Daddy and John in the lobby of the InterContinental

We’d gotten in fairly late the night before to the InterContinental Hotel in Manila – well, late by John’s standards anyway.  This is the same hotel at which we’d stayed prior to traveling north to get John.  I’m not sure what Faith was feeling, but I can’t tell you how relieved I was to be back in what I considered to be civilization.  It added to that effect, that half the staff we encountered greeted us with familiarity, some even remembering that we were “Mr. and Mrs. Block”.  More than one asked, “Is this your son?” as if they were family who had heard so much about John and had been eager to meet him.  Speaking of whom, John was clearly dazzled by his surroundings.  Everything was new, and he was (rather quietly) in awe of his new surroundings, including all the new faces.

He came to life though as Faith played with him in the lobby while I got us checked in.  I didn’t worry about getting back the two pieces of luggage we’d left there (one with the concierge, because it had breakable stuff in it, and one with the bell service) because it was getting late and we needed to get John to bed (which we figured would take a while).

Instead of the queen sized bed we had to ourselves during our previous stay, we had two double beds, so John could have his own.  This made the logistics of going to sleep a little more complicated than when we were in our cottage at Dingras, for obvious reasons.

John did very well brushing his teeth, taking his shower, etc, and then going to bed.  He wanted to play for a little while, but we just pretended we were sleeping until the room had been quiet and dark for long enough that he finally went to sleep.

Of course, I had the things I needed to go down to the business center and get computer time all mapped out, so as soon as John was confirmed asleep (heavy steady breathing patterns), I slipped out of the room and headed for the computer (another sign of the return to civilization).  I sent out an update, played on Facebook, wrote my first blog entry (I think), and stayed up way later than I probably should have after such a full day.  But every key on the keyboard, move of the mouse, swivel in the office chair, etc, reminded me of how great I have it in life and how happy I was to no longer be basking in the non-air-conditioned countryside of such a hot and humid place to live.

When I got back to the room, I was so quiet coming in that nobody stirred (I’m sure Faith was asleep seconds after I left).  And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.