A Saturday in the life...

Just a taste of my Saturday in Manila.... David gets home late Friday from a week away teaching a conference to Filipino academics and law students. We wake up this morning to discover that David's huge bathroom mirror behind his vanity has come unglued in the night, but it lands on a plastic cup sitting there, so it doesn't fall completely off. There are large chunks of glass on the bathroom floor.

It's 7:30, and our household helper had arrived since this is one of the 2 days a week she comes in. I tell Ben to ask her to get him breakfast. He requests pancakes, and she makes them for him and his brothers.

David meets with the driver we are negotiating a contract with at 8 a.m.. We keep in mind that he's reading a contract in a foreign language to him, so it makes sense that he has questions. They work it out, and he agrees to sign it. This is good, because our van has arrived from Hong Kong, and it should be out of customs soon. This is also good because I am tired of taking Uber after almost 3 months of depending on that to get around.

After a morning of much needed time with Daddy, David and I head out for a lunch date and to go shopping for exciting things like drinking glasses and a mop, since our shipment of household goods in arriving on Wednesday. Our helper, M., puts out lunch for the boys, and we say goodbye. We call an Uber in front of our condo building, and the driver drops us off in front of a mall. There are a lot of malls here, but this one is where more Filipinos than expats shop, so it's a little cheaper. :)

David wants a fountain drink, so we go to Wendy's. Yes, Wendy's. I'm able to get a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger that tastes almost completely like the U.S. version. The fries are good, too, but they usually don't give you nearly enough of them. Fast food restaurants also have rice here. It comes in a small paper packet and costs the equivalent of $.30. I try the pork spring rolls on the menu. They're OK. I eat just one.

We finish lunch and walk into the department store. I pass displays of women's shoes, and I pick up a couple of them and put them to my feet. Regrettably, none of them fit me. The largest size here is a women's 9. I wear a 9 1/2. We spend a little time looking for the type of mop that M. described, and we have no luck finding it. We buy drinking glasses. I ask where to find rain ponchos for all of us because it's rainy season, and we got poured on during soccer on Wednesday. As often happens here, I get told to try two different floors by multiple salespeople. I leave with no ponchos.

Hailing an Uber is harder on the way back, and I'm grumpy standing out on the curb with a dish drainer, a box of dishes, and other assorted household goods. We've stayed out longer than I had planned, and I worry that we won't get back before M. needs to get home. I wish our van was already here so we could use the parking deck. It takes half an hour to get an Uber, and then we have the drive home in the usual dreadful Manila traffic. I remember that we're getting a driver because of how stressful it is to drive here and find parking. I wouldn't leave our little area because of fear of having an accident with the boys, and that would be a waste of the opportunity to be here.

We get home. M. has made chicken afritata (chicken stew made with tomatoes and vegetables) and rice, and David and the boys will have it for dinner. We play pick up sticks with the boys, and she laughs and wants to know who won.

I leave to meet another new foreign service mom to go to dinner. We walk through downtown, and we decided to eat at a place that advertises USDA beef. (Good beef is hard to come by here, and it's also usually expensive.) This is the kind of hip, expensive looking restaurant that would be super pricey in Raleigh's downtown, and there are expensive items on the menu, but there are also several entrees listed for about $7 U.S. We get a few and split them. The waitresses laugh at the way we're cutting up, kind of giddy to be out of the house. We exchange "how we got here" stories.

After dinner, we wander over to the closest mall, and we have Baskin Robbins. It's the only way I can have mint chocolate chip here. It's imported direct from the U.S.! She needs to buy a present for a birthday party, and we walk into the local British toy store. Once inside, I realize that all the employees are wearing costumes. I tell them I like their costumes, and I ask if I can take a picture. My new friend, not yet remembering that we're in a culture that adores picture taking, murmurs that maybe I shouldn't ask. But when the employee I asked calls everyone else over and they strike a pose and then ask me to take a selfie with them, I think she remembers we're not in the U.S. anymore. :)

A great end to a normal Saturday for me in the Philippines. Peace out. :)