Robinson's and General "Hanging-Out"

Very little of any particular interest has happened lately...

Sunday, November 29:
My aunt took my cousins and I to mass. Afterward, we picked up my uncle and went to Robinson's for the first time since it opened. Since we only stopped by the supermarket, we were unable to check out the other stores. Afterward, we had dinner downtown at Jo's Chicken Inato.





Monday, November 30:
Monday was actually a lot of fun. At 2:00 pm, I met up with a couple of friends. They're actually my cousin's two best girl friends, and they're a lot of fun. My aunt dropped me off at the bookstore downtown, where they were waiting, and I joined them on a tour of Silliman University. April, the girl in the pink, is actually a campus ambassador (or whatever it's called at Silliman) and does the campus tours for the school, so she's full of random information. :) I had fun, though. They pointed out buildings to me, and my favorite part was when they would tell me which ones were haunted and "why". If every place that is supposedly haunted on that campus actually is, I think I would be terrified to go there. I guess you could expect a couple of ghosts, though, at a university that was commandeered by the Japanese during World War II, serving as an enemy hospital and, supposedly, as an execution site for innocent people, including priests. Afterward, we walked across the street to Cafe Antonio, a coffeeshop housed in what I believe to be a historic Spanish building. I ordered a mocha frappuccino, and it was fabulous.

Afterward, the three of us walked to Lee Plaza, then took a pedicab to Robinson's. We walked around the entire mall, though there wasn't much to see as most stores haven't opened yet and the inside of the building itself is still under minor construction. The entire inside is filled with dust - you can actually see it in the air and feel yourself breathing it. I wonder why they even opened it up if it wasn't 100% complete yet. The construction is very shoddy, as well. The tiles in the sidewalk are already coming undone or missing entirely. I guess they were in a hurry to meet a deadline. Apparently it was supposed to have been finished last year. Not to mention, the Christmas season is coming up, so I guess they want it open well before Christmas - finished or not. Anyway, we walked around, and it was fun to talk and catch up. Once we'd finished walking around, we had lasagna and dessert at the Sans Rival branch inside the mall (love that place and lovelovelove their lasagna and Mocha Crunch cake!) We then took a pedicab back to my aunt and uncle's house, where they visited for a little while, before I joined my uncle to drop them back off. Overall, it was a lot of fun. It's nice to hang out with people my age for once. To hang out with anyone at all that isn't family, really.



Tuesday, December 1 (yesterday):
Yesterday was ENTIRELY worthless. I literally sat around all day. I spent most of it talking to Bruno online. We're having a lot of issues right now, so it was both a blessing and a curse. I always enjoy speaking with him, but I feel like we're heading toward a bad place right now. BUT, that's for another time and another blog. Tuesday = talked to Bruno all day. The end.

Wednesday, December 2 (today):
Today was uneventful, as well. I talked to Bruno online for a little while, then in the afternoon I went with my aunt, uncle, and cousin to Robinson's to explore. As I said, I already got to explore it Monday and nothing had changed since, but this was their first time there. We walked around a little, then got fruit shakes at Thirsty's (I think that's what it's called?) We then ran into my other aunt and uncle, so we visited with them for a while and walked around a little more. Finally, before we left, we stopped by Sans Rival for snacks (lasagna for me, as always!) On the way home, we stopped at HyperMart to pick up groceries, then came back home and had dinner. Anddddd that pretty much covers 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!