Top 10

Here are some of the top 10 reasons why the Philippines is so great.

10. Videoke- Where else can you find 20 men huddled around a TV while one belts out Total Eclipse of the Heart?

9. Jollibee- The Philippines is one of the only countries to have its own fast food restaurant chain that is more popular than McDonalds.

8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqh8e2KYIrU

7. The number of people that fit on a motorbike- it never fails to impress.

6. Cab Rides- It's like going to Astoria from Midtown, but it only costs $2.

5. Fruit Shakes- At every restaurant, no matter what the genre, you can order fresh fruit shakes. The flavors almost always include pineapple, banana, watermelon, and mango.

4. Jeepneys- No more long waits at the bus station or the subway, stand by the road for 2 seconds, wave your hand, climb in and your good to go. (Watch your head and other people's feet though)

3. Jingles- The radio jingles and advertisements are one of a kind, almost like the 1950s. Here is a sample (make sure your audio is up): http://oceanjet.net/  

2. Beautiful Water



Malapascua

Olango



Moalboal

 1. Friendly People

A Walk in the Philippine Clouds

It's been a little while since we posted so we thought we'd give you a taste of what every morning is like for us during our morning routine.

7:00am: Alarm goes off. Snooze is hit, but the roosters are already crowing.
7:30am: On a sunny day, we will get up. If rainy....snooze again. (roosters continue to crow)
7:45am: Getting ready...which involves first a layer of sun screen followed by a layer of insect repellent lotion. (and yes..the crowing is still going on)
8:00am: Quick breakfast which is either toast with mango jelly or our new favorite, cereal with nestle milk which never expires because it is powder based.
8:10am: Closing front door quickly so lizards, spiders, etc don't come in, even though there are too many to count already inside.
8:11am: Strange wafting smell....is it poo from the poodles again?! Say hello to our parrot buddy. Who occasionally will whistle or say hello, but most of the time stares at you blankly until you walk away and then he talks and eventually shouts at you. Did I mention the roosters are still crowing? When are these cock-fights? And can I sign these ones up?
8:12am: We are outside of our gate waving to the men on the roof of the new building being constructed. We are also looking at the turkeys who are gobbling away and walking in no clear direction. When is thanksgiving again?
8:13am: Strange smell....Stepping over two large puddles formed in potholes on the street. Getting dangerously close to the man who is standing and peeing on the side of our street.
8:14am: Saying hi to the peddi cab who greets us with "hey wanta ride?" Which we normally turn down.....Strange smell...oh, it is just the trash pile being burned on the side of the road...and yes, and the roosters are still crowing.
8:15am: Goat with baby goat walks by...baby goat is eating a giant leaf. (they do eat everything). Little girl excitedly jumps up and down waving at us to say hi. Other kids run and giggle. (sometimes the kids are getting washed at the public water well)
8:17am: Dodging giant puddles...and yes, some piles of poo from goats and dogs and the occasional cow.
8:18am: More hellos and waves from the neighbors. Another goat and baby goat...this baby is eating a banana peel. Again proving our theory they eat EVERYTHING.
8:19am: At the end of the street. We cross the street to the H Mart parking lot (Korean Market) where we normally wait to catch a jeepney.
8:20am: Hit my head on the jeepney, if people notice I get compassionate smiles, Kevin pays the driver and 90% of the time we get the correct change.
8:21am: Jamming to the loud music on the jeenpney...either soft rock or occasionally Tarzan Boy
8:22am: Trying to cover our noses after our jeepney gets stuck behind a giant truck not moving fast enough...too much exhaust in my nose!
8:23am: Clinking the handle bar of the jeepney (which I hit before) with a coin to signal our departure, even though they almost always know where we are getting off. Hitting my head on the way out.
8:24am: Walking into work, hearing the mix of the same 10 songs that we hear everyday. (sometimes with Little Drummer Boy mixed in)
8:25am: Clocking in to work with our finger print. So new -agey...and yet they wonder why everyone gets pink eye all the time. =)

And that is our morning. We see something new every day!

Driveway to our house

Our Neighborhood. We walk this street every day.



Our Jeepney Jam: Close your eyes, it's 85 degrees, and your crammed in the back of a small van with
15 other people listening to...this: Tarzan Boy

Saturday Night Dengue Fever

We are in the midst of a major Dengue out break here in Cebu. Several co-workers and their family members have gotten dengue this year, luckily with no fatalities. But for many of those here, particularly young children without proper access to treatment, their lives will be cut short by this deadly disease. It’s a constant reminder living here of how fortunate we were to have grown up in the place and situation we did. I saw Fight Club for the first time last week. The pounding rain on the roof of our place made it so hard to hear at times that we had to pause the film; sometimes for up to 20min at a time until the rain subsided. Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) says at one point, “We are not special. We are not unique. We are the same decaying matter as everything else,” which left me thinking about all the time I’ve played the story of my life in my head. My wants and needs take center stage as I close my eyes and replay old acts of the story in my mind; going over what should have or could have been, still hoping there is a triumphant happy ending at the end of Act 3. Will remaining ambitious and always wanting more lead to the path of success or just leave me always unsatisfied with my position in my career and my personal relationships? Why do I a dream to be something important and notable and why should I be disappointed if I am not? It’s Monday night after work and the employees have gathered behind the studio at the Tiki Bar, many of them indulging in a beer and a bit of self-pity. They came here to be something great or at least be a part of something great. They thought they were something special and they deserved better than the reality of their current situation and maybe they’re right. But behind the Tiki Bar there is a metal fence with a bulkhead to the sea. At low tide some children from the houses next door climb up onto the bulkhead and peer through the fence, hoping someone might stop and notice them. The smile on their faces and happy disposition masks the complete poverty that they live in. There are about 10 kids in all, brothers, sisters and cousins. Sometimes they have to alternate who eats on what day because there is not enough food for everyone. One girl’s 6 year old sister just died of a heart condition because they could not afford treatments. Another girl lost one of her arms in a fire when she was younger.  Tyler Durden may want to sign these kids up for Project Mayhem because they are certainly accepting of the idea that they may die at any moment and I don’t think anyone tells them everyday that they are special and deserve better. I’m sure they would like to hear someone say it even if they didn’t really believe it.  I think if Mr. Durden was next to me at that moment I would have to disagree with him. I don’t know why, and I certainly don’t think I deserve it, but for some reason beyond my control I am special. This I know simply because I am here now standing on this side of the fence as opposed to being one of these children on the other side starring into an unattainable world. I am not saying people should worship the ground I walk on, that’s not what I mean when I say special. I don’t deserve something more than anyone one else because I think I am special.  I have been blessed in this life and being here is a constant reminder of that. I’ve been given it all, love, health, safety, support and opportunity and I grow more and more thankful for that with every day I spend here. With all I have been given in my life, I can’t help feeling obligated to take it and turn it into something great and if I fail along the way I won’t run off and join basement bare-knuckle boxing club to make up for it, I’ll simply wake up the next day and say, “thank you for letting me live another happy day” and I’ll try again to do something great until I succeed.

Days of Tropic Thunder

Out on the road in Cebu: make sure your seatbelt is tightly fastened, that is if one exists, most vehicles don't have them. If you aren't covering your eyes or ducking under the seat from the countless close calls with trucks, motorbikes, dogs and children....and street vendors...and horse drawn carriages....and food cart bikes, you actually get to see some crazy stuff. See below.

Yes, that's an automatic riffle.



He is very relaxed for doing 45 mph.

  

The people blurred in the background are part of a drum corps parade marching down the
middle of the street with traffic speeding by on both sides.



Tricylces (three people sit on the bike, and as many as can fit in the side car)



7 people, several bags of groceries, 2 motrobikes

 

Pastry bike



Just long enough



 

This mattress will be good for wind resistance

Tricycle- not nearly as crowded as we've seen



Video of driving in Cebu City. About 30 sec in you will get to see

the free-for-all that is a typical Philippine intersection. Notice the

motorbikes weaving in between large trucks and jeepneys. The Jeepney

barker clinging to the back railing in flip-flops and the bizzare wet child

standing in the middle of everything. The guy who shows up in the bottom

of the frame is a motocyclist who nearly rammed into us trying to cut

across traffic.

Christmas In September

Yes the holiday season has begun in the Philippines. Radio stations have begun the countdown: only 105 days until Christmas! Little Drummer Boy can be heard playing in the lobby of our office and even the occasional 'Merry Christmas' is said by one of the local employees. To top it off, department stores have already started their Christmas displays which apparently grow considerably as Dec 25th approaches. I can only hope we make it to December to see what the final month leading to Christmas brings.

Christmas Decor at the Dept Store and yes those are people actually buying something already.

The River Wild

We made our way down to Moalboal this weekend, Panagsama Beach to be exact for a river climbing adventure. I don’t think we anticipated the drive there to be perhaps the most terrifying part of our trip. Our very capable, but very fast driver, Sir Jay, made record time to our resort but not without about 20 close calls that left us all gripping our seats and grasping for air. But for him this was probably just another day of driving in the Philippines. After enjoying a delicious meal at our Thai/Indian/Indonesian/Chinese/Filipino restaurant we went to one of the local bars and decided to try one of their ‘signature’ cocktails. As Red Horse Beer and rum and cokes are pretty much the staples here, we found that they didn’t actually have the ingredients to make most of the cocktails on the menu. They were finally about to scrape together an odd concoction of ingredients and make drinks like the Ning Ning, which we think was coffee and coke with some sort of alcohol. Luckily there was a group of Cebu City college students celebrating their recent basketball victory who poured us some drinks from their large beer bottles and invited us to dance and sing karaoke with them. We started the next day with a delicious ‘American’ and European breakfast at our hotel and then boarded our all-terrain action-adventure vehicle for the river climb. After about an hour of hiking and lots of sweating we had finally reached the BEGINNING of the river climb. Now granted the scenery was amazing, it was an indescribable feeling of joy when we were finally able to jump in the cool, crystal clear water of the river. We swam our way upstream through rocks and rapids, climbing almost every waterfall we came to. Fortunately, we had two guides with us to show us the way, but this didn’t necessarily make gripping onto wet rocks with a waterfall gushing over you any easier. It was tiring and dangerous but the reward of seeing the beautiful pristine river and its surroundings were well worth it. Plus it finished with a delicious barbecue meal at the end of the climb; probably the best meal we’ve had since we’ve been here. As the saying goes, the pictures just don’t do it justice, but they can give you a taste of what it was like and will help remind us of the awe struck feeling we had during the whole climb. We certainly hope to be back for another adventure soon, but for now we’re just thankful we made it back home safe and sound with only a few scrapes and bruises to show for it.

Our Action-Adventure Vehicle

Climbing one of the many waterfalls

Taking a break, moments before we jumped off that rock into the river and climbed that waterfall

When it rains...it Floods!

As it is the rainy season here, it is not unusual to get rain and storms almost every day. Brown outs (the lights going out for a shorter period of time then a “black-out”) happen several times a month…and usually at night when you really don’t want the AC to turn off. In Mactan, the rain is usually harmless and often cools down the normally humid, hot day, or it makes it more humid….really it is the flip of a coin. Or it results in wet jeepney cushions and some giant puddles. Well, the other day we went out on a sourcing trip (sourcing basically means shopping for things for the movie set) and learned what a heavy rain in Cebu is like. Heavy rain in Cebu (Mandaue to be exact) = Flood. People were standing on the bus stop bench to keep from being in knee deep water, a taxi got stuck in almost window deep water and several boys had to push it out, and huge waves were sent up the curbs into stores and shops. (The one vehicle that did make it through the high waters was the giant steam roller, which just happened to be coming down the road with everyone else…haha.) The flooding was definitely an experience and caused us to have to drive waay out of the way to get to our first location. All we could think was….I am glad I am in this van instead of the local jeepney!

Fired Dancing

Friday night we participated in the Tiki Hut Luau. As it was one day after my birthday, I considered it to be a second birthday party. The Luau had everything a Hawaiian party should, one free beer, a limbo and hula-hoop competition, henna tattoos, fresh fruit smoothies, live bands, and yes….fire dancers. Imagine swirls of fire surrounding three separate dancers with one even catching the grass on fire momentarily. We are still debating whether that was planned or not. (thinking not planned). I must also mention that the clothing was of course limited which added to the whole appeal of fire dancing. We definitely felt like these dancers the past week. Being surrounded by flames, hoping to prevent the grass from catching on fire, while doing our best to keep our jobs and our paychecks…or at least keeping a paycheck, since now we will no longer be making the same rate that we were promised. We continuously are doing our best to keep juggling the flames but it seems like at every swing we just keep getting burned. As of this evening, if we do not sign this new addendum to the contract, which says we will be paid less, we ourselves will be fired-dancing.

Fire Dancer at the Tiki Hut

We've been here nearly 4 weeks and the first post finally has gone up. Maybe it's sign that we've started to slip into the slow pace of island life or perhaps it's just a result of working 12-13 hours a day and having little to no internet access at home. We jumped right in with work when we arrived and have been going non-stop preparing for the first several sets of the film. We're still adjusting to things here and what makes it particularly tricky is that most of our hard work seems to go unnoticed and unappreciated. Our friends, new and old have thankfully kept us sane thus far. Most of the people here at the studio are friendly and rely on a good sense of humor to get them through the day. The studio is an ecletic blend of locals and foreign employees, students and interns from all over the world. It makes for an unusual but often fun and dynamic work enviroment. We were lucky to have a beautiful and comfortable living arrangement found for us before we came. Although, the price was a bit of a shock to us after hearing tales of the incredibly low cost of living here, we have come to love our new home and even though we are surely getting the "special" foreigner price for the place, we are just happy to have a nice, safe, place to rest and relax every night. Overall, we are quite sheltered at the moment, spending most of our time between the studio and home and the resorts on the island. However, much time has been spent riding Jeepneys, haggling with local vendors over prices and eating an interesting assortment of local food, bar food and pizza. There are many stories to tell already and surely many to come so we hope you follow along as we try to keep up with the page as best we can. Take Care.

Looking out over the water from the studio.