Another Sunday at a mall…

We’ve had heavy rains the past nights.  When the sky finally seemed to be clearing this morning we headed out for a walk around Ateneo’s high school area of campus, which is on the opposite end from our entrance. 

The acacia tree's pom-pom blossom

Flowers from our morning walk on Ateneo

Flowers from our morning walk on Ateneo

We've already mentioned that basketball is everywhere.
 Ateneo high schoolers "shoot" their recyclables into a metal basket outside of the cafeteria.

Hundreds of future Ateneo college freshman were taking entrance exams to decide their placement for the coming school year.  The rain started up again halfway through our walk, but we managed to get in a few pictures before. 

We spent our third Sunday at yet another mall.  Each week the mall seems to exceed the previous week’s shopping center and the Shangri-La Plaza was no different. 

A fraction on Shangri-La's six stories

By far the most upscale we've visited with individual stores for Cartier, Tiffany and Co., Rolex, and Bulgari, along with a $1000 (yes, that’s in USD$) model airplane in the men’s section of the main department store, Rustan’s, we were very aware that shopping here is beyond our budget.  As we’ve mentioned already, Christmas season in the Philippines begins in September and the mall was fully decorated.

Fritz amidst the decorations at the entrace to National Book Store

We passed a man wearing an Aaron Rodgers jersey at the mall and of course stopped and asked him if he was from Green Bay.  He said he has never been out of Manila but is a fan of Rodgers and the Packers.  In other sports news, pictures of Erik Spoelstra, the half-Filipino head coach of the Miami Heat are pasted all over the city’s billboard and other advertisements.

Blurry, but more decorations in front of True Value

We could see people entering the mall all afternoon with wet umbrellas, but didn’t realize just how much it had actually rained over the last few days until we hopped in our taxi to head back to our apartment and were told by the driver that he could not bring us home to Marikina City because the roads were flooded.  Luckily, the area of Quezon City bordering the other side of Ateneo is at a high elevation.  The driver dropped us at the Ateneo gate on Katipunan Avenue in Q.C. and we walked the remaining twenty minutes back to our apartment.  Our neighborhood seems to have escaped the flooding, but a few areas of the city are under several feet of water.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/271706/3-major-roads-in-makati-quezon-city-pasay-flooded-mmda

OR

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/271848/pagasa-warns-of-persistent-rains

  It was a humbling experience for us and reminder that we should check in with the weather report.  A typhoon on its way to Japan is responsible for the heavy rains expected to linger for a few more days.  On a side note, the rainy weather greatly delays our laundry as it cannot dry and we are coming up on almost a week since we last sent out our dirty clothes.  For those reading the second article, Shangri-La Plaza is in Mandaluyong, also in the flood zone.