Just Living Life

I have been trying to think of something to blog about and I just haven't been able to think of anything. I think that means we are actually feeling at home here because I don't feel like everything we see and experience we have is totally blog-worthy. The funny thing is, they probably are but I am just getting used to my surroundings so I don't see things as so different anymore. I am going to do a post soon of just the crazy things that we see in Cebu. I have lots of pictures for that. Today, I just wanted to say how happy I am to really be feeling like we are at home here. It has been a long 10 weeks to get to this point.

I know some people just talk about the good stuff on their blog and I am not really like that. Moving here has been very hard, much harder than I ever expected. Living in Asia has been on my list of things I have to do before I die since I was 16 years old. When we got the opportunity to do so, and we were in a position where we could easily (no kids) we jumped at the chance. But no matter how much I wanted this, it has been very very hard. I sometimes think China wouldn't be AS hard for me because I have a weird obsessive love of China, the Chinese people, the Chinese culture and the Chinese language. I have not yet developed the same love for the Philippines. But, that being said, I am learning to love it. Ben asked me the other day at lunch what I like about the Philippiness so far, and here is part of my list:


1. The beach

2. Movies are very cheap (Ben and I can go to a new movie in a nice theater for like $5 total)


3. I found this wheatgrass drink that is yummy (it's sweetened with honey). I can buy it anywhere and it makes me feel like I am being healthy! The picture is of my healthy Sunday morning breakfast: egg, rice (no comments about it being white, we usually have brown), mango and wheatgrass.

4. My team at work. I am pretty lucky to have these people to work with. They make my life easy. (2 of them are missing from this picture)

5. The chance to work at the Cebu Temple and just the fact that we have a Temple so close.

6. The simple faith and obedience of the members of the church here. The Stake President told us on Sunday that when President Monson was here in Cebu to dedicate the Temple, he reminded the saints to remember those Filipino soldiers who fought and died in WWII. When he mentioned this I thought, "hmm, that's a long time ago, I wonder why he talked about that". The Stake President proceeded to tell us that a member of the stake has now collected over 3000 names of deceased soldiers whose names can now be added to family search and whose Temple work can be done for them. 3000 names! Now that is taking the words of the prophet and running with it.

7. The Shangri La click here to see my whole album dedicated to this place. We work out there, we lay out there, we swim there, we eat there, it is just beautiful! This place keeps me sane.




8. Time to spend with Ben. Right now, we really only have each other. Most married people never have a chance like this and I am grateful.


There are more things I could add, but the point is that I am finding things I like about this experience. When we first got here, I thought I was going to hate it forever. I have never experienced culture shock, not when I lived in China teaching English, not when I served my mission, but I experienced it here and I am finally getting out of it and learning to love where I am.

A New Home

So, it's been 8 weeks that we have been here in Cebu and right about now we are starting to actually feel settled. I think the biggest contributor to that fact is that we have moved into our new apartment. We love being able to sleep, watch t.v., get online at home, skype with family and friends, not having to drive into the office to call people, etc etc etc. It has been great and we are really loving every minute of it. Having somewhere we feel comfortable really has made all the difference. The landlord is very responsive and has already fixed the A/C in the master bedroom and installed a new A/C in the living room. When there are "brownouts", the electricity goes out for an hour or two, the apartment complex has a generator and we get our power back on in just a few minutes. So great! We are having to get used to living in an apartment complex again, with the noises of neighbors close by, but we would take that vs. karaoke any day! Below are some pictures of the house, just so you have a reference for where and how we live. It's a little different than home.

This is our master bedroom at the beach house, the ONLY place we spent any time.

This is the living room/dining room of our new place. We JUST moved, it's messy! And look, we still have a GREAT view!

The new master bedroom. It's empty and quite big, but comfy.

Master Bathroom

The spare bedroom/computer room. Remember, we just moved, it's messy!

The kitchen (notice the number of cupboards...yikes)

A little friend in the kitchen. We get these guys all over the house, but I like them cause they eat bugs:). (I know, I need to clean out my sink)

The spare bathroom and yes, we did pick out the rubber ducky shower curtain:)

We are happy to be settling in and feeling at home. Maybe some of you can visit us soon!

Laguna

As I mentioned in my last post, Ben's Lolo passed away on September 19th. We are lucky that we live here, close enough to be able to attend his funeral. We were able to represent Ben's dad and his family since they are so far away and unable to attend themselves. It was a great chance for me to meet Ben's cousins and aunts and uncles on both the Crisanto and the Bugar side. I was greeted with welcome arms by everyone and treated so well! I don't know if I ever believed I would really meet his Filipino family, never guessing we would be living in the Philippines, but here we are. We will definitely be visiting them again.

Laguna, the area of the Philippines where his family is from, is up in the Northern part of the Philippines. We flew into Manila on Wednesday morning and were greeted by his Uncle Max, who is Tatay's (dad's) oldest brother. Honestly, the similarities between the two of them was almost startling. He walks, talks, stands, acts just like Ben's dad. It was kind of comforting in a way, made us feel closer to home. Ben's other uncle, Carlo, also flew in just a few hours after us along with 4 of his 6 sons. We then drove the 3.5 hours to Laguna to meet the rest of the family. Ben's Lolo and Lola had 11 children and therefore there were a lot of people to meet. The time we were there was also the viewing at Max's house where people come and pay their respects in the days leading up to the funeral, therefore I met more people that I can even remember. Ben met siblings of his Lolo and his Lola. He met aunts, cousins, friends of the family, etc. It was crazy in a good way. I do have to say though, being there reminded me of my trips to China, driving through the countryside, looking at these homes and wondering "I wonder who lives there, what is their life like?". I never, in a million years, thought I would be part of a family that lived just like that, in a place just like that. What a strange, but amazing sensation. The world is a small place.

Laguna is beautiful. We went between the two towns of Pakil (sp?) where Max lives and the funeral "activities" were taking place and Pangil which is where Ben's mom's family lives. The towns are just a few minutes from each other via trike or jeepney so we got to spend plenty of time with both sides of the family. It is very beautiful there with rice fields, a lake, hills and mountains and just a lot of breezy, fresh air. It was a nice change from the city and truly reminded me a lot of parts of my mission. We spent time with the family, but also got to spend time just walking through the town, taking pictures of the landscape and just relaxing. We spent the nights at the home where Ben was actually born (forgot to take a picture of the room where his mom gave birth to him). They have a great room upstairs with air conditioning and I was so grateful for that. The toilet didn't have running water, so we would have to take a bucket and dump water into the toilet to "flush" it. That was fun:). There was also no hot water, so cold showers it was. The funny thing was, with all the sweating I did over those few days, a cold shower felt great. We did see a few critters inside and outside of the house, but for the most part is was very comfortable and we very much enjoyed our stay.

The funeral took place on Friday morning. It was an interesting experience for me since it was all in Tagalog. I have learned a few words here and there, but 2 hours of straining to hear a word here and there that I understood was difficult. Ben's dad actually "attended" the funeral and even shared a few words through skype. What a long way we have come to have someone in Oregon literally watch live a funeral going on in a small provincial town in the Philippines. I did find out that Ben's grandpa had been a huge part of the growth of the church in that area. The church building where the funeral took place was beautiful, up to date, air conditioned and proof of the strength of the church there. After the funeral we left the church and followed the hearse to the cemetary. The "best" part was that the hearse was blaring top 40 music as it drove up to the church. Filipinos like their loud music. Luckily, Ben's uncles were able to convince them that it wasn't really appropriate for the occasion and they turned it off for the walk to the cemetary. It was very hot and the cemetary is on the top of a huge hill, so by the time we got up to his "plot" I thought I was going to pass out. This poor little white girl is just not used to that. The best part was there were old women there (like in the 80's) practically running up the hill ahead of me. There are definitely perks to the hard lifestyle they live here, they are tough and in great shape! Ben was honored to be able to dedicate the grave, a service that both his dad and his brother Cowdery were able to witness via skype. He did a wonderful job. Part of what we know as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is that because of our Savior we will each be resurrected and our spirits will be reunited with our bodies at the resurrection. Because of this, a special part of the funeral and burial process is the dedication of the grave. The purpose of this is to dedicate and consecrate the burial plot as the resting place for the body of the deceased and also to pray that the place may be hallowed and protected until the resurrection. Ben was nervous about this part because in the Philippines you don't necessarily "own" your burial plot, but in a lot of cases you "rent" it so he wasn't sure he really could ask that the place be hallowed and protected. But, when he said his prayer he included everything and afterwards he came over to me and said "He will be protected and his body will be fine". I could tell he felt very strongly when he said those words, that the place would be hollowed and protected that it really would be. If I could explain to you the state of the graves and the cemetary and how they were just not well take care of, stones and rocks overturned, grass growing over everything, people eating their lunch on top of peoples graves, etc I think it was a great comfort to everyone there to feel that comfort that came from his prayer.

On Saturday we left Laguna and drove into Manila. It was a beautiful mountain drive, but the road was way too twisty and turny for me. I am not one to get motion sickness, but I really was so close to being sick by the time we arrived. There was a lot of traffic in Manila and we didn't get to see a lot of the city. But our hotel was close to Manila Bay and most importantly we spent time at the Mall of Asia (haha). It is the BIGGEST mall ever. We even got a lost a couple of times. It was a fun night because we got Wendy's, Dairy Queen, Krispy Kreme and Red Mango and went to see an IMAX movie. We also thoroughly enjoyed the hot shower and flushing toilet in our hotel. We were happy to come home on Sunday but so glad for the experience we had in Laguna and looking forward to our next visit.

I posted all of my pictures on facebook, go check them out here. I really don't want to post more pictures, this post is already VERY long!

Just an update

I realized I have only been blogging about once a week. While that is a huge improvement on how often I used to blog, when we are all the way across the world I am thinking once a week is not enough. I will try to do better.

I am trying to keep updated pictures posted to facebook. If you are not my friend, become my friend and you can check them out. It's just easier to post a bunch of pictures on their than on here.

So, what has been going on with us?

We have been doing a lot of apartment hunting. We have decided, after MUCH consideration, that we will be moving into the city. We currently live on Mactan island, which is where my work is, where the Shangri La is, and where the Knowltons are which makes it hard to leave. But, along with the great things on the island comes some not so great things that we won't be sad to leave:

1. There seem to be many more stray dogs running the streets on the island. Anyone who knows me, knows that these little guys break my heart.
2. The city does not allow trikes (pedicabs). These guys cause a lot of traffic and I am ready to be rid of them for a while.
3. KARAOKE right next door at all hours of the day and night

4. Nothing to do (other than the Shangri La). I guess I didn't realize Ben and I like to be out so much, but we drive into the city almost daily to go to the Temple, go to the malls, go to the movies, etc. There is none of that out here.

5. Pretty much no restaurants, I have eaten at McDonalds more than I ever cared to in my life because its the only American restaurant close.

We are excited to move into the city because:

1. We will be within a few minute drive of 3 shoppings malls, movies and the Temple

2. Less dogs, meaning less anxiety for me

3. air-conditioning in the church!

4. No trikes causing extra traffic

5. No karaoke!!!!!

We really are going to be so sad to leave our house and the view. The house we live in is nice, and big, and comfortable (minus the termites). But, the noise that comes along with living on the beach just does not work with our lifestyle. We did have Branigan, Julie and Beau come visit us on Sunday and having them there made our house feel homey! We need to have visitors more often. Plus, chit chatting with them took my mind off of the amazing amount of noise going on.

Branigan, Julie and Beau. This is the view off our back porch.

Looking at our house from the back

Sunday night we also received a call that Ben's Lolo (Grandpa) passed away. We have now lost 2 Grandparents in just 2 weeks and we are just so grateful for the knowledge that we will see them again. We were especially sad to hear about Lolo because we were planning to go up to Laguna (near Manila) to visit him in the next few weeks. Now, we are going in order to attend his funeral. We are sad to have missed seeing him, but so grateful that he was able to come and live with the U.S. Crisantos in Oregon for a few years. I was lucky enough to have the chance to meet and spend some time with this great man. He was truly the patriarch of his family, leading them by his faith and example. I am looking forward to attending his funeral and meeting my Crisanto cousins, aunts and uncles.

Christmas 2008 Crisanto kids with Grandpa (don't mind the quality of the picture. It was a picture taken of a photographer taking a picture)

That's what is going on with us over here in the Phils!

Fun in the Philippines

I think once in a while I am going to make a post and show some of the really great things about living in the Philippines. Today, I am going to show you pictures of our "island hopping" adventure. Because the Philippines is made up of thousands of small islands, island hopping is pretty easy to do. We rented a boat for the day that would that took us to 3 of the smaller islands surrounding Cebu. Normally, you go to each island, spend time on the beach, swim, eat, etc. For our adventure, we took off late so by the time we got to the islands it was already low tide and we couldn't pull up to the beach. So, our day was without the beach portion, but we did everything else. We ate, listened to music, layed in the sun, snorkeled, swam and just had a good time. We went with the team that I manage, so it was great to get to know them better and just have fun together. So, fun in the Philippines activity #1 is Island Hopping.

GRANDMA

My Grandmother, Mary Cecil Barrus Johnson, passed away Sunday September 5, 2010. People keep asking me, "was it expected?" and the crazy thing is that I keep answering "kind of" and then I catch myself. My grandma was very healthy, had no severe health problems, no severe pain, nothing that would make you think "she's ready to go any time". She was walking on her own, totally had all of her faculties and there was no indication that she would be leaving us so soon. But, SHE knew. When Ben and I decided to move to the Philippines, Grandma Johnson was NOT pleased. She really didn't want us to go. During that time I was on the phone with her and she said to me "Well, I won't be here when you get back". The way she said it, and then the way she kept saying it over the next few months made me really believe it. So in spite of her health, for me it was sort of expected. When we stopped by her place on the way to the airport, I still don't think I would know that this would be the last time I would see this amazing woman in this life. But I hope that either way I did what I would have done. I talked to her, hugged her, let her know I loved her. She was her normal spunky self asking me if I was SURE this was a good idea? I did get to talk to her on the phone from here, let her know that all was well over here and hear tell her I love her one more time. I remember the seriousness in her voice when she said "I love you Carmen". She had started saying it in a way that you just knew, and if she never talked to you again, she would know she had told you she loved you.

She spent her last days spending time with her family. She went out to eat with one of her sons on Friday night. She spent time with my mom, sister and her daughter, Avery, as well as listening to my sister in law Melissa play the piano on Saturday. She had visitors and people who loved her surrounding her all the way until the end.

If I could use one word to describe my Grandma it would be "spunky". She had attitude, and follow through, and she didn't take any crap. She was loving and as my mom says "fiercely protective of and loyal to her family". When people tell me I am like my Grandma, I take it as a huge compliment. I know I get a lot of who I am from her. There is a streak in the Johnson girls, you can see it with a lot of us, going down to even her great grand daughters and we know we got it from her. We are stubborn and proud to be who we are. Thank you for that Grandma!



I got to spend a lot of time with her over the past three years while we were living in Utah. We always went to my mom and dad's place for Sunday dinners and she was there. She was always so willing to listen to and participate in the family conversations. She always had her keys on a little wrist band that she would wear around and Addy loved to play with. She always let the girls wear her jewelry and was always just happy and content to be there. I am so glad I got to spend that time with her. Ben also had a chance to really get to know and love her and she LOVED him!

She was always so interested in everything we did. When I was single she was the first one to tell me not to worry about it. She had married a little later and my Grandpa was younger than her as well. She loved the house we bought. She was so excited for us when we decided to adopt. She asked lots of questions and kept involved in our lives. If she didn't agree with or understand a decision you were making, she would tell you. She loved my Grandpa and I am sure the past 11 years without him have been difficult. But we are so grateful we had that time to spend with her.

There are so many more memories and things I could share about her, but I am just so grateful to her and to my Grandpa and for the heritage that I have. I know I am a Crisanto now, but I will always be a Johnson, Granddaughter to Mary Cecil and Wally Johnson. Happiness is being a Johnson!



My Grandpa passed away 11 years ago, while I was on my mission. She missed him every day. I can only imagine how happy they are to be together again. She is with family and loved ones that she has been separated from for so long, her brother who she lost in WWII, her parents, her siblings, so many friends that had gone before her. So, although I will miss my Grandma more than I can even express, it would be selfish for me to want to keep her to myself. For now I just will be patient knowing that I will see her again.

EMAIL FAIL!

So, as part of Ben's new job he has been provided a Blackberry with 24 hour access to his email. This is new to him and he is just getting used to having to be ready to send a coherent and professional email at any time, day or night. The below email was sent at 2 AM after his second full night at work.....let's just say he is going to need some practice and we are hoping he doesn't get fired for sexual harrassment...

From: ben@>>>>>>>>>>.com
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:09:49
Subject: SUSIE*

Thanks ANNA*. I will keep her in pool of people to mentor and train. So far it is her, Che, and Sean. SUSIE* definitely has a strong upside I look forward into tapping that and turning her into an asset instead of a headache.

Ben
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

*names have been changed

I could NOT stop laughing when I read this. It is a good thing he is working with Filipinos who may speak English, but do not speak American slang and are not familiar with what it means to "tap that"...

CLASSIC!