This is the end of Book I. I would like to close with some final thoughts on my journey here before switching to web based blogging for Book II. I really wish I had a camera to capture the kind of snow fall that is happening outside right now. It would be a perfect picture for this post.

I have completed an entire week of training and working out with Victor. My whole body is sore. Of course, I keep this fact from Jerry, because if she were to know that she would surely torture me to know end, squeezing or hitting my sore muscles. She remembers well how sore she was when she first started training with Victor, and was hoping I would be in the same boat. Since she's been through it all, though, she is really good about helping stick to the routine and diet. Victor has me doing seven days of no carbs and the results so far are pretty amazing. If you have ever been into Atkins type of thinking, you should try it the Asian way. I think you would have a totally different perspective.

After training, where Jerry actually goes to golf practice while me and Victor work out in the gym, we usually eat at Victor's mother's restaurant and then go back to the house where Sally and Sunbin are usually still asleep. Me and Jerry usually then prepare to go out about town searching for work. She wants a part time job to save money for a possible trip to Australia. Her plan was originally to go in two months, then it changed to three months, but now she may not go at all. Who knows? Victor and Sally, though, may be going much sooner than planned, even as soon as two weeks from now.

Anyway, I am concerned about Jerry's mindset as far as finding a job is concerned. We went out one day and found her a part time job at a convenience store. The lady there really liked here and asked her back for an interview at 4:00 PM. With time on her hands we went to see her friend Chi-iung. Unfortunately she forgot her telephone number so we had to go to her mother's restaurant to get it. She lives in walking distance from the restaurant so it wasn't an issue. On the phone, Jerry was instructed to the location of Chi-iung's secret stash, which included two types of cigarettes and a couple of cigars hidden in an electric box, and told to bring it to Chi-iung. So we walked to Chi-iung's place and she proceeded to yell at Jerry for being late. Jerry was almost in tears. The real sad thing, though, is that she chose to skip her "sure thing" job interview and stay with Chi-iung.

So we walked down the street and met two other friends. Jerry and her friends all have similar names. Jerry is actually Ju-young, then there's Chi-iung, then we met Chi-yong and finally Kai-young. With each friend we met Chi-iung told the story of how Jerry forgot her number and thus we were late, making everyone mad at her. After everyone took their turns hitting Jerry and making fun of her, we all went to a pool hall to play some billiards. We chose teams by some weird rock, paper, scissors variation and it ended up to be me and Chi-yong against Jerry and Chi-iung, who is called Kobi by her friends, and I shall now use that too since I am tired of writing these names.

Now, Kobi is very good at playing pool, even doing behind the back shots. Jerry had never played before so that balanced things out. I don't entirely suck, but am not good, and Chi-yong was only a bit better than me. We lost most games and, in fact, the only games we won was because Jerry or Kobi accidently hit the 8 ball in the hole. The thing is, Kobi can be loud and obnoxious, but in a way that is funny. Still, it annoyed the hell out of Chi-yong, who I am sure had soon given up on the game. I think the fact that the loser was to pay is the only thing that kept her going. Still, she vanished quickly after the game was done, even though the rest of us went to Karaoke.

After Karaoke, me Jerry got back on the bus to go home. Jerry was clearly unhappy with the day, and regretted missing her job interview only to be annoyed by her friends. I suspect she may not want to meet them again, or if she does, it will be after a long time. She's known these girls since middle school and says that Kobi has always been like that, especially to Chi-yong, always pissing her off until she runs away.

The next day me and Jerry went back to the store, after working out and what not, and she apologized profusely for being late and, I guess, made up a good story for it. The lady told her that the plan was for her to do the interview and then she would be working that day! She had already chosen another student, but said that the girl looked like a fox and Jerry had a much more trustworthy face, so she really wanted Jerry. She said she would call her. Unfortunately, yesterday, the call never came. Now the New Years Holidays begin and pretty much everything will be shut down for a week or so.

I guess that makes this a good time to shut down Book I as well. Things didn't go exactly as planned, and I will be starting Book II on a subject I wasn't expecting to, but then if everything went as planned, it wouldn't be an adventure! Please visit Book II.

After two months of traveling and eating who knows what, Victor has been getting out of shape. Even though in his mother's restaurant there are many trophies proving his champion bodybuilder status, he doesn't look it right now. Since being in the Philippines I have lost a ton of weight and slimmed down to where I can where 36" or even 34" waist pants. I still retain a little muscle from the old days of bodybuilding with my brother, but I am pretty soft. The potential, though, is there and obvious. Me and Victor often talked about seriously training together while in the Philippines. Today we actually began.

This morning we woke up early, around 7:30 AM and headed out while everyone else slept. Jerry was supposed to go with us and be dropped off at the driving range to practice her golf, but she was still asleep. Me and Victor went to a the place where he apparently always starts his training. This wasn't some fancy Bally's type fitness center, this was a real bodybuilding gym. Pictures on the wall were huge guys like Arnold Schwartzenegger and Mike Christian and Ronny Coleman. There was plenty of free weights and not a bunch of bourgeois machines. The place was old a dusty like a gym should be. I forgot to bring my training shoes which we bought yesterday at the fake $1 shoe sale, but me and victor wear the same sizes on most things and I often wear his clothes and shoes. He seemed pretty at home in this gym and had extra shoes, gloves and a weight belt.

We trained for, it seemed, two hours or more working only back and shoulders. We did some abs work in the end too. I don't even want to think about how sore I am going to be tomorrow. It's going to suck and I know that if Jerry finds out I am sore, she will torture me all day. We spent about 30 minutes on the treadmill to wrap things up, then looked at some Muscle & Fitness magazines for inspiration.

When we left we trekked off to Victor's mother's restaurant. We ate a huge pork rib soup with kim chi and vegetables. She also gave us some sweet plum tea and soju for later. Victor's mother is extremely nice and always seems to be concerned about how I am doing. She is very generous and I have received much food, new clothes and other gifts thanks to her and Victor. I am extremely grateful to have met such people and have friends like this as I sojourn in a foreign land.

After that mega meal, me and Victor are full, but Sally and Jerry are eating an awesome mixed meat soup with ham, sausage and noodles, from their mother's restaurant. (There are a lot of restaurants here such that you would think every family owns at least one) After that we are supposedly going out again for a day on the town. Who knows what adventures we will encounter next. I might even find some WIFI so I can post this!

I've been here in Korea for almost two weeks now and I thought it was high time I started learning how to move around. Unlike Cebu City in the Philippines, you can't take a taxi anywhere for a buck. Here they cost anywhere from $4 to $10 depending on where you're going. The easiest way to get about is the bus. It's also the cheapest at less than a dollar per ride. Of course, learning the bus system is another matter. Even though I have learned the Korean alphabet, reading it with any kind of speed or understanding is a completely different level of skill. If a bus were approaching me, it's questionable I could read the words on it fast enough to know if I need to take it or not. Luckily, Jerry was with me, as we also planned to visit some friends of hers.

I still don't have internet access, and though WIFI is very prevalent, many are locked or require payment to use. Earlier that morning, me and Victor went to an open market were they were allegedly having a $1 shoe sale, though it turned out to be a marketing ploy, and I did find usable WIFI at that place. I guess if I needed to really bad, I could walk over there with my iPhone and check mail or something. Still, on the whole, this means the best way to access WIFI is still a coffee shop. Last week, when me and Jerry were walking about town, we found just such a shop and yesterday I decided I wanted to go there again before we went off to meet Jerry's friends.

Me and Jerry trekked off to the nearest bus stop, and this time I remembered the location of things and found recognizable signs I would not soon forget. We took a bus to Yong Tong area and got off right across the street from Holly's Coffee, the place we had been to a week before. To get there, though, we would have to cross this huge and busy street. Surprisingly, the way to cross it was a very large bridge. From a distance, it looked like a simple walkway to get across the road, but once we climbed the stairs to the bridge, it turned out to be more like a nice sized park. It is even called a park. It is very wide and on either end has circles with some kind of modern art pieces in them. The view of Yong Tong from there is amazing. I can't imagine how cool it must be at night with all the lights, video screens and signs. It certainly made me wish I had a camera.

In the coffee shop I was able to check mail and upload the previous post to the website, but we were running late to meet Jerry's friend who apparently said that if we don't get there on time, we don't eat. Since we were going to be eating free, we definitely didn't want that to happen. We got back on the bus and went off to the restaurant where we met her friend Chi-iung. There we ate an awesome chicken soup and something like pork cutlets which we wrapped in lettuce along with spicy kim chee or other vegetables. Though the girl's father, owner of the restaurant was there, she secretly got us some "tong tong ju", which I guess is a type of wine. It is similar in taste to Japanese sake, but sweeter and thicker, not being clear. It was very good. Many of the drinks I encounter here are good. Victor's mother gave me a bottle of rasberry wine the other day which was absolutely amazing.

Two other girls eventually showed up and they seemed to go crazy over me. I guess foreigners are more rare here as opposed to in Seoul, the capital city where they are common. They, of course, wanted to touch my hair and ask me many questions through Jerry translating. One girl even told me she loved me three or four times. She also hugged me when she left. After eating and drinking, Jerry's friend got a break, I guess, and we went outside where we met another friend from their school. It was dark now. Being students, who have to keep up an appropriate image, we went into a small alley where Jerry's friend could smoke without being seen. After that we went to a small video game arcade and played and sang some karaoke on the machine there.

All of Jerry's friends were shocked by how different she was. Traveling, especially overseas, changes people. When you experience a new culture or learn a new language you cannot come back the same. One her friends even said she seemed like a totally different person. In the past I guess she never studied and was not a good student, but now they witnessed her really speaking English and hanging out with me, which must be the furthest thing from whatever they might have imagined. Both Sally and Jerry have commented on a strange lack of desire to meet their old friends. They have become different, even after such a short time abroad, and feel that they may not relate to them anymore. Jerry's friend wants us to meet again today and go somewhere, but Jerry feels like it would be a bother or just plain boring.

After leaving her friend, me and Jerry went to Dunkin Donuts and then finally to a small soft ice cream stand. We sat and talked in another coffee shop. All of this was in walking distance from where we were. In the end we got back on another bus, in front of Holly's Coffee again, and went back home. It was empty though. We sat on the computer for a short time before Victor, Sally and Sunbin came home. They were at the PC Room, which I will write about in detail another day. I've been there many times already. Finally Mother and Father came home and we all sat around talking and finished off that bottle of rasberry wine I was given the day before.

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.

On Tuesday, Sally and Victor were up and around and, having heard of the goodies me and Jerry experienced in Bo's Coffee Club, had to try it for themselves. They called me to meet them there and so off I went. The plan was to go to Minglanilla, way out in the boonies. The problem, though, was finding a taxi driver that would take us there without trying to hustle for some unrealistic price.

Hustling seems to be standard procedure for some out here in the Philippines. Last week, Sally, Victor and Jerry took a boat to the island of Bohol and apparently many people there, from taxi drivers to shop keepers tried to put one over on them. They were charged as much as 1000 peso for rides that should have cost 150 or so. This type of thing never happens to me, but I guess, being Korean, many locals assume they have plenty of money to burn and, not understanding English so well, make for good targets. Even as we stood outside Bo's Coffee Club I heard drivers asking for 600 peso to take us to Minglanilla, which is nowhere near as far as that film studio I went to on Mactan Island for only 250. Finally I decided to talk to a driver and got him to agree to 200. He even offered to wait for us for two hours while we enjoyed the beach.

It was a long drive out to Minglanilla. To make matters worse, we didn't know where we were going once we got there. Luckily, I remembered that Marifel lives out there and she lived right by one of the well known beach resorts. I couldn't remember the name unfortunately, but I figured I would know if I heard it or saw the place, as I remembered the picture of it from a magazine. When we arrived in the small town the taxi driver asked a couple of people and one mentioned Palm Beach Resort, which sounded familiar, so we went.

Now, to find the pristine picturesque beaches like you see in movies or magazines, you have to leave this island of Cebu. Here, there are only what some call "dirty beaches"; dark sand, rocks and generally not very pretty. Still it was so awesome to be at the sea and the sound was relaxing. If I had known this was the plan, I would have brought my swim wear, but I was wearing long pants. Sally and Victor were content to sit in our booth on the beach, but Jerry wanted to go in the water and look for shells. Not content to go in alone, she rolled up my pants and dragged me out to the water. It was a lot of fun, even though we got completely wet anyway. Any shells which had a good look or a good sound we kept. The rest we threw back.

Eventually we decided to explore the area a bit, but most places only ended up in areas where locals were standing around just staring at us. Remember this is not Cebu City. We were in the boonies. There were cows and chickens walking around. Sally didn't feel we were too safe. As the sun began to set we decided it was time to head back, but we were surprised to find our taxi driver was gone! So now we were out in the middle of nowhere, with no transportation and everyone staring as though they had never seen foreigners before. We went to the hotel receptionist to see if they could call a taxi for us. She said she didn't know any numbers, but that we should walk out to the main road and find a trike to take us into town.

We set out walking, taking note of the goats, cows and chickens, but also being aware of anything else around us. Aside from this little path it was almost like jungle around us. It certainly seemed like a scene out of a horror movie where we were the young crew to be killed or eaten and I would be the black dude who dies first.

We got to the main road and were quickly surrounded by a large group of people, mostly kids. No trouble, just curious smiles and questions. They were very helpful in telling us how to take a trike into town where we might find a taxi. A trike soon arrived and we had another dilemma. A trike is basically a motorcycle with a large sidecar made to ideally hold two people, but could probably fit three or four Asians. With me being a big guy and Victor being a champion bodybuilder, though, it was unlikely we were all going to fit. The driver seemed to think it could work though. We finally decided that I would sit in the front cart, Sally and Jerry in the back of the sidecar and Victor sat on the back of the motorcycle with the driver. We waved goodbye to the crowd of smiling people and the kids and off we went.

At this point we were still on dirt roads with cows and chickens, so it was a rough ride before we came to something resembling a town. We eventually stopped on a busy road and got out of the trike, but some guys standing around on the street said that taxis are rare here so we need to go to the center of town. We all piled back into the trike and off we went. The town center was busy and crowded, and looked more like what we were used to. The trike driver saw an empty taxi driving near us and beckoned him to pull over. We paid the trike driver a total of about 50 peso and transferred to the taxi. Luckily, this guy had no problem taking us back to Cebu City on the meter. Being the only guy around he could have easily switched off the meter and charged whatever he wanted. That's what many hustlers do. This guy was cool, though, and happily took us back, making light conversation about who we were and what we were up to. I guess an American with three Koreans is a strange combination to most here.

Once back in the familiar Cebu City, we went to the amazing City Grill, a place I was introduced to a while back by Alona. We ate like we hadn't eaten in ages. We had two big bowls of Rumi soup, about eight pieces of fried chicken, six pieces of barbeque chicken, a large tuna steak, three orders of pork belly, and 6 or 7 orders of rice. City Grill has to be one of the best places to eat in Cebu. They have some really fresh stuff that you see and choose before they cook it. They have large crabs still walking around in the tanks there.

After that we went back to the hotel and were relaxing and nearly falling asleep. I checked my phone was surprised to find it was only 8:30 PM! Sally said it's because we're sitting here doing nothing. We need to go out and do something. In the past, the girls have, kind of half jokingly, said they wanted to see a strip club. this time we decided to really go to one. So we all got up, went back into a taxi and went to one of the clubs near the hotel.

Going into a club like this with the girls is a very different experience. You get a very different perspective on everything, from the girls to even the customers in the club. Needless to say they pulled no punches in their assessment of things. Granted, there were no super models in this particular place, many of the girls clearly had already had babies and sported the stretch marks to prove it. A couple were pretty hefty as well. Still, you see things very differently through their eyes. Victor seemed oddly embarrassed to be there and sat facing me, Sally and Jerry instead of the stage. A couple of girls did sit down and chat with us for a while, but if guys already have girls with them, they probably don't think things will go very far.

After becoming bored with that place, Sally decided she wanted to see a gay bar. I was happy to report that I had no idea where such a place might be. Wouldn't you know it, though, Sally just happened to pick a taxi driver who just happened to have worked in a gay bar before and knew were one was. When the driver realized we were mainly just "bar hopping" for the night, he offered to be our driver for 200 peso per hour. Since the previous bar only had girls dancing in bikinis, he said he knew where the all nude dancing was. Still it was too early, so we had to visit the gay bar first.

The gay bar was equally boring. There were oiled up guys dancing on the stage who all pretty much looked and danced exactly the same. There were a couple of ladyboys doing lip sync and dancing shows. They ladyboys sat down and chatted with us for a bit. Jerry and Sally concluded they must be rich because, for one, they had completed their operations, and, looking at their show, you would believe them when they claim to be pro level dancers having won many big contests. On the whole, though, it wasn't all that interesting, to any of us.

Finally we went to the club where there was supposedly all nude dancing. Inside, we immediately could see this club was on a whole different level that the first one. Drinks costs three times as much as the other places and here, the girls really did look like super models. No stretch marks seen in this place. Unfortunately, the girls didn't seem too happy that we brought girls with us, and many were shy to take their clothes off on the stage. As the night wore on things degenerated even more, and we started to hear a number of Korean obscenities being hurled at us from the girls. Eventually Sally got angry and mentioned this to our waiter who said he didn't hear anything. Even I heard it, and that's about all the Korean I know.

Finally Sally decided we should leave and so we went outside and back into the taxi. Victor, though, got out of the taxi and went back inside, saying he had to use the restroom. While we waited, I explained the many reasons to never make trouble in the Philippines to the girls. Eventually Victor came back and we left. The story I later heard from Sally, though, was that Victor went back in and demanded an apology from the manager and from the girls. He caused them all to line up and asked them why they are so unprofessional. He asked them if they even knew what the bad words they were using meant, which they did not. He then explained to them what they meant and told them to never use such words again. He then asked them to apologize, to which they mumbled an apology, causing him to yell, "I can't hear you. Sound off!" Then they apologized out loud. Although a very nice guy and usually quiet, if he gets upset, he does this kind of thing. Another story I heard was that back in Korea, some wannabe gangsters were bothering Jerry and he did something similar to them, causing one of them to even cry.

So we went back to the hotel and ate some Ponkan and talked about all that we had seen that day and night. Overall it was an amazing day and we covered a lot of ground. Yesterday, we went for a more simple night of swimming and hanging out in my room eating Ponkan and ramen. I am wondering what they plan to get into today.

A few days ago, on Monday actually, Sally and Victor were down sick. Victor had something like a continuing cold that he brought with him and Sally was affected by some kind of food allergy. Jerry, however, was pretty much recovering from her previously mentioned ailments, which is why she was tasked with a mission. Sally and Victor needed medicine and they all needed their travel visas for staying here in the Philippines. Jerry, however, being young, and not quite yet fit to accomplish such things on her own, was afraid to take on this task, and so she called me. She was using Victor's phone, though, since her own was out of cell phone load. After using up a 500 peso load to call and talk to me for hours, I guess Sally and Victor decided she gets no more.

Anyway, I went to their room and was filled in on the parameters of the mission. We had to go to the Korean Consulate office and get their papers, and then go to Ayala to get medicine. Unfortunately, all the instructions they had written for her were in Korean, so if there was any problem, I'm not sure how much help I could have been anyway. We went downstairs, hopped in a taxi and off we went. Jerry explained where we were going to the cab driver. I was already worried, because if he couldn't understand her, or didn't know the place, I could not help as I had no idea even what it was let alone where it was we were going. They had only told me the Korean name for the place.

When we arrived at a Filipino college campus I was certain we took a wrong turn somewhere. The taxi driver assured us, though, that this was the right place. Jerry also seemed to think it was correct. We went inside the campus and to the information desk where Jerry tried to ask the guy working there to point us to the visa office. The guy wasn't sure what she was talking about and asked to see the instructions she was reading from. He was surprised to see they were all in Korean, but then, at least, he figured out we were looking for. He told us to go up the stairs to the second floor. On the second floor there was a large sign with two directions. One read "Korean Consulate" with an arrow pointing one way, and the other read "Korean Community Association", or something like that, with an arrow pointing the other way. It was written both in English and Korean. Jerry said we had to go the Community Association place, but I was sure that for travel papers we needed to go to the consulate. Since I seemed so sure she decided to believe me and we followed the arrow to a hallway that ended in a dead end.

We decided to try the Community Association and that turned out to be the right place. Yes, Jerry laughed at me and I knew she was going to go back and tell Sally and Victor all about my mistake. Anyway, we quickly got their papers and off we went to find another taxi. Why these offices were on a Filipino college campus, I will never know. Find a taxi, we next went to Ayala. On the second floor, past the game arcade, there are two drug stores side by side. One called Rose Pharmacy and the other called Mercury Drug. We tried Rose Pharmacy first. Jerry asked them for ten tablets of Tylenol, which they didn't have. She asked for two tablets of some unpronounceable drug which they did have. She then showed an empty package of something else she needed, which they also didn't have. We decided to move on to Mercury Drug.

Mercury Drug was bigger and much more crowded, leading me to believe it must be the better place. In fact, I remember having been there before. We took a number and, knowing we would be waiting a bit, decided to look around. Jerry picked up some Shampoo, but we mainly looked at snacks and junk food. Finally her number came up and we got everything she needed. The next stop was the main downstairs supermarket in the Metro part of Ayala. There we were meant to get Ponkan, a type of Chinese orange, and a couple of other things. After we paid and were walking out, Jerry remembered that Sally also needed feminine products.

We went back in to shop for the needed products. At this point I am not entirely uncertain that Jerry wasn't asking me silly questions about what labels meant just to embarrass me while other people were around. She said it's normal for a Korean husband to go and shop for this kind of thing for his wife and that if I'm embarrassed about it, I'll never make it as one. regardless, I was happy when she got what she needed and we were out of there.

Next she wanted to go to Starbucks for something to drink, but I decided to school her in the ways of Bo's Coffee Club, which rules here in the Philippines. We went into Bo's and she seemed immediately pleased with the choices. I got a mint chocolate chip shake and she got something with strawberry. I tried to get her to follow me in getting a small "Super Moist Cake" but she wanted a brownie. After we sat down, I could quickly see that she was not too happy with that choice. After she tried my cake, I knew I had to get her one too. I also tried this other cake, which, on the outside, looked like the super moist cake, but inside had cream filling and bits f fruit. The fruit inside, though, was fermented! I guess that one had been sitting around a bit too long.

As the day wore on and the sun was going down, I thought, Man, Sally and Victor are probably dying in the room while we're out here having fun. With that, we went back. Luckily they were fine and we pulled out the bag of Ponkan and ate while relating the story of our mission. Jerry was more than happy tell of my mistaking the Korean Consulate office and of our time shopping for feminine products. After that, we ordered a huge hawaiian style pizza and wings from Yellow Cab and watched an extremely violent UFO level movie about zombies in an insane asylum. This was one of our more normal days.

A couple of nights ago I was out with yet another group of new friends. All from Korea, there is Sally, who is also an artist, her bodybuilder/personal trainer boyfriend Victor, who is called Tom, and Jerry, the youngest in the group and Sally's sister. The first time I met them, a few days ago, I was sitting at the pool chatting with an Iranian writer of detective stories, and they were walking around just looking. Victor came up and sat down next to us and introduced himself, and asked some questions about bodybuilding, which he thought I was into. I used to be, a long time ago, when me and brother, also a licensed personal trainer, trained like the pros in the old days. I guess since I lost so much weight now, what remains of my muscle is starting to show.

So we chatted about the world of bodybuilding, Joe Weider magazines, proper foods and other things for a while and then he left. The two girls just smiled and waved. The next day, I was sitting at the pool again, having finished my daily swim, chatting with a couple of MMA fighters from Canada. At that time, the two girls were spotted milling around, but not entering the pool area. Finally Jerry came up and introduced herself. Her English is very limited, but she wanted to talk to me. Eventually the two fighters left, and Jerry's sister came to chat. Finally, Victor came with a bunch of beer and we all drank together and talked about various things, including Korean movies like The Host, D-War and Oldboy. We also talked a lot about food and ended up on the subject of ramen. They said Korean ramen is much better than the Japanese brands, and that since they had a case of it, they would give me some. Jerry then asked me if I Wanted to go to dinner with them the next day.

The next day I was at the pool again and we all met up. Jerry brought me some ramen and we chatted about where we could go to eat. After we decided, we all went to change our clothes and come back to meet again by the pool. They took a long time to change, probably because there are girls in the group, and I sat by the pool chatting about business ideas and pirating movies with Jhun Cordz, one of the guards that works here. Victor and the girls eventually showed up and off we went.

I took them to Abuhan, a fancy Filipino cuisine place that I was introduced to by Michelle back in July. It was not the same one though. I have, in fact, never found that particular one again, but I guess there are a few around town. The one I took them to was found by Grace back in August when we were hanging out regularly. The food there is amazing. Jerry had fried shrimp, Sally had chicken barbeque and Victor got crispy pata, which is like a huge deep fried pig leg. I rounded things out with pancit canton (chow mein) shanghai fried rice and, of course, chicken wings. We all then shared everything Chinese style. The plan was that they wanted treat me, but it turned out they forgot their money in their room. They had some small change, but I had to make up the rest. Lucky me, I actually happened to have a bit of cash.

We returned to their room to get money and then the plan was to hit The Pump disco, where I met the movie producer. They loved it there. At first it was pretty empty, and we just sat drinking our beer and chatting and enjoying the music. Eventually people started to pour in and we graduated to a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila, which we didn't take long to finish. The girls were shy to dance at first, but after that they loosened up a lot. We danced and had a ton of fun. Eventually another bottle of Cuervo came and went and we were all pretty much wasted. Jerry was beyond done, though, and I had to carry her out of there.

We took a cab back to our place, but Victor only had huge bills and I only had 40 peso remaining. Reno, one of the guards I hang with on occasion helped out with the cab fare. We carried Jerry into the lobby while we sorted things out, but she fell off the couch we sat her on, and vomited all over the couch and floor. We carried her up to the room, where she also vomited on me while carrying her, and tried to get her into bed. Sally was at her end too. Victor is a big guy so I guess he was at least as okay as I was. Jerry went in the restroom to continue emptying her stomach and Sally went to sleep. As everybody seemed okay I said goodbye and took off.

Instead of going to bed, I ended up downstairs chatting with Reno and Louis, another guard, until the sun came up. The next day I got text messages from Jerry apologizing profusely. I told her all was okay and that I was going to the pool. It was already evening and swimming time since I was sleeping most of the day. I met them all at the pool where Jerry brought me a hand written letter both thanking me and apologizing. It even had little pictures, from stickers, in it. She didn't remember much of anything so we all had fun filling her in on her exploits. I guess she ended up sleeping in the restroom where I last saw her, rolling around in her vomit. Victor simply sprayed her down with the shower nozzle to clean her up. She apparently asked him to slap her in order to wake her up, so he tried three times. It didn't wake her up, so later, when she did awaken, she wondered why her face hurt.

We had a night of fun in the pool until late. Victor didn't know how to swim so we tried teaching him some moves, and otherwise he and Jerry did their "Tom and Jerry" routine where he would chase her around, throw her in the water or dunk her under. After that we all went our separate ways. Funny thing is, they always say they can see me from their room when I am swimming, which means there room should be right across from mine, in the next tower. I have never seen them though. I wonder which room is theirs. They share it with another Korean girl who I saw briefly during our drunken times, and quickly forgot, and maybe she has terrace access from her room, which is why I never see them on the terrace. I don't know.

So I awaken today with a plan to try this Korean ramen, and go pay Reno back for the taxi fare. I am hoping I hear from the movie producer very soon, as rent is a bit overdue and I have no money at the moment. Of course I have some things cooking on another site, which is starting to pick up a bit of steam. Anything can happen when life is an adventure. It makes me remember a quote I came across which stated that, "Stability paralyses the journey."

So I talked to the senior producer at this largest film studio here in Cebu City, Philippines, and was quite surprised to find that it's basically another UFO FIlms... just a LOT bigger. The owner, a guy named Michael I'm told, is just a guy who loves movies and wants to do his thing. Unlike UFO, though, they 300 employees, offices in Hong Kong and Singapore and 4 sound stages around this city. They have 3 Red 1 cameras, and 3 Arri 35 mm film cameras and full post production facilities. Also, unlike Phil at UFO, this guy continues to direct the movies he wants to direct without Universal putting the smack down on him.

Although I was originally thinking I might not be interested in this gig, in lieu of doing my thing, I have to admit the guy is starting to make it sound very enticing. Basically I would be meeting directly with the owner of the company, and director of the film they are currently making. Of course, salary and hours will be important to me, but who knows? I could be getting into this place at a level where I might be able to make some of my own ideas come to light. I wonder if I could convince them to do an anime movie?

On another note, last night I was invited out by a different group of Koreans and they took me to a restaurant called Rain, which is right around the corner from where I live, but I had never seen it. We ate many varieties of Korean food, and drank Soju into the wee hours. The thing is, while we were there a large group of Korean girls came in. They were tall, slim and beautiful. A couple of them I have seen around before. Most of the night they were looking over to me, smiling and waving. As we left, the girls, with big smiles, all waved and said "bye-bye". The guys I was with even asked if I wanted to stay behind with the group of girls while they left. I'm not concerned. I know I'll see them again soon.

As luck would have it, Alona brought two more friends, each more beautiful than the last , for another day of fun in the pool, and my iPhone camera is not working! This time she brought friends Christie and Maya, one of them being a former classmate, to enjoy frolicking in the water and consuming $1 rum. That's right, unlike last time, where we went all out with the tequila, this time we went for good old Tanduay. Alona and Christie went to get the rum and coke while Maya stayed to admire the view from my window and try to teach me some Visayan language. There was no major cooking involved this time, so Alona simply bought some snacks and off to the pool we went.

For some reason, the table where we sat last time was gone and there were quite a few Koreans in the pool already. No matter though, as we found a spot to set up our drinks and chips and went to town. We had a lot of fun swimming and drinking and this time we didn't go overboard with two bottles. I only wish I could have pictures.

After the girls left, though, things didn't end there. I was walking in the parking lot and ran into Jon and Mac, who work security in my building. They were going to the little restaurant across the street for some beers. I told them I didn't have any money and they said no problem, so off we went. I spent the rest of the time talking to these guys and getting some amazing stories. I also met Jon's cute cousin who I have seen around before. She asked if I was looking for a girlfriend.

The conversation with these guys was very interesting, though most seemed to revolve around fighting. UFC, boxing, Mark Dacascos, Jet Li, Sammo Hung and even whether or not Bruce Lee could really beat Chuck Norris. They were interesting characters. Jon and one of the other guys, whose name escapes me now, both claimed to have fought against MILF (which I am sure stands for some kind of liberation front, not what you were thinking) in muslim Mindanao. We also talked a lot about music, especially hip hop and the plethora of fake, wannabe crips and other gangsters in the Philippines. Since we were drinking Red Horse, extra strong beer, it didn't take many to put me on the path the hangover land.

As always, the girls made a big mess in my place. A whole roll of toilet paper looks like it was sunk to the bottom of the ocean. I don't know how they do it. Anyway, Alona claims she is going to clean all that up today and wash my clothes. I guess I won't have pictures of that either. I really need a new camera.

Last Monday, Alona and her friends Charmaine and Sheila Mae came over for a day of fun in the sun and the swimming pool. Even though I have been here over a month, and stood by while Alona and Miriam (who is now married and moved away, but that's another story) swam, I had yet to actually take a dip in the grand pool here. So this would be my first time, not only going into this pool, but swimming at all since my family had a pool in the house in Glendale Arizona, almost twenty years ago.

That's not the only reason I reference the term "For The First Time" though. The same is the title of a hugely popular romance movie that came out here last month, starring Richard Gutierrez and KC Concepcion from Star Cinema Film directed by Joyce Bernal. As with most Asian cinema, the film must come with a hit pop song, usually sung by the main characters in the film. Because of its popularity, the girls were constantly singing that song throughout the day.



So things began with the three of them cooking up a storm. As usual I handled the rice, and had to put Alona on hold because she always dives into cooling and then finished everything before the rice is ready, then we have to wait. As I was preparing the rice, Alona asked "Why so small?" I had forgotten there were four of us this time and had put in the usual amount as though I was cooking for just Alona and myself. So I added three more cups of rice, did the usual washing, and then set it up in the rice cooker. After that, the girls went to work.



As you saw in a previous post, I have many interesting canned goods that are pretty much "heat and eat" type fare. I also keep many packs of ramen type noodles on hand. The girls decided to go with a can of corned beef, a can of lechon paksiw and some noodles. Sheila Mae chopped up half an onion. They conveniently left the other half out for the ants I guess. After that, they went through the items in order. Alona cooked the corn beef and then followed with the lechon. Normally, when I cok the lechon fo rmyself, I put onion in it, but I guess some people prefer it without. I must admit I have on occasion seen Alona picking the onions out of her food. Anyway, next they had to wash the wok (remember we have but one burner and one wok) so they could move on to the noodles. Alona filled the wok with water but otherwise sat out on that one.





After we ate, it was time for phase two of our plan, for the girls brought with them lemons and salt. Me and Alona ran out to the convenience store to get a bottle of tequila while they finished cooking. Now the plan was to take out plate of lemons and salt and head to the pool. Unfortunately, when we arrived, many Koreans were there and two were sitting at the only table, a guy named Peter Oh and his wife. We sat on the side near the empty hot tub for a few minutes, and eventually Peter and his wife got up and offered us the table.



So now it was time for the great drinking to begin. I have this Effen Vodka shot glass that I picked up in Metro Ayala in Cebu City. Its really cool looking. So we basically went around in a circle from me, to Alona, then Sheila Mae and finally Charmaine, each taking a shot. We had more than enough lemons and salt. I guess the idea was that somewhere between rounds we would take a dip in the water. At this point, though, many Koreans were still around so the girls weren't to eager to get into their swim gear. Still, Sheila Mae, foolishly, choose to at least go and see how cold the water might be. She dipped one foot in to test and, of course, Alona and Charmaine pushed her in. Unfortunately, the sun was going down at this point and my camera needs a lot of light, so the pictures of her coming out wet and chasing them around are little more than blurs.



Eventually the Korean crowd thinned out, and the girls were not as shy about being themselves and jumping in. They were jumping around in the water as though it was freezing, which made me somewhat wary of going in. Like most things, though, I know it is better to just jump in and get it over with. I put one foot in to test it and was surprised. The water was really not that cold. Why would it be? It's very hot here. Maybe it's just cold to them. I jumped in and the water was fine. So we had a lot of fun drinking and swimming. Surprisingly I still knew how to swim, though I remember it being easier to stay afloat. I guess I just need to practice. Already I want to go again. Anyway, before we knew it, we had gone through a bottle of tequila. Nobody was drunk. Alona said from the beginning it wouldn't be enough. So me and Alona trekked off to the convenience store to get another one. We came back and went through the second bottle, swimming in between rounds. At one point, the security guard had to come tell the girls to keep it down, but for the most part we just had a lot of fun.



The second bottle did its work. Sheila Mae was the first to be done in by the strong drink. So much so that we let her skip a round. Alona, I guess is something of a mean drunk as she was kind of pushing the girls around as the night wore on. She kept saying Sheila Mae wasn't keeping up. Personally I think Sheila Mae was on the verge of vomiting and needed to be given a break. That didn't stop continuing fun in the water though, and the girls swam on. Eventually though it was late and time to call it a day. Everyone had drank too much. The girls had to go home. It wasn't quite the end for me though. I remember meeting an Iranian girl and chatting about Islam, the movie 300 and the Ottomans taking over Constantinople. Then I ran into Peter Oh again, which is why I know his name, and we sat and drank beer talking about who knows what for a very long time.



Finally I dragged myself off to bed. The hangover I had the next day, meaning yesterday, was legendary. Alona seemed perfectly fine for whatever reason. Makes me wonder how many beers I drank with Peter. Anyway, I don't know if my iPhone got wet or if anything weird happened to it, but I notice it is not taking pictures today. It otherwise, is working fine and I see the screen, it clicks and makes camera sounds and I even see the image slide into the folder. Unfortunately, the images in the library are blank. I have seen this before though, so maybe it will go away, or next time I sync it will be fine, I don't know. If not, there may be fewer pictures in future updates.

Last Thursday, on October 9th, Alona had plans to take me on another cooling adventure. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but it is amazing that even though it sometimes looks like we are making a buffet, this stuff costs maybe $3 or $4 to do. Even eating out you can't get so much so cheap. So we returned to Metro Ayala and into the supermarket to get the goods for her next cooking attempt. She wanted to do some kind of soup this time. We got the vegetables pictured above. One was a huge squash for a few peso and another was some type of cabbage I guess. It was also 20 peso or so. She also got some nasty root looking thing called gabi, which after she skinned it and chopped it seemed kinda like a potato.

We then went on to the meat section where we decided to get some pork. They had every kind you could imagine. We got pork adobo, which is pictured left, in cubes. She also decided, at that time, she wanted to try some pork chops using her special technique of marinating in soy sauce and lemon. So we got the pork chops pictured in the center in the image above.



So when we got back, unlike last time, I remembered to get the rice going first. This way, since it takes its time to cook, we wouldn't have to wait for it. Alona chopped up all her ingredients and set to work to make her soup. She started by frying up the pork adobo. She likes to cook things on a high fire with a lot of oil, but that's another story. For some reason, I always have this expectation that the meat would turn red or brown upon cooking, like beef, but it doesn't. It turns white. Anyway, After some time, seeing as we have a somewhat traditional style wok, she moved the pork up to the sides and added the onion and garlic she had chopped up earlier. Of course, she also added quite a bit more oil for this. Still, things were really starting to smell pretty appetizing at this point.



The next step was to get the rest of her vegetables in there. Her weird gabi root and the orange squash thing. At this point she found herself wishing we had a lid for the large wok, but she made do by taking the lid off the rice cooker, which was done with the rice at this point, and making the best of it.





All that was left now was to add her broth, and then wait and let it cook. Or so I thought anyway. She actually hadn't added the cabbage like thing at this point. Still she claimed to know what she was doing so I just enjoyed the show. From the beginning she was worried about it all fitting in that wok. As the soup grew, I must say I started to wonder myself. Looking at the size of that pile of cabbage type stuff on the plate made me wonder how it was ever going to end up in that wok. I started to think that maybe she was right about getting a real pot with a lid. The thing is, when we first went shopping for supplies for this new place, I don't think either of us ever considered soup being on the menu. As things were going, she also cut the end off some chiles and threw them in to spice it up a bit.





The next great task was adding the cabbage type thing. Somehow she managed to get almost all of it in there. I guess it was added last so as not to get too soggy or something. Anyway, now it was all in the wok and surprisingly not flowing over the edges. There was, however, yet another problem which plagued us. Aside from not having a pot with a real lid to cook something like the soup in, we also only had one burner to cook on at all. The pork chops still remained. The question became, where do we put the finished soup so she can cook the pork chops, which have been nicely marinating all this time? The answer came in the form of taking the rice cooker and emptying its contents onto a plate. She was then able to put the soup in the rice container, clean the wok and have it ready for the pork chops.



And so the time came for me to try the soup. I have to say it was amazing. I already knew she could cook, of course, but this was a cut above. She even seemed surprised herself when she tried it. I kept joking with her about opening a restaurant called Alona's Kitchen, but she doesn't seem to believe in herself too much. She doesn't even cook like this for her family! I asked her why she doesn't cook like this for her mother or her brothers and she said she would be embarrassed and worried that they wouldn't like it. She didn't seem to think I was being all that honest about how good her soup was either. I think if she hadn't tried it herself, she might think I was making it up. She seemed extremely happy with the results though. Still she wasn't finished yet. There remained the pork chops that had to go in the fire.





So the pork chops went deep into a wok full of oil and later came out very nice. Her special mix of soy sauce and lemon marinade really has an interesting taste. It worked for the fried chicken too. Not the healthiest thing to eat, of course, and even she knew about the risks of high cholesterol, but it was very good. I don't know if she would ever consider really doing Alona's Kitchen. Unlike in the west, restaurants are easily one of the quickest and most profitable businesses to have here. She could sell one bowl of soup for half the price of what we paid for all the ingredients for the night. She could make ten times her money back on those ingredients in no time. Also, here you have advantage that a local can open up a roadside stand anywhere there's free space. I know this much, if she does decide to do it, I will definitely be eating there!

It's amazing what just getting out in the world can show you as far as difference between your home country and a new place. I have heard it said that if you go to a coffee shop in America, you will likely see many people in their own world, often hurried or very busy and no real socializing going on unless they came in a small group. These groups are, then, very cliquish and keep to their own. Sitting in Bo's Coffee Shop in Ayala yesterday I saw a stark contrast to the experience as it might be in California.

People actually talk to each other! It goes beyond just being freindly and saying hello too. They talk as though they already know you. You feel like you are part of their group or circle. While there I met a few different people and learned of varying experiences. One such person was a woman named Joan who had worked in Japan previously. She was actually there the same year I was last in Japan. She had pictures of herself all dressed up in a traditional kimono with a traditional Japanese hairstyle. She apparently lives out in the province, but was visiting her cousin in the city proper. If I had thought about it, I should have asked to hear her Japanese, since she claimed to be fluent. Maybe she could do voice work on my projects!

I also met a really nice and beautiful Korean girl, who seemed to be really into me. We tried to talk, but her English ability was next to zero. There were two others, a guy and another girl with her, and even though communication was difficult, we were able to laugh and have a good time. It's amazing how many people will just smile, say hello or ask you where you're from.



Communication happens on many levels. I was in Bo's Coffee Shop to use the internet. I, otherwise, pay for use on my 3G modem, which I wrote about back in July. I went to Bo's a couple of days earlier and couldn't connect to the network. I assumed it was just me. This time, though, I noticed a couple of old guys, likely businessmen, with a Macbook Pro sitting near me and they couldn't connect either. Maybe it was an Apple thing since others with laptops were doing fine throughout the place. One of the old guys went up to the counter to ask for help and so I went to. I asked him if he was having trouble connecting and explained I had the same problem. He then noticed my iPhone and starting talking about that. The counter guy said someone would be around to help us.

Jojo was the guy sent to help us. He seemed to know his network stuff, but didn't know Macs. He helped me manually configure my WIFI connection for Bo's Coffee Shop with a static IP. After that I was on and it was working full speed. Since he didn't know Apple computers, we both helped the old businessman get connected through Airport, the Apple WIFI system. It was somewhat new to me too, but I have a Macbook and so at least knew what panels to go to. After that, the old guy was up and running and browsing stocks and trading pages.

There was another girl, who seemed like she might be a mix of Korean and Filipina, very tall and quite cute. She also had a macbook and was using it to do some kind of presentation. I forgot the name of that popular Apple presentation creation tool, but I knew it when I saw it. Looked nice and easy too, like all things Mac. Anyway, Jojo asked for my help to get her up and running, so we went to her table to set her up. Now that I had been through the process on the other guy's Mac it was easy to do it again. After she was up and running she was very thankful and I was able to chat with someone new.

That was all just a couple of hours in a coffee shop. I remember a similar experience at the small coffee shop next to the hotel I was in. There I met a beautiful nursing student and talked about anime for over an hour and also met a woman who was a MLM pro. Imagine if I really get out in the world. It has been recommended to me to just get out and walk around, or ride the jeepney, the local transportation, and go to the place one normally wouldn't go to. That's where you really meet the interesting people and see the real Philippines. I will make it a point, from now, to really get out there more and just experiences people and places, both around my new location and throughout the city. It will just add to the adventure!

For the next couple of days, the mist continued to hang low and heavy. The ordeal was far from over. Food was running low and tensions were running high. This is not to say, though, that there was no light at the end of the tunnel. People in the Philippines deal with hard times on a regular basis, and never let it get them down. I contacted the buyer who put the dispute on my Paypal account, making it over $1000 in the red, and asked him what was up. He claimed that it was a mere software problem with his company's patment system and that they are working with Paypal to fix it. He said the fix may take up to 48 hours. I have no way to confirm whether or not this is true, but I there's little I can do besides wait. But that little, I am doing.

I put the items I sell on my main website at 50% on September 7th. Sales started to come in, but of course into my negative account. At least that got it down to -$925 or so. If the fix that the original buyer speaks of be true, then I will be back in business. Not to leave it at that, though, I already started setting up other means to make money. With other accounts I began prowling the freelance job sites and picked up two very good potential gigs. Both will pay more than enough to survive the storm until my other internet efforts kick in. It will still take a few days for everything to fall into place, but the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to look brighter.



None of this, though, helped with the immediate needs for food and water. To that end, I did some checking online to see the value of the Sony PSP here. I brought mine with me, primarily thinking I would use it on the 15 hour flight over, but I haven't touched it, not on the plane or since landing. It sat collecting dust for months even before that. I thought it might be time to let it go.

Alona and her friend Miriam, whom she lists as Shumai in her phone, due to the fact that they always eat Shumai (those little Japanese dumplings) together, knew of a place where I could pawn the PSP for quick cash, but also potentially get it back with very low interest. Before the journey out to that place, though, it was time for a swim. This place has a pool, a gym and a nice outdoor lounge area on the 4th floor. We saw all this when Angelo was showing us around, but had yet to make use of it. I still have yet to use of it, having no trunks to swim in, but that is all about to change. For yesterday, though, I was content to simply relax and take pictures of these two beauties as they swam. Since it wasn't the sunniest of days, the water was very cold. I could clearly see Miriam shivering at times, though Alona took to the water very quickly.

After the swim, the girls decided to do a little cooking. Alona prepared some kind of corned beef mix while Miriam handled the rice and dishes. We all sat down to a nice meal before their trek across town. Once they were out the door, I had only to wait. Now one might imagine they could take the PSP and run, but it's not like it's really worth that much. Besides, who'd give up that awesome pool?! Conveniently, the pawn shop was in the same general area as the girl's favorite Shumai joint, so after they got the money from the shop, about 3500 peso, they went and got some Shumai, but that wasn't the only surprise. When they got back, Alona surprised me with a nice new pair of swimming trunks! Only 30 peso at that. I haven't used them yet, but today might just be the day. Yesterday still had things that needed doing though.

After enjoying some very spicy Shumai, we had to return to Metro Ayala to stock up on groceries to weather this ordeal. I was out of smokes for two days. Now any sane man would just quit at that time, but the first thing I did upon entering Ayala was buy a carton of smokes. Yes a carton, and that's about $7 compared to what you might pay for it in the U.S. (especially California where one pack is nearly $5) In the grocery store we got another large bag of rice, plenty of nice canned foods and more bananas, grapes and oranges. I also got a larger bottle of cooking oil as Alona seems to use a lot in her cooking.

On the way out, we stopped in Junrex, the cell phone shop I wrote of before, and I got a 300 peso load card for my phone. I didn't have enough to also get internet load for my Smart Bro wireless modem, but another ray of light shone through the mist to help with that. I was surprised to find numerous wireless signals in this building, and some probably from nearby buildings. Some expect you to pay to use them, but I have found at least one that is free. I haven't tried checking on my laptop, but if I stand by the window with my iPhone, I can check mail, browse the web and do any other net things I like to do on a fast wireless connection from I don't know where. This is good as my internet load is running low and it's something of a waste to use it just to keep checking if this Paypal issue is resolved.

So today, the sun shines a bit brighter. I am currently working on one of those potentially great gigs I wrote of earlier and have been emailing, back and forth, the other potential client to find out if we can come to a nice agreement. I believe this ordeal is almost over and I will be back in the swing of things. Of course I am not forgetting my ultimate goal to be like Mars Ravelo, the comic artist I wrote about in July. I still have to get some good products done and out for sale in Japan this month for my long term plans to take effect. I am already halfway done with one and have good ideas for the next two. If all three get done and up on the Japanese sites this month, I should see a nice chunk of change in November, when my next rent is due!

I met Grace at a mega popular disco called Juliana last Friday night. This disco seems like the place to be Friday and Saturday nights in Cebu CIty. It seems like everyone goes there. I even ran into some of Marifel's friends there that night. There was blasting loud music and much dancing and quite a bit of drinking. The next day, I told Grace what had happened to me the day before.

The day before that, meaning Thursday, I met this Japanese guy named Chiba in my hotel. He's an interior designer brought from Japan to do up some new club in the town center. Apparently he had a friend who went back to Japan the day before, leaving him no one to really talk to since he spoke no English. He told me about what it was like working in an environment where he needs a translator to explain everything to the staff doing the actual work on the club. He also told me that the team was planning a Saturday trip up to a place called Mountain View, which houses some very famous dining spots about an hour out of town. He invited me to join them, which I thought would be very fun.

On Saturday, me and Grace went to Ayala Mall to see The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which was a lot of fun. When we left the mall, we realized it had rained. That's fairly common in Cebu so I thought nothing of it. Grace wanted to stop off at her place before our plan to meet up with Chiba and go into the mountains. She lived very near the mall and so we decided to walk. Before this, I had always stepped out of the front door of the hotel and into a taxi. This was my first time to really see the place. Just minutes walking from the mall, we entered into the area where Grace lived, and it was something of a shock. I don't have pictures. I wouldn't pull out a cel phone or camera there even if I had one with me.



I had heard many times before about rich and poor living side by side in the Philippines, but now I actually saw it. Run down shacks surrounded by run down vehicles, rust and garbage. The buildings often had no running water, no aircon and no CR. People were just hanging around, playing cards, drinking $1 rum and generally milling about. Now everyone in the area was extremely nice. They were interested in who I was and wanted to talk to me. I met a lot of cool people I would otherwise have never seen, had a couple of shots of dollar rum, and generally had fun. After Grace changed clothes, we went to meet Chiba.

I knocked on Chiba's door and asked him about the trip to the mountains. He said because it had rained, they cancelled the trip deciding to do it another day. I was somewhat disappointed, but Grace asked, "Why not just go anyway?" So we did. We got in a taxi and he agreed to take us up there and even wait for us, for a fee of 700 peso of course. So off we went into the mountain paradise. It was an adventurous winding trip up. EVen saw a motorbike accident. We stopped at a bourgeois restaurant/hotel called Chateau de Busay and there we ate. It was pretty amazing. It was night now and from there you could see the whole city in all its lighted glory. Only a big expensive camera could come close to capturing the beauty of what we saw up there. The place we were in felt like a palace and the view was astonishing.

Going from Ayala to such a poor area and then to this mountain palace type environment made me realize just how different a world I am in. Still, I love it and can't wait to see more. Now, though, after too much sightseeing and partying, I really have to get down to some business. I will be busy writing paid articles and doing freelance graphic gigs this week. Still, I am certain more adventures lie ahead. There's always something new to see!

Last night my friend Marifel had a big birthday party. I got her a cake care of the boyfriend of Gina-san, another friend who is fluent in Japanese. It was an all out party and much drinking ensued. I didn't have my iPhone on me so I didn't get pictures of the cake or other aspects of the party. The picture to the left is from earlier, where me and Angel took Marifel out to eat. We went to Lemon Grass, the Vietnamese and Thai place I wrote of earlier. I had those amazing ribs again. Actually, we all did, pretty much just ribs and rice. Being quite the funny character, when we were done, Marifel asked the waiter for, "Take out, inlcuding all the plates and siverware." I would have remembered to take a picture of the plates of ribs, but I was distracted by the cute poses Marifel was doing.

Interestingly, I was supposed to meet Marifel and Angel at Bo's Coffee Shop. I like this place because it has free WIFI for my iPhone. Now I knew there was also a Bo's Coffee stand in the middle of the mall somewhere, but compared to the main shop, I didn't see any chance for a mistake in where we would meet. What I did not know, however, is that there is another huge Bo's Coffee Shop just outside the mall and Angel, having arrived early, waited for me there for almost two hours. I got a text from Marifel, who didn't even wake up until an hour after we were supposed to meet, which said, "Where r u? Angel is waiting u in Bo's" I replied, "I've been sitting at Bo's for over an hour." That's when we figured it out.



The party was a lot of fun. We also went to a Japanese karaoke joint where Gina-san amazingly sung traditional Japanese music called Enka. Marifel convinced me to sing a Japanese song and so I went for one of the songs of my youth, in the days when I worked at a Japanese karaoke bar in Tucson Arizona (go figure, huh?). My reading of Japanese text on the karaoke screen was so rusty, though, that Gina-san had to help me with the lines. I need to start practicing again. Although it was a very fun night, the wild and crazy Marifel drank way too much, vomited on the floor of the place, and passed out. Gina-san had to take her to her place. Luckily I got a text from her just minutes ago and she is fine now and back at home.

Who knows what adventures lie ahead?

I was at Ayala mall again today, this time primarily to get a load card on my phone and to just generally people watch. It's pretty amazing to be the stranger in a strange land and see how people look at and treat you. Of course, they say there are far more women here than men, some say 9 to 1, or something like that, and while I don't know if this is true, it is easy to believe considering the reaction I get from women when I walk around the mall. Yes, there is a lot of interest.

Koreans are everywhere. I remember the first night I went to a disco, it seemed to be half Koreans there. I later found out that the particular disco I went to was Korean owned, but still they are just about everywhere else I go too. They are usually very young, mostly students who go to the Philippines to study English, because of the low cost and it is widely spoken here. The thing I notice about the Koreans is that they are BIG. Most Asians are rather small compared to westerners, but all these Koreans, even the girls are taller than me! They are not exactly thin either. They all have some meat on 'em! I think the home diet must have changed much in the last twenty years. I used to hang with a lot of Koreans in college and they were small and thin like most other Asians back then.



Outside the mall, I met two African guys, one from Sudan and the other from Somalia. Apparently they work part of the year in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the middle east, and then spend the rest of their time living it up in the Philippines. I have heard of this strategy before, from a guy from the Ukraine. He worked for 6 months, or so, in Saudi Arabia and made a truck load of money and then enjoyed the other half of the year traveling.

These Sudanese guy told me that you work when you do this strategy though, so it is not for the lazy. He said you may work almost 24/7 but they are short contracts, in the middle east, and the pay is astronomical. I mean you can make more than most hope to make in a year. The Sudanese guy had been doing this for six years now. The Somalian guy said that when you get a work permit in The United Arab Emirates, it is just like being in the EU. You can travel and work freely anywhere in the UAE and many other parts of the middle east, and they all pay well. The Sudanese guy said, though, don't go to Saudi Arabia. It is very strict and no night life to speak of. The Somalian said if you are muslim you can do well in Saudi, but otherwise he agreed.

When I asked them if it was hot there, they winced. They said in the summer it can get up to 53゜C there. That's 127.4゜F for those in the U.S.. The typical 90゜days here must be nothing to them. They seemed to know a lot about the clubs and the local music scene, and also about Manilla, and the scene there. They said that Manilla really isn't much more expensive than here and that it is worth checking out. Each day I realize that I have barely even begun to scratch the surface here.