Monsooned!

Well after such a mild summer*, rainy season is truly upon us. The Embassy was closed yesterday and today, and even the school closed today.** Although I love having the extra time with my kids, being trapped in the house without respite is less than ideal. Cue the maniacal laughter. Not such a happy birthday for me. :( But we are truly the lucky ones. It is so much worse for so many others. They're saying it's already worse than Ondoy. Husband took the older kids out in our very high clearance Land Rover to check out the damage.

These pics are from our neighborhood and the surrounding area. It's so much worse in other parts of Manila.

Although waking up to this:

kind of makes up for it...just a little bit. :)


*Summer being the 3 months the Western world designates as summer, that is.
**The Embassy is right on the waterfront, but the school is on much higher ground. 

Happy Independence Day!

I love the 4th of July. I have such amazing childhood memories of watching fireworks over the lake, hanging with my sisters and friends eating popcorn out of paper bags, playing with sparklers in the summer heat, and of course, fire flies! Our neighborhood used to have a 4th of July "parade" every year where all the kids would march around our little cul de sac in wagons and dressed to the nines in red, white, and blue. So very, very 'Murican! Of course, now that I'm a parent myself, I recognize that those memories were not nearly as sweet for the adults shepherding us around, lol.

Now that I work as a diplomat, 4th of July is more about sharing the joy of American Independence with our host country. It is, in fact, the biggest event the Embassy sponsors every year. This year I volunteered to deck myself out in real style and dressed up as Lady Liberty.

I was a hit, if I do say so myself. Uncle Sam and I were in high demand. The Philippines is no exception to the photography rule in Asia. If there's an opportunity for a photo, you better believe they're going to take it! :) I can't even imagine how many photos there are of me floating around Facebook now, haha. We must have had over 1,000 people attend this year's party, and I swear I took my photo with 998 of them! My cheeks hurt from smiling so much! But, it was also really fun. And I got to wear sandals since no one could see my feet under the robes. No standing in high heels for 6 hours for me! And we got to see fireworks this year! I love me some fireworks. Last year they got canceled because of the rain, and I was sooo disappointed. So I was really excited to see this year's show, and it was awesome. I only wish my kids could have seen it.

Today the CLO is putting on a family 4th of July party. We didn't have one of these last year, so I'm super grateful that they're doing it this year so the kids can celebrate too. There won't be any fireworks there, but there will be hot dogs, cotton candy, face painting, and bouncy houses! All worthy ways of celebrating the 4th.

Home

Home again, home again.

R&R is but a distant memory. *sigh* It was a great rejuvenator, though. I really do feel refreshed, like I can make it through another year here without losing my mind. Our last couple of months leading up to R&R were exceedingly difficult. It wasn't just the build up of spending so much time in a difficult city like Manila (the traffic, pollution, dire poverty and squalor really do wear you down). I had debated posting about this at all, but we were forced to move* thanks to a series of targeted attacks on our house and property, including nails in our tires, which culminated in a break in attempt that required us to call the local police and file a report. RSO (our security folks) finally pulled the security certificate on our house, which meant they no longer found it safe for any American Embassy family to live there. We had an armed guard posted at our home for the last month of our stay there while GSO housing found and made ready new accommodations for us. It was highly stressful. We weren't sleeping at all. I was (an am) very, very angry about the whole situation. In a nutshell, I believe it was a targeted attempt by our rich and powerful neighbors to drive us out of the neighborhood since we had lodged several complaints about them illegally running a business out of their home.** It is exceeding unfortunate not just because of the great stress and difficulty it caused to our family (oh, did I mention the move happened while I was in the US, so poor Husband had to do it all himself, and I can home from R&R to unpack my entire house? yeah, that was a blast!), but it has completely colored the way I look at the Philippines. I'll keep the deep feelings I have about the corruption and ineptitude of this place to myself, but I don't think I will ever get over this experience.

Anyway, that's enough about that. I'm really trying to put this behind us and focus on the positives so we can make it through our remaining time here with a good attitude. We've been invaded by the hoards, so we're back up to a family of 7 and in a new house no less. This house is in a new village, and I have to say, we just love our new neighborhood. It is so much cleaner and quieter than our old one! And there are a couple of strip mall areas on the outsides of the village entrances, which are incredibly convenient. We don't have a pool any more, which makes me very, very, very sad! But, the yard is bigger than out old one and is not filled with feral cat shit and piss, so we can actually send our kids outside to play (at least in the early morning before it gets too hot). We are also much closer to the Embassy, so our commute has been slashed by a good 15-20 minutes (40 minutes less in traffic per day, yes please!). Thanks to a great deal of hard work by my husband and oldest daughter, C, all of the boxes were already unpacked when I got home, so all I had to do was put things away in the right place, so I feel like we've already got the new house in order in record time. The other really nice thing is that this place has its own guest room (so it's a 5 bedroom), which means my step-son, T, gets his own room, too.

All in all, I think this house is going to work out just fine. It's really nice to have the whole family together again, and we're focused on trying to just enjoy our time together this summer and put this whole housing/neighbor mess behind us. As difficult as the timing was for us, I feel like in some ways it was a blessing to have this happen just before we went on R&R. It feels like a whole new beginning. And it is good to be home.

*Our 4th move just here in Manila! 
**And I maaay have ruined their company Christmas party when I yelled at them in my pajamas to shut off the outdoor karaoke system...which they were drunkenly playing at 11pm...on a school night...in front of my house.

Eating My Way Through Manila

As I mentioned before, we are in the process of seeing off many of the wonderful friends we've made here, and we've been doing so with gusto! As someone who is pushing a healthy lifestyle to the rest of the Embassy it's a bit embarrassing to admit that my entire weekend basically revolved around gluttony (and it was worth it!). Friday night the Husband went on his man outing to play golf in Intramuros. So I ordered fried chicken for me and the kids.* If there is one food that Filipinos excel at, it is some goddamn fried chicken.

On Saturday, Husband and I went to Qi Wellness for body scrubs and a massage. One of my most favorite things about the Philippines is all of the affordable pampering you can get! We followed that with lunch at Brasserie Boheme, which is literally right next door. It was delicious! I had a salad and the hame and cheese panini, and let me tell you, that bread was dee-vine! By far the best sandwich I've had in the Philippines! Husband also had a sandwich along with a bowl of tomato bisque, which he proclaimed to be the best fucking tomato soup he's ever had. And that is saying something! While our lunch was a pleasant surprise, I would have fasted for the entire day if I'd realized the lengths to which my stomach would go to try and digest the mountain of gloriousness that was our dinner at Elbert's Steak Room. It was hands down the best meal I've eaten here. The steaks were phenomenal, the service was wonderful, and the company was perfect. Each dinner comes with a salad and soup. I had the french onion, which was lovely and portioned just right considering the slab of meat that was yet to come. You had the option of ordering sides. Our friends who had dined there before warned us that you didn't really need sides, but I couldn't resist ordering the truffled mashed potatoes. I just can't do steak without a potato! Husband got the baked potato, and they were both delicious. Next time, I really want to tray the duck fat fried potatoes! Might as well go all out, eh? On top of the delicious food, the owner himself came out to check on the tables and see how everyone was enjoying their meal. I just love little service touches like that. It really makes you feel appreciated as a customer. He also offered us a round of limoncello on the house and some complimentary desserts. It was such a nice gesture. Anyway, we just enjoyed the crap out of that meal.

Having barely digested our food from the night before, we headed off to the Sofitel brunch on Sunday. If you have ever wanted to feel like a complete glutton, by all means you need to get your ass to the Soiftel Sunday Brunch! Unlimited champagne and endless variety of food: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, Filipino, there's even a cheese room! You really have to pace yourself. We were there for four hours! But, it's the only meal you need for the entire day, so that makes you feel a little better about the P3,000/pp price tag! When we finally got home, we immediately whisked the kids over to Rockwell Mall to see the new Star Trek movie. No food there (ok, I had some Nerds, so sue me!), but I loved the movie! I grew up on Trek (duh!), so I'm constantly amazed that I'm not put off by this new Trek-a-verse. But I love that new life has been infused into the franchise. More Trek for everyone!

*I am so my father's daughter!

Adventuring

Well, I can definitely say that Husband and I are stepping it up in the getting out-of-the-house department. We spent a lovely evening out last night at the historic Manila Hotel with some friends from work. Our friend P did such a great write-up, that I'm just going to link to her post in hopes that it distracts you from my lazy-ass refusal to write my own synopsis. We've been on a foodie roll lately. The Champagne Room at the Manila Hotel had excellent service, good drinks (at least I thought the signature cocktail was pretty good, and we were impressed to see a 2006 Chilean wine on the menu considering this is the land of Yellow Tail). I enjoyed my main course, which was a mixed seafood grill over risotto (the rice was not great but certainly the closest thing I've had to real risotto in the Philippines, while the seafood was excellent). The only real disappointment for me was the foie gras starter, which originally emerged from the kitchen doused in some kind of sugared coating similar to the crust of a creme brûlée but even sweeter. It was so overpowering that I couldn't even taste the foie gras, so I sent it back. They asked if I would like it without the sweet toppings, and I agreed, so they ended up bringing me out a cold version that basically tasted like the canned foie gras that you can get at the market. All in all, most of the food came out a winner (the rest of our party seemed pretty pleased with their choices) and the ambiance and service were really nice, so I would recommend a stop at the Champagne Room. Too bad we didn't get a chance to see the MacArthur Room!

This morning we had quite the adventure trying to find the Philippines version of the DMV. In order to get a rental car for my TDY to Japan, I need to score myself an international drivers license. I'm got an American one and a Filipino one, but no international license for me. Apparently all that's required is filling up a form (that's right, filling up not filling out), paying a fee, and voila! international drivers license. Unfortunately, this simple process is made less simple by the fact that the DMV is hidden using some kind of invisibility spell and guarded by security who turn you away when you are hot on its trail. We spent a good two and a half hours driving around Manila on the hunt. We actually found it within the first half hour but were foiled by the security guard at the front desk who informed us that "this is just offices" and turned us away. Then we tried to locate the address on the actual form, which was on the other side of Manila, and it turned out to be the old address that the DMV had moved from some months or years ago (it was not clear given the dinginess and fading of the old sign we managed to find hanging above the brand new drug store that had taken its place). In spite of our relative failure (still no license), I was actually pretty proud of our navigation skills considering that we actually found both buildings.

We spent the rest of the day shopping (oh the money I dropped at S&R today) and doing some spring cleaning. So I am pretty much wiped out. We were supposed to meet up with some other friends of ours in the Fort for dinner at a tapas restaurant called Las Flores, but I was just too damn tired after our crazy day. Baby steps, people, baby steps. Tomorrow I think we'll hit the Legazpi Market early and then spend the rest of the day just relaxing in the pool. Summer is full on here now, and it is freakin' hot!

Manila Shopping: Salcedo Market

So I wrote a bit about the Legazpi market a while back, but really it's the Salcedo market that's most well known. Salcedo is larger and has more diverse vendors. You can find everything from Cuban food to Vegan mushroom burgers. Salcedo has way more food vendors than Legazpi, and I think their meat, seafood, and organic produce selection is far superior. But while I like to explore Salcedo to dig out fresh new vendors, buy organic produce, and get fresh seafood, but I prefer Legazpi for its smaller crowds. After you've been living in a city where 13% of the country's population lives (oh, and that's just Metro Manila, not including Greater Manila)...well, you're always grateful for places with smaller crowds.

Halloween Pilipinas-Style

More Manila Foodie Finds

Yowza, has it really been so long since I posted? I have found that my periods of blog silence tend to coincide with periods of trouble in the realz life of Pu. Nothing to be worried about - I'm going through a bit of a "thing" at work. These things happen from time to time, part of the growing pains of transitioning to a new job and new lifestyle. I still love what I do and adore my coworkers (they really make the job for me, in many ways!).

I've been keeping quite busy. Last month was my rotation to the American Citizen Services section (where Husband normally works). While the work is interesting and there's always something new and outrageous to face every day, I can safely say that I was happy to return to my old section for the normalcy of a daily routine. ACS work in Manila is very trying, and my hat is off to my colleagues who work there for longer stretches. I don't know that I have it in me to do that! I did have the opportunity to go on an ACS Outreach to Angeles City and Olongapo (where Clark AB and Subic Naval Base used to be before they closed in 1991). I won't say too much, but I would encourage you to google either location to see what they are famous for. I can also share that the highlight of the trip was when colleague S and I were waking back to our hotel down the Angeles "strip" from dinner one evening and were "Sir/Maam-ed" for girls rather than for something like bags or shoes. Stay classy, Angeles City.

But, I digress, I titled this post foodie finds for a reason. As we explore out city's culinary offerings (slim pickins, I'm afraid), I like to add what little tidbits I can find. Recently I discovered igourmet, which is a website that will ship many refrigerated items like cheeses to DPO addresses. This was a revelation for me, and I am thrilled to be able to order different varieties of gouda in addition to my beloved goat cheese! Husband and I are also on the hunt for a restaurant (any restaurant) that is worth the cash. While you can get cheap meals in Manila, believe me, you know they're cheap. If you want good quality food, you're going to pay for it. And, in my personal opinion, they're almost never worth the cost. Meals that go for American prices are rarely of American quality, and you have to avoid the pitfalls of everything being doused in sugar. I had a caesar salad yesterday that was totally inedible thanks to the amount of sugar dumped into the caesar dressing (who puts sugar into caesar dressing??), and that was at an upscale restaurant in Serendra (a fancy area in the Fort). Just gross. We did have a good meal last night at Kashmir, which we went to for a girlfriend's birthday dinner. The samosas were delicious and the food was pleasantly spicy (hard to find here) and flavorful. We also tried Cirkulo and were spectacularly unimpressed. Not only did they allow me to make a reservation for a time when the restaurant was closed (we arrived and they had yet to open the doors, they finally let us and in and then we sat around and waited for another 15 minutes before we were able to flag down a server)* but I was also underwhelmed by the food. I found the tapas to be of huge proportions and lacking in flavor, and the prices were outrageous considering the quality. If this is the restaurant that tops "best of" lists...well, let's just say I've become a lot more forgiving of the mid-range, mediocre restaurants because at least they're a better deal!

Anyway, here's some more foodie blogs for your reading pleasure.

Foodie Manila
The Manila Girl
Runaround Girl
Midnight Mercato
Salcedo Market

*And judging by the responses of my colleagues to my story, this is not uncommon. No one wants to turn away business so instead of telling you they're closed, they will allow you to enter and sit in the restaurant, but won't actually acknowledge or serve you until about 15-20min after the official opening time (island time, you know). 

Manila Shopping: Legazpi Market

There are lots of open air market options in Manila. We live in Makati, and, thanks to copious traffic, we tend to stick to markets that are in our neighborhood. There are two main markets here: the Saturday Salcedo Market and the Legazpi Market, which happens on Sunday. The Salcedo Market is mainly food oriented but also has things like fresh flowers and some local non-edible goods. For today's post, we'll concentrate on the Legazpi Market mainly since I forgot my camera the last time we went to Salcedo.

The Legazpi Market has a wide variety of different items for sale, including all sorts of local-made goods like the cool salad bowl my husband got me for my recent b-day. There's also a variety of vendors with everything from toys and candy to jewelry to hand-crafted furniture. There are still a few fruit and vegetable stands, though not nearly as many as in Salcedo, and my favorite poultry people are there selling free-range chicken products (although you've got to get there on the early side if you want boneless, skinless breasts). I also like the honey people who sell three different varieties of locally produced honey based on the types of flowers the bees get their nectar from. I tend to get my eggs at Legazpi, too. There is a vendor there that sells free-range eggs in reusable crates, and if you bring your crates back they will take P15 off the price of another dozen. There's a lot of plant vendors, too, which Husband likes. Husband has bought a few small plants, and we've acquired two small fish* and two small turtles along the way.

Legazpi also offers a bit of pre-made food vendors, and we almost always buy some lunch on our way out. My favorite food vendor is the Indian lady who sells pre-made fresh or frozen samosas along with cumin scented veggies. Husband's favorite is the green smoothie place which sells smoothies to go in old water bottles for us to take home for the week.

Although Salcedo has the wider variety of food products, I tend to prefer Legazpi because there are less people. I can still get most of the produce I want and there's less hassle, which is a welcome change from daily elbow-to-elbow Manila life.

*and these fish are har-dee. These be Manila Bay fish!

Week Off On Account of Holiday

So you may have noticed that posting has decreased this week. That's mostly because work has been crazy busy, but it also has to do with all of the holidaying over here. Yes, yes there's that whole Eid and Ninoy Aquino Day thing, but as many of my longtime readers* know this be Pu birthday weekend up in herrr. So we've been conducting super, exciting birthday activities like playing Life (regular and Pirate version), having family movie night, and going to the market. That's just the kind of party freaks we are.

To celebrate the actual day tomorrow, I've invited over several 5 and 7 year olds since we're basically on the same mental wave length. Here's hoping for plenty of sunshine so we can kick them all outdoors play outside and enjoy the pool. When I get a free minute I'll post pics and description of our favorite markets. I'll also be bragging about my kids (yeah, what's new). As a sneak peak, guess what middle schooler made the high school JV volleyball team as setter? GUESS!!?? 

*aka my family

Rain, Rain Go Away

Oh.My.God. Will it ever stop raining???!!!! It has been raining without a break for about 10 days now, and I'm not talking no Seattle-like rain. We are talking torrential downpours intermixed with light rains. Our pool has been overflowing for days. Yesterday the Embassy closed for the 2nd time in a week due to flooding. Oh, and did I mention it's closed today as well? And it's not even a freaking typhoon!! What happens when a real storm gets here???

I knew the Philippines had a tropical climate and that we would get some pretty serious rainstorms, just like we did in FL, but this is verging on ridiculous. The greyness and the being trapped indoors are starting to get to me (to all of us, really). And it's supposed to keep raining at least through the end of this week..if not longer! My driver says August is the worst month for rain, though, so maybe we'll start to see some reprieve in, oh, about 4 weeks, hahahahaha!* Then, of course, we'll enter the hot season, and I'll probably be whining about how it never rains ;)

Thank god some of the kids are back in school now because at least it gets them out of the house. Poor T&V are spending much of their vacation trapped in the house. I'd like to say they're being entertained by watching the Olympics, but the Olympics coverage in the Philippines, to put it mildly, sucks major ass. Maybe it's because the Philippines only sent like 3 athletes to the Games (all of them are out), so no one here gives a crap? I'm not really sure, but even though we purchased the $50 (USD!!) Olympics coverage package with three extra channels devoted to Olympic coverage, all I've seen are things like the preliminary trials for women's badminton and the team epee finals (China vs. Korea!). No gymnastics, no swimming. We did catch a little of the heptathlon (Husband thinks Jessica Ennis is pretty hot), but none of the final events. Plus, they do almost no replays here, so I have effectively missed most everything I love about the Olympics. Yesterday when I was home from work we caught the replay of: women's vault medal ceremony (they did not actually replay the sport itself, that would be silly, who wants to see the action when you can watch 20min of people kissing each others cheeks and getting flowers?) and 5min of men's vault competition before the switched in mid-sir to...water polo. Yes, water polo. Are there more fans of water polo than gymnastics in the Philippines, or do they just figure that no one is watching anyway and they might as well fuck with the 3 expat viewers who were dumb enough to actually shell out the $50 (USD!!!!***)? No Olympics, no Shark Week, no sunshine. It's shaped up to be kind of a crappy summer :( In the good news, climbing out of my self-pity party column, we have started to plan some trips for post-summer, better weather season. Husband and I are signed up for the Bangkok marathon in Nov** and we're planning another trip to Cambodia somewhere in the Feb timeframe. We've also got preliminary plans for family trips to Bohol and Palawan, and a joint-family trip to New Zealand with my little sis is in the works. So we just have to get through this next month!

*please ignore the maniacal laughing. 
**Okay, so the husband is signed up for the full marathon. I only agreed to the half and only because he signed me up without my knowledge and paid for the whole thing before I could say no. 
***Did I mention that already? 

Happy Anniversary to Me

So I should have posted this on the 3rd, which was my actual three month anniversary...I am officially a non-smoker. That's right, people, after 20+ years a long, long ass time it didn't take hypnotherapy or Chantix or Nicoderm, all it took was setting foot in Manila to cure me of the most disgusting habit on the planet. I quite literally quit the minute we touched down. That should go to show just how bad the pollution is here (and how much we earn our 20% differential!). So if anyone has a fried/relative who's looking to quit smoking just send 'em to Manila.

It's Just a Signal One

And already the Embassy is flooded

My Commute Today

And there's a whole bunch more headed our way...

Is it wrong to be a little happy when work is canceled on account of typhoon?*

*Although I felt terrible for the folks who got trapped in the Embassy since they arrived before they shut down the main street. We got the update that everyone made it home safely, but still...pretty sucky day at the office.

Conquering Corregidor

Yesterday I met up with a friend from A-100 who flew in from Korea. She's really here to take the kids to visit her family in the province, but they had a day here in Manila, so she and I took 8 kids between the 2 of us to Corregidor Island because we are smart. Okay, it actually wasn't that bad. To my great surprise, the kids had an absolute blast. They really enjoyed running around and exploring all of the old military equipment and buildings. They even seemed to get a real kick out of the museum (old money and guns were the highlights for the under-13 crew). The highlight of the trip was definitely the monkey sightings, which was a real treat for T&V, who have never seen a wild animal outside of a zoo before. We even saw a mommy monkey carrying her baby! Best of all, the kids got to hang out with some old friends from Oakwood FC (woot!), which lent a bit of normalcy to this crazy lifestyle we've embarked on.