The Coolest Animal Ever. EVAR.

...is King Kong. Hands down. The dude's got mad strength, can tear up t-rexes and still be a softie for the ladies. He is THE MAN.

So if you haven't guessed... if you're that thick... I just got back from seeing King Kong at SM Mall with my cousin Ken and King's (the guy who's lived in our house for the last two years) younger sister Tata (it's just a nickname). On a sidenote, King is here in Davao now! It's awesome. He's like a brother to me, so it's really cool to see him again.

This movie rocked my socks so hard I had to buy another pair. Let me just tell you guys that I haven't had this much fun in a movie since... well since I can remember. It's a great ride for 95% of the film. The beginning had my guessing whether or not the rest of the movie was going to be good... I wasn't digging the screenplay in the beginning and some of the camera tricks used later in the film were just kinda weird and distracting to me... eh. But don't get me wrong. The movie is freakin AWESOME. Hats off to Peter Jackson.

So everyone, sorry about the lack of blogs this week. I've been studying like a madman for my prelim exams. The semester here is divided into three grading periods: Prelims, Midterms, and Finals. This last week before Christmas break (merry jesusbirthday by the way) I had six planned exams. I say "planned" because yesterday I was happily surprised that our Algebra teacher decided not to give us one. She said that she was "tired of grading wrong papers". Don't misunderstand that. She's a great teacher, but she has crappy students. Me of course, not being one of them. They don't study, they don't show up for class, and they don't bother to make an effort. Well, they can have fun taking the same class next semester. This teacher is not going to pass them.

So exams this week were so surprisingly and ridiculously easy. I don't know why, but for some reason in EVERY class (I kid you not), I was the first person to finish the exam. And in every class mostly everyone looked at me in awe/surprise/disgust while I turned in my paper. I don't get it, but I think Filipinos were just taught differently on how to take tests. I have a feeling that they all read through all the questions first and then answer them... slowly. That's not how I do things. I like my time, thanks. But they were easy. I'm pretty sure I passed with flying colors. It's in the bag. I was most worried about my history exam today, because I had absolutely NO prior knowledge of Philippine History before coming here... but the test was shockingly easy. All mutliple choice and a lot of the questions had these kinds of options:

a) A blatantly wrong answer
b) The correct answer
c) Maybe
d) I guess

I was chuckling as I made my way through the test. About 6 of 50 questions were riddles or trick questions, such as "If a rooster lays 48 eggs in one day, how many eggs does he lay in 1 hour?"

a) 2
b) 3
c) 6
d) 0

If you answered (d) then you're a smart cookie. Roosters don't lay eggs, dummy. So yeah, questions like that. And the last question was (and this seems to be a popular question of EVERY teacher) "What is your teacher's full name?". I've gotten this question in most of my other classes (actually oddly enough only classes that are taught by women) in previous quizzes and in exams this week. Sadly though, I blanked on the answer more than once for those classes. Yeah, I don't know my teacher's names. Sad, I know. Here, we call them "Sir" and "Maam" so much that that becomes their name. "Did you talk to Sir yesterday?", "What assignment did maam give out last meeting?"... Different.

This week has been a lot of fun. I'm glad it's over though and that Christmas break is finally here. OH! Some really cool news today. Kaloi... you remember him owner of KIC (Kaloi's Internet Cafe) told me that he and Lea talked and they want me to be a groomsman in their wedding. WOW. What is it with me and being in people's weddings? I'm really honored, though. Now, I definitely have to learn a saxaphone piece for their wedding.

Tomorrow, I'm waking up early because we're doing a community service thing with the church. This week we did a used clothing and can goods drive, so tomorrow will be giving it out. It'll be really great.

On a related note, today I took a taxi to school because I was running late. As I got out of the cab, a homeless lady with a child in her arms approached me for a handout. Reflecting back on the time I denied a kid one peso (I actually saw him again, gave him money, then took some pictures of him... those later), I was convicted to be more compassionate. I gave the woman a 20 peso bill. Others saw this, and immediately, I was bum rushed by a mob of poor people. Seriously. There were hands... everywhere. Grabbing too. I reached into my pocket and grabbed a handful of change. I tried giving a peso out to each person, but that was a little difficult as everyone was swarming around me and pushing each other out of the way. Before it got too messy I said sternly, wala gyud. No more. And I walked swiftly to the gate. I was kinda frazzled by the whole thing. Man, poverty is powerful.

King Kong is set in the time of the depression era of the U.S. Compared to the current state of the Philippines, the homeless during the depression era is nothing compared to the homeless of the Philippines and other third-world countries today. Just an observation.

Well, I gotta get up early tomorrow, so that's all for tonight. And by all, I mean this is a freakin long blog. Good night.

Cy