Vacation!

I was born in Manila, November 71. When I was about 3 I was sent to live with my grandmother by my mom who wanted to travel and work overseas. I was an accident:) my parents were not married. I lived with my grandmother and uncles till I was a month shy of my 12th birthday. Growing up all I could think about was my mom and my dad and how great it was to be living with either of them. I was very well taken care of by my grandmother and I never felt that I was lacking in anything but as a child I think you naturally think about wanting to be with your parents. Now that I'm older I do the reverse, I spend a lot of time thinking about my grandmother and all my family and friends back there. It's always where you're not isn't it:)

So today I leave for the Philippines, back to my home town, a small province in the southern part of the archipelago. There's not much to do there, progress has been slow and it's still mostly made up of farms and open fields. We have a tiny farm ourselves, a small piece of land really but a good place to soak in the breezes and watch the grass grow. It's the rainy season down there right now so maybe I'll get to enjoy a few downpours, maybe some thunder and lightning if I'm lucky - we don't get much of that here in San Francisco, not in Honolulu either. I get to practice speaking my native language (Ilonggo) and the national language (Tagalog) As long as I'm alert and awake I can keep up, the moment I get exhausted and tired I revert back to english, ahaha. So that's where I'll be for the next 3 weeks. I'm sure it will be fun. Everytime I go home I never want to leave. I go from living alone with no family to all of sudden being surrounded by a ton of them and having all my needs anticipated and met. Sometimes it's hard to come back from that:)

Well most of all I look forward to doing many things unimportant and spending time with my grandmother. I'm looking forward for time to slow down a bit, for the busy(ness) to go away. Looking forward to reading a couple of books, drawing a few pictures, bowling a few lanes, drinking a few local beers...well you get the picture. My body is not totally over the 100-mile race yet.

It's funny though how days before a major trip I get a little depressed. I get like this because I hate leaving my city. Kind of crazy I know but I usually get over it once I'm on my way. San Francisco is always hard to leave.

The trick will be to keep up with some of my training, it's only mid-season! There's a track I can run around in, boring but safe. It's right next to the cock fighting arena, seriously. And you want to avoid running in the afternoon because it's when the locals clean up their yards and streets and burn the trash - ahahaha it's bad enough that it's warm and humid. Running in the neighborhood is out of the question, too many stray dogs and too much traffic with people who are not used to runners. I was told there's a pool there and I'll bring my swim gear but....the water may be questionable:) We shall see. However we are going to hit a resort for a few days and I was told the water is great for open water swimming. I promise to try to keep the eating and drinking down to a minimum, but already my mouth is watering from all the native foods I plan on eating. Well it's a good thing I did a 100-mile race last week huh:) If I gain 4 pounds that will be an acceptable loss. When I get back I'll have a month to cram for the half-ironman in Santa Cruz, I'm sure I'll lose what I've gain then....surely.

Well hopefully next time we meet I will be blogging from Asia. Maybe I'll have something interesting to share by then.