Sagada 2

Just felt like sharing a recent experience with coffee, and my favorite place in the Philippines. The Philippines has many areas that grow coffee. I just happen to live near the epicenter. As a result, I get all kinds of pretty damn good coffee at laughable pricing. My most recent "find" is the coffee grown and picked from Sagada. Sagada is a twisty curvy half paved, half dirt road, meandering through rice terraces, and a 6.5 hour bus ride away. This sleepy but lovely little town has some amazing caves, waterfalls and many other natural wonders. What makes Sagada, "Sagada" (and keeps me coming back) to me though is the coffee, and my morning ritual.

So here was my daily routine while on my vacation there last week.

It's 5:30AM. Crack of dawn is about half way done, and the sun is just hinting at poking it's head over the green mountain peaks that are fighting a beautiful and silent war with the thick morning clouds that roll in. Everything is in high contrast, Mountain ridges, switch backs and trails easily seen. Pine trees jutting above rock formations covered in thick nearly malachite colored moss... Crystal clear and the only noise is the rooster, starting his morning ritual as well.

I put a pot of the "literally right from a natural spring" water on the stove, and when it starts to rumble, I keep about 2 cups of it in a bowl, then fill the percolator bin about half way with Sagada's characteristic ground coffee bean. A smallish light/medium roasted bean, ground coarsely. Then, back on the stove to bubble for a few minutes, then off. After a minute to allow the settling of the grains, my leather covered stainless thermal mug is filled to 3/4 full. In this coffee, you can absolutely taste the earth, the ground, the mountains, the trees, everything. Cream or sugar is completely forbidden. After a greedy sip, full of air so as not to scald, I place it down on the bathroom sink, and take a short and hot shower.

Out of the shower, that bowl of boiling hot water is ready to do it's part. My travel kit, a Gillette Rubie loaded with a fresh Derby, a QED grapefruit and peppermint shave stick. The shave is gloriously smooth, crisp high pitched notes of that blade leaving a glass smooth face looking back at me.

Mug in hand, 10 steps out onto the balcony at the corner, I sat on small stool placed so that I could see 270 degrees of peace, nature and profound tranquility. Just me, my coffee and the glory of mother earth.

I am on vacation now, we had a long trip getting here, but it's been worth it! We are having lots of fun!! This is mostly just a practice post for Grandma to learn how to blog!!

Urine, blood, stool, BP, IVF computations

We were formed into groups at the beginning of the semester. Our groups "core" consists of myself, Karen and our ever trusty pals Grace and Raymund. This semester, we have made a couple more pretty good friends as well, including Sara, Miles, and Julienne.

They quickly increased their friend status with me by inviting me to a wedding of a friend of theirs during an extended lunch break...... We got to class with a huge food hangover. Pretty cool.

It has been a bit grueling so far, as usual. Karen has luckily completed her Nutrition from MAMC last year (and is enjoying a bit of nah, nah, nah nah-nah at my expense), so her summer semester experience is enviable form my perspective. I have classes Mon, Tue, Wed, from 7:30AM until 6:30pm.... one, two hour break in the middle...

Our first shift of duty fell on a Wednesday evening, so we were up for 27 hours before we went home that morning. That was rugged....

We have duty this week at "Baguio General Hospital", a tertiary medical facility here in Baguio that covers the majority of all medical cases in the region. I am in a group with Grace and Sarah, Karen is in a group with Julienne. We are doing the graveyard shift 11-7 in the Obstetrical ward. It has been my best experience as far as schooling here is concerned. What we are learning each day is equal to an entire semester worth of lecture, I would guess. The women are pretty amazing, and I of course have a new respect for what nearly every woman goes through. If I was a woman and it was up to me, the human race might become extinct in one generation..Haha.. Anyways, we are learning the techniques of IV therapy and calculations, charting, and of course, therapeutic communication and the ins and out of a medical facility. Our CI (clinical instructor) is a young guy, about my age *wink* and though he keeps 'Filipino time", he knows his stuff and has been very good in showing us the "hows and whys" of our trade. I have developed a "working relationship" with the charge nurse as well, and when I started last night, she was quick to take me around and show me some things that I had questioned her about.... She is pretty good at what she does, being the only nurse at times in the entire ward, often having 45+ clients at one time. Amazing amounts of stamina there.

Anyways, I am looking forward to the rest of our practical experience here. So far, so good.

So we just got back from our 6 day vacation to Boracay. As usual, many people don't read this blog that I write in to find out this information, making this blog ever more useless, however, I digress.

We started off going to Manila, and went to Karen's uncle Mike's, where we got the usual 1st class treatment before heading over to road 3 to see Lola and the gang there. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits, the kids were finishing up school for the year. A few San Migs, (actually starting to not mind them now) and back to Mike's to sleep.

The next morning, we were off to the domestic airport, stopping in to McDonald's for "a quick bite". (the food is still the same, salty, greasy a dee-licious) The line at the airport seemed longer and the airport terminal seemed more busy than usual. We then realized that it is "holy week" in the Philippines. In the Philippines, "Holy week" means (for most) more days off work, more eating and more drinking, and often lots of traveling around. We were about to do just that.

The flight by Asian Spirit (the joke goes that you get on the plane as "people" and "land" in "spirit form') was on a 4 prop 30 seater, the ride was smooth and nice about 55 minutes..... We touched down in "Caticlan", the nearest commercial airstrip to Boracay.

Our porter for the Orchid resort we were booked in was there to take us and our belongings through the slight maze like series of procedures to get on the island, and it was nice to just have him point to the various windows and say, "100 pesos", etc. , etc. , instead of walking around in the noon hour sun sweating and trying to figure it all out while dragging your bags everywhere. We got onto the bangka (a type of modified longtail boat with a large pair of outriggers, seen in Hawaii too) and were taken to our delightful room. The place is a great value for Boracay, and the staff were very friendly. I even worked a deal for any referrals from my "flock" of students. We immediately had a few beers and lunch on the beach.


That night, we went to see Karen's Uncle Leonard, who's family practically owns half of Boracay. We had dinner with him and some beers. We learned that his daughter and law Amanda had just given birth and that Boracay is really developing. We saw evidence of that in the 4, yes, 4 Andok's Lechon on the shrot ride to his resort. (more about that gem later) and "D'Mall", what was once the city market, has now "blossomed" into a pretty nice outdoor mall with upscale vendors and restaurants. There are construction projects everywhere, even Tito Leonard's place was radically improvised, with a new pool and cabanas, as well as his former adjacent vacant lot now resided with another large hotel.

Anyway, we hit Jonah's for the best shakes in town, and took in the booming nightlife a bit before retiring.

Next morning, we were up and after breakfast decided to catch some rays (I got a few too many, Karen apparently did not get enough), get coconut oil massages and chill the heck out. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant and an apple pie crepe in the mall, walked around then back to our room.

The next day, Tito Leonard found a vacant room in his resort, so we moved to his place. The requisite shake at Jonah's, then, we went snorkeling. We got our own boat and guide and set out. Our first stop was nice, but the weather at that moment was unfortunately not cooperating and the wind created waves that made the snorkeling a bit rough. (I am a fair weather water sport kind of guy). We did see some beautiful coral and fish though). Then, we went around the other side to "Puka Beach" were the world gets its puka shells for the necklaces.

Then, we went to the other snorkeling area and had a good session there, as the weather had calmed down and you could just relax and enjoy yourself. I was smart and wore a t-shirt while snorkeling, Karen was not and suffered a rare (for her) sunburn. We were both pretty wiped out from the activity and sun all day, so we retired to our room early and polished off the left overs from our Indian food and called it a day.

The next day was interesting. Leonard had just opened his cock fighting arena and we were invited to attend the opening event.

Cock fighting is hugely popular in the Philippines, and though some may find it cruel, the connoisseurs will tell you that Filipino versions of it are more humane as the roosters are all equipped with very lethal and large blades that generally end the fight in under a minute, as opposed to other regions that employ small puncture wounds, keeping the match going for several minutes. At any rate, the venue was brand new, seating about 500 spectators and an air conditioned VIP box where we sat. By the time we got there, the festivities were under way. Money was literally flying around as match after match took place. I wasn't feeling the urge to bet, and after a couple hours and a few scotches and beers, we set out to have dinner on the beach..We went to one of the hundred or so "Eat all you can" seafood buffets for a whopping 300 pesos each. (6USD).. The mozerella and pineapple baked oysters were my favorite selection of the evening.

We were offered a dune buggy for our use, and decided to go exploring around the Island. We ended up getting flagged down by a guide to the "bat caves". We were off, and after a 10 minute hike, we weaved our way down a very large, completely black, stinky and noisy (shrieks from said bats) cave. When we got to the bottom, we were able to see tens of thousands of bats.. The cave is adjacent to the ocean, and as I put my feet in the water, the guide said, "Sir, you aren't afraid of coral snakes are you?" The smile kind of died on my face as he shone the flashlight about 2 meters away from me, and low and behold, a 3 foot long black and turquoise banded coral snake was making his way in the opposite direction. Karen pretty well freaked (as you can see by the "smile" in her picture). He claimed that these are not the poisonous types, but we didn't really want to find out either way. Further research on my part has revealed no species of the "non venomous" types that we apparently encountered. Under another rock was a rather large coral snake, and at that point, it was time to go. now.

So we did. It was CSI night, and after the sun and fun, I just picked up BBQ chicken (from Andok's), coleslaw and rice and we retired early.

We got the buggy again after our Jonah's fix and struck out again, this time equipped with our own mask and snorkels, hell bent on finding a decent spot. We pretty well struck out, and ended up on puka beach again. It was still ok, and though it wasn't the best snorkeling, we still had a fun and had a nice small lunch of garlic and honey prawns on rice that we split, because we had purchased two 1 kilo lobsters for dinner that night. We rode around and saw some of the interesting and undeveloped parts of the island before getting back and watching the sunset, got coconut oil massages and some great pictures of what Boracay looks like as the sun goes down.

We went back to our room,



cleaned up, and went back to our Cabana to eat these two magnificent bugs with rice and a couple of glasses of white wine. It was the best lobster I have had.




The next day, we got ready to leave, had one last shake and then got a shuttle to the port and ferried across to the airport. the flight was delayed and it was real busy, but we finally got our flight on a 4 engined jet and in 35 minutes we touched down in manila, where her uncle Mike was waiting for us to take us to the bus terminal. We "walked on" to a bus (the terminal was packed) rather than opting for the purchase in advance "sucker" route and in 6 short hours, we made it home.

Back in the Pilli-Peens

Well, a nice flight back through CKS airport again and here we are, jet lagging like crazy. I recommend China Airlines, BTW, much better than EVA. We arrived at 10 AM, went home and at noon took a short 10 hour nap. Then up at 10pm until 6 pm the following day, where I took another 10 hour nap. I think I'll have it licked today.

We got great news about our grades, our anatomy & physiology classes came in with higher than expected scores. I finished with a somewhat respectable 92% overall average.

We need to postpone our Baguio trip to next week as we are still waiting for one of Karen's teachers to submit her grades...

We have a couple of apartments to look at when we get there... I think one of them is a cottage, 2 bed 1 bath 1CG type. The other is a Townhome. Both are a bit out of town, but appear to be just off well traveled jeepney routes, which is what I am really looking for, because I would love for us to not have to get scooters/cars.... I don't like the extra expense/hassle/exposure of a vehicle. Hopefully we won't need one....(though a small scooter for hiking excursions doesn't seem all that unreasonable)

My Grandmother is doing very well after her ordeal. I think she is doing an amazing job of keeping herself in good spirits and is eating up therapy like I have been eating Pancit Canton. I believe we grew even closer during the month that I spent there and though a rotten way to "get together", I am so thankful for the time we spent together, mostly talking about everything under the sun.

My Florida trip was good too, though short and sweet as they say. Karen and I stayed in her parents condo, called the Symphony. It is located right on the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW) of the desirable Los Olas Region of Fort Lauderdale, next door to the Performing arts theatre and many other wonderful walking distance areas. There are yachts and water taxis out front of the private dock s in front of the towers. A great gym and spa facility proved to be the coup de grace, and the entire facility is truly a luxury accommodation. Valet parking, concierge, business centre, aforementioned gym and spa 5th floor pool deck and whirlpool, and the crown jewel: the @ 2nd floor club room over looking the ICW. Karen's parents, Paul and Maria threw a great party there and after Lola's pancit, and various other dishes from a great Chinese Restaurant like fried crab, baked chicken, my own Caviar recipe and caprese salad and maMy Florida trip was good too, though short and sweet as they say. Karen and I stayed in her parents condo, called the Symphony. It is located right on the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW) of the desirable Los Olas Region of Fort Lauderdale, next door to the Performing arts theatre and many other wonderful walking distance areas. There are yachts and water taxis out front of the private dock s in front of theny others, the guests also had a wine tasting with prizes awarded for accurate guessing, an open bar (Crown Royal being the fave as I tended the bar for an hour) and the topper, was the chocolate fondue fountain with fruits for dipping. (the fresh pineapple being the winner here).

Karen and I also did two things that I have always wanted to do, go to the Everglades, and go Bass fishing.. We did them both at the same time! Our guide Tony, was referred to us by Paul. Tony has been a long time patient of Paul's and we had quite a treat, going out in the Glades, and pulling in pound for pound, the hardest fighting fish in the world. Karen, as always dominated the day, catching and releasing 10-12 fish, I managed a respectable 6. I say, it was her lure, a plastic worm from the onset that had her number so high, as I had several kinds of lures prior to getting the same plastic worm and then I was off to the races, too. Though Karen attributes her catch rate to skill and mine to lack thereof.

We managed to see my brother Jesse and Yvonne and they are doing well in their apartment, things were cozy when we arrived as my father and his girlfriend were there too, visiting for a week. Jesse is currently interviewing for a new job and appears to have "landed a bigger Bass" than the one on his line before, so we are all happy and proud of course. We hit gastronomic paydirt several times, once with my brother's reliable motza ball soup, once at "Le Bonne Crepe" and once at a great Indian place down the street, (lucky so and so) from his house.

My Dad and Terri seemed to have a good time in Florida, enjoying the beach and trying to stay cool as best as possible. They went to the Keys and had a great time there. They also stayed at the Symphony for the last couple of days with Karen and I, and my Dad and I had some great "sauna talks", hashing out our plans and the latest ideas.

We left Florida with Karen's sister and went to Albuquerque to visit my Mom for a few days. She had booked a room in Santa Fe to stage our outings from, and the first day, we went to the Petroglyph park to check out the several thousand year old- 500 year old drawings on a few conspicuous volcanic rock formations just on the edge of Albuquerque.

After provisioning at Walmart, we embarked north and went to Bandolier National monument, an interesting canyon area that has been the home of Native Americans for 1000 years plus, though has been deserted for 500 years or so. The site is amazing, and must be seen to be properly understood. The canyon walls were formed through the combination of rocks and more significantly, volcanic ash. The ash, over time is the solid structure in general, while the rocks and other items were somewhat more transient, creating an interesting Swiss cheese like look to the side. The first people in the area recognized the value of the protection an elevated dwelling made of rock could provide and settled there in that beautiful area. Later, people began to move into the valley and they erected the "Pueblo-esque" type structures at the base of the canyon wall. They had the community built in a circle, again for defensive purposes, and lived there for hundreds of years until they too left, presumably after depleting the food supply or perhaps to seek more comfortable climate. The natives of this area used "Kiva" to conduct their spiritual/governmental pursuits. We were able to see them and go into one of them. I have a great idea for my next back yard, but I guess that may have to be cleared through Karen.

After, we went to Santa Fe, where we were exhausted enough to barely make dinner in this town, as the place starts to shut down at 9pm (this was Saturday night, after all!!)

The next morning, we found a great Breakfast place called Bagelmania, and after a sound gorging, we went to Taos to tour an active Pueblo. The native people who run and live at/near this location had a short walking tour of the area, and some interesting historical references. My Mom has been several times and was eager to expand her already profound knowledge of the area and to expand her collection of native flute playing, of which we were already priming ourselves with. The nifty shopping available there is not to be missed, the actual inhabitants of the Pueblo (100 or so, almost all elderly) rely on this as their means of preserving their Pueblo. We bought several CDs (from my Mom's favorite flutist, John Ranier Jr) and I must admit, this stuff is good. These guys play the wood flute in a way that is as expressive as Louis Armstrong plays the Trumpet, BB King plays the guitar, etc.... Amazing. After gorging ourselves on some baked goods from their own special ovens (think giant fresh fig neutons made with apples and dates) and I bought Karen a silver necklace with turquoise and a carved deer shin bone made into a feather. Also, I bought some burning herbs, sage and lavender and sage and cedar. After we had wrapped up the Pueblo, we ventured into Taos proper and grabbed coffee and had some shopping experiences, where Karen got me a nifty folder black with 24K accents. She was longing for something to get me for my Birthday and that fit the bill in style. I found a wooden box with Geronimo, my Mom's favorite person in the world, on the road back to Santa Fe, we stopped at a small bend in the road (mimmicking the river that plays alongside the entire trip back, and got some great pictures by the river. We wrapped it up in Santa Fe for another night.

The next day, after the what was now known as "the obligatory breakfast at Bagelmania", we set out early to wrap up Bandolier. This was a focused trip, to "summit" the ceremonial cave area. Well worth our effort, when we got to the top though the 6 inch wide path and series of 30 foot ladders, we were treated to an almost eire amphitheatrical experience overlooking the valley of a home for a small group of people for thousands of years. The Kiva at the top was reconstructed and visitation to it was permitted. We sat inside for a while, and I was reluctant to leave for some reason.

We got in the car and headed towards the Jamez Volcanic monument and area. The Earth Shattering volcanic event that took place millions of years ago and basically was 700 times more powerful that Mount Saint Helens. Some of the ejected boulders and rocks made it to Lubbock, Texas. The ash from that explosion most likely triggered a complete change in global climate and served to create the distinctive landscape of the states east of the Rockies like Utah, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, etc... Jemez Springs was essentially closed for the day by the time we got there, so we simply sat back and enjoyed the lovely colors and scenery of that region, going from desert, to mesas and canyons, to Alpine, back to Mesas, back to desert, until we arrived back in Albuquerque. I went and grabbed a handful of precious beers from an amazing collection at a liquor store up the street and we just vegged out watching the horrible and forgettable "Ring 2".

The very next morning, we were off to LA, spent a few hours with Grandma, my Dad and Terri, and my Uncle Rick and Denise before the shuttle came to take us back "home" here.

In Taiwan internet booth at Chang Kai shek (spelled wrong, but I can't figure out how to spell check because of Chinese language protocol) Airport

We have a 8 hour layover here, so we are just walking around, freezing to death.. It's 60 degrees here if it is a degree, let me tell you. We both have shorts and sandals and t-shorts, Karen of course brought her "hoodie", but we are quite uncomfortably cold, nonetheless..... There would appear to be some decent restaurants in the airport here, so we are eyeballing the "big bowl of soup" places here. The first leg of our trip was pretty quick, besides sitting on the tarmac for an extra hour, then in a holding pattern for about 30 min. ..... Thankfully, I have my iPod, and I am listening to a very good podcast by some personal development guru.. I like to listen to that stuff. A good recharge on the batteries.

In the airport lounge in Manila

On our last day here, and we found the best deal... All you can eat buffet, 10 minute scalp massage, all you can drink (had a congac)and nice aquariums and real quiet.. what a releif after getting dinged with another 'immigration" issue... almost home!!

Almost home

Well, we are all packed up and cleaned up, and ready to hit the road. Just in time, too. It's getting much, much hotter with each week. Last night it was rather inescapable... It will be great to get some fresh air and see everyone. Karen Is REAL excited about coming home. She misses everyone a lot, and I am happy for her to be going back for summer. We have things in order for our school in Baguio next year, so all we have to do when we come back is to find an apartment.. (shouldn't be too hard)

I finally got my cr-- stuff together for my immigration "situation". That was yet another lesson that I am forced to learn the hard way. But they say it builds character. .......

Back Home

Well, after three weeks off, we got back home (for now). After the usual jetlagged zombie state, we are faced with the daunting enrollment procedure that is necessary to get you the classes that you want. After approximately 25 signatures from administrators, librarians, student advisors and the like ; I am about 50% done. Tomorrow should the essential rest, then another week to fine tune it. I should have anatomy and physiology (and lab), chem 2 (and lab), Filipino, English 2, Algebra 2, Sociology and my P.E. and two more I am forgetting. This will bring my year one total credit hours to 56!!

Anywho, I am back to the grind, and it's all good, as usual.