ANOTHER MODE

Jerry and Sally often joked about kidnapping me and taking me back to Korea with them. Little did I know they were actually more serious than I thought. Granted, they didn't stuff me in their luggage as they claimed, but, along with Victor, they helped me take care of all necessary visa issues in the Philippines and got me a plane ticket on the same ride with them. I am now in Korea staying with them and their family. Unlike the Philippines, it is cold here.

It's been a long time since I posted, partly due to lack of an internet connection, which I still don't have, so I don't know when I will actually post what I am writing now, and a lot has happened in that month, so I will try to give a short version here. As time went on from the last post, I began spending more and more time with Jerry, Sally and Victor. Eventually I found myself just staying with them full time, pretty much never returning to my room. We mostly relaxed, played drinking games and did things similar to those mentioned in previous posts.

New Years was a huge huge deal in the Philippines. I have never seen so many fireworks and so huge a crowd in my life. It was beyond festive and the streets were filled with smoke like a thick fog from all the fireworks. There were the huge professional shows and even regular people shooting off fireworks they bought on the street. Even we bought a few fireworks and shot them off. We also played the biggest drinking games of our lives, including a type of strip poker, and all got more drunk than any humans should. We figured this was the end of a year and that we wouldn't be able to do anything like this again, especially in Korea, where they live with their parents, so why not go all out?

Although they originally had different plans, such as Jerry and Sally's brother Sumbin coming to visit along with her best friend Chi Hi, things didn't quite work out. Chi Hi's parents had heard too many bad things about the Philippines and wouldn't let her go. Sumbin couldn't travel alone, being only 13 or 14, and so that plan was squashed. Having spent more money than planned, it also seemed their original goal of going to Australia from the Philippines was unlikely. Jerry also couldn't get all the necessary paperwork to go with them. So all decided to go back to Korea, build up more money there, and then see what happens. With that, the idea was the sooner to get back in Korea, the better, and I was supposedly going with them.

Plans and desires to leave were accelerated by their camera, from which these pictures come (there are more in the gallery), being stolen, by a guy I know well no less. At first we thought it was simply lost in the mess of a room where we stayed, but then Victor asked to see the hotel security cameras from the previous night and sure enough, there was a video of one of the receptionists leaving the front desk, walking around suspiciously and then going to the hallway near our room and shutting off all the lights. The video is all black for a while and then the lights come on and he goes back to his desk. The owner of the hotel saw the video and apparently went to the guy and got the camera back. Unfortunately, all the pictures of their nearly two months adventuring in the Philippines, and all the pictures and videos of our silly penalty games, where the loser would, for example, wear crazy make up and clothes and go the store and buy something, had been erased. He had even changed the camera OS to English, clearly with a plan to sell it.

After this, things became very uncomfortable. We didn't feel good about staying there anymore. Little things seemed suspicious. One time I came from my room to visit them, and one of guards actually asked the taxi driver where he picked me up. Another time, as I was leaving, the guard held the door and asked where I am going. I made up a place and then later told the taxi driver my real destination after we were on the road. Sally also reported similar strange incidents. We decided we needed to make ourselves scarce, especially since we had some big days ahead where we would all be out of the room, leaving all our stuff unattended.



On a previous day, me and Jerry we out and about and happened to be picked up this taxi who had a nice minivan. We got his number that day and we remembered it, so we called him and, in the middle of the night, loaded all our stuff into the van and headed to another hotel, some place close to the comfortable Ayala. This hotel was awesome, more like a nice apartment really. It even had a nice kitchen. Me and Victor though that if we were ever to come back to the Philippines, especially without the girls, we would just stay in a place like this. They are guest friendly.





Like a blur the last two days in the Philippines flew by. After arriving in the new hotel, it was only a few hours until morning and me and Jerry were off to the immigration office to take care of my visa issues while Sally and Victor went to take care of tickets and stuff. Since I had been there over six months, I actually had to get "exit clearance" to leave the Philippines. That day was an adventure in itself, which I will relate at a later time. We never thought it was possible a few days before, but everything fell into place and were going to be going to Korea the next day. The last hurdle was that I had to pick up my ticket, since it was new, and I had to be there by 11:00 AM. The place was far far away in a resort called Plantation Bay.



The next day we made it, at the last minute of course, to Plantation Bay to pick up my ticket. The others only had to change the date of their tickets so they didn't need to do anything special. I called another minivan taxi whose number I had saved, since the guy we used the day before didn't show up, and off we went. Before long, we were actually relaxing in the airport ready to head off to Korea for real. The flight to Korea was short and the plane was mostly empty. Me and Jerry sat together talking, writing or drawing and Sally and Victor moved to another part of the plane and slept. When we arrived in Korea, Victor's father picked us up in his awesome Lexus with multiple navigation and LCD screens and we sped to town. His father has apparently won bodybuilding competitions in his age class too. We was wearing suit, but you could still see he had some thickness to him.

Now I am staying with Jerry and Sally, their mother and father and their brother Sumbin. Victor lives just down the street, but is pretty much always here too. He even sleeps here most nights. Korea is a totally different world from the Philippines, but surprisingly, many things are still just as cheap, and some cheaper. The quality, though, is in an entirely different league. It also boasts the fastest internet in the world. Victor says the internet here in Sally's place is slow, but I can still download an HD trailer from the apple site in a few seconds. I am told one can download a full HD movie in 3 to 5 minutes. I don't have my own camera yet, but will likely get one soon, or a cell phone with an awesome camera. I don't know how the iPhone will ever survive here. They have many touch screen phones, with full video both out and pointing in so you can video chat!

I can already read a bit of Korean and am learning to speak it pretty quick. I will begin relating my Korean adventures soon, especially when I have my own internet connection. For now, though, it's coffee shops and internet cafes.