1 Year!

Yes, it's been a year!

A year since I arrived in the Philippines. It sure doesn't seem like it has been that long. Not really having four distinct seasons, each with their own radical temperature range, sights, and smells has something to do with that, I'm sure. Although I am beginning to appreciate when it is NOT summer here!

Jay's been doing a good deal of melting lately. My body still hasn't, or can't, acclimate to the heat. Friends, family, and longtime readers may remember my saying that within my first month here my body opened up pores it didn't know it had and other such things.

Well, last week was Holy Week. For people who have forgotten what that is (like me), or just didn't know to begin with, it is the week before Easter. For those unaware of Easter, I've provided the Wikipedia link for you.

In the Philippines the entire country observes Holy Week whether they want to or not. Everything closes from Thursday through Easter Sunday, though some stores reopen on Easter.

No malls.

No movies.

No MRT or LRT for Manilans to shuttle about the metro. (Where would they go? Also the reason not all businesses reopen.)

Where is everyone?

Most either go home to the provinces or to the beach.

While the idea of Holy Week, according to the church , is a time to reflect and pray, that is hardly what the throngs of beach goers in places such as Puerto Galera are doing. Think Spring Break in Florida or Cancun! The only reflecting and praying going on there is the reflection droves of drunks see in the bathroom mirror as they pray they aren't vomiting up vital organs along with everything else. Even Atheists are brought close to God at times like those.

Other beach goers, while not praying, may be saying Oh God for other reasons I will leave up to your imaginations. Think Girls/Guys Gone Wild!

At the end of February, many people began asking us where we were going for Holy Week. Edson and I never even realized it was coming! I at least had an excuse. In the US, Holy Week is not observed like it is here, and I had only experienced my first Filipino Holy Week last year, just two weeks after my arrival. Edson's six years abroad made him forget it.

So we didn't plan to go anywhere. We stayed in Makati, living in the CBD. It may well have been quieter here than at the beaches, there was so little traffic. Our condo's swimming pool became our own resort; and as it was hot, we spent a good deal of time there each day.


I got to meet some of our neighbors there and spent many hours chatting with them, because I'm the social, er...white one of us!

Well, Easter came and we were awakened by our alarm at 4am (ugh) to attend Easter sunrise service with Edson's family at the Church of the Risen Lord on the University of the Philippines campus.


A wonderful brunch followed later at 11am, once the restaurants began to reopen. There, the manager of the restaurant asked how long I was visiting. To her surprise I replied I am living here. She asked if I liked the Philippines and I said I did. She followed that with "when are you leaving?", as if to be saying, "poor, dumb foreigner, you should go home".

I find I got that a lot, even from the neighbors at the pool. Everyone hopes I like the Philippines, but they all want to know when I am leaving. Inside, perhaps subconsciously they are thinking We hope you like it here, but we hope you don't stay. We made that mistake with the Spaniards. Now look where that got us: we all have Spanish surnames and we're Catholic.

Anyway, that was my week.



And now for something completely different. (I know, I should've put this in a different entry. But I was thinking about it and decided what the heck!

Last night, our good friend Darz pointed us to this YouTube dance mix of Janina San Miguel's Q&A from the pageant a couple weeks ago. After sitting at the computer reading long blog entries like this, you can get up and dance to it to get your circulation going again.

Enjoy.

Holiday Memories...and Iowa?

A few Christmas and New Year's memories via text messages on my cell phone. Yes, memories from the cell phone. Filipinos don't send cards, they send texts. It's all you can do to send a regular text message on Christmas and New Year's Eve and Day because the lines are so jammed with people texting everyone in their contacts list!

Dis christmas, f ther's something better than sharing with others the best of what u have, it is sharing with others the best of who u are. MALIIGAYANG PASKO po!
-Paradigm Salon

Wishing u d best that next year has to offer, merry xmas from my heart. Hugs
-Rye

Merry Christmas & Happy new year! Have a good ur holiday...with ur family also! *^^*
-Gloria

May d true reason of xmas continue 2 bles u n serve as ur guide in d yr 2 come. Have blessd xmas n a prosperous 2008!
-Booboy

Merry Christmas. You have been part of my life and made a difference on how I view life. Thank you...:) *hugs*
-Yucel

In this joyous season of merrymaking & endless parties, remember this: "Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator." Merry Christmas! (",)(^_^)
-John

May you have the joyous Christmas, and wishing you the very best times ahead. Cheeers!
-Nathan

Merry Christmas. May this day bring you joy and wonderful surprises. ^_^
-Dee

Don't you wish you were Santa...because he knows where all the naughty boys live. ^_^ HO HO HO! Merry Christmas;-)
-F.T.

Merry Christmas ^_^
-Jonathan

hi! merry xmas jay and ed (cincinnati time). ^_^ i sent a msg last xmas but i dnt knw f it reachd u guys...jst 2 b sure dat i didnt fget my friends..its stil xmas in sme parts of d world. ^_^
-Yucel

Happy New Year! I wish you hapiness, health and wealth dis coming 2008! God bless you and ur family! Thank you and take care! ^_^
-Jeremy

happy bday to edson!
-Roy and Nathan

Sin Ni Kwai Lok. Happy New Year. May this year be full of bounty and good health 4 u and ur family. Wishing all d luck and pr0sperity this yr.
-Luwi

Happy bday to edson! May u have a joyous new year guys. ^_^
-Yucel

As we end 2007, its a gud tym 2 luk bak n reflct on d yr dat was; b thankful 4 all d blessns n learn fr our faults 2 b strong in facn d challenges of 2008.
-Booboy

Happy New Year! I wish you happiness, health and wealth dis coming 2008! God bless you and ur family! Thank you and take care! ^_^
-Jeremy

I wanted to send you something beautiful, attractive, funny and sexy but the postman told me to take the stamps off my ass and get the fuck out the postbox! Have an explosive evening and best wishes for 2008! Mwah!
-Noel

As you can well imagine, spell check had quite a time with those! Ah, such is the nature of text messaging!

I remembered those today because we just received our first Christmas cards! Today. Today, January 4th.

The postmarks show them being sent on December 7th from Denver, CO, December 10th from Cincinnati, OH, and December 15th from Oakland, CA. That's just the states! One was marked December 20th from Lucena, a city just a six-hour drive away!

Oh well, just so they made it before Epiphany!

Let's see, what other fond memories?

Oh yes! I tried ostrich on Christmas Day. The taste is good, very similar to steak, but too chewy for my likes.

Edson's brother, Ed, took this great picture of us:

Overall, 2008 seems to be going along quite well. Only 361 more days before we can make any sort of final judgment call!

The only disturbing news has come from the US...the state of Iowa to be exact.

At a fund raising dinner in Iowa hosted by actor Chuck Norris, current front-runner (and I understand, winner of the Iowa caucus) Mike Huckabee was reported as follows:

As he often does, the former governor drew big laughs from the crowd when he told them to tell their neighbors who might caucus for one of his rivals that they do not want to miss the Orange Bowl, which is being played the same night as the caucuses.
“Shovel your snow into their driveway,” Huckabee joked. “Let the air out of their tires, disconnect their battery cable.”

Isn't that a little bit frat-boyish and immature? Of course, those qualities got Dubya elected, so I suppose that is what matters to Republicans now. And to think Huckabee's a Baptist minister! Jokingly or not, someone in his position should not be condoning that sort of behavior!

The day before, he appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and was surprised that people were picketing him in support of the writer's strike. He said he didn't know the writers hadn't reached an agreement with that show.

Didn't know?

Even Filipinos I've spoken with about current events know of the writer's strike in the US! Filipinos know what the state of the strike is, but someone running for president of the United States doesn't?!

Uh, sir? You're not qualified!!

Well, he might be qualified to be attorney general (see: Alberto Gonzalez).

"Didn't know", "Don't know", and "Don't remember" are almost campaign slogans for the Republicans at this point!

Also at the Norris fundraiser:

In a small departure from most of Huckabee’s campaign events, his wife, Janet, took the stage to address the crowd and introduce the band.

“I can’t wait to be your first lady because I think it is going to be too cool, and we are going to have too much fun,” Janet Huckabee said.

Too cool???!!!

Tell me that was a misplaced Britney Spears quote, and/or that the whole thing is just a bad dream!

Can you imagine a first lady speaking like that?!

"Um, like, yeah...being first lady is so totally cool! And the White House is, like, really awesome! And I get to meet some really cool people. They're from these, like, poor countries...where they, like, don't even have a Wal-Mart. And they have these really weird names...they're so hard to pr-...uh...say! It's all just so much fun, though."

A presidential candidate who doesn't know his domestic current events and an airhead wanna-be first lady.

America needs our prayers.

Holiday Lights

If you've made it this far, you've already seen the nice lights strung up on the trees around our swimming pool.

Most days lately the water has been awfully chilly, but it is just about perfect at night for us to be able to relax after dinner on those new teak chaise lounges or at one of the tables. It beats spending time indoors on a nice night until the urge to watch another three or four episodes of Desperate Housewives kicks in and we rush back up to our unit on the 14th floor.

This is about as Christmas-y as it gets for us around here. Oh, there is the Christmas tree in the lobby downstairs, but we don't spend a lot of time in our lobby for it to really influence our feeling of Christmas. It's just a traditional tree. It doesn't spew the fake snow (styrofoam pellets) out the top like the trees at SM department store did.

Yes, "did".

They sold out!

SM sold out of those awful, tacky things!

There's just no underestimating the tastes of a consumer society.

I'll stick with the joyous tranquility of the scene around our pool.

Merry Christmas, all!

Christmas Time is Here Again

Christmas Time is Here Again

Yes, it is indeed time for Bing Crosby to sing White Christmas, the only time of the year anybody anywhere listens to Burl Ives, and of course, an endless plethora of putrid poetry put to music. Why must so much good holiday music go unheard while malls and radio stations inflict well-meaning Christians with unfortunate vocal abilities and Mariah Carey on us? And will somebody please go slap the producers who thought of making euro-inspired dancey, dare I say, almost polka-ish mixes of some of the worst Christmas music ever recorded?

All of metro Manila has been listening to this since late September. (Yeah, they start early here!)

At SM department store, Christmas trees spew "snow" out the treetop that trickles down, eventually being collected in the large bowl in which the tree sits, only to be sucked up and out the top again.

In the Philippines it is felt that Christmas here is somehow distinctly second-rate when compared with America and Europe. White Christmas, Jingle Bells, Winter Wonderland, Frosty the Snowman, even Santa Claus and his sleigh, are all rather unlikely imports to a nation where, this December 12th, it is 87 degrees Fahrenheit! Filipinos think they're missing out on something. Yeah, missing out on the likelihood of needing to wear multiple layers of undergarments, sweaters, parkas, scarves, and gloves to stay warm! It's nice every now and again, but I'm enjoying it just the way it is, thanks!

In fact, just yesterday it was around 85 degrees Fahrenheit and I was having coffee with my friend Noel at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in the Convergys building. Actually, I wasn't having coffee. I was having a "mixed blend" iced chocolate, which has no coffee in it whatsoever. But it doesn't seem right to say I was having "mixed blend iced chocolate", especially at a coffee shop. It doesn't roll off the tongue very easily. In fact, a lot of people say they "had coffee" even when they didn't drink anything at all! Just being in a coffee shop while their friends and others around them have coffee seems to be reason enough to say they "had coffee".

And no, this time we were not talking about food. Aside from looking at the menu at a restaurant, I don't recall ever talking about food with Noel. We were talking about something apparently far less interesting, since I can't remember what it was when we noticed someone walk past the window outside wearing a wool skull cap, gloves, and a parka. He was followed by a man perspiring in slacks and short-sleeve button-down shirt who was fanning himself with an envelope. Now, if you're cold enough to wear a parka, gloves, and wool hat when it is 85, you're prepared for global warming! If you're like the man behind him, you are clearly not, like the rest of us.

Anyway, all this is just to lead you up to some pictures I thought you may, or may not be interested in seeing of metro Manila during the holidays.

Along Ayala Avenue:


At Greenbelt:

Commuters, traffic and lights:

The tree at Mall of Asia, decorated completely with poinsettias, gold glass balls, and teddy bears. Underneath notice the Cartoon Network Snow-ville area, where fake snow is blown onto poor unsuspecting children while their snap-happy parents take their pictures.

And on the other side of our tree we have St. Nick in his shiny satin suit and poly-fiber beard. Nobody charging parents $10 or $15 to have their child's picture taken. Just kids sitting on Santa's lap while mom or dad uses up some more space on the memory card.