Thursday, November 29, 2007

Mabuhay!

Manila! Now in the Philippines.

I do wish I was back in China because of the eternal awesomeness that transpired. Thank you, forever, to Wong, Kong, and the DL for such a great trip to a completely foreign world. And for DL for embarrassing Wong and I pretty much everywhere. People would hear him speak Mandarin and they'd ask us, why does the white guy speak such good Mandarin and you two Chinese guys don't?

We'll be back though. We'll be back.




Things I learned after being here in Manila:

1. I do not need any form of jacket, coat, sweater, or anything with long sleeves. It's pretty warm over here (27 deg C, or about 81 deg F, at like 100% humidity). I bought some shorts immediately, and now I need to find some sandals.

2. There is a typhoon blowing over the islands right now. It makes things very humid (sweaty) and also cancels lots of classes for my cousins. My aunt thinks I've brought the typhoon to rain down on them. Fortunately, they're thankful because that means no classes and sleeping in for them! Ha!

3. The air is cleaner than in China, but parts of the city are quite ghetto and dirty.

4. Thievery is really bad here. I've been warned by pretty much everyone not to take my camera around with me to some places that we go to. That means, sadly, there will be less photos this time around, at least while I'm here in Manila.

5. Maids do the work, not me. I can leave the dishes on the table, I don't have to wipe my mess up, I don't have to dig around to find the trash can to throw away my napkin. And the driver (my aunt has a driver) is totally badass on the road. You don't mess with the guy driving a 2 ton ginormous SUV.

6. After working on my photos, I have a lot more from China than I originally thought.

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