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!

St. Paul Founder's Day, Kokik's Birthday, & Dinner Party

Okay, I have been SO BUSY since the last post. It's really tough finding time to update, especially since my computer isn't very reliable and there are brownouts all the time. Anyway, without further ado, here goes my mass update:

Saturday, October 24
Last Saturday was the Founder's Day celebration for St. Paul University-Dumaguete, the school where my mom, aunts, and uncles went to elementary and where my cousin graduated from college. My aunt purchased two tickets for the event - one for her, one for my mom - thinking they would go together, but my aunt had to go to Cebu for work and my mom didn't really want to go. Instead, they gave the tickets to my cousin, Kai Kai, and I. It was mostly just a big presentation with dinner. The sisters awarded a honorary alum, they asked for donations from alumni, had a raffle, and then served a buffet-style dinner, complete with lechon and leche flan. (Bruno's right - Filipinos really are the Mexicans of Asia when it comes to food, but I love it!) Afterward, my uncle and mom picked us up, and we went to Chin Loong's, a Chinese restaurant on the Boulevard, to watch the fireworks competition for the Buglasan Festival. My aunt Yoys and her family met us there, and we enjoyed watching the fireworks from the comfort of the restaurant.

Sunday, October 25
Last Sunday, my mom, Kai Kai, and I went to Siaton to visit an old high school friend of my mom's. She lives near the beach, right next door to a resort. We were hoping to swim, but the weather was bad. When we arrived it was so windy, making the usually clear water choppy and murky, so instead we sat at tables they'd set up on the beach and had lunch. After a while, the weather cleared up for a brief period of time, but by this point I was feeling ill from the sudden weather change from chilly to extremely hot. It's just as well because shortly afterward, it started POURING out of NOWHERE. We had to run to the neighbor's house next door to get out of the rain. There, we met some acquaintances of theirs and visited for a while, before eventually returning to Dumaguete, where we showered and left to watch the second night of the fireworks competition (and final Buglasan event) from Chin Loong again.

Monday, October 26
To be honest, I really can not remember what happened this day. If I remember, I will edit this. As far as I can remember, we didn't do anything. My aunt and I were supposed to go to the gym, but we didn't because she had errands to do. I think I just sat around all day instead. Something like that.

Tuesday, October 27
I don't really remember what we did during the day on Tuesday. Probably nothing. Actually, I'm pretty sure we just sat around all day, and I played on the computer, until it was time to go to the party. Yes, that's it. Because my godmother flew out of Dumaguete in the morning, but I overslept so I missed seeing her off. Around lunchtime my cousin, Kokik, was supposed to have a birthday party, but it got canceled so we stayed in. Instead, (I think it was this day at least; if not, it was the day before) my mom and I walked to the grocery store and bought groceries. Fun bonding time. Around dinnertime Tuesday, we went to my aunt's house for Kokik's birthday dinner with delicious and fabulous food.

Wednesday, October 28
Wednesday, we got up early and had lunch with my aunt - birthday leftovers, yummy! That's all I really remember from that day.

Thursday, October 29
My uncle took my mom and I into town to do a little shopping at Lee Plaza, then had lunch at Roberto's. Afterward, we picked my aunt up from work, and the three of us went to the Catholic church in Bacong, where their hundred-year old bamboo pipe organ was recently restored. So cool. I think it's one of only two in the country? Something like that. Then, we stopped by a dress shop so I could pick up information about having dresses made.

Friday, October 30
The day was pretty uneventful, but in the evening my aunt hosted a huge dinner party. When she got home from work, she started cooking, and her housekeepers put out all the nice china and tablecloths and set up extra chairs and tables in the living/dining room and on the patio outside. It was a surprise because some classmates of my cousin Chiko who had been in my debut party showed up, and we got to talk. It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed being able to talk to people who weren't actually a relative for once. Plus, the food was absolutely fabulous.