Fun in the Phillipines

Besides travelling around we have largely been having fun since I arrived in the Phillipines. When we first got to Benji's relatives we relaxed and chatted (hammock). From there we walked down the street to another relatives place where we ate again, shot pool (I got crushed by some random teenagers), and then sang karaoke. Since Benji was the only person i knew who I would be embarrasing myself in front of I sang too. I attempted Chicago's "Hard Habit to Break" and Alabama's "Cheap Seats," both of which I bombed. Benji's a really good singer and musician and was tearing it up. I mainly shot pool and taught the kids the game Cutthroat.

Today after returning from the rural area we played tennis at a stadium in Benji's town and later went into Manila. We visited the boardwalk area on Manila Bay, ate dinner, listened to live music, and just enjoyed a night on the town. The employees at the restaurant were like 3 foot nothing tall. I got a picture with two ladies who served us. I am sitting in a low chair and they are both standing. Really nice people who did a good job, the place was really crowded by the time we left. The band was bad but entertaining. They were fairly young and tried to sing a collection of English and Tagolog songs. Their English was not that good and led to two funny incidents. Firsr, when the were interacting with the crowd they asked if it was anyone's "Buttday" and then wished you a happy "Buttday." The best was when tried to sing the song with the chorus that goes "Let's Get It Started Now," but every time they tried to sing that line it sounded exactly like "Let's Get Retarded Now." I tried to take a video of it with my camera but didn't have it on the right setting (Camera is working great Mom, Ian, and all others concerned). It would have been my first Youtube video ever and an instant classic. It was amazingly funny as they sang "Let's Get Retarded Now" blaringly loud.