The last couple days, we’ve been exploring the area we’re in now – along Aurora Boulevard, surrounding the Araneta Coliseum. Muse was supposed to play here a few years back, but for some reason cancelled. EDIT: Muse was rumored to play at Araneta as well as the Philippine International Convention Center in 2006. (Source: MuseWiki) It’s a huge arena, painted blue and yellow. Surrounding it are several mall complexes, sort of like the Ala Moana and Ward shopping areas in Honolulu.

My mom grew up in this area, though by talking to her and observing her expressions, you wouldn’t have known. It’s been a couple of decades; so much has changed. An elevated rapid transit track and brightly colored footbridges dominate the immediate skyline along EDSA (Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue). The shopping district surrounding Araneta Coliseum is all relatively new – you can tell by the fresh cement and paint.

The skyline along EDSA.

We ventured out today to find my mom’s alma mater, Carlos P. Garcia High School. After eating lunch at Taco Bell – an establishment that’s been present in the Philippines for a mere five years – we walked to the nearest bookstore and bought a map of Metro Manila. According to the map, the high school was at the opposite corner of EDSA and Aurora Boulevard from our hotel. Of course, when we crossed the footbridge to the location, a huge taro field – yes, taro – was at the corner. Neighboring it was Cubao Elementary School. Mom says the elementary and high schools shared a campus. No longer.

Random, giant taro patch in Manila?

My mom and I walked around and asked random people about the whereabouts of my mom’s old high school. From our experience here so far, my impression is that Filipinos have no idea where anything is. When we were at the SM mall in North Edsa, we asked people who worked at the mall where the nearest Philippine Airlines ticket agent was. We got different responses from different people, from “in the SM Supermarket” to “outside, down the street.” Of course, the ticket agent ended up being right outside one of the mall entrances.

But back to our search for my mom’s alma mater – from security guards to street vendors, no one knew where Carlos P. Garcia High School was. Finally, we found a tricycle driver that knew where it was. He drove us to the school’s current location: seven blocks away from where our “handy” map said it was. It must have been relocated fairly recently, in a quieter location, away from the hustle and bustle of the Araneta shopping district.

The gate to the new Carlos P. Garcia High School, my mom's alma mater. Sort of.

But no matter how much things change, certain things stay the same. The surrounding area is still pretty filthy, despite the local government’s “Metro Gwapo” (“Metro Handsome”) beautification efforts. The poor still roam the streets, begging for cash or selling goods, no matter how minor, even tiny individually wrapped candy, to survive. And despite me being 9,000 miles away from home, I’m still watching “MythBusters”. Right as I type this, in fact.

We drove through horrendous Baclaran traffic – impeccable timing with post-church and open market crowds. I spent the time looking around at the traffic, the crowd, and the palengke stalls from within the confines of Uncle Jess’s jeepney. To our left, a few beggars were lined up alongside the road; one of them in turn was lining up plastic figurines. A couple others were kneeling on the stumps of their knees; they were legless. To our right was a row of stalls, where swap meet-ish clothes, sparkly Converse knockoffs, and ice cream, among other things, were being displayed and sold. And all among us was an unrelenting crowd of people on foot, passing around and between the cars stuck in traffic. It was almost like the apocalypse had hit, except no one was in panic. Lining the street we were on were drug stores, local eateries, and a few familiar names: McDonald’s… Dunkin’ Donuts… and 7-Eleven. Somehow I can never avoid 7-Eleven. I mean, I work right across the street from one and get my lunch there all the time. But it was an interesting contrast seeing those American establishments among the hustle and bustle of an impoverished Filipino community.

While I was making these observations in traffic, my mom exited the jeepney and entered the drug store we were “parked” in front of. Traffic was moving at a snail’s pace, so the jeepney hadn’t moved very far by the time she came back. She emerged with some newly exchanged pesos and a tube of Colgate gel toothpaste to replace the one that got confiscated at Honolulu International. (Apparently my mom didn’t hear me when I said I wanted her to put it in the checked luggage, because she had the toothpaste in her carry-on. And we’re talking about a standard-sized toothpaste tube.)

This sounds horrible, but by the time we got to the vicinity of our hotel, we stopped at… a McDonald’s. Yeah. The awesome thing about McDonald’s in the Philippines is that they serve two food items they don’t serve in any American McDonald’s that I’ve been to: fried chicken and spaghetti. It’s insane how fried chicken and spaghetti seems to be so popular here; it seems as though every fast food place serves them. The special thing about Filipino spaghetti is its sauce: sweeter than your typical meat sauce, and there are little slices of hot dog in it. So of course, I had to order the one-piece fried chicken and spaghetti combo. My mom was boring and got a Filet-O-Fish meal she ended up giving to her aunt and uncle, even though she also ordered each of them two-piece chicken combos. After some debate about which motel/hotel/apartelle we would stay at, we settled on the one we are currently staying at, on West Avenue in Quezon City. It was a half-hour wait until we got a room, which ended up being on the fifth floor. Though it’s a pretty inexpensive hotel, the lobby is really clean and classy, with a Japanese theme going on. The room too, aside from some dust that hasn’t been cleaned off above the headboard. Soon this hotel will have a sixth floor; this is apparent with the constant hammering that’s been going on somewhere above us. It’s fine though because it seems to stop by bedtime – at least it did just now and last night).

I woke up at 6 am today, unusually early for me as of late, but I still felt well rested. I checked my usual Web sites and did some work-related stuff on my laptop – this place has free wi-fi – and turned on the TV. I discovered this MTV-ish channel (but better because they actually play a lot of music videos) called “Channel V,” which is apparently based out of Australia, though most of the announcers sound American. I flipped back and forth between Channel V and MTV. A Lady GaGa song came on on MTV, and I felt some “spidey senses” (which turned out to be “Franzy senses,” apparently) tingle. I switched back to Channel V and a few seconds after I did so, the video for Franz Ferdinand’s “The Dark of the Matinée” started playing, followed by “No You Girls”. That was a nice way to start the day.

My mom and I spent most of today exploring the nearby SM North Edsa mall—the largest mall in Asia. When we got there, we ate a hot dog and fruit smoothie breakfast at the only place that was open at 9 am, the SM Hypermarket. (I guess bigger than a supermarket? But not really.) The mall opened at 10 am, so after some minor grocery shopping at the “Hypermarket,” we took the escalator up to the rest of the mall. We took pictures at the center court the escalators dropped us off at, with a player piano in the middle of it. We bought a couple of tote bags and walked around the mall for five hours, stopping to eat at Chowking and a few kiosk vendors along the way. During those five hours, I failed to find both a music store (though I found several musical instrument shops) and the bowling alley (though I did discover the big Fun Factory-ish arcade on the third level). We did, however, accomplish getting our plane tickets to Iloilo, where we’ll be going next week, and getting my watch battery replaced.

When we came back to our hotel room, I turned on the main power switch for our room, which turns on everything, including the TV. And what was playing on Channel V to greet us back? Muse. “Sing for Absolution”. Channel V, coupled with my Franzy/Muse senses, is a winner in my book. My mom and I ordered some fried chicken, chop suey, and rice and ate it in our room, while watching Channel V and Oprah. It’s been an embarrassingly Western day.