Intarwebz ist slow here.
Time for my next entry on my trip. There's a LOT for me to write so I'm not sure if I can do it all at once. But anyway, I'll take it one step at a time starting from where I left off, I guess.
Speaking of which, where DID I leave off? An update from Taiwan or something, right. Anyway, the weather there was pretty cold, and slightly humid, although a pretty bearable humidity from what I experienced; it wasn't as terrible as say, Florida (UGH) or of course, the Philippines.
AS PROMISED, I did take a decent amount of pictures so far with the digicam I brought, but I won't really get to post/share them till later due to well, computer restraints or something.
One thing that hit me as soon as I got picked up by my auntie and uncle, was that I almost forgot how terribly BAD the drivers in the Philippines are. When you get on the road there (particularly in Metro Manila, but just about everywhere), it's no longer a world of logic and rules and stop signs / stoplights, it's INSTINCT and SURVIVAL. You have to be able to read signals from other drivers, 'feel' their intentions etc. as people cut in and out of traffic like it's nothing, with or without the use of signals. Also, from last time, people in the Philippines seem to have gotten a lot better about cleaning up; it's still pretty much one of the dirtiest places I've been to, but at least slightly less so in this case. Guess it can't happen overnight, after all.
Many families here tend to live in little 'communities', with the 'houses' more of shabbily built apartments of sorts, on top of each other or right next to each other. The windows usually aren't sealed or anything to allow better circulation (due to heat), and there's next to like no privacy considering the proximity of everyones' living quarters. My aunt's house got entirely screened off from last time though, so there were like no more mosquitoes (yay!) though the cockroaches are still hueg like XBox. All the kids who are 5-6 years older than me are considerably taller now, thanks to puberty, and my cousin Ina (the one my parents are to eventually adopt) is about 12, and still talkative as ever. Apparently the emo style has gotten its noxious grip on even some of the younger kids in the Philippines... yuck. So now my cousins attribute stuff like eyeliner, spike belts, the hair, etc. to EMOness. :,( That makes me want to an hero. I should probably tell them that the emo style is like the least fucking original thing ever--eyeliner stolen from goth, spike belts stolen from punk, hair stolen from me, etc. XD
Arrived at the place early on after taking some aunts and uncles to lunch... so I had some time to kill and BS with the family before going to sleep pretty early (had to wake up at 3am so we'd make it there by 8amish...the court appointment was about 3pm). The exchange rate is roughly about 40 pesos = 1 dollar. A fast food meal is like...50-60 pesos, which is roughly $1.25 - $1.50. Jeepneys and tricycles, a commonly used taxi-type vehicle around here, usually charge you like 100 pesos at most for even the longer rides. Stuff is cheap here :P But of course everyone earns less, so it evens out for the actual residents.
Another thing I observed was that people are a little more relaxed about scheduling and what not here, hence the term 'filipino time'... and I see why. The heat is almost unbearable at times, even when it's lower than it normally is (it's about 85ish this week, usually 90+ in the summer). With constant heat like that, you really don't want to overexert yourself or do anything drastic... it makes me want to just be lazy or take a sies--er nap. It may contribute to why things are um... less quality-focused around here generally. A noticeable cultural difference, whereas most Westerners would see that as simply being lazy. It's more like, YOU try working that hard in this heat, which is nearly year-round! Definitely tropical, unlike Japan and Korea which are considerably more temperate.
On the road to Urdaneta City, Pangasinan (my dad's hometown and where the court session was to be held), the overtaking rate is so bad and at such high speeds that 'close calls' or driving too close to other vehicles almost can't be avoided. This is where I learned it helps to try and pay attention to somewhere else other than what's going on outside the vehicle; otherwise it becomes rather...stressful, LOL. Gas is pretty expensive, but it's about the same as it is in the U.S. currently. Yup... expensive.
So I get to the courtroom for my case, and we wait awhile before finally finding our attorney, who is somewhat fashionably late for someone who told us to get there early. She's a much older woman, at least 70ish I'd say, bespectacled and sporting a grayish clown perm and POLKA DOTS--from the shirt, to the pants, to her shoes. Was wondering why my mom chose to give her a polkadot blouse as a gift...
We must have been waiting in the courtroom for about 30 minutes at least. Mind you, I've never been to a court case in the States even, but I figured they can't be THIS casual about the schedule--another cultural difference...people are so lax about everything here. Seems like they had trouble finding a fiscal, which needed to be present for my own case to be valid, so my attorney kept trying to get me to reschedule my flight (as if it were that simple... I don't even think I had a number to call for that). At first, my U.S.-raised mind leaned towards thoughts of 'HOW CAN EVERYONE BE THIS LAX ABOUT STUFF LIKE THAT D:' but again, a cultural difference...
Finally, the judge came in, who is an older gentleman speaking in mostly English (though not without a slight accent), a no-nonsense guy who doesn't like to waste a lot of time. He was really cool and made a lot of jokes though had a fairly imposing presence, saying 'QUIET!' a lot. While the fiscal wasn't there, my attorney was trying to tell him that my case couldn't be heard until we had one (who probably wouldn't appear until Tuesday, the day of my flight back!) but the judge insisted to let my case be heard out anyway, and showed to the fiscal later.
And luckily they found one last-minute, so my case was able to stand.. a young lady in a green business-dress who smiled at me a lot. o_O Like before, I still get a lot of stares when I go here. Understandably; no offense to them but it's out here in the country, where everyone is rather... homely, so I can see where I stand out even though I'm hardly worth a second look in the States.
So that took about 4 hours as we had to hear out everyone else's cases...there were a few criminal cases, two involving convicts that were present and in handcuffs. Two fucking winners too; get this. One, about half my size (which isn't much really), for raping a really ...homely mentally retarded chick. The judge was like 'Wow, you're the happiest victim I've ever seen'. The other, statuitory rape of an 8-year old girl, who I saw in the courtroom crying. WOW. Couldn't even rape anyone actually competent, but then again, after looking at them, I could tell why.
Rei should like this:
Also, it's either my luck or my gaydar has detected a large presence of homosexuality, even in the provinces. Not of gay though, but of lesbiouuun. Like the really butch kind (or maybe my semi-functional gaydar can't recognize the femmy ones). I guess it's understandable, too, since honestly, the guys are REALLY nothing to look at here, save for the movie stars and crap (and sometimes not even then).
Biological report (non-science geeks can pass, if you want):
Here, stuff is much more... 'with nature', I guess. Even if you try to build a house like one in the U.S. and seal it off, stuff will find a way in. My parents completely remodeled my grandparents' old house, and even then ants (the really tiny black ones) found their way in with their little lines. The toilet faces the sink in a kind of perpendicular fashion, so while sitting on the can I get to see them do their little thing. In the U.S, I'm usually like 'guh, bugs', but it was rather calming here, for some reason. So I was like, whatever, they're living just like I am... Later, I see the same little ants in their lines carrying away dead termites. Looks like a bunch of termites tried to invade and got owned by the tiny ants, who outnumber them, and a little spider in the corner--it was funny to watch the bigger termite go 'AHH!' runnin away in a panic from a very tiny spider who's like 'BOO HA HA'... It all balances out in the end, or so it seems.
Also went grocery shopping for my grand-aunt, which was good since it seems she needed a lot of stuff. Groceries are cheap too--I spent about $20 for what would normally be $60ish in the U.S.
Tomorrow I go shopping at the mall. Stuff is cheap, so if anyone wants something, let me know!
I'll add anything I forgot to my next post, which should probably be tomorrow since there is an internet cafe at the mall.