The ARC

The American Recreation Club..sounds fancy.  They were having a BBQ by the pool at the Seafront Compound this past Sunday so we decided to go and meet some people and check out the scene.  The Seafront Compound is an embassy compound with everything on it, medical offices, community liason offices, daycare, housing.  We had decided to live off the compound.  We wanted to live in a real community and Randy had done some research and he had been told the housing was better off the compound as well.

Randy’s research has definitely paid off.  I think our neighborhood and apartment are definitely better.  While it would be convenient to have some of that stuff nearby, I really am starting to love our apartment and neighborhood.

Here is another beautiful sunset we had from our window on Sunday night.

 

The ARC building may have been the place for embassy employees to hang out in 1972 but these days it is in some need of TLC.  Randy was told it’s fallen into disrepair… the past couple decades! I think if it’s been decades, something is just in disrepair, it’s no longer falling.

But on the positive, it was nice to meet some people and Adam got to show off his dance moves to the fancy stereo they had.  At the moment Adam’s two cutest characteristics are that he LOVES to dance and LOVES animals. Whenever he hears music (even the hold music on the phone) he gets an uncontrollable urge to dance.  His love of dogs has been discussed, but it extends further than that. He loves lizards, ants, cats, birds, horses.  I’ve yet to see Adam meet an animal he didn’t love!

Multi-tasking. Dancing and eating fruit at the same time

Adam of course made friends with all the pretty ladies at the pool.

I tried to dip Adam’s feet in the pool and we were not a fan again….so this week is pool week. I’m going to take him down every day and try to get him used to the idea. 

Adam had so much fun at the pool he barely even noticed when he got his first skinned knee. 

When I was giving him a bath that night I got a little sad thinking that this for sure must mark the beginning of toddlerdom and Adam is for sure no longer my baby that I can protect from all of life’s dangers. In fact he may never not have a skinned knee again for the next ten years.  But at least he still cuddles me before bed and gives me kisses. 

Vin Diesel

It turns out Philippinos are OBSESSED with action movies and since Vin Diesel is the king of action movies, Philippinos are in turn OBSESSED with Vin Diesel.   Where am I going with this you ask..well… last night we ordered some food.  I had attempted to make Chili and it was a big fail- again I’m not sure if the ingredients were to blame or the chef, but we had to scrap it and we ordered some Italian food.  Again, you may ask, what does this have to do with Vin Diesel?  Well, the food was delivered and about a minute later I heard the doorbell ring again.  I thought maybe Randy had forgotten the receipt or his change.  The delivery guy CAME BACK to our door to ring the doorbell and ask Randy if he was Vin Diesel!  After I stopped laughing at this story, Randy shared that apparently this has been happening all week.  The dispatcher at his work told the car to pick up the guy who looked like Vin Diesel,  he’s been stopped several times on the street by strangers to tell him he looks like Vin Diesel.  So the question to be asked people is how can this be capitalized on. Any ideas??                                                                                                    

Rain?!

To quote Charlie Brown when I woke up and saw this out my window, wah wah played through my head.

 
This is the American Cemetary that we can see from our kitchen window.  Another beaiutiful view from our window.
 
But rain people?? It’s not the rainy season yet.  What am I going to do with a one year old all day with no car and no umbrella??  This is a logistical challenge.  We basically have whatever toys we could fit in our suitcase for Adam since our shipments haven’t arrived.  Everyone we know to skype is asleep,  Aunt Daf- can’t you stay up all night and skype with us?  We have no car to drive to the stores and we haven’t made any friends yet who can come over.
 
I have never missed my friends in DC more.  Meredith, Kate, Carries, Clare- can you please fly here and come over for a play date!
 
Oh well, enough whining. It’s only one day and then it’s the weekend and we can go buy an umbrella.
 
So what to do in the meantime today?  Well, we can always pull all the wipes out of the container.  That’s always good for passing a good five minutes.
 

 
This is Adam’s room.  It has an amazing view of the golf course and some beautiful houses.  More pictures to come when our stuff arrives and it’s all set up.  It’s normally pretty sunny but grey today.
 
Option number two we can play with the five dollar blow up dinosaur we got Adam to amuse him until his toys come.
 

 
Another well spent five minutes.  Now we just need to figure out how to spend the remaining 480 minutes until bedtime!
 
 

Some history and some horses

This past Sunday we decided to start seeing some of Manila. Since we have four years here I’ve managed to talk Randy into limiting our sightseeing to one day a weekend.  This is a small miracle since usually every free second the Alis spend in a foreign country are full of sightseeing. 
 
We headed off to the oldest area in Manila.  This part of Manila is called Intramuros, which is Latin for “within the walls”.  These defensive walls were built by the Spaniards in the late 16th Century. 
 
After the end of the Spanish-American War, Spain surrendered the Philippines and several other territories to the United States.  Fort Santiago which is located inside Intramuros became the headquarters of the Philippine Division of the United States Army.  If we had moved here back then we might have lived in the Fort instead of Essensa tower!  During World War II Intramuros was heavily damaged by the Japanese but it is being slowly rebuilt.
 
Adam was intrigued by all of this history.  Can’t you tell… although he might look like this because his mom accidentally got sunscreen in his eye. Hard to tell.  
 
 
José Rizal the national hero of the Philippines was imprisoned here prior to his execution on 30 Dec 1896.   There is a small Shrine inside the Fort dedicated to his life and work.  Before Rizal was executed he wrote a short poem for his family that he hid in a small stove in his prison cell that was later give to his family with the rest of his belongings.  
 
I of course knew none of this.  Randy of course knew all of this since he has been reading about the Philippines for months now to prepare for our move.  I figure I’ll just learn as we go and make Randy tell me everything he knows 🙂
 

For Adam the best part of his day by far was when he saw all the horses they have in Intramuros.  This was Adam’s first time seeing horses and he was so excited!  It’s pretty amazing how innate Adam’s love of all animals is and so sweet to witness.  

 
 
 
My Final Farewell By Dr. Jose Rizal

Farewell, dear Fatherland, clime of the sun caress’d
Pearl of the Orient seas, our Eden lost!,
Gladly now I go to give thee this faded life’s best,
And were it brighter, fresher, or more blest
Still would I give it thee, nor count the cost.

On the field of battle, ‘mid the frenzy of fight,
Others have given their lives, without doubt or heed;
The place matters not-cypress or laurel or lily white,
Scaffold or open plain, combat or martyrdom’s plight,
T is ever the same, to serve our home and country’s need.

I die just when I see the dawn break,
Through the gloom of night, to herald the day;
And if color is lacking my blood thou shalt take,
Pour’d out at need for thy dear sake
To dye with its crimson the waking ray.

My dreams, when life first opened to me,
My dreams, when the hopes of youth beat high,
Were to see thy lov’d face, O gem of the Orient sea
From gloom and grief, from care and sorrow free;No blush on thy brow, no tear in thine eye.

Dream of my life, my living and burning desire,
All hail ! cries the soul that is now to take flight;
All hail ! And sweet it is for thee to expire ;
To die for thy sake, that thou mayst aspire;
And sleep in thy bosom eternity’s long night.

If over my grave some day thou seest grow,
In the grassy sod, a humble flower,
Draw it to thy lips and kiss my soul so,
While I may feel on my brow in the cold tomb below
The touch of thy tenderness, thy breath’s warm power.

Let the moon beam over me soft and serene,
Let the dawn shed over me its radiant flashes,
Let the wind with sad lament over me keen ;
And if on my cross a bird should be seen,
Let it trill there its hymn of peace to my ashes.
Let the sun draw the vapors up to the sky,
And heavenward in purity bear my tardy protest
Let some kind soul o ‘er my untimely fate sigh,
And in the still evening a prayer be lifted on high
From thee, 0 my country, that in God I may rest.

Pray for all those that hapless have died,
For all who have suffered the unmeasur’d pain;
For our mothers that bitterly their woes have cried,
For widows and orphans, for captives by torture tried
And then for thyself that redemption thou mayst gain.

And when the dark night wraps the graveyard around
With only the dead in their vigil to see
Break not my repose or the mystery profound
And perchance thou mayst hear a sad hymn resound
‘T is I, O my country, raising a song unto thee.

And even my grave is remembered no more
Unmark’d by never a cross nor a stone
Let the plow sweep through it, the spade turn it o’er
That my ashes may carpet earthly floor,
Before into nothingness at last they are blown.

Then will oblivion bring to me no care
As over thy vales and plains I sweep;
Throbbing and cleansed in thy space and air
With color and light, with song and lament I fare,
Ever repeating the faith that I keep.

My Fatherland ador’d, that sadness to my sorrow lends
Beloved Filipinas, hear now my last good-by!
I give thee all: parents and kindred and friends
For I go where no slave before the oppressor bends,
Where faith can never kill, and God reigns e’er on high!

Farewell to you all, from my soul torn away,
Friends of my childhood in the home dispossessed !
Give thanks that I rest from the wearisome day !
Farewell to thee, too, sweet friend that lightened my way;
Beloved creatures all, farewell! In death there is rest!

Breakfast of Champions! Dinner of Average People…

 
I can definitely get used to four years of this.  The tropical fruit here has been delicious! I love having fruit for breakfast and this is fruit done right.
 
 
In other news, Randy headed off to work yesterday for his first day.  Adam and I had big plans to head to a playgroup that meets every day in the playroom in our building…but Adam decided a nap was more appealing.  
 
Since I had two hours to kill while Adam napped I decided I might as well make some Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner.  I’m sure I could have used an easier recipe, but I found Tyler Florence’s recipe and I had almost all of the ingredients so I went with it. 
 
 
 
There were some snafus of course.  I couldn’t find any canned tomatoes at the supermarket so I bought a big bag of tomatoes and decided I would make chopped tomatoes.  Luckily my mom mentioned that if I boil the tomatoes they would be A LOT easier to peel.  This worked like a charm! It wasn’t the neatest operation but a successful one.
 

 
While this was cooking it smelled delicious, almost like the meat sauce my aunt in Greece used to make. It didn’t look that appealing but I decided not to judge a book by it’s cover and wait and see.
 
 
 But…it was just an average sauce.  Definitely not worth the three hours it took me to make and I would say not even as good as Traders Joe spaghetti sauce (which is delicious).  I’m not going to blame living in the Philippines for this one, this was purely the fault of the recipe and the chef. 
 
While I’m sure it’s very interesting for you all to read about my recipe that didn’t taste that great, I’ll throw in a picture of Adam waiting for his meal to make reading this worth your while.
 
 

Poolside

The best part about the Philippines, it’s been a balmy 80 degrees every day so far.  This means lots of pool time.  We decided today would be a good day to relax by the pool before Randy starts work tomorrow. 

Adam hadn’t been in a pool since last August and he was a little nervous.    We’ll have to get him used to swimming since it’s going to be a staple of the next four years.  In the meantime, at least we looked good 🙂

Adam was obsessed with his floatie outside of the water but wanted nothing to do with it once we put him in it inside the pool.

 

 

Goodbye New York & DC

 

To all my faithful readers, I’m sorry the Alis have been so quiet.  

In other news, we are here! In Manila! We are settling in and doing great.  We are battling some jet lag but still exploring and have lots to share already but first a quick synopsis of how we spent January. 

As much as I’m sure you would all love to hear the million items that had to be completed before our move to the other side of the world, I’m going to spare you all the details. It has consumed us the past month.  But we did manage to squeeze in loads of family and even a trip to New York and of course my 21st birthday came and went 🙂 Ok, maybe it was my 33rd.

First weekend up was a visit from Aunt Daf and Uncle Meej.  It was great to see them as always and Adam was in heaven with all the attention the Jordans lavished on him.

We spent Saturday just relaxing, which was nice.  We did manage to squeeze in some burgers from Spikes and a visit from Pamela, Sal and baby James.  After that Aunt Daf, Adam and I decided to head to Home Goods while the boys went to catch some of the game (no idea what game all I know is it was a game). 

Well, halfway there we had a flat tire, on the hightway, with a one year old.  I was pretty worried about how this would go down.  BUT thanks to Geico we were only there for 45 minutes. Before we knew it we had a new tire (well, the spare at least) and were on our way home.  Adam loved the whole thing.  He thought it was hysterical and snacked on crackers the whole time. 

After that, we decided to forego Homegoods and headed to meet the boys and have a much needed drink.  Then is was time for the grown ups to go out. We got a sitter and went to Graffiatos! Which was delicious.   It was definitely one of the top five restaurants we’ve been to in DC.

The next morning, Aunt Daf and I snuck away to Home Goods which was a huge success for some of us! Adam was OBSESSED with the basket that Daphne got. He insisted the Jordans carry him around in it for hours. What is this boy going to do without the Jordans to boss around in the Philippines 🙂

The next weekend we headed to New York to see Aunt Daphne and Uncle MJ’s new apartment and to celebrate my birthday. It was a great weekend. The Jordan’s new apartment aka my pied-à-terre in NYC is amazing!  The Jordans even greeted Adam at the door with balloons in hand.  They know the way to Adam’s heart.

 

Friday night we took Adam out to eat at Pearl, which was amazing as always. Then we put Adam to bed and taught the Jordans how to play Spades. After a couple of hours we finally called it a tie (although looking at this score it turns out the boys actually won and the score should have been 190-199 but don’t tell them that).

Grandpa Terry came over Saturday and bought Adam his new favorite toy.  We went to the playground in Union Square which was awesome and then to the dog park. Adam had a blast!

Grandma Gertch babysat Saturday night and we went to dinner with Daphne and MJ at Casa Mono. Dinner was good but the company was better. Then we met up with a bunch of our friends which was so much fun. It’s been a long time since we’ve gone out with so many of these people in NY and it’s the last time we’ll see a lot of them for a long time.

 Champagne Punch Bowl at Bourgeois Pig = Deliciousness
 
 

Sunday the Jordans hosted a big goodbye dinner for us and invited our whole family.

I made pasticchio and Daphne made a yummy roast and Grandma Gertch made tons of yummy salads.  Granty Lori, Granty Vange, Grandma Yuyu, Cousins Kathryn and Steve, Jeannie, Kevin, Christine, Dimitra, Dimitri and Josh and Peter all came over.

After everyone left and Adam was asleep, Grandma Gertch kindly babysat again and we headed to Momofuku Ko for a special birthday dinner for me (my second if you’re keeping track 🙂
 


 No pictures allowed but I snuck these two wonderful shots before we sat down.  Dinner was amazing! It was hard to finish all ten course but it was definitely a fitting meal to have as our last meal in NY. 
 
 
All in all it was an amazing weekend full of lots of trips to Joes Coffee and loads of family time.
 
Since two birthday dinners are never enough for the Alis  Randy took me to a delicious steak dinner at Bourbon Steak on my actual birthday.  Which was delicious! 
 
I rounded out my birthday week with a fourth birthday dinner at Acqua al 2 with a great bunch of girls. We even went for drinks at Harold Blacks after and stayed out until 1 am! That’s late for someone with a one year old 🙂 I was so lucky and met an amazing group of ladies in DC all with babies close to Adam’s age. I’m really going to miss our nights out. 

Uncle Ari came to spend a couple days with us and helped us run some errands.  Thanks Ari for carrying in all of our Costco goods, we owe you 🙂
 

Grandma Yuyu came the next weekend to see us and Adam and we got to see some of DC for the last time. We headed to the Capitol and White House one last time to say goodbye.

 
Grandma Yuyu babysat Saturday night (we were so spoiled this month with all the free babysitting!) and we went to dinner at Izakaya Seki (thanks Joel for the rec!) with our friend Puraj who was in town.  We’ve been craving good sushi and of course we finally find amazing sushi two weeks before we leave town.  But at least we got to try it!
  
Grandma Gertch and Aunt Daf came the next weekend and they helped us throw a great going away party.  We of course forgot to take any pictures of the party but here are some of Adam ‘helping’ us get ready 🙂
 

 
 
 
 
Adam’s friend Simone gave him a copy of Oh the Places You’ll Go and it made me tear up just thinking about all the places he’ll go in his little life.  The book was a big hit, but Simone knows Adam so well that she wrapped the book in dog wrapping paper and Adam was in heaven! He spent all morning just looking at the doggies.  I may have to get this boy a dog.
 
 
He loved it so much I framed it for him and I can’t wait to hang it in his new bedroom.
 
  
Thanks Simone! We miss you and can’t wait until you come visit! Adam promises he’ll even share the remotes with you…
 
 
Our last weekend in DC both Grandmas came to help us pack up.  I was struck down by the worst stomach flu that Adam had earlier that week.  It was pretty hard to be so sick when there was so much to do but thankfully we had both Grandma’s to help and movers to pack everything up.

Writing all this makes me sad that all these weekends have flown by so fast and we’ve already said goodbye to everyone.  We are so lucky to have such amazing friends and family and will miss them all more than anything.

I can’t wait to share all the details about our new life here and for you all to come visit and see it!

 

January 9th??

Wait, what day is it? How is it already 9 days into January? How do we only have four more weekends before the movers come to pack us up for Manila? How have I never watched Friday Night Lights before, will they have it in Manila? Oh that’s right, I’m watching episodes from 2006 so they will probably be playing them on prime time.

It seems like it was just New Years. 

The day before New Years Eve we had some friends over for dinner.  We cooked a leg of lamb and moussaka.  The moussaka was a vegetarian version for our friend Carrie, but I wasn’t too impressed.  It was super labor intensive and not worth the effort.  The lamb and potatoes were delicious though.  I sure am going to miss Trader Joes.

For New Years Eve, we went to our friends house who cooked an awesome dinner.  It was 13 adults and 4 babies.  Those babies sure do fill up a table.  Then miraculously all the babies went to sleep and stayed asleep until well past midnight.  The adults were able to have a fun white elephant gift exchange that ended with some 99 banana shots, a cranium game, champagne at midnight and a really fun night.

The baby portion of New Years Eve

Happy boy even at 2am New Years Day 🙂
 

 New Years Day Playing

The next day poor Adam got sick.  He had a nasty virus that Randy and I managed to catch as well.  But Adam is a trooper and thankfully we were all feeling ok by Sunday.  You know you have a baby when you’re happy you get sick on the weekend so there’s someone to help 🙂

Adam helped me take the Christmas tree down and that’s about all we’ve been up to.  Before you know it I’ll blink and we’ll be in Manila!