He Will Retain This Title At Home.

Holidays in New Ways

We didn't COMPLETELY skip American Thanksgiving...we just had to postpone it a little.  The schools here aren't let out for it, so we had a dinner with friends on Saturday afternoon.  All of our favorite foods from America were present and accounted for.  I was in charge of a couple of pies, and finally managed to find shortening (although priced at triple what I would pay at home) so that I could make pie crusts, so I played my part and showed with a banana cream and lemon cream pie.

Sometimes you just have to steal a baby.  And sometimes, after you steal the baby, you have to put that baby in an Indian head dress.  Hanna was a good sport.  As was her mother.

But, by the time I got around to putting a pilgrim hat on my stolen baby, she wasn't so amused by me anymore.

The kids' table.

Angela, Charity, Chris, Kristina, and Lori.  These lovely ladies are in my branch and are perfectly delightful in every way.

Jamie (on the left) was our lovely hostess.

The girls have been begging to "put up the Christmas tree" but I had told them they couldn't until Thanksgiving was over with.  The instant we walked in the door from Thanksgiving dinner they pulled out the "tree" and got to work.  Decorations here will be sparse- fortunately everywhere else is decorated to the hilt, so it still feels like Christmas.  I just had no way to get Christmas decorations here and will have no way to get new Christmas decorations back home, so we are keeping it simple.  And miniature.

We have a tree and a nativity so I think we are covered on both religious and secular fronts.

Yesterday we celebrated my friend Jen's son's first birthday.  I love that the friends we have made here just open their arms and make each other family.  It has been my favorite part about this adventure so far- to see how willing people are to make a friend and be a friend and share traditions and special occasions.  So even though the food is different, and the timing is different, and the traditions are different, we still feel like we are having special holidays and occasions here.

Kate with her new friends Ellie and Whitney.

Jen and her grown-up one year old, Zander.

Eating his cake.  He is so delicious.

Some more of my ladies...Jen, Cathy, Robyn, Chris, Kim, and me.
I really could go on all day about how amazing they are.

We also didn't skip tree decorating entirely either- Bruce's staff at the office let the girls decorate the tree there.

Little bit of free advertising for inContact...

On our way to Corregidor we saw this Christmas star as we were filling up the gas tank.

It was made entirely of anti-freeze bottles and the like. It was festive and still appropriate for a gas station!

It's probably getting redundant at this point, but we are still having a good time!

Thanksgiving on Corregidor

We spent the last two days on Corregidor.  Corregidor (say, "Core, Egg, Adore") is about 75 minutes away by ferry and is a fascinating historical sight- it was the place where MacArthur said, "I shall return."  The history of the island goes all the way back to the 1500's, during Spanish Occupation, but most of what we saw related to World War II. 

Here's a link if you want to know more.

We had to leave home by six a.m. in order to catch the ferry on time, but spirits were still high.

It's always amazing to me what people will do in public.  This man, soon after departure, pulled out a hand mirror and a tiny pair of scissors and spent the entire time trimming errant nose, ear, and neck hairs. 

We made it safely and loaded into our tour bus for the day.  One thing I've noticed about the linguistics here:  Some Tagalog/English speakers reverse the "P" sound and the "F" sound, and our tour guide wasn't an exception to that (although she was excellent in every regard).  She told us that lunch would be at "Twelve Fee Em" which was pretty entertaining, but when she started telling us about the "Desferate Jafanese" it was kind of awesome.  What is truly awesome, in all seriousness, is that just about every Filipino speaks English, so I shouldn't make fun since I'm dependent on their ability to learn MY language.  (Things are still lost in translation sometimes: Bruce asked the front desk at the hotel for an extra pillow and they delivered a bath towel and a roll of toilet paper.)

Battery Way:

Look through the gun carefully.

Battery Hearn:

Battery Grubbs:

Mile Long Barracks:

Cine Corregidor:

"Brothers in Arms"
It memorializes the partnership between the Americans and the Filipinos.

Pacific War Memorial and Eternal Flame:
A few words: Living here is turning me into a World War II buff- the history between America and the Philippines is so interesting.  The more I've learned, the more I have experienced the sorrow of knowing the great losses that both of these countries suffered together.  These two memorials were very sacred and emotional.

This altar is directly under the dome you see in the first picture of the Pacific War Memorial.

The inscription on the altar.

As you walk through the dome, you see this.  The sculpture at the end, next to the water, is a sculpture of an eternal flame.

The view out from the flame.  Corregidor is shaped like a tadpole, and that's the tail you see.

The view from the Eternal Flame looking back towards the Pacific War Memorial.

More of Cine Corregidor- this army base had a movie theater!  The last movie shown in it was "Gone With the Wind."  Another interesting fact about these buildings is that they were made from cement from Japan.

The Spanish Lighthouse:

Only 7000 miles from home!

The view from the light house.

Our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of rice (of course), pancit (a traditional noodle dish- it's kind of like chow mein), pork, chicken, and veggies.  The drink is some kind of pine juice laced with a disgusting amount of sugar.  Dessert was a Filipino favorite: I don't know what it is called, but it is blocks of unflavored gelatin (always a color, but never a flavor) mixed together with fresh shredded coconut and coconut milk.

A neighboring island.  It was also fortified by the U.S. during the war.

Japanese Memorial Gardens:

Looks peaceful, no?  That's because I cropped out the jackass who was yammering on his phone in the middle of a JAPANESE MEMORIAL GARDEN.

Malinta Tunnel:
The Malinta (translation: "leech") Tunnel was crucial during WWII.  President Quezon (The Filipino president at the time) was hidden in its depths; it is where MacArthur relinquished control to Wainwright when he was ordered to Australia; and after the Japanese bombed the hospital, a 1,000 bed hospital was moved there.  There is one main tunnel but 24 lateral tunnels- 13 on one side and 11 on the other.

After 5 hours on a tour bus you start wondering if any of these guns are loaded.

After the tour, we checked into our room at the Corregidor Inn.  We had a great view- to Manila Bay on one side of the island, and to the South China Sea on the other side.  I don't know which was which, so pick for yourself.

Inside the hotel.

After a long day outside, a swim felt great.

The view of our hotel from the pool.

We also went on a night tour- we saw the sunset from Battery Grubbs, then saw the ruins of the hospital, and then Bruce went through some of the lateral tunnels in the Malinta Tunnel.

Kate stacked rocks while we waited for the sun to set.

Inside a lateral tunnel.

Even though these ruins are now about 80 years old, it is easy to imagine the devastation because bullet holes and bomb craters are everywhere. 

This morning we had a little breakfast then went to the beach.

This is the entrance of Malinta Tunnel as seen from the dining room of the hotel.

All the trash from Manila Bay washes up in Corregidor, so the beach was pretty filthy.  My friend Cathy and I have joked about always seeing flip flops on the beach, and this was no exception.  I think the match to this one is by the Embassy.

At lunch today, I plated up what I assumed was another bowl of Filipino/Unflavored Gelatin/Coconut Delight.  I was so wrong.  First, it was WARM.  Second, it had some unidentifiable stringy fruit in it.  But, I was trying to be brave, so I took a bite of what I thought was the gelatin, and here is what I said, "Holy Crap!  It's a potato!"  So apparently this is Filipino/String Fruit/Warm Potato Delight instead.  We eat a lot of good food, but I could teach people a thing or two about the composition of a decent dessert.

Me and MacArthur:

We Shall Return.