Monday, February 2, 2009-“I Didn’t Start the Fire!”

I am writing this on Tuesday because I thought I was going to have time last night to write.  I was way off.  While I was at the Coffee Hub, I received a phone call from Vivencio (the former President of NSCAP) wanting to go to the local watering hole and grab two-beer.  Well, we all know what happens at two-beer and hilarity ensued.  Bembooy joined us for a couple of drinks after gaining clearance from his wife… this is the part of the blog that is called “Sames and Differences”… again:

·      In the U.S. we flush toilets.  In Catarman, you have a spigot next to the toilet with a bucket (you use the toilet to do your business, obiously).  You wash your hands under the spigot and the water goes into the bucket.  When finished, you pour the water into the toilet… Voila!  It’s flushed!

·      In the U.S. it’s Karaoke, in Catarman=Videoke

·      You have to get permission from your wife to do anything.  If Sir Bembooy’s wife is reading this, this is true in the U.S. as well, and in the U.S., wives are not as lenient as you… Salamat!

·      Dogs sniff eachothers butts here too

·      Food is good, Filipino food is better (but Chipotle is still the best)

·      Mark Teahen is a God here… for all of you that don’t know who Mark Teahen is, he is the greatest baseball player of all-time, not to mention and outstanding citizen and humanitarian

·      All the bottle water here is Denver tab water too! (just kidding Simmons)

·      As near as I can tell, dogs don’t have owners, they just wander from place to place… kind of like me… “you’re not from around here are ya?”

·      The prominent beer here is San Miguel and puts Budweiser to shame

… More of that later.  Anywho, I had a great night that included, in this order, Macaroni Bake, Almond Mocha Coffee, Chocolate Cake, beer, beer, beer, fried calamari, beer, beer, beer, fried calamari, beer, beer, fried chicken, beer, beer, beer, water… so I had five and half two-beer.

Oh yeah, I also sang, “We didn’t Start the Fire!” During my first stint of “taking over the Filipino pop-culture with breathtaking videoke performances.  I ended the night by falling asleep to Richard… I knew I was going to have a long Tuesday.