surprisingly not surprised

Let me try and catch up on my posts. Well, I've been running behind this and I even thought I can just blog right whenever I wanted to but it has been hectic ever since I arrived. Today is already Tuesday 1st of February 2011 and I've been unbelievably off the internet [and even my iPhone..] for almost 24hours now [yes, that's how busy it was].

So now let me account how my day went through yesterday..

billboards that made me feel we're officially in Manila

and the traffic.. as usual

jeepney

Quiapo church

It was already 9:00am when we arrived at our Quezon City home. After eating some breakfast I was restless to  unpack because I have 2 LBC boxes and 6 luggages to work on. I wasn't feeling well to begin with, so I took a Neozep and started organizing pasalubongs for everyone. By noon I was ready to pass out [I started to feel drowsy after Neozep began to kick in plus I was dead tired and dizzy from all the mess]. I took an hour nap and when I woke up, I had this for lunch..

adobong sugpo with gata

There's also beef lengua in salsa blanca [I didn't have the picture kasi I was super hungry and after starting to dig into the food I totally forgot to snap that shot]. But I bet just the sound of it's name you could imagine already how good it was. Of course, there's my favorite manggang kalabaw and the homemade bagoong from Batangas.

Because I'm a shopaholic, you can guess where I went next. Where else but the shopper's haven here in Pilipinas: DIVISORIA. Yes I braved going there on my first day back here. I was lucky to even witness a commotion ;) There was this crowd and a bunch of people who were running after a kid who apparently just snatched someone else's purse. Now that explains why I didn't have Divisoria pictures because I thought it was really wise enough not to attract anyone by looking like a tourist in that snatcher-infested place. But as expected I was truly happy with all my purchase. It was totally worth it going through all that siksikan. And I love the haggling [I even think I do have the talent].

Well surprisingly, I was not really shocked with the traffic, the congestion, the humidity, the heat [though it's not really that bad.. I think it's about 70 degrees Farenheit here right now, and 80-90 around mid-day]. I felt I was just here [which is technically true because I have just gone home for vacation same time in the last 2 consecutive years]. But I remember how it was 2 years ago on our first time back home, I was shocked. I even swore I'm not going to ride the front seat of the car anymore after I was close to having a heart attack just looking at the road ahead with cars driving from all directions.. on a forward moving traffic!!

This is my beloved country, things are not perfect but I'm happy to be here. And I'm glad for some reason I felt I'm still used to everything.. 

It's like I've always lived here.. and was never gone at all.