Brief Update

Okay, so not much has happened worthy of an update, but we're taking a trip to Cebu tomorrow. I know that if I don't update now, I'll keep putting it off, then I never will! So here goes:

Wednesday, November 18:
I have no memory whatsoever of what happened this day. I guess nothing besides posting the last update? Who knows...

Thursday, November 19:
My aunt left town for work Thursday, so my uncle took my cousins and me to Shakey's (they sell pizza, burgers, milkshakes...that sort of stuff) for dinner. It was awesome because we ordered pretty everything in the menu (calamari, french fries, fried chicken, fried fish, rice, fried potatoes, pizza), and we all shared. Afterward, we went to walk along the Boardwalk because the city has set up and turned on the Christmas tree lights. It's so pretty!



At this point, I remembered that I have a nighttime setting on my camera. /facepalm





Friday, November 20:
My uncle had to work, so I was stuck bored at the house most of the day until my other aunt and uncle (not the ones I'm staying with) came to pick me up. I accompanied them to do some running around in town, then we went back to their house and hung out for a while before grabbing dinner at McDonald's. Afterward, they dropped me back off. And that was pretty much it. I took these pictures are for my honeybear; he'll get get them. :)




Saturday, November 21:
I don't remember what we did during the day; probably nothing. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was nothing. In the evening, though, my aunt and uncle took my cousin Kai Kai and I to the Boulevard (Coco Amigos, the same restaurant we went to before) to watch a cultural dance show a university in the area was performing. It was only like an hour long (was supposed to start at 8, didn't actually start till almost 9 - courtesy of "Filipino time", and ended a little past 10), but it was fun. I tried to record a couple of videos, but my camera ran out of memory. I'll try to post what I have later.


Sunday, November 22 (yesterday):
I went with my aunt, uncle, and cousin to mass. This week is Dumaguete City's festival, so there's a lot going on. After mass, we had dinner at Chowking, a cheap Chinese restaurant. I had some sort of drink...can't remember the name...but it was basically tapioca jelly (the same thing as the tapioca pearls in boba tea, except cut in cubes instead of balls) in an sweetened black tea mixed with slushy ice. Delicioussss.

Monday, November 23 (today):
Today, my friends, I did absolutely NOTHING. I sat around all day, I talked to Bruno for several hours and am even talking to him now, my other aunt and uncle came to have dinner with us, I've been tuning into Moulin Rouge on the TV every so often, and that's pretty much it. Today was the grand opening for Robinson's Mall here in Dumaguete, and we had planned to go. We never did, though, because we heard it was super crowded and that few of the stores were even open anyway. It's just as well - as much as I love shopping, I really hate fighting crowds. I did pack my bags for tomorrow, though. We're going to Cebu till Thursday, and so I'll get to go to the mall there. I'm also going to try to get my Military Ball dress made while we're there. I think we'll have fun. The only thing that sucks is that we're leaving at 4 am tomorrow. There is NOOO way I'm going to be able to get up at 3 am to get ready, but I guess I'll have to unless I want to ride the boat there when the sea is rough. I should get back early Thursday morning, so I'll be able to talk to Bruno his Wednesday night, hopefully. He'll be at home, so it may be hard for him to make time for me. Hopefully, though, I'm crossing my fingers. Talking to him is the highlight of my day! :)

Food Edition!

I know, it's been forever, and it's inexcusable. To be honest, not much has happened, though. Things have happened, but nothing worth quoting day to day. Really, since the last time I've posted, all we've done is go out to eat a lot. Not that I'm complaining about that, because I love going out and trying different restaurants. It's actually been a lot of fun. My point is just that, if I updated every single day just to say where we had supper, it would get kind of old. So instead, here it is - the Food Edition! Okay, maybe I won't actually give restaurant reviews or anything because to be honest, I don't know much about food. I know that it tastes good, and that I need to survive. But here goes.

Monday, November 9:
My aunt and uncle took me to dinner at a resort restaurant by the ocean. I want to say it was called Santa Monica's or something like that. I can't say how the food was because I ordered a bacon-mushroom burger, but had to send it back because the bacon was spoiled. Instead I ate just the 'sizzling fries' I'd ordered to go with my burger, and those were good. French fries on a skillet smothered in onions, peppers, mushrooms, and gravy. Delicious.

Tuesday, November 10:
My aunt and uncle took my cousin and I to dinner at a resort called Private Residence. We ordered a pizza to share, and it was awesome. I'm not exactly sure what kind it was, but I remember the crust being amazing. The resort itself was really nice, too. We sat at a table by the ocean, and it was gorgeous.



Wednesday, November 11:
To be honest, I have no memory of what we did this day. We may have just stayed in and had dinner at home or something; I really don't remember. I think we may have run to the grocery store and done little errands, but I don't remember much else.

Thursday, November 12:
We ate a really cute restaurant. I can't remember the name, but it's the restaurant inside the Florentina Homes Apartment Hotel. Apparently it's owned by an artist, so the decorations inside the restaurant are all really fun and eclectic. It reminds me of the really fun local restaurants you can find in the US. It even had a world map where restaurant guests put a thumbtack where they're from. Two other people had beat me to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The food was good, too. I had the beef and mashed potatoes and "pesto pan" - french bread covered in olive oil and pesto. It was all delicious.




Friday, November 13:
We had dinner at a restaurant called Coco Amigos. It was a Mexican-themed restaurant, but they also served native Filipino food, as well as specialty dishes from all over the world, including Europe and Asia. I ordered the geschnetzeltes with mashed potatos and a side of roesti, which had bacon in it and was fabuloussss.



After dinner, we went outside the restaurant, where they had a group performing. The girls singing were dressed like prostitutes and the place was swarming with dirty old men, but we still had fun. My uncle thought it would be funny to request a song in my name, and it was so embarrassing because he included my name and "from Texas" to the request, and the girls singing kept saying how it was a "very special request by Michelle all the way from Texas." We all got a laugh out of it, though, when they sang my requested song, "Nobody" by the Wonder Girls. It's a Korean song I'd never even heard of until I came here, where the song is really popular. We had a lot of fun. We even ran into my mom's cousin and her boyfriend while we were there, and they sat with us until we left.



Saturday, November 14:
I went with my uncle to the grocery store during the day, then in the evening was his father's birthday party next door. There was so much food. It was a lot of fun, and I even tried something new. Okay, I tried mollusks, and maybe that isn't exactly as exciting as saying I've tried some crazy Filipino food like balut, but it's a start. I'd always been scared to try any sort of clam-like food because the texture creeps me out. I decided I would do it, though, just so I could at least tell Bruno I tried something different.

Sunday, November 15:
Sunday, I went to mass in the evening with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. Afterward, we had dinner at a native restaurant, though I can't remember the name. The food was very good, though. We all ordered different plates and shared with each other. I also ate another mollusk - a garlic one. :)

Monday, November 16:
I pretty much stayed in and did nothing on Monday. My aunt and uncle brought home pizza from Shakey's for dinner.

Tuesday, November 17 (yesterday):
Yesterday was actually a lot of fun. It started off as a bad day after getting into a huge, unresolved fight with my fiance (long story for another blog). I was really upset and worried how I would make it through the rest of the day without fretting, and it's like my uncle read my mind. He came by my room and asked if I wanted to go out, so he took my cousin and I to Valencia. There's a forest resort in the mountains called Forest Camp, where I'd been before when I was younger. Anyway, he took us there, and we walked around, then had delicious halo-halo at their restaurant. It's such a pretty place, and it's right on a river. They have lots of river-water swimming pools; it's so neat. They also have a bridge made of - I guess it's coconut wood? It was so rickety, though, and there were several loose boards that I'm pretty sure were about to break. Scary! They even have a lodging house you can stay at that has a tree growing right through the balcony. Apparently, all the young lovers there carve their names into it, so, naturally, I committed some good old-fashioned vandalism myself, at the encouragement of my uncle (he's such a good influence, lol). There was also a wishing well, where I made a made a wish for Bruno and I. :) (Then, later, we stopped briefly at another resort with another well, where I again made a wish for Bruno and I!)
























Afterward, we picked up my aunt from work, then drove to Sibulan, another town outside of Dumaguete (where my parents actually own a beach house). We went to a restaurant called Jo's Chicken Inato by the Sea. They have a branch in Dumaguete (the original, I think), and it's my dad's favorite. I didn't eat because I wasn't hungry (in fact, I didn't eat all day; I was too upset), but I still had fun taking random pictures!









There was an angry chicken that looked like a hairy dog:


Andddd, that's all, folks!