The beginning started off a little
shaky, but nothing too bad, it all worked out. They were supposed to arrive
Friday, August 31, night. I went to school that morning and left a little early
to get to Manila in plenty of time to go pick them up. I’ve been watching the
TV show Pretty Little Liars and the last episode didn’t copy right. Karen had a
copy of the show, so I decided I had enough time to drop by the coffee shop
where Karen was and get a copy. While I was there, I decided I might as well
check my email. Good thing I checked because I had 5 emails from Claire! They
had a delay in LA and so made it to Honolulu, but missed their connecting
flight to Guam. Since they missed that
flight they had to wait till the next day when they had another flight. They
got put up in a hotel by the beach and a mall, so it wasn’t all bad. Since I
had already packed to be gone, I ended up staying at Karen’s house for the night
and watching Pretty Little Liars with her. So, Saturday, repeat my plan to go
to Manila and fetch my friends. Good thing I was a slacker and never reserved a
hotel room! Worked out well for us. So Saturday we had no problems and I just
went to the airport and shortly after, there they were. We stayed up until
about 1am talking and finally decided we should get to bed.
Monday – September 3 – We all woke up
pretty early naturally and got ready to go visit my school. We started walking
towards my school, about an hour walk from my house, and walked maybe 15
minutes when we passed a tricycle who drove us the rest of the way. Their first
experience in a tricycle! Claire didn’t like it much. At school, we went to the
office and then passed by all the classrooms and I introduced them to all the
teachers and students. Then we had merienda (snack) back in the office. They
had lomi, turon (a wrapped and fried banana), and cassava cake for us. They
really liked the lomi, it’s a noddle dish of some sort. Then, we walked over to
my host family’s house. They had turon, cassava cake, and sintoras (not sure
how to spell, and it’s like an orange, but green). We were pretty full from
school so they sent home the cassava cake and sintoras. We went home, put away
our things, rested a bit, and then went again off to town. We met Karen in town
at SM Mall. Claire and James probably went to the mall more this week than they
have in a long time. I know I sure spend a lot of time at the mall, which I
wouldn’t expect nor would I do at home. They treated us to Pizza Hut and we
bought some souvenirs in the store. On the way home we walked through the night
market. I think James really enjoyed trying some of the different street foods.
Claire was brave and tried it all too, but I don’t think she enjoyed it as much
as James. That night we got online and tried to book our boat trip to Boracay.
We stayed up trying over and over, which later ended up, it didn’t work and was
pointless, but we didn’t know it at the time.
Tuesday – September 4 – We took our time
a bit getting ready in the morning, and then headed to town to hang out a bit
before we went to Batangas City to go to the pier. We had condensed our things
for the trip and once in town Claire realized she forgot her credit card that
we had boat the boat tickets with. Instead of all of us taking the 30 minute
jeep ride back to my house, I left them at McDonald’s while I went home to get
the card. I think by the time I got back it had been about an hour and a half
and they couldn’t get the wifi to work at McDo. Once we had lunch at McDo we
headed out to Batangas. The papers all said to get there 4 hours early, which
we didn’t really think was necessary, but we went early anyways. Of course we
were right, but it wasn’t too bad. When we got there they seemed so confused.
We had printed our tickets and everything so it shouldn’t have been that
difficult. They finally told us that our tickets weren’t in the system, so the
transaction hadn’t gone through. We then ended up having to pay cash, but it
was no problem because the boat wasn’t full. The boat leaves Batangas at 8pm
and gets to Boracay at 5:30am. The boat is just a night boat, so it’s just
beds, with a lobby area where you can sit. One room is just a huge room with
row after row of bunks. We got a private room, not that much more expensive,
that had 4 beds and its own bathroom. We had some fun and enjoyed being on the
boat. They have dinner for us and then we went to bed pretty early. It was
actually a great night’s sleep. It was very comfortable on the boat.
Wednesday – September 5 – The boat ended up getting to port about 6:30, but really it’s ok to be an hour late, because what else is there to do at that time of day. When we got there we just walked around looking for a place to stay. We had done a little research before we went so we ended up staying at a place that Claire had found online that looked pretty good. It was just across the street from the beach, and it had a swimming pool, but who really needs the pool when you have the beach. We couldn’t check in until 2 so we just asked if we could change our clothes and leave our bags there. Then we headed out to the beach! We started just walking the beach some and so many guys ask you if you want their deal on island hopping, parasailing, or whatever they have to offer. I asked one guy about how much it was to island hop. A boat drives you around the island; you get off at one point and snorkel, another time to eat lunch, and the last to shop before going back. He gave us an offer and we said hey sure why not?! We just said sure without knowing too much what we were getting in to, but we get on the boat and go. It was fun, we just went to a general spot where they drop everyone off to snorkel, but it was good. There were some pretty and colourful fish so it was all good. We got back to the hotel to check in and they were like wow! You already went island hopping. What can we say, we jumped right in. That night we found a place to eat in D-mall (a place with many restaurants and shops). The place was Lemon something. My Mom would have loved it. Everything had something to do with lemons and I had a really tasty lemon shake. (Shakes here are made with ice, not ice cream)
Thursday – September 6 – We decided to
just stay in Boracay for one night, so we got up, eat breakfast, and headed out
to the beach! We swam and played around in the water for a while before heading
back to our hotel to shower and check out. We then went back to D-mall to buy
some souvenirs and eat lunch before heading to the port to get back on the
boat. We got to the port way too early, but we had to buy our return tickets
home too. Hopefully Claire and James have figured out their credit card charges
and what not now! They did charge Claire’s card… twice, and then we had to pay
cash. Tried to talk to them at the port about it, but it was getting nowhere,
so they decided to take care of it once getting home. The boat ended up docking
late. We were supposed to leave at 7, but we didn’t even board the boat until I
think almost 8. We still got into Batangas about 6. Then we had to wait forever
for a bus to fill to go to Lipa. We grabbed McDo breakfast before heading back
out to San Francisco. After cleaning up at home and unpacking our things we
headed back to Lipa to return to the mall to buy a few things, met Karen,
Edmond, and Rich at Café De Lipa for some coffee, and we planned to have dinner
with some friends in town. Plans kinda changed and it started raining, so we
just bought some pizza to take home. Dayday came over and had pizza and hung out
with us for a bit. I was really glad that she got to come join us because they
had just met briefly at school. It’s nice that my friends got to meet each
other and learn about who I’m talking about all the time J
Saturday – September 8 (Shon’s Birthday!!!)
– We met Karen at the bus stop at 10:30 to eat lomi (I’ve tried to have them
experience as much local food as I can find, I don’t really eat it all that
much, so it was kinda hard for me to find it) and head out to Tagaytay. We took
an hour jeep ride from Lipa to Calamba, where we met Pam. Then we took an hour
van ride to Tagaytay. When we got there we started walking and searching for a
place to stay. We stayed at the Taal Vista Lodge, which is where I stayed with
my parents too. It’s a fancy place and is said to have the best view of Taal
Volcano. There’s not a lot to do in Tagaytay, mostly look
at the view and eat. They have many different places to eat and most of the
places overlook the volcano. We found a family style Filipino food place to eat
dinner that overlooked the volcano. It got kinda chilly up there after the sun
went down! It’s always such a surprise when I feel cold (cool) in the
Philippines, but it does happen every so often. After dinner we went back to
the hotel and crashed pretty quickly in our big soft comfy beds! Of course
after taking a nice hot shower... I had to take a shower that night and the
next morning just to soak in the hot water!
Sunday – September 9 – Claire, James,
and I got up and went to People’s Park. It’s a park way up at the top of the
mountain that overlooks the town and Taal Volcano. It is very pretty from up
there. At the park it just has some benches, places to eat if you brought a
packed lunch, and some souvenir shops. We didn’t spend too long up there until we
headed back down to eat lunch with Karen and Pam. I was kinda proud of myself
because we got a tricycle up to the park and he asked me if he could wait for
us and he would take 40 pesos off our round trip. It was a pretty far distance
and I think was a pretty good deal. I also asked him if on the way back we
could stop at the pineapple stand and buy some. Tagaytay is known for growing
pineapple. Some of the hills are just covered in pineapple farms. Claire and
James didn’t get to enjoy any of the pineapple before they left, but I did and
it was pretty tasty. For lunch we went to a place called Don Juan’s who serves
“exotic” food. We weren’t quite sure what exotic food was, but wanted to check
it out. Karen and Pam were already there and had made friends with the guy
working. Once we got there he had the owner come over and meet us. The owner
sent over some free food for us to try. He gave us some horse meat and chicken
fingers. He described the horse meat as being like beef jerky, but not quite as
tough. I think that’s a pretty good explanation. I kinda liked the horse and
thought it was pretty tasty. After lunch we decided to head home. Karen and Pam
stayed back to enjoy a little while longer. We were on our way to try and find
a van to go back the way we had come. A guy came up to us and asked where we
were going, so I told him Lipa. He told us he’d take us down the mountain on
his tricycle and then we could take a jeep from there. Sounded easy enough and
I do know it’s a shorter way, but people don’t go that way because they say
it’s more dangerous. Well Claire was a little hesitant to go down in the
tricycle, but we did it! Once we got to the bottom though the driver just kinda
dropped us off and left us. Where he left us they said there was the last jeep
at 3 and it was exactly three. So they kept asking everyone if the last jeep
had come by and some said yes, while others said no, and finally the jeep came
by! They had to make room for us, but it worked. Claire and James road up front
with the driver. That evening when we got home my landlord Perla and her family
had prepared a dinner for Claire and James. They had a big spread out on the
table with lots of food. It was good and they got to try some food that they
still hadn’t tried after being in the Philippines for a week. I’m sure there
are still some things they didn’t get to try, but I tried to find all the
different food! That night Dayday came over and got to spend a little more time
with us and gave Claire a present. It was very nice of her. It’s a Filipino
tradition that you should give visitors a gift when they are leaving, but not
everyone always does it.
Monday – September 10 – Claire and James
had to fly home L We had tried to plan how we would go about with them getting to the
airport. Finally I decided maybe it was best we just go to Manila in the
morning and then we wouldn’t have to worry about them getting there later in
the day or anything. We went to pension when we got there to keep their bags
for the day. We went to Mall of Asia, I think it’s supposed to be the largest
mall in the world. We walked and walked around the mall until we couldn’t walk
around it anymore and headed back to pension. Once back, we were like well what
now?! So then... we walked to the Robinson’s mall that is near pension. I was
really craving a Krispy Kreme donut and had talked them up to Claire. I don’t
know if in the US they have the fancy donuts like they do here, but the
butterfinger one is pretty delicious. So we enjoyed a donut together while
saying our goodbyes. I went ahead and came back to Lipa so I could make it home
before the last jeep. Claire and James wondered around the mall for a bit
longer, went back to pension, and left for the airport...
I
don’t really know about their travels home, but I guess it was good. I got an
email from Claire saying they made it home, and it was around the time they
should have made it home. Hopefully they are readjusted back to the American life
now J Oh and hopefully everyone at home has been told about how big of a
hit James was! First off, everyone thought he was Filipino and then they said
how pogi (handsome) he is. So many people would look at the three of us and
start talking to James in Tagalog. James would just look at me and be like umm
Amy help. Sometimes I could understand what was going on and sometimes we just
had to say um we don’t speak Tagalog. I was actually impressed with myself and
my Tagalog speaking. I think having Claire and James with me, who don’t know
the language anyways, was a lot easier for me to try and talk to people because
they wouldn’t know if I messed up J
I’m so glad Claire and James got to come
all the way to the Philippines and visit me!!! It was a very special treat to
have them here for the week, and I really appreciate all the presents they
brought me. They have spoiled me and I will be sad when all my American food
runs out again. Now the next big excitement to wait for... Christmas at home!
