Now that we have employees we have to register with PhilHealth for their insurance and Social Security here. Greg had filled out all the paperwork for me and sent me the addresses of the offices we needed to go to because we were having internet problems at home that day. So I thought we would just go on Tuesday and take care of both of these things but it was not to be. PhilHealth is a little farther away so I told Chris that we needed to go there and he started driving he was about to turn the direction we needed to go on a major road and remembered "oh it's Tuesday we can't go there." I guess as a pollution control method, cars can't go towards downtown Manila or North of Alabang (the area we live in) on certain days and it is based on your car's license tag. Tuesday is our day-so no PhilHealth.
Next we go to Social Security where we get a number and are told where to wait-thankfully not very long. However when it was our turn, we were told that we didn't really need to fill out and turn in those papers-even though their website said that we did. Oh well!
Then we went to the mall-at least that was productive-this time we went to Festival mall, closer to Greg's office. We were able to find a store that printed pictures to get some printed for a project for Ryan's class, ate lunch at Wendy's, bought a broom that doesn't shed straws on the floor as you sweep with it, and stopped to explore yet another grocery store on the way home. That one is called Pure Gold-really it's a grocery store not a jewelry store. I bought Ashley a cute t-shirt with a cupcake on it and found powdered sugar-which is a required ingredient for Greg's favorite dessert, Gooey. So I was able to accomplish some things today-just not quite what I had planned.
Wednesday, the substitute driver took me and Ashley to PhilHealth after taking the boys to school-with no mishaps today. This time I was awfully glad to be waiting with only 1 child, because we waited about an hour. When it was our turn though, a lady typed some info into her computer, printed us some papers, stamped some papers, and we were finished. Then we got the driver to take us to a neighboring area to this place called Market Market. I thought it was just a grocery store but should have known better-it was part of a 5 story mall. We wandered the mall a little, ate pizza for lunch at (Sbarro-just like the ones at the malls in the US), and most exciting for Ashley she got to ride a giant stuffed animal. It was a motorized thing that you steer after putting in a token-costs 10 pesos-$1 is about 43 pesos. She wanted to ride the pig, probably because it was pink. She didn't do a very good job steering though, she ran into a teenage girl sitting on the edge of the area where kids rode these animals.
The most exciting thing for me was finding a box of Greg's favorite cereal at the grocery store and 5 boxes of Toy Story Cheez It crackers-I bought ALL 5! The kids were very excited. Now I know why our pantry is so big, I am learning that if you see something you like and don't buy it you will probably regret it because who knows when you will see it again?
The funniest thing about Wednesday-
We were out of milk so I planned to leave Market Market in time to get back to our area of town, stop at S and R to get milk and leave it at the house before getting the boys from school. I had texted our driver to pick us up from Market Market and just as we were getting in the car Ashley said "I have to go to the bathroom." If I had been at Haywood Mall at home I would have just walked her back into the mall to go but I had no idea where the closest one was or where the driver would have to go back to while we hunted a bathroom so I just kind of ignored her request. Not a good idea! It was totally my fault-I should have thought about how much she had had to drink that morning. When we got out at S and R, her clothes were wet. She said that she still had to go, so we found their bathrooms and were so excited to discover that they had SEATS AND TOILET PAPER! This is a first in a public bathroom since we have been here. So I shopped quickly and our trip home included getting dry clothes too!
We did all that and still managed to get to school on time and since Thursday is a late start day at school we stayed after and played on both boys' playgrounds before coming home to do homework. After all this we were really hot and sweaty-Ashley offered me some pretend ice cream-I asked her if she had a Cherry Limeade from Sonic but she said no. She was correct-there are no Sonics here but we really enjoyed the a/c on the ride home. Thursday school doesn't start until 8:50-the teachers meet that morning before school. I would have loved that, as a teacher, instead of having after school meetings that seemed to drag on into the afternoon.
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