Still Here :-)

The plane we flew on.

Things have been going just fine. I'm still no closer to getting the necessary security clearances at work than I was before. It's fine with me because I'm still getting paid to sit there. I work with a bunch of cool people, except one person in particular. I suppose our personalities just clash. It is annoying to have someone blame everyone else for what they really want. Anyway.

We went to the Philippines (PI) last Wednesday (10/14) and it was very nice. Doug arranged for us to stay in this hotel that was huge. It had 2 bedrooms with their own baths and a maids quarters off of the laundry room. The kitchen, dining room and living room were huge too. I was hoping to get a chance to see the boys but that didn't happen. Nevertheless, we made the most of the trip.

The girls 'playing' at the Fraser Hotel.

My husband checking into the hotel.

We went to the mall and I suppose a lot of Filipinos haven't seen Black people before so we constantly got stared at everywhere we went. I was upset about it at first because it was so rude. People were staring so hard that they would trip, or spill things or just plain forget that they were doing what they were doing. It was kind of funny after a while. In fact, I started to have fun with it. I figured maybe they think we are famous or something so I started waving back or doing the Miss American wave, LOL. All they could do is smile and wave back.

Gross!

McDonald's that delivers and sells rice, chicken and spaghetti!

Me and Jollibee. There are more of them than McDonald's.

There's a place there called Greenhills and it's a flea market with everything. They all pretty much sell the same things so competition is there for your money. You have to barter for the best price or they will sell it to you for much more. My husband totally surprised me because I never knew he had it in him. He was almost rude, I thought, to these people but the outcome was that they gave us a lower price. They have any designer purse, shoe, clothing, jewelry you want. I'm not into designer things so it didn't really impress me that much, but the girls saw so much that they wanted.

A street we drove by in Manila. Looks like the eastside to me LOL.

We are supposed to go back to PI on the 24th, ao if you want anything, let me know. I didn't try to buy anything really because I was unfamiliar with how you barter for a better price, but I am now.

The people in the flea market stared at us too. Just about everyone there is like 5'3" and under. I felt like a giant, LOL. But the people speak English and it seems that many of the retail stores, shops, hotels, etc. cater to Americans. They even drive on the RIGHT side of the street. The girls liked it much better there than they do here in Okinawa. In fact, Janiece asked if there were any bases there.

The don't have a clue!!

I liked it better there but there's something not right about it. You know how you can just sense it and not know why? Maybe it's because they have metal detectors everywhere you go and a bomb sniffing dog at every hotel and they use the mirror to check under every vehicle. There's a large population of Muslim's there, so enough said.

Our last meal in PI, at the Intercontinental Hotel, courtesy of Patch.

Life here in Okinawa is just not the same without my husband here. I know I went through this when he left for Korea last month but this is much longer. I'm going to miss him terribly. I haven't had much motivation to do anything since I've been back from PI. And I haven't slept in our bed yet either. I've been sitting in his spot on the couch and wearing his dog tags. I can barely go into the room because it reminds me so much of him. Eventually I'll have to get over this but for right now, this is how I'm feeling.