Hello From The Philippines....Again

So I'm here in Mindoro, what is this? Day 3 here? Yeah, i'm losing track of time. I mean i remember going to sleep at night and waking up and doing "vacational" stuff: swimming, scrabble with Aunty Nens and Yboom, eating way too much, stomach viruses, questionable allergies that i'm pretty much sneezing at nothing but i alas am sneezing, my mother watching The Notebook, my dad drinking with Uncle Boy, walking up and down the beach, watching locals catch fish with a huge net, suffer every day as Auntie Mary goes "You were so fat last time we met" when in actuality i didn't really lose anything drastic, i gained like 3 inches of height and learned that dressing fat makes you look fat.

Umm...so where am I? A kinda dark internet place in the "centro" area of Mindoro, Yboom is behind me, i'm sure either IMming a storm or playing some sorta game (i don't feel like turning around cuz it'd seem like i was spying or something). Auntie Fe, Auntie Nens, and my mom have decided to get their nails done. Again you ask? Well i think my mom only got her feet (deeply) scrubbed and needs to go all the way with things. I am assuming that Dad, Uncle Boy, and Uncle Roger are drinking San Miguel beers. My left foot kinda hurts because we were riding one of those motorcycle-with-passenger-thingies and i was behind the motorcyclist-driver-man and there was this "checkpoint" (aka one of those barrier thigies that block streets but was made into a "checkpoint") and of course even though my right foot should hit it first, i'm just the unlucky bastard that gets his left foot injured.

Well, the house is a very nice place. The jury is still out whether I like it or not though. I mean the outside is nice. The inside is okay. But we spend most of our time outside, breakfast and lunch and the occasional pre-breakfast pan de sal or the post-breakfast mango, playing scrabble under one of the hut-table places, or watching the notebook. It seems like the parents like it and their opinion is more crucial than mine.

I get the special privilage to take a plane instead of a ship because of my boat-related motion sickness whenever we go to (or from) Mindoro since the last time i was all sick and stuff.

But trying to fill the spaces between Mindoro and Cagayan... we were in Manila. Umm at Pope Pius (thats how you spell it right?) the 12th. Which was a lot better than i a) remember or b) expected. Sure it's no Manilla Midtown Hotel, but it's cool. We went to the Robinson's Mall and I recorded (another) cheesy CD, which i will go over cut like 4 and sell for like 5 dollars to willing filipinos. Umm...we ate a Max's and got take out from Kenny Rogers, because Kenny Rogers is cool here.

Hmm differences here and the US? It seems like GBX is more popular than Sketchers. MTV actually plays music videos? McDonalds has McSpaghetti and still has the McDo. McDonalds also sells their burgers with fries, but anything chicken related (including their McNuggets) gets rice.

Speaking of food, the portions are smaller and I'm well adjusted to it because of the lessening amount of food that I ate at New Paltz. Well except for their drinks. I am too much of a soda fiend (which I found out I got from my dad) to get used to A US Dollar Menu Soda. Then again the mangos here at Mindoro are cheap, something like 10 pesos a kilo.
Umm...what else? I guess I picked up a lot of Tagalog from the family but little things that you don't normally say in everyday life got past me. Like the word for "wave" (as in the ocean, not the hand motion). Umm I've gotten back to watching the newly revised Game Kana Ba? even though I dislike Kris Aquino...it's spelled with a K right? Anywho, the television show Extra Challenge has gotten my attention not just for the pure sillyness and the fact that one of the girls on the show reminds me of Arlyne, it's the sheer gayosity that the Philippines has that scares me. My degree of "straightosity" raises a good 20 degrees here. Odd.
Well, i'm kinda tired of blogging and still have like another hour to surf the internet so...i will.
Doing Good,
Mike.