Home at Last

I got back home yesterday afternoon, and boy it was a very very long flight/day. My plane didn't leave until 12:05 a.m. in Cebu and it was very hard to say goodbye to Brandon. I miss him so much and this will be the longest I've been away from him so it's going to be a very lonely month. I slept pretty good on the plane from Cebu to Korea and I arrived in Korea a little after 6 a.m. and my flight to Tokyo was departing at 11:50 a.m.! I slept a little at the airport and my phone rang and it was Brandon so talked to him for a bit. I had a crazy asian lady keep talking to me and I had no clue what the heck she was saying. I then pretended to go to sleep. She kept walking back and forth and I got cold so I put my hoodie on. She then walks towards me and pulls on my hoodie. She was trying to fix it I guess. Freaked me out a bit that's for sure. I was sooo bored in the airport. I would get up and walk around a couple of times cause I got tired of reading my book or listen to my ipod. I did fly to Tokyo and it wasn't that bad. I found some Americans who were going to L.A. too so I just followed then to get a transit ticket. Glad I stuck with them or I'm pretty sure I would have gotten lost. I probably wouldn't have but it was fun talking to them. We boarded the plane from Tokyo at 2:10 I think. It wasn't a huge layover so that was good. I watched Micheal Jackson's This Is It and that was a freakin long movie! I did sleep on the plane so that was good. If you ever fly out of the country fly Korean Air. They are way good! They feed you and they are on top of things. I was very impressed with their airlines. Way to go Koreans! I saw a famous person on my plane ride from L.A. to Utah it was Tony Horton. If some of you don't know who that is well then you probably wouldn't think anything of it. I kind of wanted to get a picture with him but flying for 24 hrs I looked like crap! I got home a little after 1 pm and our friend Erik picked me up. He bought me a scrumptious meal from McDonald's with a Dr. Pepper. McDonald's never tasted soo good. McDonald's in the Philippines doesn't taste the same. I'm glad to be home but I actually miss being over at the Philippines. I'm excite if we do end up moving over there cause my kids will have a blast! We will see though.

Coconut King

Bohol, Philippines

I'm still in the Philippines and Brandon and I just back from the island of Bohol and it was gorgeous! It was how I initially pictured the Philippines, a jungles of green everywhere. Brandon's two bosses Jeremy and Jon are so busy trying to get the call center up and going by next Monday and getting into their homes that they didn't go with us. Yup you guessed it, Brandon and I ventured off to a place that we have never been to. I was ok with it once Brandon made a friend at the hotel we are staying at in Cebu told him how to get around. We got up early and packed up a suitcase so that we could get a boat over to Bohol. The boat ride wasn't that bad. It was only an 1hr45 min. boat ride and when we got to Bohol I felt really overwhelmed. The reasoning is because we had sooo many tour guides just bombarding u to have them take u on the famous Chocolate Hills tour. I told Brandon to lets just find a freakin taxi! We found a guy and Brandon tried to negotiate a price but he didn't go down but he seemed liked he could speak ok English so off we went to the hotel. We didn't have a reservation at a hotel we just told the driver where to go but he wanted to take us to a different one than we wanted to so we let him. We figured why not we can always just look at the resort and if we didn't like it we could tell him to take us to the one we wanted to go to. We went to the Bohol Beach Club and thought the beach was nice but the room wasn't very nice. I told Brandon lets just go the Pangloa so we did. It was a cute little resort and the rooms where little bungalows. The pools was pretty neat but the beach not so much. The next morning we had our driver, Delphin, pick us up at 8 a.m. to go on our tour. He told us we would be back at 6 p.m. so we prepared ourselves for a long day. The tour was so awesome! We saw the famous Chocolate Hills and in the summer when they hills get dried they look like big scoops of chocolate ice cream.











Next stop after the chocolate hills was the man made forest. This forest was just to incredible to describe. It was just full of man planted mahogany trees. It was gorgeous!


After we saw the man made forest we went to see or shall I saw cross the hanging bridge. It was a bridge that hung over the Lobac (I think that's the name) river. It was made of bamboo and it was kind of scary cause what if it broke then I would go plunging into the river. After crossing the bridge there were little souvenirs shops and some buko (coconut) and the coconut king. He husks the coconut with his bare teeth. It was 2.00 to see him and so we paid and I filmed it. It was crazy. As soon as I figure out how to load the video I will.


After the hanging bridge it was lunchtime. We went on the Lobac-Loay River Cruise. We paid for lunch for our driver, afterall he needs to eat lunch too, and down the river we went. It was so nice and relaxing and to have a nice cool breeze hitting you felt so good. We stop at a little spot where they had some of the Filipinos dance and sing and you got to take pictures and make a donation if you wanted to. We always made a donation.




After lunch and going to the bathroom, which I had to hold because there were no bathrooms on the boat! I had to pee sooo bad and the waterfalls didn't help either and the coke they offered us for lunch. I was so glad when lunch was over and we got back cause I headed straight for the bathrooms. Speaking of bathrooms my neighbor and our friends that are over here gave us a tip, always carry toilet paper why, because some restrooms don't have it. Another thing about the public bathrooms is the majority of the toilets don't have toilet seats so if you are a girl you either squat or stand on the toilet. I prefer squatting than standing. Luckily for me I've been to really really clean bathrooms with toilet paper, and a toilet seat. Kelly, new friend that I've made and Brandon's boss's with, has told me I'm very lucky.

So after lunch we were headed to see the most important thing I've been wanting to see, the tarsier, smallest monkey. This guy was soo cute I just wanted to stuff him in my bag and take him home. We weren't allowed to hold or touch them and no flash when taking pictures. Brandon accidentally forgot to take the flash off and took a picture of the monkey. I tell him he has now blinded that monkey. Brandon likes to refer to these pictures as his award winning pictures.






The last spot on our tour was the Blood Compact Site,The spot where the “Sandugo” took place; a blood compact between Miguel Lopez de Legazpi of Spain and Rajah Sikatuna of Bohol. The blood compact is considered as the First Treaty of Friendship between two different races, religions, culture and civilization. A treaty based on respect and equality! A place where you can immerse yourself in history! I got this info from the website.




After our tour was over we made a reservation for our complimentary 30 min. massage. Man it felt sooo good. What a nice treat after a long day of sightseeing.

Busy, Busy, Busy

So I'm into my 3rd day in Cebu and I am having a blast. We haven't been to any of the resorts yet with the white sand beaches but I'm having fun sightseeing. We looked at a couple of houses on Saturday and realized if we move here I refuse to drive! The Filipinos don't really obey traffic laws. There is no street lights or really any stop signs. They don't use their blinkers instead they use their horns. They honk to let u know that u r there or to basically get out of the way. So basically I just need to wear a blindfold. When u want to make a left turn just ease your way into traffic. If u want to pass someone drive on the wrong side of the road and when a car comes your way make room to the right side of the road. It's scary to cross the roads when u r walking cause I'm afraid I'm going to get hit by a taxi driver. It's been fun. Brandon and I went to a mall the other day and it's the biggest mall here. It's called the SM mall and it's 4 levels! Yes, that's right 4. We didn't even make it halfway around the mall before we decided to head back because we were tired. Oh that's another thing that we are trying to adjust too is the time. It's a 15 hour time difference so when it's morning here it's dark back at home. Our first night that we were here we fell asleep at 5:30 p.m. and woke up at 1 a.m. the next morning. We just make sure that we keep really busy and we try not to lay on the bed or useless it's over for us. When we get up early we call back home and make sure they kids r ok. I'm afraid for when I get home because of the whole jet lag thing. Wednesday we are heading over to the island of Bohol and enjoy some nice resorts so I will make sure to post some pictures. I really don't have pictures right now except for the one of Brandon lifting a truck and video of the houses we were looking at. Well that's all for right now. It is now 8:30 p.m and I am headed to bed. I know lame but I've been up since 3 a.m,.

FINALLY!

We finally made it into Cebu early saturday morning. We flew for a total for 22 hrs. and I have to tell u it wasn't that bad! Why wasn't that bad because we had a very awesome plane from seattle to korea. When we got to Seattle we went to check in and we asked if we could switch our seating assignments so that we had aisle seats. Well the very nice Korean lady switch our seats so that we were in the middle aisle and had leg room. When we got on the plane and found out seats we were pumped! We were in the middle aisle and no one in front of us so we had tonz of room to stretch. Are initial plan was so to pop a sleeping pill so that we could sleep for the majority of the flight. I didn't pop a pill until way later because I was having way to much fun playing with our options that we had. We had our own scree so that we could watch movies, listen to music and play games. I watched 2 movies and played a couple of games. It was awesome! The flight attendants were super nice too and we had 2 really good meals on the plane. It was sweet! It seriously made the 11 hr. flight so much nicer. When we got to Korean we had another layover before going to Cebu. By the time I got on that plane I was pooped. I slept the majority of the time on that flight but it wasn't a nice big plane liked the one from seattle to korea. we got through customs pretty smoothly and i felt the humidity once we went outside. we were gretting with a sign that says brandon and maritza and a flower necklace type thing. they were employees from brandon's company and his two bosses were there. we thought that was nice considering that it was midnight. today we are going to look at things so i will take pics and post them up.

Goodbye cold weather

We leave tomorrow morning for the Philippines! I am so excited but I am sad cause that means 11 days away from my little munchkins. Mariah is ok with grandma and grandpa watching her, Brock is too little to know what is happening, and Jazmin is having a really really hard time with it. She has cried to me just about every night telling me that she wants to go and that she never gets to go with us on trips. I'm hoping that she will be ok and when I come back that she doesn't give me attitude. I just want to stow them away in my suitcase with me. I have to admit that I'm a little scared because when I come home I fly solo. I have a really really long layover in Tokyo (well I think it's like 3 hrs) and I just have a fear that I will get lost in the airport. I don't know if anyone there speaks English or will understand where I need to go. I am just crossing fingers that it will be ok cause that's all that I can hope for right? I'm excited to be able to go over there and see a totally different culture and meet the people there. I'm pumped to be able to go snorkeling there and visit all the different resorts that they have and hopefully see the smallest monkey the Tarsier. I'm hoping that I will be able to posts pictures while I am there so that you can all see the beautiful things that the Philippines have to offer. Well better get going cause I still have lots to do and so little time.

Off to Paradise

We are going to the Philippines next Thursday! Brandon and I are super excited and I am totally excited to get away from this cold weather and enjoy some sun and a nice little tan. Why are we going to the Philippines you ask? Brandon encounter another good offer and his new boss is flying us both to the Philippines to have some fun and I will be there for 11 days while Brandon stays for another month and a half. He is helping opening up a office there and if everything goes well and he likes it there then we will be moving. I know that it's a huge move and very far away from family but it will only be 2 years at the most. We will be going to an island called Cebu and from what I've heard of it and seen pictures it looks gorgeous. My neighbors across the street are Filipino and they love that island. Brandon actually got made a partner in this new office and one of his partners served his mission there and has 3 businesses there and he totally loves it there. We will see what is in store for us in the next couple of months but I'm going to be really sad cause when I get back (by myself) I won't have Brandon here and I'm going to be a single mom for awhile. That's the only thing that has me worried. I'm thinking I'm going to have to get a babysitter every once in awhile so I don't go insane.

We are totally excited and can't wait until Thursday morning when we fly out. I'm not to excited for the extremely long plane ride though but to be able to visit another country is exciting. I will have to put a lots and lots of pictures of our little trip.