Guess Where I am

I am sitting in the "Blog Internet Cafe" in Manila, I thought that the name was a great and just had to come here instead of the cheaper one down the street. It costs 50 pesos an hour, about 1 US dollar. I think I can swing it.

Life is good, after a few days of a very grouchy belly I felt a lot better yesterday. I have left the beautiful beach a and am back in Manila. My friends have all gone back to work in Taipei and so I am here alone until tomorrow. I had plane to go on a sight seeing tour today but it didn't happen. I just decided to have a lazy day instead and spend some time at my favorite place.... the mall. I think that I might try to find some yarn stores... the online search is next on my list of things to do.

The last days on the beach where great. I met lots of great people. I think I can get used to hanging out on the beach in February. We came back to Manila on Saturday and it was crazy busy. They where having a huge street party as the main street along the bay was closed. The traffic was terrible and it took us forever to get to the hostel. Once we all met up ( I was waiting for some other friends to arrive from a different beach) we went to the waterfront to see what all the commotion was about. You'll never guess what it was, not a music festival or some religious event but a huge celebration of valentine's day called Loveapoolza! It was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. There were thousands of people and at midnight 25 000 couples where going to kiss and then switch partners 3 times in order to have a million kisses happen in a 10 minute period. It was the craziest thing. We didn't stick around to see the kisses as we were all tired but I imagine that it was quite the sight.

I had a great day yesterday, Rhea and I went to the most amazing mall here in Manila. It was so nice and they even has an Old Navy, it was an expensive Old Navy but it was fun to see none the less. Shopping here on the whole is pretty good, many things can be bought for a fraction of the cost elsewhere and the locally made stuff is super cheap. We had amazing Vietnamese food for super and I continue to be amazed at how great real vietnamese food. I can hardly wait until I make it there this summer to eat it all day everyday.

Another bonus of Manila, Starbucks has white chocolate mocha's... hot and cold! Taiwan so doesn't know what they are missing. I have yet to find the required Manila mug from Starbucks, they are hard to get a hold of but the Starbucks staff assures me I will have one before I leave tomorrow.

Everyone here is super friendly and it is really great to be in a country where everyone speaks the same language that I do. I am not looking to forward to heading home tomorrow but I am happy that I still have a few days off before I have to be back at work. I have so much to do though as I did zero planning before I left. Hey on a brighter note I only have 4 months and 3 days left until the end of my contract... very exciting.

Okay I guess that it is for today. I will head home tomorrow and as soon as I get organized there will be photos and such from the beach so you can all see what I have been going on about.