drunken schoolboys
after a few days in baguio and manila (spent largely sleeping due to the most common of all travelers' illnesses...you figure it out), in finally on another island: palawan. i flew this morning to puerto princesa on my favorite airline, philippine airlines. they are my favorite because of many reasons, but today because ALL their flights - international and domestic - leave from the posh Ninoy Aquino Airport. all other airlines take their domestic travel to the somewhat unsavory Domestic Airport (i don't know it's real name). the Ninoy Aquino Airport is less crowded, less dirty, and more logically designed than the other one, which is sort of a bog as far as airports are concerned. but not only did philippine airlines send me off from a nice airport, they took me on a nice plane. i don't know the numbers of planes, other than that 747 is really big, but this plane was a "2-4-2-row" seater on an hour-long flight! the last plane i took her had 3 rows total, and propellers. despite all this country's problems, the luxury is appreciated from time to time.
some here apparently drink away their problems, including the group of high school boys i just encountered on the way to this cafe. in their uniforms, on the way to school, most of them thoroughly toasted. wow. actually, i learned from an acquaintance in luzon that many people in the provinces drink too much; they can get bored. i can see why. there's not a lot to do at night around here, and i suppose once you finish your work for the day, you get rather pressed to create excitement. of course, this is not all that different than living in the suburbs in the states, and while a few kids certainly showed up occassionally drunk to class back in my day (i can think of one friend in particular who probaby doesn't read this blog, but of whom i'm sure stephy can share my recollections) the majority were technically sober.
so why the drinking? my acquaintance from luzon told me of a practice called "washing." almost anyone reading this blog has had a hangover at some point in his or her life. the cottony-mouth, headache, mental lethargy, and desire to kill the person who dares to cook bacon in the next room are not easily forgotton. "washing" is apparently the answer to this pesky result of a night riotously spent, but an answer in america reserved for what even todd would deem an alcoholic; wash away the last night's alcohol with this morning's alcohol. reportedly, it's a common practice that not only for young adults and beer-bellied old men, but for relatively (to US standards) young kids and old grannies to knock on their friends' and neighbors' doors and invite them to washing. "mom, where's gramma?"..."she went with auntie lulu to the sari-sari store to buy a forty." well, maybe not a forty; i don't think they have those here. is all this drinking, then, just as they say in the states - a vicious cycle? it seems, in the provinces at least, you're always going to be washing away the washing.
on a lighter and more conversational note, for those of you who hail from some of the world's less exciting places, what did you do to keep yourself occupied in your youth? i seem to remember pilfering garabage and delivering chairs to needy busgoers in Lakewood with ms. fauver, and watching mr. makii shoot potatoes out of a PVC pipe gun powered by ignited hairspray. and you?
some here apparently drink away their problems, including the group of high school boys i just encountered on the way to this cafe. in their uniforms, on the way to school, most of them thoroughly toasted. wow. actually, i learned from an acquaintance in luzon that many people in the provinces drink too much; they can get bored. i can see why. there's not a lot to do at night around here, and i suppose once you finish your work for the day, you get rather pressed to create excitement. of course, this is not all that different than living in the suburbs in the states, and while a few kids certainly showed up occassionally drunk to class back in my day (i can think of one friend in particular who probaby doesn't read this blog, but of whom i'm sure stephy can share my recollections) the majority were technically sober.
so why the drinking? my acquaintance from luzon told me of a practice called "washing." almost anyone reading this blog has had a hangover at some point in his or her life. the cottony-mouth, headache, mental lethargy, and desire to kill the person who dares to cook bacon in the next room are not easily forgotton. "washing" is apparently the answer to this pesky result of a night riotously spent, but an answer in america reserved for what even todd would deem an alcoholic; wash away the last night's alcohol with this morning's alcohol. reportedly, it's a common practice that not only for young adults and beer-bellied old men, but for relatively (to US standards) young kids and old grannies to knock on their friends' and neighbors' doors and invite them to washing. "mom, where's gramma?"..."she went with auntie lulu to the sari-sari store to buy a forty." well, maybe not a forty; i don't think they have those here. is all this drinking, then, just as they say in the states - a vicious cycle? it seems, in the provinces at least, you're always going to be washing away the washing.
on a lighter and more conversational note, for those of you who hail from some of the world's less exciting places, what did you do to keep yourself occupied in your youth? i seem to remember pilfering garabage and delivering chairs to needy busgoers in Lakewood with ms. fauver, and watching mr. makii shoot potatoes out of a PVC pipe gun powered by ignited hairspray. and you?
posted by bethany at 03:37
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