Hello there
I've retreated into a world of made up characters and alcohol instead of posting on here. I'm not sorry. But, now here I am and I shall update you on things.
I'm obsessed with a couple tv shows right now. They're good. And, well, my life is on reruns while my producers come up with some better stuff for the second half of the season. You should watch Veronica Mars and The Wire.
The movie The Science of Sleep is AWESOME. I loved it. You should also watch that.
Tried the new Japanese restaurant that opened two blocks from me. Great! I think I'll quit buying groceries and just eat there now. Also, it's Restaurant Week and I took Ashley to Firebird, a Russian restaurant in Midtown. Pretty good, not amazing, but still really good. Next week, a group of us from work are going to Craft Bar (yes, that's Tom Coliccio's restaurant) for lunch. I'm excited! (Also, Top Chef is lame. Watch the first season instead. Though, I did get to try all those foods they had in last week's episode!). This week I also tried out the restaurant Burgers & Cupcakes. Alas, not as good as the name suggests...burgers were underwhelming (though onion rings and fries were pretty good) and the cupcakes were pretty terrible.
Watched the State of the Union at this event sponsored by some liberal non-profit groups at some bar. Very interesting experience. It's nice to be in a city where people are politically and socially aware.
I'm happy to report that my mom is doing awesomely. She is on a three-month hiatus since she finished her residency. She will be opening a pediatric clinic in her sister's preschool sometime in April. She's happy and successful and it's all very comforting.
At the McDonald's in Manila, they have the "McRice burger." Instead of buns made of bread, they are made of rice. Like sticky rice formed into bun shape. Alas, I did not try one.
I shall never take for granted a hot shower again. My mother's condo does not have hot water. And, there's something wrong with her showerhead. So...you kind of wash yourself with water out of a bucket. It's primitive. I never felt clean.
I visited Quezon City General Hospital, the hospital where my mom's been working for the past three years. Seriously looked like it came straight out of a WWII film. Walls crumbling, grey and dirty, poor sick people crowded around. Ghetto...in the original sense. People were nice, though...and seemed competent enough.
We took a weekend trip to Baguio City, five hours north of Manila in the mountains. Good times. Saturday night, my mom and Adrian ("Dance Instructor" as Karen from Will & Grace would call him) went to a ballroom for some ballroom dancing. I decided to attempt to go clubbing. Driver and I (his name would be Jim) went out to find a club. He knew of one that existed a few years back, but it ended up being a terrible karaoke place. We went back to the car to find another place, but alas, the car battery had died! Jim flagged down a cab driver who took him to a car place to get a jumper cable, but they didn't have one, so Jim ended up replacing our battery with the cab's, jumped the car and replaced the batteries. I figured the night was over because we couldn't really stop the car anymore, but he insisted we try to find another place. So, we drove around for an hour, me hopping out to check out various clubs and bars...all of them being sketchy or not good. Finally I gave up and we just sat at a bar (that ended up being a gay bar) and waited until my mom and Adrian were done, jumped the car with their cab driver and headed back home. Then we got drunk. Ha. And I thank my parents for my incredible tolerance.
My mother has a DVD dealer. He usually walks around the hospital and sells to the doctors and nurses who don't have time to go out and buy things. Since she isn't there anymore, though, she just calls him up and requests DVDs and he comes over the house and lets her try them out. It's great. I came home with a stack of $2 DVDs of good quality.
My mother, Jim and I rode whales. I had wanted to go to Mount Pinatubo, but alas that didn't work since my mother is not really up for trekking for there hours up a mountain to see the crater of a volcano and it didn't seem to be worth it to do it by myself. So, we went to Subic Bay, which was originally an American naval base now a Filipino-owned free port/tourist destination. My mom got the idea in her head to go to this place called Ocean Adventure, a sort of really tiny version of Sea World, I suppose. It was Monday, so it was completely empty besides us and a couple school groups. Watched a whale/dolphin show and a sea lion show (you know the kind, where over-enthusiastic animal husbandry workers make bad puns and coax smart animals to perform tricks to music), which were amusing. But then we did this thing where we got into the 60-foot deep oceanside pool and fed, petted, hugged, dance with, and rode the whales. It was kind of awesome. I have pictures, but I haven't put them on my computer, so look for a link to them at a later date.
Manila has all-together too many malls. We went to a couple of them. I bought a lot of things. This exchange rate is favorable, though, so I didn't spend that much money. I did manage to find what they call "Original Pinoy Music," or rather, Filipino pop/rock music. I did so primarily by judging cds by their album cover (which has worked successfully for me in the past...see Italy, Costa Rica and France) since mom and Jim listen to bad music and the stores don't have that convenient scan-cd-and-listen machines. Bands include, among others,: Bamboo, Rivermaya, Sound, 10th Street and a double disc where one is original songs by the Apo Hiking Society (a 60s singing group like the Four Seasons or something) and the other is their songs redone by current pop/rock artists.
Their movie theaters are so damn cheap. $1.50 at all times in really nice theaters. Anyway, saw Blood Diamond, which was good (my mom really loved it) and also a popular Filipino moive right now, Kasal, Kasali, Kasaloa, which I can't quite translate, but it was about a couple where the guy comes from a rich family and the girl comes from a middle class family from the provinces. They're twenty-somethings dating, he proposes to her on a whim (to avoid moving to the US with his parents), they get married and live in his parents house, they have problems adjusting to married life (complicated by their relationships with their parents), she gets pregnant, he cheats on her, she finds out (and exposes him in a really great scene), she leaves, things end up happy in the end. It was pretty good and I took comfort in the fact that I understood it in almost its entirety. My language skills in general were great. By the end I even spoke a little Tagalog.
I'm sure there's more...I'm tired now. Maybe I'll post more in the future. Otherwise, just ask...that works better for me anyway :)
I'm obsessed with a couple tv shows right now. They're good. And, well, my life is on reruns while my producers come up with some better stuff for the second half of the season. You should watch Veronica Mars and The Wire.
The movie The Science of Sleep is AWESOME. I loved it. You should also watch that.
Tried the new Japanese restaurant that opened two blocks from me. Great! I think I'll quit buying groceries and just eat there now. Also, it's Restaurant Week and I took Ashley to Firebird, a Russian restaurant in Midtown. Pretty good, not amazing, but still really good. Next week, a group of us from work are going to Craft Bar (yes, that's Tom Coliccio's restaurant) for lunch. I'm excited! (Also, Top Chef is lame. Watch the first season instead. Though, I did get to try all those foods they had in last week's episode!). This week I also tried out the restaurant Burgers & Cupcakes. Alas, not as good as the name suggests...burgers were underwhelming (though onion rings and fries were pretty good) and the cupcakes were pretty terrible.
Watched the State of the Union at this event sponsored by some liberal non-profit groups at some bar. Very interesting experience. It's nice to be in a city where people are politically and socially aware.
I'm happy to report that my mom is doing awesomely. She is on a three-month hiatus since she finished her residency. She will be opening a pediatric clinic in her sister's preschool sometime in April. She's happy and successful and it's all very comforting.
At the McDonald's in Manila, they have the "McRice burger." Instead of buns made of bread, they are made of rice. Like sticky rice formed into bun shape. Alas, I did not try one.
I shall never take for granted a hot shower again. My mother's condo does not have hot water. And, there's something wrong with her showerhead. So...you kind of wash yourself with water out of a bucket. It's primitive. I never felt clean.
I visited Quezon City General Hospital, the hospital where my mom's been working for the past three years. Seriously looked like it came straight out of a WWII film. Walls crumbling, grey and dirty, poor sick people crowded around. Ghetto...in the original sense. People were nice, though...and seemed competent enough.
We took a weekend trip to Baguio City, five hours north of Manila in the mountains. Good times. Saturday night, my mom and Adrian ("Dance Instructor" as Karen from Will & Grace would call him) went to a ballroom for some ballroom dancing. I decided to attempt to go clubbing. Driver and I (his name would be Jim) went out to find a club. He knew of one that existed a few years back, but it ended up being a terrible karaoke place. We went back to the car to find another place, but alas, the car battery had died! Jim flagged down a cab driver who took him to a car place to get a jumper cable, but they didn't have one, so Jim ended up replacing our battery with the cab's, jumped the car and replaced the batteries. I figured the night was over because we couldn't really stop the car anymore, but he insisted we try to find another place. So, we drove around for an hour, me hopping out to check out various clubs and bars...all of them being sketchy or not good. Finally I gave up and we just sat at a bar (that ended up being a gay bar) and waited until my mom and Adrian were done, jumped the car with their cab driver and headed back home. Then we got drunk. Ha. And I thank my parents for my incredible tolerance.
My mother has a DVD dealer. He usually walks around the hospital and sells to the doctors and nurses who don't have time to go out and buy things. Since she isn't there anymore, though, she just calls him up and requests DVDs and he comes over the house and lets her try them out. It's great. I came home with a stack of $2 DVDs of good quality.
My mother, Jim and I rode whales. I had wanted to go to Mount Pinatubo, but alas that didn't work since my mother is not really up for trekking for there hours up a mountain to see the crater of a volcano and it didn't seem to be worth it to do it by myself. So, we went to Subic Bay, which was originally an American naval base now a Filipino-owned free port/tourist destination. My mom got the idea in her head to go to this place called Ocean Adventure, a sort of really tiny version of Sea World, I suppose. It was Monday, so it was completely empty besides us and a couple school groups. Watched a whale/dolphin show and a sea lion show (you know the kind, where over-enthusiastic animal husbandry workers make bad puns and coax smart animals to perform tricks to music), which were amusing. But then we did this thing where we got into the 60-foot deep oceanside pool and fed, petted, hugged, dance with, and rode the whales. It was kind of awesome. I have pictures, but I haven't put them on my computer, so look for a link to them at a later date.
Manila has all-together too many malls. We went to a couple of them. I bought a lot of things. This exchange rate is favorable, though, so I didn't spend that much money. I did manage to find what they call "Original Pinoy Music," or rather, Filipino pop/rock music. I did so primarily by judging cds by their album cover (which has worked successfully for me in the past...see Italy, Costa Rica and France) since mom and Jim listen to bad music and the stores don't have that convenient scan-cd-and-listen machines. Bands include, among others,: Bamboo, Rivermaya, Sound, 10th Street and a double disc where one is original songs by the Apo Hiking Society (a 60s singing group like the Four Seasons or something) and the other is their songs redone by current pop/rock artists.
Their movie theaters are so damn cheap. $1.50 at all times in really nice theaters. Anyway, saw Blood Diamond, which was good (my mom really loved it) and also a popular Filipino moive right now, Kasal, Kasali, Kasaloa, which I can't quite translate, but it was about a couple where the guy comes from a rich family and the girl comes from a middle class family from the provinces. They're twenty-somethings dating, he proposes to her on a whim (to avoid moving to the US with his parents), they get married and live in his parents house, they have problems adjusting to married life (complicated by their relationships with their parents), she gets pregnant, he cheats on her, she finds out (and exposes him in a really great scene), she leaves, things end up happy in the end. It was pretty good and I took comfort in the fact that I understood it in almost its entirety. My language skills in general were great. By the end I even spoke a little Tagalog.
I'm sure there's more...I'm tired now. Maybe I'll post more in the future. Otherwise, just ask...that works better for me anyway :)