Month: December 2019

Happy New Year!

Thus begins the actual longest year of my life!

Cebu, Philippines, has begun the new year, the year that seemed so absurdly far away when I first considered it that it felt as though it would never come… 2020.

The music was actually really great at the celebration here at the hotel, and we all kind of fell in love with these two songs called “I love Cebu”.

My brother kept calling, unintentionally, the adorable little boy an approximation of the Japanese word for “tuna”, instead of his actual yet similar name.

We all talked and played and then, just after midnight, danced on the beach.

It was a good night, and now I am beyond ready to pass out, hard core.

Akemashite omedetou, everyone – I wish you all a happy new year.

🙂

Post-a-day 2019

20:35

Did I mention that we saw an eclipse the other day?

Didn’t even know it was going to happen – my brother just happened to look up and notice while he was out from under the hut-bar, taking photos of the sky and stuff.

It was awesome.

Separately, I learned a Tagalog term today: Askal.

Think the British “ask”, combined with “Jal” from the Spanish “Jalisco” (a rather silent English H sound).

My mom asked a lady what the kind of dog was that we kept seeing everywhere around the Cebu area.

We are somewhat convinced that they are all just the same dog in disguise… at the furthest stretch, they could be all just related to one another… very, very closely, and with minimal cross-breeding, though they are definitely mutts.

Anyway, my mom asked the lady what kind of dog it was and the lady replied with, “Askal.”

I then learned how to say it, and asked about the word.

She explained that “as” comes from “aso,” which means “dog,” and that “kal” comes from “kalye,” (pronounced much like the Spanish calle, if you only pronounce it with one l, and change the second to an i), which means street.

“So, it’s ‘street dog’,” I say.

Yes.

We then proceeded to laugh heartily that the Cebuano dog is not a specific breed, but really just a street dog. 😛

(You might not doke this entertaining, but we certainly did, and I still do.) 😉

So, yeah… lots of askal around here.

Post-a-day 2019

Yattaaaa!

And the wedding celebration was a complete success!

The photos were beautiful, and got me super interested in doing more photography, especially the way I really want to do photography.

So…., I think I will go ahead and start doing that…

Tomorrow, even…

Yes.

This sounds like a beautiful and fulfilling idea… let.’a do it.

🙂

P.S. The trivia game in random groups was quite fun! Thus the photo…

P.P.S. This breakfast bread was, according to my brother, cheap, and was, according to all of us, delicious.

Post-a-day 2019

Here in this place

I am sitting at an all-you-can-eat, extremely varied breakfast in a 230USD+ per night resort in the center of a country where the average family annual income is approximately 5,340 USD.

The people are kind and, at times, almost uncomfortably deferential. They also can be bitchy as all else, and utterly delightful in their fun when with one another.

Toilet paper usually doesn’t go into the toilet, and toilets usually don’t flush.

There usually isn’t any toilet paper in a bathroom, anyway, and it is a gamble as to whether there will be any running water or soap.

It is hot and sticky, though no worse than Houston gets.

There are flies.

The indoor floors aren’t exactly clean, but they aren’t exactly dirty either – and there are indoor shoes provided… to keep your feet clean.

There is a surprising number of Japanese people around us.

I find myself hoarding toilet paper, because even our resort is super stingy about letting us have any – even for our room of three people, they will give us only one and a half rolls max at any given time, and these are tiny rolls – and we have to take some with us anywhere we go outside of the resort…

Fortunately, I found a grocery store today, so I bought a pack of toilet paper and a new little bottle of hand sanitizer.

That was after and right next door to the place where I got my $15 two-hour Thai hot stone and foot reflexology massage.

Massages are cheap here, but their quality is quite reasonably high, especially for the price.

$20 for me and my annual costs for living my life is the equivalent of $8 for them… and I thought I lived rather low-budget already… (.16% for the average person my age back home is around $100-150.)

The breads are delicious, the streets are almost unbearable, and I simultaneously want to spend more time to get comfortable being here, and to get out of here immediately, never to return.

I want to help as best I can, and yet I want to put the entire experience out of my mind, because I feel there is little I will accomplish to help once I leave here…, so, I am supporting local commerce while I am here, and I will share openly and honestly with people about this trip, which will include encouragement to give it a go themselves, despite how this – whatever this is – is weird.

I am hanging in there and working in handling life shelf and making things work, while being more than just a means to get through it all…

Here’s to hoping for the best: Cheers!

Post-a-day 2019

Too early to rise

It’s 8:22pm, I feel like throwing up, I’m 3000+ steps short on my daily requirement, I haven’t finished my bedtime activities, I am utterly exhausted, and we have to be at the pick-up, ready to go at 3:15am.

And there is live music going on outside, various Christmas songs blasting across the property of this resort – my first resort, and probably one of the worst versions of resorts for me in particular (I don’t like dirty or muggy indoors) – like everyone is in a party mood.

Supposedly, Christmas is an all-over party mood for the islands here…, but it seems weird to have such a celebration happening at a resort that is filled mostly with Japanese people…

Anyway… 3:15am is too close for comfort right now, especially without our car/pickup booking details…

…

Ouch.

Goodnight, I hope.

Post-a-day 2019