Last Sunday :)

Well last Sunday I had a blast joining this youth service nearby my area. After service they invited me to join their Annual Amazing Race (what timing!), so I kinda like put me in a group consisting of this cute girl named Dianne (one of the group member who won the Race last year), a chubby, cute looking 13 year old kid named Josh (he looks like a cute teddy bear! really!) and this Australian Hong Kong dude named Jason. I truly admire what our leader, Dianne, did immediately when she gathered us. She kept insisting that we are going to WIN, and WIN , and surely WIN this race. It magically sets all of our mindset to go on becoming the champions for this race (though we sadly didn't, you'll get to that part later on). Pretty good leader I must say.

Just like any Amazing Race, they gave us the first letter, and off we go to the a mall nearby, taking the infamous jeepney, and there we had to find one of the marshals, take a group photo, to get the letter for our next destination. Next stop was one of the famous markets around the area (forgot the name though...) and there we had to find a stall where the marshal is and our "ROAD-BLOCK" was to count how many peanuts there are in a container. After our speed counting (111 total of peanuts, our leader kinda like shouted the answer to the marshal despite knowing there are other groups there counting the peanuts as well, she must have been to anxious and excited ...hahaha)

Next destination, to another mall, getting there by means of a taxi, and DANCE like never on a Dance Dance Revolution Machine! WOO HOO! The best duo in a group who gets the most points get a 10 minutes advantage! So yeah, me and the Australian Hongkee volunteered ourselves, cause we both had experience playing (dancing) with it. So we danced like never before, and to my and your surprise (hopefully you are), I got the highest point among everyone who danced. Not bad huh? Hehehe... Got myself an A and only one MISS step. Hebatnya aku! BANGGA BETUL! Hmphhh!! *Hidung super tinggi like never before* So yeah, our team won the 10 minutes advantage. Heh.

So next, we gotta go to another mall at the main city (Manila of course..)by taxi, go to one of the many many Pearl Stalls (there are like..100 + of them in that section of the mall itself! CRAZY!). So yeah, Pearl Stall number 19, still not easy to find though, since the arrangements of the number seems to be, of all things, RANDOM? (wants to go and bash up the person who is in charge of the mall), so here we are, at the Pearl Section, crazily finding that stall, and we praise God for finding it, and to make things worst, we gotta HAGGLE the price to buy one of the bracelets there. From 50 pesos, to 40 pesos. Well, good thing we have our leader, Dianne, to do her smooth-talking, cause us, the guys, will definitely do a bad job at doing it. Thanks to that, we kind of lost our advantage and got overtaken by other groups. Oh well..

Moving on, now we had to take a BUS to ANOTHER MALL (why are there so many freaking malls in Philippines!?) and get to ChowKing (it's a famous Chinese fastfood chain restaurant in here, but the Chinese food they serve, well, it sucks! Can't beat the real thing back in Malaysia!). Well, another funny and weird thing is the challenge that we had to take there. If you think the challenge is to eat any of the Chinese meals there, you are wrong, cause our challenge was to finish up 2 large bowls serving of the infamous ChowKing's Bobo ChaCha Ice-Cream (Halo-Halo was the name) and I was like "What the heck!? How in the world there is such flavor for ice-cream man!"

I immediately scooped nearly half of a bowl serving..and this is what happened...

KEVIN HAS FINALLY EXPERIENCED "BRAINFREEZE" FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE

is still in awe seeing one of the guys from another group putting the whole bowl in his mouth...amazing...aku kalah habis...sobs..

I was drinking water and eating that stuff man! Hahaha... Oh well, next stop, we had to go to one of the marshall's house, but along the way, we got lost and got overtaken again -__-... Anyways, the challenge was for the Australian Hongkee dude (and for all the Australian Hongkee people in the other groups that came for mission trip here) to eat a horrendous local dish, which I remembered , cause I ate it too when I was back here on 2002.. The taste is just too memorable already (sarcasticly saying). Its basically boiled pork, and served with pig blood as the gravy. AWESOMELY GROSS. The locals seems to love this dish a lot though...oh well.So Jason pretty much whalopped the whole dish instantly, for the team of course (maybe being hungry was a factor too, or maybe the Chinese tongue can easily endure any exotic foods served for them?), and the next and final stop - back to church! /yosh. Here we go!

Ahh finally back...church, sweet, church. Everyone basically rushed to the toilet, groomed themselves back, changed their shirts that is full of sweat (couldn't change mine since I didn't expect to join a RACE on that day, *Sobs*). So every group waited, while getting their time counted, and

FINALLY, FOR THE MAIN EVENT, ON THE LEFT CORNER, WEARING THE CCCAM T-SHIRTS, THE AUSTRALIAN HONGKEES!
AND ON THE RIGHT, STUCK IN THE EGGSHELL WAITING TO BE EATEN - THE REIGNING FILIPINO GROSS FOOD CHAMPION - BALUT!!!! (Please Google it if you dont know what it is)

So this time, whichever Australian representative from the group that finishes eating the BALUT fastes will get a 15 minutes advantage for their group! 15 MINUTES IS A LOT! Basically saying, whoever wins it, would make their group the champions on the spot (simply because nearly every groups time have about 5-10 minutes difference from each other). Apparently, the top two fastest eater (which took both of them only 2 seconds, well for me, in a blink of an eye...) are girls. AMAZING. Put to shame all the guys..how sad!

Anyways, despite everything, we all definitely had a great time together. Took a group photo, and got their contacts as well. Just gotta say this - Dianne's so pretty!! Too bad she's got a boyfriend already. OK, IM JUST JOKING ALRIGHT? I'm not trying to imply anything ok? Ok ok?

Went back home with a jeepney, and praised God for a wonderful day. I'm still waiting for a reply from Shirley regarding any affliated CHC churches back here, if not I would definitely join them again next week. It's quite a good church I must say, just that they don't have the culture of praying in tongues back in CHCKL. Doesn't stop me from speaking it though ;)