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12 February 2004

We're going to Bangkok this weekend. No major plans other than sightseeing and to familiarize ourselves with the place. We DO however plan on eating as much as we can hold. I want to buy a kite and catch a boxing match at Lumpini Stadium and maybe afterwards getting a bite to eat. It's pretty close to where we'll be staying. We want to hit a nightmarket, eat, and maybe check out some temples. After that we plan on eating, checking out some touristy places, and then maybe getting something to eat. Pilipino food isn't what you'd classify as a 'cuisine' exactly. I fully plan on returning to Manila with some spices, a BIG bottle of fish sauce and whatever else food they'll let me back through customs with.

9 February 2004

We're in our new apartment. We have internet access (dialup, but who's complaining it's the third world). I'm currently drinking a beer at 2 in the afternoon. Life is good. We got almost everything that (we thought) we sent, AND it's all put in it's place. We're missing a few little bits here and there, but the joy of seeing your personal belongings after well over six months is indescribable. Especially as an American. The amount of importance that we bestoy upon personal possessions is staggering. There's a couple that lives down the main street from us and all their possessions fit on or in the cart that they live under. They have two of the cutest little white puppies, two kids, and I suspect that they don't have to bother with the stress of a mortgage or car payment. Their cares are a little more basic than ours. You get dengue from the daytime mosquitoes (busit in Tagalog), and malaria from the nighttime ones. That's a disturbing little update actually. When you get bit by a mosquito here, it gets a weird white circle around it. Otherwise it looks, itches, and feels just like a normal mosquito bite. The first one is sort of stressful wondering if you got the dengue or not.

Misty and I have been in pretty good health. The first few weeks we were here we both ate something (at seperate times) that didn't agree with our Western digestive systems. I'll leave it at that, but you get the picture. Lots of trips to the comfort room interspersed with trying to keep water in your body. Seemed to last for three daysish and then poof gone. It does tend to ruin your appetite for a few days after though.

Misty's job is going well, and I applied for an analyst spot in the consular section just last week. If I get the job, we'll be sitting even prettier than we are now. Though now that we're settled I've been shooting alot more.

19 January 2004

We went to Bohol this past weekend. It was a WONDERFUL change of pace from Manila. The airport was by far the most primitive that we'd ever been to. The runway was extremely short and interesting. I've decided that you haven't lived until you've heard a rooster crowing in the terminal. Pics soon! The was during the sick digital camera era. Though I got it fixed by Canon of the Philippines for $22.50 US... That wouldn't have happened in the US.

24 January 2004

Moving... Moving. It's nice to see your things after six months, but it's still moving. We worked on the place all weekend. A cleaning crew went through here before we moved in, but let's just say that clean by western standards are different than the standards laid down by a crew of Pinoy men. I actually came by to check on their progress, and found them asleep at two in the afternoon on Thursday. We've mopped six times and the floor is just now clean. Misty keeps giving me her patented 'shoo, this is nasty' face. To their credit I wish I could take a nap about right now. The first thing I plugged in was the stereo. The computer was next for this update.

4 January 2004

New Years eve in Manila. Best described as a cross between drunken Indianapolis Motor Speedway antics and Beirut circa 1985. A clip of the front page of the paper the next day gives you an idea of the damage. A few days later there was an update of the number of deaths (an increase of course), and then a number of weeks later a follow-up describing the additional 10 or fifteen that died due to firecracker-raletd tetanus. The most interesting part was increase in the number of gunshot-related deaths on that night. I guess when you run out of explosives the next best thing is to fire your gun in the air. Just a tip on this one for next year... Bullets come back down guys. I have sound recordings and video of this from our rooftop that I'll put up as soon as I have something resembling actual internet access.

20 October, 2003

We're still in Arlington, VA as of late October, and we're scheduled to depart for Manila on Wednesday, November 12.
We've finished everything that we can think of, save for shipping the car. We've been told that that will be the easiest part of the move because they simply send someone to our apartment to pick it up! Though I've also been told on more than one occasion to strip it of the stereo system and roofrack, or someone, somewhere will do it for me.
The upcoming flight will be the first major hoop that we get to jump through. 26 hours. A former boss of mine flew to Australia last year and he summed it up best when he said, "So you're there sitting on this plane, and you've had a few drinks, passed out, woken up, seen six movies, eaten five meals... How the hell is this thing still in the air. Don't they run out of gas?"