Potentially Entertaining Material: Palawan Edition: NCCC, my home away from home

So, I've been in Palawan for about a week now, and so far so good. The people are friendly, the food is good, and the weather is mostly amazing. For the first few days, Andrew and I were basically setting up shop: opening bank accounts, familiarizing ourselves with the main stretch, and settling in to our rooms. We met with Doc. Gonzales on Thursday and he gave us a brief overview of the types of work we would be involved with. The University is trying for a level 3 accreditation, so all the faculty are busy preparing for that. Basically Doc. Gonzales told us to sit tight and wait for an email informing us of what to do. In the meantime a few interesting events have unfolded.

First, I want to say that I have absolutely fallen in love in love with NCCC. It's a big old school department store in the same vein as Woolco and it has absolutely everything. The best part is the NCCC theme song. I have to find a way to record it without the employees thinking I'm retarded or the security guards arresting me for violating some law I'm sure exists. It gets in your head and cannot get out. The best part is that you don't want it out. It's amazing. NCCC also gets an award for having no less than 10,000 people working in the store at any given moment. I was in buying a shirt today and a line of employees spontaneously broke out into a funky Asian line dance. Another reason that NCCC fucking rocks. I have to knock off points for the inexplicable love of Shaggy and The Cranberries though. Mr. Lovah Lovah literally had a five song set while I was shopping for food. Throw "Zahhh-ommm-bay, Zahhh-ommm-bay" on top of that and it can easily ruin an afternoon.

Secondly, I got lost. It wasn't an epic "Holy shit where am I?!!" lost, but it was a new experience nonetheless. Andrew decides to get a haircut, and I don't particularly feel like waiting around, so I say I'll mee thim back home and take off in the general direction of our place. The fact I don't know any street names doesn't factor into my terrible equation at the time. I walk for a while up Rizal Ave, the main stretch, untill I feel I'm close to where I should turn off into the neighborhood. I start walking down a random street and after a few minutes I realize I don't have a sweet clue where I'm going. No problem, I'll ask the locals! I got to a gas station and ask the woman there how to get to Aniceto's Pension. Never heard of it eh? Right on....
So, like any reasonable idiot, I turn around and head down another random road. I eventually stop at a roadside store and ask the man buying smokes where Aniceto's Pension is. He has heard of it and even draws me a map. So I thanked him, bought some water, went on my way and got lost again. The map must not have been to scale.....yeah.....
So I decide to turn down another random street (that's three now) and ask a guy around my age where the hell I am. He doesn't know. But an old lady overhears our conversation and tell him how to get there. He tells me to wait a minute and goes into his house for a few minutes. I'm standing there, not quite sure as to what's going to happen, when he comes back out and tells me to hop on the back of his scooter, he'll take me there. I decide to ignore my better judgment and get on the back. At this point I've been wandering around for 45 minutes, I'm dehydrated and cranky, so the chance at a quick free ride home isn't much of a decision at all. I'm lost in a foreign country with a pocket full of cash and a head full of dirt.
He speeds away and begins to strike up a conversation. I find out his name sounds like Ken-ed and that he's in a band. They play mainly emo music. Turns out that Aniceto's Pension was only about 2 mintues away and if I wasn't completely brain-dead the map would've been fine. I get off the scooter, thank him profusely, and go inside.

Thus ends another day. Huzzah.

Oh, here's are some photo's that have little or nothing to do with the preceding post.