Everyday life

Nothing exciting to write about. Not that my previous writings will win the Pulitzer prize. So I just decided to add some photos. First two photos are of my walk from the main road to my apartment. Scary at night. Third is the Ayala mall courtyard that I went to today. Fourth and fifth are the public market, this place is busy at night. Last one is of SM mall cebu.

New year's eve

I spent new year's eve with April at her family. We went to her aunts and uncles home in Talisay. It is customary to bring a gift for the hostess so we bought some wine and a cake. Talisay may look very close on the map but it takes two hours to go the short distance.   It's about 7 miles but since I don't have transportation of my ownroad made it a religious experience.

two hours for the seven miles.
Cebu is known for there lechon. It's a whole roasted pig. You can buy smaller amounts instead of the whole pig. It's not bad at all but I could use some of masterpiece BBQ sauce. When I go and see April's relatives they want to stuff me with food. Now I know I'm not wasting away but if you have ever been to a feedlot that thought comes to mind.
What would good food be without drinking. I had some beer and wine but not to much. Family get togethers consist of food and drinking. People were very nice to me.  They spoke mainly visayan so I didn't understand most of what they were saying. Sometimes they would talk to me in English or April would interpret.
Fireworks are a very big part of the celebration. The next door neighbor rolled out a string of firecrackers 150 feet long then lit it. It seemed like it took forever for it to finish.I have a crappy photo of it, sorry about the quality. The place turned into a war zone at midnight. April was excited to see fireworks since the city she is from doesn't allow them. Only problem was she would run away and scream when they started. So I don't get into trouble lets just change April's name to Megan. About 1:45 it was time to go home. One of April's cousins took us down to the main road to pickup a taxi. The taxi ride only took 30 minutes and was what you would call a tent revival because you thought you were going to see Jesus. Driving at speeds of up to 55 mph and dodging drunk people walking in the middle of the road

Burgers, blessings, immigration, and please don't send me to jail

I wanted a real burger so I went to this food stall at tamiya that  grills their burgers. Just as my food arrives a.lady stops in front of me. And places down a card that says blessings for the new year or something like that. She then says "blessing" does what looks like a Buddhist bow then stares at me. Well I figure she is waiting for money so I give her 10 pesos or about 11 cents. I didn't want to curse the new year so I gave money.
The burger was OK still that same burger taste that burgers here have. When I'm back on USA soil I want a real burger. Damn the cholesterol and full speed ahead.
When you arrive here you get 30 days Visa free, well my 30 days are up Saturday 2 January. So I went had got money then went and had passport photos made then headed to immigration in the mall. Guess what they are closed. The sign on the door says they will be closed from 1 to 3 January. Well its 30 December which isn't in the dates closed range but the lady selling treats by there says they are closed for the holidays. So on January the third I'm a illegal alien. I will go to immigration on Monday and pay the fine of about 10 dollars. I hope I'm not going to be on cops Philippines.

Back from the dead

Spent the last day and a half feeling like crap. I think I ate some bad tuna. You see they don't have all those silly health regulations and inspections to worry about. Most everything is un-regulated. People die on the job and their families are compensated a couple hundred dollars if that. It's the enduring spirit of the Filipino people I admire. Life is very hard here but they keep going on and smiling. We Americans are spoiled. Every body ,especially teenagers, need to spend time in a third world country.
I've attached the photo of the trike/jeepney terminal at Tamiya. I usually go catch a trike on the street. They wait until they are full so I don't feel like waiting at the terminal. A trike holds 7 including driver but sometimes two more will ride on the back.Plus what a $ 1.42 breakfast looks like.

Christmas eve

Christmas eve is a very big thing here. Families get together and eat, drink, and videoke. It sounded like a war zone here last night. Fireworks booming till 3 am and videoke blurring from multiple places at full blast at the same time. Videoke is the same as karaoke but with a video in the background that came from Korea and has nothing to do with the song.
Alot of people can't afford fireworks so they create some kind of exploding thing. Reminds me of a potato gun with no potato (thank god). Went to the road a little after dark and saw most guys carrying large bottles of beer so I said to myself " get your skinny white butt back to the apartment". I didn't want to play gangrape the American.
It's Christmas afternoon here. Went to Tamiya earlier and spent a couple of hours chilling and people watching. Took some pictures of it.
At lunch the girl thought I was very handsome and loved my nose. She looked about 22 so its weird having girls that young complimenting me. Let's calculate how many in the last ten years girls below the age of 30 have said nice things like that. The square root of pi times the number of brain cells I have times the amount of air in outer space and the answer is zero till today. Don't tell April or I may be have to blog tied to the bed and unable to get out.

Ladyboys and a massage

Yesterday evening I was heading to go get dinner and grabbed a trike. When I got in I thought I was sitting next to a girl. When she started to sing I knew my thought process was all wrong. It's a dude dressed like a girl. I'm not trying to judge its just throwing me off my game when you see a pretty girl who has the beans and frank.
Ate at a restaurant called organge Brutus. Got the cheeseburger meal with a coke for about $ 1.70. Sometimes it's great to be in the Philippines.
After that I wanted to go to the spa for a massage .I decided to pay extra for the Swedish massage with oil. OK OK I'm worth it. It cost me $ 5.30 for the hour long massage. OK I felt like a dumb hick. They immediately changed my flip-flops for a pair of theirs. The lady pointed to the wash basin but I was scared to move so she said "feet in" then she washed my feet and took me to a dark room and left me. A few minutes later the girl who be massaging me came in and said sir please remove some clothes,I felt like a  dumb hick. Great massage then at end she asked me if I wanted happy. If you don't know what happy is just ask any sailor who has been to the Orient. I said no because I didn't want to get a trip that keeps on giving long after I left.
Remember men we are all in this together.

King Lapu-lapu and hamburgers

We went to the Mactan shrine yesterday. It commemorates King Lapu-lapu killing Magellan. I think they made a mistake killing Magellan because two years later the Spanish came back and conquered them. They should have done what they do to foreigners today. Show them around the island, charge them twice the price then what's it's worth, send them to Mango ave. Where they can get a disease and urinate painfully the rest of their life. That's the Christian thing to do.
Last night I was hungry and wanted to try Angel's hamburgers as its a short walk away. While I'm there two girls kept trying to talk to me but their English was broken up. A few minutes later a truck pulls up and a guy gets out as the girls are leaving. He asks me if I think they are pretty and that I should follow them. It's at that time that I think about my emergency exit strategy. Luckily after a few minutes of me saying I'm not interested them leave and I immediately leave  towards my apartment. As a note Angels hamburgers wasn't very good. It's a processed meat Patty the kind you get in the 88 cent TV dinners. And that's insulting the cheap TV dinners.
Good luck finding toilet paper in public, luckily there are toilet paper machines at Tamiya ( the local shopping place not to far away). 2 cents but I don't know how many square you get.
In the one photo I'm eating a sweet Mango that we bought by the statue of King Lapu-lapu.