Manila - Day 3

So we didn't do much today. We are getting up at 4:00 am to go to a city to visit the brother of Grandma (Lola in Filipino) Grace. So we took it easy today. The highlight of the day just happened. But I will tell you that last!

First we went to the "Mega" mall. We took a taxi. The taxi ride was 50 pisos...which converts to about $1.oo American! The realities of the country here disappear when you enter the Mall. It is like you walked off the street into America. There are tons of fast food restaurants from America. Wendy's, Kenny Rogers' Chicken, Dairy Queen, Krispy Kreme Donuts, Duncan Donuts, and KFC. Those are just the ones I remember. After converting some money, we walked around for a while. We really didn't see anything we wanted, but you can buy some pretty good stuff over hear for cheap!

After we left the Mall, we went home and hung out for a while. One of the pastors from the church here came for dinner. We had a while before dinner so Paul, Pastor Rolly, and I went for a walk. We made our way done to the market area and stopped in at the Starbucks. We hung out there for a while and headed back.

We had supper with several people, but before dinner, I learned something about the Filipino people. THEY LOVE AMERICAN IDOL! The actually get the show from the states on the same week as the Americans watch it. So tonight I watched the little blonde girl get kicked off. Pastor Rally loves the show and he knows all the contestants names. It is amazing how enthralled they are with American culture. I think that about everyone we have had any extended contact with have asked us about President Obama.

So finally, Paul and I experienced something that we swore we would not do! One of Lola Grace's nieces (Arora) decided that she was going to buy us balut. If you don't know what it is, you can read about it here. So Paul decided that he was going to try it after Arora dissected the egg for us. I decided that I needed to experience this for myself, so I took a bite. I will admit that we ate the safest part of the balut, but I can say that I tried it. Surpisingly, it didn't taste all that bad. It really only tasted like an egg. I have included a few pictures for you.

The dissected balut. See the bird on the top of the plate?

Paul taking that fateful bite!

I will be in another part of the country tomorrow, so there is a chance I will not have internet. I will be back in Manila on Saturday (Friday American Time), so I will post again then.