MackDos, Coppers, and my new alarm clock

Mornings here are full of sounds. The first thing I hear is my new alarm clock, also known as the neighbors' househelp sweeping the front walks and driveways clean. You would be amazed at how loud that can be when there are 3 or 4 women out there doing it at the same time. The first morning we were here, I got up before anyone else and wandered around the house for a bit, then stepped out to the backyard to look around there. I was still in my nightgown, and was surprised to find someone whistling at me. Is that how things are around here? Sheesh! I headed back inside and just as I was closing the sliding glass doors, the whistle changed a bit and I realized that it wasn't that we had rude neighbors at all. It was that one of our neighbors has a noisy parrot!

Yesterday we got our car. It's a new Toyota SUV/van hybrid thingy. It's a diesel, because regular gas is about 50% more expensive here for some reason. We drove up into Makati so A could sign papers for the office space, and then we took the kids to a McDonalds for dinner. It's called McDos here (say: MackDoughs) and offers fried chicken with rice and spaghetti in addition to the typical burgers and fries. We also learned that the Happy Meal comes with a drink, toy, and burger or chicken nuggets. It does not come with fries. Though, there is a meal for the same price that is a drink, burger, and fries, no toy. I think it's best the kids cut back on their fry intake anyway. I got a burger and the patty was really good. It actually tasted like beef! I haven't willingly eaten at a McDonalds for months now because I just couldn't take it anymore, but it's actually quite yummy here!

Eating at McDos was our first experience being the obvious minority. When we walked in, everyone looked at us, which I kind of expected, but then when we sat down to eat there were a handful of older people scattered around the restaurant who just kept on staring, open mouthed and befuzzled. I didn't quite realize what a novelty we were going to be, but ok. I thought there were lots of foreigners in the country. Apparently, not so many frequent that particular McDos in Makati, though!

The other night when A picked us up from the airport, he announced that the cops had been in our neighborhood the night before. I cringed. We picked this particular subdivision because it is so secure and our last neighborhood was so not. The cops were in our last neighborhood on a weekly basis by the time we left. I was not looking forward to a repeat of that. But, no. A went on to explain that our neighbor across the street is a retired Supreme Court Justice and now his son is on the Supreme Court. The son was visiting the father, and all the police where there as the son's escort. That was a bit of a 180.

I woke up last night at 1 am, just a few minutes before my brother called to let me know that my mom was out of surgery and doing well. I couldn't sleep after that, so I went into the kitchen and cleaned up a bit. We have household friends here already in the form of little lizzards about the size of a gecko who make themselves scarce during the day, but wander free at night and eat their fill of buggies. You just leave them alone and they leave you alone and save you from pests at the same time. If they keep skittering out of no where when I walk into empty rooms in the middle of the night half awake, I'm not sure how good I'm going to be at keeping up my end of the deal, though.

The girls were also awake, but stayed in their beds until they realized I was up, too. So, then began 3 hours of trying to keep them still and quiet so A could sleep while we dealt with being on the wrong side of the world for our circadian rhythym's liking. At 5:30, I gave up and told the kids to put on a show and started making breakfast.

This is when I learned some more things. First was more of a reminder that it is a good idea to break an egg into a seperate bowl instead of into the working bowl, because you never know when you are going to get one that isn't good. So, after throwing 5 eggs down the drain, I started over. That is when I noticed that eggs here are not quite so spiffy-clean as they are in the US. I don't know how they clean them back there, but an egg in the US is expected to be white (or light brown) all over. I imagine if someone found brown streaks of a questionable nature on the outside of an egg in the US, a store manager would get an earfull. Most of the eggs in the 3-dozen flat had at least some "stuff" on it. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be washing them myself before cracking them open, or if it doesn't matter or what. This is why I cannot be trusted to cook my own food.

For a moment, it looked like I wasn't going to be ABLE to cook my own food. I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out how to light the burners on our stove. I know A had cooked bacon yesterday, so there had to be a way, but I was baffled. There weren't any matches anywhere, so I knew I wasn't supposed to light them manually. In the end, I got A out of bed to show me and found out that I just needed to turn them on slower than I was to get the sparking doo-hickey a chance to make the spark.

The kids and I swam and got cleaned up and dressed after breakfast. Now, we're just sitting around being bored, really. Nothing like jetlag to throw off your whole day. We have been awake for 8 hours now, and it feels like the day is slipping away, though in reality it's only 9:30 am. A should be home from the office in a few hours, and then he is taking them to a movie so I can run around the mall and do some shopping, since we were unable to make it yesterday. About the time we leave, I bet I'll finally be tired!

Curse you, jet lag! Curse you!