Dear (insert name here)

How are things on your side of the world?

This is the catch-you-up letter for 2004.  First, my telephone number is +84-90-317-9335.

The most notable thing that happened is that I got married but most of you know that.

Chronologically then:

I finished my contract in Korea (working for the odd school in Iksan).  Very strange job; very strange employer.  Language acquisition was the last thing this school was interested in.  If you are new to this story I worked in Iksan, S.Korea for a man named Kwang Chul Kim.  He was running his business on a shoestring and he was always overextending himself.  All his promises were good intentioned for the most part, but ill-executed.  I never got my apartment until after working there for a month and the money was never on time until the last paycheck.  I remember going over my pay with Eric Separatist Boy Cote with me in Hite Class and totaling up over KRW 1.6 million in arrears.  Too his credit, he did give me an extra week and a half off and paid me for it but Simone thinks he just didnt want the new instructor and me to cross paths.  I think Simone is right and Mr. Kim was right as well: I wouldve poisoned the new guy with the truth.

Overall I dont regret Iksan.  I had a lot of fun there and I met some really nice people.  I do like Korean people; I just dont like their society very much and the food is too uneventful (though kalbi always rocks).

Well at the end, I got my cash and Simone, who was working a little on the side (nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more) got hers and we left for the lovely, though tragic, Philippine Islands to get married.

It was fun seeing my parents again.  Havent seen them for hmmm two years or so.  The highlight of that trip was having Nancy and Sara come over early, before the wedding.  Sara punted her job so she was off to travel but Nancy had to go back in 5 days, how sad!  We had breakfast that next morning (Aussie Dave came over for one day before jetting off to, wait for it, - General Santos!  I think he was looking to get kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf but he didnt.  I guess even kidnappers have taste jus playin Dave!).  On our website you can see Dave posing with his ticket.  Anyhow, we went to the Marriot Hotel in Cebu for their breakfast buffet.  PHP 375 for all that food we missed in Korea!  Bacon, real honest to god sweet salty bacon that cooks up crisp.  The last time I got bacon like that was in Japan from the place that Mac the Knife, guitarist extraordinaire, worked at in Shinjuku, but without the high price.  Actually that was the only place in Japan that I got bacon like back home.

Nancy went to town on that and after we ate we all went to Carbon Market for some sightseeing.  Now I hadnt been to Carbon market in over twenty years and after that time I think it will be another twenty years before I go again.  We did take pictures of all the little naked children running around.

Nota bene folks in the Philippines went crazy over a video camera.  Nancy always has one glued to her hand when she goes looking around and the local folks would just go nuts, doing The Pose and stuff.  I just dont understand the whole video camera transformation that people have there.

Back to Nancy and Sara Nancy jetted back to lovely Iksan while Sara stayed to attend our wedding and enjoy the Philippines some more.

Wedding license!  What a pain!  We went to the Health Office (where licenses are granted) more than a few times.  First we went to the office who said we couldnt get married there because we didnt reside in Cebu.  Then we waited for a lawyer who didnt come; waited over an hour then.  Went back to later to speak with her and she cleared lots of stuff up; we can get married if we do this and that. Then we gathered our papers:

·       Birth certificate

·       Certificates of Eligibility

·       Passports

To obtain my Certificate of Eligibility, I had to go to the U.S. Consulate and fill out a couple of forms.  Simone had to fill out a form as well.  Her form had Filipino Fiancée written on the top; they said just cross out the Filipino part.  The questions were a little wacky on her form, have you ever traveled outside of the Philippines, how many letters have you written your American fiancé, all questions that seemed to be geared for the mail-order bride.  Then we had to pay thirty bucks and swear the things we had written were the truth and they issued an Affidavit of Eligibility.  They issue an affidavit because the U.S. has no real way of checking to see if you were married or not.

Simones form was easier but more expensive; we paid a hundred bucks but she gets a Certificate of Marital Status, a form that says she is unmarried and the form has a six-month expiration.

Heres the kicker:  when we go to file the forms the head clerk doesnt want to accept the Danish form because its not an affidavit and we need an affidavit.  We should also go to the Danish Consulate (there hasnt been a consulate or embassy in Philippines for over two years) and get one.  After several polite and insistent urgings he accepted the form but only after he said, in a loud, grandstanding voice for everyone in the office to hear I will accept this but you HAVE to give us the original with that he threw his hands up in the air for dramatic effect.  We calmly replied that he could keep the form since Simone didnt plan on getting married again within the next six months.  My mother said the long delay before he approved was the time we were supposed to offer him a bribe.  I always forget to offer bribes in the Philippines. Probably wouldve saved us a couple of hours.  Papers filed (we did have to pay another filing fee of PHP150 in addition to the marriage license fee) we just had to kick back and wait for the forms.

Simone then met my parents who came in and stayed at Myras Pension House.  After staying in Myras for over 4 years on and off, I wont stay there again but thats another story.  After much brouhaha we went shopping later to buy rings in the mall.  We went with my Auntie Editha and my mother.  They just went from place to place and haggled with all the salespeople; all we did was say Do you have any plain gold rings?  These rings look like they were designed by Imelda?  we did find some and ordered the engraving REALIZE NEON MOB LENT JEANS ON HERB Cebu 22-08-03.  Simones ring has the REALIZE NEON MOB part and my ring has the LENT JEANS ON HERB If you are wondering, the whole phrase is an anagram for both of our names.  My mother didnt even question it, just figured it was some stupid thing that I had cooked up.

My Uncle Dodong, also known as the Honorable Bernardo Salas, Court of Appeals (Ret.), set up a meeting with the judge who would marry us.  He arranged for Justice Echavez to perform the ceremony and said we should go meet him on a Monday to check the details and show him the papers.

NEWSFLASH President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares, in her infinite wisdom, that the upcoming holiday, Nino Aquino Memorial will be recognized on Friday, August 22 in order to give citizens a three-day weekend.  She is sure that Nino, bless his departed soul, will understand why his memorial day will have to wait another twenty-four hours because no true Filipino would stand in the way of a three-day weekend.

So we have to get married on the 21^st.  No matter that the rings say the 22^nd.  What true Filipino would not appreciate the greater good of a three-day weekend.

Sorry, this is longer than expected, 2003 was a little too interesting.

Ill continue this in another letter

Earl

Justice Echavez was mentored by my Uncle Dodong so thats why we got married in his chambers. Simone and I went to his chambers on Monday since my Uncle said Go there Monday.  When we arrived he was very cordial and he said I thought we were doing this on Friday.  Big misunderstanding there.  We reminded him that Friday was now a public holiday and our nuptials had to be moved to Thursday.  Oh yes, thats correct. he replied Well may I see your papers?  We produced them and he looked them over for a few minutes.  Everything is in order.  Ill see you here in my chambers on Thursday at 2:00.  The ceremony shouldnt take longer than ten minutes.

Uncle called me afterwards wondering where I was since he thought we were going to his house first.  He seemed relieved that we had already been and gone.  One less chore, I reckon.

Sara took of for the weekend with my friends Hicham and Gemma.  Hicham is a Moroccan guy married to Gemma who is a really nice woman.  I met Hicham a few years back when I was hanging around in Cebu.  He used to own a fine eatery called la Chapelle on Salinas.  When Hicham and Gemma moved to Florida they sold the nice little Mediterranean cuisine house to Gemmas brother who promptly made it into more of a nightclub and then ran it out of business.  I think the addition of Ratskys, a live house restaurant in Ayala Center, stretched the market kind of thin.  The last band we saw in La Chapelle wasnt very good and Ratskys was always packed on the weekends.  But I digress

So Sara took of for the weekend with Hicham and Gemma and some other Euro-types to Moalboal, a resort-ish type of town a couple of hours away from Cebu.  We wouldve loved to go but we had to stay in town to greet Brett Boyd and Kyoko who were coming in from Tokyo.  Brett is one half of the song stylists the Beautiful Losers, the other half being Raj Ramayya whom I like to call (imagine a Japanese accent) Sekushii Indjan Boy.  Others call him Rajji van Halen and still others, mostly female, call him other affectionate things.

Here is the odd thing; when we announced our wedding time, Raj swore he would make it there as he has been wanting to go to the Philippines to experience the experience and Brett told me there was no way he could come because of some studio work mounting up.  Then one day, while I was in the PC Bhang (thats PC room or internet hall for those who cant wax Korean), I got a note from Brett saying he was going to make it after all and could he get the details of where we were staying, etc.  Within five minutes of that note I received a note from Raj saying that he couldnt make it because he had to go to Canada to shoot some film for their video which had to be done in order to support their new album.  How Brett got out of that job I dont know.  Check out their website http://thebeautifullosers.net. Not all of the links are working, e.g. the video link, but they are pretty industrious guys so it should all be up soon.

At any rate, Brett and Kyoko came in from Narita and it was a good reunion; I hadnt seen Brett in over year.  I went to a seaside place south of Tokyo with him, Kyoko and Raj I digress again; that was in 2002.  We found a nice taxi outside of Ayala Center and chose that one to pick up Brett and Kyoko.  Since we had two more people coming in, Shifty Larry Anderson and Eric Cote, we wanted to get a cab driver that we could trust to pick them up from the airport at 2:00 a.m. (since I sure as hell didnt want to go out there at that time.)  We found one in the form of Driver Permejo, a polite, jolly fellow who owned his own, fairly new, Toyota taxi.

It was great to see both of them again.  That night we went out to dinner at Goodah Gud!, a seafood grill on Salinas (very close to the old La Chapelle now a Chinese food place called the Ching Palace).  Weve been there twice before with Nancy and Sara, one of the times with my Mom.

On Goodah Gud!: The first time we went there it was their anniversary week.  They were giving away prizes and, to our shocked amazement (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) we won wait for it a pizza!  We won it after dinner, which was strange, and it was a Heinz German Pizza the first German Pizza in Cebu.  Dont ask; I dont even know where to begin.  The second time we went we took my mother with us and- wait for it again- we won a prize for the second time.  They asked for someone to come and pick it up and I told my mother to go up to claim it.  She thought she was being sent to select the food for dinner and grabbed a plate and went to the bins filled with ice-covered seafood.  A server then led her to the stage where the MC asked her to come up and say a few words.  Mom refused.  Then the MC asked my mother what she thought of the food at Goodah Gud and my mother said I dont know, we havent even ordered yet.  The whole house laughed and then the MC gave my mother her prize, another German pizza.

So we took Brett and Kyoko there for their first Filipino dining experience.  We had the normal stuff: sizzling squid, grilled marlin, garlic rice, chop suey, lechon manok (roast chicken for those of you who dont wax Visayan), tahog (baked mussels in the shell), and a few gallons of San Miguel beer.  We also had the soft green coral that is like seaweed; I really love that stuff.  Westerners are pretty indifferent to it but Kyoko, being a proper Nihonjin (thats Japanese person, in Japanese for those of you who dont wax Japanese) also loved it.  The coral is boiled and then mixed with garlic, purple onions, vinegar and a bit of salt.  She also saw me moving my fork and spoon Philippine-stylie and tried to imitate me.  Another thing she tried to pick up was the gestures and sounds.  In the Philippines if you want to signal someone you hiss really loud Pssssst!  Then if you want the bill you trace a little triangle in the air with your thumb and forefinger.  If you want to point at something you point with pursed lips, not your finger.  One time when we were at a restaurant getting ready to leave Kyoko said Wait, wait, wait, I want to do it!  then promptly let out a loud PSSSSSSSST! that got everyones attention.

The next morning we went to have breakfast (pancakes, omelets, bacon, sweet crispy bacon!) at the Marriot again; Brett was delighted and Kyoko couldnt understand the big deal since she was Japanese and breakfast there is just soba, fish, miso; the same old stuff you eat at any other meal.

Next one to come in was Shifty Larry from Korea.  I met Larry in Iksan.  Nice guy, good heart, but the possessed of those terrible Northern manners as he is from Connecticut.  We sent Driver Permejo to pick him up and we told Driver take him straight to the hotel, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Mr. Anderson has a propensity for getting into trouble and we want him to be safe here in Cebu.  Well, when Driver Permejo was approaching Larrys pension house he pointed out all the nearby go-go bars and said and this neighborhood is fairly safe to walk around in.  Needless to say, Larry went a-go-go-ing.  Good thing he did, as he was doing the research for my bachelor party.

Next was Cristy Burlace.  Ive known Cristy quite a while now as we met in Japan.  Cristy now lives in the Philippines on Bohol, in a small town called Bilar.  She has been working on a butterfly garden there and has made some great progress.  She should be building this year.  We finally got together on the night before Simone and I got married.  I had some great stories about Cristy and then realized none of them were appropriate.  Ask me next time you see me.

We all had dinner, all of us except for Eric Cote, the night before our wedding.  We went to Banilad to an Italian place called La Tegola. Just soooo good.  In the wilds of Korea there wasnt very good Italian food and we kind of went overboard with the Italian thing.  Still a great meal, antipasti, lasagna, fettuccine, penne, lots of red wine and conversation.  Bern and Ariel, my friends from Bohol, made it for the dinner and I dont know what they thought of my friends.

Eric Cote, the last person to come in.  Eric couldnt, just couldnt get a flight in till the last minute so he flew in the night before.  We sent Driver to pick him up while we (the guys) went to see the results of Larrys painstaking research.  After a couple of places where we performed extensive field research, Driver Permejo dropped our friend off at a go-go um research station to join us.

nuff said there.

The next day we had to get Eric a barong tagalog, the formal wear shirt of the Philippines.  I had mine custom made by Arcy Gayatin, the same person who made Simones dress.  Brett also had his made there.  Brett, like Eric is a stylish person, leather-pants rock and roll mofo that he is.  When Brett went for the fitting the hem was a little short because my directions on how to take them were unclear.  The entire staff of the shop was looking at Brett with panicked faces saying Its okay we think maybe we can fix Luckily they did.  Shifty Larry picked his up from a custom shop in Ayala center that made it in two days; he was pleased.  The Yankee in him didnt want him to go to an event underdressed.

Eric on the other hand, had to buy his barong off the rack!  Talk about one unhappy French-Canadian.  So the day of the wedding, I went off with Eric to find him a barong that wouldnt upset his sense of style.  Simone went off to have her hair and make-up done.  Eric and I came back with a very serviceable barong and Simone came back with her hair made up into a pie-crust.  We have pictures on the site; just click on the wedding link.  This going on too long so Ill continue, yet again in another letter.

Off to the wedding! 

The wedding itself was pretty uneventful.  We waited for a long time since my Uncle was kind of late; couldnt start without him.  Unbeknownst to us, trial court petitioners are waiting outside for court to begin, but it cant since Justice Echavez is waiting for my uncle so he can begin the wedding.  Cristy, Brett, Sara and Uncle Dodong were our witnesses.  While we were waiting fro the wedding to begin, Larry got up and started wandering through the judges chambers; I had to go retrieve him (Im looking for a tissue. truly, Yankees just slay me sometimes). Got all the papers in my bag, got chastised by my mother for not arranging transportation for my bride.

If you ever wonder why justice is not being delivered on a timely basis, there is probably a wedding going on in the judges chambers.

We spoke our vows and the while the non-Filipinos seemed interested, all the Filipinos just seemed to be waiting for the food to be served. This is normal. 

Once, Uncle Dodong and Auntie Daisy took me to a novena that was being said for the upcoming town fiesta.  We were muttering the Sorrowful Mysteries when we went from the Scourging at the Pillar to the Carrying of the Cross.  Uncle I asked, there were only four mysteries; what happened to the Crowning of Thorns?

Well, Uncle Dodong replied I think they saw the roast pig being brought in and decided that four mysteries were good enough.

The wedding had only about 25 people but the reception had a lot more.  I had a cousin from my Dads side that I had never met.  Lulu came to the reception but not the wedding.  Lulu is not really my cousin but she seems like one.  Everything I do is always instantly okay with Lulu just like any cousin.  We drank a lot of booze, ate a lot of food and generally talked a lot.  After most of the people had left, the old folks were still sitting around talking.  The restaurant staff had already pulled down the dividers and was seating for dinner.  Servers then passed menus around to the older folks and wait for it! they order MORE FOOD!  To think that a buffet with food that could feed a small 3^rd World Nation would not be enough

Good fun; see the pictures online and please sign the guestbook.

After some employment related matters had to be taken care of in Cebu, Simone and I went off to Manila to have our visas for Vietnam processed.  While we were waiting we ended up playing lots of computer games at a PC bhang in Cebu.  I got a fresh character up to level 54 in Diablo II.  That should tell you how long we played.  Anyhow, back to the visa thang.

This is kind of a weird process.  The company that employs you has paperwork processed in Vietnam and then the product of that is sent to the new hire takes that paper and presents himself at the local embassy or consulate. 

Now, Ive been in Manila a few times but the place we stayed at was totally new.  Sara Griffiths stayed at a place called Malate Pension House because it was in Malate, the same place that the embassy was in.

What a great place!  The pension house was PHP1050 a night and right in front of it was a Starbucks (thank god, as I was having as coffeenerdness problem in Korea and Cebu).  The pension house was right on, good laundry services and everything.  We stayed at the Atrium Hotel on our last trip to Manila, but this was much better.  As a bonus, Malate is an entertainment district.  Right across the street was a nice bar/livehouse called Bedrock, live entertainment seven nights a week and no cover.  Most of the bands were good but almost all of them played the Philippine Top 40 Playlist.  Sara met a bartender there named Nerick Fuentes who showed us around a bit and made us welcome.  In return, I gave him my old computer after I downloaded all the files.  I didnt really want to carry the weight; the computer was old, too old.  It could barely run OS9 and even then it was a bit clunky.  It was no loss to me.

Malate was really nice; a good central location and very entertaining.  We made out trip to the Vietnamese embassy and the paperwork was painless.

We were in Manila for about ten days and we only saw my cousin Yna (Florina) for the relative-seeing.  Simone went to Chilis for the first time and it was my first time in about seven years.  So nice to have a Chicken Fried Steak again (not to mention good nachos).  Too long a wait.

Simone and I left Manila and I started the job at Cleverlearn Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon, as it is popularly known, is an alright city.  Simone is not too fond of it but I dont mind.  Work is okay but it could be better. Salaries are lower and expenses are higher than I expected.  Stupid me!  I thought it would be like Cebu, not Daejon.  We are living in a little pension house in Pham Ngu Lao, the backpackers ghetto.  I detest backpackers but that is another rant altogether.  There are some nice things here as well as some not so nice things.

Simone hasnt found a job yet so she is still a professional TV watcher.  She may branch out professionally and add radio to her resume.

Weve been here for four months and I have my first gig in this town at the Underground (http://www.elephantguide.com/underground).  The Underground has great pizza so this should be a good time.  I havent been a part-time rock and roll hero since Japan.  This helps since money is so tight here in Vietnam.

At any rate, I am looking for other places, other countries to work as well as places where Simone could work as well.  This would relieve the money pressure and let us prepare properly for our move to Denmark which should come next year.

Howre you doing?