Hangin' in the Phils

 First week of Filipino study in the books. When I get this master's finished, I'll be able to look back at it and say it was truly international. Originating in Pasadena, based in Gongju and Pyeongtaek, with an additional contribution from Manila. And it ain't finished yet! The first week was easy although since there is no writing evaluation or group work in the first week, it's always easy. But I think being in Manila where I've pretty much done everything in my little area of Pasig City that I want to and a little bit outside of it, has kept me bored enough to sit down and read the articles and bang out the papers. Given my past vacations here, I never thought I'd be bored in the Philippines. But this is not really a vacation. Usually toward the end of the month I'm vacationing the days take on a pattern, but not a boring one.

Already the familiar pattern has started with the courses too. I used to look at the upcoming week's readings, find something I used as a reference the week before and say, "HEY, what a coincidence!" Now after having exactly that happen in BOTH courses after the very first week, I'm saying, "HEY I'm not just a student, I'm a curriculum developer!" The curricula for these courses is full of readings from the 90's and early 2000's but little to nothing up to date. I try to find stuff more current in order to make my papers... more current... and my teachers are saying, "Thank you very much, I'll just slot that into the second week's readings..." I wonder if it happens to other students too. And it's happening so often! I guess it IS cool to be contributing to a good cause, but there must be a better way to do this. Like maybe just give me the damn degree and say, "Dude, you are killin' it! Why don't you just join our curriculum development team so we don't have to keep swiping your good articles?"

Still no word on the lump sum pension payment. It's early yet. My ticket home isn't for another week and I can extend my stay if I need to. Or want to... My blood sugar has been good even though I'm not eating well. Lots of Jollibee, BK, McD breakfasts, and other junk food. There is a street right outside one of the gates that protect my little hood that is full of Korean places so I've had some Korean food. A lot of what I eat is stuff that I can bring back to my room and not refrigerate. So not that good. But still below 150 every time I've checked. That IS good. It probably has a lot to do with the walking. I have started using my pedometer app. Since coming here I have AVERAGED over 9000 steps a day. I'm trying to get that up to 10,000. So some of the neighborhood dogs, cats and chickens are getting to know me. Some of the beggars are too, but it's WAAAAAAY less of a hassle here than the resort areas.

Here I deal with a better class of beggars. Like the lady at the desk who tried to charge me about double what the girl had cheated me for the day before. Both gave me higher prices than were advertised on their website and both had this peculiar habit of shuffling around books and papers when asked a question you'd think they'd get asked all the time: "How much?" I'm just going to come out and say it, I'm white - that's what happens to us here. We get the white price. And before you enjoy too much righteous shock at my brashness, I have been told this by multiple merchants in multiple countries. It's a fact so it's not politically incorrect in any way. What the girl charged me was only a little bit over the actual price and it works out to less than 40 bucks a night for a nice room. What the lady quoted me was almost 80 bucks a night. I think she gave me the Japanese, Korean or rich Chinese price. Ha ha ha, okay now THAT mighta been a bit politically incorrect, but still factual. I was shocked! She wanted to charge me only a little bit less than what I'd pay for this room in a "civilized" country like Canada or Korea! The nerve!

And the taxi drivers. I went to the Rainforest Park yesterday and both ways they said, "How much?" TO ME! "Five hundred, boss? How 'bout four hundred?" I just say, "How 'bout you turn on the meter?" It was less than 200 both ways, but again, I know everybody's on the con around here so I tipped them anyway. You get used to it here. And again, the 200 I ended up paying was a very good deal.

So here are some of the pics:

First I went to the flower area. This bunch of flowers above were the best.

I dunno what kind of flower these are, but they're gorgeous. Smelled good too!

This is mostly what I saw in the park: loafing school kids and people taking "princessy" photos of kids and young girls in front of flowers or Alice's Castle dressed in elaborate, long trained dresses. I went to the hedge maze next, which had an Alice in Wonderland theme.

The Cheshire Cat greeted me at the start of the maze. 

It wasn't much of a challenge at first. I guess with the Covid slowdown things at the Rainforest Park got a little run down.

This Alice looked a bit unkempt.

And here we see a coupla cards that have been chucked into the shrubbery.

But as I made my way around, the bushes got thicker, I found some more characters from the story, and I got sweatier. Alice has a little castle in the center of the maze.

Castle guards and view from the tower.

There were Lego guys and dinosaurs there too.

I've been walking around a lot and finding places and trying them out. I got some Korean groceries from Kim's Convenience. I didn't ask for the gay discount though. Viewers of the show will get that.

This was interesting. I saw a few people walk by this and touch it or kiss their hands and touch it. 

I got big time deja vu walking past Metrowalk. I think I've been in one or two of the places in this little party complex in downtown Pasig city. I mean maybe the places I went to have been replaced a time or two since I was there, but I have a feeling I have patronized this establishment...

Manila has some huge and pretty cool buildings. The top one is right downtown in the business district and the one immediately above is the BDO gate to my neighborhood. Those twin towers are right behind the Estancia Mall.

Like any sunset photo, this didn't do it justice, but still nice, no? 

I went to the Tipsy Pig. Heard it was a good place to go. I didn't like the layout inside. All big tables for groups. So I sat outside. I got wings...

and a beer. The beer was good, but the wings weren't. The 4th one was rotten. Even through the extreme thickly painted on hot sauce, I could taste that that wing was well past its prime. And ask anyone who knows me, if I won't eat it, it's rotten. I paid, didn't finish the wings, just left. I walked half a block to Buffalo Wings and could smell the rotten wing inside my mask. It was disgusting. 

Buffalo Wings was good. This is Anne. She took care of me. I had 5 medium and 5 hot wings there. And some beers. I didn't get a Sapporo, but I love their Samurai sword tap!

So in spite of this sign in the Estancia Mall where all of this happened (except the Rainforest Park of course) I think I'm losing weight. My sugar hasn't been above 149 (the day after wings and beer) and my steps haven't been below 5000. 

I'm not in Palawan where I would like to be kayaking into a mountain and hammerin' back the gin and tonics with calamansi at some beach bar, but things are pretty good here. On Sunday I think I'm gonna go visit John and his Dad and maybe have dinner at their place. Maybe Josefino will be there. Hope so. And with luck, I'll get my cash deposited in time to fly back to Korea on the 15th. That'll be the start of week 3 of classes. That's group project week. Always hectic.

So that's about it from the Phils. My next post will probably be written from my apartment in Gongju. But one never knows. With my screwy life, anything can happen...