Driving stress, etc.

I've had my dad's car for a week now. It's great not having to rely on other people to drive for me or to take public transportation. The downside is I have to tackle the traffic and the non-existence of road rules. There are no lanes. If there is an open space, a vehicle goes for it. Vehicles doing a left turn do not wait for the oncoming traffic to clear up (b/c they would wait forever). Instead, they inch their vehicles forward to get in the way of the oncoming vehicles. But while the inching forward is happening, the oncoming traffic swerves to the right in order to avoid the left-turning cars. This happens until the left-turning vehicles have created enough of an obstacle that the oncoming traffic has no choice but to stop. Also, since the cars just go wherever there's enough of an open space, the cars end up being inches away from each other. I swear, my heart is going 200 bpm while I'm driving here.

Going to the mall is the official leisure activity of people in Manila. They don't really shop but they sit and enjoy the air-conditioning. But some people do shop and I must say that I've been frequenting SM Mall since last week. Decent shoes for $20. How can I say no???

Corruption is still everywhere and it doesn't seem to be getting any better with time. My dad has property in a rural area called Lucena. Since we have to settle up the property taxes, we're going to have to go there to pay. I was advised to not talk to the tax people myself since I sound foreign. Apparently, the tax people will make up problems to make it hard to retrieve information or process the payment, whatever, so that I will be forced to bribe them to get the "problem" to go away. So I have to find a local to speak to the tax people. Good thing my mom has relatives in that town. But what a pain!

And that's what I've discovered. Getting things done here can be a slow, inefficient, and painful process. Even getting from one place to another can be very slow and nerve-wracking.

Makes me appreciate Canada even more.