Year of the Rat

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

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!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.