Preface to the Vacation

A few things to mention before plunging into the recount of my vacation:

1) After seeing how unwieldy and long the posts recounting my trips to Japan and within Korea got, I've decided to break up the posts by day. Some days won't have much to say but it should be much easier to read. Plus, I really wanted to artificially inflate my numbers of posts and this should do it nicely.

2) I like the Philippines. Thought I'd get that one out there really early. I like it alot. Sure there are many, many things that need to be improved, as the Philippines would probably still be considered a third world country by most estimations, but there are many things to like. Personally, I like it more than Korea. Obviously just my opinion, but my argument is thus: The Philippines has better weather (perfect weather all year round), its much prettier, much cheaper, with much more to do and see, the English is much better (so almost everything is much easier for English speakers), the people are friendlier (Koreans are mighty friendly but Filipinos really, really go out of their way to help), the beer doesn't taste like piss water, the food is much more conducive to my stomach (can't go wrong with grilled chicken or other meat), and the attitude is much more conducive to me (everything is just much slower and more relaxed than Korea with much less emphasis on work, work, work). Then there's their women. Filipinas are approachable (the greatly improved English helps, but they don't pull the coquettish, shy, "I'm just an innocent little girl" act that is so frustrating), they have a figure (you know exactly what I'm talking about), and they are not afraid to approach men or make the first move (all the women that Jamie met at the clubs in Manila approached him). Plus there is the remaining Spanish influence due to their colonial domination for several hundred years. I've never been to Central and South America, but I imagine that they would feel similar to the Philippines in many ways, which is to say that the Philippines feels nothing like Asia and that is a very good thing for me.

3) English here is really good. Really, really good. I would take any random Filipino off the street over my current co-teacher to teach English speaking. Hell, I met a 10 year old girl who spoke near fluent English just from watching TV and home study. I don't think I will ever see a country with such a seamless integration of two languages. Everywhere you say English and Tagalog. TV shows, radio programs, whatever had a host that could and would just flip between the two at a moments notice. All the English language shows from the States appear without subtitles and all their national newspapers appear in English.

4) Korean influence is everywhere, at least while I'm still in Asia. Korean restaurants, Korean TV programs, Korean tourists, Korean music on the radio. It was everywhere. Hell, they were just as crazy about the "Boys Over Flowers" drama as Korea was, and their current Top 10 countdown for music featured 2 Korean songs (at #1 and #5).

5) No matter what I did while on the vacation, I couldn't shake this feeling that something was lacking from my vacation, that something was missing, that I hadn't really got absolutely everything out of this vacation that I could have. It could have been any number of things working together. Heavy rain and landslides that kept me from seeing some of the more beautiful mountain ranges, spending too much time just lounging around the beach and our resort when I wanted to get out and wander around, spending too much time in transit to this place or that place, rather than actually doing stuff, and also a travel companion I grew tired of (I love Jamie, but I got a little sick of the guy by the end....I'm sure he felt the same about me).

Now down to business.