Party Crashing and the traffic police...

Incident 1: No food in the fridge
Incident 2: Dan met with the Dean of the seminary and he happened to tell Dan a good place to eat, a chain chicken restaurant called Sunburst. The one that is close to the seminary just had a renovation, added some American style food to the menu.
Incident 3: We wanted to treat our helper, Mariss, for dinner

So we went to Sunburst. There were ballons and flowers everywhere outside of the restaurant, the place looks new, nice and bright. Two ladies opened the door for us and welcomed us, so did a guy in a light green shirt. We walked in and found the restaurant packed! Strangely, they were mostly Filipino-Chinese, and they looked well-to-do. A guitarist dressed like a cowboy was strumming on the guitar and singing songs from the Beatles and American folk songs from Jim Taylor and such, he was, in fact, fairly good. Mariss asked a waiter if we just found a place to sit down, we got no reply, since the music was loud and everyone was busy serving. Dan was waiting to be seated. However, no one came to seat us.

After a few moments, the guy in the green shirt came over to Mariss and tell her to sit anywhere and go ahead to the buffet table, today, the food is free! What!? Mariss told that guy that she is with us, the guy in green shirt walked over to Dan and told him today is the grand opening of the restaurant, we are welcome to seat ourselves and have all the food we wanted.

So we cramped into a long table with people already seated on both sides. We couldn't hear each other very well even when we yelled at the top of our lungs, because the music was going, the people were talking and the glasses are clinking.

We went out to get their signature dish, fried chicken, and some other yummy dishes. When we started to eat, Mariss got talking to a gentleman sitting next to her. That gentleman said to Mariss, "Today is the grand opening of the restaurant, the owner (the guy in the light green shirt) is having a private party for his friends and family to come and celebrate."

A private party!? How in the world did we get in? We were puzzled. Mariss said probably it was because Dan is an American and I am a Chinese. The owner is a Filipino-Chinese, that's why there were so many Chinese in there. And by me being Chinese, I was welcomed, and Dan, an American of course, was welcomed.

We had some very good chicken, some traditional Filipino dishes, and drinks, all for free! Mariss had half a glass of red wine for the first time in her life! We enjoyed the time, and the unique experience. Kioni danced to the music, ate a couple bites of some bright red hot dog, fresh pineapples, watermelons, a lemon square, a bite of a very moist chocolate brownie and a purple sticky rice dessert.

Since it was getting late, we took Mariss to Ayala Mall so she can catch a jeepney to go home, right after a turn by the mall, we got pulled over by a traffic police! Yep, our first experience in getting pulled over in Cebu. He asked for Dan's driver's license and papers, after he took a look, he came back and told Dan what the violation was: He turned left without a green arrow, although he did have a green light to go straight and there was no traffice coming in the opposite direction.

The police officer then told Dan he was going to impound his license, he had to go somewhere else to pay a ticket, take a class, and after all that, he would be able to retrieve his license.

Dan pleaded with the officer and told him it was our first violation. Well, nothing mattered, he was determined to carry out what he told Dan to do, until . . . we rolled down the window and Mariss began to talk in Cebuano and some English to the officer. We caught a few English words here and there, and it seemed like she was pleading to him also that we were new here and this was our first violation, however, we also heard her mentioning some other people's names and telling the officer her last name. After a while, the officer walked back and forth and then walked up to Dan and gave the license back to him, all he gave was a verbal warning, no tickets!

We both looked at Mariss wondering what could she has said that made such a difference. Mariss replied with an smile:

"I had to use my connection. My cousin is in the Filipino Army, and is the head of the Criminal Investigation Department in the Cebu Police Force and he is named one of the top 10 policeman in the Philippines. The traffic police was stunned to hear that, but he did not believe me, he asked for my ID, but I didn't carry one. I told him if he didn't believe me, we can all drive to Guadalupe and have him talk to Pablo Labra. I also told him that this was only your first offense and you let Filipino's get away with a first offense. Moreover, you have only been in the Philippines for three weeks. I also said to him, 'Do I need to go and report this to Pablo Larbra, come on.'"

What a night!