I got back into the country on sunday and I slept for nearly a day after I called Marleen and told her that I was back at the house. Of course, I couldn't wait to get home to tell her how much I miss her and how difficult it was to keep my feet moving away from her general direction.
I spent 2 of the most amazing weeks with a friend whom I would be completely comfortable in assuming would do just about anything to make me happy... After returning from my trip I have only 3 regrets. Let me explain them:
My first regret of my trip surfaced even before I got to the Philippines. I flew mostly 1-5 hour flights while in America. In San Francisco, when I checked in for my flight to Manila, I was given a choice of either and aisle seat or a window seat. What in my brain led me to believe that I would be content to stare out into the dark sky for 13 hours? I will never know...
I sat in a window seat that was right above the wing so, while I didn't have a seat in front of me I did have to squeeze in past the emergency slide housing. Just to let y'all know, I am not a small man by any stretch of the imagination. I was easily the tallest person on the plane and the second tallest man in the Philippines... ( the tallest would have to have been Marleen's brother Ruben, who stood at least 3 inches taller than me. I still wonder just what happened to this kid, because his father is about 8 inches shorter than me and his mother just barely comes up to my chest!) Next to me sat a guy who was just as wide as I am and that is never a good thing... He was very polite and continued to ask if I was comfortable, but knowing that there was little he could do to actually help me be any more comfortable (Short of putting a matress in the aisle, that is.), I lied and said that I was just fine. I still insist that if I had asked that lady at the counter for an aisle seat, I would have enjoyed the in-flight movies, the food, and the hour or so of sleep that I got much more. I cannot blame the short hour nap on the small seat, though. I think the real culprit was my own nervous energy. Nonetheless, I promised myself that I would never again choose a window seat on a 13 hour flight. I made a very important discovery on that flight, though! I discovered how much I love that bathroom on the plane! It is like my own little private world. Just about anything that I would ever need on the flight. It is well lit, relatively spacious, comfortable, and there is just a nice slight breeze in there. I spent a goodly chunk of the flight sitting and either reading Harry Potter or marvelling at the razor blade receptacle. (Mysterious, but very handy if you found yourself burdened with dull razor blades!
)
After the plane started crossing over land my eyes shot open and the REALLY big smile stretched across my face. My face stayed that way all the way through customs, up to the money changer, well past the security checkpoints and far beyond the few hours of layover before my flight to Cebu. While I deeply regret getting a trans-Pacific window seat, I couldn't be more grateful for the window seat to Cebu! The country is just too beautiful to explain. The mountains, the cerulean waters near the shores, the clouds that tiptoe across the ocean but lounge over the water, the way they cling to the mountains... I have never seen anything so amazing up until that point!
As we crossed over Cebu the smile kind of shrank down a bit as the worries of Marleen's reaction to me came to mind. Always the possibility that she would take one look at me and decide right there that she didn't like me... I told her that I would bring two flowers to help her single me out in the crowd. The moment I dragged the flowers out of my bag, every eye in the airport was on me! I almost had a mind to put them back in but I thought better of it and just held them up high... I am certain that I looked like the Statue of Liberty, but with a bigger smile and much bigger eyes. I looked all around and still didn't see her so I just kind of milled around until a strange man came up to me and asked for me to follow him. What english he could speak was heavily accented and so I could not understand a word he said, so I just smiled like a good, dumb tourist and let him lead me outside to where the larger group of greeters waited. I started to wonder if Marleen hadn't gotten there yet or was just too shy to meet me at the airport... Just as we got out outside the door, he pointed ahead and said something that I couldn't understand. I looked to where he pointed and a some lady in the distance was waving in my direction... she looked really excited and so I started looking around for who she was waving at. Seeing no one around us, I looked back down to the man, now walking beside me, and he pointed to the same spot and I looked up to see the the waving woman was now dashing towards us... she was really excited! I looked around again and since there was no one else around, I started to hesitate, because I had the idea that Marleen would be jealous if she witnessed a strange woman running and waving at me. Then I REALLY started worrying that she would not like me once she saw me...
The woman started getting closer and all of a sudden she snapped into focus and after realizing that this was Marleen running and waving and shouting my name, all of my fears and worries evaporated! I started running too and we shared a big hug before assaulting each other with tons of compliments and questions and gifts and food. From the instant I saw her running at me, we were inseperable. We talked and talked and laughed and giggled nearly nonstop until I collapsed on the bed in the room from exhaustion. Even in the taxi we talked which is quite substantial because Marleen had told me to expect that she would be too shy to speak to me in front of very many people, such as on the jeeps on the streets and in taxi cabs. She spoke freely and easily and her lack of hesitation made me feel even more comfortable.
I promise y'all that there was absolutely no difference in the style of our conversations from the countless hours in chat, the many letters, the hundreds of text messages, and the many many hours on the phone; than there was in the cab or there after! We just seem to make each other very comfortable.
We went to the hotel that I had made reservations for 4 weeks earlier and then sent a confirming email to make sure that they would have the room free when I got there... Alas, we had to wait for about 4 hours until the room would be vacant. Not good business if you ask me, but I didn't really care too much. I had the best conversationalist/tour guide/ travelling companion that the Philippines could have possibly offered me. We walked to a nearby Jollibee ( the Phils' answer to McDonalds I assume) and I was shocked and amazed, again! They sell things in that place that would confound moast americans... burgers, fries, nachos and fried chicken... sure! Soup, rice, eggrolls dumplings and ice cream all in one restaruant!!! Too great! I had thought that the food selection was something to behold, but then I was really impressed when a place that I equated to McDonalds, had some one bring our food to our table without the customary rolling eyes that we get in America with that kind of service... what's more! The food was served on honest to goodness plates and we ate with actual silverware! Amazing!
At Jollibee, we stopped chattering to each other for only as long as it took to order and then back to giggling and laughing. We talked about everything. Things that never even occured to us on the phone and in chat. Things like insurance, teeth, and money. Not even what you would think of when someone talks about money. We talked about the colors and symbols and faces on money we listed out the denominations of coin and currency. Needless to say, for every light conversation that we had about this and that, there were deep and involved conversations about our wants and hopes in life, love, religion and everything. We went to the mall and I did a little looking around and a
little... ::ahem::
candy shopping... This place called Aji Ichiban has all these candies that I had never seen! I am always eager to try new things... at worst you might not like them... when you are as odd and optimistic as myself you will most likely find a new favorite thing! (so it was more like a candy shopping spree) If Marleen wasn't there to stop me from getting everything I would have spent at least P1000 in that shop. I had my first slice of Hawaian pizza and we picked up a birthday cake for Marleen's birthday. We took a nap in our separate beds... well I slept like a baby, because I had just finished off 48 hours with but one hour's sleep... Marleen couldn't sleep. We rode a 5 hour boat to Leyte that night and got into her parents house at about 2am... I instantly felt at home there. everyone woke up to welcome me to the house and to make sure that I was settling in comfortably even Precious Ann!
( She is too cute for words!)
I feel that I am much more appreciative of the many things that I have but I am also burdened with the wisdom that states that I really don't need most of the things that wait for me back in America. I had expected for the house to be a cardboard and tin shack with dirt floors and a few bamboo strips to keep you off the floor when you slept. I was shocked how everything was just perfect. Yes Marleen's family is poor, but what they lack in fat pockets they make up for in closeness and happiness... just watch Ann and her Grandpa making a cooking fire and you will see what I meen... the man is 65 but looks like a 30 year old when Ann is around. All of her family memebers were so friendly and open. I worried that no one would talk to me and they would think that I just looked mean. (aparently not!) Everything that I could have possibly wanted was there and I got to see what provincial life is like... or so I had thought... I thought that the whole family was using the toilet paper that was sitting there... aparently it was only me... I took to the pinoy bathtubs like I had used them my whole life and, just as with the toilet paper, I realized that I wasn't doing it all quite the way that everyone else does it.... later I got the hang of the bathing and some of the other stuff.
On Marleen's birthday I finally admitted that I deeper feelings for her and I read to her all of the letters that I had wrote the month prior to my vacation that also made it plainly obvious that I was helplessly enamored with her. She took a few days to warm up to the actual vocalization of her feelings but she made it very clear that she felt the same way as I did for nearly as long as I did (which is to say a long time!)
To jump ahead to the last day of my stay in Leyte when Marleen and I finally told everyone else about our feelings andintentions toward one another... The warm welcoming nature of the ladies in the family shifted instantly to the mode of a Grand Inquisition. I remember it as the least comfortable time I ever had in Leyte... I was sitting in the kitchen and Marleen called out to me feebly from the living room and when I got there the eyes of every girl in the house was on me and there was not a laugh or giggle in sight.
Marleen prompted me to tell them what we had talked about the night before and after finished the serious talk some 30 minutes later, the smiles came back... finally
I went with Delsa, Marleen and their father to the farm and we ate coconuts and drank their milk and they were completely different than the coconuts that we have in the States. I lost my shoes so many times on the way to the farm and I suffered the same losses on the way back... (Lesson for that day: Mud loves sandals... and that love is like a fist full of feathers to Delsa, Marleen and their father!)
I have so much more to talk about my stay in Leyte and my time with Marleen in Cebu. My adventures with vans, drivers, traffic, fellow foreigners, heavily armed guards, Jeepneys, that horrible kissing noise, music television, videoke, Dance Dance Revolution, dodong charing, pinay jealousy and insecurity, construction workers, Marleen's shockingly shrewd business savvy, superstions, nail clippings, toilet paper (phils style), street vendors, customs/security and my last 2 regrets.
I had such an amazing time and I want to share it all, but I am still exhausted somehow. I was to finish this installment by thanking one among you who had a direct hand in making this wonderful experience and the past 6 months the happiest I have ever known... Linda thank you so much!
I will be around and I will write some more.
Sincerely,
Homeslice
I spent 2 of the most amazing weeks with a friend whom I would be completely comfortable in assuming would do just about anything to make me happy... After returning from my trip I have only 3 regrets. Let me explain them:
My first regret of my trip surfaced even before I got to the Philippines. I flew mostly 1-5 hour flights while in America. In San Francisco, when I checked in for my flight to Manila, I was given a choice of either and aisle seat or a window seat. What in my brain led me to believe that I would be content to stare out into the dark sky for 13 hours? I will never know...
I sat in a window seat that was right above the wing so, while I didn't have a seat in front of me I did have to squeeze in past the emergency slide housing. Just to let y'all know, I am not a small man by any stretch of the imagination. I was easily the tallest person on the plane and the second tallest man in the Philippines... ( the tallest would have to have been Marleen's brother Ruben, who stood at least 3 inches taller than me. I still wonder just what happened to this kid, because his father is about 8 inches shorter than me and his mother just barely comes up to my chest!) Next to me sat a guy who was just as wide as I am and that is never a good thing... He was very polite and continued to ask if I was comfortable, but knowing that there was little he could do to actually help me be any more comfortable (Short of putting a matress in the aisle, that is.), I lied and said that I was just fine. I still insist that if I had asked that lady at the counter for an aisle seat, I would have enjoyed the in-flight movies, the food, and the hour or so of sleep that I got much more. I cannot blame the short hour nap on the small seat, though. I think the real culprit was my own nervous energy. Nonetheless, I promised myself that I would never again choose a window seat on a 13 hour flight. I made a very important discovery on that flight, though! I discovered how much I love that bathroom on the plane! It is like my own little private world. Just about anything that I would ever need on the flight. It is well lit, relatively spacious, comfortable, and there is just a nice slight breeze in there. I spent a goodly chunk of the flight sitting and either reading Harry Potter or marvelling at the razor blade receptacle. (Mysterious, but very handy if you found yourself burdened with dull razor blades!
After the plane started crossing over land my eyes shot open and the REALLY big smile stretched across my face. My face stayed that way all the way through customs, up to the money changer, well past the security checkpoints and far beyond the few hours of layover before my flight to Cebu. While I deeply regret getting a trans-Pacific window seat, I couldn't be more grateful for the window seat to Cebu! The country is just too beautiful to explain. The mountains, the cerulean waters near the shores, the clouds that tiptoe across the ocean but lounge over the water, the way they cling to the mountains... I have never seen anything so amazing up until that point!
As we crossed over Cebu the smile kind of shrank down a bit as the worries of Marleen's reaction to me came to mind. Always the possibility that she would take one look at me and decide right there that she didn't like me... I told her that I would bring two flowers to help her single me out in the crowd. The moment I dragged the flowers out of my bag, every eye in the airport was on me! I almost had a mind to put them back in but I thought better of it and just held them up high... I am certain that I looked like the Statue of Liberty, but with a bigger smile and much bigger eyes. I looked all around and still didn't see her so I just kind of milled around until a strange man came up to me and asked for me to follow him. What english he could speak was heavily accented and so I could not understand a word he said, so I just smiled like a good, dumb tourist and let him lead me outside to where the larger group of greeters waited. I started to wonder if Marleen hadn't gotten there yet or was just too shy to meet me at the airport... Just as we got out outside the door, he pointed ahead and said something that I couldn't understand. I looked to where he pointed and a some lady in the distance was waving in my direction... she looked really excited and so I started looking around for who she was waving at. Seeing no one around us, I looked back down to the man, now walking beside me, and he pointed to the same spot and I looked up to see the the waving woman was now dashing towards us... she was really excited! I looked around again and since there was no one else around, I started to hesitate, because I had the idea that Marleen would be jealous if she witnessed a strange woman running and waving at me. Then I REALLY started worrying that she would not like me once she saw me...
The woman started getting closer and all of a sudden she snapped into focus and after realizing that this was Marleen running and waving and shouting my name, all of my fears and worries evaporated! I started running too and we shared a big hug before assaulting each other with tons of compliments and questions and gifts and food. From the instant I saw her running at me, we were inseperable. We talked and talked and laughed and giggled nearly nonstop until I collapsed on the bed in the room from exhaustion. Even in the taxi we talked which is quite substantial because Marleen had told me to expect that she would be too shy to speak to me in front of very many people, such as on the jeeps on the streets and in taxi cabs. She spoke freely and easily and her lack of hesitation made me feel even more comfortable.
I promise y'all that there was absolutely no difference in the style of our conversations from the countless hours in chat, the many letters, the hundreds of text messages, and the many many hours on the phone; than there was in the cab or there after! We just seem to make each other very comfortable.
We went to the hotel that I had made reservations for 4 weeks earlier and then sent a confirming email to make sure that they would have the room free when I got there... Alas, we had to wait for about 4 hours until the room would be vacant. Not good business if you ask me, but I didn't really care too much. I had the best conversationalist/tour guide/ travelling companion that the Philippines could have possibly offered me. We walked to a nearby Jollibee ( the Phils' answer to McDonalds I assume) and I was shocked and amazed, again! They sell things in that place that would confound moast americans... burgers, fries, nachos and fried chicken... sure! Soup, rice, eggrolls dumplings and ice cream all in one restaruant!!! Too great! I had thought that the food selection was something to behold, but then I was really impressed when a place that I equated to McDonalds, had some one bring our food to our table without the customary rolling eyes that we get in America with that kind of service... what's more! The food was served on honest to goodness plates and we ate with actual silverware! Amazing!
At Jollibee, we stopped chattering to each other for only as long as it took to order and then back to giggling and laughing. We talked about everything. Things that never even occured to us on the phone and in chat. Things like insurance, teeth, and money. Not even what you would think of when someone talks about money. We talked about the colors and symbols and faces on money we listed out the denominations of coin and currency. Needless to say, for every light conversation that we had about this and that, there were deep and involved conversations about our wants and hopes in life, love, religion and everything. We went to the mall and I did a little looking around and a
I feel that I am much more appreciative of the many things that I have but I am also burdened with the wisdom that states that I really don't need most of the things that wait for me back in America. I had expected for the house to be a cardboard and tin shack with dirt floors and a few bamboo strips to keep you off the floor when you slept. I was shocked how everything was just perfect. Yes Marleen's family is poor, but what they lack in fat pockets they make up for in closeness and happiness... just watch Ann and her Grandpa making a cooking fire and you will see what I meen... the man is 65 but looks like a 30 year old when Ann is around. All of her family memebers were so friendly and open. I worried that no one would talk to me and they would think that I just looked mean. (aparently not!) Everything that I could have possibly wanted was there and I got to see what provincial life is like... or so I had thought... I thought that the whole family was using the toilet paper that was sitting there... aparently it was only me... I took to the pinoy bathtubs like I had used them my whole life and, just as with the toilet paper, I realized that I wasn't doing it all quite the way that everyone else does it.... later I got the hang of the bathing and some of the other stuff.
On Marleen's birthday I finally admitted that I deeper feelings for her and I read to her all of the letters that I had wrote the month prior to my vacation that also made it plainly obvious that I was helplessly enamored with her. She took a few days to warm up to the actual vocalization of her feelings but she made it very clear that she felt the same way as I did for nearly as long as I did (which is to say a long time!)
To jump ahead to the last day of my stay in Leyte when Marleen and I finally told everyone else about our feelings andintentions toward one another... The warm welcoming nature of the ladies in the family shifted instantly to the mode of a Grand Inquisition. I remember it as the least comfortable time I ever had in Leyte... I was sitting in the kitchen and Marleen called out to me feebly from the living room and when I got there the eyes of every girl in the house was on me and there was not a laugh or giggle in sight.
I went with Delsa, Marleen and their father to the farm and we ate coconuts and drank their milk and they were completely different than the coconuts that we have in the States. I lost my shoes so many times on the way to the farm and I suffered the same losses on the way back... (Lesson for that day: Mud loves sandals... and that love is like a fist full of feathers to Delsa, Marleen and their father!)
I have so much more to talk about my stay in Leyte and my time with Marleen in Cebu. My adventures with vans, drivers, traffic, fellow foreigners, heavily armed guards, Jeepneys, that horrible kissing noise, music television, videoke, Dance Dance Revolution, dodong charing, pinay jealousy and insecurity, construction workers, Marleen's shockingly shrewd business savvy, superstions, nail clippings, toilet paper (phils style), street vendors, customs/security and my last 2 regrets.
I had such an amazing time and I want to share it all, but I am still exhausted somehow. I was to finish this installment by thanking one among you who had a direct hand in making this wonderful experience and the past 6 months the happiest I have ever known... Linda thank you so much!
I will be around and I will write some more.
Sincerely,
Homeslice


