Rip Van Winkle

Wow, I was asleep for a long time before completing this blog.  I must have aged 100 years, right?

Well, I haven't aged 100 years, but I've gained 100 lbs. Not really, of course, but it feels like it. I want to get back to pre-pregnancy weight right away. Like...within a month. Am I crazy? Yes.

I think the topic of this was Cebu--I was going to blather on about how I met everyone from our other vendor--we'd talked over the phone but we were finally meeting for the first time.  The whole name-to-face thing was a little weird, but I was so happy to meet everyone that I didn't mind.  There wasn't much time to hang out, though, because we had to catch our flight to Cebu.

Tim and Kaili said I should only bring a carryon, so I stuffed my clothes into the smallest suitcase I could find (read: not small) and hoped for the best. We got in and through the massive lines at the airport and on our Cebu Air airline plane and after about 4 seconds, I fell asleep.

While I was sleeping, the flight attendants play games with you, like "Show me!" They announce: Who can find a red pen? and the first person to come up with a red pen from their belongings wins a stuffed animal or a packet of pretzels.

So, on the trip to Cebu, let's note that there was no sleep the night before, because we were working. There was no sleep in the morning because we were flying (though the 45 minute nap on the plane counts). Then we landed in Cebu, got picked up by a bunch of people from the Cebu vendor that I had never met.  These people were mostly friends with the other two Americans I was traveling with, since they work in the same department, just across the globe from each other. They took us to our hotel and we were given from about 11 AM to 2 PM to sleep.

Yep. 3 hours.

So I took my 3 hours of nap and tried to enjoy the Cebu hotel.  I didn't have to try hard at all---this hotel was just hands-down, a LOT nicer. It was the Cebu Marriot, attached to a shopping mall & movie theatre.
The pool was like a tropical paradise, with on-deck bar and it felt like I was in Hawaii. There were deck chairs and plush towels. There were about 10 US channels and the room service menu was way better.  We had bathrobes and sandals and in-room massage options.

I should note that all of the in-room massage options are a fraction of the cost of any US hotel. Ie: $15 dollars for 30 minute massage all the time.

I took my precious hours of sleep, showered, and went down to starbucks and met the other two Americans. "I don't feel well," I said. "I just feel ....funny. Like dizzy or something."
"Just keep going and tell yourself that everything is going to be fine." They said.

Ok.

So we took the Vendor van full of employees and drove up a long series of steep cliffs until we made it to "Tops".

TOPS is pretty much the top of Cebu. When you get there, you can look out over the city and it's quite peaceful, pretty and you can see the ocean. The sidewalks are all in octogonal form with grass growing between the cracks.  I was enthralled. It took about an hour to get to the top, but the drive was  worth it.  This was a real "third world" country experience, driving through the city and seeing how people really live. It's a new level of poverty that I obviously had never seen in the US (duh)--everything seemed like the worst run-down parts of KC. It almost looked like Troost, and it would be hilarious to go back to my fellow Hyde Parkers and say that, of course.

At the top, we rang a friendship bell and I bought some touristy Philippine items back for everyone in my familia.  Also, I met the other employee with my name, which was kind of cool.

THERE IS MORE THAT WE DID IN CEBU, WILL WRITE ABOUT IT IN A SECOND.