ER and Mall of Asia

(Photo to the left is of Steve, one of our classmates, dressed in traditional Filipino attire and dancing for us at Zambuonga)

So today started our first day of only 2 people in the ED. Shannon and I were on in the morning so we basically stuck tubes and needles into people all day long.  We enjoyed a lecture (in "Taglish" - half English half Tagalog) and noticed that the med students hung around for about 15 minutes before returning to "duty" - just like we do in the US.  I saw a pt. with a HUGE goiter and even larger parotid cyst - she was gracious enough to let me take her picture too for my medical files.  We learned about things that are very common here but rare in the US - many infectious diseases, thyroid problems, vitamin deficiencies.  It was still kind of a sad experience.

We successfully booked our 8 passenger van to take us to Pagsanjan Falls on Saturday.  The falls were made famous in the last part of the movie Apocalypse Now.  More on that when we actually go......

When we got back home Carol, Erica and Anna (not a roommate but she lives above us) took our first cab ride to  Mall of Asia, the third largest mall in the world.  Our cabby was very nice and charged us P83 (less than $2) for the ride.  The mall is huge (duh) with many rides, restaurants and stores.  We did some window shopping and got dinner at an Italian restaurant which was very nice.  We watched the sunset over Manila Bay and got some photos (to come later).  We finished shopping and found some nice items at Kultura Filipina which sells imported Filipino handmade goods.

So then, the cab ride home.  No big deal, right?  I mean, we're practically Manilan by now.  So our cabby picks us up and drives us to our neighborhood.  Traffic is super bad by our mall, so we told him to let us out early.  He wanted to charge us P400 - over 4x as much.  Well we are NOT dumb Americans so we fought with him.  He ended up getting P190, which was still too much, and we kinda just jumped out of the cab.  We were pretty confident that we shouldn't pay more than P100.  We were a bit shaken up, and realized that from now on we're going to diligently watch the meter when we get into the cab.

All in all a pretty good day.  The rest of the girls had fun too - Carol got to drive out to the Manila slums (literally - she has pictures) with the Family Medicine people.  Erica and Megan did NOT run into any rats (in fact, one was dead!) and only had a half day.  Heather is still at the ED for the night shift and is having a pretty exciting evening.

Tomorrow we're thinking about a trip to Intramuros - the old Manila from 1500's.  We're also trying to plot out the evenings for next week.