The "Gross"ery store and other highlights of our village (Title by Ellis)

As Tony, Ellis and I were running through the grocery store the other night, a wave of stench brushed by me. I immediately turned to Tony and said, “Can’t wait to bring your parents grocery shopping!” (Insert evil laugh!) They arrive in just a few weeks for their first visit. I looked back at my blog and realized I have never really explained where we live. Well, here you go! Tony’s parents have booked their flights, so no turning back now!

(I will try not to bore you with too many details)

We live in Ayala Alabang Village in Muntinlupa City. We are 25 kilometers outside of Manila. It can take us anywhere from 25 minutes (if we travel at unusual times of day) to 2 hours to get to the city. In other words, I avoid going anywhere outside of our town! Our village itself is quite large. When Tony sent me pictures of houses to look at, I liked Option 2. He didn’t choose it, though, because it was in the back of the village and could take 15-20 minutes to get to it from the front gate. At the time, I didn’t get it. All I could think of is how I could get to Anderson in that amount of time. Now that I am here, I am so glad he didn’t listen to me on that one!

Our village is a gated community that was once a mango plantation. There are approximately 20,000 residents. Yep, that is right. We have more folks in our “neighborhood” than in the town of Clemson.  We have a grocery store, church, several schools, a country club, a medical clinic and 13 parks that include playgrounds, pools, basketball courts and tennis courts. That is just OUR village. There are other villages outside of our gates along with several malls and other shopping centers. Traffic is just fabulous!

And now for the fun part…PICTURES!

Our house

 

One of the massive homes inside the village. My camera can't even capture it all.

 

Sadly, you don't have to travel far to see people living like this.

 

Saturday market...because I love a market!

 

The Catholic Church in the village

While there are many beautiful trees and flowers around....

 

...the beauty can be disturbed by the hanging power lines...

 

...or the garbage trucks!

 

Most of the grocery stores have the meat set out for you to serve your self. Notice the tongs and serving spoon. Often times I will see people lift up the bacon with their bare hands to observe which slices they want to purchase. I usually hold my breath and run through this section.

I avoid this section, as well. Even after being here for a year, my stomach still turns.