On the 4th Day...

I went shopping.

Well, first I woke up late again. Ugh. I really should be asleep by now 'coz they said we're gonna go somewhere at 10AM tom so I really should be ready by then. But anyway.

So first we went to a camera shop so my brother could ask around. Then we went to this totally awesome Greenhills-like electronics building. I got a 500GB external hard drive that's only like, 3x5 inches! And it only cost as much as a low-end mobile phone! It even has a 3-year warranty. And it's white so it looks good with my laptop. :) (I should now definitely get a case that's transparent) I admire my cousin's bargaining skills. I don't even know how to haggle in my own language let alone theirs. And they're both so funny! If only we can understand each other 100% of the time, then we'd have a marvelous time.

After that we went to a fancy mall and looked at all kinds of crap. Didn't buy anything there. Well, okay, we did buy a couple of authentically-Italian-sounding pizza. They were too thin! Even thinner than Shakey's thin crust! Totally not worth the price. But the buffalo wings were pretty good. The sauce didn't deserve to be called spicy/hot but well maybe for them that's already hot. People usually underestimate my brother and my standard for hotness (in food). 

We brought the food home to dad (my aunt was somewhere else). We watched basketball while eating. I'm beginning to be a sports fan because of that. Anyway, after a little while, our cousins dropped us off a night market. They didn't come with us because they observed that we don't buy anything if they're with us. Which is true. It's just really uncomfortable when people check out what you buy. I don't want them to see all the crap I bought.

So now I'm home after all that walking. My back hurts and my hip hurts but it's all good. I can't wait to try on the clothes I bought. I'm so glad they have my size here. I just really wish they do too in shoes. We went to a lot of shoe store and the biggest shoe size I've seen is size 7! Goodness, they have freakishly small feet.

Anyway, I gotta get back to playing online poker now. Lol. :)

Today

Well, I got up a little late (well, for my usual standards, 8:45AM is EARLY. But of course, here it's like, midmorning already). I waited for my brother to knock and drag me downstairs for breakfast. Figured that he would while I was still in the bathroom but no. Then while I was taking a bunch of quizzes a knock did come but it was from my aunt. She said a whole buncha stuff. The only thing I got from it was "Come with me, we're going ___ (basta somewhere)." So I went.

Turned out she wanted me to eat breakfast in the car on the way to the market. As in a wet market. I've only been to a palengke back home like, once or twice, and that was when I was much much younger. But the palengke here is awesome. It's super clean and doesn't smell and there are all kinds of crap!

Okay, if my friends are reading this, they should be excited because I bought them all kinds of crap. Seriously. This country manufactures crap like no other. The crap I'm referring to are cute semi-useless things. They have tons of stuff here and fancily-packaged food and stuff. Seriously. We even found black cotton swabs!!! That's actually HELLO KITTY black cotton swabs! I really don't know why they love Hello Kitty so much. That kitten's everywhere.

Anyway, tonight my bro and I walked all the way to a McDonald's nearby. He figured that since there's a McDonald's there, there could be a good place to look around in. Turns out there wasn't so we walked back and on the way checked out a public park. He couldn't resist a restaurant and ordered a beef meal. People here are big on vegetables. That doesn't surprise me because fruits and vegetables here taste so AWESOME! They're all so fresh and organic. It's like their soil has supernatural abilities or something.

So anyway, we got home at around 10:30. Kinda late. Had to dash up here to my room to prevent them from seeing a couple of breads we bought. We have to sneak food in here because my aunt is such a health buff. She doesn't believe in soda drinks (but she doesn't drink water! what kind of health buff is that???) and of course junk food. And since she cooked us a delicious dinner it's kinda offensive to her to see us with more food, as if she doesn't feed us enough. She does. She stuffs us with all kinds of food. If only those aren't perishable I would definitely take a whole lot of them back to my mom and my friends. They're so fancily made! Like this morning she gave me this pao made of rice and inside are some beef bits I think and chopped veggies. Really good. She said my grandma loved eating that. And also we always have soy milk. There's instant coffee but she buys us soy milk. It's good.

So okay, I've forgotten to bring the camera with me everytime we went out today so there aren't any pics yet. Oh and I forgot to mention that we went to a mall called Sogo and ther's a Hermes and Chanel and Louis Vuitton store there but we didn't go in 'coz we're dressed like crap and my hair is messily tied up because I didn't wash it this morning since it's cold and all. We wanted to take pictures though at the outside of the LV building but... it's too fancy. 

Fine. I'm going to bed now. Or a little later. Basta. 'Til next post.

 

Anti-Cola

They also don't allow carbonated drinks and candies and junk food. No wonder my aunt is one hot 60-something year old. Seriously, she could pass for a 40-something-year-old. I wonder how they deal with emotional emergencies. Drink a huge vat of tea maybe?

I'd pick all-in-fat ice cream for crap moments anytime. I can always detox later.

So, second day's over. No video conference calls yet. I don't know where my friends are and what they're doing. I hope they're having a great summer. I don't wanna spoil that with my whining.

Today I watched the Yankees lose, threw up, washed plates, threw up some more, went to a chiropractor and had my appendix creamed, went out to buy water (I really can't believe they don't drink water; there was a pitcher of water we found beside the thermos and it had white moldy stuff floating on it - how long has it been sitting there not being drunk?), went to a sort of night market/peryahan thing, sneaked in a bar of Snickers, and now I'm here filling up what disc space I have. 

I'm gonna try to find stuff to bring home to my friends. There are all sorts of crap here.

I don't have pictures yet...

Okay, I think I'll watch some shows and movies tonight. Started reading Watchmen though. The movie keeps flashing in my head.

They Don't Drink Water

Seriously. We just had lunch and there wasn't any drinkable water around.

Last night we were each given a bottle of water. I thought that was just for the night. Of all the health shiz they subscribe to, not drinking plain water is too big a contradiction. True, tea is good for one's body but nothing beats regular water. I can't believe I just drank a mouthful of water after a big lunch. I might die of dehydration. I'd probably spend all my money on water now.

My brother and I poked around the refrigerator out back and found a couple of bottles. But get this: they're expired. I didn't know water had an expiration date. But right there stamped on the bottle was 2007.05.04. I'm not sure what that date was; it could be the manufacturing date. But even if it were, that means that that bottle of unopened water was 2 years old! Goodness! How have they survived this long?

I terribly miss our water dispenser.

Another dilemma: I'm running out of disk space. If I'm staying here for a month, at this rate, I will finish my remaining 140gb of free disk space. I really should transfer some of my stuff on my brother's laptop.

Morning Sickness

So this is what it feels like.

Okay, I'm not pregnant. This is just the side effect of the medication I'm taking to regularize some of my biological functions. 

It is AWFUL. 

I've been breathing deeply to keep things down but there are weird smells that bring them all back up. I've already eaten sweets and drank water but the nausea is still there. And the memory of that cold chicken cooked in beer last night... Eugh. I really don't wanna think about it. It was HORRIBLE. It makes me want to throw up extra hard. I think the memory of that dish will keep me from eating anything else in a long long time. Wow. I'd be thin.

Still, this all feels so bad... I hate it. And I just wanna sleep but I can't because I'm not in my own house hence I'm not a princess here. Ugh. 

At pinagtitripan ako ng tiya ko. Lahat nalang. Papaaralin ng Chinese, make me go to the gym, even stand on that weird torture device-ish stretching thing while watching TV. 

I know, I know, those things are actually beneficial for me but ugh! This is my irrational side. I hate it that they're getting on my case. I wish they'd just leave me alone. I wish my dad would teach me how to be independent in an English-speaking country. And please stop shoving the Chinese language down my throat. I don't dislike it but please just quit pushing it. I don't like being told what to want. I know it's a good and important language but I want to learn to love it in my own time.

I feel like throwing up again.

Headache

Maybe because I got used to Philippine summer weather these past few weeks that 20 degrees C is a little cold for me already. Right now breathing through my nose is giving me a headache (coupled with that weirdly sweet scent - at first it was nice but now I'm getting a little sick of it... and I have to spend a month in it).

Also, since it's cold, there's no reason to turn on the air conditioner (and there are no electric fans here). I'm used to the nonstop whirring of appliances back home (especially my desktop) that I find deafeningly silent the lack of those sounds. I have to leave my ipod stuck to my laptop so I'll have proper "sleep music" because all I have in this laptop are Christmas songs. Will that harm my iPod's battery???

Hello from Taiwan!

OK, it's my first time to ever go here. Not that I really dreamed of going here but I'm happy that I'd be able to add another pin on my map. 

So far it's been OK. The thing I'm most thankful for is their awfully fast internet connection. Goodness. The time it took for me to download and install the AIM messenger (about only a minute) would've been 10x slower back home. I should've brought extra disk space... Well, dear ol' Samwyn (my iPod) is here to help. Thank heavens for 160gb ipods. 

Anyway, my Chinese has been criticized several times today. I admit that I am no expert but I do understand what they're saying (most of the time). I just am kinda shy to speak it. So as a result of that, during my free time, they're gonna send me to a nearby university to study Chinese language! Wow. I spent more than 13 years of my life studying that language and it still isn't enough. Man. Well, at least I'd get to meet new people... (which I am NOT good at. Where's the silver lining again?)

I'm so glad my cousin knows how to speak in English. 

OK, I don't know what the wake up time here is so I gotta sleep a little early (by midnight - that's early for me). I'm guessing it's around 8AM, but I kinda have the feeling that my aunt will wake me up at 7AM for that live baseball game. I showed some interest in baseball while watching the news awhile ago (she offered us the remote control to switch to our channel of desire - but all channels are in Chinese! Oh except HBO, which has Chinese subtitles. And the most boring movie ever.). Apparently, baseball is really big here. They've got a Taiwanese pitcher in the Yankees, am I right? Not sure. Basta he's very good according to her. They even have a calendar with his pictures on it.

OK, that's all for now. 

P.S. They keep offering us fruits. Real healthy. But they keep on feeding us. I hope I don't gain more weight.