COME HANG OUT WITH US

so i figure i should go ahead and do a post about the philippines, since i completely neglected it.

quick rundown: we left our apartments at four am on christmas eve, and got to manila around two o'clock that afternoon. the plan was to stay in the city for a night at a backpacker's hostel and then bus it north to a beach on christmas, but our cab driver got us all nervous about the prospect getting onto public transportation, and instead drove us straight to a bus station. we hopped on a six-hour bus to san juan, which featured both under siege and under siege 2: dark territory, as well as double impact, starring jean claude van damme, with jean claude van damme.

"WE HAVE BEEN ON FIVE MODES OF TRANSPORATION AND AWAKE FOR NINETEEN HOURS HOW ARE WE DOING?!"

when we got to san fernando we stayed the night in the city, checking out an adorable christmas eve mass in the square, as well as dozens of delicious street food vendors.

lights!

mass!

the next morning we headed a little farther north to san juan, a crazy remote beach town inhabited by filipino squatters/surf instructors and several retired australian surfers. obviously we blended.

check out our adorable hostel!

$14 a night. total.

look, i match the room!

the beach was magical and ryan learned how to surf while i learned about george orwell's dystopian future.

ryan is surfing here somewhere.

how cute is this jetty?

we were utterly useless all week, and it was glorious. we made lots of friends for the night:



including some koreans who were studying english nearby (because apparently the philippines are the best place to go for english?) who made us 삼겹살 for new year's eve dinner deliciousssss.


we also borrowed these puppies from the hotel we splurged on the last night. you know, the one with ac, a massive shower, two double beds, and a private balcony. for $30. what is wrong with us.

neo !!


neo and ej !!

new year's eve was on the beach with the one hundred stick-in-the-sand-and-run-away fireworks we bought at the market. which the koreans knocked over, launching at least ten into the surfboard rental booth. nice-uh.

frenz !!



ryan partying hard with filipino besties.

what would new year's be without some karaoke??

the one tragic causality of the new year was my relatively brand-new pair of rainbows. camouflaged in the sand, they were never to be seen again after i was distracted by some pancit and kpop jams. :(

new year's day we packed up and left, hopping on a miserable six-hour bus back to manila. we had a lovely night in our air conditioned room with no sand, where my gaping foot wound had a chance to recover. though we were sad to end our very warm vacation, we were excited to be heading back to the land of both bip and bap:


OH AND GUESS WHAT. we were late for our flight because the manila airport has three different security checkpoints, as well as a line to pay a departure fee. when we got to the desk, we were informed by the very apologetic woman that the flight was full. we bugged out, until she explained that we'd have to get bumped to first class. i mean, if you insist.

course one, nbd.

o hay, row six !!