Teeth

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

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

Did I Mention it is Hot???

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!!

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

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

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

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

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.....

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!!!

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

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

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.