Photo Project

Well I took a break from this but I'll get back on it and hopefully soon it'll be with my way nice new Canon camera :) This week the topic is Father's in honor of Father's Day coming this Sunday, I'll see what I can come up with!

Our last days in the Philippines

Well We finally made it back home after 28 hours of traveling and yucky plane food, but we made it! Our last few days were mostly composed of eating our body weight in mango shakes and shopping. We hit up 3 malls in one day, it was pretty exhausting. On our last day we just chilled at the hotel because there is so much stuff to do at Plantation bay! Then we left for the airport in Cebu to fly to Manila. It was funny, in the Cebu airport when Pete was checking us all in I guess someone had already checked in under my ticket and had a bag checked so they were trying to figure out whose it was so they went and got the bag back out of the baggage area and Pete calls me over and says "Emily, are you sure this isn't your bag?" and the reason he asked was because the bag had a Canadian bag tag on it...exactly like the one I had on my back pack and all the Tag said was the last name Morrison...It was kind of creepy! We got it all figured out and boarded our plane and found out that our group was basically the only ones on it so we all got our own row of 3 seats! When we arrived in Manila it was about midnight and the Delta ticket counter didn't open till 3am so we all laid down on the freezing cold tile floors and tried to sleep for 3 hours, when everyone woke up we were all soooo cold! It was like they were trying to make the airport the artic circle or something!! I had on 3 shirts, a sweater and my hoodie still couldn't seem to get warm! So finally get into the ticket line to check our bags and then we head to our terminal, our flight didn't end up leaving Manila until 7:45 am so we had a long long layover there. Next we fly into Tokyo and we found a McDonalds at the airport! Heaven! We all got large fries to take with us on the plane. The Tokyo flew straight into Salt Lake so we had no layovers and we were home. My mom came and got me and as soon as we were in the car I said "Mom, I need real food, I need Cafe Rio right now." So we went to Cafe Rio and as the lady starts making my pork salad I told her no rice and she looked at me and says "what! no rice?" and I almost told her "you trying eating only rice for 2 weeks and then tell me you want to eat it still", but I didn't. Now I am sitting wide awake in my room, and it is now 3:22 am because I cannot sleep! Darn jet lag, it's a good thing I don't have to start work until Monday :) Well that is it for my adventure, next one doesn't start until the end of August...this time to CHINA!...with more rice :( I'm going to hope I love there noodles because I refuse to consume another grain of rice this year.

-my whole row I got on the plane-

Tuesday

So today we got to wake up when ever and then we headed over to the "Mall of Fakes" as it has come to be known by, this is because it has designer everything and they sell it for dirt cheap, which usually means they are fake. Our guide told us not to be surprised though if some of it is real because it can be imported here easily. So after about 3 hours of shopping there, we met up and drove to the SM Mall, which is gigantic!! and we shopped again for another 2 hours. Few things we noticed about malls in the Philippines...

#1: There are no trash cans...like anywhere! I had to go outside to find one!
#2: You can't sit on the floor...or you will get yelled at by security, we aren't sure why this is but it's evidently not allowed.
#3: You thought US sales associates were pushy...The ones here follow you through the entire store, I mean like they are like 2 feet away from you the whole time you shop! Suggesting things, asking if you need sizes, colors, etc. It was very obnoxious!

Well after the SM Mall we went to dinner at this place called the Maya, it was Mexican food which was pretty good seeing as it's from the Philippines. Then we split into 3 groups, one group went to a spa because you can get an hour long, full body massage for like $25, way good deal. The second group went to the movies to see the new X-Men movie. The last group just came back to the hotel. So I opened up my green second suitcase tonight and almost died of the horrid smell coming from it. I had designated it as my dirty clothes bag and boy did it wreak!! So rather than deal with the smell I filled the tub up with hot water and poured laundry detergent and shampoo into the tub and let my clothes soak ha ha, so now they are all drying in the bathroom :) At least they smell a bit better!

view from our hotel lobby

my clothes being washed in the tub :)

Monday

So this morning we woke up at 7am to head to an eco adventure camp that the mayor invited us to. It was a 2.5 hour drive up there and the roads are dirt so in was extremely bumpy. Fortunately for the girls we got to ride in the van with AC and not dust, but the guys on the other hand were in the back of those army trucks again and we all covered in a layer of dust when we finally got there. They all look like they'd aged 40 years because their hair was white-ish from all the dust. So once at the camp we could each do two activities, most of us did the zip line and the plunge. The zip line was about 45 seconds long, you are in a harness but lay flat on your stomach, kinda like superman and takes you across this huge high ravine and then you come back across again on a second one to get to the other side, I did that one. The plunge, I didn't do this one, but it dangled you over the edge of the same ravine and then drops you and you fall till the rope gets tight and then swing...yeah, crazy people did that one but it was sure fun to watch! After that we drove back down and if you want to know how that drive was just read the post I posted about driving...scary as all get out!!! We finally get to the pier and Pete went to McDonalds and brought back a box filled with 31 big macs and anther box filled with 31 large fries...we were quite content. We had an hour and a half boat ride to Cebu and got checked into our way nice hotel!! I'll post some pictures of it later, it was too dark to take any tonight.

-Joci and I before our zip line ride-

-The boys before their zip line...this is how we are strapped in-

-This is Nolan right before The Plunge-

-And after they yell bombs away they let you loose!!-

Driving through the Philippines

I had multiple near death experiences today. First of all, let me explain about how people drive in this country. 

#1: There are no rules on the road other than don't get hit...

#2: There are posted speed limits and signs but no one follows them...

#3: You are allowed to pass any other vehicle, anywhere and at anytime...

I have yet to see a stop light since coming here and it is just scary! So I have been driving in the front seat because I get car sick and I think I would rather risk throwing up than riding in in the front ever again after today. We had a 2.5 hour car ride today and the entire drive home I was either trying to remember CPR and first aid or covering my eyes with my hands. Our driver was going 105 kph, in a school zone, right when school got out!! I think he almost ran over like 15 kids! And then since you can just pass any vehicle whenever you please he would try to drive around a little trike and would pull into the opposite traffics lane and try to pass the trike, and all the while there is a huge truck coming right at us honking it's horn! It is pretty crazy! Pedestrians aren't much better...they just cross the street whenever and we basically hit some guy today who ran out in front of our van. I do believe from now on I shall be riding somewhere that aI cannot see out the front window.

Sunday

Today started with an interesting morning, a mistake on my part. So we were supposed to wake up and be down in the lobby by 8am this morning to leave for church so I set my alarm on my phone fr 6:30am and this morning we get a phone call that wakes us up from Joellen asking if we are almost ready to go...we weren't we had just woken up to see whose calling so early...I then look at my phone and realize it is still on LA time and never changed so we didn't get an alarm and ended up sleeping in till 8:15am. Needless to say we were left behind this morning, which was okay cause I guess quite a few were sick. So we order french toast and mango shakes to our room for breakfast and watch Eclipse :) it was a lovely and relaxing morning. When everyone else got back we all went to the Bohol Beach Club which is so so nice! Beach hammocks, mango shakes, the ocean, and a way nice pool. We spent the entire afternoon there just relaxing and having fun, it was very nice! We then came back to the hotel and got ready for dinner and went to a place called Joe's, it's one of Pete's favorites, and had teriyaki pork skewers and chicken skewers, it was so so good! First meat I'd eaten in two weeks! Then we came back to the hotel and Joci and I watched a movie with the boys from our group...they wanted to watch Mean Girls (really big, funny, chick flick). We leave Bohol tomorrow morning and head to Cebu to this amazingly nice hotel called Plantation Bay and just shopping and relaxing for the last 2 days! Off to bed!

Friday and Saturday

Friday

Well it was the last day on the island and we headed up to the building site after breakfast to try and get the walls started. We got it even with where the floor will be and afterwards we got a big picture taken with all the school kids in front of the school, I am pretty sure it took almost 15 minutes to get everyone situated to take that picture, but we got it taken and made 3 big copies and had everyone sign them. We gave them to some officials in government who helped us out. We also received a folder full of letters from each of the high school kids thanking us for the supplies and for building them new classrooms and they were so sweet and grateful for all we had done! We left for dinner and then watch another movie, this time we invited the school kids to watch with us and so we watched how to train your dragon and they absolutely loved it! After walking all the kids back home, we all watched the dark knight then headed to bed. Probably the worst night sleep I'd ever had on that island, the wind was blowing so so hard and knocking all the coconuts down out of the trees, which was making all the animals wake up and start with the noise again...AH!

Saturday

We Left the island this morning after getting no sleep. Packed everything up and got everything loaded on the boat just as it started to rain. It sprinkled a bit on the boat ride over and then we loaded up into the uncovered army trucks and headed up to the army camp. About 15 minutes into the ride it starts to down pour!! This down pour continues all day...but up at the camp we got to shoot some M-16 guns which are sooo loud! and then we went and watched the guys play basketball game against the army guys in the jersey that got made for us! They are sweet, the front says V4TP (vaccines for the philippines) 2011 and our number and then on the back our number again and our last names. They are sweet!! We then left to check into our hotel and eat and shower before heading across the street to watch the guys play their second game of the day against the college team and they didn't win that one but it was still fun to watch. I am very happy to be clean and sleeping in a real bed and have eaten a mango shake :)