The Beginning

I finally made it to the Philippines. After much deliberating, waiting around to take the next step, and then a very weird day of travel, I'm here, and settled into an apartment in Subic. It's beautiful here. The beaches are lovely, the water is clear, and the people are friendly.

Other than just being here, I don't have a lot to report. I've started meeting people I need to know, and discovered that a one-hour massage costs a whopping 350 PHP. For those of you unfamiliar with the conversion rate, that's about $8.25. Seriously. I paid about $8 for the best combination massage I've ever gotten. I'm going to be doing that weekly. The food here is delicious, and there's an amazing variety of western food available.

I've gone swimming a few times, but only at night, since I have no desire to get sunburned. I know, I know, sun screen. I wear sun screen. But, if I go swimming, I have to get out of the water every half hour, reapply my sun screen, wait 15 minutes for it to absorb properly, and then I can go swimming for another half hour before having to do it again. (Yes, I have to reapply it that often when I swim, because my skin is so sensitive, and I don't want to risk burning.) So, it's just easier to go swimming when there's no sun. Besides, the water is still so warm, swimming at night is wonderful.

Next week, I'll be going around and doing all of the fun things that we'll have available to our clients. I'll be meeting all of the vendors, and will be able to report on all of the amazing things to do around here. For now, I'm going to go down stairs and check on my laundry, and grab a glass of water. In this heat, you have to stay hydrated. It's been around 90 degrees or better since I got here.