Since there’s an upcoming election back home that I won’t be in the country for, we made a trip to the Canadian Consulate. It’s located at the RBCB plaza along with the German and Australian embassies. Forms were filled out and my election ballot was shipped from Ottawa to the hotel, arriving later in the week. Now, I just need to find out who’s running back home, what their platforms are, and make the return trip to the Consulate so my ballot can be sent back home via diplomatic pouch (sounds important, doesn’t it?).

This week has been all about lights, fireworks and the run up to Christmas celebrations. Everynight, mutiple times a night, the city is lit up with lengthy fireworks displays. Each seems to run longer than the last, and the shows are spectacular.

I was a few days into my trip and I noticed that my ankles and feet were swelling. It was horrible. My shoes became progressively tighter and I was miserable for hours after taking them off. It wasn’t just my shoes that were swelling. My shirts didn’t fit properly, my pants seemed overly tight, and I had to stop wearing my watch for a few days because my wrist was swelling so much that it didn’t fit at all for a period of time. Drew informs me this is normal when you head to a tropical climate (he’s had the briefing about it at least once every year). I just wish my doctor or the travel clinic had told me to expect it before I arrived!

After work we’ve made a few trips to the malls to pick up Christmas gifts and souveniers for friends and family back home. Most of the malls we’ve visited are exactly like back home – with the exception of Greenhills. Greenhills is an odd amalgam of upscale mall and indoor/outdoor flea market. The flea market section is broken into stalls, packed with knock-off purses, sunglasses, clothes, and watches. The middle section is devoted to fresh water pearls. Thousand of strands hang from the sides of the stalls in all ranges of sizes, types, and colours.

The hotel offers guided tours ranging from 4 to 8 hours in length. I’d like to take the 4 hour tour to Intramuros in Manila. Intramuros is an old walled city built by the Spanish rule occupation 500 years ago. Intramuros actually means “Within the walls.” I’m also looking into tours to Taal volcano and lake (an hour’s drive from here) and Tagaytay. Whenever Taal volcano is mentioned everyone proudly points out that it is the worlds smallest volcano.