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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Settling In

I haven't had a lot of time to get online to post, so again I apologize. Here's the update:

Friday, October 2:
Nothing terribly special happened during the day on Friday, but in the evening, I joined my aunts and cousins for mass. It was nice since I haven't been to mass in years, but their contemporary service was quite different from the traditional Presbyterian service I'm used to lately. Afterward, we went to the concert of a famous pop artist here in the Philippines, Sarah Geronimo, where my mom met us. She and her guest artists are very talented, though sometimes it was hard to understand her, even when she sang in English. The Simon Cowell in me says that she's one of those singers who think the louder and more powerful you sing, the better you sound, which really isn't always so. She sings very well, but a lot of the time she would try to put too much power behind her voice that she couldn't even enunciate her words. She was talented, nonetheless, and I enjoyed it. Following the concert, we all had a late dinner at McDonald's, which was a fun bonding experience. That is, except for the part where my mom scolded me for allowing one of the boys who work there to carry my tray of food upstairs. I had tried to stop him and I insisted several times that I'm fully capable of doing it myself, but he wouldn't listen and my cousin Kai Kai just said to give up and let the guy carry it. I guess my mom thought I was taking advantage of him or something...I don't know. Anyway, it was a fun night.

Saturday, October 3:
Saturday started off as a slow day because my mom only wanted to laze around the house. I finally got sick of it, and asked Kai Kai if she'd like to join me on a walk around town. Our uncle took the two of us to a few formalwear boutiques because I had wanted some ideas for dresses I want made. After that, he dropped us off downtown, and we walked to Lee Plaza (what I think could be best explained as a smaller-scale version of what we call department stores). We just wandered around aimlessly before deciding to go upstairs for drinks. I ordered a mango shake (my all-time favorite!); she, native hal0-halo. We spent a long time in the food court just talking. It was nice because I realized that the two of us really have a lot in common. We talked about a lot of different things: boys, our family, our futures...deep stuff, haha. It was nice. Before we knew it, it was already dark, so we went back to the street to have our uncle pick us up and take us back to his house. It was still only 6:30 or so in the evening on a Saturday night, and I had yet to take in the Dumaguete nightlife so I asked her and her older sister if they'd like to go out. They wanted to but I guess they were scared of getting in trouble, so I asked my mom for permission. Everyone freaked out, and I couldn't understand why. Later when talking to my mom, I found out why - because I had told them I wanted to go out to a "club or something" (you know, like where young people in the US go to dance, listen to live music, hang out).) Apparently here in the Philippines, "clubs" are bars where DOMs (Dirty Old Men) hang out to pick up young gold-digging girls and prostitutes. Talk about lost in translation, right? Anyway, we finally got permission after a long and dramatic episode (to go to a "disco" or "coffee shop" or "karaoke bar," but not a "club" haha) only for my cousins to change their mind because they didn't want to be out late since we were all going out of town in the morning. So, we took a rain-check, and hopefully we'll be going out next Saturday. Instead, after dinner, my uncle took the three of us for a drive to scout out venues. We just drove around and he pointed places out and told us about them. Afterward, the four of us went to McDonald's to grab coffee and hot cocoa, then returned home.

Sunday, October 4:
We had breakfast, then we all rode to Manjuyod, the town where my mom grew up. It was almost a three hour drive, and the air conditioner was out. By the time we arrived, I felt ill. It was fiesta time there, so after stopping at my Lola's house, where my mom grew up, to visit her brothers and Nanay, we went to a distant aunt's house to feast. Afterward, we visited the church where my parents were married, and it was busy with vendors selling rosaries and candles for the festival and people offering prayers. Then, we visited one of my mom's aunts and went back to my Lola's house. (To avoid confusion, my Lola is now in the US staying with another of her daughters.) At this point, I was feeling miserable, so I took a nap in a bedroom. By the time I awoke, it was already time to leave. While I had slept, everyone had been visiting and eating dinner. I was very sorry to have missed it, but I really needed a rest to avoid vomiting on the way home. Luckily, Manang, my aunt's driver, had gotten a different vehicle while we were visiting, so we had an air-conditioner during the ride home. The only downside - the temperature was kept way too cold, so by the time we got back to Dumaguete I had a runny nose and a slight cold. Ah well, such is life. I enjoyed seeing so many distant relatives despite feeling ill, so all was well.



Monday, October 5 (yesterday):
My aunt and uncle took me to Silliman University to gather information about courses offered and admission requirements. It's a nice campus; the buildings are so old! One building, my aunt told me, used to be a hospital. It looks like it; it looks like the very old wooden hospitals you see in WWII movies and stuff. Kinda neat. I asked her if it was haunted, lol. I've heard that several places on the Silliman campus are haunted, so I figured it would only make sense that the old hospital would have some ghosts of its own. My aunt said that building isn't haunted that she knows of. After that, we met the rest of the large family at a restaurant for dinner. I don't remember the name, but they served all sorts of different foods. We had pizza, rice, egg drop soup, chicken, french fries, among other dishes. Then, for dessert we had mango shakes and halo-halo. My uncle and aunt from Manjuyod met us for dinner as well, and afterward we saw them off at the bus station.



And that's about it so far. My mom and uncle went to go drop off my aunt at work, and when she returns I think she'll be taking me back to Silliman to deliver my transcripts.

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