about like that, but I mean yeah I'm trying to live my life like that obviously okay, I see yeah yeah, but um, aggie, before we uh, we get going.
Speaker 1Um, how did I get the yes from you?
Speaker 2um, well, it's kind of like what you told me earlier. Just you know how you. You said that you just like ask people and then see what happens. When I got your message, I was like I guess like yeah, you're like who's this guy? Yes, um, yeah. And then I, when I looked on the page and you're talking about relationships and the conversations you had in in the clips that you have on instagram, I was like oh, we don't really talk about dance and like I don't want to talk about dance.
Speaker 2So yeah, yeah, yeah we do talk about death. That's okay, but um yeah, I just thought it would be good to experience something different. So I was just like, okay, sure, we'll try it out okay, so it was a.
Speaker 1It was a more of a let's try this guy out and if he, uh, if he becomes like a, a jerk, you know what?
Speaker 2I'll never see this cat again, type of situation it's like well, if I don't like it, then I, then I don't like it, and then I'll say something about it that's good yeah but I think it did help with the communication prior to, because that's when I I can kind of gauge who I would be working with, who I would be communicating with and so yeah, I'll get over here.
Speaker 1Oh, hell yeah. And then where are you at right now in the world?
Speaker 2In suburbs of San Francisco.
Speaker 1Frisco okay, okay, okay, Cool.
Speaker 2Not in San Francisco, but like in the suburbs.
Speaker 1yeah, Like Daly City. Yeah, hey, the reason why it's cloudy there is because all the rice cookers are going off at the same time. But I remember when I was young, because I used to go to Daly City a lot, it's because my family and I would go to Goldilocks and then afterie locks we're like, oh, let's go travel. You know, you know, norcal. I'm like, okay, cool. So after goldie locks and this is always on a sunday, right after goldie locks, we would just venture out there.
Speaker 1And that's how I knew about daily city and one of my good like I fangirled over him too DJ Qbert. He used to. I mean, he still stays in Daily City, you know the whole, yeah, yeah, it's funny because me and my friends we would watch old videotapes videotapes, right, and you know they would record them driving and like going through the streets to his house and one of my buds he's like dude, I know that street, I know that city, dude, let's make a drive out there. So we reenacted that whole driving scene and he was like, yo, that's the house. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, and this is like before cell phones, right. So it's like we can't MapQuest anything, we can't Google anything. So we're like going off, like our brain, on Remembering these streets and these turns and um yeah, going back to the pad, we watched the video.
Speaker 1Died dog we were there took a hot damn with him. You know a camera, not a Polaroid, but uh, you know you. Uh, you know a camera, not a Polaroid, but uh, you know you. Uh, you could. No, no, you could throw them away.
Speaker 2It's like the click and then boop, and then you put them in disposable cameras.
Speaker 1Disposables.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1We had. We had like three or four of them, johns, and then, oh my God, it was so freaking cool.
Speaker 2Yeah, I always thought he was from Oakland, I don't know why.
Speaker 1Yeah, I always thought he was from Oakland, I don't know why, or that he lives in Oakland, maybe because I used to go to you know, I used to go to frisco. A lot is hate street, the same as it was like, say, 10, 20, 30 years ago, or is it like dirtier now?
Speaker 1dirtier yeah, because I remember when I was there it was that whole street. You know you had, true, you had was it called Rasputin's or something Like that record shop, because I used to DJ, I used to go on there, but that whole street was like, it was such a vibe. Is it still like that, or is it more like homeless people now or whatnot?
Evolution of the Dance Community
Speaker 2I actually haven't walked the street in a while. I have driven past it and it seems the same to me okay I'm not really sure. I feel like most of the homeless homelessness happens in the city, like downtown, where you have all the like financial district and all that because all the stores are closed down there and everyone works from home, so like that's why the city is more occupied with homeless people than hatred. Hatred is like closer to the park.
Speaker 1It's like on that a little, a little more on the outside rather than the central part of the city okay so it could possibly still be the same yeah, okay, um girl, because I remember on hay there's like a court, I don't say a couple blocks up and I used to hoop there too. Hot damn ballers and stuff. Um, have you, did you do any like sports, you know, in high school or anything? Or were you always like in the classroom just hanging out?
Speaker 2no, I. I tried to do track in middle school. It didn't work out too well. I tried to do volleyball. That didn't work out too well. I tried to do basketball. That didn't do. That didn't work out too well. I've always danced, so like anytime we had extracurular things, I would try to dance, and then in high school I finally joined Westlake, the performing arts school, and then I just didn't stop dancing after that.
Speaker 1Oh, wow. And with the whole dance thing and you said you've been doing it for, like you know, a good amount of change of your life, has it changed from like back then to how it is now, like the whole dance community and dancing, or is it still the same?
Speaker 2It's totally different just because generations have changed. And then because there's TikTok now and everything like those things online, then, like, um, I feel like there are some things that are still the same, like how people view then versus now, um, what people are interested in or what they care about, what they think about during class and all that. I feel like that's always a generational thing. Like I feel like when I started dancing, all the older people that looked down on us I feel like that's us kids like oh, we don't know any better. You know what I mean, but it was like yeah, yeah, yeah that's when we started dancing.
Speaker 2So like everything's so cool. Um. So I'm sorry. What was your original question?
Speaker 1Oh, holy crap, oh how did it change from when you started to it is now.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, I think I can answer that better if it's more specific, okay specific.
Speaker 1Um, uh, uh, uh, okay, teach, okay, uh, teaching wise now, um, like you, uh, back in the day, you know, we had, uh, you had, teachers. Right now it's like you could learn, like I guess you don't even have to go to a studio. How did that change the dynamic of, like, say, the dance studio and that whole aura thing? Since you can't, you know, since people are like learning it like at home and instead of like going to like a teacher.
Speaker 2Well, as a student, I can only speak for myself because I'm going to yeah, yeah, definitely, yeah, yeah. I'm going to for for me. If I take class, I'm gonna try to learn as best as possible. Anyway, like I know my own work ethic to um, I don't know.
Speaker 2I mean, there are times where I'm like, okay, this person isn't teaching that well and then other times I'm like, wow this, this instructor is like so good at explaining things or I can follow really well without without them having to go through a bunch of details or something like that. There's always yeah, just like that, um and again. As for me, as a student, I'm like I'm gonna turn my heart no matter what, um.
Speaker 2But I can tell you more differences as a teacher okay, yeah um, before it is a little bit I don't know if there's a better word for this but I feel like it was a little bit easier teaching students because the levels of students that would come into your class were more similar. But then now, now it's a little bit different, because there are a lot of students that just come from work and then they just want to dance. It's not like everybody in the class is there to train and get better, and then you have an expectation, you know.
Speaker 2But also I teach at a different studio, I don't teach at Westlake anymore, so the dynamic of my students are always different and I have different levels of students coming in and I have different intentions of the students coming in. So I'm always trying to juggle like, oh, do I teach more, do I teach less? Um, I can't really have an expectation of them. Like, oh, they're here to train yeah yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, okay, okay. How are you, as a teacher, like? Do you, do you keep on going through the same thing until a student gets it? Or are you all right, I got to get done with this piece, or whatever, because other people like, because you said there's different types of levels in your class, right, like, yeah, do you stay? Do you stay on that one specific eight count, or whatever, or do you keep on going on?
Speaker 2I'm so glad I thought about this before. I thought about this recently because I have I struggled for the past year trying to figure out what my class was to students yeah um, but I only have an hour 15. Usually classes are an hour 30, um, but an hour routine is not a lot and before the standard is. Well, it could still be a standard now for most advanced classes where you teach like 8 to 12, eight counts uh-huh um, I can only get through four. Um, my, my class is advertised as intermediate advanced.
Speaker 2Um, but the thing is like the level of students, it feels more like, oh, I take a lot of classes, so I could like go into this intermediate advanced class and I first approached it as an advanced class, but then now I'm like I feel like I have to approach it as an intermediate class and try to get them to advance. Okay, and you could also be a class where um advanced students if they just want to like brush up on details or get a little more insight on, like the mechanics of your movement okay, that makes, that makes lots of sense, yeah but my main thing, my main thing I'm always gauging in class.
Speaker 2My main thing is like no matter what, I cannot leave anybody behind. Hey, okay, atta, girl, atta girl yeah. I feel really bad when I have, like, a really advanced student in my class and they're kind of waiting around for me to get to the next thing. But there's a, there's a point.
Speaker 2Um, there's a point when you're teaching something and then yeah, like right, when all your students like get there, then it's like, okay, move on. Like I don't want to stay on something too long and then, and then I won't be able to teach the rest of my piece. But like, yeah, um, yeah, I don't know, that's just my thing. I'm like I can't leave this person behind. If someone has a question, I'm gonna answer it. If, uh, you do one more time, I'm gonna answer it. Like I'm gonna like have us do one more time. And so, um, yeah, at first it was like I need to get through this piece, but then like, yeah, it kind of messes with you when, like you see people struggling and then nobody's getting it, just because I'm trying to rush through a piece, you know, trying to yeah yeah, yeah into class time.
Speaker 2Um, but also another reason why I I can only teach that much in an hour 15 is because I need to warm up and stretch oh, and that takes up like what, like 15 to 20 minutes. Half of it is for me. I need it so bad. Another half is Is when I tell my students to like okay, stretch our own. They're just like standing there and then, okay, dude, I.
Speaker 2I like, dude, I, I need my, I still need my stretching time, my damn yeah, I still have a stretch time, but then I also think that, like, um, when you warm up your students or when you stretch them out, you kind of give them an idea of the body parts you need to use for the piece oh, I've never.
Speaker 2I've never heard that before yeah, like I'll kind of cater to what my piece is like for the day. If there's more stretchy movement or more extensions, then I'll like do a lot of breathing or I'll do a lot of like, like longer reaches for my stretches and warm-ups. If I'm doing stuff that's more heavyset on the like, uh, like with my legs, and I'll warm up a bit more than than others. So yeah, it really depends. If I just leave them to like go stretch, they'll do like this one of these.
Speaker 1Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2They'll sit on the floor and then, like, touch their leg, they'll touch their foot, like yeah, touch their leg, they'll touch their foot.
The Industry Audition Experience
Speaker 1They're like yeah uh, uh, yeah. I feel that, oh my God, excuse me Like you being in dance for, like you know, for a cool minute. Have you seen or have you ever like experienced and tried to like be in the industry? Like, have you ever experienced and tried to be in the industry? Have you ever ventured that route?
Speaker 2Yeah, I hated, it, oh really.
Speaker 1Can you like? Why did you hate it? Is it like the hours? Is it the people that you're competing against, or like you're dancing with, or is it just like the whole? I think it's just the process, like I, the process okay yeah, I couldn't stomach it I will admit that I could not stomach it.
Speaker 2I didn't like it um oh, okay I like going to auditions it. It was hard to juggle because it was like I'm spending all my time going to this, but I also need to like make money somehow, and then it was just hard in that way and I also um, being typecasted really sucks being what typecasted typecasted. Okay, okay, okay it really sucks, but I was also maybe like 25. I feel like I was pretty young back then to not be able to accept that people won't like me for the way I look.
Speaker 1Oh, no ways.
Speaker 2Yeah, Now I'm just kind of like okay.
Speaker 1It's just whatever. So were you too short, your haircut was too short.
Speaker 1Your, your haircut was too short, your hair was too long or like it was mainly height, and then yeah um, there's a ton of asian people, so, like you know, oh okay well, it also could be my dancing, maybe I just wasn't that good but okay yeah, just just the fact that I had to do so much to like get cut really quickly was not worth it to me okay, so after, after like you getting cut, was the bounce back super fast, or did you lay low train or did you like venture off to do something else, like I?
Speaker 2don't know work at a jamba, oh what I was teaching at the time.
Speaker 1I'm sorry to interrupt oh, no, no, no, you're good, please do it.
Speaker 2Do it all the time, it's all good oh I, I was teaching at the time, so okay since like that was getting more traction than auditioning. Then yeah, like well, I'm gonna go teach, if I, if I can make money.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, and then I just did like gigs for jobs, uh-huh.
Speaker 1Like dance gigs.
Speaker 2No, like there are agencies that like staffing companies.
Speaker 1Oh.
Speaker 2I forget what else I did, but just like short part-time jobs.
Speaker 1Oh, I guess, when you talk about staffing agencies, I remember when I got out of I got out of high school and I, um, you know, I turned in my resume for a staffing agency. Uh, and I was like like you, I was like at various jobs too. I think one of my favorite ones was selling paintings. I don't know how, I don't know why, but selling painting was like super, like it was. It was one of my faves, because I'm like, I'm like talking to you know, monterey, I'm talking to old white people, right, and I'm not trying to be, I'm not trying to be racist, but it's like I like hearing their stories and I'm just like, oh, for real, you live through this era.
Speaker 1You came through, you know, on the boat from italy or this in the third, and I'm just like, wow, man, and it like it's a plus if they bought a painting, right. But just, you know people coming in from like everywhere. I'm just like, oh, hi, welcome. So yeah, it was like one of my favorite. You know odd jobs to do and stuff. What was your favorite?
Speaker 2my favorite was e3. Do you know e3 or remember e3? No, you don't have it around anymore. It's electronic entertainment expo uh-huh so it was this. I guess you would call it a gaming conference or a gaming um uh, kind of like a, you know, crunchy roll, or like anime expo, it's like that, but for video games no way yeah, I. I worked for um, a staffing company that always worked for nintendo, so I was able to. I was a video game demonstrator.
Speaker 1That was my job for for like, like demonstrator on like like say oh, these are the buttons. You just you push a to jump, b to dive, like something like that.
Gaming and Odd Jobs
Speaker 2Or you just show them, such as yeah, like one year I did um one year. The game that nintendo put out was super mario odyssey and then the next year was zelda um, I forgot what it was, but basically I had to learn how to demo the game, so they left me alone to play it for like 10 to 20 minutes, and then the entire day I would have to like show people how to play it, and then I'd have to basically say like okay, your time's up.
Speaker 2Aggie, I'm freaking out like the next level, what the hell it actually stops at a certain point, like if they okay, okay, the demo, then like, their demo is done. But if they I think there's like a certain time limit where they can play, like let's say it's like five or ten minutes when their time is done, then it'll just like blackout. And then the next person it was real restart. Oh, I got to meet the voice of Mario.
Speaker 1Okay, okay, Okay, describe Is it a him or her?
Speaker 2It's a him.
Speaker 1Okay, describe him. Does he look like Mario or totally different?
Speaker 2I don't know. I think he like smiles, like Mario. Does he have the?
Speaker 1stache.
Speaker 2No, he doesn't Okay, okay okay. But he was in the wild. That okay, okay, okay that's freaking wild man.
Speaker 1Oh, dude yeah cuz I love, I love me some beer. Were you a game gaming nerd as well?
Speaker 2no, but my brother older brother playing live video games and he'd always make me watch him play oh that's how I know video games.
Speaker 1Oh, so you don't dabble, you don't play like, say, Super Smash Brothers or any of those games Like what is that? Mario Go Kart or whatnot.
Speaker 2Mario Kart. I love Mario Kart. I have a.
Speaker 1You have a Switch? Oh, are you on Animal Crossing? I have it, but I don't play it okay, I know people that are addicted to it after the pandemic, so like oh I'm doing other things now oh, attagirl, attagirl um hold on, hold on, but um hold on.
Speaker 2You need this, that's.
Speaker 1Oh, final Fantasy, I girl, I love that game so far. Cloud, oh my gosh, I tried to see it, uh-huh, and then what happened?
Speaker 2I stopped after I died oh my god but. But I can tell you, though, my favorite rpg is super mario, super mario rpg, and I did beat that game, hey at a girl.
Speaker 1How, how long did it take you to beat that game? Was it months, or was it like was it a straightforward game to where you knew how to like, beat different levels and beat different bosses?
Speaker 2yeah, I um. You know those the're adventuring through the land, right yeah in an RPG game. It like like an adventure game, kind of not really. But you're basically trying to get to your next destination or look for clues or whatever, and then you have yeah your enemies walking around. When you bump into them, then you fight them. You know, yes, it's like attack, run, magic, like all that's cool, yeah, yeah so for all of those, I would fight all of them, just so I could, just so I could level up, and then I could be easier to to fight the boss or yeah, yeah, yeah you're enemies and that is like the best way, how I got through the game.
Speaker 1So in this game was there like puzzles, too, that you couldn't figure out, or it took you a long time to like damn, where is this key that will open this door or whatnot?
Speaker 2To be honest, I feel like, can you pause?
Speaker 1Oh yeah, yeah, just go, Let it run, Just go, Just go. Maybe that's her door dash y'all. She probably got like some food delivered or something. Maybe her laundry is done. And oh, I was commentating.
Speaker 2One second, I don't know.
Speaker 1Hold on, it's gonna be a while You're good, you're good, you're good Shit. It's gonna be a while I'm gonna use the bathroom Shit. It's gonna be a while I'm gonna use the bathroom?
Speaker 2I don't know.
Speaker 1Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, not yet. Okay, I'll get you guys some water. Okay, you guys will be good. Relax, I'm still on. Okay, okay, it's obvious, I need a cold. I'm just wondering, here, there you go, if it's too cold, you can sit over there, so the wind is not too cold. Okay, I think it's alright now, but you can charge your phone to your bed. Ouch what, oh, daddy, daddy, yes, safi, can you help me open the tree? Come here, saf, cheese, did you try opening it? Be careful, cheese. Okay, there, be careful. Thank you, babe. Thank you, babe. Thank you, rara, love you, love you too. Okie, dokie, oh hi, welcome back, I'm back.
Speaker 2Yay, thank you for waiting.
Speaker 1Oh no, it's all good.
Speaker 2I was just saying Are you going to cut?
Sharing Filipino Heritage
Speaker 1that I can. But I mean it's cool because I like the raw footage, so it's all gravy. I was just saying, oh, I was like that could be like Comcast or Spectrum. You know, working on her cable, yeah he's not that one, you know. Oh, he's your landlord. Yeah, oh, auntie uncle, sorry, auntie uncle, oh man, oh gosh, okay, uncle, oh man, um, oh gosh, okay, let's try and get back. Um, do you have any questions for me?
Speaker 2uh, while I try, to think of, uh, something um, have you always wanted to podcast oh, hell, no, um, let me tell.
Speaker 1So back in the day I'll tell, I'll give you a brief story. Uh, back in the day I'll give you a brief story, back in the day, and this is going to tell my age. Right, I was big on Tumblr, so I blogged.
Speaker 2How old do you think I am?
Speaker 1I think you're. I want to say because you were like oh, I was pretty young back then and I was like 25. So I'm going to say you're probably in your either late 20s or maybe early 30s Older. Holy crap Okay.
Speaker 2What if we're the same age? Or do you know you're older than me?
Speaker 1You know what? I think I'm older than you, but okay, what, what, what? When did you graduate high school?
Speaker 2that would be me.
Speaker 1Yeah, oh for real, okay, um, let's see what social media did you use? Myspace okay um, I was on. Okay, very first one was AOL. Were you on AOL?
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1ASL pick Dude.
Speaker 2Those are my initials, so whenever somebody would say that I'm like, how'd you know?
Speaker 1No way. What's the S? What's the S in your?
Speaker 2name Santos, my middle name, my mom's name.
Speaker 1Oh Wow, it's like ASL. Pick Okay middle name my mom's. Oh wow, it's like oh, it's so big. Uh, okay, so you were on that. Um, so you're on a. I am, I guess, right. Did you have a nokia? Yes okay, I had a nokia. Did you have a pager?
Speaker 2no, but my cousin did. I wanted one like. What would I use it for?
Speaker 1Okay, I think we might be the same, like around the same age. Then Hold on.
Speaker 2Did you play outside as a kid?
Speaker 1Oh, of course I had to be back home before the lights came on, and yeah so Kids can't do that nowadays, can they?
Speaker 1No way, I think kids nowadays, depending on the parent, right Some kids be staying out late, you know, oh, yeah, like I was a badass kid but I tried to be home before, you know, before the lights came on. But you know, since my dad because I grew up with a dad, not with a mom my dad was always working so he wouldn't know, and then we didn't have rings back then. So it's like it's hard to keep track of a person you know. So, yeah, oh, okay, you're your age. Um, three-way, did you use three-way a lot? Yes, okay, that sums it up. So you were on the phone, you were on three-way, Okay, did?
Speaker 2you wear JNCOs.
Speaker 1Caller ID on wireless Star 69? Star 69. If you want to block your number star 68 or some stuff right?
Speaker 1Oh my gosh, yes, okay, yes okay yeah, okay, we're, we're, oh, we're in the same genre. I mean, we're in the same, we're the same group, okay. So coming back, um, I used to blog on tumblr a lot. Um, uh, uh, I wrote in high school. My, uh, my english teacher was like, hey, this is pretty good. You should, like, you know, uh, submit it somewhere. I was like, no man, you're lying. So, um, I kept on blogging. Finally I was like, yo, I'm gonna submit it to huffington post. Hopefully, you know, yeah, hopefully it goes good. Huffington post hits me back up and says, hey, your stuff is good, but it's something that you're not, we're not looking into. So, um, after that I got into the army, stopped blogging and then in during the in the army, um, one of my friends was like hey, do you want to start a podcast with me? I was like hell, I'm down, I'm open to new things. I didn't know what I was doing.
Speaker 1So I was a co-host for, um, a podcast, a military podcast called more than a uniform that's cool so, yeah, so the the premise is that is that, uh, we're all we wear this uniform, right, but it's what we do on, you know, like when we put on our civilian clothes. So there's a lot of people that have, you know, side hustles, um, people that are in bands and stuff. Uh, they do a lot of, uh like entrepreneur work when the uniform comes off. And we talked to a lot of spouses too, because we wanted to know what spouses would do when, uh, their other half is, you know, defending the country, right.
Speaker 2So I was on that, yeah huh, I have a question yeah, oh, go ahead don't go uh me um are people that are active in the military. Are you allowed to make money while you're active?
Speaker 1yes, uh, it's like it's frowned upon. But the answer is yes, um, but the job can't, cannot interfere while you're being a soldier, you know, because you're always a soldier first. So let's say you have a side gig at working at walmart, right, you can't go to your like commander and say, hey, uh, I can't be in today because I'm working at walmart. No, it's uh, the the military trumps your other job. And if, if, uh, let's say if your job and the military like coincides, if there's like any discrepancies or whatever, your commanding team will go to the manager of your job and say, hey, pfc, um, pfc jenkins, hey, he's not working here anymore. Please give him his check. He has an obligation to the united states military.
Speaker 2United States military, but you could make passive income.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, people do a lot of what's it called Uber. Uber is like super big in the military and the reason why it's big is because people could get on and off post, opposed to a civilian doing Uber. They cannot, you know. So they actually have like a head up in that game in a sense, or like delivering pizzas or working at the commissary. A commissary is like a Safeway, but on post, so that's side gig. But usually if you have jobs like that, like if you work on a military post, they're like oh, you have an assignment coming up. They're like they're super lenient to. Okay, we'll hold your job, just let us know when you come back and you can start again.
Speaker 2Oh, okay.
Speaker 1Yeah, so, continuing on, I did more than uniform. My boy got an assignment and he asked me to stay on and I was like, dude, this is your stuff. I feel uncomfortable when you're on this like nine month assignment. I feel weird doing it by myself. So I asked people around and I was like yo, do you think I could make my blogs into a podcast? And people saying, yes, just do it, you have the personality for it. And I was like I don't know about the personality part, but I do have some good stories. So, um, yeah, I transitioned to to this thing and I've been doing it for, I'm gonna say, like two and a half years now by myself and uh, dude, it's super fun and, like to me, it's like it's therapeutic I can see that.
Speaker 2Yeah, you do have a personality for it.
Speaker 1That's what I think oh, oh, oh, manang, thank you, man, thank you, thank you, manang, sounds so old.
Speaker 2Oh, auntie, oh when you first called me that, I was like why am I, why, why do I I feel disrespected right now, right?
Speaker 1Why, why do I feel disrespected right now? Right, are you a what I was gonna say? What genre of Filipino, what Filipino are you? Are you Ilocano Tagalog Visayan? Come on Baro. Hey, do you speak the language?
Speaker 2I try to speak it more than Tagalog. I understand the gist of both, but when it comes to specific, what do you call it? Specific words, like if it was a and, versus and or like. I don't know how to explain it.
Speaker 1Oh, okay.
Speaker 2Yeah, like the connecting words, you know. Yeah, Not too much, but like words I can. I can like kind of put a sentence together.
Speaker 1Are you good enough to keep a conversation going?
Speaker 2Yeah, but it'll be broken. It'll probably be like half and half. I'll speak an English word if I don't know the Kampong Pongan word.
Speaker 1Girl, I'm the same way. I'm the same way as well.
Speaker 2Yeah, so my aunties, I see my older aunties now a little more often. So when I see them I try to take advantage of being able to speak Kampong Pangan to them. I really try and want to get comfortable because, um, because my older brother, he has kids but then he doesn't use a language on them and yeah, and like, we understand it and my brother can speak it to a certain extent, but it's not his everyday language.
Speaker 1Yeah, and so I just I kind of don't want it to be lost.
Speaker 2Um, and I heard it's not his everyday language, yeah, and so I just I kind of don't want it to be lost, and I heard it's a dying language too, so I'm like trying to keep as much as I can with it. And there are barely any books on the language too. I tried searching for stuff online but, mainly like symbolic stuff or very very few references online.
Speaker 1Oh, because on the island we have a lot of ilicanos and people that speak tagalog. So I was I don't want to say I was forced, but um, when I see like the old aunties and uncles, I try to speak the language, but it's all. It all comes into illocano, tagalog and Bisaya, and I'm just like, oh man, and they laugh because they know what I'm trying to say. But I understand all the dialects fluently. I still watch Filipino movies and stuff. So it's like, yeah, I can understand it, but then, when it comes to speaking, I'm like freak me man, like I'm having a hard time. So I try to, uh, I do what you do, like speak it in english as well, hoping they know what that word means. And then when it comes to the kids, it's like, uh, I, I kind of force them to watch, uh, you know, like at least 20 minutes of like filipino movies with me yeah, no, yeah, because I'm like man, y'all gotta learn this.
Speaker 2At least 20 minutes of like filipino movies with me.
Speaker 1Yeah, no yeah, because I'm like man. Y'all gotta learn this stuff because you're eating my filipino food might as well, you know. So, yeah, like they, they, they know stuff, they just can't speak it yet I feel like they'll pick it up.
Speaker 2So are they young, like really young? Yeah, six and eight oh okay, yeah, yeah, I feel like if they're around it or if they hear six and eight oh okay, yeah. Yeah, I feel like if they're around it or if they hear it often, then they'll pick it up faster than if they were older.
Speaker 1Oh, definitely yeah.
Speaker 2But sometimes when I'm out in the world and I'll go to like a Filipino bakery or something, and then I hear people speaking Kabongpangan. I want to speak it to them. So bad. But when I try and only a few words come out. They're yeah they're, um, they're skeptical to speak it to me because I feel like I don't know what they're thinking or feeling. But I feel like they are like oh, she doesn't know, kabangpangan that well, so like I'm not going to respond to her in a couple of bongan you know, no way yeah, have you ever?
Speaker 2I can only assume. But like, when I try to, they just like continue to respond to me in english or they'll be like oh yeah, and then like I don't get any any response and I'm like please speak a little bong, speak to me because, oh, that's, that's like the aunties and uncles like giving you shade, that's like their way. They're like yeah yeah, I hate, I'm like, wait, I'm trying girl, I'm the same way too.
Speaker 1I'm the same way.
Speaker 2I'm just like, come on, man you know what my auntie does um, and she doesn't do it on purpose, I think it's just out of habit.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2My auntie. I try to speak Kapampangan to her, but she'll talk to me in Tagalog. And then my cousin is like no, mom, kapampangan. Respond to her Kapampangan, yeah yeah, yeah. But then she still does Tagalog.
Speaker 1But my auntie is like 80 years old, so like, ah, okay, okay, okay. So do you find yourself like speaking Tagalog more than Kampang, pangan or Ilocano or whatever?
Speaker 2no, I find myself speaking more Kampang Pangan than okay, okay, that's good, that's good.
Speaker 1So, um, you grew up in a Kampang Pangan household, yeah, so are the dishes different, or are the ingredients different from, like, say, ilocano or Tagalog dishes?
Speaker 2I don't know the difference. I don't know if I've had an Ilocano dish. What's an Ilocano dish?
Speaker 1Well, I don't know. I was always taught like kilawin was an Ilocano dish.
Speaker 2I've never had that.
Speaker 1Kilawin. So it's goat and then you're supposed to like it's a bar food. So it's goat, ginger, green onion, garlic and stuff you like. You cook the goat or you fry the goat or whatnot, and it's supposed to be some type of bar food that you're supposed to have like with a beer or Red Horse or whatever. But it's cold, like it's supposed to be, not frozen but it's refrigerated.
Speaker 2It's cooked and then refrigerated.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, so it's supposed to be served cold.
Speaker 2Oh, I've never had that.
Speaker 1Really Okay. How about sisig? I know you had sisig, I love sisig.
Speaker 2Okay, I love it too.
Speaker 1So is that a tagalog dish, or is that? I feel like that's a tagalog dish. Okay, but does kapang? Do they have their own way of making a sisig dish? I feel like they make it the tagalog way okay my favorite is bongos oh, dude, you okay, okay, okay, and this is gonna uh, this is gonna sound kind of gnarly like to the listeners and stuff. Do you eat it with bagoong or almang or anything?
Speaker 2oh shoot. You know what? I'm pretty like basic when it comes to food so okay, so vinegar.
Speaker 1Then you just dip it in vinegar vinegar lemon yeah yeah okay, but bag bonas is still good, though you know it just makes your house smell funky. But I mean, hot damn, like the crunch and like after you take out all the bones, you're straight.
Speaker 2Dude, I'll pick that over the pork or chicken.
Speaker 1No, lechon cavalli.
Speaker 2No, no, no, Um pork seasick Like I like it but I don't know why. I just like boneless really.
Speaker 1Is it the way that it's made like? Is it the oil, or is it just I just fried, or is it the fish?
Speaker 2I think because it reminds me of tilapia and in my house we always had like tilapia and rice yeah so that could be why I like it more are you a big rice eater?
Sleep Paralysis and Childhood Fears
Speaker 1no or do you? No, yeah, but you know, stay away from the carbs well now, yeah, as a kid, all I okay.
Speaker 2As a kid, all I ate was rice and tabal from the sinigang. No meat, no vegetables no, no, you're a typical kid I'm like maybe that's why I'm so short, glittered you didn't need enough freaking pork or whatever.
Speaker 1Oh my god, my kids are the same way too. It's. That's funny because you said that because they'll drink, they'll have the soup and then just the rice. And I'm like dude, what's up with the vegetables? Like no, I'm okay, I'm like whatever.
Speaker 2I hated salad as a kid uh-huh like I don't know, I just my parents never made me eat anything uh-huh um, as in like, you have to eat this, they just like oh let me eat what I wanted to eat. Yeah, and so in fifth grade, when I went to outdoor ed, I was out.
Speaker 1What's that? What's outdoor ed? What is that?
Speaker 2It's like this camp that fifth graders go to. They sell chocolate so they can fundraise to go to a camp for a week.
Speaker 1Is that like a science camp thing?
Speaker 2No, it's just like oh, you're just like out of nature and like, do camp stuff oh okay, survive right but you're, you're in cabins, so okay, oh okay, cool, cool, cool um, but, but you go with other schools oh, that's pretty cool, that's pretty fun. Um, and in outer red I had a lunch table that I didn't want to be part of because the table leader she was in I think she was in high school she made me eat my salad.
Speaker 2She wouldn't let me leave my table unless I ate my salad, and I hated it because every time I tried to eat it I would like gag. Oh no, Was there any dressing or was it just straight greens? And I hated it because every time I try to eat it.
Speaker 1I would like gag like I. Oh no, was there any dressing or was it just straight greens?
Speaker 2I can't remember, maybe there was a little bit of dressing, but every time I would like sit, I Remembered this vividly. I, every time I would sit, and then the salads in front of my, in front of my face, like she would go Some more, like she would. She would look at me and be like, eat some more, and I'm just like girl, you're, you're trauma that brought like I could eat that all the time now I can okay, okay, okay but then at the time it was like I wanted to cry.
Speaker 2I wanted to cry because I didn't want to eat my greens.
Speaker 1Oh my gosh, what is your go-to food? Like, say, back in the day that brought, like that's still your go-to food now.
Speaker 2Egg, rice and ketchup.
Speaker 1Okay With egg, rice and ketchup Okay.
Speaker 2I'll eat it with regular ketchup or Geoffran.
Speaker 1The banana ketchup.
Speaker 2Yeah, which is what do you call it?
Speaker 1Is it bandit over there?
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1We have a lot of it over here it's discontinued.
Speaker 2You do yeah.
Speaker 1Like you go to like, let's say like a lot like a lion's market. We call it, yeah, we. And then the little Filipino shops and stuff. They still have rows and rows and rows of the banana ketchup.
Speaker 2Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 1I'll send you a care package, girl I got you. I'll send you like these little bottles. Be like hey man, merry Christmas, kwanzaa and Hanukkah, I'll hook you up.
Speaker 2I'll hook you up All of our Asian stores the shelves are empty Really.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's cuz of that red 40 stuff.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, like if this was my bottle. I have like this much left.
Speaker 1I'm trying to you to say, hey, put a little bit of water, shake it up.
Speaker 2You only do that for You'll be good.
Speaker 1You only do that for oh yeah, hey, that's. Hey, I do that a lot. That's funny because my dad used to say, like when we're running low on stuff, he's like, oh, just add a little bit of water, shake it up. And yeah, did you. Okay growing up and you know this might be like a Joe Coy, you know kind of story, but Vicks Was Vicks used a lot while you were growing up, like the whole underneath your nose, underneath your eyes, underneath your feet.
Speaker 2No, but my grandma used it, but it was never used on us oh that's good. Yeah, my grandma liked it though. Oh, that's good. Oh, Tiger Bomb.
Speaker 1Oh, tiger Bomb, yeah, yeah, tiger Bomb, okay. Okay, let me ask you this when was the last time you visited the PI, the Philippines, like your homeland, like 2010. 2010.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1That was the only time I visited. Were you like in the province or were you like in like Manila, like the general popular parts, like Baguio or Manila?
Speaker 2Both it was because it was a layover. So I went to Macau for a dance trip with Westbrook, and then going there and then going home. We had like two to three days each way. So when I first got there I visited my dad's side of the family and then, on the way back home, I stayed in Manila with the rest of my friends ah, okay, okay.
Speaker 1So growing up, let me ask you this, let me you know, stay on the topic of Philippines when you're going up. Did you were like, say, your aunts and uncles and everyone older than you? Did they ever tell you like any Philippine paranormal ghost stories?
Speaker 2No oh.
Speaker 1I.
Speaker 2Would just see a swan on TV.
Speaker 1Okay, okay. Did you ever believe in that?
Speaker 2like I'm so scared of the dark dude like even now, yeah, even if I know something's not real. Um, paranormal stuff creeps me out like freaks me out not freak me out, but like freaks me out. And then, and I just always have this image of a girl in white and like her hair is messed up.
Speaker 1You know, that's like black and like in her face. Yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, like the ring girl, but then that's what also the Filipino.
Speaker 1Yeah, the white lady.
Speaker 2Yeah, the white lady yeah.
Speaker 1So so you say you're, so you say you're afraid of dark. So when you leave, like, say, your room, your domicile, do you have like a nightlight, or is your lamp on before you dip out, or are you okay with? Oh, is it?
Speaker 2wow, I need to sleep with the lights off, so Wow, I need to sleep with the lights off. So the only thing that's on at night is my Echo. It has like a blue light or like a yellow light, and then one of my outlets has like a I don't know. There's like a light that comes out of one of the plugs that I my smart plug has, like a light that just says that it's on and then that's like good enough for it to be on. Well, other than that, I I can't see what the light on because my eyes are sensitive.
Speaker 2So if you turn the light on. I can wake up from that.
Speaker 1Really.
Speaker 2Yeah, it sucks.
Speaker 1You're like yeah, yeah, it sucks.
Speaker 2You're like uh, yeah, it sucks because I don't like the dark, but then I need it to be dark so I can sleep you know, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, that always happens to me. Oh, so how are you when there's like, let's say, a blackout or whatever?
Speaker 2I'm like against the wall, are you?
Speaker 1really it's like hey, hold up, hey guys, hold the fuck up. I'm chilling.
Speaker 2Dude, even when I'm sleeping, if I'm sleeping on my side, I need to have my back covered, because I just feel like something's going to touch me or something.
Speaker 1Oh, really, have you ever slept with your foot over the bed? Oh, like at the edge of the bed, you know, like how your feet hangs off your bed.
Speaker 2I want to. So bad I want to so bad, but I sleep on my back most of the time and I have found that when I do have my feet like out of the covers or hanging off of the bed.
Speaker 1I get sleep paralysis. No way. Yeah, this is every time, every time.
Speaker 2So what I started doing? Because I love God so much, I say I'm like I rebuke you in the name of Jesus and like, dude, I'm not gonna lie. The last time I had sleep paralysis and I started, I said it while while it was happening. It stopped within like a few seconds.
Speaker 1Really.
Speaker 2Yeah, and then it just, I feel like I haven't been bothered since. But I, but because I'm scared, I still can't have my feet on Hiding off the bed. But because I'm scared, I still can't have my feet on the bed, hiding off the bed, oh shit.
Speaker 1So for people that don't know what sleep paralysis is, can you give like a brief description on what that is?
Speaker 2Yeah Well, for me it feels like you're immobile, you can't move, you can't yell, you're basically like you can't do anything. You feel like you're stuck in your body, and then it just but you're aware, though, right, you're aware it feels like somebody is pushing down on your chest and going like this to you so you can't move. And then when you're trying to say something, it's like what oh? Yeah.
Speaker 1So you had one of those. Was this like an ongoing thing?
Speaker 2It would happen occasionally, yeah.
Speaker 1Wow.
Speaker 2And then I noticed it happened the most when I didn't have my feet covered.
Speaker 1So do you sleep with your socks on or off?
Speaker 2Usually off, but because it's cold now, then I have them on and then sometimes they just end up off. I wake up and then I sleep.
Speaker 1Girl, let me tell you, when I sleep with my socks on, I'm missing a left sock. In the morning I'm like what am I doing in my sleep to have one sock on? You move around man, girl, it man, it happens all the time. I'm like. Even my sister and my brother are like hey, dude, why is your sock in the living room and you slept with them on in the bedroom? I'm like dog.
Speaker 2I don't know, honestly, huh no, I don't think I do, no, no I don't, I don't.
Speaker 1I stay in the same bed or this couch or whatever. I don't move. But no, I've never seen I do like move, like say, I wake up and I'm like man, I can't go back to sleep, and then I sit down somewhere else. I do that, but I don't think I sleepwalk. I'm 99.9? Sure I don't, but if I do that, 0.1, oh gosh, no wonder my sock is not on, man, holy crap.
Speaker 2Sometimes it's tough to wear your socks, though.
Speaker 1It's what.
Speaker 2Stuffy.
Speaker 1Girl, man, I don't know, I just don't like my feet, but I feel comfortable in my socks though. So it's like, yeah, but in hawaii, girl, you have to like have them off, because it, you know, be hot, that stuff be stanking. I'm telling you right now, like that whole flip-flop thing, like I hate flip-flops, so I'll be wearing, I'll be wearing slides and crocs and shit, but, dude, the whole, the whole, you know, this is your, this is your toe, the whole, something in your toe, this middle part, it's so uncomfortable to me man.
Speaker 1You got the ninja feet. At the end of the day, I'm like no dude, I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 2Those are actually uncomfortable to me oh the chinelas. Yeah, but I wear the ones that go over like this oh, okay, okay, this might be funny.
Speaker 1Um, do you wear sandals that your feet or your, you know the tip of your toes? Are they like over? You know the front of your sandal? No good egg at a girl, because, because I see the old aunties and then, yeah, they wear sandals and their foot, the toes, is like over it. I'm like dude.
Speaker 2I think you stretched out your sandals.
Faith and Final Thoughts
Speaker 1Right, but that is so funny. Yeah, that's so funny. Well, aggie, that was fun, that was Girl. Thank you so much for coming on and chopping it up with me. Man, I do appreciate you so much Thank you for having me Girl.
Speaker 2I had a lot of fun.
Speaker 1Oh dude, hella, Hella.
Speaker 2I didn't say hella. I had a lot of fun.
Speaker 1Oh, my bad, I thought you said hello. My fault, sorry, my bad man, my bad. Do you have any shout outs or anything before we dip out?
Speaker 2shout out to my Lord and Savior, jesus Christ. I'm being for real, I love God so much like wholeheartedly. In another conversation I would tell you how. I tried everything, like everything, and then I found god and I'm like, I feel like a whole new person oh, you know what?
Speaker 1that is a good conversation, because I've gone through that too, like I was raised Catholic, then I lost my faith, then I went somewhere else and then I found GOD. So yeah dude. We'll definitely have another episode on that.
Speaker 2It's okay to say his name. Man, it's okay to say his name.
Speaker 1Oh, okay, got it, thank you. Wait, wait, yeah, before we dip dip out. You say you're into god. Um, did you go to church today or are you going later?
Speaker 2I know um all the services are done for today. I did not go today, but yeah, I I was online today for the sermon oh oh, okay, okay, hey, respect, respect you.
Speaker 1You know you talk to the Lord, so respect to that, respect to that yeah hell yeah, um yeah, hell yeah, ko studios. Thank you for the lovely home. Um Rafi bite. Thank you for the lovely vibe. My man, I do appreciate you with that. I'm Chris. I'm Aggie hell yeah, and we out this bitch peace.
