Corregidor, Debut, or Welcome Back to High School

The last 48 hours was a lot of fun. But also strangely reminiscent of high school. It started on Thursday night. I was heading to bed as early as I could possibly force myself to sleep, so I watched part of a movie and at 9:15 decided to get into bed. Then I heard my cell phone make the annoying beeping noise letting me know that I've received yet another text (oh filipinos and their texting). I checked, and I had 3 texts. Never a good sign. All from Michael. Definitely not a good sign when we're supposed to be leaving at 4:30 in the morning, only 7 hours later.

Apparently, Thet, Michael's girlfriend, waited until the last minute to ask her dad if she could come with us. And he said no. After Ate chill made our reservation. And Michael and Thet wanted me to call her dad to ask his permission. First, I've never met this man and he has no clue who am I. Second, I wondered if he would speak much english. Third, I haven't asked a girl's dad for permission to take her somewhere in a long time (welcome back to high school). But, trying to be a good kuya to Michael and wanting him to not have to face some potential wrath from Ate Chill, I agreed. But it was already late. And the number they gave me didn't work. So I texted again and waited some more. I didn't make the call until about 9:45, which is too late to call a stranger's household asking to take their daughter on a trip at 5 am the next day.

I tried my best. Through her dad's somewhat ok english I got a pretty definitive "no". I texted Michael with my regrets, he responded that he still believed in miracles. I went to bed almost an hour after I had hoped to. And woke up at 4am. Of course, Michael was on Filipino time, which I was counting on, so he didn't show til 5. And, somehow, Thet ended up coming with us. Apparently she stayed up all night, though I never really understood why, and somehow convinced her dad.

So off we went on a 2 hour trek to Manila to catch a ferry at 7:30. We made it just in time, only to have the ticket lady get all huffy cause we didn't have the original receipt from the deposit. If anyone had the original receipt, it should've been them, as we had made reservations one day in advance, and they only faxed my boss a copy. I wanted to just become the disgruntled customer, like I would in America, and tell her "they said it was ok yesterday on the phone. that means it's ok today. period. the customer is always right" but it's not my country and not my culture so I bit my tongue and let them call Ate Chill. And then they let us on. Sigh.

Corregidor was pretty cool. Lots of intense military history from WWII and a really impressive Pacific War Memorial. The island was also gorgeous with ome spectacular views. Sadly, Michael wasn't feeling too well, but we were both glad to have Thet along. I don't want to think about how depressed Michael would have been all day, sick, with a disappointed girlfriend, and facing an upset Chill. And I only felt like a third wheel on occasion.

Then it was another trek home to change, grab half a dinner, and head off to Julie Ann's for her Debut. I was exhausted, having been awake since four and having been on buses and taxis and ferry's for more than 7 hours, not including the tour bus. And the debut was long, and some of the Filipinos got a little bored towards the end. But it was wonderful! First time I've really gotten to take part in a celebration that is really culturally different than America. So the whole time I was pretty facinated with it all. Easily a hundred people showed up. Julie's whole family and the rest of the neighborhood and a ton of church people and even some Barangay councilmen were there. The whole time Julie and her escort sit in front and observe all this stuff done just for Julie. People sing songs or do coreographed group dances in between the sort of 3 main events. The first is the 18 roses, of which, I was one. There are 18 guys who each get a rose. They announce us and we hand Julie the rose and then dance with her while our picture was taken. Seems random to have the random white kid involved, but not everyone she wanted to be a rose could come, and, hey, it's always fun to show off the white kid. It was really a lot of fun. Then there's a break (more songs and dances) and then the 18 candles. 18 girls each light a candle for Julie and say a little piece about their friendship and about Julie. Then another intermission and then the 18 gifts. 18 other girls each give Julie a gift and talk about Julie, their friendship, and what the gift means. The whole thing was, again, strangely high school-esque. Julie looked ready to go to prom. And there was much oohing and aahing and even more speculation when the potential boyfriend showed up after work. I was just glad that the boys didn't sit on one side of the room and the girls the other.

The whole thing took quite a while. But it was fun. And I was being entertained by Jenalyn and Sunshine, the sister of Myla and Jenarose. I was kind of interested in sticking around to see what the dancing was going to be like after, but everyone, including me, was exhausted, so we just headed home. I didn't have any problem falling asleep.