MANILA

Blogpress isn't working on my iPad. So until I figure that out, no pics. Argh.

There is a smell.  It's somewhat indescribable except that to me, it reminds me of home.  It hits you the minute you step off the plane.  To me, it's synonymous with heat.  Humidity.  Home.  It makes me feel warm and fuzzy; the same way I feel when I smell a fire-burning stove during the winter.

My mom says its the pollution in Manila.  When I was younger, my uncles would visit the States and stand on the front step, breathing slowly and always say, "The air is so clean here." I'm always reminded of that when we get to Manila.  Either way, it's a smell I associate with home.  Family.  Roots.

The traffic is always bad here.  It's one place I'd NEVER want to drive and that says a lot since I will drive anywhere.  Filipinos find a space and go with it - there is no city in the United States that drive as crappily as they do here.  Once, when I was 13, my aunt was pulled over in Manila and all I could ask was, "What on earth did you do that singled you out from everyone else?" She could only shrug.  She had no idea.  It's kind of amazing that people don't get into more accidents here.

I was incredibly jet lagged the first day I was here.  I kept napping and if you know anything about me, I don't nap.  I finished an entire Greg Iles book along with all the sleep I got as well as visited my dad's grave in Manila.  Not a bad day for a first day of vacation.  But don't ask me what day or time it is.  We're 13 hours ahead and all I know is that it's the opposite back home - night is day, day is night.  I'm all confused.

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