Your man in Manila

 Oh dear readers, here I am scootching into the last few days of my 47th year and wondering where to start with this post. (Didn’t get this done for a few weeks, so I am now comfortably into my 48th year)

We made it to Manila with no real trouble. Early morning arrival, greeted by a fellow teacher and ferried to our new home...

Which is on the 20th floor of an apartment building overlooking the Manila Golf and Country Club. The view is pretty great, with the city skyline in the background, mountains and even a bit of the bay on a very clear day. At night we can watch the thunderstorms rolling over the water.

You’ll be pleased to know that I like this view so much I removed the door from my bathroom so I can take it all in while I do the business. I might be spending too much time sitting on the john…

The first couple of weeks were a real blur: furnishing our apartment, acclimatising to the daily rain, all while going through orientation at the new school. I also got pretty sick for about a week so there are a few days there I barely remember.

School is in a HUGE building about 20 minutes' walk from our place. I'm on the 5th floor and Rani's on the ground floor, at the opposite end of the building. I get a pretty nice view in the other direction from my classroom, which is all mine! After sharing a classroom for the last 6 years, it's nice to have my own space. 

The work is pretty standard high school math teaching; most of the challenges are just learning new people and systems. The vibe here is different than in Doha, maybe a little more open and relaxed. It feels a bit smoother to me than any of my previous transitions, but I'm sure that's also a function of my experience and comfort with the job. I also think therapy over the last few years has helped me know myself better and built a repertoire of tools that help me out in all kinds of situations. I'm slowly making some connections to a composting group, a disc golf club, and the week long service trip is coming up soon, so there are also interesting extracurricular opportunities.

I'm enjoying living in a walkable city. I leave early in the morning for work, walking through the commercial district with the other early risers, joggers, and sometimes partiers just finishing up their nights. Rani joins me for the walk home, where we sometimes stop by one of the yoga studios for an afternoon workout, then find a new restaurant to try for dinner. We've been eating out for most of our meals because the beginning of a new job is so busy, and our tiny kitchen is taking some getting used to. It's fun, and we've built up a list of regular spots that suit our needs. 

We spend weekends nesting, especially over the last month after our shipment from Doha arrived. We sort of had our apartment figured out, then we got 20 boxes of our stuff and had to do it all over again! It's feeling more and more like home. 

Special events:

Impromptu diving trip to Batangas. There's amazing diving that's just a 3 hour drive from our place. We went out to the coast for a long weekend and had some nice dives. The boats, the people, the water, the islands all bring back memories from the many dive trips we made here while we were living in China.

Off-Menu: Fancy hotel ballroom, twelve or so Manila-famous chefs matched up in pairs to create a new dish. Fun night with Kim and Jay, or friends from China who work here, too.

Whiskey Live: Same ballroom a couple of weeks later, lots of whiskey and rum tasting.

Sandwich Quest 2025: I got a hankering for a good sandwich, which turns out to be something sorely lacking in the restaurant scene here. A few mediocre attempts helped me find better grocery stores from which to source meat and bread. Sandwich achieved!

Fashion, bitches! There's this corner of the walking mall that all of the fashion kids use to pose and influence or do TikToks or whatever, so much so that this wall is actually worn down from where sultry brooding youths lean on it in their various poses. We decided to give it a try: tres chic, right?

October break in Hanoi

Spent the first night at Gia restaurant, where we were treated to a fun meal that was a celebration of fish sauce, like the rivers flowing through Vietnam. From the amuse bouche to the ice cream at desert, each dish had some element of this funky condiment in them. We got to visit with chef Sam Tran, and sample some of their fermented fruit juices, made from fruits I've never heard of, like mac-mat and dracontomellon.

Next night, Kim and I took off on the Hanoi Beer Tour, a motorbike tour of the beer culture of the city. Lots of plastic stools and off-the-tourist-path spots to enjoy a pint or two, along with some great local food. For the last leg, our guide told us it would be "gangster" to take a road beer, and we stopped at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum to pay our respects.

The next day, we took a super interesting walking food tour of the French Quarter.

There's a hidden world of cafes, bars, restaurants, and coffee shops that you need a guide or a tip from a local or some patience to track down. No storefront on the street, just a narrow alley opening, and all of a sudden there you are. We started at this old coffeeshop, a beautiful little oasis in the old quarter. We, and all of these motorbikes, entered through a dress shop and had a relaxing cup of strong coffee while we discussed the Chinese antiques decorating the interior. 

Next, a delicious beef and papaya salad, prepared by our guide Joe.

Proper banh mi, with perfect crusty baguette. This place is famous for their unique tuna salad.

Tofu snacks in a back alley with the office lunch crowd.

Correct beef pho, no messin around.

Somebody said they wanted to try snails, thinking they’d be getting some delicate little escargot. This place don’t play! Big old mouthful of garden snail coming at you!

This is what regret looks like…

Good god, there was a lot of food on this tour! Here’s Joe and me recreating the famous Bourdain / Obama meeting over a yummy plate of bun cha.

Tea with Mr and Mrs Thien. He’s the community liaison for the communist party in a little neighborhood. Joe gave him a ride home one evening when he was a little tipsy, and started a friendship that ended up with him being a stop on the tour. We couldn’t speak directly to each other, but still learned a lot, particularly about the aim of the government the way he sees it: make as many people happy as possible. Imagine that!

Otherwise, Hanoi was absolutely lovely as a place to just be. We spent time cafe-surfing, strolling around the lake, and enjoying quiet corners full of fun and beauty. It’s a pretty special place.

Stumbled on a Harry Potter themed cafe with some interesting drinks. Lots of movie art around, but notably no images of the half-blood prince himself.

Phung hung street is lined with murals and other artwork, including this climbing wall made of motorbike parts. We ran into a tour group here led by a local woman who challenged me to climb the wall. I said I would if she did it first, and of course she scampered her 5 foot tall self right up to the top, so I had to give it a try. (This is about as far as I got)

Through an alley, up some stairs, and through someone’s laundry room, we found this gem of a cocktail bar with a deceptively lame name (Hanoi House). Delicious, special cocktails, some with fish sauce, some with peanut butter…

We are getting through the weeks until the winter break, when we’ll be heading to Tokyo for a week, then messing around in Dumaguete and surroundings on the islands of Negros and Siquijor.

Miss you all, happy holidays, more soon.

Peace and love,

Jon

Out of the frying pan and into the steamer

Bye, Doha!

 We began our summer with a small road trip through Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio. From top left: First meal in America at Hog-It-Up BBQ in Winchester, VA (RIBS!); little roadside attraction (Farnham Colossi); Discin’ through the countryside; O’Betty’s Red Hot in Athens; And some sights in Cincinnati (Findlay Market, Roebling Bridge, artsy hotel, and a butterfly scavenger hunt at the Krohn Conservatory.

Then it was on to Columbus to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law for their occasional time with us without kids. We had a great time together, culminating in a magical afternoon/evening 

It all started with an impromptu visit to an escape room downtown. None of us had ever tried escape rooms, and all had varying levels of scorn for the idea. It turned out to be an absolute blast, surprisingly intricate, well-constructed, full of adventure (dungeons, hidden rooms, secret keys and codes), and challenging. We didn’t quite finish (even though someone couldn't figure out which side of the sign to show in this photo...), but everyone wants to try again .

Look at these two cuties!

Instead of Ubering back to the AirBnb, we decided to get a drink and a bite to eat, which turned into an epic, but very chill, bar crawl. The weather was absolutely beautiful, the city was gearing up for their pride weekend so there was a fun vibe going on everywhere, and we had so much catching up to do! It was wonderful and easy, and felt like a great way to switch gears into summer mode.

Our final stop kind of wrapped everything up in a beautifully weird, funky, butting-up-against-surreal visit to Hoof Hearted Brewery (say it out loud, please). I definitely had this one marked on the map, firstly because it was only a block away from the house, but then because of the art and attitude displayed on their website (hilarious artwork). The reality of the visit was so much more than I was expecting.

On our approach, we caught the tail end of a full-on barbecue and drag show at the LGBTQ thrift store across the street. Queens in full regalia, all the neighborhood out to watch and eat, warm fuzzy chaos. 

We followed the smell of the twenty-something’s smoking weed on the patio (Ohio recently legalized, and they are leaning into it), and opened the door of the brewery to a full-on EDM show, with a DJ station styled on the front end of a corvette, ear-blistering volume, and a handful of various dudes sitting or standing alone or in pairs. 

This makes it look way quieter than it really was...

The bartender was a tall black man, late twenties, with scruffy hair and a short beard. He was immediately friendly and engaging, and also very, very high. We all placed our orders and went out to secure an outside table, thereby saving our eardrums from the incredibly loud, but freakin’ awesome, music. When I went back in to get the rest of our drinks, he leaned across the bar and hugged me, nestling his head on my shoulder. I don’t know what we talked about, but it was calm and comfortable, funny, and weirdly intimate. I just don’t know how to describe the way this interaction filled me with joy, but it did. I hung back and listened to the music, watched a man dancing with his handkerchief, drank their delicious beer, and shared a few more words with the bartender, then hugged him goodbye when we left. 

I love that brewery, and I love that man, even though I never got his name.

I’ve written before about magical moments, and touched on my relationship with America, and this day felt like both of those things, and lots more. Fortunate to be alive, to be in this place at this time with these people.

A few days with D&K led into a flurry of family and friends that would define the middle portion of our summer.

Family reunion on my mother’s side in Bluffton, OH. Nice to see all of the cousins, some for the first time in 10 years or so (and some of their offspring, for the first time ever). Also a chance to see my siblings and niblings.

Lazy days in Michigan at The Land, puttering about with the ‘rents, cooking, napping.

Off to Cleveland (Ohio again!) to meet up with some good friends from our time in China. We slipped right back into it, lots of walking, card playing, food, and drink. It has been many years since we’ve seen these two, and we enjoyed getting to see where they came from.

Then it was back to Michigan to pick up the folks and head north to Traverse City, where we spent a lovely few days touring wineries and the Lake Michigan coast. It’s a pleasure every time I’m able to spend social time with my parents, getting to know them as they are now.

Then it was time to get less mid and more north: off to Tacoma, Washington! We immediately headed out on 6th avenue with good friends from our time in Doha, and had a great night with another international teaching couple. Over the next few days, we ended up spending what in retrospect seems like an imposing amount of time on their front porch in a beautiful little neighborhood, watching the world go by, basking in the gentle northwest summer, enjoying each others’ company.

After a quick stop in Lacy for lunch with Rani’s family and an introduction to the new addition, Coen, and a tour of her parents’ new home, we landed in a nice little duplex on a quiet street in Olympia. The lavender is riotously blooming, the poppies are poppin’, and we have some time to unplug and spread out and try not to get too nervous about our upcoming move. 

The places we take with us

I'm sitting in our living room in Doha on the last Sunday morning I'll spend here. It's the most peaceful time of day, when the sunlight is gently filtering through the acacia tree, too early for children or dogs or cars, but with an appropriate level of birdsong for my mood, and it's still early enough in summer for an early morning run in the cool breeze before sunrise followed by a strong cup of coffee. 

In a few minutes, Rani will join me and we'll work the crossword puzzle together as the morning light sweeps through the room. These hours are something I look forward to every day.

This is a place I will take with me.