u-journal

Olive. I am not sure if that is the proper way of spelling it. I am sure that is the name of the pub where I have finished most of the nights. Olive is a pub located in Makati City. I live in Makati City. It is pretty close: no more than 15 minutes walking. Walking late at night or early in the morning is the best time to walk inside Metro Manila. I like that pub. It is free. There are no problems with your fucking appearance. It seems that these bad habits of the big-ugly-fucking-bastard-bouncer work worldwide. Anyway, nice. People inside. Yeah, that is a point where I would like to be more explicit. Most of the pub is a dance floor. The bar-table itself is small; no more than six or seven meters long. Drinks are CHEAP. People are crazy. Ok, this is The Land of the Calm. If there exist any place in Metro Manila where I have seen frenetic people, that is Olive. When I ask the locals about the “black history” of that place they ALWAYS refer to the fact that it was closed because of the ecstasy. Music is basically trance, I would say. I cannot distinguish between… let’s say… ten fucking music kinds which sound similar… The behavior of Olive-people is strange. Um, it is strange YET. I do not understand, very well. First, it seems that guys jump too much, it seems that girls stay too alone. I have seem guys dressed as girls, there. It is the latest pub and the… let’s say… with the most mixed community inside. There are many locals, there are many foreigners, there are many gays… Foreigners seem to attract the attention. Last night there were some blonde-giant-guys, probably from Scandinavia. Blonde, big, strong. They where dancing in the center of the dance-floor. Just moving. Moving. No matter the rhythm. Open t-shirts let their chests being seen. I would say at least one of them was under the effects of anything. Yeah! They were dancing with some Filipino girls… Filipino girls seemed to be attracted now and disgusted after one minute… We where dancing there, as most of the nights. I like very much the mood. You can dance or you can just stay. One guy came to me and asked where I was from and introduced himself… No, it wasn’t such a gay night… Becky, the most active Filipino girl I know so far, said: “Unai, Unai… that is maricon, maricon… be careful, he would give you something” (maricon = gay in Spanish) :-DDDDDDDDDDD The supposed maricon was dancing with some girls after in that attitude which just makes you doubt… Yesterday I just chilled at my place’s swimming pool… It was great, and I met my neighbor. He is this cool high school guy who works as DJ in another fashion pub: “v bar”. He was with some friends having beers at the pool. He had taken his music equiqment. Of course, as expected… amazing. Exactly the same as the used ones in discos… Anyway, I was talking to him. He is NICE. He is called Sergio, yeah, from Costa Rica. He can speak Spanish, although it doesn’t sound too native… I’ll probably spend more time with him within this year. Yesterday I was at Greg’s home, in a party. The house is completely AWESOME. It was nice, relaxed. Greg is American. He works… fuck, actually I don’t know what does he do exactly… I mean, I don’t have to of course… but he explained to me twice. He said something related to IT. Ok, whatever. I was asking him about working permission here. I told him about Stephany. Actually, he wasn’t able to help me too much… I met another American girl: Anna. She works as English teacher!!!! Yeah!!! I was asking her about how is it going. She told me she is teaching now “private”. That means, going from place to place, not in a school. She is teaching Korean people. I don’t really know what does it mean, because if you teach private, you can teach whatever… Anyway, she was fed up with Philippines. She is coming back in march. That is perfect for Stephany! Yeah! I mean, I would ask her if Stephany could substitute her after she leaves. I’ll ask her, but later… I mean… Maybe I introduce her to Stephany first… We will see… Yesrday Stephany phoned! I am feeling so nice now! AND SHE SAID SHE HAS A JOB IN MANILA! Fuck, that is so amazing. When she told me that on the phone, it took me some seconds and then I started shouting… :-DDDD Yeah! Yeah! That is perfect! I do not know yet where is that place or even the name of the school… She said she is going to send me an email with the details… GREAT! I am now much more relaxed. This week has been a bit hard… missing Stephany… sometimes too sad for doing anything… Sometimes just sitting and thinking… Ok, I am glad that things go forward. YEAH!

At home. My phone is set, now. It was impressive how fast was it. It took less than 24 hours since I applied for the phone until I got it working… Sorry, maybe 26 or 27 hours but not more… I phone PLDT (major Philippine telecommunications company) yesterday… Actually another person did it for me I hate calling these calling-centers… Anyway, she phoned & applied; I went there and paid the setting-up bill: 1900 pesos (35 EUR), including 500 pesos for calling (9 EUR). Yeah, the phone I got is pre-paid. I do not have to pay for it anymore! No monthly fee… I just charge it when it finishes… It is cheap BUT mobile phoning here is a BARGAIN! The apartment is being improved, step by step. It is nice already, but it needs some work… cleaning I am taking it easy, because doing shopping is hell! Normally the whole evening fucking goes… Nearest supermarket is twenty minutes away walking, which is all right. The problem are the lines… fucking queues! Every shop is over-staff-ed. Every time I pay, there are at least three or four persons checking my card and packing the things. This is the place to relax. Be relaxed or die, would I say. My hot blood is beginning to calm down… I thing (and I hope). It is being slow, but it does exist… that process of just taking it easy, where it means everything. I like what I did here so far. I am actually enjoying it. Probably one of the most impressive facts that happen here is how many people have I already know! It is AMAZING! It is easy to make friends here. EASY. People is just looking forward to establish contact to you. There exist this kind of environment of… I don’t know. This calming-down-no-aggressive-take-it-easy live. It is really different. I am very tired now. I was out yesterday, pretty long. Today I wasn’t late at work, so that means I slept something like three hours. Fuck, it wasn’t such an easy day! I went to the office with the idea of not doing too much… BUT, it wasn’t so possible. I wasn’t stressed, that is one hundred per cent true, but I wasn’t relaxed. At least, I was NOT as relaxed as I wanted. Probably was yesterday when I got the first text from Stephany after a few days. Fuck, I do not know how weak can I be. Last four days haven’t been so easy for my mind… just rolling and rolling… I was out most of the days (probably all of them) but still sad. I got this text from her related to the stolen credit card. Fuck. That might be called bad luck. Stephany was stolen yesterday; that was her second time in six months, I guess… I want to write her an email. I’ll continue this later…

War was fucking announced. Everyone knew it before. And it happened, of course. I should have been writing today’s text from my new place. My New Place. Nobel Plaza. 5 minutes to the office. Wonderful. Big. Cheap. Perfect for hanging out there. Perfect. Big toilet, nice kitchen. Nice. How can I describe a nice place? Ok. That place has probably gone. I arrived. 3:30pm. Owner came twenty minutes late. Ok. No problem. First shock of the day: yesterday’s 15000 pesos (270 EUR) became 16500 (300 EUR). I hate that; I hate that even MORE because she shielded on law. Fucking bitch! She said we must apply VAT. Right. What you mean? Shall I pay 10% more just because? Yes. Yes. Yes. That is the fucking answer. 10% more. No pans, no casseroles… Nothing! Why there aren’t any casseroles here? Why? FUCK! I told her I’ll phone her back. I have to decide. This is mi situation now: two places await. One costs 13300 P/month (240 EUR/month) and the other one costs 18100 P/month (326 EUR/month). Both are nice. Both have nice facilities. The expensive one is bigger and nicer. It is an apartment with one room. The cheap one is studio type. Studio type includes everything: cleaning stuff, iron, cooking stuff… even towels & blankets! The other one has nothing of this. Nothing. I have to phone even the gas provider. Bigger one is better… but more stuff to clean too and I don’t want to spend time cleaning. Here is very common & cheap to have people cleaning your house. It is REALLY cheap. Actually, is kind of… indignant. They look like cheap, stupid bitches… They label themselves to act as the slaves of the society. Wages are so low that any bastard can pay a woman to go to his house for cleaning. I am pretty curious about wages here, in the Philippines. They are probably extremely low in most cases (like this cleaners) and quite high… This is packed of foreign people. Like me. Abusing of their fucking wage. That pisses me off! We abuse of a foreign salary. I don’t know yet, but I would like to know about numbers… I will know it… Yesterday’s boat trip. I cannot describe how nice was it. I was looking to the people; then I was looking at me. I was thinking: what’s up, Unai. Where are you? What are you doing here? Incredible! A friend of Cristina took as for a boat trip. Transparent-warm-calm sea water. Sun shining, but not too much. Probably 25ºC to 30ºC. Punta Fuego is the place. They have this “resort” place there. It is actually kind of exclusive club. Anyway, whatever it is… I enjoyed it. We took the boat and sailed for half an hour or so… Then, stop. Threw an anchor. Have sun. Have beer. Have whiskey. Swim. Jump into the sea from the boat. Feel that fine sand on my feet… Talk about things. Nice people. Luis and Dino, two Philippine guys. They are pretty inside this world of scuba diving. I asked them. They are going to take me to learn scuba diving and to a shop. I asked about spear-underwater-fishing. They looked surprised and answered they will ask. We jumped from cliffs too. Not too high. 5 to 10 meters, I guess. I don’t know. It was very nice… Most impressive was the deepness. Yeah. This sea is so clean that everything looks like swallow. You can always see the bottom. Dino and me climbed up the cliff. I asked: “Hey Dino… How deep is it here?” He said “140 feet”. I asked “Really? Are you sure?” He didn’t replied, he just jumped. I jumped. No thinking, that is worse. It was GREAT! I touched the bottom. My left foot hurts a little bit yet, but nothing serious. Bottom was sand… soft-white-fine-sanded bottom. We did it again. And again. And again. Dino was wearing these diving shoes… kind of neoprene sandals. They are perfect for jumping from cliffs, walking around beaches… coast is full of sea-urchin so… I want to get diving equipment this week. I want to start it NOW. I’ll be introduced to it by Dino or a friend of him. That’s nice! SCUBA DIVING POWER!