Sunday was Keanna, my now 13 year old cousin's birthday. I cannot believe she's 13, I remember when she was born. This must be somewhat equivalent to how parents feel...I do not like it. But alas, it is my job to educate her on...things teenagers should know, otherwise they will find out from bad sources such as their friends, and she asked me, so I felt compelled to answer some of her questions about...boys and girls, birds and the bees...all that. So that caught me off guard and that's pretty much irrelevant to all of you but whatever. It's my blog. Deal. :) So at 6:30am we left for Downtown Manila while looking at the sites with my aunt Irene, who went to college here and she showed us where she went to school and all these amazing monuments. Of which I failed to take pictures of (dont kill me mom) since we were driving around and the quality of the pictures was atrocious so I decided to just save them to memory. So we went downtown to go to this show my aunt got tickets for called ASAP, a Philippino show in which many of the movie stars here go on and sing and dance, very exciting stuff...but I of course didnt know any of them but my aunt is an avid fan so she was like a 14 year old girl jumping up and down freaking out, which I thoroughly enjoyed. There was a lot of awesome singing and dance numbers, which I love, so it was a lot of fun. I really got into it. (duh, it's me) but there was this boy band there that everyone was freaking out about (shown below).
Let's just go ahead and agree, the guy in the middle is gorgeous. And all the 13 year olds there agreed, you could tell by their posters and yelling and crowding around him. Man and I thought Americans love their celebrities?! PSSSHHHH they need to step it up. These people are CRAY CRAY. Some girls started crying and hyperventilating and some jumped up on the stage and kissed them! Maybe I just never witnessed this first hand, but I was astonished.
So we enjoy the show and continue back home where my cousin is having her 13th birthday fiesta. BIG PARTY. Luckily we are in a big house which can accomodate that many people. Alex and I stood out like sore thumbs apparently. Everyone stared and wanted to meet us. Needless to say, I mostly stuck by the pool and the bar area eating or drinking. Typical American behavior. There was an awesome pinata type game for the kids. One for boys with boy toys and vice versa for the girls. (I will post videos of them fighting over the goodies later-it's a must watch)
Meanwhile, I fell in love with this handsome devil (shown above). Most of the people my age here spoke English so it was fun getting to know the locals. Soon there after, Lauren had had a little too much wine/sangria because when Keanna requested for me to sing karaoke, I gladly accepted the challenge. Stupid japanese genes. I sang 4 Katy Perry songs and then whatever song my cousin punched into the machine. I guess I was amazing...or a disaster (probably the latter) because everyone was watching. Not only was in singing full blast, I continued to make a fool of myself by adding some Jansen-dance moves into the mix. Sight for sore eyes I'd say. All in all, it was some great cardio.
So on Monday, I finally got my new credit card in the mail. Needless to say, I went shopping. And did some damage. Luckily things are super cheap here so it was worthwhile.
On Tuesday we left for the amazing Hamilo Coast where we stayed at the Pico de Loro resort. I have never seen such a beautiful place with my own eyes. I was in shock. And since it was a week day, there was maybe a hand full of people at the whole resort. It's a members only resort so its extremely seclusive. Which was amazing. I just can't describe how "away from it all" I felt. Like we were the only people on the Earth and I didnt have a care in the world. My smile was on the entire time, and I couldn't turn it off. Im pretty sure I slept smiling. So we just lounged at the pool and beach but since the typhoon is coming, we werent allowed to go scuba diving (sad day) or even get in the water. The waves were about 8 ft and crashing onto the shore full force. But it was fun to watch. But we got to walk out on the pier and got soaking wet. The water was soooo warm. Definitley shark infested, the people working there said if we went out scuba diving there would be a lot of sharks....in which I responded with a smirk "you know that just makes me want to go out even more right?" He thought I was kidding. Sarcasm isnt very prevalent here, so it's a big inside joke between Alex and I. We're awful I know, I know.
So in the pool we were all horsing around and what did this idiot do? Stub her big toe. But not only that, my nail cracked in half all the way to the cuticle right down the middle. So I now I have half a toe nail. :/ It's quite hideous but the nail is still there, for the most part, just waiting for it to fall off. But i was super pissed. Blood was everywhere and everyone was freaking out but it wasn't all that bad. and did not hurt at all. It just looked nasty. (I like to lift up the nail and look at the inside and freak out my aunt) mwhahahhaa Oh well.
So Alex and I went to bed early so we could go on a hike in the morning to see the sunrise. Woke up at 5am and boy was it worth it. The entire sky was pink (again I failed to bring my charger so no pictures...sowwy) but it was breathtaking.
This is my delicious Mai Tai (one of many I might add) but the pina coladas were drool worthy.
After our stay we ventured off to the tourist city of Tagaytay. It was on the way back to our city of residence, Kawit in the province of Cavite. Here we stopped at this cute collection of cafes and bistros. Which included this here volcano. SOOOO COOOOL! The view was amazing (seems to be a trend in the Philippines) and I probably took 20 pictures of the same thing. Because I can. So we ate at this Italian restaurant and it was better than the food I had while in Italy. These people must put crack in all their food because every single dish is delish. But their lasanga...the best I ever had. Everyone at the table had some. And the waiter made me sign their guest book because "he liked me". He was very determined to get me to come back, even though I told him I'm returning to California in 3 days. He told me I could stay with him....RIIIIGGGHHHTTT.
Along the way home, we stopped at this huge market on the side of the road. Least to say, it was intense. I was overwhelmed by all the foods I have never seen nor heard of. As shown above, meet Jack Fruit. It's large and in charge. That stuff grows from a tree! HOW!? It's as big as a tree!! Well I saw it dangle from a tree branch and the branch was so heavy it was touching the ground. Well this stuff is pretty good. There was a bunch of other fruits we bought but I dont know how to spell nor pronounce any of them. Sadly Im allergic to papaya so I couldn't indulge in that with the rest of my family. There was also a million different kind of plants they were selling (including bonzai trees, which I wanted but I know it wouldn't make it past customs).
While we were busy picking fruit, my uncle Emile locked me out of the car because I saw these huge spiders dangling around the area and I was screaming my head off. The locals just laughed at me. There were about 40 of these guys dangling above my head. I was going to die. But he let me back in.
We also stopped by this fantastic place. Heaven. On. Earth. They have the best coffee Ive ever had. No joke. I bought waaaaay too much. And by that I mean I should have bought more. They also sell this one kind called Civit Coffee, apparently a type of cat eats exotic berries and then poops it out and they turn it into coffee and sell it for 1500 pisos (which is about $40! for a 8 oz bag) FOR A BAG OF POOP!?!? I was just baffled.
And as for today, well it mainly consisted of sleeping in, Cranium, my Rum and fresh squeezed pineapple/mango mixed drink and an amazing sweedish/aromatherapy massage. Guess now I can officially say I've had a real asian massage.
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