An American in the Philippines

The Return of Halloween!!!

2010-10-14T12:04:00.005+08:00

Halloween is back this year! We received notice that trick-or-treating was planned again this year which was great for us as we love Halloween. Last year the trick-or-treating was canceled due to the typhoon so we just had a party at home. What I failed to mention was during the party, which was held in our garage, there was a small group of maybe 10 kids who were peaking over the wall which were from outside the village (and hence had no idea that the holiday was canceled). We felt bad because what sucks worse than being a kid and having to watch a party from the outside. Plus they had made an effort and had their faces painted a bit! Since the party was in the garage anyways, we had them come in and join the games. They did and fun was had by all. Until we realized the little boogers had taken a bunch of our Halloween decorations (these little rubber characters that hang from a string). Actually, fun was had by all still. I guess those kids just got extra party favors. So, we had to go and buy a bunch of decorations.

Halloween is gaining popularity here and so decorations are becoming easier to find with the major department stores and toy stores stocking many items. We have been going to UNTC every year because we love the selection of items they have. They have a REALLY good selection of Halloween items. If you go there, the building looks just like a house or factory--there is no signage. I remember the first time we went, we were unsure if we were even at the right place. They also have a slew of Christmas items but we just hit Divisoria for that. The head above we got a couple of years ago at SM and is hung above a body we make.

This is what we bought there for about $40. Worth noting that despite the fact that they are a "wholesaler" some of the prices compared to Toys r Us are the same or higher. Some were definitely way cheaper--you just have to know your prices. Also we are able to find weird items there like the skull in the first picture. The little pile of dolls in the top right of this picture is what we are replacing from last year that were liberated by the outside kids.

We will start decorating our house this week!!

Online Shopping

2010-09-24T12:42:00.004+08:00

Back when I lived in San Francisco I was a big fan of online shopping. I was working a billion hours and often did not have the time to go. Plus it seemed so easy--just go to amazon.com and I could find just about anything I needed. Same with the stores where I already knew my size. Add sephora and zappos and I was pretty much set. Oh, and ebay. I was a big fan of Pottery Barn crap from ebay.

Since moving here, I do very little online shopping namely because the shipping/customs costs are insanely high. For example Banana Republic (gap, et al) partnered up with a shipping service that offered international delivery with customs fees included. For those who do not know, customs fees can be HUGE here. We once had a glass sculpture from Italy sent here, and despite the amount of the item already being lowered on the customs form from the company, customs here still wanted Php50,000+++ which is over $1000. It ended as life usually does with a few hundred being slipped into a pocket and our item being released. But anyways, back to the Banana Republic shipper. I placed items in my online cart amounting to about $150. Fees for shipping and customs via their partner was $120. Way too rich for my blood. At those prices I am better off waiting until I am home or shipping them to my sister and having her forward them. (It is worth noting that there is a Banana Republic locally which makes this a somewhat random example, but such is life).

I still buy most of my clothes in the US for one simple reason, I am too big for Philippines sizing. I am over 5'8". This means that even when a size goes up, it does not necessarily get longer, just wider. According to the Inquirer (one of the dailies here), the average height of a Filipino woman is 4'11" (although this does seem suspiciously petite) which is a lot smaller than me. Wearing a size 10 in the US equals size like 3XL here. And your bellybutton will still be showing. There are larger sizes here of course in the imported clothing and the inseams will be longer, but at that point, I would rather just buy from SF because the cost markup is high. And finally, it is worth noting that my wardrobe consists namely of jeans and cheap tops from H&M, so I am definitely not high fashion.

The moral of this drawn out, convoluted post is I fell in love with a company that allows me to do all my online shopping: Johnny Air. I order from whatever random online retailer I want, email Johnny Air with the shipping info, and they forward it here. Earlier this month I ordered from Sephora.com. It arrived from Sephora to their US office in two days, and SIX days after that, I received a txt telling me my package was here!!!! The prices are preset based on weight or size (size is something is big I guess) and includes everything. Total cost for shipping: P1,750 for about 3 lbs. So, this is my new happiness. Their website is: http://johnnyairretail.blogspot.com/ and they have a facebook page as well.

Other fantastic delivery services that I have used recently include Fully Booked which was FAST. I ordered on a Monday and the books were here Wednesday. Not the cheapest shipping, but the convenience was fantastic.

Although everyone knows that all fast food (i.e., McDo) can be delivered, more and more restaurant delivery services are popping up. Main ones are: http://www.quickdelivery.ph/ and http://www.citydelivery.ph/. I have used them both...quick delivery multiple times and city delivery just once. Both are awesome and perfect for rainy season when I do not really what to go out, yet do not feel compelled to cook. Plus there are no Indian Restaurants near me, so this satisfies that craving.

I guess I never need to leave the house again........

Updates

2010-09-13T12:32:00.002+08:00

Well, a lot has happened and at the same time nothing has happened. But here goes:

1. We ended up not buying a dryer. We wanted to buy one for the rainy season but I only wanted LPG due to the extremely high cost of electricity here. The only model I could find was a Whirpool which ran on a 110V ignition. This means that I would still have to buy a large transformer for the dryer. Cost (not including transformer) was ~Php34,000 (about $755). Instead we decided to send our laundry out to a nearby laundry chain, Metropole. Cost Php30 (Wednesday promo) per kilo which means that we can was over 1000 kilos of laundry for the cost of the dryer. No washing, ironing, electricity costs and the laundry is done within 24 hours. Best move we could have made.

2. Have you ever wondered where items returned to stores in the US or damaged items end up? Well, we learned they end up at surplus stores here! I already knew that we were somewhat of a dumping ground for unwanted products (suspected when I saw cheddar (!!) triscuits at S&R and was further confirmed when a bevy of sheets with linens and things tags showed up there shorty after the US stores all closed) but yesterday we found a slew. We went to HMR which is this insane mix off overstocks, returned, and damaged goods. Appeared (from the labels) that most items came from Australia or the US. We were looking for one of those plastic box/shed things for outside that are made of plastic. Kinda a weird hyper specific item. While they did have them, the price for a fairly damaged item (missing handles, shelves, and off balance) was odd. Actually all the pricing was odd. As well as the items, including a newborn incubator for Php110,000 (I fear the medical clinic that buys secondhand incubators from a non medical supply store), smashed cans of green beans, and maybe 15 bottles of kirkland brand water.

3. Found Mexican heaven. Hermanos Taco Shop on Granada in QC. Sooooo good. My new happiness. Still not La Cumbre on Valencia in SF but at least enough to get me through.

4. Watched the Simpsons. Realized that when mean jokes are made about the Philippines on the Simpsons, they are bleeped out. And when I say mean, I mean funny and satirical. Satire is NOT understood here.

5. Went to IKEA in Singapore. I hope they open up here soon....where else can I find 1000 different ways to store junk and cheap tea lights? Manila needs an IKEA.

6. Finally, on same trip to Singapore, I realized just how high we price imported items here. General rule for shopping in Singapore, if it is imported, the price is cheaper in SG than here. This went for fruits, cheeses, makeup, kitchenware--actually pretty much everything. We brought back over 10 kilos of cherries and gave them to people as souvenirs. While cherries from Canada may seem to be a weird thing to bring people from SG, everybody loved them. Including me!!!!

S&R sale starts Sept 15! Woo Hoo! The sale is awesome and is (for me) always one of those sales where I come home with a bunch of items I do not need.

Teeth

2010-06-14T20:15:00.006+08:00

The other day at a party I was playing with one of the kids and noticed that his teeth had large black marks in between each tooth (not the picture above). I asked my brother-in-law about it and he told me the kid was, "Just at that age". So, we all know, there is no age where kids teeth should be rotting. It shouldn't happen at all. While it is true baby teeth will fall out, you have the same gums your whole life. Letting teeth rot on the assumption that they will fall out anyways can still affect your gums.

I see kids with dental neglect more frequently here then I did back home. This is not to say all kids have dental problems--it definitely runs along economic lines. I was talking to a 17year-old that had a full set of dentures. Her dental problems were so extreme that the dentist felt the only feasible (read remotely affordable) option was to take all the teeth out and put dentures in.

I have been hardcore with the kids in our extended family about dental care. How to brush one's teeth, how often, how many minutes one should brush, and how to floss.

Every Christmas is our annual toothbrush/toothpaste giveaway. I think we are up to 400-500 a year now. We give them to all the kids in the neighborhood as well as the street kids we see around Christmas. Randomly the other night we were driving down Roxas and I had a small bag of girls clothing to give away. We found a girl selling flowers that was the right size so we called her over. She got to our car and said, "Hey, you are the one's who give out the toothbrushes!". Bwah ha-ha. See! Six months later and she remembers! We are slowing giving the kids the tools they need to have good teeth always.

Aclimation Failure

2010-06-08T20:54:00.002+08:00

I went into SM Appliance today to inquire about a clothes dryer since rainy season is starting and last year the clothes would sometimes get a funky odor to them. I asked the salesman if they had any "drying machines" which is how I have heard a bunch of people refer to them. I was trying to be cool and fit in. The salesman gave me a pitying smile and gave me a look like I was was an idiot, and politely asked, "M'am, do you mean a dryer". Blech! Massive failure on my part.

Too Funny

2010-05-25T12:19:00.002+08:00

Did I Mention it is Hot???

2010-05-19T20:41:00.003+08:00

It is summer. Morning to night, it is hot. Constant sweating. Two showers a day is no longer enough. I cannot wait for rainy season. We had fiesta last weekend in my in-laws neighborhood. Just remember when looking at the pictures that it is a million degrees.

There are always random fire dancers every fiesta.

The kids had a dance contest. This was the winning team.

This chicken just amused me because the head was held up with a mini flag.

Back from San Francisco

2010-05-17T06:21:00.003+08:00

Every year we take a trip to San Francisco in April/May. The trip has three purposes: 1) file US taxes & check on properties, 2) my grandma's birthday, and 3) GET OUT OF THE HEAT OF MANILA. April and May are the hottest months here and although we just got back a few days ago, I am already dying. It is a hot summer. Right now at 6:30 am, I can already feel a little trickle of sweat behind my knees.

San Francisco is always fantastic for me. I love, love, love seeing my family and friends yet somehow we always fall way short of doing even half of what we want to. We also spend two weeks in a tiny Texas town where Ado impulse bought a property about five years ago. I realized on this trip there, I have more culture shock in small town Texas then I did when moving to Manila. Despite Manila being in a foreign country, it is way more similar to SF than small town Texas. I guess I will always feel more comfortable in a major metropolitan than I will in a country town.

My best friend from college who is in SF has still not been out here to see me yet. I finally pinned him down and determined that his coworkers have told him such horrific stories about the Philippines that he is hesitant to come. Although I have heard the theory that people do not come to the Philippines because of the news stories (it is true, most of the news that makes it worldwide makes it sound like one will get killed walking out of their home), I think it could have more to do with Pinoys in the US that left here 20+ years ago. Even some of my dad's neighbors who left the Philippines a billion years ago were questioning me about my safety here. Was the Philippines a really scary place 20 years ago? I doubt that it is random luck that after close to four years here, I have yet to be robbed, kidnapped, murdered, burglarized, or involved in a jeepney holdup.

Visitors

2010-03-17T20:21:00.005+08:00

We drag a lot of family and friends out here to visit us. When people come from abroad, there are always a few places we are sure to visit.

The first, and most obvious, is Intramuros. We almost always go there with visitors. It is gorgeous and there is a lot of history there. The most recent time we (for the first time) took a calesa which was fun. Horse's name was Rambo which was awesome, especially for a kinda scrawny looking horse. We also went to Casa Manila which we had not done before and is now my favorite place there. It was a house set up to look like a 19th century home and was just awesome. The guides they had inside were able to answer all of our weird questions.

Second place we always stop by is Tondo. This is where we have family, so it is the neighborhood we go to for a more "authentic" Manila feel. Visitors have commented that inside our village, you could almost be anywhere in the world. There is nothing about it that screams Manila (well except for the occasional taho seller). We always spend an afternoon there, eating lunch and then walking around a bit.Our old neighborhood store in Tondo. Little stores like this do not really exist in the states, so it is always a cool thing to see. When I first moved here, I was impressed that is most neighborhoods, one only needs to walk 30 seconds to find some sort of store.

We always make sure to stop at least one Palengke. This is one of my mother's favorite things to do here. All of our visitors get a kick out of it. When we go to Tagaytay, the market there is a favorite. If we don't make it to Tagaytay, Suki Market is our go to market in the metro. The above picture was actually taken at the market in Tondo.

We always feed our visitors some of the local specialties. Bibingka was a big hit. My sister wanted to bring one back to France with her. One this she pointed out was that she never really saw lumpia many places here which is the opposite of San Francisco. When you go to a party there, lumpia is served at every Filipino party you go to. It is as ubiquitous as rice. It is not served nearly as much here. We finally fed her some from Aristocrat which was very blah.

Since summer has started, tons of halo-halo stands were set up. I am actually not sure if we have ever actually bought any to feed our visitors.

We always try to hit at least one beach destination. We have done Boracay, Bohol, and Subic. We have actually been to Boracay three times in the past six months so I don't think we will be there again anytime soon. Boracay is awesome though. Loved Puka Beach, loved sailing, loved lying around playing cards on the beach. We ate some good Mexican food there. Word to the wise--do not break anything. At lunch, I broke a glass and at the end was promptly presented with a receipt for P200 for one glass. Mind you, the glass broke by accident--we were not drinking alcohol or inebriated or anything. Took a bit of arguing and a call to the owner to get the cost of the class removed. Pretty annoying because this is the first time I have ever encountered this ANYWHERE, here or abroad. While I have not broken a lot of restaurant dishware in my life, I was still stunned that they wanted the glass paid for. Unfortunately to a certain extent, that is the cost of doing business. A good friend of mine owns a small restaurant in San Francisco and he built into his costs breakage, pilferage (people were constantly stealing the Peugeot pepper grinders which is psycho), returned food, etc. Alls well that ends well. The owner told us via the phone to get out of her restaurant and we complied. Still yummy food though.
Greenhills is always a stop for souvenirs and the like. It is nice because it is not as crazy as Divisoria and also it is really close to our house. Greenhills is nice because it does not look like a mall one is used to seeing overseas and it is a GREAT place to get items to bring back to people. With one group of friends visiting, we went five or six times during their three week visit.

We also tend to always hit a lot of the same restaurants with guests. Bacolod Chicken Parilla is one of our neighborhood places that we eat at all the time and also always bring visitor to at least once. Best chicken inasal in the metro by far. Love, love, love it. It is really good, and if you haven't been, you MUST GO NOW. I am getting hungry just thinking about how good it is. We also usually make sure to go to Legend for shabu-shabu, Aristocrat for chicken barbeque, and Circles at Sofitel.

It is only March and we have already had visitors for three weeks in January, all of February, and the first week of March. We are (hopefully) getting good at hosting people in the Philippines.

I Think I Finally Figured Out the Food

2010-03-13T17:14:00.003+08:00

One can generally categorize foreigners living here into three categories in regards to their food. Firstly the rarest are the people that eat only foods familiar to them from home. This is not limited to ingredients and recipes only but even brands. The second group are people who eat exclusively local. Never will they buy an imported item, eat at some place like McDo when there is Jollibee, and will be the first to give you a dirty look when buying a 60-pack of frozen jalapeno poppers (blech--never again--no one else likes them but me so it took me MONTHS to finish them all). The third and obviously more common group are the ones that eat from both. Appreciate the familiarity of some items from home, but buy local whenever it is better or less expensive.

I, like most, fall into the third, but probably even less than many. I do tend to lean towards imported when it comes to most dairy as well as snack food. Once I moved here, certain foods from home turned into major comfort foods. My mother's macaroni and cheese was a favorite when I first moved here although I realized quickly that the price of cheese made an inexpensive meal in San Francisco turn quite pricey here. And like many things, I was the only one who thought it was delicious.

My biggest food thing for me is still milk. I drink it. A lot. If I had it my way, I would drink it with almost every meal. While many claim the UHT milk tastes the same, as a beverage it does not. I have started to stockpile the California Sunshine milk from S&R. While it is still psycho pasteurized (I think the shelf life is something like two months) there is none of the funny aftertaste. Plus, it goes well with cereal. While cereal is not the most popular food here, I can eat it almost any time of the day. Also, randomly, Grape Nuts are sold here. Best cereal in the world and kinda random to be sold here. Corn Flakes and Cheerios, I understand. But who knew there was a market here for Grape Nuts? My sister & her husband visited a couple of weeks ago and they even brought a box back with them (they cannot buy Grape Nuts in France). Best cereal ever.

We do not ever buy meat in the supermarket. This is some weird issue of Ado's. She thinks the meat is not fresh in a grocery. Same for most produce. And on the subject of produce, it is almost avocado season!! Starting about May there will be tons! I can make guacamole! Burritos! Off season, one can find the occasional Haas, but if one avocado is the same price as a dinner out for two, I am not buying it. Same with off season strawberries. And cherries.

I can find bagels now. Either at the bakery inside Mickey's or French Bakery does a surprisingly good prepackaged bagel. Not gross mushy like most prepackaged but has a bit of a chewy crust. It is not the best bagel in the world but a really, really, really good substitute.

Blech. According to Meralco, we have rolling blackouts starting again this evening in our neighborhood for an hour. At least it will still be light out. Maybe a good time to go for a swim.

The Foreign has become Normal

2010-03-12T19:04:00.004+08:00

I rarely post anymore and it is namely because what used to be so different to me, now seems somewhat normal. The oddest thing that happened today is we saw a naked man walking down E. Rodriguez. I am not sure why he was naked, and while it is the first time I have seen this, it didn't seem to stand out as much as it might once have.

I noticed this more when I had family visiting here last month. We did Manila, Boracay, and then a few more days in Manila. They seemed to appreciate some things that I no longer notice. It is like when I lived in SF. Going over the Golden Gate Bridge, while beautiful, was not really appreciated, just a means to get to Marin. When I go back to visit, I notice the view there a lot more. I have gotten a little like that here.

There is still TONS here I do not know. I still cannot figure out how a FX (shared taxi) works, where 99.9% of jeepneys go, the names of many local vegetables, why U-turn slots were invented, what the platforms are of most of the presidential candidates, how to find out about summer courses for teens, why no one here seems to notice the lack of sour cream available, or where all the toilet seats in public restrooms went. But I think I am doing better.

I can still be surprised though. The picture above I took last week. It is a stuffed baboon wearing a Santa Cap and a life tied to a light post in some neighborhood in Makati . That I definitely took notice of.

Why yes, I am Martha Stewart

2009-11-18T20:02:00.005+08:00

I have noticed that since moving here, I tend to be more "crafty". This is not to say I have any skill at it, it just comes as a surprise since I really did not do ANYTHING craft related before moving out here. Here, life seems to be opposite of the states in some regards. I feel like in the states, I was of the mindset of why do something if I can pay for it to already be done. Why make coffee in the morning when I can just grab a cup on the way to work? Why iron when the dry cleaner will do it for me, better and faster? Here, there is the mindset of why pay to have it done, when I can do it myself. And this thinking led me to try and become Martha.

Despite what you may think, it is the Christmas season. The evening news has a countdown which is why I know there are 37 days left until Christmas. No Thanksgiving to break it up or get in the way (since I am going to SF this year for Christmas, I was overruled and Thanksgiving will not happen at my house this year). Thus, the start of the Christmas shopping. We have 18 village security guards, ~30 clients or professional associates, countless god-kids, and billions of people in my in-laws neighborhood. These are our somewhat obligatory gifts and do not count close friend or family. Our security guards get grocery baskets (rice, ham, sardines, tuna, cookies, tube of potato chip things that look like french fries), clients get wine (some get fruit as well), god-kids get age appropriate books or educational toys, and the billions in Tondo get toothbrushes (we gave out 500 last year). Needless to say, we start early.

Wine was selected at S&R and we went to Divisoria to buy the wrapping (as well as a fake Christmas tree). The pre-decorated bags were P25 each (~$.50) but we could buy plain craft paper bags for P13 (~$.25). Guess which way we went?

Started with a plain bag

Bought red and green ribbon for P17 (~$.35 per 50 yard roll), little holly leaves, and red berries ($.30 for 10 sticks with two pieces each), Christmas labels for P10 (100 labels ~$.20), and a glue gun for P60 (~$1.25).

While watching a downloaded episode of Top Chef, we made the above bag.

Election

2009-11-12T14:01:00.003+08:00

Next year will be the presidential elections. I am still (after over three years here) at times very confused by politics here and still have not fully grasped how everything works. I am ecstatic that GMA will be out of power (unless she pulls some last minute shenanigans). I also love the parody videos that tend to come out around this time as well. This is by far my favorite of the moment.

Halloween!!!!

2009-11-04T20:47:00.007+08:00

Our village is one of the villages in the Philippines that usually participates in Halloween. While it is not a country-wide holiday (like All Saints Day the following day), some areas do have events. This year, Halloween was canceled in our village due to Ondoy. Besides the fact that many houses in the village sustained damage, a squatter area right outside the walls was almost completely decimated. Thus, it was decided that the money usually spent on the Halloween should be spent (and rightly so) on grocery donations for the people who lost their homes.

The kids (who live in Tondo which is one of the areas that does not have Halloween celebrations) had been asking about Halloween for the past few months (since perhaps July) since they had been here last year for the village party and trick-or-treating. There was no way we could just tell them Halloween had been canceled so we instead decided to throw a Halloween party at home.

We did everything fairly traditional with the exception of costumes because we knew the kids would want to swim and it seemed like a waste to have everyone all dressed up just to jump in the pool 20 minutes later. We had swimming, spaghetti for lunch, and a bunch of games. A slew of the kids slept over and they stayed up late into the night watching horror movies. It was a very successful holiday all around and everyone woke up early enough to go to the cemetery for All Saints Day the following day.

Bobbing for apples....

Doughnut on a string game

Our Halloween giveaways were little paper mache pumpkins (which look like eggs due to the fact that I used water balloons instead of normal balloons). We filled them with candy.

Adobo Aso

2009-11-03T18:19:00.004+08:00

Eating dogs was a post I avoided writing about because it is such a cliche. The whole Filipinos eats dogs is as tired to me as a travel show coming here and focusing on none of the cuisine besides balut. So what changed my mind? Well, it had a lot to do with the dog I saw being slaughtered this morning.

While statistically, that majority of people who live here do not eat dog meat, to say that this is an extinct practice or one that only takes place in the north or in remote provinces is way off. It definitely happens and to accidentally witness the slaughter, makes me want to vomit. I do not fall into the camp that believes that because I live in another country I have to either love or respect all aspects of the culture and to do otherwise is either some form of neocolonialism or sneaky manifest destiny. I think that the home slaughter of dogs is disgusting. It is worth noting that both the dogs I have come across being killed were in Manila.

I grew up in a major city. I have never lived on a farm. I eat meat. If I saw the cow alive before I ate it, I would likely not be able to eat the steak. I am one of those who likes to pretend my meat was born already chopped up at the butcher. However, I think even people who are used to the animal as food equation would have issues with a dog being repeatedly bashed with a 2 x 4. This is the second dog I have come across being killed in the three years I have lived here. I have not gotten desensitized to it and likely never will.

Floods

2009-09-28T08:25:00.006+08:00

The flooding on Saturday was horrible--and we were some of the lucky ones. Although we had heard there was a tropical storm coming, we honestly did not pay much attention to it as there are a slew of tropical storms and typhoons each year. We did not think this would be any different and in fact were already dressed to go out when the rain started falling harder.

By early afternoon the water was coming into the house. All in all we got about three feet of water on the first floor. Our fridge floated (it never really occurred to me that a fridge would float). We were able to move a lot of items upstairs and really the only damage we had was loss of everything in our fridge (flood water got inside) and a lot of our cabinet doors no longer open or in some cases no longer shut. A woman a block away from us drowned and a young man on that same street was bitten by a snake. We really were okay. Once we moved everything upstairs, we hunkered down for the evening. We never lost electricity (actually people told me later that it is best to turn off the electricity in a flood--we had no idea).

As you can see, in the beginning we were really optimistic. We stacked items up higher until it became apparent we were going to get some serious water in the house. That is when we switched to bringing everything upstairs.

This is about the highest point of the water in our front yard. It got to about above the waist. Outside in front of our garage, the water on the street was already above the head, while outside of our gate, it was about neck high.

Our friend's daughter could not get back into her dorm (streets were flooded) so she came here. Since our street was already flooded at that point, she went through the neighbors house, climbed a ladder over the fence and scaled a small roof to get on to our balcony. Our house was the last house on the street to get flooded (we live on a slight hill).

Neighbors just four houses down from us and water reached their second level. Some neighbors a block away who were trying to locate to owners of a dog that ended up at their house during the flood ended up with water on their second floor. We were really, really lucky.

The Start....

The Flood....

The Aftermath.....

Television

2009-07-24T19:21:00.002+08:00

There are a few cable companies here but in Manila, the main players are Destiny & Sky Cable. Once we moved to our current home, I signed up for Sky Cable. What appealed to me was the digital cable with box which meant that instead of having to channel surf or watch a VERY slow TV guide channel, at the bottom of the screen, each show would say the title. In addition, I could scroll through all the channels and see what was on all day (somewhat similar to what I used to have in SF).

When we first moved I signed up for every channel they had (with the exception of some foreign language packages) which included three HBO channels. Basic cable here has a single HBO channel but it was always edited (namely for sex) which I had assumed was because it was part of basic cable and not a premium channel. I was wrong. When I signed up for the additional three channels of HBO, I realized they were ALL edited. I can only assume that we get one generic Asia feed which likely includes countries with censorship (i.e., Singapore) but I am not sure. I was watching the movie Traffic once on local network TV here and when a gun was held to Michael Douglas, the gun was blurred out, so who knows. I ended up canceling the HBO package and if there is a movie or HBO series I want to see, I just download it or buy the DVD. I could not take the huge chunks of movies being edited. In addition, most of the movies they showed were repeated a thousand times in the course of a month and were mostly movies I had no interest in seeing (movies along the lines of Problem Child 2, Look Who's Talking 2).

There are some fantastic channels here, namely National Geographic Adventure which is in addition to the regular National Geographic. If I could only watch one channel, this would likely be it. I am in love with "Don't Tell My Mother" (random French guy who visits random countries, i.e., North Korea), "Bondi Rescue" (follows lifeguards on Bondi Beach--way more interesting than it sounds), and "Banged Up Abroad" (a series all about people who were locked up abroad--namely for drug smuggling although some have been people who were kidnapped by extremist groups). I have no idea if these shows are available in the US but I am loving them.

Since my Tagalog still sucks, I do not watch a lot of local television. Once I get more fluent, I want to be able to watch (and understand) Imbestigador and XXX which are both expose shows (similar I guess to 20/20 or Dateline). I never understand what is going on so I am left staring at the TV wondering what is going on. Same with TV Patrol which is an evening news show. There is a local news channel in English, ANC but it never seems as interesting as TV Patrol. There is a local version of Project Runway which I got a kick out of last year and plan to watch the second season once it starts.

I still wish there was a system here that had Television on Demand like I had in SF. Since I usually watch television before going to bed, I usually am watching really weird shows at midnight. I loved being able to watch primetime shows in the middle of the night. A friend of mine in the US recommended getting a DVR but honestly I am not sure if there are enough shows I like to necessitate that. I guess a lot of television here for me consists of shows that are interesting enough but I would likely watch something given the oppourtunity.

Most recently our cable company started offering a "select" service which means that once you book a basic package, you can add on the additional channels you want which is what we did. Most of the channels were P20 a month (~$.50) although even at that price, I am not sure about Fox News. There is Int'l CNN, Int'l BBC, ANC, GMA (local), CNN Headline, and ANC plays Al Jazeera in the afternoon for an hour. I kept Fox News because it is mostly US domestic news, but it is way too slanted (in the wrong direction) for me. What I wouldn't give for some MSNBC.

I shouldn't be so hard on the HBO--in hindsight I did watch War Games which I love, never would have thought to watch again, so I guess it did have some purpose.

Burritos in the Philippines

2009-06-09T14:08:00.002+08:00

I am from San Francisco where I can safely state that EVERYONE eats burritos. Burritos are the food to eat when stepping out of the office for lunch, a dinner, or a snack after a long night of drinking. You start eating them as a kid and never stop. When I was last in San Francisco, I probably ate about 10 burritos during my month long stay.

For some reason, burritos are not very popular here so whenever I see them anywhere, I always try them. Actually I should not say they are not popular because everyone I talk to really likes mexican food, but rather it is really hard to find a decent mexican restaurant and even harder to find a buritto. Chili's and Taco Bell are about as Mexican as it gets (possibly the most blasphemous statement I have ever made). First stop was Salcedo market which had a little burrito booth set up. For P179 ( ~$3.75) I bought a burrito with pork, rice, sour cream...and that's about it. Honsetly there may have been other items in it...but nothing that added any flavor. While it was small, the biggest problem was it was flavorless. Literally tasted like unseasoned meat and rice. Not what I was looking for.

Luckily we came across Ristras in San Juan. Fricking awesome!! Again I had a pork burrito and it was just what I wanted. The manager was there to walk people through the ordering process and answer any questions about toppings. While not as good as a San Francisco burrito (nothing can match a deluxe steak from La Cumbre) it was really, really, really good. Cost was P290 (a little over $6.00) and was packed with stuff!! The flavors were there and it was big--too big for me to finish on my own. So now I am estatic that I can get a fantastic burrito here. It also makes me really happy that the restaurant is located in San Juan and not in a mall. I feel like tons of the places I love are in Makati where I never really go, or inside a mall which makes me heistant to go. Honestly, I would never park and walk through a mall to get a burrito. Here, I can just pull up, get my take out, and leave. I think it may be safe to say that Ristras may become my new favorite place to be.

Six Months Later.....

2009-06-02T18:18:00.004+08:00

Well, the Christmas tree did not work out. It turned brown way before the 25th and by the time New Year's came, it was probably a fire hazard. I am going to have to bite the bullet next year and buy a plastic one or buy some weird bush from a plant store and decorate it.

In the past six months, we made two trips to the States: Hawaii and San Francisco. I realize when I go back, I really do miss San Francisco. I love it there. Where else in the course of an evening can I have fondue for dinner, eat Gingerbread-Guinness ice cream, have drinks at a crusty dive in West Portal, and end up in the Castro at a drag show? I miss it a lot. Nowhere else am I able to buy items like biodegradable plastic bags made specifically for picking up after my dog on a walk. Besides my family and friends, the city is just awesome. Home is always home to a certain extent and I will always, always love San Francisco.

I realized that I am coming up on three years now living in the Philippines. People no longer think my pidgin tagalog is cute and are starting to wonder why I do not have a better grasp on the language now. What can I say, I suck at languages. I have gotten much better at understanding the language, it is just my speaking that sounds like a drunken five year old.

We have been in our new home for a year now. We are settling in to the neighborhood well. I have found a fantastic neighborhood vet for my dogs at Animal House, found a fantastic source for eggs from one of the houses in our village (eggs here tend to run small and this place has larger ones), Ado found a nearby gym for her workouts, and we have only had three brownouts in a year. Life is good here.

We had a lot of visitors from overseas this past year, and I have found that they tend to see things that I overlook now or take for granted. Below are some random images (mostly taken by said guests).

The girls are wearing uniforms that are typical of a high school here (although I am thinking this picture was taken in the province). The skirts are always much longer than you would see in the US and the shoe is always the Mary Jane style. Although I would have hated to wear a uniform in high school (nine years of elementary was enough), I can't get enough of the students in uniform here. I think they are so fricking cute.

This was the store in our previous neighborhood. One stop shopping for the basics.

I absolutely love this picture which a friend of mine captured while we were in traffic. What can I say? This sums up the Philippines for me in so many ways.

Ah, while most of the food here is great, there are certain culinary delights I cannot wrap my head around. Hot dogs and marshmallows are one of them. This is really common at kids parties and I cannot figure what twisted fucking mind came up with it. It's a hot dog! With marshmallows!!
Finally, a picture at the market in Tagaytay. Leave my mother alone in a wet market with a camera and this is what you get. I have no idea how she got the guy to pose with some pig legs but I love it!!!!

Christmas Tree!!!

2008-12-04T21:18:00.006+08:00

The Philippines has the longest Christmas season of anywhere in the world. One can start to see decorations and hear the music as early as August although the official kickoff is the "ber" months (i.e., SeptemBER). This year it started later or I am just getting better about ADDing it.

We started decorating for Christmas late (again, relative to where we live). Perfect example: when we were hanging spiderwebs and positioning a headless man in our window for Halloween (our village participates in Trick or Treating woo hoo!!), our neighbor up the street was hanging up his Christmas lights. We started our decorating the day after Thanksgiving because that was the day we picked up our tree from S&R.

S&R ships in Douglas firs from Oregon for the Christmas season which rocks my world because I hate plastic trees. They are just not my thing. I have to have the nice pine smell for Christmas. For P3799 (about $75) I bought a real tree. It smells fantastic!! Admittedly, I am not 100% positive it will stay green until new years but I am optimistic. I went with a friend of mine and we picked out the best tree (read greenest) we could find and I think it looks great. Please note I am not one of those people that decorates trees beautifully. In fact, I have a friend coming over this week to redo the tree because she says it looks cruddy with my hastily bought decorations. In my defense, I impulse bought sale balls, random candy canes, and was assisted in my decorating by my creative team (a 5-year-old and a 4-year-old).

We bought a plain wreath and had a niece decorate it with berries and pine cones for the front door.

The staircase garland looks way cooler in real life because the little presents are lights that light up. Each 9' garland costs P150 (about $3) so life is good there!

Ah, this is my Santa Claus that we have dangling from the lights. It is paper-mache and we got him for the bargain price of P200 (about $4) in Paete, Laguna.

For some reason, people kept warning me against putting lights on my tree. I am not sure why. I am feeding it lots of sugar water and bought the overpriced lights that do not heat up too much. Although everyone told me that if I do not put lights on it, the tree will last longer, I find that akin to the people who put plastic on their couches. Sure, your couch will last forever, but who the fuck wants to sit on it????

**Side note--Mike at S&R Congressional is the coolest guy ever!! Not only did he not let us steal a tree that someone had reserved, he tolerated us picking a tree all the way in the back. Best employee ever!!!**

Coolest Bathrooms in the Philippines

2008-11-22T22:34:00.000+08:00

After talking so badly about the bathrooms in the Philippines, I thought it only right that I give some notice to the cool bathrooms in the Philippines.

First we have a wood themed bathroom. This is at a restaurant in Laguna whose name escapes me....

Anyone that can turn ugly stalls into something cool is awesome!

Altered toilet...

This was the shower at one of the bathrooms in the B&B at Sonia's Garden (in Tagaytay). I loved the full window next to the shower.

Quite possibly the coolest bathroom I have seen. Lest you think that is just a fountain, it is actually a jacuzzi tub (private residence).

Thanksgiving in the Philippines

2008-11-22T21:18:00.003+08:00

This year I will be attempting the prepare a Thanksgiving dinner here. This will be the first time that I have done this by myself (usually I get to play second fiddle to my mother with my father stepping in to carve and my grandmother making the gravy). I am sticking to very traditional with a few exceptions:

1. I am not making cranberry sauce. I don't eat it, most invited to my dinner do not eat it (I will be the only American--the rest are Filipino with a few that have lived in the states). Also I am not sure how easy it would be to even find cranberries here.

2. I am not making sweet potatoes. I don't eat them. Therefore, everyone must suffer.

3. Instead of spinach or green beans, I may do corn. People here like corn.

I am a little worried about the pumpkin pie. I was easily able to find canned pumpkin here (woo hoo!) but I think that pumpkin pie might be something one has to grow up eating. If I had never eaten it and someone presented me with an orange pie and told me, "it's a pie made of squash and it is really yummy", I would not want it. So we'll see how many takers there are. I am also thinking about buying canned whipped cream (the shame!!) only because with the humidity here I have found that when I make it fresh it falls quickly. Never mind. I cannot bring myself to buy canned whipped cream.

I also am using a simpler version of the stuffing with pretty much just sausage, bread cubes, onions, and celery all seasoned. I got the recipe from a friend's mom. There is no sage or the like so I am hoping it will appeal to a wider palate.

On a random note, turkey is REALLY easy to find here. Just about every grocery has frozen turkeys. Although I know there are fresh in some places, I want a few things to be simple. That and my oven is kinda small.

Househelp

2008-08-15T10:43:00.004+08:00

So everybody told me that hiring house help here would be a little bit of a pain. At first I resisted the idea of even hiring help because it seems so unnecessary for me. I do not have a job that takes me out of the house, I do not have kids, why would I be unable to care for my house when I used to do it in the states in addition to working psycho 14 hour days? Well, I found it is necessary to hire household helpers for a couple of reasons. First of all, the house gets really dusty really quickly!! Some of it is like due to the construction taking place at my neighbor's house next to us, but in general, daily dusting is needed all the time. I never thought dust could collect quicker than San Francisco (Edwardians, although really cute in style, are evil for collecting dust) but it does! Everyday the furniture has to be dusted and the floors swept and mopped. Second reason is I guess burglary can be a concern here so it is always suggested that there is someone home at all times.

So we went ahead and hired a houseboy. His job is to feed the dogs, water the garden, use the vacuum thing in the pool, and wash all the windows. We hired a boy from a province about 10 hours (by bus) from here and he sucked. He was 16, and there are two types of 16 year olds--ones who want to work and ones that act like petulant teenagers. We had the latter. He was a frickin pain. He was lazy. He also had a seemingly huge adversity to wearing a shirt. Everyday we would have to tell him to put on a shirt. He made it with us 5 weeks. We sent him back to the province.

We also hired a maid. She is a godsend. She is actually the sister of my mother-in-laws houseboy and she is everything the evil teenager is not. She is efficient, does a perfect job, and is the sweetest person. I am hoping she works out and stays for the long haul. I also like that she is not scared of the rott and feeds him and can walk him with no problem (he probably weighs about as much as her). Although she is also from Bicol (a province surrounded by water), she cannot swim so I tried to teach her the other day. I am a bad swim instructor. I will have Ado do it. Since we have a pool here that is 7' deep in the far end, I will feel a lot better if she can swim. She came here because after working for four years for a family in Bicol, she was still only making P1,500 a month (about $35). That is lower than ANYONE in Manila pays. You would not even start someone out that low. It is REALLY, REALLY low.

It was weird. When hiring help, everyone had these weird opinions about which province was best to hire from and whether agencies had the best workers or if the workers from the agencies knew too many "tricks". I even listened to a conversation about a province to avoid because if they get mad, they will kill you. This was an actual conversation! The weirdest part of it, was when my friend brought up the province having angry people, my other friend agreed immediately! What a weird conception to have. There were also theories I heard about if someone should be from a nearby province or far, how old was best, if they had kids, etc. I guess in the end none of it mattered because we hired from the same province that everyone in Ado's family hires from.

So now we have to hire one more person. I am keen on someone who can drive because right now we have no driver and I only drive if I am with someone who can translate for me in the case of an accident. I never drive by myself. This means that Ado always has to come with me or I have to drag someone with me. Life would be a lot easier for me with a driver.....

Songs that are so familiar....yet so strange....

2008-07-31T22:33:00.006+08:00

Random Thoughts

2008-07-27T09:54:00.005+08:00

A few weeks ago we went to a championship basketball game. All is normal, but the guys play on a half-court instead of a full. Our team won. Woo-hoo!

We finally set up our grill. We shipped it here from the states when we first moved. One thing we did not consider was the size of the LPG tank. On the right side of the grill, there is a cabinet that the tank should fit into. The sizes here are different from the states, and therefore we have to have our tank outside. All of the ones here are too tall to fit!

We threw our first party here. Great thing about having a covered lanai is we have lots of places for the caterers to put tables. Everybody told me to lock up my good knives because the caterers would steal them, so I did. I still have all my knives.

We finally set up the furniture in our cabana......

...which turned into a nice drinking spot for my father-in-law and his friends. (Note, although I brought out wine glasses, they are drinking wine out of shot glasses.)

No party is complete without an uncle chopping the lechon.

Or a picture of the pig head (I have no idea who stuck the fruit there or why).

On other random notes:

-S&R now sells tampons!!!!!!!!!! This is the best news. I was so excited when I saw the boxes on the shelf. Tampons are impossible to find here. Seriously.

-We got a trainer for our Rott. This guy is the Caesar Milan of the Philippines. He makes my dog behave like never before.

-Our other dog (actually of mother-in-laws) is in heat and has her stupid period. Gross. I have to make sure there is always her blanket under her. People! FIX YOUR PETS. My mother-in-law refuses to get this dog fixed so until it ends, I am on blanket patrol.

-I am addicted to Five Cows (an ice cream place here) ice cream cake that is blueberry cheesecake. The blueberries are a little sour which balances out the sweetness of the cheesecake ice cream perfectly.

-Our new next door neighbor is a psychiatrist. I asked, and he told me there are approximately 500 psychiatrists in the entire Philippines. 80,000,000+ people and 500 psychiatrists does not sound sufficient.... I actually read on a message board for expats that the reason there is so little focus on mental health is because Filipinos do not get depressed. Yeah. Right. It has nothing to do with the fact that if one is having trouble putting food on the table or putting the kids in school, your depression or anything else is not likely to be a high priority.

-Hospitals here often have people selling cashews either inside the hall or outside. Best thing about going with my mother-in-law to the doctor is eating garlic cashews while waiting. My favorite seller is on the second floor or the Medical Arts building at Cardinal Santos.

-This is the coolest thing I have heard in a while (post dated July 27). As most of my family & friends know, the family planning situation here really upsets me.

-A few people here (many of them Fil-ams) when talking to me about the upcoming US elections, have asked me (when hearing I support Obama) if I am worried that when he is elected, "the blacks will take over." For real, what am I supposed to do with that statement?? There are so many bases to cover. I just don't know where to begin. Take over what? Who are these "blacks that might take over"? If there was more equality, wouldn't this be a good thing? If there were more people of color getting high government jobs, wouldn't this be a good thing? I just don't get it. And then there are the people (same people who pose the taking over query) that ask me if I am worried because he is a Muslim. 1) I really don't care the president's religion. I am still waiting for an agnostic president. 2) He is not Muslim. 3) If he was, who cares??? Final note on all this, as we can see by the current situation here is the Philippines (see above), a president does not necessarily support the groups they are a part of. If so, I do not think Arroyo would be figuratively fucking the women of her country.

Way Too Busy.....

2008-07-19T11:22:00.003+08:00

So, if blogging was a job, I would be fired. I suck. Life has been psychotically busy. We had three apartments in San Francisco coincidentally vacant at the same time. I posted one on Craiglist and received 379 emails from people interested. Not only did I have to respond to the emails but I was trying to do so in a way that they would not be receiving my response at 3am. Bonus was all three units are now rented with only one open house. Gotta love the tight rental market in SF.

We have done more shopping for the house. I am still getting used to where to shop as prices for the exact same item can vary HUGELY from store to store. Items here that are bizarrely expensive include sheets, ziplock bags, mop & glow, furniture polish, and Tupperware type containers. Items that are surprisingly inexpensive are tiki torches, native material place mats, dishes, baskets with lids, and glasses. We also bought a random serving platter for P150. It is branded the Cellar for Macy's. Gotta love the export overruns/rejects. We bought most of our dish items at a place next to Suki Market in QC (about 20 minutes from our house). I still wish there was a Target here so I could stock up on cleaning supplies and wall clocks.

I am closer to grocery stores that sell items I usually eat now. Bizarrely, I can no longer find refried beans at any of the stores (which used to be a fairly easy item to find) which bums me out. Mexican food is not popular here. Even the Taco Bell (the most McDonalized version of Mexican food in the world) near our house closed down after one year. I miss Mexican food (which is a staple in San Francisco). I made enchiladas a couple of weeks ago. Since I have not been able to find soft corn tortillas, I made them with flour tortillas (which are pretty easy to find here). Randomly, I can easily find Enchilada sauce at Unimart (grocery store here).

I made tacos the other night for some of the kids that were over at the house and it was cute how they had never eaten them before. The younger ones were not eating at first and it was because they were nervous about how to put them together. All loved the tacos though.

Random side note, I was slicing olives for a taco topping (I know, a little odd) and while I was slicing, I would occasionally eat an olive out of the can. The kids (ranging from elementary to college) were appalled. They had never seen black olives before. They were really grossed out. At that point, I realized had someone never eaten an olive before, it would look disgusting. It is a black slimy thing that comes in a can filled with briny water. I have been eating them since I was a little kid (we used to stick one on each finger and eat them off). More olives for me!

I still have no clue where my camera is. I also, disturbingly, lost my makeup bag. I do not want to buy makeup here (insanely expensive compared to US, even for cheap drugstore brand) and I do not relish having to buy it all in the states and shipping it here. I am hoping it will turn up.

Finally Moved

2008-07-02T20:07:00.005+08:00

So we finally have moved into our new home (hence the lack of new posts). It has been absolutely crazy--dealing with cable, phone, and internet installation (Bayantel, which is our DSL company, installed a party line which means every time my neighbor gets a call, the internet drops), appliance/furniture delivery, and training the house staff. Everything with the actual house, however, is awesome. I don't have any pictures because I am not sure where I stashed my camera.

There was a fatty typhoon that came through Manila a couple of weeks ago and our house was fine--no hidden leaks or anything so that was great! We lost our electricity for the day and although we did buy a generator, instead of turning it on we headed over to Tondo where they still had lights (but tons and tons of floods).

We went ahead and hired a boy for the house (in actuality, we received a call from my in-laws telling us they had brought a boy here from Bicol for us). Nice kid. Only speaks Bicol and a little Tagalog so he gives me a lot of odd looks when I talk to him. Training him is a pain in the ass and best left to Ado. I get the feeling he did not do a lot of housework/gardening back home. This is his first job and also his first time in Manila so everything is a learning experience for him. Ado keeps buying him underpants. I am not sure why. It sucks that a 16 year-old kid is here in a weird city with weird people (me and Ado) so he can send money to his family back home.

Life otherwise in Manila is the same. I went to Greenhills to do shopping and rented a wheelchair for my mother-in-law. When I returned it, the lady tried to charge me P500 for a two hour rental. I told her to give me a receipt then and the price changed to P100. Ugh. I hate having to constantly deal with things like this. Usually I notice because they get too greedy. Had she said P200, I would not have tripped, but P500 in crazy. For all I know, the real price is P20 an hour. Whatever. Such is life for a funky foreigner here.

We got a new puppy. Prior to going on our last trip to the states, a friend mentioned that her dog had just given birth and did we want a puppy. I told her, "yes" and then promptly forgot about it until we got back and she brought us an 8 week-old puppy. Dachshund. I named him Oscar (I know; not very original). He looks sweet (as seen above with the neighborhood manicurist) but he is the devil. He does not like ANY of the dog toys we bought and prefers to eat shoes, curtains, hanging clothes, etc. We have left him in Tondo for now until we are home more at the new house so we can watch him and discourage him from chewing up everything we just bought. Love, love, love the new puppy.

Appliance Shopping

2008-05-27T20:45:00.004+08:00

We finally bought one of the major appliances we need--a fridge (or as called here, a ref). It will not be delivered until this weekend but I am already loving it.

I never knew Sharp made fridges (I do not think they have a refrigerator line in the states) but I loved the idea of a freezer on the bottom combined with no center panel in the top. I also am loving the fact that the drawers for the freezer are plastic versus the wire baskets that are so common in the states.

We ended up buying our appliances at one store. Shopping for appliances is a process when it comes to pricing. There really is no last price--you can keep going. We got this fridge for P15,000 (about $350) below the marked price. The marked price is just the starting point. We also got a free blender and hairdryer as well. Catch? This is the cash price. We never carry lots of cash, so for us it meant a check which in the Philippines means three days clearing. No big deal for us.

Lest you think the fridge is too big, the tropical air kills food really quickly so items that are not normally refrigerated or frozen are here (i.e., bread, 72oz bags of chocolate chips from Costco).

(Sorry for the cruddy pic--I grabbed it from the Sharp website so the resolution is lacking)

House Update

2008-05-25T19:57:00.005+08:00

Every time I look back at a post talking about how close we are to moving in to our new home, I want to laugh. So now I will take the stance that it will NEVER be done, and maybe that will change my luck. We are (in theory) getting closer to moving. I am starting to write the number of the cable and internet companies down and we will buy our fridge this week. I have been sick for the past couple of days so I have not been to the house, but the rumor is the pool actually has water in it now (and not the sludge that has been living in it). The pool construction ended up being a clusterfuck and in fact our pool supply company told us later, had they known who we hired, they would have stopped us. Hopefully all the pipes/pump/filter were installed correctly. We will find out this week. Live and learn. Honestly, if this is the only problem we have, I can live with it. Moral of story=NEVER hire friends...ever. Everybody says it, but I guess I had to live through it to learn.

We installed an outdoor shower. When we spent time in Hawaii this past January, the house we rented had an outdoor shower and it was the best thing. I don't think I ever showered in the house...maybe once. After that, the sisters and I were always in that shower. In fact my sister Jonnifer didn't ever shower inside either. It was that good. Something about being in a shower outside is fantastic. I am planning on putting a teak panel in the bottom with some river stones underneath. Being naked outdoors is very cool. But not too cool, hence our bamboo privacy wall.

We tried to use a lot of color in the house which we both like (I think it is growing up in San Francisco and being surrounded by multicolored Victorian homes). Our foyer has a bright teal floor (and a bright red ceiling with woodwork over it).

The color is apparent in the kitchen also, not only the blue but the malaga tiles behind the stove. Also, please note we have no oven in our main kitchen. Very Pinoy (although we put one in the dirty kitchen).

Our landscaping has turned out awesome. I couldn't be happier with the work he did. The grass also filled in very well.

BEFORE:

AFTER:If I do not start weeding soon, it really will be a jungle. Gotta get on that soon!!!

Cathay Pacific

2008-05-18T08:32:00.005+08:00

So we arrived back safe and sound. For our flights to and from SFO, we took Cathay Pacific which was awesome.

Great things about our flights:
1. Cathay Pacific gives you (in economy): socks, toothbrush/toothpaste, two mints, and eye masks upon request. They are one of the few airlines to still give amenity kits to economy passengers.

2. Ice cream, sandwiches, and cup noodles upon request. Love it!!!

3. They upgraded both of us to business class for the MNL-HKG leg. Yes, I realize it is only a little over an hour flight, but man! It was an awesome hour. On the way back (HKG-MNL), they only upgraded me (I think because I have ruby status with One World...albeit the lowest status one can have). Ado took the business class seat on the way home because she appreciates the nicer airline food more than me. I was so tired, I slept and skipped the meal.

4. The flight attendants will give you lots of ginger ale upon request (I drank four cans on the SFO-HKG leg).

5. The flight attendants are really, really, really nice.

Bad things about out flight:
1. On the way back, the man sitting next to me had the worst body odor and breath you can imagine. This was not normal bad breath, but dental emergency bad breath. I spent the whole flight with a blanket over my mouth. Ado wanted to say something to him in Manila (thankfully he was not next to me on the second leg) but I stopped her because I did not want his feelings hurt. She didn't think he realized how bad he smelled, but I think he had to of. We will never see him again, and he was a really nice guy.

One the way back, we had one of the newly configured airplanes. The video on demand was awesome but I am not loving the seats. Instead of reclining, they slide forward which leaves you feeling like you are slouching the entire time.

Still in San Francisco.....

2008-05-13T10:45:00.003+08:00

I am horrible about blogging when vacationing. I figure I will catch up when we get home this week. All I have been doing here (besides seeing family and friends and working) is shopping.

Wal Mart is my new favorite store. We do not have them in San Francisco (likely because they are evil in every way, shape, and form) but we spent three weeks in a tiny, tiny town in central Texas and after 9pm the only thing to do is go to Wal Mart. I felt guilty shopping there but was quite happy that I could buy a box of Triscuits for P100 less per box than in the Philippines (I bought a few boxes). Yes, I realize that purchasing my discounted Triscuits helps Wal Mart continue their world domination at the expense of everyone and I will not be surprised if when I get back and open my crackers, they are stained with the blood of all the people in the world who are raped by Wal Mart and their socially evil practices.

Side note, it is sooo good to be back in San Francisco. I really love it here. Although I am very happy in the Philippines, home is always home and home for me is a city that has banned plastic bags, encourages recycling everything, hates smokers (I am a freak here), has open space and parks everywhere, and has some of the best restaurants in the world.

Bathrooms in the Philippines

2008-04-05T18:53:00.006+08:00

Bathrooms in the Philippines are a unique experience. Most times, an unpleasant one. Public toilets (i.e., malls, parks, entertainment venues) are probably the worst. They are severely lacking in some basics. There are some pay lounges (usually about P10 or about $.25) which are fine. The secret of a perfect bathroom here for me is it must have the following:

1. Toilet Seat. You may assume that a toilet would have a toilet seat but trust me, this is a luxury. Most have no toilet seat which means you get to do the half squat.

2. Toilet Paper. Most public bathrooms do not have toilet paper. There is a machine in the front of most bathrooms that one can buy tissue for...I have no idea. I carry it with me now.

3. Flusher. Yup. Many bathrooms still have no flusher which means that you must take a bucket of water and pour it at the correct angle and gravity will take care of the rest. I suck at this and usually end up with a toilet of diluted pee. Luckily this is becoming less common in malls but still very prevalent in private homes and small businesses.

4. Soap. Soap is really hard to find and often when you do find it, it is so diluted, it is mostly water. I guess a money saving measure. At a restaurant, you will often see the signs for the employees outlining hand washing. Better not to think too much about how the chef is washing his hands without soap.

Optional:
5. Paper towels. This is the gold star of bathrooms. Hard to find. Always makes me happy.

Most bathrooms will have signs stating please throw tissue in the trash. Tissue is usually not supposed to be flushed.

The sign at the top of the post reads, "Do not step on the toilet seat". I was completely confused by this until recently. A little girl in our family went to go use the restroom while we were visiting at the hospital and completely stripped off her jeans and underpants. She then went into the bathroom and squatted on the toilet like a frog. It turns out that this is how most kids here are potty trained. I was told otherwise they would fall into the toilet which confused me because I have never seen a kid in the US do this nor have I seen a kid fall into a toilet. I think I have to chalk it up to the lack of toilet seats. Without a toilet seat, a kid can definitely fall in and they are too short to do the lovely half-squat.

The picture above is a bathroom in a restaurant. People here always use a bidet or a little bucket (tabo) as pictured above. This was the first bathroom I saw that provided soap with the tabo.

Many, many, many people do not have overhead showers. This has been explained to me as either an issue with water pressure (without a pump, the pressure with not bring the water up to the shower head or there is no pump) or in more remote areas, lack of indoor plumbing. The way to bathe without a shower is pictured above. It is a large bucket filled with water and a little bucket is used to pour water over the body. This is what I have been using for the past 18 months (we fall into the water pressure camp). It sucks washing your hair because it takes forever to get the shampoo and conditioner out. Water comes out at a tepid temperature. A scary water heater can be used which is a small cylinder attached to a cord which is then dropped in the bucket. I am not sure why it does not electrocute more people, but apparently it does not because they are sold everywhere.

So, knowing all this, I of course have gone opposite route. In our new home, we have installed toilets with a flusher...

showers with shower heads (we have awesome water pressure in our new neighborhood so no water pump or tank is needed)...

little bidet faucet things by every toilet...

and of course, hot water heaters in each bathroom (as well as the kitchen....I like washing dishes in hot water)...

The final items to remember about bathrooms here:

1. When lining up in a crowded bathroom you do not form one line, rather you select a stall and stand outside of that one. It is a gamble and often I always pick the slowest one for no reason.

2. If there are people in uniforms outside of a bathroom, you likely have to pay

3. Bathrooms here are often referred to as "CR" (Comfort Room)

4. Tampons will never be found anywhere. Not in a machine, not in the drugstore down the street, and not in the purse of another restroom patron. ALWAYS have a spare.

Since I am a woman I know little about men's restrooms. If you are a man, you can pretty much pee anywhere. Side of the road, in a pink government issued urinal on the street, really ANYWHERE. I don't think a single day has passed here that I have not seen a man urinating in public. In fact, we have had people who live in the states visit us, and the second they return here they start peeing outdoors again. I don't get it. They can control it in the states but not here?

Side note: In our current neighborhood, the water in turned off at 9pm. Every night. This means that I have to shower before nine or have extra water stored (see, the bucket/tabo combo has benefits) and that I always brush my teeth with water that we keep in a bottle in the bathroom. This is NOT common in Manila. I am not sure why the water to our neighborhood is turned off. If we do not turn off our pump at 9pm, the water that comes out smells like sewer. Again, not really sure why.

Philippine Debut

2008-03-28T19:54:00.004+08:00

Here it is tradition at 18 to celebrate your birthday as your debut. This is nothing like the debutante ball in the states but is much more similar to a quinceanera. Last week I attended my first formal debut.It actually reminded me of the 8 trillion bar mitzvahs I attended in the 7th grade. Essentially the combination is: birthday girl, speeches (each given with one of 18 roses, flowers, symbolic gifts, and wine). A nice dinner is followed by dancing. This debut took place at one of the venues at Intramuros which is a historical area in Manila.

Landscaping

2008-03-24T08:54:00.003+08:00

We ended up going with a landscaping company (after having short lived fantasies of doing the garden ourselves) and so far we are very happy. Neither of us know enough about the plants or trees here to put plants in the correct spot and furthermore, neither of us have any type of green thumb at all. We asked for "organized jungle" meaning that I wanted a lot of local plants and wanted them rather to be as thickly planted as possible while still staying in the area they should.

The grass is still looking sparse but this is normal for recent sod. Pretty jungle-y, eh?

In the front we have a lot of flowers like above. Since all these plants are in, they need to be watered like crazy (especially since summer just started here). Luckily a few of the workers are stay-overs (meaning they sleep on site) and they have agreed to water the plants each evening.

The bald tree above will bloom. We are also putting vines on the two trellises in the garden.

Hospitals in the Philippines: Cardinal Santos Medical Center

2008-03-13T10:26:00.006+08:00

I always hear a lot about medical tourism and how the government thinks this could be the next big thing for the Philippines. While I have my doubts about the government making this happen, there is no doubt in my mind that the private sector can pull it off.

Doctors in the Philippines are GOOD. There are some really great medical schools here and some really fantastic hospitals. In addition, tons of the doctors have completed their residencies or fellowships at hospitals in the US. The neurosurgeon we have was actually recommended by an orthopedic surgeon from the US (a friend of our designer) that we met at an art exhibition. The nurses are kick ass as well and appear to be less overworked than the US which means if you need a nurse, one actually responds. They are fantastic! Every doctor and nurse that had come in both prior and post surgery was just amazing. I know I sound like a gushing teenager but it is such a switch from the states.

The prices compared to the states cannot even begin to compare. For an eight hour spinal surgery, we were quoted approximately P500,000 (a little over $12,000 before discounts). This includes the surgery, recovery, ICU, private room, medicine, doctors fee, etc. A private room at Cardinal Santos Medical Center (before discount, etc) is P2,200 (a little over $50) per night. The room is pictured above and is a VERY decent size. I realize that $12K sounds like a lot but if you tried to get the same procedure in the states without insurance, you would be declaring bankruptcy.

This is the view of Ortigas from the hospital room. I got a kick out of it because it seems like most of the time hospitals rooms have a view of either a) an air shaft or b) another building.

This photo does not really have to do with anything but I loved that instead of the laundry stamp that is on most hospital sheets, they had the hospital initials in the pattern instead.

Cool items about hospitals in the Philippines: a companion is expected to stay, therefore a comfy companion bed exists (pictured above by the windows), there are fridges in all the rooms, food deliveries are allowed so visitors can dine on just about any food known to man while visiting the patient.

If Cardinal Santos is indicative of medical care in the Philippines then there could be a real future for medical tourism.

Year of the Rat

2008-02-29T09:13:00.004+08:00

I am a creature of habit. Everyday I wake up, brush my teeth, drink a cup of coffee, and take my dog for a walk. Once I leash him up, he always bolts out of the gate at full speed so he can pee at his favorite corner. The other morning there was a slight change of plan.

When my dog bolted out of the gate, at the corner he found a GIANT rat which he then proceeded to pick up in his mouth and kill. The rat was making horrible squealing noises. I, being the responsible pet owner I am, threw the leash down and ran. I could not even look at him because it was so disgusting (mind you, I am not scared of rodents but I am horrified watching my dog kill one). I buried my face into the shoulder of a random stranger and told him my dog was killing a rat. I went inside and got Jeff (hmmm, maybe there is a good reason to have household staff) and he nicely retrieved my dog and disposed of the rat. (I love Jeff).

I brought the dog to the vet for a tetanus shot (he already has the rest of his required injections) and besides a small cut in his mouth and leg, my dog is good to go.

No one here seems to understand my disgust at the dog killing a rat. In fact, a couple of people have jokingly asked me to borrow the dog to kill rats around their property.

Agno, Pangasinan

2008-02-25T19:33:00.003+08:00

We spent a few days around Valentine's Day in Agno which was about five hours away from Manila. The last hour consisted of a very rocky dirt road so the distance actually is not that great. We probably could have done the final hour in 15-20 minutes had the road been paved. We have a friend whose family owns 60 hectares, some of it right along the coast.

We had never been up there before but it is really, really beautiful. Clean WARM water in the ocean and fantastic sand (albeit yellow and not the white sand you find in the islands to the south). It is also kinda cool to be in a place with no cell phone service and an hour drive away from any sort of civilization (unless you count the neighboring farms).

Our friend's cottage was well appointed and no air conditioning was needed since it was right on the water and the ocean provided a great breeze. Unfortunately the water was too rough for any snorkeling but we were still able to wade into the water a little.

This is a Carabo. Agno is mostly farmland and the carabo are very cute to me. They are cute in an ugly way.

It is Really ALMOST Done!!

2008-02-20T19:21:00.006+08:00

We are literally weeks away from the completion of our new house. I am getting really excited now. The landscapers have started as well so the outside looks less like a garbage dump and more like a garden (well at least a plantless garden. The dirt does add a little ambiance).

The banister is put in now on the staircase. I realize the photo looks fuzzy--something about the light I guess because this is as good as I could get it.

This is the grill that leads to the service area (it will be painted black). The service area is a phenomena here that consists of an area where washing would be and leads to maids quarters and the dirty kitchen. This is where the washing machine, sinks, and generator (shall we ever buy one) will be.

The dirty kitchen is another phenomena that exists here (pictured above). It is essentially a second kitchen but is the kitchen where most of the actual cooking and washing up is done. I am not quite sure why it is necessary, but we do have one. It looks to me like a regular kitchen. I am not sure why it is phrased as a "dirty" kitchen but I assume it is because it is the only one that gets dirty??

Above is part of our "regular" kitchen. This is the chimney that I previously tried to describe. The oven hood is hidden away. I love it! Also it is worth noting that there is no oven in our regular kitchen, just a range. A lot of homes here have no oven and just use the rain. At my in-laws where we currently reside, we have no oven, only a glorified toaster oven. It is so small that when I tried to bake a birthday cake, I ended up making cup cakes as that is all that would fit.

This is a photo of the one bathtub in our new home. Everybody I talked to who had the over sized jacuzzi tubs said they either never used them or used them on an annual basis. I never take baths--always showers. We put one bathtub in the room that we refer to as the kids room (for when they are too big for the sink but too little for the shower). Yes, I realize we have no kids and yes, I further realize that with the staircase and pool of death, our house is not exactly baby friendly but better to be prepared.

The above mentioned pool of death. It will not be completed until most of the landscaping is done but there is a rather nice cesspool in the deep end. The swimming pool we subcontracted and it turned into the biggest clusterfuck you can imagine. I am trying to reserve judgment until it is completed but I am not too optimistic about a positive completion but we shall see.

This is the back of the house with the upstairs railings installed. I am not quite sure why there is a plastic tube hanging down but it is awesome all the same.

For Jonnifer: Jeremy Jordan

2008-02-19T19:52:00.005+08:00

My sister Jonnifer and I recently spent an afternoon sending each other Youtube videos of music from our middle school/high school days. There were videos of people we used to listen to as well as just the random bizarre ones. Jeremey Jordan fell into the bizarre category. He made his short term debut into the music world on Beverly Hills 90210, playing at the Peach Pit After Dark. Today we had the TV on in our car and his video started to play (the station was doing 90's music I guess. What are the chances?

Oh yeah, it is worth noting that most of the music video stations play the lyrics at the bottom of the screen. No idea why.

Cool Places

2008-02-07T09:14:00.000+08:00

Since we have arrived back we have been to two cool places that merit mention. The first was Ace Water Spa. This is a spa located in Quezon City on Del Monte Avenue. This spa has a lap pool and then an addition pool with various water massages. Very interesting. There are ones for each part of your body. In addition, there were three hot tubs (each getting slightly hotter) that were scented with either mint, jasmine, or lavender. At the edge of each pool was a chilled bar to lean your neck on and in between each pool, it is recommended you dip for five seconds in a cold pool (which was freezing--it felt like a glass of ice water). There were also steam rooms and saunas. The dressing room/locker area was very, very clean and the showers had hot water as well as shampoo. Hairdryers and q-tips were provided. Only random, no towels. You bring your own or rent them for P150 (about $3.65). Cost for admission was P500 ($12) per person and we went on a "buy two get one free promo". Really cool place and I will go back in a second. I had never seen a place like this ever. http://www.acewaterspa.ph/

The second really neat place was the Manila Seedling Bank also in Quezon City. Picture your average garden store and then feed it steroids and you have the Manila Seedling Bank. There were tons and tons of plants and all of them looked really healthy. While there we impulse bought two small sweet basil plants and one rosemary plant (total cost P100 - $2.45). Any plant you can imagine was there from herbs to flowers to trees to water plants. All at good prices and again, they all looked healthy. There were no half dead plants here. We are in the landscaper phase of our house now and were debating between hiring one and attempting to complete this ourselves. We will likely end up somewhere in the middle with someone helping us with the project.

Crazy Month

2008-02-05T08:07:00.001+08:00

This has been a crazy busy month. We just got back from a two week family vacation in Hawaii (which was awesome--Hawaii is one of my favorite places in the world). It was great to be back in the states and to see all of my sisters and father. Hawaii is a lot like the Philippines.....it is just cleaner and has a much, much, much better infrastructure. Otherwise, the two places are quite similar: great beaches and jungle and really nice people (although I think people from Hawaii have to be some of the sweetest in the world). We did some shopping for our new house there including buying ceiling fans. The fans are 110V so this may turn out to be a mistake depending on how difficult the conversion is but we were able to buy 16 Hunter brand fans for the price of eight fans here. I also received an amazing red Kitchen Aid from my mother (again 110V but the price was $300 there versus the $585 it sells for here) as well as a fantastic set of Henckels knives from my father.Our new house is progressing. It is not completed and is behind my dream schedule (although right on time via the contract). The day before we left, we bought our oven and range. The range will be put in the bricked area above and we are having a chimney type hood (I do not know how to describe it. Once completed, I will post a picture). A really psycho blue was used for the kitchen which I adore. Buying the ovens was a little bit of a pain because I am unfamiliar with the brands so we were kinda shopping blindly. Total for one oven and a range (both cast iron) was just under P100,000 (about $2,250) which is insane. I miss the inexpensive appliances of the states.
One thing I love is the little vent outside for the oven hood (pictured above). How cute is that! These little details are a lot of the reason we went with the design company we did; they take the smallest details into consideration and make them beautiful.
Our foyer ceiling is complete and just needs the chandelier installed. My computer monitor is showing the picture as a wonky red, but in reality, it is a very true red and the wood is very dark brown, almost black.

All the interior and exterior doors have been installed and I am loving them. One of my favorite parts of the house. The doors were all handmade (which apparently can be less expensive than premade doors). They are solid wood and very heavy.

Yesterday was my first time seeing the driver/boy's room. I had not been up to the roof deck area as no stairs had been installed and the ladder the workers were using scared me. Above is the bathroom for the driver/boy which is fairly standard. I am posting this namely for my sister's who, like me, are a little creeped out by the idea of household staff. Although there is nothing luxurious about the bathroom, there is nothing wrong with it either. I could very comfortably shower there.

Above is one of our air conditioning compressors. We exclusives used split type air con which means the unit is out side. We have placed most on the side of the house in discreet areas (nothing bugs me more that a beautiful home with an ugly air conditioner sticking out of the wall) and this one is placed on the roof deck outside of the driver's room.

We opted to use terracotta tiles for the two lanais as well as the entrance. The center tiles are malaga tiles which are essentially painted cement tiles. These are the same tiles used above the range in the kitchen. This is the most recent picture I have of the front which is from November 07. For some reason I have not taken any newer pictures of the front. The most important item to acknowledge is the giant ugly prison wall has been removed and replaced with a lower, more friendly looking wall. I will have to remember to take a more recent picture of the front this week.

We also completed a lot of our furniture shopping (I think we spent too much time doing it....a salesman at a store saw us and said, "Hi! You usually shop at our Trinoma branch!" Once the sales people start to recognize you, I think it is time to start winding it down and making the purchase). I will later do a more detailed post about the shopping excursions.

Christmas in Tondo

2007-12-27T10:05:00.000+08:00

Well, another Christmas has come and gone.

In the days leading up, we made Christmas cookies....

On Christmas Day, we had good food....

Yummy lechon....

The best mechado (a Philippine version of beef stew)...

The adults were drinking....

The kids were dressed up to greet and collect their holiday gifts.....

And a good time was had by all the visitors, friends and family alike...

Christmas-I Am My Mother's Daughter

2007-12-04T10:57:00.001+08:00

Christmas season is well upon us and we just realized that we have little time to buy all the gifts we need to buy. Besides parents and my family in the states, we have some professional gifts (i.e., bank manager, village security guards), god children, and the neighborhood kids.

Christmas in this neighborhood is kinda like Halloween in the states. All the neighborhood kids come to a few houses here with their parents and they receive gifts. It is actually really cute, all the kids you see 364 days a year barefoot in their play clothes are all dressed up in their Christmas best. People here usually give away money (about P10-20) or candy. We give away toothbrushes and toothpaste. This is exactly like my mom who used to put toothbrushes in our Easter baskets as well as Christmas stockings. Lest you think the kids hate the toothbrushes, I actually had a couple of kids ask me when they get their toothpaste. Also, this is not as boring a gift as it sounds. We currently live in Tondo and the kids that come on Christmas have very, very little money. When a family has little money, dental hygiene does not usually rank high on the list of items to spend money for. Even if they cannot buy more toothpaste once they use up what we gave them, our thought is it is better to brush with just water or salt than nothing at all. Okay, so maybe the gift is boring but it helps them in the long run. Better than candy. Or money (the firecracker vendors show up starting Christmas so the second a kid gets money it goes straight to firecrackers). By the way, last year we bought (I think) around 120 pieces and we ran out.

The god kids do not fare much better in terms of "fun" gifts. I went to the St. James Bazaar this past weekend and bought most of the god kids age appropriate books (another of my mother's trademarks....I cannot tell you how many books we received as kids. It works through, as adults we are all ardent readers). We also bought a pair of sneakers for one of the god kids who is always running around but is either a) in a pair of slippers too big for him or b)barefoot. We bought sneakers that can be slipped on so hopefully he will put them on before going out to play.

And finally, some of the younger god kids (as well as some nieces/nephews/etc) are receiving play dough. Not the cute Play Doh that one buys at a toy store but nice bright homemade play dough just like my mom used to make us as kids.

The Head of the Pigs

2007-11-27T18:53:00.000+08:00

Here at almost any major celebration one will get to eat yummy pig (here called lechon). I like to take pictures of the head.

Lest you think I am lazy, these are three separate pigs from three separate parties.

Philippines and the F-Bomb

2007-11-27T18:45:00.000+08:00

People do not swear too much here. Or at least not in public. This is tough for me. I used to be able to swear a lot and in the states (or perhaps just San Francisco where hella is still used frequently, much to the confusion and disdain of outsiders) it is not all that odd to drop some f-bombs in normal conversation. When I do it here, I feel like a freak. A dirty freak. A godless heathen freak (which everybody already thinks I am. I could write a book about the number of people trying to sell me god on a daily basis. This is why I read my copy of "God is Not Great" at home only. I was scared people in public would stone me).

I miss being able to say fuck in everyday conversation.

Bureau of Quarantine

2007-11-20T18:22:00.000+08:00

Continuing my tour of Philippines governmental organizations I hit up the Bureau of Quarantine. I knew they wanted (amongst other tests) a blood test. I HATE having blood drawn with a passion. It is the worst medical procedure one can do to me. It is not the prick of the needle as much as the length of time the needle spends in my vein.

Knowing they would want blood, I optimistically brought copies of my blood chemistry from St. Luke's hoping they could use that and would not need a fresh sample. Unfortunately, it did not cover what they wanted. The requirement is a blood test for.....syphilis. Now I am not very hip on syphilis but I kind of thought this was not really around much any more and certainly not prolific enough to require a special test but apparently I am wrong. Luckily my veins did not behave so the doctor wound up pricking my finger instead and squeezing the blood out. Much much better. I love that doctor.

For a government office, the Bureau of Quarantine was really well organized. There was very little wait and everybody we encountered was very pleasant and knew what they were doing. Both of the physicians that were on staff were very nice and knowledgeable.

On a side note, randomly one of the restrictions for most extended visas here is epilepsy. Very bizarre to me because epilepsy is easily controlled with medication and not contagious. I cannot imagine why that is listed as one of the banned diseases unless it is a throwback to 50 years ago when people thought it was a sign of being possessed. I understand HIV/AIDS and even the syphilis (which can be passed on) but epilepsy?!?!? That is like banning diabetes or some other medical condition equally non contagious or dangerous to the general public.....

Lines, Fixers, and the NBI

2007-11-13T09:10:00.000+08:00

Here there are very few (actually I do not think any) government institutions that we go to without a friend who works there or knows someone who does. Anytime we need a document from a governement authority, we find a friend or a friend of a friend that works there to expedite the process as well allowing us to skip all lines.

This remained true when we visited the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation). The NBI seem like it is the same as the FBI, the exception being that any security clearance that is needed for an individual, including employment, requires a trip to the NBI. Apparently once you are on the blacklist of the NBI, there is little you can do to get off of it. For example, our architect team has a painter that they love and use on all of their homes but they can't get him clearance into our subdivision because he cannot get NBI clearance. Everyone told me once you get arrested (regardless for how minor the infraction), it is difficult to work anywhere.

We went to the NBI and were happily breezing through the process. Then we came to the fingerprinting portion. We got into line and were contentedly waiting for our turn until a lady cut in line and about six people decided to follow her. We (along with two ladies behind us), started to make a stink and were telling the lady to get back to her spot, etc. At this point, our friend comes up to me, asks me to follow him and takes me to the front of the line.

This was quite embarrassing. Here I am making a ruckus over someone cutting and then I proceed to cut the ENTIRE line! It is also worth noting that not only am I quite tall, but I was the only foreigner in the entire NBI that day. This means my cutting was VERY evident to the people I had only moments before been figuratively cussing out.

Lice

2007-11-06T20:25:00.000+08:00

Lice is everywhere. I think every school girl in the world had lice at one point in their lives. The Philippines is no exception to this rule. It happens. What is different here is the means of treating it. While I am sure 90% of the population do the lice shampoo/comb, I see a lot of kids in our neighborhood with permanent lice. No one seems bothered by it and the kids just have eggs in their hair. I sometimes see moms picking the lice from the hair.

Now, I thought this a little odd just because it was so different than what I was used to. When I was a kid, my mom would shampoo us and then comb out the lice. Sheets were changed and lice was gone. Same day.

Today on the news there was a story about lice. I missed most of it since it was in Tagalog but they showed a mom who was using a chalk insecticide (for the home) on her child's head! The news obviously went on to state that this was NOT a good method to use. I guess if those are the options then it is better to let the lice chill than to put poison on your kids head.

Real Christmas Trees

2007-11-02T11:19:00.001+08:00

Ha! I found a place here that sells real Christmas trees from Oregon. The Philippines being a tropical country has a distinct lack of pine trees so everybody has plastic which I abhor. Although we are not getting a tree this year (due to the timing of the house turnover), I will definitely buy a real one next year.

All Saints Day

2007-11-02T10:34:00.000+08:00

All Saints Day is a holiday I never celebrated in the states....in fact I had never heard of it. Here, All Saints Day is celebrated by going to the cemetery and spending the day with your deceased relatives. All the family is there with food and drinks (non-alcoholic...ours were hot chocolate and coke). Some people leave out food and drink for their dead relatives whereas we do not.

We spent the holiday at Manila North Cemetery which is a HUGE cemetary (over 50 hectares). Although I have no idea the actual number of people who go there on Nov 1, it has to be in the hundreds of thousands.

I remember the first year I went, I was picturing us all sitting around a grave stone. Nope. Here there are gigantic tombs. Above is the picture of the second floor of ours. The first floor (which I bizarrely did not take a photo of) has the tombs (as well as restroom and small kitchen) and the second floor is where everyone can gather.

On the days around All Saints Day, no cars are allowed in the cemetery and the road in front of the cemetery is closed. Luckily our tomb is not too far from the entrance (maybe a walk equivalent to five or six blocks) so it makes it an easy trek. There are so many people! You are walking like sardines squished against one another. Even with the masses, it was very well organized. A quick walk through the security and you are headed out with a divider set up in the road to keep the pedestrian traffic all headed the same way on each side.

After lunch we took a walk around the cemetery to visit a couple of friends and see some of the famous grave sites. There are some AWESOME tombs here. We stopped by a family friend's tomb and she had not only a generator for fans and lights (we had no generator this year because somebody stole all the wires from the tomb) but a waterfall and two armed security guards outside as well. In addition, she had someone spraying the flowers outside so they would not wilt too quickly. A pretty cool tomb.

It is a very interesting holiday and I enjoy it each year.

Josh Groban Concert

2007-10-25T19:50:00.000+08:00

This was an awesome, awesome concert. The theatre it was in sat only 3,000 people so even a bad seat was a good seat. We had seats in the second to cheapest section and we still had an awesome view. Since we were in the very last row we could also stand when we wanted to without worrying about blocking anyone's view.

People were quite dressed up for the concert, in fact I think we were some of the only people in jeans. Most people were in dresses, slacks, suits, not much denim to be seen. Apparently this is somewhat common here.

If he comes back to Manila again, we would go in a second.

Starting to Look Like a House

2007-10-24T21:11:00.000+08:00

We have windows!!! This, for me, is starting to make the house look more completed. I still have trouble believing that the home will be completed in just over a month but that is the time line I was given (if it is not completed, I am making the designer buy me dinner). There is so much dirt and debris around the house and I think once a lot of that is removed, it will be looking even better. We have picked out (but not purchased) most of our appliances including a humongous four door fridge which I love. I refrigerate a lot more things here because the heat makes items mold quickly (i.e., bread).

There are still vast areas of concrete (such as the entrance to the kitchen above) but all the walls are in. Next step is selecting tiles and paint. Thank god we have a design team because they will give us a few options as opposed to the giant wall of paint samples and tiles available at the local home improvement center. We tend to get overwhelmed with too many choices. We can't even decide if we want the floors: bleached, lightly stained, or darkly stained (the dark stain is more typical of an older home here).

I am still digging all the brickwork! This is outside on the lanai and the niche will have a light inside which can will look fantastic at night.

This week (likely tomorrow) we will start the arduous task of going through the items that have we brought from the states and determine:

1. What needs to be repacked and brought to the new house
2. What needs to be given to my in-laws (namely dinnerware)
3. What needs to be given away to people in the neighborhood/donated

All the items are in storage in a room that is very, very hot and smells like mothballs (used to deter cockroaches). Very unpleasant due not only to the task, but the fact that it will be a battle. There are a lot of items that I will want to get rid of and Ado will want to keep for reasons known only to her.

Furniture Shopping

2007-10-14T19:07:00.000+08:00

We been looking for furniture for the new house now for a month or so. This is the first time in our lives that we have had more rooms than: bedroom, office, living room, and kitchen. Furniture shopping here is amazing and frustrating at the same time. Prices vary drastically from store to store for very similar items. In addition, as far as quality furniture goes, we have found the prices to be as high (and in some cases higher) than the states. The good part is there is some awesome furniture to be had here. We have gone everywhere from tiny roadside shops to a slew of the major mall shops and we are not any closer to coming to a decision on anything. The curse is also that some stores will look like crap from the outside and have great items inside and vice versa.

We went to Ethan Allen and while it had fantastic items, the prices were on par with what they charge in the states (which is not even close to cheap). We have had the best luck at Market Market when they had a Vigan furniture sale as well as Tiendisitas as we are looking for an older style of furniture. Many stores sell the item on the floor (the idea of a display model does not seem to be very popular here) which mean that not only do you have to hunt for an item you like, you have to inspect it as that will be the item residing in your home. I am hoping since Christmas is coming (it is already almost full blast here) there will be some good sales.

What we may end up doing is having some furnishings custom made. While this is in many cases the most expensive option, the work is unbelievable. For major pieces (our bench/couch/daybed thing) I think it will be worth it.

I wish overstock.com delivered here. Not for the furniture so much, but for all the housewares & linens.

Disgusting S&R Bakery!

2007-10-14T18:39:00.001+08:00

So, I realize that this is my billionth post about S&R. Well, remember how I referred to the bakery as "cruddy"? I will have to revise my opinion and say it is disgusting. Rancid. Gross. Possibly holds the cure for strep throat. Some family came by today with a cake for a small birthday celebration. They made the unfortunate choice of purchasing it at the S&R Bakery (Congressional Branch). Does this not make you sick to your stomach?

"Honeycrunch Cake"

Purchased today (about $8.50)

Expiration date is five days from now....

....but it is rotted and moldy!!!

UPDATE: We went back to S&R this week and showed the bakery manager the pictures and the original receipt. She was very sweet and offered us a new cake free of charge (which we declined) so she instead gave us a store credit. Way more than we were expecting--we only went back to let them know they had rotten merchandise on display. Although I still will not buy from the bakery, their service was top notch. We went back over two weeks later with a digital camera and receipt and they went above and beyond.

Moral of the story: S&R = Great Service, Scary Baked Goods

More Reasons to Love S&R

2007-10-11T20:34:00.000+08:00

We went to S&R yesterday for groceries as well as looking to price vitamins because they 1. sell the huge Costco size bottles and 2) have better prices than Mercury Drugs (the local drugstore here). There were no vitamins to be seen yesterday which was completely random as their selection is usually really good. I asked a girl stocking the shelves and she told me there were no more vitamins in any branches. At checkout we asked one of the supervisors who informed us that the vitamins were only temporarily not being sold and they expected to have them back on the shelves soon (it was over some random paperwork with the Food & Drug Bureau). Not only was she helpful, she even offered to take our number so she could call us when they are back on the shelves! How nice is that!!!

Another side reason I love S&R is the uniforms their checkers wear. An odd thing to me about the Philippines is all the check-out girls (always women--never men) at grocery stores are in a uniform that includes a skirt, stockings, and heels. I think for a job that requires you to stand on your feet all day, it is insane to wear heels! Even low ones are insane! My feet used to ache at the end of the work day and I spent 8-9 hours of it at a desk! I cannot imagine working retail in heels! I love that the checkers at S&R are in: jeans, polos, and sneakers. That to me is an appropriate and comfortable uniform for standing on your feet all day. I love it.

Only reasons for me not to love S&R are the cruddy bakery (I wouldn't want to buy anything from it--soft baguettes and dried up pies are the better of the offerings) and the way I can get excited about an item to then find it slightly off the mark. For example, yesterday they had Triscuits which I love and hadn't been able to find for months and months (I blame Mom for my love of Triscuits. Growing up, this was our junk food). Unfortunately they were cheddar flavor. I did not even know Triscuit made a cheddar flavor. Blech. Once I find plain triscuits again and parmesan flavored goldfish crackers, I will be set for junk food.

On a random aside, while I cannot find tricuits here, I have found some great olive tapenade and tahini paste (two items I used to bring back from the states) as well as a very decent Indian restaurant. Life is looking up.

The Rest of the Story...........

2007-10-11T09:24:00.000+08:00

I finally found out the rest of the story. N was trying to stab R because he thought R was spreading a rumor that he was giving away cement from a project that my mother-in-law hired him to do.

That's it. Cement here is same as the states--a fairly cheap item. Life is back to normal I guess because N was back on the site yesterday working. R filed a police report so that way if she appears dead the police will have an easy time solving the crime.

All this over a rumor about cement!!!!!

The Curse of Not Speaking Tagalog (Yeah right, like this would happen to anyone else)

2007-10-09T19:43:00.000+08:00

To truly appreciate the bizarreness of tonight, I will have to start with dinner. My father-in-law was going ballroom dancing so he was dressing up and headed down first for dinner.

When I go downstairs, to the living room I see him arguing with one of the guys in the neighborhood (N). My father-in-law keeps grabbing (as it appears to me) at his crotch. A random guy (R) who I have never seen is sitting on the ottoman so I ask him what my father-in-law is doing. He tells me the neighborhood guy has a knife. I am already confused at this point. My father in law gets the big scary knife from N's pants and that is when N decides it would be a good time to take a swing at R. They start fighting with my father-in-law (who will be 79 next month) trying to keep them apart.

I decide to be of some use and hold back N (who is too nice to hit a woman) until R gets away from my father-in-law and starts coming forward to attack N at which time I decide I will get a big man from outside. (While the fighting is happening, Ado is nicely tucking away the knife and the maid is taking my mother-in-law to the courtyard to make sure she doesn't get hurt). The only guy I can find outside (the streets are randomly very empty tonight) is the maid's son who is 21 years old and stands at about 6'. Unfortunately he can't weigh more that 160 or 170 pounds, but pickings were slim.

When I get back (10 seconds later), the mini fight is over and a third guy is bleeding under the eye (he may have been here the whole time...I am not sure). We get N out of the house. R is still sitting downstairs with the bleeding man. I make the bleeding man put Neosporin on his cut.

Everybody is talking and during this time, N comes back for round 2. They get N out and the Barangay chairman comes and everybody talks to him. Barangay chairman leaves. R is still here. Actually, at this very moment R is still here with bleeding man. I assume he is here because if he tries to go home then N will kill him. Also, I was given the knife which was disgustingly sharpened to a psycho point and is now residing safely in my nightstand. (Thank god that most people here do not have guns!!!)

Now, what is the purpose of this entry? Since I do not speak Tagalog, I have NO IDEA what this is about. I have no idea why these guys are fighting, why they are doing it in our house, and why they seem intent on killing each other. The people that speak tagalog well enough to translate for me at too involved with talking to people right now so I have no clue what is happening. R who hasn't spoken much since round 1 speaks great english but I figure he is a little busy right now with the man who is trying to kill him and likely does not want to be a translator.

There are Good Things About the Groceries

2007-10-04T19:03:00.000+08:00

Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on the grocery situation here. I think it may still be part of the missing Trader Joes/Whole Foods that is getting to me. There are some bonuses of shopping here. One block away from us is a wet market. Here I can find most cuts of pork as well as some beef. There is an abundance of fish (which I never buy or look at but there is a ton). There is also a slew of fresh local vegetables and whatever fruit may be in season here. In addition you can but some staples: oil, rice, soy sauce, margarine (butter is not sold there), some spices, etc.

Also, within a 15 second walk of our current house, I can visit one of four sari-sari stores at which I can buy everything from cigarettes (by the stick or pack), gum or candy, rice, an egg or two, oil, vinegar, coke, beer, milo, shampoo, soap (body, laundry, or dish), etc. The list goes on and on.

I guess most of my frustration is comes from the fact that most of the items I eat are not available locally and even if they were I would be the only buyer. Case in point, Ado stopped by Taco Bell to grab me a taco. The lady asked her is she wanted crunchy or soft. Ado told her she didn't know what kind and the lady said, "Ma'am, you usually order crunchy." How sad is that? I am known at Taco Bell!!!! I can attribute some of it to the fact that since I am a funky foreigner I stand out, but the sad part is I am probably their best customer. Ugh, that is so embarrassing! Taco Bell!

More Grocery Woes

2007-10-02T19:04:00.000+08:00

Grocery shopping is just flat ticking me off lately (and by lately, I mean since I have moved here). No store ever has a constant stock of certain items (i.e., peanut butter with no sugar, powdered sugar) and it always seems like a crap shoot. For example, sometimes Shopwise & Unimart have great looking produce during one visit, and the following time, there is nothing to be seen. I wish there was one fantastic grocery store that stocked everything I wanted. Part of the problem is many of the groceries I look to buy are not staples in a kitchen here so they fall more under specialty items. Mushrooms in good condition are always a pisser for me to find as well as sour cream that is not in a liquid form.

I think the hardest thing for me to get used to is the amount of sugar in many items. Peanut butter is my big one but a lot of sliced bread tastes sweet as well as canned corn. We were looking for one can of corn and ended up buying an imported brand because that was the only one without sugar added. In addition, I miss bread. Besides sourdough bread and bagels, I have yet to see any rye bread. I also miss Kosher beef hot dogs (here they are all pork or pork/beef blends) and beef bologna (German style from a deli....not fat oscar meyer type).

Final evilness of the groceries here is expired food. It is unfortunately very common to see expired or just old (in terms of produce) still on shelves. I learned the hard way and now know to look and EVERY label to see when the expiration is. I do not know why they do not discount the items right before they go bad instead of letting them fester. The first time I saw this (it was about 20 pieces of bagged lettuce mix that had all rotted down to a small fist size amount) I thought it was a fluke and mentioned it to the produce guy. He looked at me like I was crazy so I left it and went away. I no longer shop there. Funnily enough, the store is Waltermart which reminds me of the evil chain in the states so it is just as well.

Cultural Differences with Pets

2007-09-28T19:13:00.000+08:00

I was talking to a friend here about my Rottweiler and the large amount of dandruff he has. Since he had a Rottweiler also, I was getting tips about diet, grooming, etc and trying to figure out how to cut down on the flaking. I mentioned to him that the dandruff had started to occur sometime after neutering and that this may be a factor. He stared and me in shock and told me I was cruel to neuter the dog and if I didn't want him to have sex with other dogs I should just keep him in his cage more.

Issues:
1. I think caging is mean
2. My friend thinks caging is normal
3. I think neutering is normal
4. My friend thinks neutering is mean

I still do not own a cage for my dog. My dog still has no testicles. The dandruff is still there but improving slightly now that we have switched to the food recommended by my friend.

Public School in Manila

2007-09-28T18:53:00.000+08:00

Today was my first trip to a public elementary school here. I was not optimistic going in due to all the stories I had heard about public school here. Paying for a lunch tray (regardless of whether you brought your lunch or not), classes of 50+ kids per teacher, and cleaning the classroom during school hours were some of the less disturbing stories I heard. Most disturbing was a story about a fifth grade math teacher who hits the kids when they misbehave or do not do their homework. Obviously corporal punishment is illegal here but the kids told me it happens a lot. Other common punishments include grabbing kids by the hair and making them squat. While these are likely isolated cases of a few psycho teachers, the fact that it was anywhere was disturbing. The two kids we know in the class have been instructed by us and their parents to tell us immediately if she raises a hand to them and we will go to the police.

The school we visited today was actually fantastic! We were there to talk to the teacher of our godson (who had contacted his mom about him misbehaving in class). The school was clean, the classrooms were brightly painted, murals decorated the hallways, plants filled the front, and most of the classrooms we passed by had teachers actively engaging their students in learning. It was way, way better than I had expected.

We spoke to two teachers, both who seemed very happy with teaching and seemed to care a lot for their students. One of the teachers when we came in was selling food to the students but this is apparently quite common here (teacher salaries are horrible--even worse than the states). The only disappointment with the school (besides the abusive teacher who we did not meet) was the restrooms. Although we did not go inside, you could smell urine from about three classrooms away. All in all I was quite impressed. We had been to a local catholic school for a couple of events and this public school blew it out of the water in terms of facilities and staff.

Yet Another House Update

2007-09-18T19:04:00.000+08:00

The front window was put in (above the foyer) as well as some of the tile in the pool. In addition, the brickwork inside the house is started (but not completed). I still cannot figure out if we will make the optimistic turnover time (somewhere between November and Christmas) or end up with the contract turnover. All in all, I am still in love with the design team for our house.

We found our designers by looking at open houses in different areas. We found a house that we LOVED the style of in Ayala Alabang and after some hunting got the name of the design team. We called and they agreed to do our home (usually they stay in Ayala Alabang where there is more than enough work to keep them busy). Thank God they agreed because I am still in love with the style the do. The brickwork is awesome as well as the ceiling in the foyer. The popular style now in the Philippines is a modern zen house (lots of slate, metal, huge windows) so it was great to find a team that specialized in "antique" (as my mother-in-law calls it) homes. I also like that there is a lot of recycled bricks and old wood which appeals to me both ascetically and environmentally.

My only fantasy is that I will win the lotto prior to turnover so I can hire them to do the interior design as well.

Wine

2007-09-17T18:51:00.000+08:00

We have always been big wine drinkers. I do not have a very sophisticated palate (I am not the person to talk to about the age of a grape or the subtle currant or cherry flavor that exists in a wine) but I have always enjoyed trying new wines and drinking a fair amount of it. In San Francisco we kept our wine in a bar that was located in our kitchen (much to the chagrin of my father who groaned that the temperature was too high in a kitchen and it should be moved to the basement). Philippines has created a whole different situation for wine.

Here it is hot. Not just a little warm but HOT. We have been keeping our red wine.....in the fridge. When we drink wine, it is poured out cold from the fridge. It got to the point that we had too much wine to fit in the fridge(my father who has connections at wineries sent us home with a case of fantastic wines) and keeping it on a shelf in a hot room seemed like a horrible thing to do to a nice bottle. We broke down and today bought a wine cooler. I am in love. It holds 34 bottles, has the temperature in both Celsius and Fahrenheit (I am bad with conversions), and can be locked. All in all my perfect wine fridge. We were going to wait until we moved to the new house but decided to get it now. We had thought about buying one in the states but it always seemed like a frivolous luxury for our $7 bottle of wine from Trader Joes. Here, while still a luxury, it has definitely moved into a slightly more necessary purchase.

Again, since my palate sucks, I have no qualms about keeping white and sparkling wines in the fridge.

Josh Groban!

2007-09-16T18:34:00.000+08:00

I am excited....we got tickets today to see Josh Groban next month for his Manila concert. We have close to the worst seats in the house as the good seats were Php20,000-25,000 (about $400-500) per ticket. I am really, really excited!

More S&R Shopping!!

2007-09-13T18:57:00.000+08:00

Today we went to S&R (the Philippine's answer to Costco) for their three day sale and for the first time it really felt like Costco. It was crowded beyond belief and the lines were 10 people deep. Ah, reminded me of home.

Their stock was awesome! There were maybe 15-20 different types of ice cream (pints as well as ice cream bars), tons of vitamins, shampoo that comes in large bottles, lotions, chicken taquitos, Kirkland brand cranberry juice (which I love and drink like water), Snapple, Starbucks iced coffee drinks, refried beans, I could go on and on. Disappointingly, they still do not carry tampons so I will continue to be the freak that brings a bunch back from my trips to the states. I was really happy. I wish their dairy section would improve a bit but that is minor compared to what they have. Price wise, most imported items are within a couple of dollars of US prices which is nice. We also needed to buy two new tires as we had a flat last week and they had a killer selection. (On a side note, bonus of the Philippines is there is always someone hanging out on the street that is down to change your tire for a couple bucks tip).

Most of the times we have shopped here the lot was empty and there were no lines so the crowds excited me a lot. Most of the Costco type stores opened in the past apparently closed down so it is great that this one looks very successful.

House is Getting Closer!

2007-09-08T10:22:00.001+08:00

The house is still coming and we are hopefully still looking at a Nov/Dec turnover date.

We actually have a roof now which is great and from the second floor there is an awesome breeze.

The pool is coming and tiles will be put in sooner than later.

Today we will continue on our quest for good furniture. I think we are heading over to Ortigas today to look. There is a specific piece of furniture for outside that I am looking for (this giant round rattan chair that can seat two to three people) but have not yet found it. We went to Union Sqaure yesterday (a furniture store off T. Morato) that can make it based off photos so I will bring that in. The only photo I have is:

Just Perfect

2007-09-05T09:02:00.001+08:00

The last few days in Manila have been that perfect blend of clear blue skies and fluffy white clouds. Just fantastic to wake up to!

Signs in Singapore

2007-09-02T19:43:00.001+08:00

Singapore has the coolest signs.

At the Zoo

At a Park

At Sentosa Island

In the MRT Station

The Secret to Avoiding Traffic in Manila

2007-09-02T19:37:00.000+08:00

I have finally learned how to avoid traffic in Manila--leave the house at 7:30am on a Sunday! We had an early appointment today and then wanted to do some furniture shopping. There was absolutely no one on the road! I think Sunday will be our new shopping day (although Ethan Allan was closed but it is just as well as we can not really afford that anyways).

We got lost on the way to Tiendesitas so we stopped to buy chicharon (because that is what to do when one gets lost) and asked directions from a nice family stopped there. Not only did they give us directions but had us follow them there!!! What a nice family! I cannot get over how sweet that was.

At Tiendesitas I found my dream dining room table...dark wood & light woods, weighed a billion pounds, no seams. Unfortunately the table was Php40,000 (about $850). This table will have to remain a dream a bit longer.

Christmas............

2007-08-31T21:25:00.000+08:00

Today is August 31. We went to SM San Lazaro today (SM is a huge brand of malls & department stores) to hit up their 50% off sale. We came home with some bowls (randomly branded for JC Penny...yeah I am a classy babe but for P100 ~$2 for five ceramic cereal bowls who cares), some books, yummy Gonuts donuts, and Christmas music. In the states, everybody is having their last picnic of the summer and here they are playing Christmas music. Now as much as I love Christmas, this is waaaay too early for me. I am not even remotely in the mood for Christmas. I am hoping it is just this mall, otherwise I will try to avoid all shopping until mid-November.

Ugh! Christmas music is August! I won't even get into the Christmas tree that was also on display...

Singapore: The Antithesis of Manila

2007-08-26T20:37:00.000+08:00

I just got back from a week in Singapore. Singapore was awesome. It was fantastic to get away from traffic and pollution. Greatest thing about Singapore was the walking. In Manila, I never walk anywhere. There are no sidewalks and the air quality leaves much to be desired. It was a fantastic change to just get out and be able to walk everywhere.

Singapore was also a lot more green than I had expected. I was picturing a concrete jungle and instead there was greenery all around. Trees, parks, you name it. We did every touristy thing known to man: Sentosa Island, Clark Quay, shopping at a slew of malls, Holland Village, the Merlion (this lion/mermaid statue that spits water).

The best attraction for me was the zoo. The zoo was unbelievable. We went to both the regular daytime zoo as well as the night safari and both were brilliant. I have never been to such a fantastic zoo. The animals actually seemed very well cared for.

There is also some great art all over. Cool statues and such. Just a really enjoyable city.

I cannot figure out how this city can be so organized and Manila be so disorganized. It is only when I leave Manila that I really see how good it could be. I loved never having traffic and being able to rely on a clean, user-friendly MRT. I loved that there were trashcans everywhere and you could actually get rid of your garbage (in Manila I often have to carry cigarette butts with me....I often have trouble finding a trashcan even right outside of a mall). I loved that when the light was green for pedestrians you could actually walk without having to fear a car would take you down. Don't get me wrong, I love Manila but I just think the potential to improve is huge and I actually cannot figure out why it hasn't already.

That's Some Monkey.....

2007-08-26T20:28:00.000+08:00

I have never seen such an anatomically correct statue of a monkey. This is from the Singapore Zoo which is by far the most amazing zoo I have ever been to.

Singapore

2007-08-16T09:12:00.000+08:00

In a little less than four hours I will be flying over to Singapore to spend a week there with two friends from college. I am looking forward to: (1) the food--everybody tells me it is very clean, (2) the shopping, and (3) SEEING MY FRIENDS! One who lives in Singapore I haven't seen since she moved back there a couple of years ago so I am really, really excited to see her. I am not looking forward to: (1) cigarettes--apparently they cost about $8USD per pack. I know, I know, I need to quit.

Family Planning in the Philippines

2007-08-13T18:20:00.000+08:00

Today the Philippine Inquirer published an article by Jaileen Jimeno (viewable here and here) that really opened my eyes to the reality of family planning in the Philippines. Up until now, I thought the lack of family planning was due to 1) lack of education and 2) lack of resources. It was not until I read this article that I realized the direct interference of the government to purposely block access to birth control.

For anybody, anywhere, to think that natural family planning is a solution is an idiot at best. For a top educated president like Arroyo to claim to believe this is asinine. When my grandma and I were talking about this subject when I visited SF earlier this year she told me, "Do you know what they call people who practice natural family planning? Parents."

Some of the stats in the article stunned me. 6 out of every 10 women have an unplanned pregnancy! That shocked me. I knew it was high but I never imagined it was that high. I can't tell you the number or family members/neighbors in our area that have multiple kids before the age of 25. My biggest issue is the fact that women are having more children than they want. If someone wants to have 15 kids, so be it. I am not part of the don't have kids if you can't afford it camp. My issue stems from women who want two or three and end up with six. The infrastructure cannot keep up with the population. It is all just very, very frustrating.

Nobody it seems is focusing on what happens to the kids once they are born. There is an orphanage in the area that we go by and visit every few weeks. There are usually about 50 kids there, many with disabilities and many siblings. If people want all these kids to be born, why are they not taking care of them.

Coming from a city where condoms were available free in high school and my pediatrician told me to call her immediately if I ever had unprotected sex (I was 13--not even close to having sex) to get an emergency high dose of birth control (old school morning after pill) I am stunned to now live in a place where sex education is not even taught in schools. I really fear for the future of the women here. Something has to change but I don't know if it will be soon enough.

Rain

2007-08-09T09:02:00.000+08:00

Well the rain finally came and man did it come! It has been raining straight for about two days. This is great because we are in drought situation here (water levels in the reservoirs way below what they should be). The bad news is EVERYTHING is flooded. We meant to go to Cubao yesterday to buy some tools and couldn't make it that far. Everything, everything was flooded. This did make us rethink our plans for the Prius.

Ever since our trip to the states (where we drove a Prius most of the time) we thought about bringing one here for our main car. We checked with Toyota in Quezon City and were informed they would not be sold here until early 2008. We cannot have one here (imported or otherwise) until they are sold here because there is no point in having a car that nobody knows how to fix. Looking at all the floods yesterday, we realized that a huge gas guzzling truck will be a necessity here during the rainy season. The floods in Manila and Makati can easily get above the knees with no problem. The Prius would not handle that very well at all.

I think we will spend the better part of the day at home. We wanted to hit a sale in Bulacan (up north) but after talking to a friend found out the city is flooded and not passable. Perhaps tomorrow.

House Update

2007-08-01T08:34:00.000+08:00

Our house is coming along nicely! This week we started to have the pool in the back dug which is great and we are starting to think more about landscaping. Before this whole experience, I never realized what went into building a home. There are so many things to think about that never even crossed my mind before. Even minor items such as placement of electrical outlets and phone jacks are things I had never really though about before.

The roof insulation and tresses have all gone on and we should have the roof tiles up in the next week or two. I cannot watch that process happen. Seeing the guys walk around up there freaks me out too much! I was told they get the tiles up there by tossing them up.

Electrical rough-ins have been installed in most of the rooms and the aircon rough-in will be next week as well. We are now looking at an October/November turnover. Most of the walls are concreted over so you no longer see sets of CHB stacked up, they just look more like solid walls. In additions, the floors have been evened out and are starting to be prepped to lay the floor.

I am loving the brickwork that has been started and this will continue to the inside as well as the back lanai.
We are starting now what I consider the "fun" part. The selection of cabinets, tiles, bathroom fixtures, etc is the part I am looking forward to. My one concern is the inside of the house seems dark....hopefully once the walls are painted and all the scaffolding is removed this will change.

The entire process of construction is just different than anything I have seen. For example, when the workers arrive in the morning, they change out of their closed toed shoes (often sneakers) and pants and work the day in shorts and slippers. No boots. No gloves. Definitely no hard hats. There is a lunch break (signaled on our crew by a bell) and everybody goes and eats. Then everybody finds a place in the shade to nap. They bell dings again and they all go back to work. This is repeated once (sans sleep) in the afternoon. We are bringing them lunch today. Man, these guys can eat! When you walk around the site, there is the laundry of the guys hanging on clotheslines all over the site. These guys work their ASSES off. This is hard work and the weather lately has been muggy and hot with very little rain.

Medical Care

2007-07-30T17:11:00.000+08:00

I went to St Luke's Medical Center for a general physical. Apparently, check-ups are not that common here (or called something else) because everyone there was confused that I was at the doctor and nothing was seriously wrong.

Hospitals here are different than what I was used to in San Francisco. When I went to the doctor there, all the doctors were employed by the hospital (i.e., the doctor at Kaiser collects his/her paycheck from Kaiser). Here they are more like a mall in the sense that independent doctors appear to rent space from a hospital but are not necessarily affiliated with the hospital in any other way. There are however heads of departments and such so it must be more complex than I am making it sound but this is as much as I can figure out now.

The doctor had me go for blood tests, urinalysis, and chest x-ray (he is a cardiologist, hence his interest in the chest). Everything was soooo smooth and quick! I have spent longer in line waiting to pay at Kaiser than the whole three tests here. The staff (both administrative and medical) were incredibly nice. They even kept their sweet demeanor when I started to pass out during the blood test and then threw up in their garbage.

Cost is unbelievable. With no insurance here and to receive:
-Consultation
-EKG (I apparently have a premature heartbeat. No big deal, but random none the less)
-Urinalysis
-Blood (blood count and chemical testing)
-Chest X-Ray

I paid a total of PHP5,012 which in US is $111.38 (assuming a P45/$1) for awesome care the entire time. You can't beat that!

Sky Cable

2007-07-24T19:16:00.000+08:00

I am continuing my quest to have Sky Cable installed at our current address. Once again, they will send some people out to see if we have a post near enough our house to install it. I am not optimistic. I have resigned myself to a lifetime of watching shows on my computer (downloaded off the internet) or watching fuzzy TV. Most neighborhoods have normal television with a clear signal. It is only in my neighborhood where it is so bad and likely caused by the 20+ houses that I am sure have tapped into our signal. If we ever wanted to piss the neighborhood off, we could not pay our bill and they would all lose cable.

The utilities are a big plus of moving. I am looking forward to:

1) 24-Hour Water (the water in our neighborhood is currently shut off at 9PM each night)

2) Better cable service (Sky is in our new neighborhood)

3) Better internet service (there are only two providers in our neighborhood and one was unable to connect it)

4) Garbage that is collected on a regular basis. Other than garbage day, we never see anyone's garbage can. Plus there is no garbage on the street.

Creepy, Creepy, Creepy

2007-07-24T19:09:00.000+08:00

We went by the new house site to check on the progress today. On the way out we stopped at the gate to talk to the guard. While there, I noticed a large picture of two young women with a notice stating they were not allowed to leave the village without written permission. When I asked the guard about it, he explained that these two women were household help and their employers did not want them leaving the village.

This is honestly one of the creepiest things I have seen. If you are that distrustful of your staff, why not fire them and hire new ones? I cannot imagine being trapped in a subdivision and only allowed to leave it with express written permission from my employer!

In Case you Missed it......

2007-07-23T09:03:00.000+08:00

This video has been EVERYWHERE on the internet, but in case you missed it here is a little glance of the country I call home. I cannot figure out if this is the most genius thing I have ever seen or the oddest. Either way, I love it!! This is at a prison in Cebu.

Arrived Back Safe

2007-07-18T12:36:00.000+08:00

Well we made it home from San Francisco. I loved being in SF. Not the weather--that sucks but I miss the city. I miss the great shops, restaurants, bars, neighborhoods. I also miss running into people. While in San Francisco, I ran into old friends, colleagues, etc which never happens in Manila. I don't know if it is just because there are 10 times the amount of people here (10mil versus San Francisco's under 1mil) or if I just know less people here. I also of course was very excited about the grocery shopping. Philippines cannot hold a candle to San Francisco especially when it comes to "gourmet" groceries. I also miss organic (yes, I prefer to buy organic when available) fruits, vegetables, meat, and milk.

Our flight back was uneventful. Most noteworthy event was seeing Martin Yan. He looks just like he does on TV. While I was looking at him to make than assesment, he gave me a rather dirty look. I guess he doesn't like people to stare at him. Can't imagine why not....

It is nice to be back in Manila. The rain is not too bad at all (only a few days) and the heat is nothing compared to when we left. Our house is coming along fantastically (I will take pictures tomorrow) and looks less like a concrete jail and more like a house. The bricklayer has started as well so it is starting to get some depth. We need to buy the air conditioners this week. Since we are doing split type (meaning the compressor is on the outside) we have to buy them now to complete the rough in.

In other news, I got my dog neutered yesterday. Man is he sad! I am assuming he is in a little pain so he is barely moving and gives me these pitiful looks.

Today we will go to S&R to get some groceries. I hope they are still in business because every time we go, the parking lot is empty.

In San Francisco

2007-06-05T22:33:00.001+08:00

Well, we made it to San Francisco now. I cannot figure out for the life of me how I can grow up here and yet when I return now for vacation I am FREEZING!! It is June and I actually turned on the heat for a little bit the day before yesterday.

New House Add'l

2007-05-28T12:12:00.000+08:00

I just looked at the picture of our house in progress that I posted and I just want to mention that, yes, we will be tearing down that ugly, ugly wall.

Grocery Sucess

2007-05-28T12:02:00.000+08:00

Shopping for groceries can be a chore here. When making a dish, my shopping lists are often read, "If I find ingredient A, buy ingrediant B". There is no point in having four out of five items needed for a meal. I have started to buy items if I may need them in the next 2-3 months because some things show up once, never to be seen again. We often will hit a few stores in one day of shopping to try to get everything needed. Soft corn torillas are the latest item I cannot find anywhere.

Last week we went to Unimart in Greenhills and found: enchilada sauce (both green & red), peanut butter without sugar (difficult for me to find--I bought three jars), and local free range eggs. I consider this, VERY successful shopping.

We leave in two days for a vacation in the states and I am quite excited to go grocery shopping (Trader Joes especially). My food plans include: eating burritos from La Cumbre a few times a week, going to Izzy's Steakhouse, drinking as much milk as humanly possible, ordering Round Table Pizza (I realize this is not the pinnacle of fine dining but it is very much comfort food to me), eating pounds of strawberries & cherries, and living off of sourdough bread. I am going to gain so much weight!! I can't wait!

New House: Getting Closer

2007-05-26T11:34:00.001+08:00

The house is coming along. The second floor had the slab poured a couple of weeks ago and walls are starting to go up on the second floor. The photos kinda stink because it is all just concrete hollow blocks and cement. I will be able to get better ones once the finishing starts. They are aiming to put the roof tresses up this week which will be good because rainy season is definitely just around the corner.

Some pipes for drainage have been installed. It is so different for me to see a house being built here of cement and plastic pipes versus the wood and copper/iron pipes of SF. Another difference here is the treatment of soil for termites. We have had a couple done so far. Apparently termites can become a major issue here.

Everyone's a Critic

2007-05-26T11:27:00.000+08:00

One of our household staff was teaching her grandson to say my name. He couldn't do it (he is two years-old). She told him, "is Tita maganda (beautiful)?" He looked straight at me and said, "Dog."

The Rottweiler

2007-05-19T20:37:00.000+08:00

As we get ready for a month long trip to the states, I am getting concerned about my dog. He is just over one year old and a rottweiler.

Dogs in the Philippines are often treated a little differently than the states. Where many people in the states view a pet as an extra family member, a lot of people treat pets here as....pets. Many people keep their dogs in cages (something I had never seen before coming here and still have not fully gotten used to). This is not done to be mean, but people's houses are a lot smaller here and many people do not allow the dog in their house. Backyards are often nonexistent. Our current household has FIVE dogs. I treat my dog somewhere in the middle...he is not a member of the family but he is a beloved pet which means no cage and regular walks. Guess which one is not in a cage (well to be fair, the biting chiwawa is not in a cage either)? Herein lies the problem:

1. While we are gone, no one will walk him. He is only a year old and quite hyper. He needs walks. I talked to one of the household help and although he said he can walk the dog, short of me texting him everyday from the states means this won't happen. Nobody else wants to walk him because he is a rottweiler (with the disposition of a Labrador) and that alone makes people scared of him.

2. While we are gone, they will feed him crap food. I buy imported "natural" food and once I leave he will be on the Alpo with rice diet. It makes him stink.

3. He is not yet neutered. I wanted to wait until the one year mark (theory about letting the dog get to a certain stage in physical development). Do I neuter him in the week before we leave and hope he can heal in that time and won't have any complications or wait until we get back when he will be almost 14 months old?

See, I guess this is how you can tell I am an American. With all the problems in the world, I am spending time tripping about my dog.

Nothing to Do With Anything

2007-05-19T20:35:00.000+08:00

Come on, watching cheese age? This is good stuff!! (Reminds me of mom watching the Yule Log late night on Christmas Eve).

http://www.cheddarvision.tv/

Oreo Cookies......

2007-05-18T10:58:00.001+08:00

I am not positive intellectual property exists here. I will ponder this while eating my Fibiso Hi-Ro.

Boracay

2007-05-17T18:46:00.000+08:00

Once we were off the Boat of Death, we arrived in Boracay. Just a short boat ride to a short van ride and we were there!! Boracay is absolutely stunning. It is second (in my book) only to Palwan in beauty. Just perfect--the sand is the consistency of flour, the water is so clear you can be neck deep and still see your toes. It is just gorgeous.We stayed at Cez Manor which was not beach front but less than a minute walk to the beach. We paid PHP2,500 (about $50) per night. We selected this place based on our large group (14 people) consisting namely of teenagers which meant that one of the rooms had six people (two parents, four sons). Hotels here do not seem to be very bothered by large groups of people in one room which was good for our friends paying two college tuitions at the time. The hotel....well, you get what you pay for. For $50, you get two beds, a shower with hot water (trust me, this is an amenity here, not standard at all), air con, and satellite television (PHP300 deposit if you want the remote). The only thing to note about the Philippines is if you are staying at a no-name hotel, there are things you may find that would never fly in the states (holes in sheets, pillows that smell like feet/mildew, mildew so thick in the bathroom you can scrape it off with your finger, bathroom sink that leaks heavily but the housekeeper will at least switch the trash can for you, holes in the door, no window anywhere in the room).

We spent a day island hopping and snorkeling which was absolutely fantastic. There were some great fish and just mass quantities of them. I did not take any pictures as I am tired of coming home from vacation with half of my camera filled with blurry pictures of fish that look nowhere near as cool as they did in real life. Just wonderful snorkeling. We stopped on a little island that was stunning, had some of the bluest water I had ever seen, and had a man with a machine gun. I sidled up to one of the boys and before I could open up my mouth, he said, "no, this is not normal and I do not know." We gave the gunman pizza rolls. I assume he was an un-uniformed security guard of some sort but who knows. He seemed to like the pizza rolls. Everything was great with out boat. One of the boat guys threw an empty Vienna sausage can in the water and Ado made him go dive down and get it. Lucky for him we were only in about 12 feet of water.

At night in Boracay, the beach turns into a multitude of restaurants serving every type of cuisine imaginable. We selected Mongolian BBQ which was PHP220 per person (~$4.50) for all you can eat (or here as they say, Eat All You Can). Good food. They had mushrooms which was a big plus, albeit mushrooms from a can. We brought a couple of bottles of wine (no corkage) and proceeded to stuff ourselves. On the beach they had set up low tables with pillows on bamboo benches. Just spectacular. A live band was playing right next door and for me it just about creates the perfect dinner in paradise.

The following day all the kids got henna tattoos (PHP100 or $2) and we spent the day rotting on the main beach. Perfect weather. Lunch was at the Mandarin Spa (wood fire pizza) and dinner was Greek at Cyma in D'Mall which I quite enjoyed. Fantastic food. We had a tomato/cucumber/feta salad, fried cheese, and lamb ribs. I don't eat a lot of lamb here so it was a nice treat.

We took Cebu Pacific home. We had never flew them before but it was a nice flight. Made it to Manila in 45 minutes. Much better than the cruddy boat (can you tell I am still disturbed by the boat ride??).

Boracay: Taking the Boat

2007-05-16T09:35:00.000+08:00

This past weekend we went to Boracay with a group of friends/family. While we were planning, we got the brilliant idea to take the boat (MBRS Lines) down and the plane for the return. This, in hindsight, was not such a good idea.

The ship leaves Manila at 17:30 and reaches Boracay at 8:30 the next morning. Usually you can eat dinner, have a couple of drinks in the bar, and then go to sleep. Upon awaking, you are already in Boracay.

We have taken the boat to Boracay before in 2003. At that time, it was low season, meaning the boat was practically empty. This time, the boat was oversold. Apparently one of the owners was running for office and gave free passes to potential voters. There were people mashed into every corner you can imagine. To reach our cabin, you had to step over tons of sleeping people. As a result, the bathrooms all smelled like death (worst smell you can imagine), the aircon didn't work, and there were piles of garbage all over the ship.

The president of the boat line will be at our house on Sunday so we will talk to him then. For now, I will never, ever take MBRS Lines to Boracay. If you are so inspired to do so, http://www.mbrslines.com/ is the website. Bring earplugs and a portable fan.

Demonic Rabbit

2007-05-08T14:57:00.000+08:00

This scary rabbit is the face of the freeway (NLEX-North Luzon Expressway). I don't know why but he is very scary to me. His eyebrows look kind of sinister. Thank god we do not have cartoon animals by the toll plazas in the states.

Subic Trip

2007-04-30T21:34:00.001+08:00

We left Manila first thing on Friday morning to head up to Subic for the weekend. We went with two friends of ours, their two kids, and their two yayas. Subic is about two hours north of Manila and was formerly a US Military base. The housing that remains there looks just like every other military base housing. We stopped in the city proper to visit some friends and then headed to our hotel, Mountain Woods Resort (www.mountainwoodsresortsubic.com) . This hotel was not on the beach but up on a hill (as the name suggests). It was an okay hotel. The rooms were nicely appointed and they had insect repellent in the bathrooms next to the shampoo which was a nice touch. My only issue with the room was the lack of working air conditioning. Simply put, it sucked. We actually pulled the bed out from the wall to move it closer to the under-producing air conditioning unit. Otherwise, the hotel was clean, piano player in the lobby, fresh tarragon springs in the water carafe, staff was great, management was inept, pool was clean enough (even if it was under filled which was only a bummer because you do not get the infinity effect).
Since Mountain Rock Resort is a sister property of White Rock Beach Resort we got 50% off the beach entrance rates (not free like the website states). After visiting friends, we went to White Rock Beach, arriving there around 4pm and let them know we would be there until 8pm (they have a nice attendant bring your stuff to the beach). We rented a cabana and relaxed and swam a bit. At about 6:30, we requested they turn on the lights. They wanted PHP500 for this (about $10). After much arguing, we received an emergency light (kinda like a stand-up flashlight) so we could at least pack up our items.

Saturday morning we woke up early to head over to Zoobic which is a zoo there. Great place to go with kids. They had some neat animals and when it is time to see the tigers for PHP200 you can buy some chicken that they will feed to the tigers which is very cool. The guide flings the chicken around on a string and tosses it up to the roof as well so the tiger will climb on the roof of the vehicle which was very cool.
You also visit Aeta Trail where you watch a dance done by some Aetas. This part I was not too into. The Aeta's are the indigenous people of the Philippines and this display seemed less like cultural education and more along the lines of "let's take pictures and gawk". Something about they way they had it set up didn't sit right with me.
Final stop at Zoobic was the CrocoLoco pen which had a slew of crocodiles. Here for PHP50 you can buy yet some more chicken and feed the crocodiles. The chicken is attached to a string on a stick (like a fishing pole) which meant instead of feeding time, it was "Let's Taunt the Crocodiles and Make Them Jump Repetitively for Food Which I Will Yank Back Before They can Reach It" time. This was my favorite part of Zoobic.

Next we headed to Camayan Beach which was reccomened to us. They had no remaining space at the beach (not surprising considering it was a Saturday in the height of summer) so we headed back to the hotel for swimming. That night we hit a bar, watched a bikini show, and saw some live bands.

Sunday we headed back to Camayan Beach first thing in the morning. For non hotel guests there are no reservations; it is first come, first served. You know the lines you see outside of nightclubs with everyone trying to get in? This was the scene at Camayan but instead of people dressed to the nines, it was families loaded down with coolers and kids. We went back to the wretched White Rock (our aircon in the car had died---long story but since the car is still under warrenty and there was no dealer in the area, we just dealt with the hot car) since we knew there was space. We spent the day there and enjoyed it. When it got too hot during the peak of the afternoon we went over to the pool and hung out in the shady end of the pool.

We left for Manila directly from White Rock around 7pm (we wanted to avoid the heat so we drove at night) which would have been uneventful except for two things. (1) NLEX (North Luzon Expressway) was having work done so a 15-minute strech of road turned into two hours and (2) contrary to the painted signs on the ground reading "NO OVERTAKING", the shoulder can apparently be used as an additional lane.

Monkeys

2007-04-30T13:23:00.000+08:00

This past weekend we went to Subic Bay. One of the best things about the Philippines is taking a road trip and seeing monkeys on the side of the road. For some reason this is way cooler to me than the deer we would see on the way to Yosemite back home (although I must admit, I do like the deer as well).

Shopping Philippine Style

2007-04-25T09:43:00.000+08:00

Since our house is getting slightly nearer to completion, we went out yesterday to start pricing major appliances, specifically air conditioners (eight total), ceiling fans (10 total), refrigerator (one), stove top (built-in, one piece), oven (again built in, no range), and television (okay, not a necessity as we were looking at the LCD flat screens).

Back home, I would have gone online to check out the major appliance stores, read some consumer reports articles, hit Costco, and made a list from that. Here, I go to store X (not many stores here are online and the ones that are are full of dead links, outdated information, and never any prices). At store X, I talk to multiple sales people since each person is in charge of a different brand. They give me the prices, the EER, and explain to me that kj/h is the same as BTU. I am looking for different HP and types (some rooms in our house get more use, versus the guest room aircons will not be run very often). Then after they give me the prices, we discuss what the discounted price would be. That's right, even in a major store the listed price is not the final price. Easy example, a 40" Samsung "Bordeaux plus" LCD television is marked at PHP179,000. They can give it on sale for PHP149,900 and it includes a free 29" television. We tell them we do not want the free item so they tell us 132,000. Then we tell them we were talking to a woman in the store who bought the exact television (I had huge TV envy there) and she informed us she bought it for PHP117,000. They agree that they could give it for that price. Picture this situation happening 1,000 times.

So, one might assume that since we have already been to store X we do not need to hit up another branch of the exact same store. Ha! We hit it up when passing it in another mall and get different prices. This happens everywhere. At an oven store, we went to two different stores (selling exclusively this brand) and got prices of PHP4,000 difference on the same item.

Combine this time-consuming process with my ignorance of many of the specialty brands here (I am not too hip on European brands) and you can see why shopping here is a whole other animal.

Don't even get me started about the ceiling fan portion of this mission. Let's just say that I have now determined I will likely buy these overseas and ship them here because (1) the selection sucks and (2) the prices suck even more.

Bonus of the whole day, one of the sales guys, Reymond, at store X was A W E S O M E! He was so nice, knew his stuff, and when I had one question he did not know (did the aircon remote glow in the dark), he told me, "Sorry, I actually do not know." People who tell me they don't know instead of making it up score big with me. Hopefully these guys get commission because we will hook Reymond up.

Philippines Expat

2007-04-23T21:52:00.000+08:00

It is weird for me to be here in the sense that there are very few people like me here. It seems like most Americans living here are either:
1. Men who have married much younger, prettier women
2. Men who are married to a normal Filipina woman and have moved/retired here.
3. Men who have retired here (often ex military)
4. Volunteers
5. Missionaries (lotta Mormons here....they look just like they do in the states, short sleeved shirts with ties and backpacks).
6. People who were placed here by their companies.

I haven't quite found my niche yet. There is a club for American Women but I fear they will be a lot older than me and if most are based here for employment, it means they have more money than God. Not sure if they will have a place for me.

Smart Kids

2007-04-23T20:34:00.000+08:00

Tonight we were at yet another wake (these happen fairly often in our neighborhood) and a little girl was dressed up in a beautiful sun dress. I told her she looked beautiful and the boy next to me (who couldn't have been more than 10) responded, "She is dressed to kill." Where he learned that expression I have no idea but I was quite impressed!

Swimming Pool

2007-04-17T11:01:00.000+08:00

Today we are meeting with two pool contractors--Aqua Pools & Bulacan Gardens. We originally had contacted Bulacan Gardens for our landscaping and had then decided against them as we found that a lot of our friends did their own landscaping and were willing to help us with ours. Our contact at Bulacan Gardens mentioned that they do pools also so we set up an appointment. Our second appointment is with Aqua Pools which is the company our designer uses. I am a big fan of word of mouth.

Catch is, we are not sure what we can do with our space. It is not a huge space and I want a swimming pool that is 6' deep (if we had more space we would make it deeper) at the deepest point. In addition, we want lots of lights inside as well as a mosaic style tile (we saw it at a resort and loved the way the water looked). We need space for our gigantic grill as well as a small covered structure (natural--teak or nipa) to be right next to the pool. We want it fun enough for adults but safe so that all the kids (billions of godchildren, nieces, cousins, etc) will not get out of sight and drown.