Let's Talk about some Jollibee

Sunday afternoon I was invited to a Jollibee birthday party for a six-year old girl who lives with my previous host family. The host family treated me like family for my first six months in country (still do) so this girl is like a niece to me. She’s super cute and I wouldn’t have missed her birthday party for the world. Her mom is a nurse in LA and the little girl moved to the Philippines last May and is staying here for a while soaking up all the Philippine culture her six-year old heart can handle. Anyway back to Jollibee...

Well, what is Jollibee?

Wikipedia says it’s “an American-style fast-food restaurant with Filipino-influenced dishes specializing in burgers, spaghetti, chicken and some local Filipino dishes.” I can live with this as a definition for Jollibee. It was started in the Philippines in the late 70’s/early 80’s and since then has expanded to be an international corporation. There are even Jollibee’s in the states. So the mascot is an awesome bee which I have kindly provided a picture of and the other kids are the ‘gang.’ I just read this but apparently Jollibee had a tv show called Jollitown from 2008-2010. Oh wiki, how I love you.

Oh here is something else I didn’t know- Jollibee Food Corporation totally owns Chow King and Greenwich and some other fast food restaurants I didn’t recognize. Basically Jollibee rules the Philippines.

So birthday parties at Jollibee...

I’m almost embarrassed to say that this was my first one. I haven’t been to a McDonald’s party either. I should really make friends with more kids. Or not.

Here’s a mini story before my Jollibee party:

I went to Tacloban (the location of the waited 2:00pm birthday party) a little bit early to pick up some t-shirts and maybe have a bite to eat at ... well ... at McDonalds. I feel wrong saying that. Here I am blogging about Jollibee and I have to throw McDonalds into it. I wasn’t alone. I was with good friends who really wanted McDonalds. (Louise, you agreed that you wanted it too!) So- two points to this story:

1. One of my friends may have eaten her McDonalds meal, decided she wanted to do it all over again, and did. I obviously encouraged this. All I could think about was that one time Maggie bet me a pedicure that I couldn’t eat 4 Krystal burgers and a fries... Was it four? So yeah, she ate a second set of chicken nuggets and fries just because. I was impressed.

Okay part 2. This is actually a transition story. So we are sitting at McDonalds waiting for 2pm to arrive because this is the Philippines. You don’t arrive early. I text my host sister and ask her if she is at Jollibee yet at 1:57pm. By 2:03 she responds with ‘yep, wer r u?’ So we head off to Jollibee... When we get there, there are already a lot of people there! As in I literally felt late. So note to self, Jollibee birthday parties operate on American time.

The Party Chapter.

Well first of all the birthday parties are held in a back room that’s a little isolated from the rest of the restaurant. This is a six-year old party so there are kids everywhere. Every. Where. I am kindly sat at a table where the volunteers who joined me for this event all sat. We were distributed party hats. (That clearly makes it a birthday party.)

Krizia, the birthday celebrant was dressed up in a very elegant hot pink princess gown. The host of the party then insisted on the celebrant coming and sitting in a chair in the front of the party. I know Krizia and this is not her idea of fun. So then the host has someone say a prayer, someone wish Krizia some birthday wishes, and then begins party games.. Woo!!! So now we get lots of kids playing relay style party games and games that require parents to search for items like a scavenger hunt, ‘Find a dollar bill’- all the kids scramble towards their parents looking for said options. (And yeah- when the host said ‘Find a dollar bill’ everyone looked at our table... Umm no. We do not have dollars. But you know what, some people did.)
So then we get food. And they kept the food coming. First we got spaghetti. Yum, Filipino spaghetti... I can’t wait to make this delicacy for you when I get back home. Then we got fried chicken, rice, and some gravy to dip our chicken in. Then we got a coke float with chocolate syrup in it. Then they handed out optional burgers. Then finally they offered us rocky road ice cream Sundays. (best part.)

Lastly, there is a type of piñata style thing that they hold up and let kids grab snacks and toys and stuff off. When I say kids I mean vicious moms trying to grab stuff for their “children”.

Oh, that was not last. Last was the arrival of Jollibee himself. And he was something. He strutted himself in, dancing to pop music**, and jumped onto two tiny chairs and scooted around on them. It was slightly amazing to see this costume bee throw himself onto two tiny chairs and not bust his ass. So then you get to take pictures with the Jollibee. So actually, that’s when we decided we had been there long enough. I wonder if there was more to the party. I’m almost positive that it was ending.

** There is no volume control in the Philippines. Pop music was blaring pretty much through the entire party- enough so that you shout to the person sitting next to you. The host uses a microphone and is also really loud. My eardrums will be ruined by time I go home.

2 Honorable Mentions.

1. There was this one rambunctious little boy who seemed very curious about our table. So Mark stuck out his hand to give this boy a high five. The boy literally jumps in the air and high fives him with the entire weight of his body. It was very cute... the first four times. After that I wanted him to learn a new trick like go sit down and be quiet.

2. The second was actually really sweet. So Krizia’s mom lives in LA lS ike I mentioned earlier. They had her there at the party on Skype. Super sweet. I want to have my family come to my birthday party in the Philippines on Skype! And, I didn’t even know Jollibee had wifi!

So that’s a Jollibee party! Until we meet again...