We All Get Older, We Don't All Get Grown.

(4:30-ish PM) This morning I woke up in Manila.  At around noon, I was on a plane to Boracay.  I got up, worked out, went to the bank, repacked, and forgot to eat breakfast.  At Ninoy Aquino Airport, I had my first opportunity to eat Jolibee.  Think McDonald's and KFC combined to form a mega-chain of Filipino fast food restaurants.  It wasn't bad.  I got the 2 piece "ChickenJoy" with rice for 122 pesos.  I flew Cebu Pacific to Caticlan Airport.  Scariest Landing Ever.  From Caticlan I took a Tricycle(motorcycle with sidecar) to the boat ferry that takes you to the island.  After paying a bunch of random fees that added up to about $8, I finally got on a boat to the island of Boracay.  Wow!  As I write this, I am sitting on the powdery, white sand of "White Beach".  When I got here I checked in to my "hotel".  It was down a hidden little path about a 45 second walk from the beach in the middle of a barangay (or little neighborhoods/barrio).  I'm staying at Dave's Straw Hat Inn for about $35/night.  It was rated #1 on Trip Advisor so I decided to give it a shot.  There are about 12 cottages, all surrounded by one big garden.  It kind of feels like having a little hut in the middle of the rain forest.  The family that runs it is very friendly and seem as if they are looking out for my best interests.  Christine is one of the staff and we talked for about 30mins.  She is a really cool lady and everyone has made me feel like family and very comfortable already.  It was refreshing to carry on a conversation and it felt even better to make someone laugh.  I've realized that is something that makes me very happy and I haven't had that for days now.

After relaxing in my new home and watching the Arsenal/Manchester United match, that brings me to now.  It is so beautiful here and everyone is smiling again.  There is a big restaurant behind me bumping R&B classics and that brings me inexplicable joy.  They've also played some Filipino song, The Backstreet Boys, and Eminem, Ha!  Some local kids just came up to me and asked if I was a filipino.  I let them know I was half and that my mom is American.  They let me know they were headed home after swimming.  I wonder if they know how good they have it?

(7pm-ish)I'm having dinner at Jony's in Boat Station 1.  They enticed me with a 2 for 1 happy hour.  Although it seems like this place is one big happy hour.  I may move here for good.  Nothing beats eating a nice dinner on a beautiful beach, shirtless, in boardshorts, while sipping on a cocktail.  Everywhere is playing music and its hard for me to express in words how much I love that.  The only thing I would change is less bugs landing/crawling on me and less dudes in Speedos.  The bug thing is my fault though, I should've put on the bug repellent I brought.  I assume I won't be doing much journaling the rest of the week since I plan on doing a lot of the same stuff: Beach, relaxing, partying, and water activities.  I'm also trying to decide if I want to spend the $300 to become PADI Certified...it would be worth it since i'll be here for a month...we'll see.