A Turning Point

We have written numerous posts about the food and comfortable life we are living here. We've talked about restaurants, massages, trips, etc.

Last night, we had decided we would have a date at a nicer restaurant- one of our favorite things to do. The food was good, but nothing that was unbelievably good- like say $100 good. $100 is exactly what we spent and it was a huge wake up call.

We felt so guilty that we spent that much money on one meal. It would be something to do that for a special occasion like a birthday (Don't forget Heather's 30th will be coming up in October!), but we spent that on a random Saturday night dinner. $100!!! one meal!!!!

In case you were wondering, we had a thyme lamb, red wine infused tenderloin, pecan treacle, and a fancy chocolate cake. It was not close to being worth $100.

By the way, we shouldn't have to threaten you each time we post a new blog to get a few comments. Is anyone still out there?

Living the Pagud Life

On our second long weekend, we decided to take our first trip out of Manila. We took a plane up North to Laoag. Then, we travelled two more hours north by van to a town called Pagudpud (Pa-good-pood).

The video below pretty much explains what we did this weekend. Other highlights included great food, snorkeling (I saw a sea snake, yikes!), and a challenging hike that landed us on top of a hill for a great view of the seascape.

Our resort was surrounded by green, lush hills which provided a refreshing retreat away from the city.

We will post more pictures at a later date, for now, you can watch the video. Also, we added some photos of a beautiful sunset taken from our apartment. Smog and pollution make for some outstanding sunsets! Check them out above.

Morning Routine Reaches All-time Slow

For those of you who have shared a living space with Matt, you probably remember how slow and painful his morning routine is before work. He is of a rare breed who need 1.5 hours just to eat breakfast, shower and dress. Just when I thought I had seen him at his slowest, the first week of school came. The first day, we woke up and started eating breakfast at the same time. I finished before him and started stretching in the other room. After about twenty minutes of yoga, I finally heard his dishes clinking in the sink. At breakfast the next morning, Matt looked up at me with a pained look and slurred, "I could butter my bread all morning." The next morning I set my alarm fifteen minutes later than him and was surprised to roll over and find that he had actually gotten out of bed. When I approached our living area, I was alarmed to find that no lights were on. "Matt???" I called nervously. From the living room I heard a faint "I just couldn't do it..." Sure enough he was lying on the couch in the dark, staring into space. The next few mornings were a little better. When I emerged from bed, the lights were on in the living room and he would jump up and pretend that he had been doing something. Now he's pretty much back to his typical slowness.

As for life in Manila, school has been eating up too much of our time and energy. We had a nice three day weekend last week where we finally got some free time. We finished our house shopping, got massages (or beat up depending on how you look at it) and did some general relaxing.

One odd discovery here is that people go to church in the middle of the Mall hallways. Otherwise, there hasn't been too much in the way of "differentness" here.

This Ain't No Barbeque!

A 5th grade teacher invited Heather and I to a barbeque this past Sunday evening. Her dad lives in another part of the city and decided to have a “bbq” for her and any new teaching friends that she met in the first week.

We got ready to go- Heather had a nice dress on, our friends Andrew and Rosie nice clothes as well, and I had on jeans, a t-shirt, and my red sox cap. I said to Andrew as we were leaving, “you’re all dressed up, Sarah said it was a barbeque.” Andrew, being from Maine with probably some approximate idea of what a barbeque should look like, went and changed into jeans saying to his wife Rosie, “It’s a barbeque!”

The house was beautiful. We entered through a lush landscaped yard with a variety of tropical plants. The stairway led into a living area that was enclosed with a wall of windows. As I entered the living area, I saw person upon person dressed in their finest wares. Dresses, button-up shirts all tucked in to nice khaki pants. Shoot!

There weren’t no horseshoe pit, no cornhole, no hot dogs, hamburgers, none of the sort. Instead, the houseowner’s servant immediately offered me a glass of wine or beer. (at least the “barbeque” did have beer- that was the one familiar product that I held onto) Then, the servant came around with a small appetizer that I proceeded to drop on the floor- Shoot again!

At this “barbeque,” we all sat down at a long table-clothed table with fine silver and fancy place settings. The food was terrific, of course, but it weren’t no barbeque! In fact, I don’t think I’ve been to such a fancy dinner party in my life.

The people were friendly and once I got over being self-conscious about my tattered appearance, I had a really good time.

My realization is that I am of a very privileged class here in Manila. My apartment literally is a glass castle in the sky and my social group holds “barbeques” with shiny napkin holders. On my taxi ride over to the party, a beggar with a deformed arm tapped my window for a good three minutes asking for some small donation. There is so much to take in and process right now and for the most part we are so busy with school and settling in to a new place, that there isn’t much time to reflect on our surroundings. My sudden change in wealth status in addition to my daily experience of extreme poverty will be something I will be struggling with while I am here.

In the meantime, I need to figure out a way to show these people what a real barbeque looks like.

(Note on Grammar in post: For those who are not familiar, the language used above is meant to reflect Vermont accents or "redneck talk.")

Eating Our Way Through Manila

When we come home, you may not recognize us because Matt and I may be ten pounds heavier. Manila has the widest variety of food of any developing country that we’ve been too. Luckily for Matt, the grocery store has about 3,000 bottles of cranberry juice on its shelves and all sorts of other comforts from home (including Wheat Thins). Also, unlike Thailand, Manila specializes in decadent chocolate desserts and other treats like cheesecake and tiramisu. To use the free internet at the café across the street from our house we have to buy something so we begrudgingly get a cake that’s layered with rich chocolate devil’s food cake and cheesecake and coated with chocolate chips and shavings.

The first time Matt and I attempted to cook on our gas stove we were confronted with the strong aroma of leaking gas. Initially, Matt laughed at my complaints of dizziness but before long we were both standing in the doorway of our apartment and running in and out of the kitchen to stir our pasta every few minutes. Needless to say we ate out every other night last week. Even though our street is just a side street, there are some really good restaurants. The highlights have been a greek salad across the street, Mr. Poon’s asparagus and beef, mango wrapped in prosciutto at an Italian place that made us cheeseless pizza, and a very good Indian restaurant.
Our most exciting discovery so far has been the organic farmer’s market that takes place every Saturday a block from our apartment. There was a nice mix of Filipino food, organic fruits and veggies, house plants and health foods. Before we came here we were wondering if we would have trouble finding peanut butter at the grocery store but we found organic sugarless peanut butter at the farmer’s market! We also sampled some really nice frozen yogurts with unrefined sugar and so forth. There were some good breads for sale too. To remind Matt of his roots there was a cow roasting on a spit. We actually tried the local dish, “Lechon,” which is basically a pig roasted on a spit. They serve it with plenty of skin and fat- “the good part.” Matt did think it was actually kind of tasty.

Our household help starts tomorrow and has stated that she is an aspiring chef. The teacher who recommended her to us stated, “we don’t ever think we will eat as good as we did with Mariz as our cook.” Mariz has already promised us Mango shakes when we get home from work and for dinner some fancy Shrimp dish that she was excited to cook for us. There was also talk of pancakes in the morning before work- we will see.

Another reason for you all to start looking at travel plans.