Day Two

March 7 day 2.
The day started off at a nice easy pace. We left at 10am for the church for the baptism. Parking at the church was a problem but bribing the attendants helps. The ceremony was very nice. Everyone is given a printed booklet so they can follow and respond properly. God parents here is really plural. There were about 10 God parents including us. The priest was young and very friendly. He was wearing flip flops and surprisingly he even spoke some Polish. After the Baptism we went to the reception. There was about 80 people and tons of food. There were at least 12 hot dishes and 6 desserts. Bo had a glass of wine and I had a beer with lunch and we were conspicuously the only ones with alcohol. It turns out that Filipinos start drinking after the food, not before because after lunch the waiters started going around with bottles of wine and beer and many people drank. This must be the custom here. The reception was nice and friendly. Sometime about mid-way, the singing started as Wojtek connected the karaoke machine. Many people were excellent singers, but the highest score of the day (96) went to Wojtek for singing “500 miles”. We expected to go home after the reception, but plans got changed unexpectedly. We were sitting at a table together with about 15 people who all went to high school together so they call themselves “classmates”. Nobody warned us what this bunch is capable of. At about 3 pm we were directed to get into a car for an excursion. We really did not understand all the plans since much of the planning was in native language. There were 6 in our car and we were following another car with 4 other classmates. We figured we were going up a mountain to see a volcano. After about an hour we stopped at a beautiful garden/nursery/outdoor restaurant. All we wanted was coffee, but we had no say in what was ordered. There was also a third car so there were 12 of us at this large table. The new parents were not there – they had gone home with the baby. This was a group of friends that have adopted Bo’s brother into their clique. Since Wojtek (his Polish name) has no Filipino equivalent, they have renamed him Bruce. They ordered 6 plates of sweet coconut dessert to go with our coffee. We forced ourselves to almost eat our share From there we drove to the town of Tagaytay located on a slope of the mountain overlooking a large lake. The large crater created by the volcano has become a lake and there are islands in the lake caused by active eruptions. The largest island is a still active volcano and you can get there by boat and climb to the top of the crater. It was a very pretty geological scene. When we left, we were surprised we did not backtrack down the mountain. We continued up the mountain then turned onto unmarked lane. At the end there was a beautiful retreat including a church and reception hall used for weddings. The sign said closed at 5:30 and it was 5:40 but the lead car convinced them to let us in since there was guests from Los Angeles. This was also a beautiful venue. Upon leaving the suggestion was made to buy pineapples from stalls across the street. There was a pineapple grove right on the hillside. We said we would like one. HA. They were 7 for $2 so we ended up with 7 pineapples. Probably 6 bunches of 7 were purchased. Then we started down the mountain and we thought were going home. They pulled of the road at a shop and stated they were going to buy bread. We went into the shop and bought some local coffee beans. When we walked out we were directed downstairs to a pretty garden restaurant. We had more coffee and sweet bread. When we left we were stuffed and sure we were going home. Wrong. We went to a mall and a nice restaurant. We emphatically stated that we could not eat anything so they said they would order a large salad to share. The salad came, then the buckets of beer, then the nachos, then the steak. They finally brought us home at 11:30 pm. What a great bunch of people!!