RAT BREAD!!

Look at what I have resorted to eating:

RAT

..BREAD.  I found this at the amazing bakery down the street! They sell bread in shape of rats, turtles, and pigs.  Dr. Miller tried to freak me out and tell me that Rat meat was inside of it....but I ate it anyway and he was totally full of it.  The turtle was cute:

...and there was no actual turtle in it. :)  I still have to buy the pig.  I think I'm going to bring a couple of these home.  Rat bread anyone?

4 things...

Four random things I like about my husband:

1. He's so funny!

2. He literally treats me like a princess. 

3. He's just as weird as me.

4. He hates eggs....we have an "egg-free" house!

Four jobs I've had:

1. PCC dancer- Hamata

2. California Pizza Kitchen waitress

3. BYUH bookstore

4. In-N-Out :)

Four movies I have watched more than once:

1. The Nightmare Before Christmas

2. Major Payne

3. The Royal Tenenbaums

4. Little Miss Sunshine

Four TV shows I watch:

1. SEINFELD!

2.  The Office

3. Arrested Development

4. The Colbert Report

Four places I have been

1. Prague

2. Austria

3. Hungary

4. The Philippines

Four people who email me regularly:

1. Mom

2. Freakin BYUH student bulletins

3. Dad

4. Anyone on our research team

Four of my favorite foods:

1. mmmmm....Cheesecake

2. Stortos turkey sandwich

3. Pasta----any kind

4. Timtams 

Four places I would like to visit:

1. Greece

2. Thailand 

3. Egypt

4. England

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year:

1. Graduation---hands down. And applying to Veterinary school.

2. Seth getting into grad school

3. Annual VEGAS trip

4. Getting a place of our own--and moving fatty to somewhere cooler. :)

Four people I tag:

1. Monique

2. Betsy

3. Malia

4. Dan

The streets of Cebu and Go Kart racing!

An insight of the streets of Cebu City.  Everything is really crowded. It can get kind of scary at times because a lot of "guards" have some huge AK-47's. 

But sometimes the streets are one of the most entertaining places to be because we'll find people like this guy....

I'm surprised I haven't been run over yet by a car/trike/jeepney--the streets are always so busy and confusing.


The streets are full of small shops like this one:

Shot from the taxi...
This is one of the best Jeepneys that I've seen so far. Looks like it's from the 70's!
Some areas are gorgeous, like this lake that we visited in Lapu-lapu...
On Saturday we all took a trip down to a racing track to go Go-Kart racing! It was only a few American dollars, and even though the Karts looked like they were going to fall apart, they were really fast and a lot of fun to race!  This picture is of a goat roaming around in the middle of the track. I just noticed that one of the motorcycles racing has a basket on the front!

The track! It was pretty big.
They made all of us wear these masks....which were completely unbearable in the heat!  We thought we looked like ninjas.

Before we all took off... of course all of the boys ran up to the front so they had the best chance to come in first place.
My Kart had a hole in the seat with cracks around it, so it was pretty probable that I would have fallen through---but thankfully I didn't break it.  The Karts went so fast--it was so much fun! We're definitely going to this place again. We topped it off with dinner at Yakiniku Japanese Restaurant. Yuuummmm! You order food, and then cook it yourself on a little grill that is built into the table. Probably the best food we've had since we've been here. In fact we're going back tonight!

Only one month 'till home!

A happy way to end a tiring day

Seth and I just got back from a stressful 10 hour day full of interviews. What a loooong day! I was kind of in a bad mood from how tiring the day was and from the lack of effort and organization from some people in our group.....until Seth showed me this picture that the Dixons sent us from home:


And I just laughed and laughed. Who can't smile at this caterpillar/seal of a dog?!?!

Let me tell you 'bout my beessssttt frrriiiieeennnd....

This is Ace, my dog friend!  I feed him almost every day.  He sits outside of the ACE academy, so his name is Ace.  

Ok, so in this picture, it looks like I'm feeding a deranged wolf or something. If Ace was cleaned up and fed more he would be a beautiful dog! I will have to take a better picture of him to show you how cute he really is!

Sightseeing in Cebu

Today was full of sightseeing in the hot hot hot city of Cebu.  It was quite the day! All 17 of us crammed into our own little Jeepney and took off around the city.  It was deathly hot today. With no wind at all.  I don't think I'll ever complain about the heat in Hawaii again! 

Our tiny Jeepney...which reminded me of a clown car that 17 people came out of every time we had to stop.  It kind of looks like some sort of farm car that carries pigs or something.

Yes, these girls look happy in there...but it was pretty early in the day...
Our first stop was the basilica in Cebu City, and where Magellan's cross is.  The church was beautiful!

Seth and I outside of the church
Inside the church....it was so beautiful!   There was a line of people waiting to touch a relic that Magellan had when he came to the Philippines and converted many to Catholicism. 
Slightly blurry...but this is a picture of a family of BATS! Yes, bats! On the ceiling of the church.  Our tour guide said they've been there for years, and that even Filipino bats go to church too. lol.
Seth misses Asian tourists in Hawaii...
The cross of Magellan! The actual cross put up by Magellan was supposed to be encased in this wood.  There were a bunch of old Filipino ladies that would wave some candles around the cross and pray for you if you gave them a few pesos! 
One of them was named Maria! She was so cute.....and tiny. 
We also saw a bunch of stands holding thousands of candles that Filipinos will come to say prayers and to light candles.  It was such an amazing sight! Hey, isn't my shirt cute?!  There is a cute french boutique here called Promod, that is not in the U.S.  and I just love it!  I must say it is hard being housemates with 3 guys that never want to go shopping. I have to ditch them while they are looking at nerdy video games or pirated DVDs while we're at the mall.  By the way the mall here is gigantic.  It's 5 stories high and I haven't even been through all of it.  Seth loves these stands called "Waffle Time" that sell these waffle sticks with chocolate in them...


This is my traveling buddy Eve, one of the Miller's daughters.  She always sits on my lap while we ride in the Jeepney. She's really cute!
We also stopped at a Filipino museum--we weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside.  It just showed us the basic history of the Philippines.  This is Seth and our housemates cooling down in the shade.

We also went to a Taoist temple.  That was my favorite spot of the day!! It was really cool.  They wouldn't let me take any pictures of the actual worshipping place, but I got a bunch of the temple grounds.  There were so many stairs to get to the top!! After the crammed Jeepney ride and the heat, this wasn't exactly my idea of fun....but it was worth it after seeing the beautiful view.  What was interesting was that you could see some gorgeous mansions right next to villages of tiny, rusted, tin-roofed houses. Kind of sad.
Made it to the top! Before the next set of stairs....ugh.
This is right before we got to the worshipping area.  Taoists worship nature and want to become one with nature.  I thought it was really peaceful.  
This is the front of the worshipping area.
This is the view from the top of the temple. There was actually a breeze up there that was really refreshing.  Seth had to drag me away!
Eve took this picture of us--she's a great photographer!

Seth and I in front of the amazing view of Cebu!
These dragons were really cool.  They were all over the temple.  Our tour guide said that for Chinese new year they do a really cool dragon dance!
Our last stop was the monument in Lapu-lapu city where Magellan was supposedly killed. I would have taken more pictures, but we hadn't stopped to eat ALL DAY and by this point I was ready to snatch up the next piece of food that I saw....
...but then I realized I spoke too soon, because our tour guide took us to a seafood "restaurant"/counter with fish for sale in an alley....


.....lunch anyone?? Yes, there were flies all over the fish too. Seth and I didn't even need to say a word to each other--we both knew EXACTLY what each other was thinking.......N-O  W-A-Y.

So Seth and I, Nate, Taylor, and Jolyn crammed in a cab and took off to find some highly desired food.  After driving 25 minutes and arguing with a crooked cab driver, we made it to a Thai food restaurant.  It was soooooooooooooo GOOD!  I would have taken pictures, but I was too busy scarfing food.  I took a ton more pictures today, but it would take too long to upload! 

Work was pretty good this week. I am in charge of the interviews: coming up with the interview questions, finding and contacting the people for interviews, training people how to interview, and actually giving 1 hour interviews.  Whew. What a week.  Next week I think we're going to trek down to a beach.  It's so interesting over here! Its crazy being an American and walking down these street full of sewage and intense poverty. Everyone is always staring at us.  Never seen anything like it.  I took recorded some footage of the crazy streets, and I am yet to put those up onto youtube.  Anyway..someone send me some AMERICAN FOOD---I have never eaten more top ramen in my life!!  

I seriously would just die for a turkey sandwich!!