I know I haven’t had much to say lately, but it’s been a strange mix of business and having absolutely nothing to do. This coming month should be pretty busy and last weekend was certainly jam-packed.
Last Friday I left school after lunch, like I will the next 3 weeks in a row, and headed into Naga. There was a JICA volunteer (Japanese peace corps-type program), Rumiko, that I met a couple of months ago. She was stationed in the city where I was training and was friends with my language instructor (also her language instructor). After spending 2 years in the Philippines, she’s leaving to go back home to Japan and her despedida (good-bye party) was on Friday night. The whole event was quite festive. There’s a nice outdoor shop in Naga (we’ve already managed to make friends with Jojo, the manager and my language instructor Eva’s cousin, and get the inside track on hiking and stuff in the area) which has a climbing wall area. In this space everyone gathered, ate, drank and sang videoke. Jojo, who happens to be a fantastic artist, did a nice little sign for Rumiko right on the climbing wall and we sat around enjoying ourselves until the wee hours of the morning.
The following morning I headed to the market to buy supplies for guacamole and then jumped in a filcab (a 12 passenger, frequently filled with 14 or 15, van for hire that runs certain routes between cities and is much faster than the bus) with another volunteer and hi-tailed it to Legaspi, where we bumped into more volunteers, and proceeded directly on to Donsol. There is a volunteer lucky enough to be in Donsol, lucky because it’s a very cute little town and it’s where you come to “interact” with whale sharks.
We didn’t go out whale sharking (it’s not the season for it anymore, and it’s expensive) but most of the volunteers in Bicol did gather for an early 4th of July celebration. All in all, there were 13 PCVs, 1 language instructor, 1 RPCV who used to be in Sorsogon and his host brother and 500 of Julia’s closest friends and neighbors. Ok, it wasn’t really 500!but it seemed like it.
The day was spent singing videoke on the machine we rented, cooking “American food” (curry, Mexican, and vegetarian friendly Filipino dishes), drinking beer and coca-cola, getting interviewed by the neighborhood children for English Club, climbing the coconut tree in Julia’s yard, holding a Miss Gay mini-pageant in the backyard (we asked the kids what they wanted to play and this was their decision!), making s’mores and hoping that we didn’t all get worms from the sand (apparently the waste disposal in the neighborhood isn’t very good and we were cautioned to wash our feet and any other part of us that touched the ground). We were supposed to light some fireworks, but it got a bit late and we nixed that plan. Videoke machines are bawal (forbidden) in this neighborhood after 10, so we turned it off around around 10:15 and found ourselves about ready to go to bed since there wasn’t much else to do that was quiet.
After some ridiculous drunken antics on the part of certain male volunteer individuals who shall remain nameless, we all managed to spread out our stuff and arrange ourselves on the floor of Julia’s living room. Three volunteers slept at a local resort, but the other 10 of us managed to crash on the cement floor without too much trouble. Once the lights were out and many people weren’t ready for sleep came the obligatory ghost stories.
I’m usually the last person to fall asleep, and this time was no different- most people nodded off somewhere within the first few minutes but I managed to listen to quite a few scary tales, 3 hilarious stories about Jarod’s brother (that I’ve heard before and howl at every time) and some random comments that always ensue when a large group of people try to go to sleep in a small space at the same time. Needless to say, when we were awakened at 7 am the next morning (that’s late, by local standards) when someone started blasting the Ghostbusters theme song next door I was quite amused and not too pissed about being awake after not too much sleep on a cement floor.
We all hung around and made a nice breakfast, divvied up the costs and coughed up cash and eventually made our way back to town to go to Legaspi. In the filcab on the way there was a ridiculous storm that had more than a few of us feeling a little nervous. We were pretty much on the top of the mountain, water rushing over the road, packed into a van, trees getting struck by lightning only meters away from us all the while careening around hairpin turns hoping that we would only just stay on the road and arrive alive.
When we rolled into Legaspi, the weather was fine and I finally got to go to this amazing local sandwich shop that I’ve heard a lot about. It’s a German style restaurant, owned by a German ex-pat (whom I have not met yet, but I plan on making friends with so I can get cheese) and it serves amazing things like prosciutto, black forest ham, provolone and feta. I ordered a greek salad and forced myself to eat the entire thing. It was more vegetables than I’ve seen in one dish since I arrived in this country. I’ve decided that I’m saving up to buy myself feta for my birthday- they sell it in packs in the restaurant shop. The meal was a little pricey by usual standards, but it was worth the splurge. I hear that there’s a pretty decent Mexican restaurant right next door.
So, that pretty much sums up the last weekend. It was a long trip home and I had to wait for way too long in the grocery store before heading back (and almost missing the last van to my town). The weekend used up way too much cash, but it was worth it. So when’s the next major American holiday and who’s hosting?