So out of hospital now, but on the bright side, I met a lot of my family members: my aunts, uncles, grandpas, grandmas, and a whole lot of hyper baby cousins. It was great. My family is so big. And we visited different family members every day for the first week. I was still getting use to our way of living. We had electricity back in the USA and it was something I took for granted. I didn't spare a thought to where it came from or how lucky I was to have it. Here, they used a solar panel to convert light into electricity. Or the water. Water always came from the tap, hot water came gushing out of the shower, but in this country you had to pump it out! But at least my family there is fun to be with. Everyone is funny and they help you out with anything. They took us to visit a lot of places: The malls, the Fort Ilocandia Hotel and Resort, the bathroom, the beach.



Especially the beach, it was a wonderful sight. They had bamboo huts for picnics and then a whole lot of beach. I had a lot of fun. And I wore a bathing suit, which I thought was what everybody wore, but when I got dressed, my dad said, “You’re gonna wear that? All eyes on you, babe.” Yup. I was the only one wearing a bathing suit. Everyone there wore regular t-shirts and
shorts into the water. …Great... That is one thing about the people in the Philippines. They have their own unique style in the Philippines, they’re more conservative. Not many people wear short skirts or low tops: Like my dad said, “Don’t bring skirts. They don’t try to be sexy there.” And I was forewarned that a lot of guys would be after me all the time if I did. And they were, according to my brother.

Every time we would go out walking, my brother would point out that there were a million eyes on me. Like one incident when we were about to cross the street. I was talking to my cousin about something and then she started laughing. And then my brother and dad started laughing. I was wondering, “Well, what’s so funny?” The story goes that while we were waiting to cross the
street, a guy riding by saw me and was staring – a lot – with his eyes wide open. He kept staring, and even when he already passed by, he stuck his neck wide out and stared at me. Uh… whatever. Weirdos.

And my brother was totally awed by every girl that passed by him. I bet he was in heaven. But one thing that Filipinos like that I am interested in are cell phones. Everybody has a cell phone. Everybody wants the latest cell phone. In fact, everybody is interested in all the latest technology. They seem to be fascinated by it. They kept touching my Ipod, wanting to check out my brother's camera, kept using my mum's video camera.