I am sitting here in singapore with amazingly fast wifi, a computer that actually works, and some time on my hands (which i really shouldn't have since i have exams in two days time....) but i will eventually get to that story. First I will tell you how i got to this place.
The Wednesday after my last blog (which i wrote on the tuesday...true story, i just checked ;) hehe) was a day of being kicked in the crotch by Manila once more. Just when i thought we were becoming best buddies, and would be trading 'friends forever' necklaces and vowing to be eternally faithful to each other, I was given one giant kick to my imaginary gonads. I think Tania got the biggest kick, but she decided to bring me down with her, haha. we obviously care about each other in the Manila 'Aussie house'.
She informed me that she found out that I had to leave the country on the 31st of March due to visa reasons. I knew this already, but i was told that if i left and acme back i could renew my visa for 21 days, with enough time before my flights. So, i had booked a flight to Singapore to meet up with Dad, hang out with him, and also sneakily pass on some of my luggage that i wouldn't take travelling with me.
So what I was being told now was that my flight to singapore didn't count as a visa renewel, as it needed to be after the 31st of March....handy bit of information i could have used earlier.
So, the question became, do I leave the country after the 31st again, and come back with 2 days before my flight to Thailand, or do I just change my flights and go to thailand a week earlier than expected?
The latter appeared to be the cheapest option for me, so I did that. My lovely parentals decided to make a holiday out of it also and will be meeting me in Phuket for the week, before I fly back to bangkok to meet with the lovely miss Emmah for ten days of thailand travel also.
That night however, we decided to blow off some steam and go to Kareoke. first some dinner and low and behold, what is that i see sitting across from us. a mechanical bull you say? interesting, interesting. Should i give that a go? yes? oh you twisted my rubber arm. But i am in a skirt? nah who cares!
Yep, so on i hopped in the middle of a shopping center restaurant area, cowboy hat on, riding one of those mechanical bulls that you see in movies. i am here to tell you that it is harder than it looks. I fell off three times, BUT i also stayed on for a while, so i count that as a win in my books ;P so after eberyone staring at the whitey on the bull, we headed into kareoke.
Safe to say, we were awesome...or perhaps that was only in our own minds. but there was alot of climbing on the couches, and yelling into the microphones. It was alot of fun.
the next blow to the gonads was the following day. International Women's day. I really wanted to attend the march for this in the city, but had a day full of classes in which i was presented in them all. So I turn up to my shakespeare class...teacher didn't show. I hung around for my Literature class....teacher didn't show (starting to think that I could have gone to the rally in the morning....grrr) and I hang around for my afternoon class. Thankfully the teacher did show, but we didn't get to present. Instead she presented us with another kick to the groin, perhaps a punch in the noggin also, when she told us about our final exams, final assessments, and surprise! you also have to do a presentation on top of that. Yay for your communication skills Manila, never let me down....grrr...
Needless to say, I was not in a great mood that afternoon, and then the teacher asked us to do some role play performances for the rest of the class. I am pretty sure I was 30 seconds away from going up to her ear and yelling 'YOU WANT ME TO PERFORM FOR YOU AFTER ALL THAT NEWS? YOU WANT ME TO BE YOUR PERFORMANCE MONKEY WITH A HAPPY FACE?? WELL EXCUSE YOU!! NOT GOING TO HAPPEN, INSTEAD I WILL CHOOSE TO POUT LIKE A TWO YEAR OLD AND STICK MY TONGUE OUT AT YOU! I WILL BITE MY THUMB AT YOU SIR.. I MEAN MAM!"....aaaaaand then we performed. Alas, the argument happened in my head.
I saw all my weekend trips shatter in that after noon and it made me a little depressed. However it only took the walk home to decide 'up yours Manila, I am still going swimming with the whale sharks this weekend, you cannot defeat me with your copious amounts of study, you dirty rotten scoundral!'
There may have also been a tub of icecream involved in this depression revelation...i'll be honest.
and now for kick in the pants numero...i have forgotten what number i was up to, so let's just say numero infinity.
My laptop that I bought in Manila, if i have not already told you, has died. it slowly ate itself from the inside out. I think maybe it felt like it was in Manila too long. Either way, I have been struggling to get it fixed. I took it back to the store and they updated my software. and then bam, it was my hard drive that needed replacing. So, they took it off to me send to the service center. They said it would be ready to collect in three weeks. I asked them to promise me since i would then be leaving the country, so it couldnt be later. There response was a lot of 'yes mam, yes mam' and enthusiastic nodding.
"it can't be later than the end of march" "yes mam, yes mam"
So, on the friday, with numero infinity, i get a text message from one of the workers "mam, your laptop will be back the first week of april, you can come pick it up then"
NOOOOOOOOO. So begins the messaging back and forth saying
"no, i leave the country, can it be back earlier"
"no mam"
"well... i need it before I leave the country"
"come get it when you come back to Manila"
"i don't come back to manila.. I leave the country" *insert exasperated slap to my own head*
"you don't come back to Manila?"
"No"
"I am sorry mam, we can not make the promise that it will be back by the end of March"
"But you already did make that promise to me. I understand that you can't keep it now, but you did promise me"
"sorry mam, but it wont be fixed by the end of march, i cant promise that"
"no, so don't fix the computer, i will be back in 3 days to the store to pick it up"
"but it wont be fixed mam"
"yes, i know that. dont fix it, i will fix it back in australia"
"but it wont be fixed mam"
"yes... i will fix it in australia, because i leave the country..."
"ok mam, can you come in tomorrow to pick it up?"
"no, not tomorrow, Monday"
"ok, so just text me when you are coming in Tomorrow"
"no, not tomorrow..I will pick it up on Monday"
"not tomorrow?"
"no, not tomorrow... Monday"
"ok Mam"
So.....you can understand my frustrations...... i pretty much was yelling into my phone that whole day and throwing it across the room every time i got a text message.
So anyhoo, the next day I was supposed to be going to work with chilren in conflict with the law. was looking forward to that, however i wake up the next day, jump in the shower and come back to my phone with 15 missed calls, in the span of 5 minutes....interesting.
I answer the phone to my partner on this particualr project, and she tells me that they cancelled, and we need to go visit this program for our final assessment. bleugh. So we frantically try to stay calm and reschedule, into the only afternoon we have free until the assignment is due.
Anyhoo, so that night we meet up with Mara, one of our lovely new German friends, and we jump on an 11 hour overnight bus to Donsol. We opted for the normal buses because the windows were better than the freezing cold air conditioned buses, and it was cheaper. However having said that, the seats were less comfortable, so we weren't able to get much sleep during the night, squished like sardines into the seats, with necks cramping like crazy.
11 hours later the bus driver informs us we need to get off the bus, take a trike to legazpi and then take a van to get to donsol. So we jump off and do exactly what he says. We had to wait a while for the van, since they dont leave until it is full, but we met a lovely guy from Czech Republic and a nice french girl :). It also turned out great because you need 6 people to a boat to go see the whale sharks. we go have some breakfast while we wait for our boat to be ready, and then finally jump into the boat by 10am.
They inform us that we can't touch the whale sharks or we will be sent back to shore, and that there can only be 6 people to one whale shark, and when he says jump, we jump in the water.
Tania informs him that she won't be going into the water since she isn't a confident swimmer, he yells something to the effect of nonsense, and tells her to put on a life jacket. So there we are sitting at the edge of the boat waiting to spot a whale shark. Without much notice, he yells JUMP! and we all jump in the water and start to follow him. we look down and right below us in a whale shark. It was amazing, however there were far more than 6 people to one shark, more like 20 so you kept getting booted in the head. So we would need to be the first ones to the shark to see it properly without injury.
We swam back to the boat and all waited on the edge for the next spotting. Tania told us how the guide pulled her in the water so that she could see the shark, and we were all excited because she did it!! (not that she had much of a choice, but still!! hehe)
The next following times i became collatoral damage in Tania's bid to conquer the sea. she would flounder and almost rip out my earrings with her vicious hands :P and even at one time jumped in the water after me, and instead of looking if anyone was below, landed straight on top of me. I think it was in her attempt to drown me, either by keeping me under the water for prolonged times, or knocking me unconcious so that me may steal my few belongings.
Either way, we managed it, and we would swim alongside some of the BIGGEST whale sharks, they were enormous!!
We would be swimming along looking at both sides until someone pointed below us, and we would realise that the whale sharks were less than a meter underneath us. It was such an amazing experience. We were so lucky to be able to see 8 of them, when people who went the previous day didn't see any. Luck was on our side. Perhaps it was because we were outside of Manila???
That afternoon we decided instead of staying the night we would endevour to find ourselves an overnight bus out of Donsol. Unfortunately it turned out that the transport stopped quite early in the day, but we prevailed. We managed to hire a van to take us back later in the night to the main bus station. First they said they would take us to see the fire flies at night on the river, then to the bus station. woo woo!!
We got to the river at 6pm and jumped on a boat and watched the sunset. It was such a spectacular view, and the sky was streaked with reds, pinks, oranges and even pastel greens smeared in amongst the other colours. It reminded me of fairy floss at the carnival. As the sun went further down, the trees provided beautiful sillouettes against the intense coloured backgrounds, and the fire flies began to emerge. They were so amazingly beautiful, I have never seen anything like it. They would dance in amongst the tree branches, and the sound of clapping caused them to shine even brighter. We caught them in our hands and in our hair, and named one who was the victim of our clapping and could no longer fly some gangster name (tania was determined that he was ethnic, therefore needed an ethnic name....always straight to racial issues tania, always) and watched them dance in unison lighting up the trees like christmas. It was remarkable to see and experience.
We had to head back along the river to our van, where we said goodbye to our new French friend, and headed to the bus. We caught a bus after from the side of the road which took us 2 hours to get to another terminal. We finally found a bus that would take us to Manila. The bus again was a very basic bus. Even more so basic than the original bus, and I felt slightly uncomfortable with so many locals with their eyes intently on us. Yes, let's all stare creepily at the foreigners.... i think it is some kind of sport.
The bus suddenly became exceptionally packed, and the back door was broken. As people slowly got off the bus in the first hour we found ourselves able to spread right across the seats to lie down for the long journey home. The back door was broken so the air whirred in leaving us freezing cold, but eventually someone was able to jam it closed.
I slept across the seat for a good 20 minutes before i woke up to someone shoving my legs out of the way. Two locals had gotten on the bus and decided that my seat was the one they would sit out. I was once again crammed up against the window looking jealously on Alex, Mara and Tania who were fast asleep stretched out over the seats. Dammit.
I was so sleep deprived by this point that i wanted to cry with frustration, however i thought better of it, watching the two locals trying to fall asleep also. I realised by allowing them to sit down also was a good thing because they were just as tired as i was. So, i sucked it up. Eventually in the last 2 hours of the 11 hour bus trip, they got off and i was able to spread out once more and manage atleast 2 hours of sleep with my head smacking against the window a little less often.
We got back to the house and managed to soldier on with some of our studies, however i was so exhausted i needed a nap. When i woke up, i decided i would head in to pick up my laptop. As i message the guy to tell him i was coming in, he replied saying he wouldnt be there, and to which i said i was going in anyway, because he didnt need to be there, as the laptop was at the store regardless.
I got in there, and nope, the laptop had been sent off to the service center. Welcome back to Manila, the land of poor comunication. Even with 4 days to co-ordinate, nobody appears to inform anybody to not send the laptop because i am coming to collect it, so it gets sent off.
They informed me that i would be able to pick it up on the thursday as they would ring the service center. So i grumbled my way home.
The Wednesday rocked around and after getting some assignment work done on Tania's computer (since i am out, bleugh) I went to the children in conflict with the law meeting. We got to meet child leaders and advocates who like the salinlahi put on performances to teach kids and families about the children in conflict with the law, and positive punishment rather than harsh law punishments. They kids were really amazing, we even spoke to the families of the kids, and those working in the community offices who support the program. It was a great well rounded perspective. Although i needed Nikay (my project partner) to translate everything for me, and back to them.
After getting home later that night we went out for Thai food, and headed back home where we crashed after a long day.
The next day i spent going to classes and phoning the store with my computer to tell them i was coming in to pick it up. and voila, ofcourse no one had contacted the service center. So i had some very stern words with the store and the workers saying that I kept being promised it would be back, as i leave the country next week, and i would accept nothing except what i was promised. If by tuesday next week i hadn't gotten my computer back, i will expect them to replace mine with a brand new one, because either way, i was leaving the country with a computer since i paid for one. They assured me it would be back on tuesday....we'll see... I am doubtful, and ready to do some good old fashioned tantruming.
So, Friday morning i woke up at 3am and headed to the international airport. I met a wonderful lady in line for check in who told me that she works in Singapore and only ever gets to come home every 9 years. She has had to leave her 1.5 year old daughter at home with her grandmother, so she can work and provide money for her future. She probably wont see her daughter 'Princess', for another 9 years. it was truly a sad story, but such a common one. She will spend the next 9 years raising someone else's children, and never seeing her own. Safe to say it broke my heart.
I got into singapore and straight away had a nice long bath. Ahhhh i miss baths, and hot showers. ohhh it has been so long. Dad got home from work later that day, so i was able to get some study done and some napping done also in that time. We went out for a thai dinner down at Clarke Quay and were able to just catch up which was lovely. The next day while i waited for my teacher to email me the stuff i needed to study for my exam on tuesday, we went and did some shopping, had a delicious kebab for lunch, went up to Mt Faber and had a lovely walk around, and then relaxing by the pool while i read my shakespeare for my exams. We went for a walk around little India that night looking for something for dinner. I was in search for the restaurant i went to last time i was here, but was unable to find it, so we went to another. The food was delicious but not as good as the other restaurant ;)
We ended up with delicious Haagan Dasz icecream for dessert (YUM!!!) and went for a walk around Clark Quay (right next to dad's hotel). The rest of the night we just chilled and chatted.
Today I finally got the email from my teacher, so the rest of the day/night will be spent studying hard. But this morning before this email we headed over to Sentosa island on the cable cars, had a ride on the Luge, and went and explored the history of Singapore in the 'Images of singapore' exhibition on sentosa, all to be back at the hotel by midday where i will now proceed to study. I depart singapore tomorrow afternoon, to be back in manila late at night before my two exams the following day. ew. wish me luck!!
Until then,
B xo
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
rallies and islands and housemates, oh my!
It occurs to me that my promise last blog to not leave you so long was false and this time I have left you even longer. There is no excuse for my behaviour. aside from ofcourse living. But, having said that it does not take back the wrong doing of going back on a promise. I am ashamed of my behaviour and I will sit in the corner and think about what I have done. my head will hang with shame and i will have to live out my punishment in silence.
....or i could just say, suck it up people, i will write you one now, and you will love it, because i said so. yep, that's right. I think we shall go with option 'B'. So suck on that. :)
Now, to the stories, quit pouting and enjoy :)
So after my last blog post the week obviously consisted of going to class and doing all the assignments that were necessary for the classes. go figure. I bet you would never have figured that out on your own if it wasnt for me as your informit. You're welcome.
My teacher came in to tell us that we needed to do some story telling for one of our classes and when I asked her where I would find these stories, she promptly told me that they were on the class's yahoo group. THE CLASS HAS A YAHOO GROUP?? yep, apparently it's been going all semester and that is where al the vital information is kept for students to find out. I am pretty sure they gathered around in a pow wow type format and said "wouldn't it be funny if we didn't invite the whitey into the group and watch her get confused as to why she can't figure shit out. Pretty sure that is how it went down. Or possibly nothing like that at all. Actually it probably was just a lack in communication, however if i told it to you that way you wouldn't pay attention. So it turns out I have learnt the big lessons in life from Steph. Always embelish :).
So anyhoo, part of the week was spent trying to be invited to this yahoo group which the teacher kept forgetting to do which meant i couldn't do m assignments. Such. A. Shame. NOT!
Having dropped one of my classes (hells yeah!!) I found I have quite a bit more time on my hand so I began cleaning and mopping the house whilst listening to spanish tapes, and pretending that I was a naturally fluent spanish speaker. I may have also listened to music and had a dance with the mop. I guess we will never get to the bottom of that one.
So after scrubbing the floors down nice and shinily, I walked bare feet across the ground and by the end of the day the bottoms of my feet were black from dirt. Turned out clean floors do not last in a city with so much air pollution. Doh.
Saturday rocked around and Tania and I went to another Salinlahi volunteer day. Today they had a group of kids that had been practising a performance/play about the eneds of kids and the inflation of the cost of groceries and how this affects them. This was to go hand in hand with a petition needing to be signed to let the government know that people weren't ok with the high prices.
So we arrived at the salinlahi office and watched the kids practising their performance. They would cheekily look over and both Tania and I and shout "Black beauty, White beauty" which ofcourse led tania to whisper in her best ghetto voice "Why can't it just be beauty, why do they have to bring colour into it??" For all of you who know Tania, it's always about the colour ;)
The day was pretty amazing, we jumped into the Jeepney with the kids and drove for about an hour or so to gt into the heart of the city markets. We would set up at random venues out front of the stalls where the kids would put on their performance as the other workers would try to get vendors and customers to sign the petition. The kids did amazing performances. Tan and I felt a little useless for most of the day as for legal reasons we were not allowed to be involved with holding the pamphlets or getting people to sign forms (due to international affairs and such) and therefore were the designated prop holders for the performances for the kids, and got to spend the better part of the day just mucking around with them, and keeping an eye on them while the workers searched for people to sign the petitions.
We took the kids back to the jeepney and while waiting for the other workers, we began a jam session with them. It's amazing how talented every Filipino I have met is when it comes to musicality. I am pretty sure its some kind of genetic thing. If you are Filipino, you rock at music. Now excuse me while I go meet my contact at the black market, perhaps he can arranged this gene for me.
So after our long day in the sun (and boy oh boy was it hot) we set off in the evening to head to B-side, which is a warehouse club to meet up with some friends. Cathy had made a friend who is an amazing artist and had alot of his work there, so we listened to the music and chilled a bit.
We then headed out to 'The Fort' to experience possibly one of the best nights I have had here in Manila. We went to a venue surrounded by talented artists and performerr. There was fire poi, and hoolah hoops and juggling and amazingly talented musicians and tap dancers and there was fire and lights everywhere. Did i mention that there was also free booze?
We chilled and watched the performers (one amazing fire poi/eater from Argentina was there too.....:D ) and took in the entire evening. I am pretty sure I fell in love with the entire scene. Words can't describe how good it was.
I may have also gotten into a conversation with a Filipino guy about how I was utterly sure he was aprt of the mafia, and nothing he said or did could prove me otherwise. Pretty sure he is in the mafia....just saying...possibly the head of it...I think that is my decision :P Also pretty sure he was thinking ' who the heck is this crazy white chick telling me that I am in the mafia??? since when did i join the mafia???'
So sunday night rocked around and with not alot to do I decided to check out the church with Tania, as it is such a part of the Filipino culture, and it would be silly of me to not explore as much as I can about the culture before I leave here. So i did. It was interesting, but establishes exactly for me that church and the christian faith doesn't reside within me personally. But a Filipino experience none the less.
Tan and I headed out to the movies after that, however while we were getting dinner a friend of ours rang to ask us if we were ok. Turns out from her apartment she can see our subdivision and informed us of about 6 different fire trucks parked outside and smoke everywhere. We scurried home to find that it was a commune nearby our house that had experienced a gas tank explosion. There were so many families all huddled out on the streets, it was insane, but thankfully no one was hurt.
Monday night we went as a housemate group to see the movie 'This means War', which by the way was FREAKING HILARIOUS!!! we couldn't stop laughing and it was good to hang out all together as it had been a while.
Wednesday night Tania and I invited our German friends over for dinner and we cooked delicious fajitas. om nom nom nom. We had such an amazing night hanging out together and I decided that I would detour in Europe to stop over in Germany to all hang out. So exciting. Once they left we had the arrival of our new housemate, Alex, who is one of Tania's friends from Australia coming to volunteer around south east asia.
We all joined in on the community organising class on the Thursday (Alex included) and had to act out role plays of how we would intervene and join in communities to create positive changes. My group hadn't had a chance to rehearse ours so we just winged it, only problem was that they did it all in tagalog, and would then look to me for input into the conversation. I think I gave the best smiling and nodding anyone has ever seen. I don't think i portrayed a person in poverty at all, and on occasion someone would whisper tagalog words in my ear which i would pipe up and say. Pretty sure I can now say 'planting is no joke'. That's right, you heard me, I am a master of languages!!
That night we went out for mexican with Cath, me, Tan, Christine, Alex and one of Cath's friends from Aus. It was just a good relax night of chillin, eating and jamming when we returned home. I went to bed pretty late and woke up earlier the next day to find that Tania and Alex had spent the entire night talking and catching up on things back home that neither of them had slept a wink. Pretty sure they made a bit of a fort out of couches also.
So sleep deprived Tania, Alex and wide awake me, headed off into Makati with Cath to visit our previous housemate Erin after her trip in Palawan. We got to meet some of ehr friends (which we had heard so many stories about) however didn't get to stay long as we had to head off to the airport to stay in Boracay for the weekend (woo woo!!!)
So we arrived at the airport and as we were waiting in the departures area Tania turns to Alex and I to ask what seat number we were sitting in. She happily exclaims that she is in row 25. Alex answers saying that he is in row 17, and catching on quickly I do the same. Poor Tan was so confused as to why she was sitting by herself. She makes a few remarks about racism (as she does) and she makes her way to enter from the back of the plane as we board from the front. We got on the plane before Tania and quickly scurried to row 25 and hid down low in our seats. Tania was excited about making new friends and was curious as to who she was going to be sitting next to. She saw two whiteys and it took her a few seconds to realise the joke we had played on her, and that we were in fact all sitting together and the airline wasn't racist at all. Pretty sure we found it HILARIOUSLY funny.
We arrived into Kalibo airport and jumped on a van to drive us to Caticlan. The van had it's tinted windows with cut outs of batmans symbol which provided much amusement, and we drove for a good hour and a half before arriving to the port. We were told that the price we paid would cover all of our boat fares, however, as always happens in the Philippines, additional costs end up sneaking their way in.
After our short boat trip then trike trip we arrived on Boracay beach.
We hadn't exactly made any plans about where we were going to stay once we arrived on boracay, but we thought we would wander around and find a hostel or resort. Unfortunately we arrived at 10:30 when all the resorts admin areas closed at 10pm, so we decided the best option was to lay out sarongs on the sand, cuddle our backpacks and sleep on the sand and drift to sleep listening to the live acoustic bands that line the beach front of Boracay.
We were meeting friends on Boracay beach and they managed to find us lying on the beach at about 12pm, and assured us that we could not sleep on the beach and that they would re-arrange their cabins so that we could stay with them for the night. Nawww, aren't they lovely. So after chatting on the sand for a while we headed back to their resort and stayed in their cabins.
The next morning we woke up and all went to get breakfast together. mmm eggs on toast.
The group split up for the day and I went with Alex and Micky (a new German friend of ours) to suss out some snorkelling while Tania, Mara, Hanna, Thomas and Mike headed to do some relaxing on the beach.
Alex, Micky and I headed to the back beaches where we were told that you could do some cheap and good snorkelling, however when we got there the water was exceptionally choppy and the shore line was overtaken by kite surfers and snorkelling didn't appear to be an option today. So instead we went for a walk along the sand watching the kite surfers (thought about joining in until we heard the price!) and just got to know each other better.
We stopped off for lunch at a small cafe and headed back to the main beach for a swim.
The water on Boracay is almost clear and has a beautiful light blue glow to it during the day, it is truly amazing, and the water wasn't cold in the slightest, infact it was perfect for swimming.
We then wandered up the beach to find the others sitting in a small hut having a few drinks, we joined them for some food and drinks and good conversation (or atleast i deem it fabulous conversation when harry potter comes up!) and the tv under the bar was playing the final harry potter movie. Where do i look??? at harry or at the sunset??? ohhhh the choices and hard decisions in life!! hehe.
The sunset won out and there was a beautiful golden glow that covered the beach for a few short minutes. We had a few more drinks to cover the tab and then headed back to the main beach to chill.
Tania, Alex and I headed up the beach further and stopped outside a bar that had a fire poi show on. It was incredible how talented people are, and the show even turned into a syncronised dance. Alex got a lovely personal show from his 'fire-poi-fairy-boy' who gave him an extra special wink.
We ended up sitting outside of Boom-Boom bar (brilliant acoustic musicians on the foreshore) having a few rum and cokes. I headed with Thomas and Mike to check out a few of the dance bars. We had a few drinks and giggled at each other and other patrons, watching them try to exude sexuality to land themselves a foreigner. I tried to explain the pout face to Thomas which ended in hilarious conversations and the night also resulted in him having a shimmy and asking randoms about their thoughts on lady boys. as you do.
So after Mike went home, Thomas and I headed back to the resort as well, we went into our room to see if Tania and Alex were still awake which they were. We continued to try and teach Thomas about the pouty face calling it the 'come hither' face. With translation difficulties our lovely Austrian Thomas turns to look at us and says "what? come hitler? who is hitler?" which ofcourse through giggles you had Tania trying to say, 'no Thomas, you can't say that!'
Anyhoo, after much giggling we went to bed. The next day we all decided that we would attempt snorkelling a second time except this time hire a boat to take us to the good snorkelling spots. We went out on the boat and the first place we found was far to choppy to get off the boat to snorkel, so we headed for a new destination.
This time we jumped off the boat and swam around with the fishies :)
The fish and coral wasn't as impressive as I had seen it in Puerto Galera or other places, but it was still of course lots of fun and beautiful.
We headed then to a secluded beach where we found kids jumping off the side of a rock/cliff. So naturally, we wanted to join in on that too. We docked the boat on the shore and went and started talking to the kids. They were wonderful and lead us up to the cliff where we proceeded to take turns in jumping off. The kids would yell words of encouragement, as would we for them and each other, and just having so much fun.
We headed out onto the beach and Tania had started up a game with the kids of them running around on the sand. They loved it so much and it was so much fun to watch them go.
Unfortunately then we had to leave and go to our final snorkelling destination. Which was deeper than the first, and I thought much more pretty. In general I love to be in the water. I can't wait to do some scuba diving around some of the reefs on Palawan (and ship wrecks!!)
We headed back for the night and said goodbye to our lovely German, Austrian and token Filipino friends as the made their way to their long bus home (their ferry got cancelled at the last minute) and proceeded to spend the rest of the evening lying on the sand and stargazing listening to the acoustic music once again.
We also decided it would be a great opportunity to go get a massage, so we headed in to a massage parlour.
The massages were amazing, as we were made into human pretzels. Pretty sure that is the first time someone has managed to crack my back. The girls in there were very lovely and we had a good old chat to them about their studies (one was earning money to complete her studies in criminology!) and during the massage they proceeded to take an interest in alex. I also got questioned as to whether he was my boyfriend. I think when they see two white people within the same vicinity, they assume that they must be together. They didn't even ask Tania (RACIST!). It was pretty amusing.
The next day we rose early to say our goodbyes to Boracay and make our way back to the airport, and then back home. All pretty exhausted we predominantly bummed for the rest of the day.
And that brings us to yesterday, Tuesday. I headed to my classes in the morning as per usual and of course my teacher didn't show up again (she has missed 15 classes out of 30..) and went in the afternoon with Alex to get a phone at the shopping center and to get my computer fixed.
On the train ride home we took bumped into some other westerners who appeared to be lost, so we struck up conversation with them. I recognised the Canadian guy as someone who lived in our subdivision so we all made the journey home together, and thus made new friends with a Canadian guy, an Austrian guy (whose mission in the Philippines was to grow a wicked moustache) and an American girl. We exchanged numbers and will probably catch up with them this week.
THE END!
Now i must go scurry off to do some assignment work. sigh.
I hope that my tales are enough to keep you happy for the time being, next installment I will have information for you on working with children in conflict with the law, and also swimming with whale sharks ;)
Peace love and mung beans duuuuuuude
Love B xoxo
....or i could just say, suck it up people, i will write you one now, and you will love it, because i said so. yep, that's right. I think we shall go with option 'B'. So suck on that. :)
Now, to the stories, quit pouting and enjoy :)
So after my last blog post the week obviously consisted of going to class and doing all the assignments that were necessary for the classes. go figure. I bet you would never have figured that out on your own if it wasnt for me as your informit. You're welcome.
My teacher came in to tell us that we needed to do some story telling for one of our classes and when I asked her where I would find these stories, she promptly told me that they were on the class's yahoo group. THE CLASS HAS A YAHOO GROUP?? yep, apparently it's been going all semester and that is where al the vital information is kept for students to find out. I am pretty sure they gathered around in a pow wow type format and said "wouldn't it be funny if we didn't invite the whitey into the group and watch her get confused as to why she can't figure shit out. Pretty sure that is how it went down. Or possibly nothing like that at all. Actually it probably was just a lack in communication, however if i told it to you that way you wouldn't pay attention. So it turns out I have learnt the big lessons in life from Steph. Always embelish :).
So anyhoo, part of the week was spent trying to be invited to this yahoo group which the teacher kept forgetting to do which meant i couldn't do m assignments. Such. A. Shame. NOT!
Having dropped one of my classes (hells yeah!!) I found I have quite a bit more time on my hand so I began cleaning and mopping the house whilst listening to spanish tapes, and pretending that I was a naturally fluent spanish speaker. I may have also listened to music and had a dance with the mop. I guess we will never get to the bottom of that one.
So after scrubbing the floors down nice and shinily, I walked bare feet across the ground and by the end of the day the bottoms of my feet were black from dirt. Turned out clean floors do not last in a city with so much air pollution. Doh.
Saturday rocked around and Tania and I went to another Salinlahi volunteer day. Today they had a group of kids that had been practising a performance/play about the eneds of kids and the inflation of the cost of groceries and how this affects them. This was to go hand in hand with a petition needing to be signed to let the government know that people weren't ok with the high prices.
So we arrived at the salinlahi office and watched the kids practising their performance. They would cheekily look over and both Tania and I and shout "Black beauty, White beauty" which ofcourse led tania to whisper in her best ghetto voice "Why can't it just be beauty, why do they have to bring colour into it??" For all of you who know Tania, it's always about the colour ;)
The day was pretty amazing, we jumped into the Jeepney with the kids and drove for about an hour or so to gt into the heart of the city markets. We would set up at random venues out front of the stalls where the kids would put on their performance as the other workers would try to get vendors and customers to sign the petition. The kids did amazing performances. Tan and I felt a little useless for most of the day as for legal reasons we were not allowed to be involved with holding the pamphlets or getting people to sign forms (due to international affairs and such) and therefore were the designated prop holders for the performances for the kids, and got to spend the better part of the day just mucking around with them, and keeping an eye on them while the workers searched for people to sign the petitions.
We took the kids back to the jeepney and while waiting for the other workers, we began a jam session with them. It's amazing how talented every Filipino I have met is when it comes to musicality. I am pretty sure its some kind of genetic thing. If you are Filipino, you rock at music. Now excuse me while I go meet my contact at the black market, perhaps he can arranged this gene for me.
So after our long day in the sun (and boy oh boy was it hot) we set off in the evening to head to B-side, which is a warehouse club to meet up with some friends. Cathy had made a friend who is an amazing artist and had alot of his work there, so we listened to the music and chilled a bit.
We then headed out to 'The Fort' to experience possibly one of the best nights I have had here in Manila. We went to a venue surrounded by talented artists and performerr. There was fire poi, and hoolah hoops and juggling and amazingly talented musicians and tap dancers and there was fire and lights everywhere. Did i mention that there was also free booze?
We chilled and watched the performers (one amazing fire poi/eater from Argentina was there too.....:D ) and took in the entire evening. I am pretty sure I fell in love with the entire scene. Words can't describe how good it was.
I may have also gotten into a conversation with a Filipino guy about how I was utterly sure he was aprt of the mafia, and nothing he said or did could prove me otherwise. Pretty sure he is in the mafia....just saying...possibly the head of it...I think that is my decision :P Also pretty sure he was thinking ' who the heck is this crazy white chick telling me that I am in the mafia??? since when did i join the mafia???'
So sunday night rocked around and with not alot to do I decided to check out the church with Tania, as it is such a part of the Filipino culture, and it would be silly of me to not explore as much as I can about the culture before I leave here. So i did. It was interesting, but establishes exactly for me that church and the christian faith doesn't reside within me personally. But a Filipino experience none the less.
Tan and I headed out to the movies after that, however while we were getting dinner a friend of ours rang to ask us if we were ok. Turns out from her apartment she can see our subdivision and informed us of about 6 different fire trucks parked outside and smoke everywhere. We scurried home to find that it was a commune nearby our house that had experienced a gas tank explosion. There were so many families all huddled out on the streets, it was insane, but thankfully no one was hurt.
Monday night we went as a housemate group to see the movie 'This means War', which by the way was FREAKING HILARIOUS!!! we couldn't stop laughing and it was good to hang out all together as it had been a while.
Wednesday night Tania and I invited our German friends over for dinner and we cooked delicious fajitas. om nom nom nom. We had such an amazing night hanging out together and I decided that I would detour in Europe to stop over in Germany to all hang out. So exciting. Once they left we had the arrival of our new housemate, Alex, who is one of Tania's friends from Australia coming to volunteer around south east asia.
We all joined in on the community organising class on the Thursday (Alex included) and had to act out role plays of how we would intervene and join in communities to create positive changes. My group hadn't had a chance to rehearse ours so we just winged it, only problem was that they did it all in tagalog, and would then look to me for input into the conversation. I think I gave the best smiling and nodding anyone has ever seen. I don't think i portrayed a person in poverty at all, and on occasion someone would whisper tagalog words in my ear which i would pipe up and say. Pretty sure I can now say 'planting is no joke'. That's right, you heard me, I am a master of languages!!
That night we went out for mexican with Cath, me, Tan, Christine, Alex and one of Cath's friends from Aus. It was just a good relax night of chillin, eating and jamming when we returned home. I went to bed pretty late and woke up earlier the next day to find that Tania and Alex had spent the entire night talking and catching up on things back home that neither of them had slept a wink. Pretty sure they made a bit of a fort out of couches also.
So sleep deprived Tania, Alex and wide awake me, headed off into Makati with Cath to visit our previous housemate Erin after her trip in Palawan. We got to meet some of ehr friends (which we had heard so many stories about) however didn't get to stay long as we had to head off to the airport to stay in Boracay for the weekend (woo woo!!!)
So we arrived at the airport and as we were waiting in the departures area Tania turns to Alex and I to ask what seat number we were sitting in. She happily exclaims that she is in row 25. Alex answers saying that he is in row 17, and catching on quickly I do the same. Poor Tan was so confused as to why she was sitting by herself. She makes a few remarks about racism (as she does) and she makes her way to enter from the back of the plane as we board from the front. We got on the plane before Tania and quickly scurried to row 25 and hid down low in our seats. Tania was excited about making new friends and was curious as to who she was going to be sitting next to. She saw two whiteys and it took her a few seconds to realise the joke we had played on her, and that we were in fact all sitting together and the airline wasn't racist at all. Pretty sure we found it HILARIOUSLY funny.
We arrived into Kalibo airport and jumped on a van to drive us to Caticlan. The van had it's tinted windows with cut outs of batmans symbol which provided much amusement, and we drove for a good hour and a half before arriving to the port. We were told that the price we paid would cover all of our boat fares, however, as always happens in the Philippines, additional costs end up sneaking their way in.
After our short boat trip then trike trip we arrived on Boracay beach.
We hadn't exactly made any plans about where we were going to stay once we arrived on boracay, but we thought we would wander around and find a hostel or resort. Unfortunately we arrived at 10:30 when all the resorts admin areas closed at 10pm, so we decided the best option was to lay out sarongs on the sand, cuddle our backpacks and sleep on the sand and drift to sleep listening to the live acoustic bands that line the beach front of Boracay.
We were meeting friends on Boracay beach and they managed to find us lying on the beach at about 12pm, and assured us that we could not sleep on the beach and that they would re-arrange their cabins so that we could stay with them for the night. Nawww, aren't they lovely. So after chatting on the sand for a while we headed back to their resort and stayed in their cabins.
The next morning we woke up and all went to get breakfast together. mmm eggs on toast.
The group split up for the day and I went with Alex and Micky (a new German friend of ours) to suss out some snorkelling while Tania, Mara, Hanna, Thomas and Mike headed to do some relaxing on the beach.
Alex, Micky and I headed to the back beaches where we were told that you could do some cheap and good snorkelling, however when we got there the water was exceptionally choppy and the shore line was overtaken by kite surfers and snorkelling didn't appear to be an option today. So instead we went for a walk along the sand watching the kite surfers (thought about joining in until we heard the price!) and just got to know each other better.
We stopped off for lunch at a small cafe and headed back to the main beach for a swim.
The water on Boracay is almost clear and has a beautiful light blue glow to it during the day, it is truly amazing, and the water wasn't cold in the slightest, infact it was perfect for swimming.
We then wandered up the beach to find the others sitting in a small hut having a few drinks, we joined them for some food and drinks and good conversation (or atleast i deem it fabulous conversation when harry potter comes up!) and the tv under the bar was playing the final harry potter movie. Where do i look??? at harry or at the sunset??? ohhhh the choices and hard decisions in life!! hehe.
The sunset won out and there was a beautiful golden glow that covered the beach for a few short minutes. We had a few more drinks to cover the tab and then headed back to the main beach to chill.
Tania, Alex and I headed up the beach further and stopped outside a bar that had a fire poi show on. It was incredible how talented people are, and the show even turned into a syncronised dance. Alex got a lovely personal show from his 'fire-poi-fairy-boy' who gave him an extra special wink.
We ended up sitting outside of Boom-Boom bar (brilliant acoustic musicians on the foreshore) having a few rum and cokes. I headed with Thomas and Mike to check out a few of the dance bars. We had a few drinks and giggled at each other and other patrons, watching them try to exude sexuality to land themselves a foreigner. I tried to explain the pout face to Thomas which ended in hilarious conversations and the night also resulted in him having a shimmy and asking randoms about their thoughts on lady boys. as you do.
So after Mike went home, Thomas and I headed back to the resort as well, we went into our room to see if Tania and Alex were still awake which they were. We continued to try and teach Thomas about the pouty face calling it the 'come hither' face. With translation difficulties our lovely Austrian Thomas turns to look at us and says "what? come hitler? who is hitler?" which ofcourse through giggles you had Tania trying to say, 'no Thomas, you can't say that!'
Anyhoo, after much giggling we went to bed. The next day we all decided that we would attempt snorkelling a second time except this time hire a boat to take us to the good snorkelling spots. We went out on the boat and the first place we found was far to choppy to get off the boat to snorkel, so we headed for a new destination.
This time we jumped off the boat and swam around with the fishies :)
The fish and coral wasn't as impressive as I had seen it in Puerto Galera or other places, but it was still of course lots of fun and beautiful.
We headed then to a secluded beach where we found kids jumping off the side of a rock/cliff. So naturally, we wanted to join in on that too. We docked the boat on the shore and went and started talking to the kids. They were wonderful and lead us up to the cliff where we proceeded to take turns in jumping off. The kids would yell words of encouragement, as would we for them and each other, and just having so much fun.
We headed out onto the beach and Tania had started up a game with the kids of them running around on the sand. They loved it so much and it was so much fun to watch them go.
Unfortunately then we had to leave and go to our final snorkelling destination. Which was deeper than the first, and I thought much more pretty. In general I love to be in the water. I can't wait to do some scuba diving around some of the reefs on Palawan (and ship wrecks!!)
We headed back for the night and said goodbye to our lovely German, Austrian and token Filipino friends as the made their way to their long bus home (their ferry got cancelled at the last minute) and proceeded to spend the rest of the evening lying on the sand and stargazing listening to the acoustic music once again.
We also decided it would be a great opportunity to go get a massage, so we headed in to a massage parlour.
The massages were amazing, as we were made into human pretzels. Pretty sure that is the first time someone has managed to crack my back. The girls in there were very lovely and we had a good old chat to them about their studies (one was earning money to complete her studies in criminology!) and during the massage they proceeded to take an interest in alex. I also got questioned as to whether he was my boyfriend. I think when they see two white people within the same vicinity, they assume that they must be together. They didn't even ask Tania (RACIST!). It was pretty amusing.
The next day we rose early to say our goodbyes to Boracay and make our way back to the airport, and then back home. All pretty exhausted we predominantly bummed for the rest of the day.
And that brings us to yesterday, Tuesday. I headed to my classes in the morning as per usual and of course my teacher didn't show up again (she has missed 15 classes out of 30..) and went in the afternoon with Alex to get a phone at the shopping center and to get my computer fixed.
On the train ride home we took bumped into some other westerners who appeared to be lost, so we struck up conversation with them. I recognised the Canadian guy as someone who lived in our subdivision so we all made the journey home together, and thus made new friends with a Canadian guy, an Austrian guy (whose mission in the Philippines was to grow a wicked moustache) and an American girl. We exchanged numbers and will probably catch up with them this week.
THE END!
Now i must go scurry off to do some assignment work. sigh.
I hope that my tales are enough to keep you happy for the time being, next installment I will have information for you on working with children in conflict with the law, and also swimming with whale sharks ;)
Peace love and mung beans duuuuuuude
Love B xoxo
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