I am currently in the Philippines for two weeks visiting family and taking advantage of the low prices. The flight over was pretty sweet - Asiana Airlines serves bibimbap for airplane food, and there is free internet at Incheon Airport! I have eaten so many delicious Filipino dishes, but the best one by far that I have never tried before is balut. Not for the faint of heart, balut is a duck egg with the embryo still inside. You slurp the juices and then eat the nearly formed chick. Delicious.
Anyway...I am staying with my mother's side of the family. The reason I am here is because my lola (grandma) wanted to see at least one of her American grandkids. I feel so American here! There isn't much of a language barrier because English is the second official language of the Philippines, but it gets very frustrating when the relatives speak rapid Tagalog I have no hope of following, or attempting to talk to sales clerks who know English but expect you to know Tagalog. On the bright side, my aunts and uncles are amazing and my grandparents are alive and kickin' (for the most part). I am able to blend in with the crowd until I open my mouth since everyone is Filipino (I have yet to see more than a handful of foreigners).
I love being here and making my lola happy, even though I mostly bum around the house. The home-cooked food is amazing and prices for everything are ridiculously cheap. I also saw the Korean version of Boys Over Flowers playing on one of the cable channels, as well as this strange show where males impersonate female celebrities and compete to win 50,000 pesos. Yay for the Philippines. :)
I took Asiana Airlines when I went to China (we stopped for a layover at Incheon.) The attendents were so nice! And they serve bibimbap to us as well.
ReplyDeleteWhile at Incheon Airport, there was a livesize cutout of a couple of the boys over flowers characters. I wanted to go take my picture with them, but I didn't see them until I was in line to get on the airplane. So sad!!
-Cheryl
I personally think the Asiana ladies are a little creepy because they talk the same and have the same makeup and hairstyle... Also, I think there are multiple MBC buildings, I think you want to find the in Yeouido (여의도). Have fun in the Philippines and Korea... I wanted to do one Kareoke with you before you left but I was too late... ㅠ_ㅠ
ReplyDeleteOh Cheryl! :) That is all sorts of awesome.
ReplyDeleteWill do Jess! We can do karaoke when everyone's back in good ol' B-Norm.