Sunday adventures

[indigo_rose99]

Sunday I woke up early enough to call T a full hour before our scheduled time. I SO love Skype! *love love love* Investing 10 Euros once every few years has been totally worth it to me. I still remember the dark days of international travel in the early 90s... When there was no internet. Or the early 00s, when there was internet, but no wireless commonly available in hotels! I do NOT miss those days for travel.

After talking happily with him for a while, I went and worked out for an hour. I was alone when I went in, though some people came in and used the weights later. I selfishly hogged my elliptical (the only one) for a full 20 minutes after they arrived. I'm clearly a terrible person.

I'm beginning to think that Filipino society is not a morning society. Traffic seems (to me) to be much worse in the evening. The gym is empty in the morning, but full in the evening. The lobby is almost empty in the morning, and it is easy to get the attention of staff. In the evening when I walk through it is so crowded I get claustrophobia just thinking about trying to stop and ask a question of the front desk staff!

I was determined to fully explore the mall I had visited (bookstore and grocery only) on Saturday. Must Fully Explore. And fully explore I did. It turns out the place is a MAZE, an indoor/outdoor mall. And as time passed, it added to my sense that the local culture is a late afternoon/evening one. At 10am in the morning, the mall had people, but was not jam packed. By 3pm, I was having trouble threading my way through people!

My first discovery was my favorite: A health food store! I can replenish my food bar stock! I also bought some of my favorite (almond) crackers, a jar of peanut butter (from Seattle) for protein, and a few luxurious cans of stevia-sweetened soft drink. It took all the money I had on me, but was totally worth it! Plus, since this store is within walking distance of my hotel, I can start eating food bars when I'm starving and not hoarding them. I can now buy more. *relief* I still want to earn that leather dress, but being hungry all of the time during class is quite distracting.

I also went through a sporting goods store in which I found my favorite running shoes on sale. I don't know how you identify when shoes are worn out.... Holes? But my current pair is beginning to give me blisters. So perhaps it is time.

Watching the local fashions is entertaining. First of all, most women wear flip-flops. Of the small percentage that are not, some wear sandles and some flats. Ok, and some heeled sandles. But my flat plain sandles fit in fine. I only mention this because of the many many many shops I saw selling a stunning array of flip flops.

In Texas, I am constantly thinking that the people who decide to stock the stores live in the North. So when it is 98F in August/Sept/Oct, the Texas clothing stores are trying to sell winter coats, scarfs and long sleeves. I find it convenient, in that the things I actually want to BUY are on sale -- shorts, t-shirts. But silly. Shouldn't they make this sort of thing locationally dependent? Tailor the stock to what the locals will want to buy?

But it is worse here! I actually saw THIS in a shop window. This month (December) is the coolest it gets here, they tell me. The daily low temperature MIGHT get down as far as 73F. Generally it is quite warm outside.

That's a SWEATER! And a warm scarf!