I am 16. Amazing, isn't it? While you think to yourselves how or why it is amazing, I shall tell you the story of the day that was my 16th birthday.
The previous day, Rebecca had arranged that we go and visit an Australian family that we had met the other day at a birthday party for one of the previously mentioned kids (see Chili!). The reason that we decided to meet them and not another family is that the children's age in that family is the closest to mine. The oldest is a 14 or 15 year old female, next is a 13 year old male, then a 7 or 8 year old female, and finally, a 6 year old male.
So the mother of the family picks us up with her driver and minivan, and we drive to Dasmarinas (n has a squiggly) area, a really nice neighborhood. The mother pointed out various ambassador houses like Mexico, Russia, and a few others. We get to their house, complete with maid and gardener, and it is huge. I estimated that half of the living/dining area was the whole size of our apartment. Right off the bat, the 6-year-old was a hoot and a half. He was just full of life and wanted to show me all of his pretty awesome toys. I entertained the young master for a while, then the eldest female, showed me the inside of her room, complete with couch/bed thing, a large amount of posters with current bands with hair all over the place and tattoos every which where. Then, we get bored with that, and she whipped out her guitar, under pressure of her mother, and played Blackbird by the Beatles and some other song really well. Then the 6-year-old really wanted to play on his Wii, so all the kids but the 13 year old and I played Mario Kart. I stank at it. We played until it was time for the 6 and the 7/8 year had to go to the British School for swimming/tutoring.
Something about the British School. If you have a British passport, you are given automatic entrance. If you have a passport from a Commonwealth country, Canada, Australia, India, etc., you are put a step below the British kids. Everyone else is put under the Commonwealth kids.
After we dropped them off, we went to the Fort Bonifacio mall that we visited earlier. We stopped by a shop that I hadn't noticed before. It was a figurine shop, but not like tiny little collectible figurines. They were generally pretty big figurines of Marvel and DC characters. It was pretty awesome to see the detail and intricacy that went into each and every one of these figures. Then we headed to the bookstore where I found my last summer reading book. Turns out the 4th floor of this bookstore is all movies and CD's and comics and graphic novels and everything of that genre. It also turns out that the 14/15 year old is really into that kind of little stuff. We spent a good long while on that floor, which normally, I would be alright with. I wasn't alright with it because in the Philippines they wrap all of their books up in plastic so you can't read them for fun. All you can do is look at the cover. Fun. Rebecca realized that I was bored and when the mom returned from something or other, Rebecca said that we better head home. That was around 2 o'clock.
The mother went above and beyond something that wasn't even required. the 14/15 year old's birthday was coming up and her mom bought her a comic for her birthday, and I said to Rebecca, "What about my gift?" jokingly. I think that the mom thought I was talking to her, and when she returned from whatever it was she was doing, she had a card with 1500 pesos in it. I was blown away with her generosity.
We got home and found Dad on the bed half-asleep. He got home early so he could nap so he could stay up for the Quiz night coming up. My big birthday thing was Quiz night at an Australian bar called Howzat. We take a cab there and there was a brown-out. There were no lights in the building. Quiz night is in the back room with no windows. I whipped out my phone for the flashlight until the waitresses brought out big candles in beer bottles. The three of us teamed up with an Australian husband-wife team who both work with my dad. Dad, J (the male Aussie) and I each ordered a Texan burger, pretty much a plain hamburger; A (the female Aussie) ordered a Boston burger, Texan with blue cheese, and Rebecca ordered chicken tikka masala.
There were seven rounds of the Quiz night: Vampires, Current Events, Science, Anagrams, Games, Celebrity "News", and Music. Coincidentally, just after we finished the Vampire round, the lights came back on. Penultimately, we tied for first with a neighboring team. Ultimately, we got second after a tie-breaker round. Stupid Music category. It was 15 fairly obscure guitar intros, and we had to guess the artist and song title. There was also a bonus point for a thing that connected all of the songs. The connection was that they were all Song 2 on their albums. We got 2-3 points on that one.
All in all, I'd say it was a pretty decent day. I am kind of looking forward to next year's something or other for my 17th birthday.
So the mother of the family picks us up with her driver and minivan, and we drive to Dasmarinas (n has a squiggly) area, a really nice neighborhood. The mother pointed out various ambassador houses like Mexico, Russia, and a few others. We get to their house, complete with maid and gardener, and it is huge. I estimated that half of the living/dining area was the whole size of our apartment. Right off the bat, the 6-year-old was a hoot and a half. He was just full of life and wanted to show me all of his pretty awesome toys. I entertained the young master for a while, then the eldest female, showed me the inside of her room, complete with couch/bed thing, a large amount of posters with current bands with hair all over the place and tattoos every which where. Then, we get bored with that, and she whipped out her guitar, under pressure of her mother, and played Blackbird by the Beatles and some other song really well. Then the 6-year-old really wanted to play on his Wii, so all the kids but the 13 year old and I played Mario Kart. I stank at it. We played until it was time for the 6 and the 7/8 year had to go to the British School for swimming/tutoring.
Something about the British School. If you have a British passport, you are given automatic entrance. If you have a passport from a Commonwealth country, Canada, Australia, India, etc., you are put a step below the British kids. Everyone else is put under the Commonwealth kids.
After we dropped them off, we went to the Fort Bonifacio mall that we visited earlier. We stopped by a shop that I hadn't noticed before. It was a figurine shop, but not like tiny little collectible figurines. They were generally pretty big figurines of Marvel and DC characters. It was pretty awesome to see the detail and intricacy that went into each and every one of these figures. Then we headed to the bookstore where I found my last summer reading book. Turns out the 4th floor of this bookstore is all movies and CD's and comics and graphic novels and everything of that genre. It also turns out that the 14/15 year old is really into that kind of little stuff. We spent a good long while on that floor, which normally, I would be alright with. I wasn't alright with it because in the Philippines they wrap all of their books up in plastic so you can't read them for fun. All you can do is look at the cover. Fun. Rebecca realized that I was bored and when the mom returned from something or other, Rebecca said that we better head home. That was around 2 o'clock.
The mother went above and beyond something that wasn't even required. the 14/15 year old's birthday was coming up and her mom bought her a comic for her birthday, and I said to Rebecca, "What about my gift?" jokingly. I think that the mom thought I was talking to her, and when she returned from whatever it was she was doing, she had a card with 1500 pesos in it. I was blown away with her generosity.
We got home and found Dad on the bed half-asleep. He got home early so he could nap so he could stay up for the Quiz night coming up. My big birthday thing was Quiz night at an Australian bar called Howzat. We take a cab there and there was a brown-out. There were no lights in the building. Quiz night is in the back room with no windows. I whipped out my phone for the flashlight until the waitresses brought out big candles in beer bottles. The three of us teamed up with an Australian husband-wife team who both work with my dad. Dad, J (the male Aussie) and I each ordered a Texan burger, pretty much a plain hamburger; A (the female Aussie) ordered a Boston burger, Texan with blue cheese, and Rebecca ordered chicken tikka masala.
There were seven rounds of the Quiz night: Vampires, Current Events, Science, Anagrams, Games, Celebrity "News", and Music. Coincidentally, just after we finished the Vampire round, the lights came back on. Penultimately, we tied for first with a neighboring team. Ultimately, we got second after a tie-breaker round. Stupid Music category. It was 15 fairly obscure guitar intros, and we had to guess the artist and song title. There was also a bonus point for a thing that connected all of the songs. The connection was that they were all Song 2 on their albums. We got 2-3 points on that one.
All in all, I'd say it was a pretty decent day. I am kind of looking forward to next year's something or other for my 17th birthday.
Hey Ben, no child of mine will end a sentence with "at". Go edit that so it's grammatically correct :-) (hint: it's about the bookstore)
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