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Today is November 1, 2011.
Today, most of the Philippines is celebrating All Saints Day/All Souls Day. Filipinos spend the day (sometimes overnight) in the cemetery at their relatives’ graves. The time is spent offering food and flowers to the dead and the living picnic there as well.
The streets are empty. Almost all businesses are closed. It feels like the apocalypse hit Cebu… or at least a very early Christmas. This is a pretty serious holiday here. Yesterday, Halloween in the United States, was not a very big deal here. There were a few costumes, but it’s nothing like the States.
Today, I’m celebrating my official 2 months that I’ve been out of the United States. This also marks about 3 months that I’ve been out of Austin, TX. I’m growing a bit tired of vacationing. I yearn to study and work again.
I didn’t find an apartment here in Cebu. The rents for short-term places are just way too high for what you get and internet connectivity can only be found in the form of the Globe Tattoo or Smart Bro (USB modems that use existing wireless networks which basically top out at 3G here in Cebu), both of which aren’t all that fast or reliable. Instead, I’ve just extended my stay here at my hotel, which has a decent wired connection. Seems that most hotels here will offer you a significantly discounted rate if you want to book for more than 2 weeks at a time.
