there's got to be a better way to say that.

Spotted this in their city's museum when I visited the other day.  Apparently it's the flag Mindanaoans used as part of their rebellion against the Spanish and fight for independence.  

Took more than one Google search to find that last link.

Went to church on Sunday and got distracted a lot by the monkey just outside.

my first real task as a volunteer here: promo girl for the university-sponsored zumbathon.

Is it weird if the person giving you a foot massage has their hand between your legs?

Not a typo.

good morning, meat lovers.

divisoria.

Taken from the inside of a jeepney 'round the night markets they have on Friday and Saturday nights.  Php 6 for a trip ($0.20 NZD - the $1.80 fares back home can bite me).  I spent Friday night in the company of a girl who works at the research centre I'm at, wandering around and looking at imitation bags while talking about love, long-distance, and intellectual property.

survival tactics.

I'm so scared of crossing the road here that I've taken to ghosting people on the sidewalk.

room for two.

Watching Discovery Channel (an activity whose ironic value I'm fast becoming aware of -- I should be out there! discovering! instead of inside watching other people discover things) when I saw a mouse scuttle along the side of the wardrobe towards the door, out of my sightline.  

There's no way out of my room that isn't bolted shut, and so I've spent the last half hour playing let's pretend the floor is lava! 

I was taken out to dinner by two friends of the family and we went to an open-air seafood restaurant.  It was nice to see those two again - they work for a church out in the municipality where some of my family are based, and I'm going out to their church 'anniversary' this coming Sunday.

After only one day I'm also learning words thick and fast - lugar lang ('stop now'), asa dapit ('where is'), tag pila? (how much?).  I feel more in place than some, less in place than others.  There are two other volunteers here (one from France, one from Germany) and they're both particularly... Aryan.  We attended a birthday 'do for one of the people working at the research centre where I'm based and I noticed I laughed more easily than the two Europeans, was able to pick up fragments of the conversation and make people smile by dropping Cebuano words.  I don't speak the language, but I'm surprised by the amount of detritus has settled into my vocabulary by mere virtue of hearing it around me so often while growing up.  It's comforting, realising I've inherited more than I thought.