1st week in the Philippines

I left on Tuesday for the Philippines. My first flight was from Philadelphia to Chicago. Then Chicago to Tokyo Japan. When I finally arrived in Japan after my 13 hour flight I found out my cell phone wasn't working. I almos had a panic attack because I had no way of contacting F.B. to let him know I had arrived safely in Japan. I tried going to the money changer but I couldn't understand how to fill the form out and the Japan payphones were really odd looking too and you need Yen for them. I didn't know how I was going to let F.B. know when I was in the Philippines so he would know to come and pick me up in the waiting area. The flight from Japan to the Philippines was about 4 hours right before we were going to land I realized on the control for the LCD movie screen there was a phone on the other side you could use with your credit card so I called F.B. from the plane. At first he couldn't hear me so I had to call back and then he was like, "You're at the airport?" "No, I'm ON the plane! We're going to be landing my cell phone isn't working!" After all that once I did land in the Philippines, my cell phone did work. F.B.'s dad said Japan is on a different network and that's my phone didn't work.

We got back to F.B.'s house around 11:30pm on Wednesday. He had a red rose for me and some ratties waiting... hahaha! There was also a sign in the dining room Ate Malou made.

The next day was Thanksgiving so we headed to Mall of Asia for my "Thanksgiving" in the Philippines. We also watched 'A Christmas Carol' with Jim Carrey in 3D at the IMAX theater. We also had to pick up a new voltage box because my laptop wasn't working with the one F.B. got after the flood. We had dinner at Gerry's Grill like we did on my "Thanksgiving" last year in the Philippines. We had Gerry's grilled squid & veggie rice. We also tried a tofu & pork appetizer but it wasn't so great.

Friday we got up early to go to the US Embassy in Manila to get my 'Certificate of Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage' We left the house around 6am and arrived around 7am. On the way to the building F.B. forgot he had his cell phone in his pocket.(No electronics are allowed inside the embassy.) As we were walking back to the car F.B. heard this guy say "Sarah Lynn". We were a little freaked out at first until the guy introduced himself. A few weeks ago I recieved an email from a blog reader who works for Department of Homeland Security at the US Embassy. He wanted to let me know that the embassy would be closed on December 1st and that November 27th would be a half day since those were the days we were considering going to the embassy. He had been at the Starbucks and was walking back to the embassy when he said he recognized us from my blog pictures, lol! I'm world famous now, haha!

I emailed him later in the day to thank him after we ran into him and he replied:

Hello Sarah-Lynn and FB, I am glad all is set now for the big day. It was nice, definitely a coincidence, running into you both this morning. Although I think I may have scared you guys a bit when I approached you and FB on the street with my Starbucks cup. You probably thought I was panhandling!

We really weren't at the embassy too long. I had to fill out my paper, go to another window to pay for it, then the longest part was waiting for them to do a background check. After that our name was called and we were interviewed briefly before I signed my paper and it was notarized. We were out of there around 9:30am. Then we headed back to Mall of Asia for lunch at Chow King and then back to F.B.'s house. Wednesday we have an appointment at the Cainta Municipal Hall to apply for our marriage licence. Saturday we just spent the day hanging out at his house watching movies and relaxing after the past 2 busy days.

Today we are at Robinson's Galleria. I'm at an internet cafe right now. We are going to see 2012. Afterwards we will be having dinner at Tokyo Tokyo.

I will leave you with some silly photos we took today!


And this is "Mugwort" he is another stray cat that likes to visit F.B.'s house. He survived the flood too. F.B. was trying to carry him out of the garage when the water was up to their necks but he jumped off his shoulders and swam away! F.B. named him "Mugwort" because if you look up the Tansy flower on wikipedia (My cat's name.) Mugwort is another name for Tansy. He's like the male Tansy, lol

NOTE: If you are getting married in the Philippines and you are a US citizen these requirements from the US Embassy in Manila Philippines, will be helpful: Getting Married in The Philippines.