So, nothing has happened in the past few days, really. After getting back from Baguio, we had a rest day, during which I blogged, slept, and didn't get anything else done. Wednesday was a rain day, which is just like a snow day in the States, except the reason you can't go to school is because IT IS RAINING SO HARD THAT YOU CANNOT LEAVE YOUR HOUSE.

So that was...claustrophobic. No, actually, I did get a little writing done. It's probably bad. No, I'm sure it's bad, but hopefully nothing that a little revision can't fix.

Today I sucked at Filipino class (again - I hate being the sped kid, which I am in this class, because everyone else has TWO Filipino parents who BOTH speak the language and...well...I am at a disadvantage, people! Take pity on the white chick!), and then we watched Orapronobis, which, aside from being produced in the 80's which gives it that horrible, shoulderpadded feel that all 80's movies have, is really something everyone should watch even if they have no actual connection to the Philippines. Because dag, yo - the human right situation over here is messed up. Have I said that already? OH RIGHT.

Tomorrow is more human rights stuff, and I think I might skip it, because I have to get a move on with this writing business. Really, my lack of productivity, poetry-wise, has made me really nervous about...things? Like, I can write if I have deadlines. You know, poem-every-week type of deadlines. I've been writing here, but not much, and when I do sit down to write, it's like I have nothing to write about, even though more has happened to me in the past four weeks than in the past FOUR YEARS of my life. Possibly (prrrrrobably ) more. Maybe I'm just overstimulated.

Yahrite.

Oh, on another note: I never thought I would be so glad to get back to our little apartment bathroom in Manila Did I note that I took the COLDEST SHOWER ON THE PLANET while in Baguio? No? WELL I DID. Really what it consisted of was standing around in a bathroom that had an open window and a fan (connected to the light switch so you COULD NOT TURN IT OFF WTF) blowing the 50-degree Baguio air into the 50-degree bathroom and then dumping a bucket of 50-degree water onto my head. I am surprised that I did not die because, you know, when you are that cold, you sort of forget to breathe.

Something something "builds character" something something? Mrrrrrr

Okay. It's late. I should try to finish up this bad poem that I am writing, then get some bad sleep, because I took an ill-advised two-hour nap this afternoon. OOPS.


(PS mostly I am posting this because I found this new icon and it makes me lol)

Because it is COLD up here!

Baguio, or, Land of the Vertical

I'm up in Northern Luzon for the next couple of days. Won't get to write tomorrow, because I will be staying in the middle of a poor mining community. Weeee?
Anyway, we left at like 1 AM Friday morning from Manila, on a bus. So I slept on a bus. Sort of. I think by slept, what I really mean is bounced around with my eyes closed for five hours. The upshot of this is that when I DID open my eyes, because it was getting light out, I had a hard time believing we were still in the Philippines. The Cordilleras are WACKY, man. Sheer mountainsides covered in little houses and impossible-looking rice terraces, mist that trails around between the ridges and looks as if someone put it there for dramatic effect, and a road, traversed at disconcerting speed by our bus, that makes the west-coast US 1 look like the Autobahn. Or Nebraska. Or both? Unreal, yo.

Our accommodations here are only slightly like camping; we're on mats on a floor but it is a CLEAN floor, and the bathrooms are sketchy but not TOO sketchy. The only problem is is that there's no hot water; while this is never a problem in 1305971-degree Manila, up here it is dry and borders on cold. I cannot tell you have weird it feels to walk around in the Philippines with a hoodie on. Weird but absolutely wonderful, as my pores are no longer producing like four gallons of sweat a minute. That's disgusting. But true.

Baguio is a seriously cool (now in the figurative sense) city. It's big, but not TOO big, and has the feel of a college town because most of its population is taken up by UP's campus, which is in the middle of everything. It also has one of the most amazing marketplaces I've ever seen - It's half-covered and half-open air, and because of the climate up there, the selection of produce for sale is STAGGERING. We got mangoes, lychee, strawberries (!), mangosteen, kamote tops...they even grow BROCCOLI up here. Anyway, I kind of wish the whole program was up here - but not really really, as it is rather isolated from...uh...everything (which, at the moment, is pretty much all of its charm).

We ate tonight at, I think, the only vegetarian restaurant in the entirety of the Philippines, which is owned by (surprise!) some artsy-fartsy types in film making or painting or something. It's called Oh My Gulay, which is verruh clever because gulay is vegetable in Tagalog. So most of the things on the menu are "OMG *insert food here*", which is pretty terrific. Not to mention that the interior looks like a cross between a pirate shipwreck and a botanical garden. To flush the toilet, you push on the a little tribal wooden statue guy. Bizaaaaaarrrrrre. But tasty! Uh, the food. Not the toilet flusher. Ew?

Anyway, I think I'm done for the night. I have a cold (for real this time; I can't breathe through my nose and it SUUUUUCKS) and I'm pretty sure whatever I bought for $3 at the drugstore isn't helping. Mrrr. Bedtime. Will update in two days, provided I don't fall into a mineshaft and die. Huzzah!