Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Day 19 & 20

DAY NINETEEN
Date: 4th July 2014
Day: Friday
Time: 21:20
Weather: Raining!

Hello Po!!! (Local style, adding ‘po’ = respecting the other party)

It’s raining and it flooded today morning as well! Heng we were in the jeepney, the waters were quite deep, aha escaped the flooooood. It’s going to flood tonight again L And then we’ll think about the people in the province…

On the other hand, there’s a legit clubbing thing happening right now just two floors down LOL, in our hostel, with black shirt bouncers as well. Loud music, girls with very little clothes, flashing green lights in a small room, wah nightlife ah. Kim and I wore our lousy pajamas downstairs to buy some snacks (caramel popcorn for me heheh) for supper and wah wah wah all the young people ah… Tsk tsk.
I love how caramel popcorn is available in small packets unlike SG’s Garett’s Popcorns in big packets! They have it in P10, which is 10/34 SGD $ whoohooooo J Fat but aiya heck la! Been eating unhealthily for so long here anyway haha!

So… about today! Last day with the women shelter, we started our activity with a fun SG dance by HPB + Zumba Aces Day dance > Sharing session about cultural exchange > photo-frame making! Glad the girls didn’t find it boring yay extremely relieved to hear that they feel relaxed and good. Heng ah!!! Dance was fun though we were more of ‘enthusiastically moving’ than ‘proper dancing’. Cultural exchange sharing session was interactive as well, we had snacks bought from the hostel to be given as presents for the quizzes and of course, everyone gets one in the end haha typical. (I just nodded off while typing this LOL, 23:19 now only siao one, probably because I woke at 5.30 today) Jenilyn, the youngest girl, is too cute!!!

Had a yummy and healthy lunch again, with the sisters in the ah-ma style dining room! Chicken adobo (yummy heheh but actually… it’s like braised chicken in sg, but the best Filipino food imo J), salad with very yummy sour pickles, equally yummy spaghetti that neighbor gave, hot fried white fish and also the usual sweet mangoes! The sisters are of quite an old age, so they are really like our grandmothers, it’s cute how they can be quite blur at times. They are so motherly and kind :’) One of them actually served in a missionary in Africa for 26 years, traveled around the world for missionaries and her sister companion with her eventually passed away L Strong and admirable Sister, really someone to look up to! She said, as long as you are making someone happy, it’s a missionary… J And she was very okay with the fact that I’m not catholic, even shared about non-religious missionaries etc. Another cute Sister is equally cool, she backpacked and traveled Thailand herself just about four years ago… Woah their experiences are really amazing (Y) They really led a fulfilling life, I bet there’s nothing to regret about J

After lunch, I accompanied one Sister at the living room, watching TV from the ah-ma style television as well, bulky and small, so cute. We left soon after taking hip selfies with the Sisters and the girls, and decided to go café hunting again, esp since our days here is numbered, we can afford one expensive meal :p
So off we go!!! Wildflour Cake & Bakery feels like the Filipino version of Tiong Bahru, except that they serve really awesome bread that’s FREE FLOW, and the price of everything is much cheaper because of the standard of living. We got this sticky bun which was a nice round toasted bread with crunchy cashew nuts and sweet cinnamon sauce all over OMG THE BOMB <3 I got my usual, and it came in a smaller cup compared to other cafés I’ve been to so far, but it was the best cup ever! A very happy tea break at a very beautiful café yay J

Left Wildflour because dark skies = going to rain soon = need to avoid rain at all costs = 回家吧. On the way out at BGC the crazy urbanized SG-lookalike place, we saw this SOYA shop and popped in, it’s the same laoban taste of taohuay. Shared an original flavor with Kim, but I’m still loving the morning tauhuay at hawker centre best J

Did some grocery shopping at SM Mall, had a bowl of fruits there as well, and headed home in the usual crazy MRT crowd. Tadahhhh, that sums up my LAST Friday night here in the Philippines… (OMG!!!)
DAY TWENTY
Date: 5th July 2014
Day: Saturday
Time: 22:59
Weather: Usual sunny

HO HO HO. Next week this time, I’ll be back in my favorite place in the world heheheh.

One word to sum up today: SHAG.

It was a tai-tai Saturday, because times spent with Vim is always a tai-tai moment. Woke at 5.30am (SIAO, auto body clock whoohoo), and got ourselves ready by 6+/7 and we were off to go! Vim invited us to Museo Pambata, a children museum, where the Philippines High School for the Arts were performing shawdow play, including his son. We ended up at United Nations Ave MRT station around 1 hour early (which was a blessing in disguise because we took 45 mins to reach the final destination, thanks to us getting lost LOL directionless kids), got myself a banana from 7/11 while Kim got her breakfast. We were actually really close to the museum already, but somehow… things happen. After asking directions from about five random strangers along the way, we ended up walking one round in this touristy-famous huge park because different locals tell us different directions hahaha. But good morning walk (Y) Healthy living, air was (finally) fresh there too! Saw many morning joggers fit and ready to sweat it out. People were playing badminton there as well.

And finally aha! We reached the museum!!! And thanks to Filipino time, we are early again J  Toured around the museum since we had to pay for entrance fee anyway, we walked around the Body System learning room! Pressed the stomach and you get the stomach growling sound; press the buttock and you get a fart hahaha desperate to kill time, I read through all the details and everything. Kim and I had to mentally prepare ourselves for the enthu-networking-times for the rest of the day, and being introverts… it’s a super draining thing.

Alas, the time came. And it began. Glad the shadow play started, but it ended quickly so the time resumed again haha. It’s really embarrassing how we are only just cui students but being guests of Vim’s, people mistake us as some big shots nuuuuu L Talked to his 大牌人物 friends, before we headed off for lunch at Jollibee with Vim and his children. I had this palabak noodles which was… a very unclose competitor of tunghoon. Nothing really beats SG’s food heheh.

After lunch, Vim brought us to CCP, Cultural Centre of the Philippines and all of the sudden, we found ourselves with TWO FREE tickets to the shows in the afternoons. Tai-tai moment came. His friend was the boss of CCP and with Vim’s power networking, and power friendships, here we are again: cui students with powerful benefits LOL. The place is an exhibit cum theatres, they display art like a museum and have theatres like Victoria Concert Hall. Our planned schedule after relaxing in the office was: First Show at 3pm > Exhibit and Manila Bay > Second Show at 7pm.

Grabbed ourselves a bun (tuna bun for me) and guess who we saw waiting for the 3pm Ballet Show as well!!!! SISTERS & GIRLS!!! J This is fate! The girls were so beautifully dressed up and we were really extremely shocked and happy to see them again haha. Jenilyn!!! <3 Grandmotherly-Sisters!!! <3 Lovely and super adorable people J

The Ballet Show, <CARMEN>, was… okay-okay only. Hmm I guess I can never truly appreciate art. I was sleeping 50% of the time, especially before intermission LOL. Even when we are sitting in front and it’s not even musical perf, it’s moving and dancing action but I can fall asleep at any kind of theatre shows. Just like how I fell asleep for 90% of the next orchestra show at 7pm. I got so restless with the huge urge to jump around I thought I was crazy, I am actually wondering if I secretly have a disorder. Kim says it’s normal though. The orchestra performance was mainly made up of violin musicians, and I guess it’s because I’m not there to support anyone, so there’s no incentive for me to take pics/watch my friends perform. And I now, truly understand HOW FREAKING BORING IT IS TO WATCH A MUSIC PERFORMANCE, so thank you my dear friends who supported me during Guitar’s perf, I feel your love :’) With zero musical cells in my body AND countless restless ones instead, things were made worse because… we have no idea why the music pieces last soooo long haha. Everything officially ended at around 9.20pm, but the MRT closes at 10 and we are far from any stations.

So today marks our first time taking a cab ourselves too! Interesting experience, saw so many atas nightlife places that the taxi drove past. Eyes were drying to death with contacts though, there was a drought in the eyes already. Total cab fare was P145, but we just gave him 150, which means it’s a really affordable SGD$4+! J Thank you taxi uncle!

Oh yes! In between the shows, Kim and I finally saw Manila Bay!!! 好漂亮啊!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The clouds look like a giant marshmallow we don’t see this type of clouds back home! And the skies were so bright and nice, sea was shining with nicely painted boats on top *v* Had a nice dinner (some tortilla soup) at ‘Army Navy’ with the good view J The food place really felt like east coast, like the macs we used to have.

(I stopped blogging here last night because I went to sleep haha, now it’s 9.43am in the morning the latest we ever ever woke up here in the PH!)

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