Manalo Family Reunion in Mindoro

On Saturday 5/3/08, we got up super early (4-5am) so we could get a head start on the drive to Mindoro, and be by there by late morning. Jun's neice, Ritz, works night shift at a telemarketing company, so we picked her up in downtown Manila, and then we were on our way. To get to Mindoro from Manila you must drive for about 2-2.5 hours to Batangas City, take a 2 hour ferry from Batangas City to Calapan City on the island of Mindoro. Once you get to Calapan City, we had about a 30-45 minute drive to get to Jun's brother Bo's house.

I was pretty excited about attending the family reunion because I heard there would be at least 100 people (6-7 families), and attending a reunion in the Philippines I knew would be new cultural experience for me. Jun had prepared me, because he said Mindoro is largely farm country, so a lot of people there aren't used to seeing fair skin people, and that they might stare. Also, many people aren't used to speaking English, so he warned me about that to. Fortunately, his family all speaks English, so they tried to speak it when I was around.

Reunion Activities

Each family wore a different color

Jun's Family

I had a great time at the reunion minus the extreme humidity. I understood then why everyone loves Baguio, because there is no humidity being in the mountains. Nevertheless, the reunion was a blast, and I got to experience new food, new traditions, karoake, new places, and meet new people. I was really glad I got that opporunity, and hope to visit Mindoro again, because it was very beautiful.

The only disappointment from the trip was that we were hoping to take a caribou ride, which I thought would be a once in a lifetime experience for me, but unfortunately we couldn't get it arranged...next time :) The good news was I did get to witness the buying/selling of palay (rice). One of Jun's sisters, Lisa, sells palay for a living, which is harvested from the family farm, and she was doing her business during the reunion.

Palay Drying

Loading the Buyers Truck

The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial

After finishing Jun's passport renewal on Friday 5/2/08, we decided to drive around and see one of the sites. While on our way to "Fort Boni" one of the fairly new and trendy places in Manila, we came across The Manila American Cemetry and Memorial. I had heard about it before actually from my Mom who wants to go there, but no one we knew had been there, which is kind of suprising, because a lot of the Moog visitors from the US would really find it interesting.

Entrance

The cemetery was absolutely beautiful and pristine. We just couldn't believe there were 16,000+ soliders buried there. This was a wonderful place, and I hope to take more of the Moog visitors there, so they could experience what we did.

Amazing View

Another Trip to Manila

At the beginning of May, Jun (a fellow Mooger) invited me to join him on a trip to his province, Mindoro, for a family reunion so that I could experience a new place in the Philippines. Since 1 of my 2 goals while being here is to travel, I jumped at the chance to visit a new place.

We left Baguio on Thursday 5/1/08, which was a Moog Baguio holiday, and drove to Manila. Since Mindoro is about 5-6 hours from Manila, we decided to stay over in Manila that night and also to do some sightseeing on Friday before heading to Mindoro. Jun also needed to get his passport renewed, so I was looking forward to see what that experience would be like. Not sure if I have mentionned this before, but nothing is easy here, so I figured this would be interesting. On Friday 5/2/08, we left early to meet the Moog travel agent who would help Jun with the passport renewal. I just assumed we would be going to a government building downtown, but I was shocked to see the first building he had to go into. Can you believe this was the "office" where he got his passport photos taken? It was a wooden shack. I couldn't believe my eyes. :)

Passport Photo "Office"

To be continued in the next post...

Lito's 40th Birthday

We found out at the last minute on Saturday 4/26/08 that it was my good friend Lito's (from Moog Baguio) 40th birthday, so I arranged an impromptu lunch with the team we work with. He was suprised, and from what we could tell really happy that his friends care so much to do that for him.

Amanda, Ed, Ruel, Lito, Bles, MC, & Ester

Ferdie, Rommel, Brian, Robert, Lito

During lunch, I snuck over to "Everything Nice," a great bakery, and bought 2 cakes for all of us to share. Lito was totally suprised.

Lito with His 2 Carrot Cakes

Baby Woodcarver

This is my favorite picture that I have taken so far since living in the Philippines. Therefore, I felt it deserved its own blog post. :)

In my most recent trip to Woodcarver's Village on Sunday 4/20/08, there was this little boy (about 3 years old) walking near his mother carrying some sandpaper. Next thing you know I see him sit down on his little chair with this freshly carved bowl, and starts sanding. His mom was sanding right next to him. It was so cute! Here's the baby woodcarver. :)

Woodcarver's Village

I had always heard of Woodcarver's Village from the Moog Baguio folks, but I never knew what to expect. When I first went there during my 1st trip in 2006, I was amazed, and I continue to be amazed each time I go there. There are so many amazing woodcarving's and I'm just in awe of the talent of the woodcarver's. I also can't believe the pieces are being sold for such little money. The greatest thing about Woodcarver's Village is that they can pretty much carve anything for you. You just need to bring them a photo or a sketch, and it's usually ready in 1-2 weeks. Here are some pictures from my most recent visit there on Sunday 4/20/08.

One of the Woodcarver Shops

Female Woodcarver Carving a Dragon

Moog Baguio Picnic

To be completed at a later date...

Girls Trip to Manila

To be completed at a later date...

Brent Day

To be completed at a later date...

Golf Outing at The BCC

Marlene, a fellow Mooger, was in Baguio for 3 months earlier this year. Being an avid golfer, Marlene would go golfing every Sunday at the Baguio Country Club. About a month before she returned to Buffalo, I started joining her, and we had a blast. On Friday 3/28/08, we took a half day and played the back 9 at the BCC.

Chris, Tracy, Marlene, Amanda

Quick Trip to Singapore

To be completed at a later date...

Relaxing in Phuket

To be completed at a later date...

Bangkok Revisited

To be completed at a later date...

The Easter Weaving Room

One of the famous tourist attractions in Baguio is The Easter Weaving Room where native fabrics and other handicrafts are sold. You can also witness the actual process of cloth weaving as practiced by the natives of the mountain provinces for ages. http://www.easterweaving.com/

While my boss Greg was in town visiting for work, we made a stop to Easter Weaving on Sunday 3/16/08. I had been there several times, but I always missed the time where you can witness the weaving. That day we were lucky, and we able to witness it, and it was amazing. The handcarved wooden weaving machines were so neat, and you can really see what a trade it is. I still wonder how long it took those women doing the weaving to learn how to do it.

The Weavers in Action

Work Trip Part II (Taiwan/China)

After vacationing in Boracay, it was now time for the 2nd leg of our work trip across Asia. This leg of the trip included visiting Taiwan and various cities in China. Rick, Roger, and I flew to Taiwan on the night of Sunday 3/2/08. We were in Taiwan from Sunday to Tuesday 3/4/08, and then we flew to China. I returned to Manila on Friday 3/7/08. Although I was really excited about seeing Taiwan and China for the first time, I ended up getting some sort of allergic reaction in Boracay (from the life jackets we think) which made me to feel pretty crappy for the entire Taiwan/China trip. For this reason, I also didn't get too many pictures.

Taiwan Scenery

Overall, I really like Taiwan, but wasn't as impressed with China. To give China some credit, I didn't make it to Beijing or Shanghai which I heard are great, so my impression is based solely on the rural cities we travelled to. Rick, Roger, and I all shared a similar opinion in that China was hard to get used to because English was rarely spoken and the people didn't really seem that friendly, as they were in Singapore, Malaysia, or the Philippines. Also, the weather wasn't that great in that it was very dreary out, so that contributed to it as well. In the end, I was really glad to have experienced two new countries, and I'm definitely interested in visiting either country again.

Rick, Myself, & Roger on Our First China Flight

Chinese Airplanes are Known for Having NO Space

Chinese Scenery

Why have bars in the cab if you allow passengers (Rick) to sit in the front seat?

This bus decided to back in to the cab in front of us which our friends were in. After our cabbie saw the bus driver hit and run, he went speeding after him with us in the car...it was crazy!

More Chinese Scenery

Vacationing in Boracay

I really wanted to take Rick and Roger to Boracay, a famous beach spot in the Philippines, but I wasn't sure if we'd be able to convince Rick. Then, Roger and I figured he wouldn't be able to say no if we scheduled it during the weekend between our work trips in Asia. Needless to say, we were successful.

There were 4 of us on the trip: Rick, Roger, Jun (from Moog Baguio), and myself. On Thursday 2/27/08, we made our way down to Manila to stay the night prior to flying to Boracay for a 2 night stay from Friday 2/28/08 to Sunday 3/2/08. I had been to Boracay once before, and absolutely loved it. The trip to Boracay is always eventful as you take a small plane from Manila to Boracay, then you take a tricycle from the airport to the Port of Caticlan, then a banana boat from the Port of Caticlan to the Port of Boracay, and finally another tricycle to the hotel.

Who wouldn't love this place?

Our trip was amazing, and we were able to pack so many activities in the few days that we were there:

-Snorkeling
-Island hopping
-Bar hopping
-Rock climbing
-Swimming
-Shopping
-Banana boat riding
-Cave exploring

It's much better to see what we did than read about, so here are the pictures...enjoy!

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8IasnDhw4aM0K

Work Trip Part I (Singapore & Malaysia)

I absolutely love Singapore so much! In fact, I think I would even live there. I had been there twice before (once for business school and once for work), so I was very excited to get the opportunity to go again. Rick, my former boss at Moog, and Roger, a colleague at Moog, had been trying to arrange a trip for all of us to visit various gear and machining suppliers throughout Asia. Rick ended up needing to be in Baguio at the end of February, so we decided to arrange our trip around that.

Our first stop was Singapore. I flew into Singapore on the night of 2/17/08. I really enjoy it in Singapore. It's so modern, clean, and at the same time full of culture. I spent my night shopping through one of the many malls and eating some amazing Indian food. Normally I get sick of malls quickly, but it was so nice being able to walk around and not being stared at by everyone like I do in Baguio. It was also nice to see familiar stores. Rick and Roger didn't arrive until early the next morning, so they were pretty tired, but it was so great to see the both of them. Although I had just seen there in early January, it still felt like it had been a long time.

On Tuesday, 2/18/08, we visited one supplier in the morning, and then flew to Malaysia around lunch time to visit one supplier there. Kuala Lumpur is only about a 45 minute flight, so it was just like flying from LA to San Fransisco. I was excited to go to Malaysia, because I had never been there before. Although, we were only there for a few hours, it was great to see a new place, and it was much different than I expected. We only made it to the suburbs, but from what I hear the city of Kuala Lumpur is amazing, so I hope to visit there sometime. We flew back to Singapore that night. After arriving in Singapore, we decided to visit Clarke Quay, a favorite spot for all sorts of nightlife. We chose a "tapas" place for dinner, which was absolutely amazing. One thing everyone loves about Singapore is the food. With living in Baguio, you don't get to experience a lot of variety when it comes to food, so it's always nice to visit Singapore, and experience it. Originally, the plan was to visit suppliers all day on Wednesday, and then fly back to Manila that night. This plan changed once I found out the Singapore Air Show was starting the day we go to Singapore. I had never been to an air and neither had Roger, so we really wanted to work this in our schedule. Also, we heard that the new Airbus A380 plane would be there, and we heard its quite the site. Moog had a booth at the air show, so they left tickets us. Somehow we pulled it off, but we got up early that morning, and managed to visit 4 different supplier locations, and make it to the airshow by lunchtime. The airshow was so exciting. There were so many planes, both military and commerical, and the A380 was bigger than I had heard it would be. It too was nice to see some familiar faces at the Moog booth, as well as meet some new ones.

The New Airbus A380 Plane

So huge...

Rick & I next to the Huge Engines

Rick & Roger next to the Landing Gear

We flew back to Manila that night, and since we arrived late, we stayed over at the Hyatt Hotel & Casino. We got up early on Thursday, and took the drive back to Baguio. Although, I've done this many many times, the 6 hour drive is still rough. Rick had done it before, but Roger hadn't, so he found it interesting to. We made back to Baguio by early afternoon. Although a short trip, I always love going to Singapore, and it was great to finally see Malaysia.

Community Service with Brent School

On Saturday 2/1/08, I joined Tanya Liddle and others from Brent International School for a community service day that they had organized. There is a program ongoing in the Philippines (and other countries as well) called GK (Gawag Kalinga). Gawag Kalinga, meaning "giving care" is an integrated, sustainable, holistic program, which aims to address poverty in the Philippines by transforming and empowering poor communities through its various programs (http://www.gawadkalinga.org/). Through the GK program, there are communities all over the Philippines being built. On this day, we worked at the Rayville Treasure at Camp 4 off Kennon Road.

Rayville Treasure Village - Camp 4, Kennon Road

I was really excited to be a part of this day, because I have always enjoyed community service, and really want to get involved in the communities while I am in Baguio. This day was the 2nd day of 4 or 5 weekends that Brent was participating in. Our goals as a group for the day were to provide cooking lessons, paint the interior of the classroom, dig a composte pit, and level land for the playground. Being that it was hot out, and most of these tasks were manual labor, this was hard work. I personally helped with leveling the ground, and digging the composte pit. Without bulldozers or something of that sort, removing the dirt was quite the project. When we first started digging the pit, the ladies of the village seemed a little skeptical. After about 3 hours of Liz, Tanya, and I digging, the ladies could finally see that we were getting somewhere. They were so cute, and really into helping, that they started to kick us out when they felt it was their turn. Eventually, they completely took over. I think the most fulfilling part of the day was watching how the women bonded together to complete a project, both with the cooking lessons and the digging of the composte pit. Another fun part of the day was when Tanya started handing out candy that she had brought. When we first got there we only saw like 10 kids, but after the candy came out, I think there were like 30. They were coming from all over. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to the community service days, but I hope to get involved with more projects like this in the future.

Leveling Land for the Playground

One of the Houses that was Built

Emy Teaching the Ladies How to Cook Fresh Lumpia & Mangoes with Sticky Rice

Pinoy Hot Pot!

A popular restaurant in Baguio is 'Pinoy Hot Pot.' It is popular not only for its food but also for the giant wood carvings outside the restaurant. A hot pot is basically a large pot that is used to cook soup and all sorts of other stuff (veggies, meat, seafood) right at the table. I had been to this restaurant before, but never had the hot pot. Jessie, a machinist from Moog Torrance, was in town for 3 weeks, and on his last night 1/30/08, we decided to take him here. It was me, Jessie, and a group of locals, and we had a blast. The hot pot was super good, and I can't wait to go back.

Pinoy Hot Pot

Jessie, Jun O., Amanda

Jessie, Jun P., Amanda

The Food Pre-Hot Pot

Hot Pot - Yummy!

Jun O., Jessie, Jun P., Robert in Front of the Famous Wood Carvings

Dinner with USC Friends

To be completed at a later date...

New Year's Eve at Shade

To be completed at a later date...

Christmas Day

To be completed at a later date...

Christmas Eve Ravioli Making at The Altman's

To be completed at a later date...

Philippine Treasures at Pier One Imports

To be completed at a later date...

My First Trip Back to the US

To be completed at a later date...

Drive Down to Manila

My flight home for Christmas was planned for Tuesday, 12/18/07. For all my previous trips to Baguio, I've been rushed, so I've never had any time to spend any time in Manila. So, this time, I decided to head down early on Sunday, 12/16/07, and a spend some time touring around. Here are some pictures from the drive down.

View from Kennon Road (Baguio)

Sari Sari Store
(These are neighborhood stores that are in every town)

Random Town - Would you feel comfortable going to this Ear, Nose, & Throat Clinic?

Loaded Tricycle

My Amazing Baguio Apartment!

I really didn't know what to expect when I had to look for a place to live in Baguio. In all honestly, I imagined the worse (i.e. some makeshift place with a roof that could potentially fly off). :) Fortunately though, I lucked out. My neighbors, Jon and Tanya Liddle (Jon works at Moog), who live at Pineridge Apartments, let me know that the adjacent apartment to theirs was being renovated. They weren't sure if it was for sale or rent or if it was already taken, but they told me to get on it fast. Actually, they loved it so much, and it was the size of theirs, just much newer. The problem was they needed 3 bedrooms (2 kids), but my place only had 2, so they couldn't move in. When I came on my "look see" trip, I saw how amazing this place was. Despite it being way BIGGER than I need it to be, for safety reasons Moog had me only look at 2 places in Baguio: Pineridge or Baguio Country Club, which only offered houses. I chose Pineridge because it was more of a community and less isolating, and I'm so happy with that decision. The building is really safe, and has some great guards who are really friendly and speak English. It's also in a nice neighborhood close to Moog, and I live next door to some familiar faces. As far as the inside of my apartment, it's huge, and its completely renovated. I'm talking granite countertops, refinished hardwood floors, upgraded bathrooms, etc. This is the first time I'm living alone and have a place all to myself (no roomies), and I love it, and have managed to make it feel like home.

A lot of friends and family have asked what it looks like, so here are some pictures that I took on 12/15/07. I've only attached a few, but you can go to the link below, and see a lot more. The pictures don't do it justice, so I hope some of you can visit someday and see it.

Link: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8IasnDhw4aMz0

Living Room

Fireplace in Living Room

Kitchen

Master Bedroom

Christmas at Moog Baguio

On 12/15/07, a couple of days before I was leaving Baguio to go back to the states for Christmas, I wandered down to the Gear Cell to check on some things. I had heard a machine was done, and when I approached the machine, I saw the machine carving out a baby jesus. I asked him what he was doing, and he said making our Christmas decorations. I later found out that there is a Moog competition every year, and each department enters their special Christmas decoration. I just had to laugh though...I teased their supervisor Robert for a while about that. I said "is this what your machinists do when machines are down...make Christmas decorations?" Needless to say, they did an awesome job.