Wildlife Park

Laura and I had a successful outing Monday morning. She woke up at 6:45 and after I got over being bitter (I've really gotten used to sleeping in lately), I decided we'd take the opportunity to get on the road before it got too busy. Only problem is that most museums here are closed on Monday's, just like in the States, and the malls don't open until 10am. So, we found a Park and Wildlife center in Quezon city (another suburb north of here) and took a cab to check it out. It turned out to be a very nice morning and we really enjoyed it. The cab ride there was really easy because we were early and going against traffic. And the park was great. it was in the middle of the city, but was a little oasis of nature. The grounds were huge, and included a very beautiful lake and lots of open grassy area with benches. There were chickens, dogs and cats roaming the grounds free and some interesting animals (mostly birds) in big cages. I was worried that I would have some ethical issues with the way the animals were living, but it seemed clean and safe to my uneducated eyes. One of the areas was for animals that were hurt. It said they were being rehabilitated to be re-released into the wild. There were monkeys, bearcats, parrots, and some other animals that I didn't recognize. After that, we looked for the zoo that was on the map, but I couldn't find. Then it started to rain, so we took another cab back home. The ride home wasn't bad either! All in all, we had a nice time.


Laura's favorite part was a speed bump in the road:

The bamboo curving over the walk was beautiful:
Here's a pic of Laura in front of a rubber tree.

Water Bottles

Also, while we were bored on Sunday...Jim was relocating our clotheline indoors in case the typhoons came and when I came into the room, I saw that Laura had been busy. We buy all our drinking water in bottles because we're not 100% that the tap water at home is safe and I just haven't been able to bring myself to toss the bottles. Still looking for a way to recycle them. Anyways, Laura recently discovered the cabinet they are kept in and I've decided they are as good of a toy as any. Please pardon the saggy diaper...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paio3Vw7GQk

China info

Here's some info on our China trip. We leave Friday. This is a link to our intenerary and tour guides. Its the Beijing, Xian trip on the top:
http://www.pandatour.com/pages/tour/c1a-6.html

Here's the hotel in Beijing:
http://www.mercure.com/mercure/fichehotel/gb/mer/6684/fiche_hotel.shtml

Here's the hotel in Xian:
http://www.newworldhotels.com/newWorldHotelsList-en.html#hotel_seven

Hope that makes anyone (Dad) who's nervous about the trip feel a little better.

Earthquake!!!

We had an earthquake yesterday! Earthquakes, typhoons...get me off this island!
Actually, it was kind of cool after my mind caught up to what was going on and we just enjoyed the swaying of the building on the 22nd floor. Laura's first earthquake and she didn't have a clue anything was happening. We just hung out in the bathroom doorway for about 1 minute or so. It wasn't shaking as much as just swaying back and forth. We don't have anything on the walls to fall off, so the only exciting thing you could see was the vertical blinds moving back and forth. Pretty cool.

Jim's been working so hard at the computer that he pulled a muscle in his neck - no kidding! poor guy had to go to the doctor, but that turned out to be surprisingly pleasant, it sounds like. And very cheap! $5! He said it was quick, the doctor seemed to know what she was talking about and he felt very comfortable with her doctoring skills. Only problem is that the drugs she prescribed don't seem to have much affect on him. He's thinking its because he's so much bigger than the average Filipino that he needs a bigger dosage. But he's sticking with her prescription, as far as I know and I think its improving. Its good to know the medical care here can be efficient and helpful.

Finger painting

We were soooo bored Sunday. We thought there would be a typhoon this weekend, so we didn't plan much. After nap, it was really too late to get in a cab and expect to be anywhere in time to do anything, so we hung out at home for a while. Looking for fun activities, I came up with finger painting with ketchup. It kept her happy for about 10 minutes, but was fun none

-the-less.

Laura updates

A few new things about Laura:
She loves shrimp! Tempura, grilled, big, small, you name it, she loves it. The girl won't eat chicken, but loves shrimp. Funny
She's eating a ton the last few days. whole slices of pizza, 2 pancakes, etc. And growing a ton too.
She was great in church today! yea!
She looks even more like Jim that she used to.

A typhoon was supposed to hit here last night, but ended up going pretty far north of us. I had nightmares Friday night about it. Kept imagining that something like Katrina would happen here. can you imagine how scary it would be to be in that situation in a foreign country. Anyways, we were prepared with extra water, food, flashlights, candle, etc. But never ended up needed it. It hasn't even rained. After all that, it was a little disappointing that it missed us! I'm never satisfied.

Oh, and the clothing store is Dorothy Perkins, not Parker. oops.

yoga

There's a billboard showing a girl doing yoga that we pass everyday on our way to the mall. Laura's really interested in it, so we've been doing some yoga at home. Here's a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-IWOha6GDw

animal sounds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rObwMdJfqQ0

Laura's house

We build a lot of "houses" out of the couch cushions. Wonder if she was a boy if we would call it a "fort"?

happy thanksgiving

Happy thanksgiving, I think. We sort of skipped it this year. Its hard to get in the spirit in another country, especially a tropical country. But I'm surprisingly ok with it. I only feel a little guilty that laura didn't get the experience, but she's too young to remember anyway, so its not a big deal. Jims office manager, edwin, brought us a baked chicken dinner from kenny rogers roasters in honor of the holiday, so at least we celebrated a little. Guess we will have an excuse to celebrate really hard at christmastime!

Laura and I have been spending a lot of time at home this week. Usually, I try to get out of the apartment as much as possible and we're only home for naptime and some meals, but it was nice to hang out at home for some reason. we played chase a lot, built a lot of "houses" out of the couch cushions, blew a lot of bubbles and colored a lot. It was fun! I also cooked a lot this week. Made applesauce, crepes, soup from broth that I made from a chicken I bought(already cooked), and pumpkin bars from a pumpkin I cooked. Just call me susie homemaker.

Laura has been talking a lot about Jesus lately. There are, of course, nativities all over the malls this time of year and she's really interested in the baby. She gets it that Mary is his mommy and likes to say that God is his dad, but I don't know what to do to explain Joseph. And at night, I usually ask her what she's going to dream about and her standard answer is always dogs, cats, and a mouse, but now she adds Jesus into the answer too.

I found a store with clothes that fit me and that I like! Well shirts at least. It was pretty exciting. I think I have bought 5 shirts and only one was long sleeved. (my original purpose was to shop for clothes to keep me warm in china) I have never enjoyed shopping so this is a pretty big deal. the store is called Dorothy Parker, but all I can find online is into about the actress/writer of the same name. I assume its named after her and its a British store because the original price tags on the clothes are in pounds. Makes me feel very international and chic. Ha! Its probably an old lady store, but I'm enjoying it anyways.

Speaking of old ladies, I've decided that I feel very young here. It will be one thing I really miss when we go home. In Minnesota we own a house, live in a suburb, and generally live a very middle-class middle-age life. But here, even if I don't talk to any of them, I'm surronded by young people, I get to go to coffee shops after dark, we live in a high-rise, we have quirky ways of doing dishes and laundry that almost make it seem fun (one of the first posts describes the laundry situation. For the dishes I have to bring hot water in to the kitchen sink from the bathroom since they done have hot water in the kitchens here). So anyways, although I'm looking forward to lots of things at home, I'm glad I found something definitely positive about being here.

I'm learning little bits of Tagalog. But only because I'm trying. Everyone here speaks English, so there's really no need but it seems kind of a waste not to come away with something. Here are a few If my favorites (actually just the few I remember):
O-o means yes
lolo and lola are grandpa and grandma (I really like these)
Po is a word you can add to to show respect for someone. As in "thank you po" to a customer or elder
Salamaat is thank you

OSU vs Baylor

Quick note: the osu/Baylor game was on here last night. Was it current? We couldn't tell and don't follow it enough to know (sorry dad). Anyways, thought that was pretty cool and weird. Not exactly a hugely popular game in the states let alone the Philippines.

nice book lady

i just had the nicest experience. I was out returning (actually exchanging since you apparently cant return items even though theres a sign saying otherwise) some of the clothes i bought for laura that were too small tonight and i stopped by this little bargain book kiosk to see if they had gotten anything new in lately. I've been there several times since their books are usually really cheap. I went there the other day and asked to see a jodi picoult hardback book but I didn't buy it because it was about $8. Ok that's not a lot I know, but compared to their usual prices it is. So anyway, today walk up and start looking and the lady pulls out a different jodi picoult book that is paperback and only about $3! It just meant so much to that not only did she remember me, she remembered what kind of book I like. Granted i'm pretty hard to forget around here since I look so different and I usually have a cute friendly baby strapped to my back, but I didn't have laura tonight and it was just so nice to have someone be nice to ME not laura. Of course she did ask where my baby was, but what are you gonna do? Like jim pointed out to me, be grateful that people here like us for our differences, rather than so many people in the world who are hated merely for their looks.
Laura is learning to say her name. Literally every single person that talks to her here(which is most everyone we see) asks her what her name is. I think names must be very important in this culture. I don't think very many people in america make that their first and most insistent question to ask children like they do here. And it was very important to Sky (the littlt girl down the hall) and her nanny that laura's baby have a name. We have always just called her "baby" but they just kept asking the dolls name and didn't seem to understand that she didn't really have one. Anyway, whenever people ask laura what her name is, she just stares or babbles at them. I either ignore it or answer for her if they are insistent which they usually are. But laura has actually been saying her name the last few days if I prompt her after they ask. Pretty exciting. Incidentally, the second question is ALWAYS "how old are you?" and they just act like they expect her to understand and answer. Kids here must talk early because laura just doesnt get those questions yet.

shopping for cold clothes and big Jesus

Here's a picture of the Jesus statue on top of our church. You can barely see Laura and I down at the bottom on the left. We just thought it was cool, then read in a Philippine travel book that its the site of 2 major peaceful revolutions in the last 30 years. They were called something like the EDSA revolutions 1 and 2 since its right along the EDSA, which is the major highway in Manila. pretty important spot in Filipino history.

Hey Jeff, our coffee bean is in Pasig City. Its the Ortigas Park location on Don Francisco Ortigas, Jr. Road, which used to be Emerald Road. Everyone still calls it Emerald Road and we live in Emerald Mansion. Don't know why you needed that info, but I feel like rambling. thanks for checking it out!

http://coffeebean.com/International-W15C72.aspx

I spent yesterday afternoon shopping for warm clothes for our China trip. Its in the 30s and 40s F there right now, which is a big change for us. Its easier said than done to find warm clothes here. Very few long sleeved shirts, especially for little girls and women. But iIt was nice to shop without Laura. Jim and Laura had quality time at home, while I looked for clothes for all of us. And shopping here is so exhausting, especially since I'm not much of a shopper. There are a million stores, but we are all very big sizes in our respective clothes genres. But I found a few things for all of us. Tomorrow, Laura and I need to go find warm shoes for her. The tennis shoes we brought for her gave her little bruises on top of her feet last time she wore them. Poor kid. Its going to be a challenge to find any that are wide enough for her.

Customer of the month

Here's Laura and I's pic at Coffeee Bean for being customer of the month. I got a free debit
card with 300 pesos on it (about 3 lattes worth).

Laura and I took another cab ride yesterday, this one much less successful. Traffic was AWFUL. we were headed to the childrens museum. took 1 1/2 hours to get there, then when we got out, there were about 150 kids and their teachers waiitng to get in. so we waited around a little to see if it would empty out, but it didn't. So we got back in a cab and spent another 1 1/2 on the way home. not much fun and a waste of time and money. but at least we tried!

We leave for china nov. 30 and come back 6 days later.

strange day

I woke up at 10:00 this morning. I sincerely havent done that in five or more years! And to imagine laura sleeping that long is just beyond my comprehension. I ran in there after it finally dawned on me what time it was and she was happily hanging out in her crib. I don't know what's wrong with either of us. But it did start the day off very strangely, to say the least. Jim and I stayed up until midnight (gasp!) watching a movie, but normally my body would still wake me up by 8.

The rest of the day went well, though. Laura still took a fine nap and went to bed fine. We went to a little gym with tunnels and slides and a ball pit and had fun. And we paid for and confirmed our trip to china at last! We'll see lots of things, including the great wall, tianamen square, forbidden city, and the terracotta soldier army. We're done with the anxiety of trying to find and book the trip and now can begin the anxiety of travelling with a toddler on all these tours. But I'm just going to have to chill about it. She did great on most of our adventures so far and we'll just make sure we takebreaks when we need to, even if that means we miss seeing something. Now we're trying to decide if its worth the money to also go to Angkor wat in Cambodia. Anyone heard of it or been there? Jim has his heart set on it so we'll probably try to make it work out. And I'd really like to go down to a town called legaspi on this island. You can swim with whale sharks and they have a bamboo village built on stilts on a black sand beach. Sounded pretty cool. Will keep you updated.

Just looked outside and saw that its raining. Didn't bring an umbrella so I'll have a wet walk home. Oh well. At least its warm. Actually when it wasnt downpouring today, it was great weather. Around 65 F I think. Very nice change from the heat and humidity.

Chinese embassy

laura and I ventured out alone in a taxi today. It actually wasnt near the big deal that I had built it up to be. We went to the Chinese embassy to pick up our visas. It took 3 hours of waiting in a huge room full of people to spend two minutes at the desk picking them up. Just soooo many people! Laura did well, considering she was bored hungry and tired by the time we left. Looks like we might have a trip to Beijing and Xian confirmed, but havent paid yet so nothings written in stone.

Laura has been sleeping A LOT lately. 13 1/2 hours at night and a 2-3 hour nap or more during the day. The nighttime sleep is normal, but that's a really long nap for laura. Not that I'm complaining, but it does make me wonder what's going on when i have to wake her up at 4 so she can back to sleep at 6:30. Maybe its just a growth spurt.

Now that I'm brave enough to take a cab, maybe we'll go to the childrens museum this week. Never did find the library. It wasnt where the book said it was. Must have moved.

Jim wanted me to mention the flat napkins that i bought the other day. they were 40 cents cheaper than folded ones. I think he's teasing me, but I was excited. Now, we just have really thin, large napkins. Ha

Found a frozen butterball turkey at a fancy grocery store, but it almost $30, so I think we'll skip it and wait till Christmas . Support the "eating locally" lifestyle that I preach. Can't remember if I mentioned the avocado situation? Several people asked if they have avocados over here and apparently they grow here, but you can only get them when they're in season and right now they're not. They're on menus and everything, but you can't find them any where. Guess I grudgingly respect that, but I really like avocados, so I'm a little torn. Oh well.

Pesos

Here's a video of laura playing with money in the car on they way home yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksPaDWw6Ec8

Honk Honk

I told Laura we were going see about going to Hong Kong. Then she started to say Honk Honk over and over again. here's some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOpJL_CD1vQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asL1VvOJNc8

Taal Volcano and the Palace in the Sky

This weekend, Jim's office manager Edwin took us to see Taal Volacano. Its one of the smallest and deadliest volcanos in the world. Its in the middle of a lake and has another small lake in its crater. Very pretty, but we didn't get too close.

Then we went to a palace that had started being built for Ronald Reagan's visit years ago, but that visit was cancelled after an assasination here in the Philippines. Instead of finishing the building, they just let it fall into ruins and strangely enough, its now a tourist destination. Here's a picture at the palace of Jim and Laura with Edwin and Melvin from his office:

We got to ride in a Jeepney for the first time. These are converted Jeeps that work like buses. They're open to the air and not too comfortable, but very cheap. Probably woudn't take one without a local with us since its hard to tell where they're headed.

Next, we went to a beautiful restaurant on the grounds of a bed and breakfast and spa. Most of the food they serve is from their garden. Excellent food and delicious. Beautiful setting.

Last, we stopped by the Mall of Asia, their answer to the Mall of America. Pretty much just another huge mall. We did see this, though. Can you read where they baby back ribs are from???:
(Oklahoma)

The trip home was pretty tough. 3 hours in the car with Laura who hadn't taken a nap or eaten much. And her stomach was pretty upset, apparently. But we made it. Today (Sunday) we're just taking it easy around here. Headed to a new grocery store because we heard they might have turkey!

Laura's new shoes

Laura got new shoes last week. She loves them and can spend literally 3o minutes putting them on and taking them off. So far, they're the best toy I've found so far.

Laura's pretty picture

Laura was practicing drawing BIG and small.

Laura's playroom

Here are a few pictures of the playroom that Laura and I found in the Megamall.

Just stuff

I had a whole list of things to say but I left them at home so I'll just type what I remember.

First, laura and I are "customers of the month" at coffee bean across the street. Picture on the wall and everything! Ha! Not sure yet what that gets me, but it cracks me up anyhow. We only go there once a week or so, but I'll have to go more if I get something free!

I bought cold medicine by the pill today. That's how drug stores sell it. They show you the box, then ask how many you want. Then they cut off that many pills from the little card and give them to you! No directions no warnings not even the name of the drug if you aren't luck enough to get that part of the graphic on the back of the card. A little nervewracking but the medicine seemed to work. I was so stuffed up that my ears hurt when we would go down in the elevator from our apartment on the 22nd floor.

I sent out a bunch of postcards a few weeks ago. Has anyone gotten one? Just wondering how long it takes.

Mom, I opened the thanksgiving stuff today. Laura loves the window clings! Thanks!

Apparently laura is learning more colors. She asked for the "brown" crackers the other day when i think I have only ever called them chocolate crackers. And today she saw a shirt and said light blue. Now she qualifying her colors!

As usual I'm trying to plan our next trip. We all went to the Chinese embassy today to apply for a visa to Beijing.

I know there was more I wanted to say, but I've forgotten. On well there's always tomorrow.

swimmimg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZpxUVo3rzc

Pictures from Puerta Princesa trip

OK, so no more journalling on the blog, I promise. Not enough internet time. I'll just have to journal the old fashioned way. Anyway - here's some pics and a few highlights:

Here's Laura and I at the "prison without bars" sitting in a rocking chair that the inmates made.

Laura and Jenny at the Crocodile farm. You can see the baby crocs in the background. This is how Laura and I spend most of our time over here- with her in the mei tai on my back.

Most of the locals outside the city live in houses like this.

Lunch on the beach.

Laura and Jim swimming in the ocean. This is also where we went snorkelling.

Laura's first sunburn. oops

Laura's "crib"

Puerta Princesa

We're back! We left Thursday morning for Puerta Princesa, Palawan. Its another island in the Philippines (did you know there are over 7000 islands here?). And we returned today (Sunday) around 11am. Overall, it was a good trip with good memories, but I will say that there were some times that were very difficult. Travelling with a toddler can be rough. At times, I questioned whether we were doing the right thing for Laura by trying to do so much, but on the whole, she was a trooper and even got at least a little nap in each day. I have tons of pictures, and since I know that's really what you're interested in, feel free to ignore this post and just check out the next one. I'll have to wait until I can get to Jim's computer to download the pictures, so it may be a few days until you can see them. And since I'm also using this blog as a journal of our trip, this post may be a little detailed and boring for everyone except me. Fair warning.



The flight was such a refreshing change from the flight from Minnesota- it was only an hour long! No problem at all. There was a 757 (BIG plane) at the airport in Puerta Princesa, which looked a little strange because the airport is really small, just a little bigger than Ponca City's.



Our hotel picked us up at the airport. The hotel was really great. The pool was probably the best pool I've ever seen. They had a big, shallow pool that Laura could just walk around in by herself (with us nearby) and it came up to about her chest. And then they also had a bigger, deeper pool and what is supposed to be a hot tub, but it wasn't hot. The food at the restaurants in the hotel tasted great, although kind of pricey and service was excruciatingly slow, which seems to just be the way it is over here. There weren't many choices since the hotel was on the outskirts of town. Breakfasts were free and delicious. They had traditional food, like rice and meats, but they also had an omelet bar, and cereal and MILK! We were so happy to see that milk every morning. Laura basically lives on dairy, so its really rough over here where they have almost no dairy at all. Our room was clean and nice. Our only gripes were that our travel agent had told us there would be a crib and there wasn't, and they had no hot water in the rooms. It wasn't freezing, but it definitely wasn't hot. Refreshing! ha. Everything else worked out great. We put one of our twin mattresses on the floor for Laura and built a fort around it and then Jim and I shared the other twin (not too comfy considering that we're both "big boned"). Laura slept pretty well at night, and each night improved. The first night, I had to join her from 1am till morning, the second night she made it until 3:30, and the last night, she made it all night!



The first day, we went on a "city tour" although it didn't actually show us the city. We went to a crocodile farm which is working to save 2 endangered species of crocs. They also had a small sort of zoo here with some native animals and also ostriches? There was also a huge spider spinning a web across one of the walkways. Beautiful, but a little nerve wracking. We went to a butterfly garden in someone's backyard. We stopped at Baker's Hill, which was a bakery and playground for tourists. And we also went to the prison! Its a "prison without bars" that they are very proud of. The inmates spend their time gardening and working rice fields and making items for tourists to buy. Not what we expected on a city tour, but we enjoyed it. Laura was pretty pooped by the evening and we couldn't get food until almost 7 since everyone here normally eats later than we're used to, so the evening was pretty rough on all of us.



The second day, we headed to an underground river. Turns out it that its 2 1/2 hours away. Over half of that was on an incredibly poor road and the tour guides kept making jokes that we were getting free massages because it was so bumpy. The good part was that the bumps put Laura to sleep for about an hour. She really did great on this day. After we got there, we took this really great boat that looked so cool and like something they have been using for hundreds of years. But then, they turned on the motor! It was louder than a lawn mower. Laura keeps calling them noisy boats. We were on the boat for 20 minutes and deaf when we got off. I had my hands on Laura's ears the whole time. But we got off the boat onto this gorgeous beach and walked on a path through mangroves to the river. We had to wait for a little while here until it was our turn and Laura did so great! The tour on the river takes you into a cave in the dark with someone on the boat holding the light. It was on a canoe with 8 people and the tour guide. Lots of sparrows and bats in the cave. The tour guide was great. He was extremely knowledgable about the cave and river and its history. And he pointed out all the cool stalagmites and -tites. About a 45 minute tour and again, Laura did great! She almost fell alseep on this boat too.



After this, we took the noisy boat back and had lunch. They provided us a little buffet just for our 6 people group. We ate at a table with a grass roof and looked out onto the ocean and beautiful beach. It was really nice. And the food was great! Rice, of course, and Filipino fish, chicken, pork and greens. Laura actually ate the greens and rice! I was so relieved. I'm always worried about getting her to eat something. We also had coconuts, just off the tree. They drill a hole in it, and put a straw in, and you drink! Its not as sweet as I expected, but it was refreshing and fun. Then, they chopped it in half with a huge machete looking knife and we scooped out the coconut meat to eat. Fun!

My internet time is about to run out. More later, I promise! Lucky you