Woke up today around 8 and had breakfast. We had to leave the hotel around 10 to get to the airport to catch a flight to Ilocos. It is in the northern part of the Philippines.

We are feeling better today. Still not much of an appetite, but at least my side is not hurting.

We made it to our new hotel around 3. This place is very rural. The hotel is very minimal…I mean not the most I’ve stayed at I guess. We still have some cable and supposedly some wireless internet out in the garden area where people can sit. We have a pool. Most of Don’s family is staying here so we have most of the place.

When we arrived we settled in for about 20 minutes then it was back in the vans to go eat. It was a “snack”, more like a meal. We had empanadas, which had bean sprouts, pork, and an egg in it. Seriously it was great, best food since I’ve been here. Then we had a soup, which was kinda like ramen.

Then we got back in the van to go to Tito Rom’s house to have a little birthday celebration for him. It was cool. The guys there used to be in a singing group in school together so they sang songs all night with a guitar.

We walked around a little bit to see a very old church. When we were there a group of girls asked me to take a picture…at first I thought they wanted me to take their picture but they just wanted a picture with me…I guess they don’t see Americans a lot. I don’t know…kinda weird for me.

After eating and hanging out we came back to the hotel and now the boys are playing poker and I’m relaxing in the room. It’s nice to have some privacy!