We stopped for lunch at a Pizza Hut in a small mall in Calamba (far south side of Manila). There were no facilities in the Pizza Hut so I went into the mall to use their facilities. I was struck by this sign one the side of a booth for selling some kind of a card. Fall in line? The multiple possible meanings were delicious to think about. I’m sure that the Filipinos think the sign is quite normal. I could picture people falling all over themselves in line and my experience here is that Filipinos don’t queue anyway. It’s usually every person for themselves!

The Pizza Hut was an interesting experience. There is a much more varied menu than in the States. I had a chicken oriental salad and it was very nice. The pizzas ordered by the other guys looked to be pretty good — but much more cooked than at home. The crust was very hard on all the pizzas coming out of the oven. After lunch I took a few minutes outside to take a few pictures. Some of them will get posted tonight to the “pictures!” link on the right side of the page. More pictures to come!

On Saturday the IT department here is going to a cultural heritage center Villa Escudo for the day. I’ll bring the camera along with both (fully charged) batteries and should have a field day taking pictures. If so, then they’ll show up on the web page sometime over Sunday or Monday. In order to “maximize our time” at the center, we’ll be leaving at 5 a.m. (gasp). It takes a couple of hours to get there and a couple to get back, so I think I’ll have plenty of time to experience everything interesting at the place.