I have a gym membership now. That was a big thing to get out of the way. And it has been the success I wanted it to be. It has pulled me out of my physical slump. Mornings are easier now. But a cough has been going around. Actually, it is a brutal Asian cold (not to be confused with Asian flu, I hope) that lingers in the form of a dry, irritating, nagging, painful in that itchy sort of way, cough. This, in and of itself, is not the end of the world. However, Dreaded Class 14 has created a [View Full Entry]

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Somewhere I heard it described in this way: the desire to fall deeply in love with something is that the world becomes much more manageable. Passion for something, one individual focus for that passion, allows one to center their attention, to keep from spilling all over the place (I think it was the movie "Adaptation"- I'll have to search for the actual quote- certainly its eloquance will exceed my awkward paraphrase). Being a person of passion, this makes absolute sense. This may be the actual reason I have a love affair with being in love- the intensity is focused, cleaner, less [View Full Entry]

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The prison wasn't what I thought it would be. I think that is probably what the majority of tourists think as they walk slowly through the halls, and cells, and torture chambers of what was once, not so very long ago, the Japanese prison used during the occupation. Many Korean suffered and died in these halls. So to walk though it all, to be right there, right in the middle of such place, is rather unsettling. However, it is not the idea of what once was that really shakes you to the bone. Oh no, it is what is happening right [View Full Entry]

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Home again, home again. And this time, that "coming home" feeling after a long holiday- that feeling that you no longer need to expend yourself, no longer need to BE somebody else, you can just relax and live "normally"- that feeling is here. And yet, as would be expected, it feels nothing like that. A few weeks in the Philippines, as it turns out, was exactly what I needed to kick start the next few years of my independent. Before the Philippines I was still holding on, still in that transitional stage of "what do I bring from home here? how [View Full Entry]

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Travis has arrived...... And it is just as I suspected. I was an idiot not to rest up before he got here. I knew that would bite me in the ass. How strange of an experience it is to be a "regular" in a foreign place. Having been on the island of Boracay for at least a few days now...a good week not including the break we had in the Northern part of the country....I am now, of course, and expert. I know where to go to have the best mango banana shake, the bets place to see the view of [View Full Entry]

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Interesting way to spend Valentines Day- praying for my life. My hip flexors and glutes have never felt quite like this before, and I'm sure never will again. Mixed with an utter sense of accomplishment, I feel totally drained. Good thing we have an unimaginably lon, cramped, arduous bus ride ahead of us. With any luck, I'll sleep the whole way from Banaue to Manila. Banana pancakes and a banana pineapple salad (half of each) and one small bottle of water at 7 am were all I had to fuel my terrace traversing this morning. I knew it would be difficult, [View Full Entry]

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"You don't spend a centavos when you smile." Mary, the wife of Emiliano, the owner of this lodging and carving studio, up here in this breathtaking scenary, is yet another reason I have fallen in love with the Philippines. She is intelligent, and she is able to present to us an authentic view of Filipino life up here in Ifugao country, high in the mountains. She has given us more reason to trust the people of this country. I could write forever about how the people you meet while travelling colour yoru experience, and I will, no doubt, write about that [View Full Entry]

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Favorite part of travelling so far? For sure, without a doubt, the people. For good or bad it is what makes or breaks a trip. Today I have fully realized the other beauty- this morning I was on a beach in Boracay and hours later I am paddling on a mountain "lagoon" in Baguio. Different landscape almost entirely...and by tomorrow morning I will be in Banaue. It is safe to say I am partially more at east, though a little disappointed, we will not be traversing the death road by bus that travels from Baguio to Sagada. If we find our [View Full Entry]

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It has been 4 days now in Boracay. Small impressions include tiny ants (bed bugs) on my bed and all over my clothes, bits of seashells and coral along the fine, smooth, white sand shoreline, bowl of "goto", Filipino congee, along with the chicken (or duck) egg and black yoke (incidentally, in case you were wondering, yes the black yoke is a half formed fetus...yum yum), "turo turo"s along the "road" with quiet, kind, eager Filipionos awaiting late night white curious customers, sausage on a stick sliced and diced in a floral pattern coated in a sweet tangy spice BBQ sauce, [View Full Entry]

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Sense of smell is the sense of memory. Without having to think about it- to build a story in your mind to make sense of it all- that sense brings oyou right there. It is amazing how you can be in one place and feel so utterly in another. The brain works that way, associating one event, one experience, with another. I have no experiences of the Philippines to comare to...but I have the DR. And I have never been in two places so far from eachother geographically that are so utterly alike in the framework of my life experience. How [View Full Entry]

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