Slow Show

I’ve been here in the Philippines for two weeks now and I haven’t yet satisfied my addiction to download excessive amounts of multimedia files. I guess I didn’t really realize what I was giving up until it’s gone. There’s dial-up at home but that won’t cut it. There are restaurants where I can pay for connection, but I didn’t expect the price to be that steep. It costs 100 php ($2.50 CAN) an hour and an additional 50 php ($1.25 CAN) if I want to plug my power adapter in. An hour of surfing the internets is equivalent to 3.75 bottles of beer.

My cousin told me about this cozy little place called Xtremely Xpresso Café where I could get wireless Internet for FREE. So I headed over to download the new Justice album and last week’s episode of So You Think You Can Dance. However, I’m having trouble connecting to their wi-fi and the waitress said it’s generally hit-and-miss. Even when it does hit, it's only about twice as fast as dial-up on a good day. I knew it was too good to be true. So here I am typing this and I'm sitting alone with a plate of stuffed pork chops with garlic fried rice and a bottomless supply of refreshing calamansi iced tea, desperately hitting ‘refresh’ on Firefox as if it’s a "spin" button on a slot machine. It hasn’t paid out yet but I remain hopeful.

But, at least the joint is air-conditioned. The weather’s been incessantly hot and I’ve sweated out 5 lbs of water weight the past two weeks. It’s so hot that you sweat WHILE showering. It’s pointless to actually do my hair because it’ll be ruined again in a matter of minutes. I’m thinking of cutting my hair short again and spiking it up.

Other than the DSL withdrawal and the unkempt hair, everything has been good. I got my first interview tomorrow that I’m trying to find an appropriate outfit for. My jetlag is gone but I still take afternoon naps every now and then. Homesickness is minimal or, at least, that’s what I tell myself. Anyway, my plate of pork chops is getting cold. I’ll see you when I see you.