Torres Says…

Day 9

Good Day Everyone, it is day 9 of my adventures here in the Philippines. I had the best day yesterday. I had my unofficial elementary reunion of my class. A couple months before I left Canada, I contacted a friend of mine from Elementary (who I found at Friendster) and pitched the idea of a mini elementary reunion. After about a month, she was in touch with half of my grade 6 class - the reunion was gonna happen.

My afternoon started with a tour of the old school. I attended Cembo Elementary School from grades 1-6 here before migrating to Canada. It was very nostalgic standing in the center of the school and reminiscing the good old elementary days. Most of my memories about the Philippines was during my elementary. I can’t even express how great it felt to visit the school. Wow!

Shortly after the quick tour, We went to Market Market Mall here at the Fort (formerly known as Fort Bonifacio). When I left the country, that place was filled with historical old (deteriorating) building and lots and lots of trees, now it was a metropolis in itself. It was beautiful. Granted, it was still sad to see the historical buildings go. We went to this seafood place, we were the first ones there. We were expecting about 17 people from my grade 6 class to show up. I was a bit nervous, it’s been 12 years since I last saw everyone. I never really kept in touch so I was definitly out for an interesting night.

Slowly people started arriving. Everyone person’s face that walked through the door lit up shortly after seeing some familiar faces. We ordered a LOT of fresh sea food and it was very cheap. The total bill wasw 5000 pesos ($113.cad) for 17 people including all the food, drinks and liquor. After dinner, we went around one by one to kind of talk about the 12 years after grade 6. Some of them were married, some have very stable jobs, some are still single and are going to be married next year. We are having another dinner as a going away party next week.

Day 11
I am back again in Mendez, Cavite. We left Manila at 5 am yesterday. Today we went to People’s Park in the Sky, which was about 30 minute drive from my Aunt’s house. It was formerly one of the houses of the late Philippine President, Ferdinand Marcos. The house, who was apparently beautiful then, is not just an old abandoned building. It’s situated on top of the highest hill here in Cavite. It over looks 3 cities in Luzon (Main Island) - Tagaytay, Bulacan, and Laguna. The view was Amazing! We took lots of pictures. I love it here in Cavite. Eventhough life here is very simple, I’m away from the noise of the city. You wake up in the morning smelling the fresh morning dew - something you can’t get away with in the city.
Tomorrow, I am back in Manila to do some shopping and visit more family friends.

Its super hot here. I think I burned the tip of my nose yesterday. Sunscreen didn’t work. 12 more days till my trip ends. I’m not ready to go back. Hope you’re all doing well and still enjoying summer. I have regular access to my email and if you are interested in calling me (:D) you can reach me at 01163209059352581.

Paalam,

Michael

Yesterday, we went to Tagaytay, about a 15 minute tricycle ride from where we live, to visit some family. Tagaytay is a tourist destination here in Cavite. Streets are filled with stores selling fresh fruits and other goodies. The view here is magnificent! I haven’t had a chance to take pictures of it because my camera doesn’t work so well at night. I’ll make sure to take some when I get the chance. We visited my God mother’s house yesterday. It was cool to finally hang out with my god-brother and chat with my godmother. We are staying at their house in Dasmarinas, Cavite on Friday.

My cousin and I made plans to see Harry Potter on Friday at one of the malls here. We definitly got nothing on Movie Theatres here. It’s very cheap, 5 bux including popcorn, reserved seating, comfortable chairs, big big white screen to watch the movie.

It’s been pretty chilled lately. We go to bed really early, sometimes 8 or 9 pm. I am wide awake at 4AM - I’m usually the first one to wake up. I sit on the front porch of the house to wait for the lady that sells fresh bread. She walks around hauling a small cart contained with freshly made bread or "pandesal". $1.25 cad can get you 50 pieces of pandesal. We then have breakfast as a big family. I usually help to get the kids ready for school. By 8am, the house is relatively empty. It’s just myself, my mom, aunt and uncle. Around 9, my cousin will come by usually to bring me some fresh fruits.

Wow, I love the fresh fruits. The other day, we went to my mom’s land to see what it looks like. My other cousin was treating the Pineapples to help speed up the process of bearing fruits. He told me to pick my own pineapple. I picked it fresh from the tree. My other cousin then preceeded to peel the pineapple with this big knife. I had it all to myself. It was soooo fresh! We then picked out Avocados from the tree. There were lots of them!

Shortly in the afternoon, my cousin came back to the house with more pineapple, avocados, Papaya, Guyabano, and Santol (I dont know what the two latter fruits are called in english).

I started working out yesterday to pass time while the kids are at school. No gyms, no weights around so I had to create my own artificial weight. We bought 2 jugs of distilled water which now serves as my freeweights. I want to at least be active with all the food i’m eating. With food being so cheap, I’m afraid that I’ll gain some unnecessary baggage.

I hope that the weather gets better so that I can continue my sight seeing. Otherwise, it’s been good times hanging out with my mother and aunt talking about the good old days.

I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying summer. Thanks to those who sent their warm regards.

I have a temporary phone number - if you are interested in calling me. Im not sure if the text will work because they have a weird texting system here (I’m not gonna get into explaining it). You can reach me at 01163209059352581.

See you soon!

Paalam,

Michael

I’ts been an exhausting day! I’ve been awake since 12midnight last night - I am heavily jetlagged! I can’t seem to adjust with the time. I hope to get more sleep tonight. I’ll crash after dinner - we got church early tomorrow morning.

So it was a good day today, hopefully this positive trend in my daily activities continue.

I had another cockroach run-in last night. I was finally falling asleep, it was about 11pm and I went upstairs to sleep. Just when I was comfortable, felt something crawling on my back - yes..i know what you’re thinking…eeeeewww. So I quickly jumped, turned the light on, looked for the roach (didnt find it). I was too paranoid to go back to sleep so I went downstairs to watch tv. FYI, they better cable/channel selections here and they dont even pay for it! Its free!!

I took another chance with the Jeepneys today to get to where we had to go. Again, I’ll describe it to you - it was like being on fear factor but for a long period of time. Wow, people drive like maniacs here. Where the heck do they learn how to drive??? How they avoid accidents or killing people is beyond me.

I went to my very first AIESEC in Philippines event today at the University of the Philippines, Diliman (UP). UP is the largest university in the Philippines. FYI, tuition per year is 12000 pesos, $272.72 cad per year (Cheap, eh?) It was called the AIESEC Local Committee Orientation Seminar. It’s basically an information session about AIESEC and I was one of the guest speakers. It was attended by about 50 aspiring/new AIESECers. To be perfectly honest, I felt kind of weird. People keep asking if I speak Filipino and they wanted me to say silly phrases to hear what I sound like. I sadly, didnt oblige because I feel really weird doing it. I speak Filipino (Tagalog) but only to those who I’m really comfortable with.

The event was a bit unorganized, totally different from how we run AIESEC in Canada. I spoke a little bit about AIESEC in Canada, AIESEC in Manitoba and Winnipeg in general. They were very receptive to the things I was talking about.

After the event, they took me to this local BBQ place called "The Beach". It was 75 pesos per meal (1.25 cad). Most of you know this but I dont eat pork, so I had to settle with the Chicken BBQ which was just as good.

After that, we took the MRT (Metro Rail Transit) to the mall in Makati City (where I used to live). It was interesting, it was packed and it was quick. It was 14 pesos (.25 cad) one way. We went to Ayala Center, which is essentially 7 malls around one area and its connected by sky walks. I’ve made an attempt to take pictures of the place, I’ll upload it later on.

Riding MRT was very interesting. I had a quick glance of what main city was like. Most parts were really dirty, heavily trafficked by people and vehicles. Buildings were dirty, garbage on the rivers, dirty puddles on the street, clogged up sewers, it stinks most of the time, and pollution is everywhere. But, when we got to Makati, it was the other way around. That part of the city was filled by sky scrappers, posh stores and malls, cheap deals everywhere, 5 star hotels, clean streets - I’m sure you get the picture.

We walked around to find the closest movie theater to watch Transformers. Movies cost 140 pesos which is 3.50 cad. You had assigned seating for the movies. Outside the booth where you buy tickets, you can see a screen showing how many seats are taken/available. Very neat. You dont need to line up ahead of time to get to the movies. Other theaters have first come first seats policies similar to what we have. Unfortunately, the first 2 theaters that we went to had no more available seats. The last one had seats but the movie started 5 minutes ago so I was forced to refund my ticket.

I’m off to Mendez, Cavite tomorrow afternoon (mom’s land) where I will stay for about a week to just chill and relax. We’re staying at my mom’s sister’s house. I’m excited to get some snooze, get some fresh fruit and get away from the smog/smoke/pollution/traffic of the city.

I’ll keep you posted. I’m well and still alive. I’m enjoying my trip. Wow - I can’t believe it’s only been 2 days.

Hope you’re all having a great summer. Keep in touch!

Paalam!

Mikey