One fish, two fish

Magnet #1 - Cebu, Philippines

April 1981.
- The Space Shuttle Columbia passes its first test flight.
- The first IBM PC is introduced.
- Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
- The joyfam visits Cebu, Philippines, for the last time until 2007.


January 2007.
The good:
- Familiar faces - and they all know who you are, what you do, and where you live...that's if they can tell you apart from your sisters.
- Familiar places - everywhere we went felt as if we'd been there before (see Malls, below).
- The Shangri-La. It's no joke, a little piece of heaven on earth. Air conditioning, gorgeous views, wonderful beaches.
- Su tu kil: Open air dining, where you pick your meal from the day's catch (*points to magnet*). Soooooo. Good.
- Seeing your parents in (and out) of their elements. Like, my dad climbing a tree to pick my mom's favorite Filipino fruit. (all together now, awwwww!)
- No more oil barrel to hold the bathing water - I'm talkin' running water, people!!!
- The USD goes a loooong way there.

The bad:
- Helpers. Yeah. I'm on the fence. It's unnerving to be introduced to people you think are your cousins...but they're not.
- No driving laws. Well, there are, but no one follows them.
- Too many bugs. Wayward snakes and lizards in living rooms.
- Hot. (But that's not the Philippines' fault.)

The malls?
- Malls. Filipinos love their malls. Nope, not all that different than America.
- Hot boybands in malls. Nope, not all that different than America.
- Filipino cuisine in the mall. Totally made of win.
- Did I mention there were a lot of malls?

Cuz there really were.

A lot of malls.