Day 1 of our Philippines adventure

Hello friends and family! We made it safely to the Philippines. It was a long flight. It felt like we were never going to get off and at one point it felt like I had always been on the plane-weird feeling because you are literally trapped in that little seat and beyond a trek down the aisle or the bathroom, you are stuck. But, we made it. I met a very nice Filipino woman on the flight and enjoyed chatting with her. We had a short layover in Nagoya, Japan-long enough to get off the plane, go through security, use the bathroom, and board the plane again. We arrived in Manila at 11:00 pm which is 12 hours ahead of our Ohio friends and family. It was fairly easy navigating through the security checkpoint, luggage claim, and customs. Even finding our way to the hotel transportation was easy. We arrived to our hotel-it is nice. We crashed into bed after finding out we couldn't use our calling cards from our room and int'l calling would cost us a small fortune. Oh, yeah, and Kory reminded me it took a good 5 minutes to figure out how to turn on the lights in the room. It required a hotel key inserted by the door to activate the switch. Who knew? We made ourselves sleep which wasn't too hard due to 18 hours of being on a plane. It was about 1 am their time. I woke up around 6 am. The traffic here is like nothing you've ever seen unless of course, you've been here! The streets were packed at midnight and I have decided this is a city that never sleeps. Even at 6 am, the streets were bustling with walkers, joggers, and others. We enjoyed a good breakfast and were elated to discover we can access internet in our room via internet cable. And the laptop adapter to charge it can be charged up to 240 V...yeah! We have one 110V outlet in the bathroom which is handy to use my straightener. Now, we are vegging in the room. Honestly, we don't feel too tired just stiff. We need to sort through what we want to take to the orphanage tomorrow and figure out our week. We have some contacts here in the city who are going to take us sightseeing one day. We plan to go swimming today-its in the high 80s. I want to venture and walk some but Kory is a bit more reluctant. Kory and Ash are on their way to the lounge-a nice feature of our room is we get free drinks-pop, juice, etc. This experience is going to be a week to remember. We never in our lives have been in the minority. We're from smalltown America and we're now in a huge city which in and of itself is unnerving. And although all the staff speak English, they don't always necessarily understand what you mean. We look different, we talk different and people around us are speaking a different language. One look outside of our window shows the vast differences of the city-tall buildings and then shack like structures. I am determined to make the most of this trip and absorb as much as I can of my son's culture. I will try to blog daily since we have the convenience and privacy of in room internet use. Well, I am going to drink my Coca Cola light in my 330ml can and enjoy the sights out the window. We are overlooking Manila Bay, 8 lanes of traffic, a pretty green park. Well, this is long but I want to journal our experiences for everyone so you feel like you are along with us for the ride because I know in thoughts and spirit...you are all! We love you all and will see you soon.