I sat myself up, looked into the mirror and realised something important. My oh my have I been a whiney little bitch of late. Here I am in a new country, the world is my oyster as they say, and I am going 'It's so hot, it's too hard'.
Well buckle up there soldier, you are exceptionally fortunate to be here - quit your bitching and do something with it!
So thus, my time here in the Philippines had a mental turning point.
I went to my classes (I still am loving my Shakespeare class SO much) and did my assignments (luckily not TOO many this week) and didn't have to contend with any more registration.
On Monday I had a lovely lunch with two exchange students from Germany, Mara and Hanna. They are both such lovely girls and we had a great time chatting and eating :) two of my favourite things to do!
We had planned to meet again on thursday night as it was going to be Mara's birthday and she invited us over for dinner :)
Thursday rocks around and we attended each of our classes (Shakespeare = amazing) and as per usual my comparative literature teacher doesn't turn up, so I have a few hours to kill before my final class for the day. I went with Tania to the music building as she was going to meet a lady there who she had been talking to for the last couple of days.
The lady as it turns out travels to UP every single day to take her daughter to class, and waits for her there. Her daughter who is (as Tania tells me) a remarkable singer, and is majoring her degree in music. Her daughter is also blind.
I met the two of them, and they seem to be such amazing people, and the daughter turns to me and says 'My mother tells me that you have cheeks like apples. Red like apples and roses' and gives this giant smile. It was really sweet to see her take in everything around her this way. It made me think how powerful it would be to have your imagination take your sight for you, i wonder how everything appears that way...
Either way, the point is they were both remarkable people, and i hope to bump into them again.
We journeyed to the Social Work building next to use the library and we bumped into Christine, another RMIT social worker here to do her placement. We sat with her for a while and she told us she was the university with delegates from all over the world here to hold an international conference on feminism and anti-violence against women movements. It sounded AMAZING!
Next thing, the delegates are all outside to perform a cleansing ritual used by the indigenous tribes in Canada, and we jumped in to partake. It involved the burning of sweet grass, and letting the smoke and incense cleanse us. We spoke to a few of the women afterwards, and it they were all pretty remarkable women and do some awe-inspiring work. I got a few contact details off a few of them, and then had to run off to class.
That night we went near Cubao to have dinner at the house of our new German friends, and they made hamburgers (with delicious grilled zucchini for me) and we spent the night chatting. Thomas, another exchange student from Austria was there, and it was just amazing to have a few drinks and hang out chatting. Later in the night two other Austrians came to join us, Natalie and Patrick (both doing internships here in Manila) Natalie is working for an NGO and Patrick is doing some work for the consulate. It was such a wicked time hanging out with them. A little later in the night I was supposed to meet Cathy and Erin out in Makati, so after some convincing, Patrick, Natalie and Thomas came with me.
We met Erin and Cathy at a bar in Makati called M-Cafe. Mostly it's full of westerners, and is quite expensive for Manila, but we were invited by some of the guys from the Spanish Embassy that Erin and Cathy met a few weeks earlier. It ended up being a great night, and I tried to get a European passport off one of the spanish guys as well as Patrick (hey they both work for their respective embassies...a girl has got to try) but alas it did not work.
We then headed off to a club, however weren't allowed in as a few people were wearing thongs. So instead decided that we would jump into the resort pool, but our attempts failed as the security guard overheard our sneaky plans and stood at the pool entrance. FOILED!!!
So our veins pumping with cocktails and beer, we decided to call it a night at 3:30am. Natalie and Patrick went their seperate way, and Thomas, Cathy, Erin and I (living together or near to each other) caught a taxi back to Katipunan Ave. Making ofcourse a stop at the local fast food restaurant 'Jollibee'. They have amazing cheese fries. Just saying.
Friday we had a lunch date with our RMIT contacts from Melbourne, and some Filipino students who had done an exchange in Melbourne. It was such a great lunch talking to them all, we have all decided to do some weekend trips together, and one of the boys works for a senator, so he invited us to come along to Parliament to hear a debate about the RH bill.
For those of you back home i will give you a run down on the RH bill. It stands for the 'Reproductive Health' bill, and it's a bill to make the pill available for women, as well as family planning, and education more readily available in the Philippines (plus more, however not abortion).
However here in the Philippines the majority of people are of a Christian belief system, and the church and state government are not seperate identities. SO - this is the first time in history that the government is going against the will of the church. The church is claiming a very monty python approach of 'every sperm is sacred' and deem it the murder of a possible child, and are also preaching that it will legalise abortion. HOWEVER the bill specifically states that abortion is not to be legalised, but there is propoganda to the uneducated of the Philippines telling them this to make them side eagainst the RH bill. However after talking to one of my class mates, she angrily said "It's also a means of poverty control. Families keep having kids because they don't have contraception available to them, and then children are being born into families who can't afford them, and then some are reduced to prostitution or worse, and for what? what kind of life is that? The RH bill needs to be passed, family planning needs to be available here in the Philippines"
...So you can see why it would be so FASCINATING to go to a parliamentry debate on this topic. It is the most controversial thing here in the Philippines. I am so excited to go to it.
Saturday, Cathy and I signed up for the local gym. Funnily enough it is a fitness first gym...but it's got some amazing classes. We tried our hand at hip hop classes, and were incredibly unco, and then sunday tried our hand at Body Jam. The teacher was incredibly flamboyant and playful, so we couldn't stop ourselves at giggling when he shouted 'POSE LIKE MADONNA' and pulled out this full on pout. We can see that he REALLY enjoys his job.
We decided to go out again last night, and went back into Makati, to a warehouse bar. It was reggae night and it was incredibly chilled and artsy. As Erin described it, it would be the Brunswick street style hangout for the hipsters of Manila, except instead of a street, it's a warehouse. It was a pretty amazing vibe, but we were pretty exhausted so will endeavour to go about another night when we have more energy.
And thus concludes this tale.
Stay tuned for another installment :)
Love B xoxox
New Austrian friends at M-Cafe
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