Saturday, 8/22

Today was crazy fun! We slept in, had a late breakfast, then headed down to close to the Manila Bay to the Manila Ocean Park. We didn't quite know what we'd find, since it is a relatively new attraction and i couldn't tell from the website what parts were open. Before we even got there though was an adventure! You see, today was a huge Celebration for the 25th anniversary of a Church Movement called El Shaddai which you can read about here. We didn't know this when we set out, but as the traffic got thicker along the way, our Cabbie explained. We had to be dropped off a distance of 4 blocks or so from the Ocean Park because the celebration was happening in the park directly in front of it. So, we started walkin. we walked along a road that usually jsut leads to the parking lots for the park and Ocean Park, but had becoem a bit of a Jeepney campground, as people from all over the country had come. I heard an estimate of over 1 Million people being there. it doesnt seem a stretch, as metro Manila has a population of 20 Million, and like i said, people came from all over. We reached the Ocean Park and decided to start with the Oceanarium, whic his an aquarum, and is really neat! The building also houses (or will house when it's finished) two open Marine Habitats where you can snorkle or dive (i was bummed this isn;t finished yet!) A central food court, a mall, which is still pretty incomplete, an amazing restaurant that i will get to later with a beautiful view of the bay, a super cool outdoor bar- which you will hear about tomorrow, and a hotel, which is still under construction. So, yeas, the Oceanarium. Let's tell the story with pictures!
























This Philippine Crocodile was just napping un the sun... :-)


















These are eggs sacs from Bamboo Sharks. they had 4 different stages of development to view- it was really neat!


















These are spotted garden eels. they were about 1/3 inch thick and would jsut stick partway out of the rocks- sometimes burrowing back down in.


















This is me watching the sharks. i did this for a long time, because two of them were trying to sleep on ledges, and anotehr was trying to wake them-it was hilarious!



















This might be my favorite shot of the day. Scott timed it jsut right. As you can see, i was THRILLED when that Ray swam right over me!







































Then, after finishing the Oceanarium Tour, we went to the super elegant Restaurant attached to it. oh man it was good- a buffet of Japanese, Chinese and Mongolian foods. i ate lots of Salmon sashimi. Nom! The highlight of the meal was when the three piece band came and sang 4-5 songs for us, including some Elton John, James Taylor, and by my request, Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl. :-)


















After that giant meal, we went to see the Mermaids show, which was really cute and fun. They have 4 girls dress up as mermaids and swim around in a tank with the fish as the audience watches from a connected room.

After that, we considered staying to watch the sunset, but we were jsut too pooped, so we decided to give it a try tomorrow night and made the trek through Jeepney town (which was even more crowded by now and was beginning to smell a but because of the fact that people were creating makeshift potties below their jeepneys at best.) and out to the main road and fortunately we were able to find a taxi quickly and we jsut took it easy when we got back to the hotel, snuggling on the couch and watching TV.

Friday 8/21

Today we went to the second biggest mall in the WORLD! It was an awesome day! We woke around 9, went down to breakfast, came back up, got all cleaned up for the day ,and then fell beck into bed and napped till about noon. Yes, we are lazy lazy bums, but Scott had worked a 13 hour day the day before, so we were entitled. We grabbed a cab and thus began the adventure! it was a car that Scott termed a "death trap" and we were not entirely sure it was gonna hold together for the half hour ride down the highway! We were dropped at the main entrance and just dove right in and began our exploration of SM City North EDSA Mall. i didn't get any pictures that captured the scope of the place but did find this one. Almost immediately, we found a Seiko store and Scott and i each found watches we really liked. Scott was sure this was the one and bought his, while i wanted to keep looking. I found one at the second store we went to, but it was out of our price range, so we kept on looking. The main building of the mall is about the size of the average mall i have been to all by itself- and has 6 floors. we got through 2 of them before moving on to the Annex- the latest building, which is about the same size and has six floors. The first place we went in this building was a boutique called Tea, and it may have been the best shopping experience of my life- i felt like a princess. I chose a dress to try on, and while i was, the entire staff of the store- 4-5 girls and the owner rushed around trying to find more dresses to flatter my figure. it was really fun and i did purchase 2 dresses and a pair of shoes. :-) we continued looking around and scouring watch stores, and exploring all 6 floors of the Annex and i found i am a very picky gal! eventually, after 4 hours of shopping we collapsed at a table in Pizza Hut and shared a nice meal of salad, pizza and iced tea, and i decided that i'd go back to the Seiko store and purchase both the watches i tired on there instead of one watch for more than the two combined. I still came in under budget! Then, we grabbed some gifts for family and friends back home and ventured outside to explore the rooftop garden area which houses a bit of a food court. because of the huge population of Manila metro these malls are full to bursting and have tons of restaurants so that everyone can eatr without having to wait much. We made our way along this walkway of eateries to The Block- the third building of the mall, which is 5 floors also. we only made it throught 3 of these floors before we were jsut pooped. We found a cab and enjoyed our sunset ride back to Makati.

Thursday 8/20

this was a long long day and i didn't really do anything, i just read my book mostly and worked on ideas for my podcast. Scott worked really late and didn't get home till 10:30! He brought with him food from Jollibee which is apparently like the Filipino McDonalds (even though they do also have McDonalds) and is very popular. the fries were good, and i guess the burger was too, but it was diminished greatly by the amount of mayo on it and the fact that it was this disgusting sweet mayo. i don't mean to say the food was bad, just that i didn't like the mayo.the fried chicken wasn't too bad. i totally jsut dove into bed after eating, and scott came soon after.

Wednesday 8/19

Today i did laundry. it doesn't sound all that exciting, and it wasn't, but it did consume my morning. i went down to the second floor, got someone from the housekeeping office to let me in, and spent the next 3 hours reading in the laundry room while my clothes washed. Then, i returned to the room and worked on the project Scott and i started cooking up last night- a weekend getaway to Boracay- one of the most beautiful beach destinations in the world. We have 2 three day weekends in a row, so we are using the second to escape and experience this amazing place. we booked flights last night, and this afternoon i booked us a Regency Escapade Weekend here. The afternoon was filled with more reading, and then when Scott got home we went to a fancy Italian restaurant called Bravo. it was good, but not stellar. Scott's ravioli was actually pretty awesome, but i ordered the Osso Buco, and it was... meh. So excited about having a 3 day weekend after tomorrow!

Fluorescent Purple Ice Cream?

here is some video of me trying something new... Zach Ricks told me to... so i'm blaming him. :-D

OHHHHHH The Barbie Story!

I had forgotten to tell you the Barbie story. Ok. So some of you know i collect Barbies, but not in a traditional collector kinda way- i like to take them out of the box and get to know them a bit, and i only buy Barbies that mean something specific to me- not neccesarily ones that are gonna be worth money. So far i have Dolls that have cost me between 5 and 15 dollars each. Well, i saw a toy store and decided i wanted one to commemorate this trip, so we went in and i started looking. They had a Barbie selection like no US store i have seen in years. i was in HEAVEN! After a few moments, Scott lost interest and went in search of... something. The salesboys took this opportunity to descend upon me. At first there was one, but as soon as i mad ethe huge mistagke of admitting i collect the dolls, there were suddenly 4. i am not good at saying no under any circumstances, so i found myself trying to "choose" between a $50 2009 Holiday Barbie and a $80 Anniversary barbie of some sort. Really, i had no interest in either, and had settled on A Chinese New Year 2009 Barbie (cuz, y'know it's an Asian themed doll, so i'd remember where i got her), but i was so overwhelmed i was like, "Oh, let me go ask my husband..." and ran off to find Scott. I did find him, and before i'd even gotten to explain the situation the salesboys appeared with the same 2 dolls. Scott glanced at the prices and was like "Oh, Baby... Come on..." and it took me a couple minutes to communicate to him that i didn't actually want either doll, i just needed him to say no for me bacause i was overwhemmed and beginning to panic. He did, telling them it was too much money, and i was sooo relieved. Then, the inital salesboy returned, with my much less expensive chinese new year doll. Scott made sure that i actually wanted this one, and we got our butts outta there. it was kinda hilarious. or... maybe you had to be there... i'm happy to tell you that since that first day at the mall i've become much more assertive and am saying no left and right. :-P

Here is my Doll:

Tuesday, 8/18

Today i emerged from the hotel on my own for the first time! that sounds so lame, but it took me awhile to feel comfortable enough to do this. we were not sure initially about safety and all that. I didn't go far- just a block, but it was still kinda cool. I was out of snacks here in the room, so i needed to go to the Mini-Stop to buy more. i went over there, and started picking stuff out, before i realized i didn't have any money! so, feeling a little sheepish as the Security guard watched me put stuff back i went to the closest ATM and got some money. I'm finally getting the hang of the pesos/dollars conversion in my head to be able to know what i am paying. That's pretty cool too. So, i went back and got some snacks, some decaf coffee (YAY!), and some ice cream- youll see that in my next post. Other than the ice cream adventure, i didn't do much else today. i read some of my book (Dexter in the Dark) and took a nap. Then, when Scott came home, we were starving, and so we went to a pizza place around the corner. we got 2 small pizzas- Quattro Formaggio and Lotsa Meat. They were yummy. i still haven't tried the local beer, San Miguel, but Scott seems to like it. :-)