We made it!

I didn't blog at all here while we were in Massachusetts. Mainly because I was taking care of the kids completely on my own in a place that was foreign to them and didn't have the time. We lived through it, though.

Sunday, we got on the plane to Manila, and last night, we finally arrived.

I can't really report on first impressions, because it just wasn't indicative of what things really are like, I think. We got off the plane and made our way through Immigration. There was only one person in line ahead of us, so that was quite easy. I asked a porter to help us with our luggage, and by the time I made it to the baggage carousel, he had assigned someone else to the task for us, then that fellow had stopped to help someone else and another porter stepped in, all within about 30 feet. While we were getting bags, the third fellow swapped with another man again, who stuck with us over to customs. He had to leave us at customs. There was no line, and when he stopped the cart, he stooped to tie his shoe. I thought that was awesome, because his shoe wasn't untied. He was giving me time to get him a tip! LOL! Brilliant! I pulled out the bills we had left over from A's mission and trip in February, and not knowing how much was customary and knowing that it all added up to about $2.50, I just handed it all to him. When I got to A, I told him, and it turns out that they don't use the 5 and 10 peso notes anymore, so it really turned out to be about $1.50. He probably thought I was nuts.

Once we got through Customs, the porter hailed another porter whose job it is to take you to the curb. Of course, I was out of money when we got there, and I didn't see A, so I asked the porter if he could wait with me until A came because I didn't have any tip money. He offered to let me use his phone, and it turned out that A was literally standing 10 feet behind us looking for us, too. It's a good thing I called. Who knows how long we would have stood there looking in opposite directions?

Our driver, E, was looking for a place to park the car, so we waited a few minutes on the curb before we caught site of him, and then we all piled in. A put me in the front seat so I could see better, and we headed out. E is great! He was pointing out all the cool stuff along the route. I also saw the coolest jeepney in the country on our way, I think. It was all chromed out on the outside, with sparkly blue vinyl benches inside. The part below the benches was covered with vinyl in different shades of blue so that it looked like layers of waves. Awesomeness.

We made it to our community. It doesn't seem like we're very far into the subdivision. We were at our house in a few minutes time.

The pictures did not do this place justice. It is seriously cavernous. There is a living room that our bedrooms branch off of, and just that part of the house is about as big as our old house, and it's only one section of the house! There were all these weird perspective issues, too, with the pictures. Like the front door, I thought, was a normal sized door, but it's about half as wide again. There is a stairway I thought was typical, but it turned out to be twice as wide.

We wandered about for a while and then Brother B came over to say hi. He is one of our favorite people, so it was a nice treat! Then he put me on the phone with his wife, who is also one of my favorite people. Bonus!

I called home to let everyone know we were safe, and then we turned our attention toward bedtime. A put the girls to bed (HEAVEN for me after doing that one my own for the last month with two cranky girls who were missing their dad!) and I hopped into bed. My head was swimming. I was working on about 4 hours of sleep over the prior 30 hours of trekking through airports and entertaining children on long plane rides. Brain fuzz, plus the fact that the house, while semi-furnished, is still pretty spartan, gave me the feeling that I was moving into my first apartment. We're not surrounded by boxes, just a few bags that I haven't unpacked yet. Without all the mountains of things, it just feels very much like we're just starting out. Which I guess, in a way, we are.

Today, I want to drive through the community a bit, and we need to go into Makati so A can do some stuff at the office. Then we need to shop for a few more things to tide us over until our boxes arrive. We started the day with a dip in the pool and have been taking it easy ever since. A is making the girls their favorite breakfast, waffles, so I better go get some while the gettin's good!