Mabuhay Philipinas!!

I cannot believe that I am back in the Philippines! This seems so surreal, it's almost a dream, I love, love, love it here. It feels like a second home and have enjoyed immensely the last 48 hours. The workers here are amazing and I'm still on a high from everything.

I will be updating with pics etc. as I get more, but so far, have just been working. It was interesting getting here, after my 13 hour flight from Dallas to Tokyo, I started my last leg from Tokyo to Manila, when after 15 minutes in the air, the pilot came on the intercom and stated that we would have to return to Tokyo, because there was a problem with the fuel line.

We returned to Tokyo, got off the plane, and waited four hours before a replacement plane came to take us to Manila. (p.s. International business class flights are SO worth it). I arrived in Manila at about 1:30am Tuesday morning, I got my bags, took the hotel taxi to the hotel, showered and went straight to work.

Luckily, the center is directly across the street from where I am staying so it was easy to get there. I got into work at about 2:30am and worked until 7a.m. after a long day of travel it was all I could muster.

I went and toured the Festival Mall yeterday and may venture out a little today before I settle down and get to bed by noon. Will update on my adventures later on.

I'm packing my bags

One of the greatest things has happened. I have been chosen to go to the Philippines for work!! I absolutely love it there and am very excited to return. I will get to be there for three weeks, which is the shortest trip I have ever had, but will leave this Sunday and return on October 11.

The Philippines holds tons of memories for me. I served my mission there from October 1996 to November 1998, and have been able to return three tims for work. Each time was between two and three months. I will be working with some people I already know and can't believe that I am actually going!!!!!

It will be lots of hard work and lots of long hours, but the people and culture there make everything worthwhile. Only six more days and I will be on a plane to one of my favorite places in the world.

Stephanie's last weekend-part 3

After playing around in the French Quarter, we stopped by Todd and Michael's to clean up and get ready for dinner at Restaurant August. For anyone who has watched the food network and seen the "Next Iron Chef" show, John Besh was a contestant from New Orleans and we went to eat at his restaurant on Tchoupitoulas Street.


Stephanie and I at dinner. The food was soooooo good. I don't remember everything that we ate, but I pulled this sample menu from the restaurant's website. We had the five course taster and the grilled melon and kobe beef meals and dessert listed below were what we had, I have included what I remember of what we ate for the other courses, but have forgotten all the fancy names they have. I paired all five of my entrees with wine and it was great.

We started off with a seafood mousse in an egg shell, topped with caviar.

Entree One: Grilled watermelon and heirloom tomato salad with 25 year old balsamic
Wine-Cristalino, Sparkling Brut Rose, Cava, Spain (yummy)

Entree Two: Pan-roast redfish with basil risotto, crispy fried sweet tomatoes and aïoli (we actually had an egg ravioli with brown sauce and mushroom--delicious)
Wine-Voigner, Treana, Central Sonoma Coast, 2004

Entree Three: House-made rabbit sausage with white bean and Cherokee purple tomato salad (We actually had grouper with bacon, this is the best fish I have EVER had in my life.)
Wine-Pinot Noir, Acacia, Napa Valley, 2005

Entree Four: Slow-braised Kobe beef short rib with Jerusalem artichoke, asparagus, and roasted tomato vinaigrette
Wine-Syrah, Tensley “Colson Canyon,” Santa Barbara 2005

Entree Five: Napoleon of nougatine with Valrhona chocolate bavarois,
salt water toffee bombe and chicory coffee sauce
Wine-Warres, 1989 Vintage Port, “Quinta de Cavidinha”


Chef John Besh was actually at his restaurant this evening and we got to meet him. He was extremely nice and did not hesitate when we asked to take our picture with him. He has an excellent restaurant. The service was good and the food was outstanding. Stephanie and I felt like we were real adults while eating there. Regaring the pic, "I'm kinda chunky, yeah."


We found a good Samaritan to take our picture after dinner outside the restaurant on the street. This had to be one of the best trips that I have ever had to New Orleans. I will miss Stephanie and wish her the very best.

www.RestaurantAugust.com

Stephanie's last weekend-part 2

(Jackson Square, Stephanie and I took our own pictures as we could not find any good Samaritan's. This is the big tourist area in New Orleans.


(Scene on Bourbon Street)


(Finding out what our future holds. We stopped by a fortune teller today and the reading was uncanny. Stephanie's reading was spot on and it was eerie. You will have to ask her what was said.)

***I will share one thing, he said she was in a large transition in her life and was going to be moving SOON. (cue spooky music)


On the other hand, I will tell you what my reading said, you can agree with it or not.

LIFE:
*Says I am loyal to my family, but am the one who is most independent and also a hermit, meaning that I am the one who is far from family and fine with it.
*Does not only consider my blood relatives family, but also my friends.
*I consider myself smarter than people who surround me.
*I think that I am right most of the time and although I will work to make things happen, feel that my ideas are better, but that I need to be cautious as that keeps me in my hermit phase.

CAREER:
*Things are going well right now and I am where I need to be, but the future is open.
*I may be best suited for a career in city improvement. City improvement is one of two ways, it could mean I become an urban planner, or I improve people in the community.
*I will best utilize my talents if I work with people, rather than inanimate objects.
*Set lofty goals for myself, but become disappointed when I get nearer to those goals and am not satisfied with it.

LOVE:
*Not involved with anyone right now, because I have not made it a priority.
*Will meet my future love in a non-traditional manner. Example: Will not meet at work or any other regular place, but more likely to meet on a vacation.
*My future love will be someone who is not approved of by my family.

FUTURE:
*Will endup in the northwest, possibly Oregon.



A picture of horse carriage rides, we didn't have time to do this, because we were going to have dinner at August.

Stephanie's last weekend--part 1

Stephanie is one of my best friends and I have known her since 1996. It's been 11 years and she has been one of the best things in my life. I love her and am very lucky that we've got to hang out in Baton Rouge for the past year. But, now she is moving to Ohio and so we decided to spend today together before she takes off.


(Stephanie getting ready, every girl LOVES to be photographed when they are not fully ready. She's going to kill me for this, but she's moving far away and I think I'll be safe.)


(Our fabulous watches! A couple months ago, Steph and I were shopping and I was looking for a watch. We ended up both getting watches, mine is Kenneth Cole and hers is DKNY. We're not snobs, we just fell in love with our watches and wear them almost everyday. If I ever need a shopping partner, Stephanie is always there. We even got manicures and pedicures together!!)


(Our second stop of the day (the first was the gym, where we worked up an appetite) the second stop of the day was Bay Leaf. Stephanie took a trip to India about 8 years ago and has been in love with Indian food ever since then. I also happen to love it and we have regularly gone out to eat Indian food during our time in Baton Rouge. Bay Leaf is a new Indian restaurant and this is the first time we went, but we both loved it, the food has a kick to it and now I need to look for a new partner to visit the Indian restaurants in town.)


(On our way to New Orleans. We have a history of getting lost in New Orleans. Basically, I know one street (Bourbon) and Stephanie knows one street (Bourbon), although I know it for all the wrong reasons, so enter TOM TOM!! With this new GPS thingamabob, we are sure to get around without a problem at all. Stephanie bought it so she could get around Ohio without getting lost in the cornfields or whatever they have out there.)


Good thing that TOM TOM didn't tell us to take this exit! It was flooded. This is the LaPlace exit between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. I have never seen it this bad!!

Mid-week visitors

From L to R: Dawn, Jerome, Michelle (crazy neighbor, but we love her), Timmy, Chad

I came home from work on Thursday and was pleased to see we had some visitors. Our neighbor Michelle, along with Timmy, Chad, and their friend Dawn, dropped by to see us. Dawn and Chad had finished a league game at Mangos and decided to drop by.

Jerome found out that Dawn and our neighbor Michelle had gone to high school together so he invited her over and things just started to flow from there. We chatted for awhile and made plans for a game night on Friday night, but due to Hurricane Ike, we cancelled it so everybody could stay home.


From L to R: Timmy and Jerome


From L to R: Chad and Dawn

Weekend Update

From L to R: (Todd, Jerome, Lewis, Kevin)

Started the weekend by going to Mango's an outdoor volleyball place located in Baton Rouge. It is down the street and they had power. It was weird driving back, because we went through a neighborhood with power, to a neighborhood without power, to a neighborhood with power, then another neighborhood without power, before getting home.


Mango's had a cool decor, it's kind of a beach bum's paradise. Granted there is no ocean, but the courts are neat, there are 9 sand courts and a bar that serves cold drinks and bar food, (hamburgers, nachos, etc). I liked the volleyballs hanging from the ceiling.


More pictures of the bar.


Lewis and Jerome grillin on our patio. We came home and grilled hot dogs and hamburgers after playing at Mango's. Lewis was tending to the burgers and there were tons of flames and smoke pouring out of the grill. Kevin opened the sliding glass door to the patio and our fire alarm inside the house went off! Jerome and I grabbed a couple of towels and started fanning like crazy to make the alarms go off, it was funny.


From L to R: Todd, Jerome, Lewis, Kevin

We finished off the night by playing blackjack and watching "Hairspray" and "Disturbia". Then crashed at about 2am.

This morning, I played volleyball with Kevin, Lewis, and Karl at our normal Sunday place, I'm glad there's power there now. Update: Baton Rouge almost has 50% power to the entire city, but there are still tons of traffic lights that are out. Now, everybody is closely watching Hurricane Ike.

Hurricane Cleanup

Today, I helped Kevin and Lewis clean up their backyard that was left in shambles by Hurricane Gustav. They had the fence around their backyard blown down and had a lot of branches all over the yard. Additionally, trees had fallen down around their backyard, but luckily it didn't hit their house and fell in empty spaces in their neighbors yards.

We chopped down two trees, cut up a third that had fallen, disassembled and carted out their fence and picked up all the debris in their backyard. It was a great day to do it, not too hot and the rain had stopped.

Now the only thing they have to worry about is whether or not the river near their house will flood. Right now, it is pretty close and another river on the north side of the city has already flooded, due to the extra rain that Gustav provided, not only when it was here, but when it was travelling north after it hit the Baton Rouge metro area. Currently, 31% of the city has received power, four days after the storm has passed.

Hurry up and wait!

This morning I went to the gas station at 6:30am to get a head start on filling up my car. At 9:00am, I finally drove away from the station with my tank of gas. I couldn't believe that it took me two and a half hours to get gas. Later, I drove by a Winn-Dixie, and there was a line (again), so I drove to Target where luckily there were no lines. I grabbed my groceries and got out, just in time to get rained on as I made my way back to the car. The radio reported that Baton Rouge has approximately 12% of the city back online with power and there are police starting to do traffic control, because some idiots in the city don't know what to do at an intersection without power (FOUR WAY STOP, PEOPLE!!).

Also, yesterday, police had to break up fights at the grocery stores because people were fighting. People are getting testy, so I hope that things start returning back to normal soon. When you finally got into a store, there were limited items and anything perishable was thrown away by the stores, so there was no milk, eggs, cheese, meat, etc.


Empty aisles at the supermarket.


More empty aisles at the supermarket.

Hurricane Gustav--The Aftermath

Trees blocking roads were a common site after the hurricane. Several people in neighborhoods were blocked in for days before they could get out. Lucky for me, the area I live in is new and there aren't many trees around.

It's been over 48 hours since the hurricane and less than 25% of Baton Rouge has received power back. During the storm 100% of the city was in a blackout. Luckily for me, power came on after only 28 hours, but several other friends and other parishes are not so lucky. At work, I am the only manager with power.

Miss Ella and company left us on Tuesday after the storm, because their home in Vermillion Parish had power. That seemed to be quite the little miracle. The storm was supposed to head west directly to their homes, but after hitting Baton Rouge, the storm veered north and they were spared.

I've learned more about hurricanes in the past four days than I ever knew before. One interesting fact is that the east side of the hurricane is much worse than the other parts and that's the section that went right over Baton Rouge.

News reports say that we had 80 mile per hour winds with gusts up to 91 miles per hour. There are tons of trees down all over the city, power lines are down all over the city, because the city is essentially a black hole, a curfew has been enacted over the past couple days and anyone out after 8pm can risk going to jail.


This tree fell on a house on Goodwood Blvd. which I passed on my way to work the day after the storm.

I tried to go to a grocery store today and they were only letting a few people into the store at one time, so I stood in line outside for 40 minutes, before finally giving up and leaving, because I had only moved about 15 feet and was still 100 feet from the door.

We have more guests tonight. Jerome's parents (Fred & Winnie), Jerome's brother (Chad), Chad's partner, (Timmy), Jerome's niece (Bailey), Todd H, Todd T, and Lewis M., are spending the night because they all are without power. Unfortunately, Chad and Timmy's house had a tree fall through and made a huge hole in their newly constructed house that they just moved into last week. They have been there for a grand total of 7 days and now this has happened.


The new refugees

News reports state that 50% of Baton Rouge should receive power back within 1 to 8 days after the storm and the other 50% of Baton Rouge should receive power back within 3-4 weeks. That's crazy!

For more up to date information on a day to day basis, the local paper is www.2theadvocate.com


This tree blocked a route on Government Street, on my way to work and I had to turn around and find another route the day after the storm.


This tree blocked a route on Jefferson Street, on my way to work and I had to turn around and find another route the day after the storm. There is also a downed powerline in the foreground.

Hurricane Gustav

I have been in Louisiana for a year and I guess the experience would be incomplete without a hurricane, so enter Hurricane Gustav. We are currently being battered with the outer bands which has basically showed us strong winds and some rain.

A very pleasant surprise has been the arrival of what I refer to as "the refugees". My roommate Jerome had gone to Florida with his friends Todd and Melanie, along with Todd's mother (Miss Ella), Todd's sister (Denise), and Todd's nephew (Solomon). They were going to Pensacola, FL, beach and planned to stay through through the entire Labor Day weekend.



With Hurricane Gustov in the Gulf, however, they made plans to return to Baton Rouge. Todd's family lives in Southern Louisiana, south of Lafayette and are directly in the path of where the eye of the hurricane is supposed to pass.

They dropped by, but I wouldn't have it any other way. First of all, they are hurricane professionals, and as a neophyte to this type of weather, it's great to have a group of pros around. Second, Miss Ella is a FABULOUS cook. Last night, she cooked some chicken stew with rice that was delicious.

The stew wasn't a normal stew, at least, what I'm used to, but it had a dark roux base and was more like a thin gravy over the rice. It had the consistency that my mom's chicken soup has when she pours it over mashed potatoes. It was soooooo good though. In addition, they brought all the food that they had with them including, homemade biscuits, blueberry muffins, cookies, and desserts.

Right now, thankfully, we have electricity, although other friends in the city have stated they are out of power. Hopefully, we keep power through out the day.

The wind gusts are getting progressively stronger and we are expected to get the worst of it between 2pm and 4pm.


(This is a picture from my room of our mailbox that blew over on some guys truck.)

My new sofa came in handy as we are all camped out on it right now.

Right now, we also have boudin in the oven. Boudin is a cajun sausage and I've never had homemade boudin, but everything else has been delicious, so I"m looking forward to this as well.

As I look out the window, I see gusts just blowing the trees outside around, and the pool outisde the complex has lots of ripples and water blowing out the end in a mist, due to the wind.



Will update later on as I am just babbling at this point.