Last few days in Manila

We’re finally leaving Manila on Friday. It’s been an interesting and fun time here but we’re ready to move on to Singapore. While some weeks the time has dragged by quite slowly, it now feels like our time here has flown by. Singapore feels very, very different from Manila. Aside from all the differences in economies, size, history, religion, etc, one way it's different is that, according to a recent Gallup poll, we’ll be moving from the country with the most emotional people in the world to the country with the least emotional people. We’ll be in Singapore for a month while I dig through a number of different archives. I was originally hoping to be here for two months since there’s a lot of material there I want to look at, but we couldn’t really afford to stay any longer than one month. It’s definitely much more expensive to rent an apartment (or a single room in an apartment like we’re doing) in Singapore than anywhere in the U.S. (it's way more than New York, San Francisco, Boston, D.C., etc.).            

           For our last Manila post, we wanted to put up some of our remaining videos, audio records, and photos that didn’t make their way into other posts. Hopefully the next time we post we'll be writing from Singapore!

             There are lots and lots of roosters everywhere. Even though basketball is big, many people say that cock fighting is really the most popular sport in the country. We see lots of guys in our neighborhood who spend hours every day carefully cleaning, pampering and caring for their fighting roosters, who then are set out in the alleys during the day.

            Along with these roosters, we also see a fair number of chickens running around. Several groups of hens and chicks are let loose onto Ateneo’s campus down at the base of the stairs, where there’s some open space with trees and grass. The video here captures a fairly common sight as we entered Ateneo.

We did our post about cats here, but we have one more video of kittens. 

And here's one more Sunday evening of karaoke, as performed by one of our neighbors and recorded from our apartment.

Our neighbor adding another floor to his home

when we got back from HK in mid-March the acacias started blooming

one of the countless decorated tricycles

typical scene

fixing a jeepney near our apartment

Ateneo's prom drop-off

child with toy microphone (practice for karaoke?)

Grace's parents at Fort Santiago, Intramuros

view from 24th floor of big building on Katipunan, looking out towards Rizal Province over Miriam College

Palm Sunday, next to our building

selling palms on Palm Sunday outside our building

blurry jeepney near end of our street

walking to local shopping mall (Riverbanks)

one of dozens of roosters we see on walk to Ateneo campus

kids outside our apartment playing one of many games possible with flip fops

kids on our street playing in tricycles (blurry because taken while walking, oops)

bball game, we saw this father and daughter combo every day

selling goldfish outside our building

more kids playing in tricycles on our street

alphabet lesson on alley wall

Japanese Kewpie products at grocery store (Kewpies were my high school mascot)

close-up of "Crazy Ants." Their stings hurt a lot so you have to be careful where you walk if not on concrete

some Filipino names

more kittens

tricycle stand next to our building

Filipino versions of lots of American products (this one had a good name)

children constantly playing in the streets so not surprising that alley walls become coloring surfaces

deserted alley during hot afternoon, walk home from Ateneo

one of several sari-sari stores in our neighborhood

fun shadows from fiesta decorations. Our building is in the little alley on the left

mugging for camera. Behind, selling green mango and bagoong

one more cat on roof

Some of the roosters we see while walking to Ateneo from our apartment.  Note the blue rooster carrying case.

Much more typical view of a cat. As seen from our building's front door.

The street where we live

another flip-flop game right in front of our front door

kids playing near basketball court

some of the little girls we see every day

Been in upper 90's most days and most people don't have A.C. We've seen two people set up inflatable pools to cool off.

Neighbors hanging out their cleaned stuffed animals. Our building is the newer off-white one on the left.

Ateneo campus. New traffic route came with gigantic new signs.

building across from ours, built up floor by floor