Election day party and other random photos

Friday, November 9, 2012
Election Day

 On Wednesday morning, I (Grace) headed over to an election watch event hosted by the U.S. Embassy of Manila at one of the local mall atriums.  Fritz has a deadline in a week and took advantage of the empty IPC office at Ateneo.   I arrived at SM North mall with Tony and Aine, two other visiting researchers also living in our apartment building, a little after 11:00am.  The mall’s five-story atrium was decorated with images of elephants and donkeys, cardboard cutouts of Romney and Obama, and, of course, lots of red, white, and blue.  A crowd of a few hundred was gathered inside the catered event watching a live stream of CNN projected onto a large screen.  Our only frustration of the day came at their unfortunately timed trivia breaks, often replacing the CNN streaming as a key state was about to be called with trivia questions on the heaviest president in American history or the two father-son presidents.  I was rewarded with the DVD of Thor for my correct identification of the party affiliations for the donkey and elephant.  It was festive day wrapped up with a gracious speech by the U.S. Ambassador of the Philippines. There was also a green screen with cut-outs of the candidates where people were taking photos.

We’re home this weekend before we leave Hong Kong on Sunday.  Aine just gave us some photos she’s taken of us over the past month.  Enjoy xo 

Fritz's "Let's enjoy fishing" hat

Freshly-caught salmon dinner on the beach in Bolinao

Birthday party in the alley beside our apartment.  Fritz and I are bottom-center

Watching the election return while sharing the only open seat in the front.

Voice of America interviewing Grace and Tony

With my newly won Thor DVD (see trivia question below)

Listening to the speech by U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines

Answering the trivia question

Handing out candy during "trick-or-treating"