I was up at 5:45 in this strange house. Breakfast seemed like a wimpy idea so Kuya A and I got changed and left straight away for the bus terminal (for all my bravado we planned to buy some breakfast later).

At the bus terminal I was surprised that it was the Filipinos (as opposed to my American host family) that bought a box donuts as a perfectly acceptable breakfast. They were tasty though, jam filled from Dunkin donuts which is very popular over here. To kill 3 hours of the morning Kuya A and I discussed the art of memorisation and how it all works. So we made each other lists of random objects and saw if we could memorise them. After explaining the techniques and simple tricks he was able to memorise a list of 10 random words with relative ease. He gave me a list of 25 which wasn’t any trouble either. The thing is… although we had just proven the amazing feats of the mind we were so caught up in our conversation that we left the remaining donuts on the bus. I didn’t remember their very existence until I was in the jeepney afterwards. I suppose that’s one way to leave a tip.

Random thought of the day: It’s been a while since I’ve smelled real fresh air actually. I imagine I have become desensitised to smells but I do miss travelling out into the country side with no one else in sight. I’d pay a good 10 pesos (about 20 cents) for a lungful of fresh mountain air.

Back to my Olongapolian (word of the day!) residence I have given up on the dogs ever liking me. I’m just not there often enough for them to get used to me.

See?

But the bright side is that the pigeons have become more friendly and have forgiven me for the earlier “chasing them to their death” misunderstanding.

This one photo looks like I’m achieving the zen state of mind with nothing but a pigeon to aid me.

Cue another 4 hour nap. Lights! Camera! Zzzzz!

Next on the list was meeting with the choir again and working on alternate ways to sing Angels we have heard on high. By the way I had woke up at this point. If I could do this while I was sleepwalking I’d spend more time asleep. Consider for a moment a song that you know very well. Let’s pick twinkle twinkle little star, for non-musical people you should know that if you have one person singing the normal tune it’s (at least to me) incredibly hard to sing something different because it first of all unfamiliar and secondly you want to sing what you’re used to. So the “unlearning” of the lovely “Gloria’s” in the refrain.

The pastor’s wife just walked in, looked at my feet and said “ooh… Very white”. Skin colour is very important here. Many advertisements relating to skin products actually promote “whitening” of skin. The exact opposite of the western desire for tanned skin. She also hinted that tomorrow is to be a bit of a culinary adventure. I’m too tired to be scared anymore. I’ll eat anything.

My wandering around the churchyard caused me to encounter quite a few new friends… Way too many new friends. All who were a little too eager to get close to me. They bite too.

*Grins cheekily.

Say hello to my little friend:

(I’m so happy I got to use that sentence!)

Kuya Joel and I then visited 3 different bakeries in search of a fabled Spanish bread but it was not to be found. Alas! We did buy a bag of goodies though and proceeded to sit on the church roof enjoying the company of the pigeons and savouring the sweet foreign taste of strange foreign bread. Maybe not exciting or death defying but I’d be surprised if anyone else spent their evening in the same manner.

Go find some pigeon friends.

Live a little.