Fort Bonifacio Pictures and the Roasting Calf from the Market

The Other Mall

    Rebecca has been itching to go to a decent bookstore, and so yesterday, we went on an adventure! Not really, but we need to get out of the house. So we hop in the cab heading for Fort Bonifacio, the upper-upper-middle class neighborhood. I say u-u-m class neighborhood because the only truly upper class people in the Philippines are the uber-wealthy families that every country has a handful of. Companies don't really send the high ups to live in the Philippines, so while there are rich expats, there are no wealthy expats. So we are at this giant walking mall. My dad described it as the Galleria turned inside out. But in the Galleria there aren't any designer brands like there are here, although I did spot an American Eagle.

     So first we go into the bookstore, right next to both an Audi and Lamborghini dealership, and it's 3 stories high. But then again, I suppose it has to be, since everyone has to build up instead of out. It's a pretty nice bookstore. I got a picture of a piece of wall art that they have made of books. Will be in the next post. But, you know, it's a bookstore so exciting things rarely happen. 

    We leave and start to wander the walking mall. First, we stop by Penguin, a designer shirt brand with the call sign of a little penguin on the frocket (front pocket). I find a decent shirt and the guy says that it is 390. I think, 'Oh, man, that is a great price!' Then he clarifies and says 3,900. Oh. No nice shirt for me. We leave and start to wander again. I say that I am a little peckish, so Rebecca remembers that a pastry shop just opened. Then I point out a Cold Stone Creamery, just to point it out, and suddenly we are having ice cream. Probably the first ice cream from an ice cream shop that I have had in a good long while. I am not counting pints of Mint Chocolate Chip from HEB. We leave, head one way, then head back the other because Rebecca wants to get Dad some decent wine for the anniversary of his birth and she spotted this place called Wine Story. At least half of the store was a giant fridge for the wine, there in front of that there were displays of all of the odd sized wine bottles, e.g. half-bottles, gigantor bottles, and gigantor champagne bottles. Rebecca wanted to taste some wine. Well they have a special thing for that. There was a case with 9-10 bottles inside, each with a little straw-thing inside. The clerk sticks her special card in the slot, you pick the amount of wine you want, sip, half or full glass, and it comes out of a little nozzle into the glass. We had a 160 peso ($4) sample of a 4000 peso ($100) wine, and I have to say, it was darn good. Very smooth and complex. So, long story short, we decide that this store isn't for us, because we could probably find most of that wine at Specs for half the price, so we would be overpaying egregiously. 

   Our final store was a soap shop. They had artisanal soaps and shampoos and bath fizzer-uppers, the works. One feature that I did like was giant cylinders of different scented soaps with hunks cut out and laid on top. They were all pretty nice, for example they had Fig and Leaves, Sea Vegetable, Honey, and Porridge. Everything smelled quite nice. I thought that maybe Mom or Grandma would like some fancy soap. 

The Mall

   Yesterday, Rebecca and I met a fellow ex-pat for lunch. Her name was Maud (insert-last-name-here). What a delightful person. So we went to a little French cafe by the name of Cafe Breton. I was hungry and had a Go Fish sandwich, open face sandwich with scrambled egg, smoked salmon, capers, and some kind of cream with a side salad. Rebecca ordered a double Cafe au Lait, coffee and foamy milk. Maude arrived, and immediately was very warm and sincere. She had a double Cappuccino, but all that is beside the point. My point is that she could carry a conversation with the best of them. Anything we said that was remotely related to the conversation was listened to and commented upon and integrated very smoothly. She and Rebecca had a good long conversation about books: what is good, what is bad, what is long, what is short, how kids need to read more nowadays, it is good that I have assigned reading for the summer, and a few more things that I don't remember. Wonderful woman! Oh, and she is an artist. She takes newspaper photos of people and paints them on large canvases. She showed us a few on her phone and they were phenomenal. Apparently she also takes an art class in a nearby mall next to the galleries. Some days she is next to a very young child and others next to a kid with Down Syndrome, with a relatively young teacher. She is great. 

    So, previously, Rebecca and I had agreed that I would wander the Greenbelt while Rebecca and Maud chatted it up. So I did for about 45 minutes. I was pretty amazed at the array of stores. Any designer brand that you can think up, they have it there. Lots of different American brands like Calvin Klein, DKNY, Converse, etc. I was given 500 pesos to spend, if I did spend anything. I didn't, as pretty much all of the clothes were 1000+ pesos.  But even if I did have enough, I probably wouldn't have bought anything. The only store I really entered was the Converse store to see how much hi-tops were. 3000 pesos, around $75. More than in the states. And then I remembered that my pair of Superman hi-tops were being looked at by the Shoe Hospital to get fixed up.

    Then, I went back to Cafe Breton and I couldn't find Rebecca. She was gone and the table was recently left. I could tell because all of the plates and glasses were still there. I did find her moments later, thank goodness, as she walked Maud to a taxi. Then we went to the Landmark grocery store to do some shopping. I spotted both fish heads and baby crabs. I said to Rebecca that I would make fish soup with some heads. Man, I love fish soup. Thanks Mom and Grandma for making delicious soup. I told Rebecca that I love the smell of boiling cauliflower because anytime I smelled that smell it meant that Grandma was making soup. Anyway, fish soup is the easiest thing in the world to make. You take your fish product, bones, head, whatever, and boil it with plenty of water, salt, pepper, and either dried vegetables or fresh carrot, celery, and onion. Then, once you have a good flavorful broth, you add your potatoes and cauliflower and other good boiling vegetables. Salmon heads are particularly good because they are fatty, so the fat melts in the soup and gives it a nice rich mouth-feel. Mmmm....

    One last thing. Hong Kong is cancelled. We are going to SINGAPORE! I am really excited. Our hotel is the former post office from the 1920's and 30's so it's very classic and old-timey. Rebecca also made it a point that we go to the food courts, which, thanks to Anthony Bourdain, we know are littered with little specialty stalls that promise good things. And of course we have to go to the world class aquarium and zoo. Should be fun. 

Sinampalukang Malak

    Sinampalukang Malak i-

    "Bless you!"

    Thanks, anyway, Sinampalukang Malak is what I had for breakfast yesterday. Rebecca took me out for Filipino breakfast and she had pork tocino and I had Sinampalukang Malak. What I got was a little packet of rice wrapped in banana leaf with a bowl of soup. In the soup there was a chicken drumstick with a part of the breast. There was also a piece or two of okra, some green beans, I think it was cooked daikon, there was a piece of what I think would happen if fat and potato had a lovechild sitting in the bottom of the bowl. There was also some either spinach or bok choy leaves. 

    The broth was unlike anything I had had before. It was a sour chicken broth. It wasn't a bad sour, or a citrusy sour. The broth was also very rich, you could see the little fat droplets suspended in the broth so there was a very smooth mouthfeel. Rebecca said that Dad was going to try to make it at home, and I think that he can't because it was a very complex thing, to be able to get it sour, and yet not overpoweringly so. 

    It was quite tasty, and I made myself stop eating because it was getting close to overeating. Hopefully I can find it at home. 

Pool time

    As you can see from my last post, my building has an infinity pool with a pretty great view. If you don't know, an infinity pool has an edge that drops off and the water that flows off gets cycled back into the system. It looks like the water just falls off the edge. Anyway, the pool is on the 31st floor where the penthouses are. The penthouses are just two to a floor whereas the regular rooms are four to a floor. There are stairs leading to a workout space by the pool, so I am planning on going up there one time or another to run or bike and look out upon the city. 

   We (Rebecca and I) just now went to the pool because she was waiting for a clear day to go up there so the view would be extra great. The pool was on the 31st floor, and all of the surrounding buildings and pretty much all of the other tall buildings were around the same height. This is because the Filipinos use concrete to build their buildings instead of steel. That is why in the States the buildings are 10-20 floors higher. But the view was great. I just learned that Manila had a highway system. Cool stuff. 

   The pool. The water was pretty warm, but the air temperature was probably in the 70s. It was nice and breezy up there. I'd say that we were in the water for about an hour. I hadn't been in a pool for quite a long time, so I did all the kid stuff like handstands and flips etc. I also learned how to stay at the bottom of the pool. I had no idea how all of the swimmers and aquatic people did that and it turns out you have to get rid of all the air in your respiratory system to minimize buoyancy. We also did yoga positions in the water. According to Rebecca, some positions are easier underwater. The pool was also minimally chlorinated. You still couldn't see underwater, but there wasn't the burn if you did open your eyes. 

    I tried to do some exploring, but Rebecca wouldn't let me. Above the workout room, which was above the pool, there was another room, and then the real roof with some sort of grate floor. I wanted to go up there, but Rebecca said it was probably part of the penthouses and that I couldn't get in. I also found a little door, about half-size, off to the side of the pool. She also said that I shouldn't go see what it was because it was probably storage for the pool. REBECCA, DO NOT READ PAST THIS! I think that next time I go up without her, I will snoop around. 

Pictures from super cool infinity pool

Dinner/lunch party

    This was the reason behind the chili (see previous post). We promised to my dad's uncle boss (peer of his boss) to show him real Texas chili, i.e. spice-y and beanless. Because we were making Texas chili, the whole  meal had to be somewhat Texas themed. We had Cerveza beer, straight from Mexico, a pot of pinto beans, watermelon, and a shoofly pecan pie. Note, I wanted a regular pecan pie, but shoofly indicates that it is made with molasses, and so Rebecca and my dad were saying that it would be more interesting. We didn't even touch it, but more on that later. Note again, we did not bake said pie, there was a bakery not half a mile from the condo. 

     Anyway, we skipped yoga on Saturday to get ready for the party, buy a small table, chairs, and tablecloth for the 3 small male children, cook both an adult batch and a child's batch of chili, I will elaborate in the next paragraph, start the beans, and buy all sorts of produce and whatnot at the market, and Landmark. We also skipped church this morning to set up for the party, for example, we needed to reheat the chili, clean the house, set up the kid's table, clean the house, fry up some appetizer balls that we got from the market, and then sit around for about an hour and a half before the guests came. 

     Adult chili: thanks to our good friends at Wick Fowler and the TSA, I brought three boxes of chili "mix" to the Philippines. It is pretty much a box with bags of different spices that you can add a little or a lot of to your chili. There are things like salt, dried onions and garlic, cumin/oregano (in same bag), chile powder (powder made from ground dried chiles like Guajillo, Ancho, etc.), red pepper, or cayenne, masa for thickening, and probably more, I just don't remember. We also added tomato sauce because we couldn't find regular canned tomatoes. I sweated some onions and garlic and browned about a kilo (2.2 pounds) of ground beef. Add some water, let it stew, and done. 

     Children's chili: To preface this, I felt bad letting my stepmom feed this to the kids. It was pretty much tomato sauce (all of which is sweet, by the way), some ground meat, some onions and garlic, and dashes of chile powder and adobo seasoning (flavored salt). I was saying, but this isn't chili, it's thick meat sauce. She replied with they are Australian, so they don't have much of a tolerance for spice, and they are little kids (3, 5, 8) so they are going to eat sweet things. 

    Appetizer balls: We found a lady at the market yesterday, Anita, who made savory profiterole type things. They weren't exactly profiteroles because it wasn't the right kind of dough, but they were similar in that they were dough pockets with filling inside. We got two bags of 12 of white truffle cream. They tasted like mild cheese balls (not the neon orange things). 

    Around 1:00, the guests arrived, my dad's uncle boss, his wife and three kids. Right off the bat, the kids were wrestling or glued to their handheld videogames. Just incredibly active kids. Anyway, the Australian and his Vietnamese wife loved the Texas chili. The kids would eat a bite, go back to wrestling then repeat it. The 5-year old had some adult chili. The 3-year old was crazy for watermelon. 

    We didn't get to open the pie that we got because the guests brought their own chocolate cake. The 8 of us ate about half of the chocolate cake, delicious by the way, and didn't even bother bringing out our pie. 

    Anyway, after balls, chili with beans, watermelon, and coffee and cake, the kids were a bit too rowdy, so we went to a nearby park which I didn't know existed, and they ran around for a little while. We came back to the apartment, and I somehow got invited to go see Monsters University with them next Sunday. I wasn't planning on seeing that movie, but hey, I got invited, should be fun.

Chili!

Chili straight from Houston, Texas, Philippines

Cool Filipino trees

Some cool native trees that peel rainbow bark

Pictures from Landmark

   Here are some pictures from both Landmark, the giant department store, and from Greenbelt, the mall

Great name for a shoe store

Hot, spicy, and pickled designer handbags

Brad Pitt looks at the causes of WWZ

Filipino mannequins are creepy

Now it's smiling

Saturday Market pictures (lots)

    My mom has asked, several times, for pictures from the Saturday market. Being the wonderful son that I am, I took several. Sadly, there was no roasting calf today.

Honking

    This is a honking country. Taxis honk to let you know that they are open, people honk in intersections, people honk in frustration, people honk at pedestrians, people honk the moment someone in front slows down, people honk when the light just turned green and there aren't immediate effects, and on and on and on. It's kind of annoying, being from Houston, where people rarely honk. And in Houston, I assume that whoever honked is an impatient jerk. But here, it's perfectly normal.

Man of Steel

    I saw the first movie (in theaters) that I have seen in probably 3-4 months, here in the Philippines. Here, seats are assigned like the real theater. There are advantages and disadvantages to this. Advantages: 1) one can buy their ticket many hours in advance; 2) because one bought their tickets in advance, they can probably pick their most favorite seats in the whole theater and not have to worry about someone taking it; 3) no one will take your seat. Disadvantages: 1) it is very hard to buy your seat at the door; 2) if someone has booked your most favorite seat, there is no chance of getting to sit in it; 3) if you do choose to buy at the door for the next showing, there is either no seat or one or maybe two seats, but never together. 

     Another thing that is different here, there is a bathroom behind the back row, and speakers playing the sound of the movie in the bathroom, so you miss as little as possible. Also, Filipinos don't really understand the concept of quiet during the movie, or at least the first few minutes. And most of them have trays of food with them from the multitude of fast food restaurants right outside of the theaters. And occasionally, there would be a blip, and the sound would cut out for a few seconds. It only happened twice when I saw the movie. 

Taglish

    The Filipinos don't speak Tagalog. They don't speak English. They speak Taglish. 

    Since Tagalog and English are both national languages, the Filipinos have decided to speak a mixture. They speak Tagalog and then throw in English words, phrases, or even whole sentences at what I think is random. I am not sure if certain words are only in English, or Tagalog. Maybe it is words that didn't get to become Tagalog words because of colonization. Oh, and I think that there is also a little Spanish sprinkled in as well. Probably because both Spain and the US were Filipino colonizers. 

Third Yoga class

     Well, I just had my third Bikram yoga class. It goes by much quicker, the positions are only slightly easier, I sweat more, and I drink about a third less water than before. Hopefully, this growth continues more and more and shed a few pounds while I am at it. I highly recommend this class. Find the nearest Bikram yoga class, and regularly attend. You will hate me at first, but I promise, you will quickly see the benefits.

Jetlag 2.0

     I think it's over. Jetlag has lost. I took a mini nap yesterday before yoga, but that was only because Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar was astonishingly bad. It's a required book to read for English that is supposed to introduce philosophical topics with jokes. Pretty much, it barely discusses a philosophical idea, then tells a horrendous joke, then gives a 2nd grader's analysis on the joke and how it relates to the previous idea, then moves on to the next idea. Anyway, after getting in about 30 pages (it's not a very large book, pages are around 4x5), I nodded off. 

    But the real news is, I went to bed around 9:30, I think, and my dad woke me up at 7 to take me to cheap Filipino breakfast. Yay! But I will have to see about my afternoon sleepiness. Hopefully, it doesn't kick in. 

Armored Cars

This is a Filipino armored car. A block on wheels. In a regular day, one would see dozens of these as they drove throughout the city. I asked my dad why this was, and he said that this is a cash society. And he is right. The only person I have seen using a credit card was my stepmom. All of the natives, as far as I know, use cash. And all of the cash is worn. I haven't seen a fresh, crisp bill, or even something close to it. So one can imagine these trucks stuffed full with wrinkly 1000, 500, 100 peso bills. 

Coffeeshop

Funny Hotdog ad

Jetlag sucks

       I hate jetlag. I hate jet lag. I hate jet-lag. I hate it all. I know it's natural, and my body needs to be able to cope with a 13 hour time change, but I get exhausted at 1:00 in the afternoon. It's annoying. Yesterday, I was supposed to go on my first ever massage, but stupid jetlag got in the way. Jetlag probably got in the way of other things, but I was too busy sleeping to find out. 

     It usually rears its ugly head after lunch, the most important part of the day, as we usually leave the house around 10 to do shopping. Then we have lunch, generally, a meal with rice. And rice is surprisingly filling. And the rice somehow travels through my body from my stomach to my eyelids, and decides to sit on them. I want to read the APUSH (AP US History) summer reading. I really do. But jetlag decides for me. 

     Curse you jetlag.

Yoga

      I know what you are thinking. How can yoga be an enlightening experience? It's full of young people who eat organic anything-they-can-get-their-hands-on. False. This was Bikram Yoga. They turn the room up to about 120 degrees Fahrenheit. There were about 30 people in a small room, which meant it felt like 130. They opened the windows to cool the room. Outside is around 85 degrees and humid. 85 and humid to cool!

      I was warned. Dad and Rebecca said that I would sweat more than I had in my life. They were right. The sweat level was almost like getting in a shower in workout clothes. Every single person was drenched. At the end of class, the instructor told us that the beginners lose about 500 calories. The more experienced people lose 700-1000. I don't know what the conversion rate is but that's probably a pound or two. Every class. In the middle, I had to leave the room, a cardinal sin, because I felt as though I was about to throw up. Thankfully I didn't, but I had never had a more intense workout in my life. And I hadn't done karate in around 2-3 months. So this was the first workout in a long while. 

     The reason behind the nausea, in the opinion of the instructor, was the meal we had a couple hours before the class. It consisted of pork on a stick and a tuna belly. It was a lot of food. With an order came three 'kebabs' of pork chunks. We also got a similar order, but with pork fat. We also got a large steak sized tuna belly. And three bundles of rice. We got nowhere near to finishing, but lesson learned. 

     Aside from the nausea, and the lightheadedness, and the utter drenching in sweat, the class wasn't half bad. It's definitely a thing that grows on you. 

Haircut

      I just had the best haircut of my life. For 250 pesos. For $6.25.

     My dad was going out to get a haircut and I thought that I would join him as my hair was reaching the tops of my ears. We go to this place called Bruno's Barbers. My dad asked for their best barber for me. Why? Who knows? Anyway, I sit in the chair, and next to me, my soon-to-be barber finishes up a 12 or so year-old kid. He motions for me to move to that chair and I do. 

     He asks me how I want it, I tell him I want it short on the sides and back with a short trim on top. He starts by taking out the vibrating plastic blade that we are all so used to in the States and trims the back and sides. This is the last time he used something that plugged in. 

     Then, he took out a straight-blade and asked me if I wanted to keep the sideburns, I said no. He used the straight-blade the same way an American barber would use the sharp vibrating thingy, to cut hair to the skin. 

    Anyway, I don't want to bore you all with the details of my haircut, but the thing that struck me the most was the care and caution and precision that my barber took. It was as if this was the final exam at Cosmetology school, and every strand of hair out of place resulted in points taken off. There was also a degree of tenderness. He spritzed water in his hand and kind of rubbed it on my hair. He gently smeared talcum powder on the sides and back. He checked his work several times. It was astonishing. The whole time I was thinking, "One could easily pay $40-$60 for this in the States". Then he asked me if I liked it spiky or down, I said I didn't like spiky hair, and so he combed it over and gave me a little flair in the front. 

  

    Finally, he wrapped it all up with a hot towel to clean off my face and a brief neck massage. My dad tipped each of our barbers 20%, or 50 pesos. 

    I tried taking a picture when I got back home, but he just styled it with water, and it was so, I don't want to say perfect, but it was so perfect that the moment we went outside in a slight breeze, it wasn't the same.

First night out and farmers market

         Last night, my dad made reservations for Fely J's. A contemporary Filipino restaurant. But that's later. First we went to the Makati central park thing. We walked in the rain. It rains a lot here. We went the long way in order to get as little rain on us as possible. We still got considerably wet. Anyway, we ended up at a recently opened European gastropub where we met some of his Aussie and Irish coworkers. They like the place because it is one of the few places with good European beer. My dad even offered me a pint, but I left the choice whether or not I was going to have one up to him. He decided to wait until I hit 16, in 17 days. We chatted a while and then head over to the aforementioned Fely J's. 

       We walked through the mall to get to Fely J's, a kind of upscale, modern Filipino restaurant. We started off with shrimp cooked in olive oil with garlic and some dried chili peppers. Shrimp were perfectly cooked and the garlic was sweet and tender. Tasty. For the main course we had fried pig belly, overdone, but ok. Then we had a native plant, stewed in a creamy sauce. Not half bad. And finally, Singapore style noodles with calamari among other meats and vegetables. For a country that doesn't eat much spice, they were pretty well spiced. The meal reminded me of a typical Houston China-town kind of meal. 

       I was still pooped from the 24 hour plane flight, and so at around 7:30, we head home. While Dad and Rebecca went out for coffee and gelato, I believe it was, I went to bed around 8:00. 

       I woke up the next day at 3. Couldn't go back to sleep. I sat around in my room until 8 or so, when we all headed out to the Saturday market. We walked about a block and found the place really busy already. The Filipinos are a very industrious people, I could hear activity outside all night. 

      We wanted to eat before we did our shopping, so first we wandered the circuit seeing all we could see. At least a dozen Indian, Filipino, American, French, Germanic, Chinese, Japanese, Southeast Asian stalls. (Not a dozen each, but about 1.5-2 dozen in total) Several fresh produce stalls. Several fish and meat stalls. I was entranced by a whole calf being spit roasted. I had that with rice and a dark sauce for breakfast. I learned that veal is a white, not a red meat. My folks went to a nearby pancake stall. My dad had a bacon and a hotdog pancake. My stepmom had a nutella pancake. 

      Dad said that the pancakes that they had were more old European style rather than the flapjacks that we know and love. They were like sandwiches. We actually saw the guy putting together the pancakes. First, he had about an 8x4 pan with cylindrical spaces. Like a shallow cupcake pan. He was cooking buns almost. He  then dropped a small spoonful of filling in the first and third row of the buns. Then, he maneuvered out the unfilled buns with two bamboo skewers and plopped them onto the filled buns. Then he squashed them together to form said sandwiches. 

     We then proceeded to wander around the market buying supplies to make shrimp panang curry. All of the produce stalls had fantastic merchandise. Probably 20 different varieties of fruit, I think an equal amount of vegetables. There were also house plants for sale. Before we bought produce, we got a good loaf of pumpernickel from a Frenchman, and two packets of chorizo from a Spaniard. The Frenchman's wife, the baker, gave us a whole slice of whole wheat bread with sesame seeds and walnuts. Fantastic bread. My dad said it reminded him of what he had as a child in a German community. The Frenchman told us that his flour came from Germany, Austria, and France. It tasted like it. Wow.
      So we bought bright orange carrots, white and red onions, nice fresh shrimp, Indian mangoes, neon yellow bell peppers, small green peppers (no idea which variety), rambutan, a lychee type fruit with a red skin covered in little feelers, pimiento cheese spread, because my dad couldn't resist, and probably more, I can't remember.
        We plan on going back to the market for lunch, as I spotted whole roasted tilapia. 

Plane flights and first day

First things first. The plane flight from Houston to Honolulu. Oh my goodness. I am constantly amazed by the difference in experience in business class vs. coach. First off, the seats are bigger. About 50% bigger. And there are all sorts of buttons. One for your chair to lean back, one for your feet to prop up, one for a foot rest attached to the foot prop, one for lumbar support, and those are just the seat itself. It also comes with a tray in the outermost arm rest (I sat by the window, so mine was closest to the window, my partner’s would have been closest to the aisle). Then, in the other arm rest, there is a Verizon phone. I don’t know if it works, but everyone has an individual phone. Then, there is a pilot light by the headrest, oh, and the headrest slides up and down. There is also the regular light from above that comes with normal airline seats. There is the traditional air nozzle that shoots a jet of cold air right at your face. Business class and first class already paid out the nose for their seats so we get free movie and TV. Get this. The seats are too far apart for it to be in the headrest of the person in front of you, so they are in the middle armrest section and they come out and flip towards you. It rests on a ball axis so one can turn it any which way one likes. Back to the whole too far apart thing, the legroom is incredibly large. In the space it took for two business class rows, one could probably fit 3-4 coach rows.

Because I was an unaccompanied minor, I got to board my plane first. This gave all of the flight attendants a chance to find out my name. They also know that Honolulu is merely a stop as I continue on this 24-hour trek halfway across the world. As a result, they are almost too nice. They constantly ask about my well-being, and one asked if I would like to bring some snacks from this plane flight to the next. When I boarded, as I am in business class, I was greeted by a pillow, a blanket and headphones. Oh, yeah, and business and first get hot towels before meals, we were served lunch, which consisted of salad with balsamic dressing (in case you are wondering, from a little canister), little baby shrimp on a piece of lettuce with bell peppers and I think onions, maybe with a dressing too, I couldn’t tell, a roll with butter, and the entrée, a steak (well done but surprisingly tender) with soft carrot slices, mashed potatoes, roasted broccoli, and gravy. Delicious. And for dessert, an ice cream sundae. We were also served a “snack” which consisted of fruit salad with two grapes, two pieces of pineapple and two pieces of cantaloupe. That also came with a similar salad, and a beef burrito with a Hellmann’s Ancho Chile sauce packet, and a little brownie. And you get whatever drink you want, when you want it.

Back to the onboard entertainment, the little individual screen shows surprisingly recent movies. And if they didn’t come out in the past month or so, they are classics such as Monster’s Inc. or Ghostbusters. Again the pilot light near the headrest allows one to read while disturbing your partner very much (I think). If sleeping counts as entertainment, I got at least a couple hours’ worth. It is much easier when you can go nearly horizontal. I believe that there are four bathrooms for the approximately 50-60 people in both first and business class. I never once had to wait to go to the restroom.

The gentleman, Vaughn, next to me was very helpful. He was a Hawaii native who had traveled to San Antonio to see the Spurs-Heat games. He had made the trip several times and guided me through the general 8-hour flight process.

While we were flying over the states, I was opening my window to see the view outside. I even got off a few pictures. The States are quite pretty as one flies over them. One of my favorite views was a view over Arizona, New Mexico, etc. There is a sort of barren beauty to that area. I snapped a picture of what I think was the Grand Canyon. I’m not sure, there was a large plateau. It was probably not the Grand Canyon. Never mind.

Landing. Those islands were quite pretty. The descent, seeing the breaks in the ocean, flying towards the main island, seeing the coast line approach. Man was that a sight to see. Waiting for me in Honolulu was a large native man. He wore a stereotypical Hawaiian shirt and had a heavy build. He took me and the other unaccompanied girl to Gate 8, the Guam flight.

Guam. The Guam 777 was probably the model year older than the one I took from Houston. There was no differentiation between First and Business class. The seats were a normal distance apart, i.e., slightly more leg room, but nothing to brag about. Instead of individual monitors, there are 3 large screens (one for each row). On this flight there was in fact a screaming child behind me. I guess its karma biting me in the behind for that last flight.

The gentleman next to me this time is much more impressive than the one on the last flight. This one, Rick, is a Navy Special Ops guy. Specifically an EOD, aka the guy that blows stuff up. He is stationed in the Pacific and is going to a meeting in Guam, probably on cool top-secret Navy stuff. When he told me his job, I replied saying that he would be useful if the plane crashed in the middle of the ocean. He promptly replied, no, he would be better suited if someone tried to take over the plane.

In general, the to-Guam flight was an average American domestic flight first class. Nothing to sneeze at, but nicer than average.

Upon approaching Guam, Rick pointed out points of interest to me, including the base that he was stationed at, and his house. What I thought was grassland and shrubbery, he informed me that it was thick triple layer forest. He then told me that there were WWII tanks and planes and guns still in the forest as the majority of Guam was untouched by people. Seeing Guam from my plane window has one of the highlights of this day long flight to Manila.

I arrived in Guam, and it felt humid. Not humid in a bad way, but rather exotic humid. It felt as though I had arrived somewhere. The people are very friendly; as me and the United employee that was escorting me were going to the next gate, another employee congratulated me on my going to Manila. Everyone seemed to know everyone. When I arrived at the gate, I sat down by a man who wasn’t a native, (although he could have been) who was chatting up a native or two about golf and retirement. He then recognized an English woman who lives in both Manila and Guam and asked her how her breadfruit trees were doing. Another thing I noticed was the terminal in Guam was covered in designer shops. I mean, any designer brand you can name, they had it there.

Another interesting thing that I noticed is the progression of planes. From Houston to Honolulu was the nicest plane, then to Guam was an ok plane, and to Manila is a small, kind of local plane. It is totally understandable, but still, a thing to think about.

This may be because they are United employees, but I think that the Guam to Manila attendants were the nicest. One even went to filling out my customs form for the Philippines. All of them were kind and sympathetic. For example, the lady in front of me hardly touched her meal, and the attendant asked her her opinion on the food and she looked genuinely concerned.

I landed in the Manila. There was a nice East Asian looking woman waiting for me to take me through customs and through immigration, etc. Thanks to bureaucracy, however, the Filipino agents wouldn’t let my dad through to the gate even though I am an unaccompanied minor. The Filipinos divided the waiting areas into last initial. Pretty clever, I thought. As our cab drove through Manila to Makati where my dad and Rebecca were staying, it was pointed out that everywhere, people are busy. Tons of construction, lots of minor jobs such as doorman, etc. My dad pointed out, “Even the help had help”.

We arrived at their apartment, pre-furnished, almost hotel-like. Pretty swank, if you ask me. I have to take off my shoes upon arrival, as the flooring is a beautiful hardwood that is easily damaged. The lights are turned on when in the room, and off immediately when you leave, as electricity is around 4 times more expensive here than in the states. My bed is a nice, firm twin bed with only a sheet on it, as the ACs never turn off (which means that it is always hot). I have to take my malarial pills with food, so we go to a local coffee shop and I get a tuna pandasal. Three buns stuck together with a spiced tuna filling. Pretty good for my first meal in the Philippines. We walk back home in light rain and I sleep for about 8 hours.

My dad wakes me up at 7 to get me accustomed to local time. He leaves for work, after my stepmom fries up some eggs and cooks some homemade Spanish chorizo and green onions to go with it. The chorizo is made by a little old Spanish lady and was sold at the market only open on Saturdays. He leaves around 8, and my stepmom and I wait for a little as most of the stores open at 10. I decide that I am hungry after the light breakfast, and so we walk to Mary Grace. A quaint little Filipino La Madeline’s for example. As you can see, the décor is a little loud and excessive. Rebecca had an ensaymada, a sweet, airy bun with powdered cheese on top.  I had a Filipino breakfast which consisted of garlic rice, two fried eggs, darn good bits of beef, green mango salad, pico de gallo without the jalapenos, and a very tart, bright vinegar sauce. I dumped the rice out, mixed it with the beef and eggs and the salsa, and poured a little of the vinegar sauce on. Probably one of the best $10 dollar meals I have ever put in my mouth.

A thing to note. Filipino currency is the peso. There are about 40 pesos to the dollar. Shopping is weird. I see things like shampoo that cost 115 pesos. It doesn’t immediately register that it costs just under $3. I don’t see $115, I just don’t see $3.

We then walked to the Landmark, a catchall store. Half department, half grocery. Their shopping carts have 4 rotatable wheels. 4! Back in the states, there are only 2. As a result, they are harder to handle but easier to maneuver, as now one can go sideways and diagonally and any which way that one seems to want to go. And the floors are slippery as ice, so navigating between aisles and around people is harder than it looks.

The department store doesn’t stop at clothes or designer perfumes. It has practically every household item known to man. Toiletries, pots and pans, clothes, and the list goes on and on and on and on….. The grocery store is like your average Asian market with Western products sprinkled in like Kraft or dry pasta. The fish counter has more fish than you can count on your fingers, with prawns and shrimp and squid and octopus. Then you get to the meat counter. There is an endless amount of cuts of pork and beef and I think chicken at the end. This includes things like kneecaps and trotters.

Then you get to checkout. There is a cashier and a bagger at every lane. The meat is put in a separate bin even though it is already in two bags. Some lanes are cash only and some are cash and charge. We took our goods and headed towards a cab which took us home.

Driving in the Philippines is nothing like in the States. There are no blinkers and there is no looking to see what other people are doing. You just go. Passengers don’t bother wearing seat belts.