geography lesson

this past weekend i met new filipino friends. on saturday i attended the first birthday party of the daughter of one of the family medicine residents from my school. she attended UST. i have previously met 2 other residents from UST, one also in family medicine, the other in OB/GYN. they mentioned me to her so she also invited me to the party. on sunday, i met for the first time the filipina co-worker of the guy who owns the house i stayed in last month. they both work for the accounting firm of the department of defense. i love meeting people so i always take advantage of opportunities to meet and make new friends.

i had free time today after my appointment at the dentist so i visited the accounting firm. (i finally had a root canal treatment today for the abscess i've had since february. i've been too busy to get an appointment. it didn't hurt but it's been really swollen! gross!) the place was huge! about 4,000 military and civilian employees work there. she introduced me to some of her co-workers. one ex-army dude asked me which island i'm from. i said that i'm not from an island, i'm from the bataan peninsula. i tried to explain what a peninsula is: one side water, one side land. somehow in my head, i don't have the correct map of bataan. i guess i've only traveled through one side so i've only seen one side land and one side water. the guy seemed offended that i had to explain what a peninsula is. he said that he knows the meaning of a peninsula and it actually means 3 sides water and 1 side land. hmmm, i said that i don't think that bataan is shaped like a square. so finally the marine dude googled the bataan peninsula. so i guess the ex-army dude is more right. i now have the corrected picture in my head. here's the map of my lovely province.