Finally Moved

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.