Pancakes and placentas

View from my seat at the Pancake House

One of my favorite things in the world is breakfast food.  One of my favorite environments, therefore, is the American diner.  I miss them.  I miss breakfasting so so much.  So, I took myself out to breakfast at Pancake House, just like I promised.  Good decision, Tory.  Good decision.

One of my main goals when ordering breakfast fare is to diversify.  I try as hard as possible to cover the basic food groups: salty, savory, sweet, coffee.  This is a visual representation of what that looks like minus two plates added with each of the eggs I ordered:

I cheated and looked at some of the answers. 

I finished it all. 

Defeated!  Muhaha hahaha!  There was also this awesome used bookstore, Cagnaan Booksales, in this complex, which is called BTC.  The cab driver had no idea where I was asking to go by the full title, Banilad Town Center, until I showed it written on my hand.  He laughed and laughed.  If you want to get there, tell 'em "BTC! And step on it!"  I perused books for a long time.  They have so many!  The medical section was best. 

Color!  Atlas!  Disease!

I think this person was growing a fetus in his ear.

The book on STDs is much, much fatter than the one discussing heart surgeries.  As in, there is less information that needs conveying about how to perform a surgery on the heart than there is about diseases acquired from bedfellows.  That's abstinence education fodder, if I've ever seen any. 

Bought a book on how to do laundry.  The whole thing is not my forte, and it was like $5.  Trust me, it will pay for itself in crossword puzzle answers.  

Grocery shoppin'!

Boxes and boxes of milk.

The grocery store employees laughed at me and felt really uncomfortable about this image, so I hope you like it.  I sure do.  

I made a successful dinnnnnner!!!!! with a pack of mixed vegetables, the contents of which I am still not clear on, some chicken bullion, eggs, and mung bean noodles.  It looked like this:

I ate alll of it.  It was so good.  There were little green chilis in the veggie mix, as well as some sort of root crop, some green beans, an ear of corn, and something butternut squash slice-looking?  All in all, it was delicious.  

Then, today

You can see where this is going.  Wait; we could have totally different ideas about what me wearing this stuff means.  Point is, blood is coming up. Right here.  

Workspace

Removing membranes

It was so so so awesome!!  I watched a baby get born.  A human.  That wasn't outside and then was.  It was incredible.  And, then we got to chop up its placenta.  They are really hot when they come out.  Wasn't expecting just how hot.  And bloodier than I thought.  I didn't pass out though, guys!  It was a really good feeling.  A moment of realizing that I am actually doing this.  I made it here; I got the supplies here; I was able to convey our project to hospitals so they would want to be part of it.  I went through the whole protocol with people in a hospital.  I am doing this and am getting done what I came here to do.  That feels really good.  It is also incredible to me that I have gotten to be witness to so many stages of the birthing process.  I feel pretty humbled by the idea that these women are allowing me to be present.  

All the ladies did wonderfully with the training!!  I am feeling pretty good about this as a start of the whole thing.  

I closed the evening with some of this: 

The door to the apartment was open (screen closed; damn cockroachies almost made it in), and it was super hot.  Watching ridiculous horror flicks on TV while hot is just summer magic.  I really hope Chicago is primed for this when I get home.  8 days.  

More training tomorrow.  More sleep now.  I close with this:

Not a good look for me

Click on the image to enjoy that sign in the back.  "Please don't urinate on the floor"

This is in the staff bathroom.  In a hospital.  Hahahahaha. 

Boholy &%$!

Yesterday was my trip to Bohol.  I saw sooo many things!  Day trips are a little stressful; there is so much the guide is telling you constantly, and a lot of things on the list of things you will be doing are actually things you will drive by on your way elsewhere that the guide will quickly tell you about as you go past.

I took the ferry:

The seats are blue because it's a cool 45 degrees in there.

Team Zissou

When I arrived in Bohol, I got leid (first person to EVER make that joke)

Bohol fancies itself a friendly and religious place.  Because the roads are narrow and life in Tagbilaran is "simple" (keyword the guide was told to use to cater to what the tourists are looking to get out of this quaint little trip, I am sure), the public transportation system is tricycle.  All of which are required to have some sort of God-fearing message on the back:

Also, before the ferry leaves either port, there is a prayer that is said, which pops up on the screen in case you don't know the words.  Man, the Philippines and karaoke.  

First stop (surprisingly): 2nd oldest church in all of the Philippines.  Baclayon church, built by the Spanish in 1596.  The place is impressive.  

There are a lot of old and incredible things upstairs, but they do not allow pictures in the museum.  There are many, many fancy capes and such.  And really old wood, paintings, bronze pieces and carved ivory.

Next up: lunch on a floating restaurant that takes you down river while you eat.  It was so yummy.

Buffet-style.  3 plates.

Young coconut milk

Messy napkin from rippin' apart them sauce-covered crab legs. 

Dessert.

Then the floating began:

Everyone has a canoe along here. 

Pet rhesus macaque on a chain

We docked briefly, and then people danced and sung

Crazy dance where they have to step in time so the slats don't break their little feet.

With feeling!

Actually, though cool to watch, it was also depressing in a Disneyland sort of way.  They were hot; they have to do this over and over again all day, and I am sure that they wouldn't necessarily have chosen to do this.  Some looked downright somber.  But, some were also smiling a lot.  It just felt like a really disingenuous tourist moment for me.

Someone lives here.  Pretty awesome.  This is what many of the houses around the area look like.

We docked.  I went to the bathroom.

Booster seat?

I have no idea what the other two lids do.  Again, thank god I brought my own TP.

Alright, y'all.  Chocolate hills.  They were formed from a combination of volcanic activity, sea floor, melting coral turning to limestone.  Nothing grows on them (naturally) except for grass, so they have a very uniform appearance.  In the summer the grass turns brown, hence chocolate.  This is rained a lot, however, so they were more like broccoli mounds.

Some bell everyone wanted to ring

Awesome, huge grasshopper I found

Butterfly garden!

It wasn't much of a garden.  They were all dead.

Just kidding!

Caterpillars!  Me making cheesy face!

Some caterpillars that tries to fake everyone out into thinking he's poison.  But he's not poison.  He gotcha!  And, there is some series of hilarious jokes, often referencing marriage, associated with everything our guide showed us. 

Young caterpillars in their chrysalises.  I love this case.

They look like Whether's Original wrappers or something.

But they're not. Don't worry; I spit it out.

Older chrysalises that look like bats.

Butterfly garden path time!

My face looks so awesome because that shit tickles so badly.  There were all these magical, memorable photo ops that the guides kept setting up, and I took the bait.  Look.  I know it's cheesy, but there have been so few chances for me to take pictures of me interacting with things that I got suckered in.  Really suckered in:

Coy mouth cover because the tarsier is taking his picture with a beautiful lady, his agents said.  Yeah yeah, you'll get your tip.  

And, then, the tarsiers!!!

Also took a shot of this sign with the Holga; can't wait to see if it turns out!

Another photo op not missed!

I wanted to touch them.  They don't let you touch them.  

This part was sort of sad.  They are all kept in a really small area that doesn't resemble their natural habitat.  They are nocturnal, but these ones have been trained to stick around during the day.  Think about getting your eyes dilated at the optometrist's office.  These guys have huge eyes to capture tons of light at night.  That's gotta hurt.  Plus, I think most people don't pay attention and leave their flashes on.

Flying tarsier.  I think it's just a bat, but what do I know.  

Next, we went to the Blood Compact commemorative monument.  The Blood Compact is a system that was used by tribes in Bohol to solidify friendships, and make contracts and such.  They would make little cuts on themselves, bleed into a cup and all partake.  This site is supposed to be where they entered into a treaty with the Spanish.  Because the tribes didn't read or write, the Spaniards used this system to seal the deal.  It is known as the Bros Before Hoes contract.  They built this a while ago, and then historians realized that it wasn't at the right site, so this one is now commemorative.  And there were so many people, all who took the same dumb picture with 10 different cameras twice.  So, I took a picture of people taking pictures, instead of the commemorative monument.

What it looks like without all those damn people

Same thing at the Chocolate Hills.  Everyone taking way too long with their photo shoots while tons of people wait for them to move to start their photo shoots.  It got completely frustrating.

Shots of things around the commemorative monument that were a better use of my time:

Ding Ding man!

There a many, many rice farms and farmers in Bohol.  Outside of tourism, it is their livelihood.

They are also known for their lady fingers.  I bought so many for the office and the fam.  Hope they are good.

Ride home.  2 more yellow/red shots:

I met this really wonderful girl on the trip, who was in my group.  Both of her parents are Chinese, and they are from Peru.  I wish I could look awesome and have an awesome exotic accent.  I have no idea what her name is, except that her last name is Lee.  I am so awful at names.

Time to go here:

There is also an Ikea somewhere by it.  I am so curious and excited!!