Geeky Yet Waterproof

Today we arrived in the Philippines, after 16 hours of flying and a stop in Taiwan. I’m traveling with my grandparents and my cousin, Christopher. We’re staying with my grandmother’s sister, Tita PeeWee, in a town outside Manila. We’ve only been here for a few hours, but so far, I’m loving the Philippines.

The first thing I noticed when we stepped off the plane was the heat. We came from freezing Seattle to 85° Manila. And besides the heat, there’s the humidity; just standing outside, you’ll be wet within minutes without even sweating.
It’s hard to believe it’s actually December in these islands, and it’s an extremely new feeling, seeing Christmas decorations hanging on palm trees.

After Tita PeeWee picked us up at the airport, we went directly to a little restaurant for lunch. I then discovered one of the greatest things of going to a different country: the Filipino food in the Philippines puts the Filipino food in the US to shame. I wasn’t hungry, but when I tasted the Pancit I was ravenous. I thought I knew what good fruit was, but when I tried the mango smoothie it was like a whole different fruit.

After we had all eaten our most satisfying fill, we continued on to Tita PeeWee’s house. Now let me tell you, when they say the traffic is bad here, that’s an understatement. I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say the painted lines on the road mean nothing here.
While waiting forever in the traffic, we saw dozens of Jeepneys — old military jeeps converted into hippie vans with religious sayings written all over, used as public transportation.

When we finally reached our destination, we rested for a little while, and then Tita PeeWee took us on a tour of the town. It’s just a suburb of Manila, but in this village we visited two malls, each one bigger and more colorful than anything I’ve ever seen in the US!

After that we went to the local country club, where Christopher got a massage and I practiced with the swim team. Since everyone was having exams this week, there were only three other people at the practice, named Miggy, Jammy, and Romain. But the coach said there should be more tomorrow, so I’ll get to meet more locals.

This first day has been really exciting. So much in fact that I’ve already taken over 130 photos (sorry). Chances are, my finger isn’t going to slow down with the shutter for at least the next few days, so I’ll be uploading all my photos every night which you can see on my web gallery.