A Night at Embassy Lives Up to Expectations

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Breakfast with Ghosts
Tita Reena and Xandra are off to work before we get up, so at the breakfast table, it is just me, Leroy, and mom. After hearing her friends talk yesterday, I press her for more ghost stories, but this time for the ones that they used to tell us as children. There are many people in the Philippines who believe in ghosts, dwarves, and other beings. I’m not sure if the belief is quite as simplistic as that of children, where they believe that ghosts walk among us and we can see them now and then. Sometimes, it seems that people believe that the dead come back to tell us something, but whether or not people actually see ghosts or dream about them has never been clear to me. I have never seen a ghost and would like to avoid having the experience. Unfortunately, my mom has forgotten many of the tales she used to tell me of Japanese ghosts that haunted my great grandmother’s house, which was built on half of a cemetery for Japanese WWII soldiers. In the bright morning light, these stories are not very scary, and my mom tells them so in such a matter of fact way that I am more intrigued than scared. She talks about my great grandmother visiting her to “take care” of her when she was in Rome and her mother was off on a two-week work trip in Afghanistan. This time there are no goose bumps and I simply enjoy hearing family stories.

Back to UEFA
Soon after breakfast, it is time to watch the first leg games of the UEFA Champions League. Aaah, this brings back memories of our week in Chile. That lovely apartment, those terrible and disappointing games, and I shall say no more. We look at the schedule and I have to make some quick decisions about whom to support. After all, my favorite teams (or teams with my favorite players) are all out. No Barcelona. No Real Madrid. No Arsenal. Today, it is Munich against Milan in the morning, and PSV Eindhoven versus Liverpool in the afternoon. Goodness, not even Manchester United is playing today (at least I could root for Cristiano Ronaldo, even though he had a man purse in the interview that I saw in Chile). Well, Kaka of the Brasil team is on Milan and he is the UEFA leading goal scorer. Their goalie is another Brazilian (Dida), and that could push me into rooting for them. Munich has Sagnol and Lucio (another Brazilian), and they both played well at last year’s World Cup. Munich’s usual goalie, German Oliver Kahn, is suspended for improper conduct during a post-match doping control, so they will have to use their backup man Michael Rensing, who has only been in one major UEFA match to date. I’m sure Leroy could give a better pre-match assessment… you know, one that doesn’t hinge on which team has the cutest player or the most Brazilians on the team. In any case, the game starts, and I have to admit that I was on my laptop for much of the game, working on my presentation as well as looking up some medical stuff. My bad. That’s what happens when your teams are out. It’s like watching the NBA Finals when the Lakers aren’t in it. That’s right, I said it. Well, the game did end up to be quite interesting. Milan are up 1-0 at half time having played the better game, and continue to dominate the game in the first 25 minutes of the second half. But then Munich scores an equalizer in the 77th minute, and we are deflated. We know that Milan has to win this game in order to have an advantage in the second leg, or else it may end up like many of the games we watched in Chile, where the winning team is decided on away goals. Milan would be at a disadvantage if they tie today and then tie 0-0 in the next game, since they are playing in Milan today. If that’s confusing, sorry. Just know that Milan has to win today! Kaka gets a penalty kick (yay!) and makes it, which means Milan is up 2-1 in the 84th minute. They just have to hold it! Once time is at 90 minutes, there are only three more minutes of stoppage time. Leroy yells at them to not let Munich score in the stoppage time. At two minutes and 45 seconds, guess what happens? Munich scores, with the ball literally going through a small hole between Dida’s elbow, knee, and the post. So, it was 2-2, and I think maybe I will stop rooting for teams, because it just brings them bad luck. Later that afternoon, Liverpool kicks PSV Eindhoven bootie and wins 3-0. I can’t hate on Liverpool for beating Barcelona; they are playing really well.

Terran the Sponge
While Xandra was away giving a class on pranic healing to disadvantaged teenage boys, Terran was quietly moping about the house playing with Yaya Sarah. I had never seen him like this, and it was just then that I realized that he was missing his mother. This meant that every now and then, he would come up to me and ask me to look at maps with him or tell me a story. He had already told me the “chubby cheek” story once, but his version was much shorter than the one I am familiar with. Here’s how it goes. Push your cheeks inward with your hands so that you squish them against your nose and make it look like you have chubby cheeks. Then, the monologue goes like this: “Hi, my name is Chubby. My momma’s Chubby. My daddy’s Chubby. Even my dog’s Chubby. One day, my daddy took me for a ride on his motorcycle, and I said, ‘Faster, Daddy, faster!’ And he went faster. So I said, ‘Faster, Daddy, faster!’ And he went faster. I said, ‘Faster, Daddy, faster!” Now pull your cheeks backward so as to push them toward your ears, and say, “Not that fast!” This is a silly little joke I learned in 8th grade from my friend Gil. I told Terran the whole story, which made him laugh, but then he would retell it to me saying “Slower, Daddy, not so slower.” So today, I told him the joke just one more time (this would be the second time he had heard it from me in entirety). When we saw his father around lunchtime, he told the joke almost perfectly, except that he likes to change the motorcycle to a tricycle or bus or car. What is it about these little kids’ minds? When Xandra came back that evening, I went up to chat with her and Terran started in on his story again, and I have to tell you, it was perfect. Warning to self - watch what you say in front of little kids. They really are sponges. Of course, I got the “what are you teaching my son” speech, as she giggled over his chubby cheeks rendition.

Family Time Is Over, Let’s Go Party at Embassy
Sam comes over at around 9pm exhausted, but she is still gung ho about finally taking us out to see the “nightlife of Manila,” without red lights this time. Oliver comes through big time and drives us, so it is off to The Fort, where there are many restaurants, the home of MTV and at least two restaurant/clubs - Embassy and Jaipur. We had stopped by here last night to make sure they’d be open today. With it being Holy Week, Manila is starting to close down, and this is making Sam’s mission quite difficult. But as we roll up to Embassy, people are definitely out to play. It is early yet - 10pm. Jamie is meeting us and wanted to get there earlier so he could get back to his wife and to sleep by midnight (aaaah, to be 30-something!). We pay the P600 cover, which thankfully includes two drinks. The place is empty. There is a Maxim banner on the bar, and we wonder if we have stumbled onto a private party. All the tables are reserved, so we post up by the bar and talk. Before midnight, Jamie is off. Which means that party is just about to get jumping. After midnight, the Maxim poster gets taken down, and more and more people are streaming in. The non-Filipinos stick out. First, there are groups of Korean girls who not only stand out due to complexion and facial features, but fashion as well. I guess pumps are still in. Was that catty? I take it back. I just haven’t been able to accept the resurgence of 80s fashion. The leggings trip me out. Second, there are a couple of very tall Caucasians who are easily noticed. Well, anyone tall gets noticed. I keep forgetting that I’m with a six-footer who is wearing a grey t-shirt with an Adidas-like logo in the shape of a chicken with the words “adobo” under it, a reference to the popular Filipino dish. The tall people include a Filipino wearing a shirt with the biggest and shiniest Adidas logo I have ever seen. Yes, I was at the bar looking at everyone and their momma and what they were all wearing. Next are tall black men, possibly American or African or British, unlikely West Indian (per Leroy). They are later met by a posse of black, blackipino, and Filipino girls. Even later, I saw some Caucasian girls, but I couldn’t tell if they were American, Canadian, Aussie, Brit or what. This is the most diverse crowd I have ever seen in the Philippines, apart from my visits to Camp John Hay in Baguio when I was a kid. But then, that was an American base with lots of expats and soldiers. The recent immigration wave of Koreans to the Philippines is making it a more multicultural place, although it has always been a hodgepodge of cultures (Malay, Chinese, Spanish, American and all their religions). I suppose we often take it for granted in the US that there will be people of many walks of life. It’s definitely interesting to see how each culture adjusts to immigration.

The music is bumping. They are playing hip hop, but a lot of it is old. You know, Ja Rule and Nelly from four years ago. There are at least three DJs, and Sam knows one of them so she goes to say hi. He has a distinctly American accent, and she says he’s from Minnetonka. Why he keeps big-upping the “Bay Area,” I have yet to figure out, but it certainly made us feel at home. We enjoyed the music and the scene. We didn’t so much enjoy the smoking and the elbowing and foot-stepping. Smoking is supposedly banned indoors, but you wouldn’t have known from what we saw. They play Cassie’s “Just Me & U” video on one of the screens, and I think how small the world is. The song was produced by a friend from my freshman year in college, and now I’m seeing it in my home country thousands of miles away. Pretty soon, I have just enough cash to get us home in a cab, so we call it a night. Sam, mission accomplished, we will never beg you to show us the nightlife again. *Wink*.

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Photos

Leroy and Chicken Adobo
Scoping out the scene at Embassy.

Embassy
At The Fort with the most diverse crowd I've ever seen in Manila.

Comments

[chie]

embassy is wack!
I have to comment and relate to you that Embassy is WACK!.. I was there with my wife and a few friends from the states in 05.. From what I heard that Embassy is supposed to be the best place to party in Manila.. All I can say is.. WOW.. I never saw so much nuckle heads in my life.. The elbowing and the smoke was the worse.. There is this European lady in the front being a bitch if the males were not wearing a collard shirt. She must have not been there because she would have given Leroy a hard time.. One of our friends had to go home and pick up a shirt before they let him in.. The DJ's were hillarious, they kept repping the bay area too...The crowd would get all hype and excited like they were from the bay area (funny). The bar ran out of liquor.. Everything we ordered, they said it was all sold out.. How can a bar run out of liquor?? Just like you, that would be our last time going there hahah