so this past weekend was fantastic. it was tiresome but fantastic. CFSI (community and family services international), the organization where i work, planned a staff get-away retreat which took place this past weekend. we went to this town, tagaytay (ta-guy-tie), about 2 hours outside of smoggy, dirty, overcrowded manila. it was just what the doctor ordered. there are two claims to fame for this city. one there is a stunning view of a large volcano that houses a smaller volcano in it's mouth. of course this volcano is on another island but that is to be expected in a place that possesses over 7,000 islands. anyways, it was really beautiful.
and the other claim to fame is the buko (coconut) pie. and we did eat the buko pie!! there was booqu buko pie.... hahahaha get it, get it? (yeah i know it's bad) anyways, this was my first time having coconut pie and it is quite good if i may say so myself. not a huge fan of coconut milk straight from the nut but buko meat and buko pie are both quite exquisite.
what has been interesting to witness here is how U.S. culture has influenced the philippines. there are three factors that immediately come to mind: fast food, basketball and reality tv shows. i plan to write about the first two some other time but for today let's spend some time on the tv reality shows.
part of the retreat time was staff development, or a fancy word for forced fun with coworkers (in actuality it was quite fun). what comprised most of these activities were CFSI versions of american reality tv shows. first was american idol and then was amazing race. my contribution to american idol because of course everyone was forced to participate was my housemate jen and i teaching native filipinos classic early 90's dance moves. go ahead laugh it up chuckles!! they seemed to enjoy it and got really into the running man!!
now i am a huge fan of amazing race. personally i would sign up for that stress in a minute. CFSI version was great. we had to work as a team to accomplish specific tasks and the last task was eating a whole buko pie. yes folks a whole pie. there were five people in my group and we were not messing around by any means. i have never inhaled a pie so fast. i think we downed the pie and a liter of caribou milk in about 3 minutes it was amazing. (note to self- caribou milk tastes VERY similar to non-pasteurized cow milk) considering this was my first taste of the buko pie i didn't really get to truly enjoy the experience but CFSI amazing race was definitely on par!!
after the retreat i dragged by ragged self into my bed not to emerge until 12 hours later. boy did it feel good to sleep. good thing i rested because my sunday afternoon adventure was not for the faint hearted. now normally my sunday afternoons consist of eating some lunch, NAPPING, reading or do some low-key activity. not yesterday... one of my coworkers took my housemates and i to divisoria market. a place that is chalked full of anything you ever would want to purchase. pots, underwear, dvds, jewlery, knock-off pumas, ipods and the list goes on. it was amazing... so much stuff. that doesn't even mention the amount of people present. i think there were times when my feet were not touching the ground but instead i was "floating" with the crowd. it was an experience. (i think i may write that every time i blog.... ah well.)
so that was this past weekend. also CONGRATS to JULIA on graduating from high school. i am very proud of you and wish i could have been there for the celebration. you were thought of many times.
"girls don't sweat, they glow" well if that is the case i am a little glow worm!!
blessings...
oh and check out my pictures on the right side of my blog page!! enjoy.
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