I can barely see the sea. It was foggy all day and a bit chilly when we went out for dinner. Baguio-level chilly.

We had the public speaking workshop in the morning and in the afternoon was just all about collab with colleagues on stories. Time flew so fast and I just found myself wrapping up a draft at 6 pm.

Then it was Cantonese food night!

One of the claypot rice dishes is bullfrog. My co-workers thought I would be squeamish but I told them I already tried crocodile in Palawan  Now it’s my co-workers’ turn to be squeamish.

One of then asked if these crocs were caught in rivers or in the sea. I said, they have crocodile farms for harvesting. “Whuuuut?!” she was clearly scandalized. “Yeah, they harvest crocs for meat and leather,” I said.

Now it sounds more icky than cooking bullfrogs in soy sauce.

My co-workers showed me how they wash the cups and utensils with hot tea in a bowl.

They said it’s just tradition, no special meaning to it. I guess their ancestors did it more for disinfection because the tea was piping hot.

Two of my co-workers from mainland China asked me about Filipinos’ perception of mainland Chinese. I tried to be evasive because I told them it’s not pretty. They insisted but I didn’t want to play into their bait. One of them sounded ultra-nationalist. I said, this conversation is not going to end well so let’s put it this way: The Scarborough shoal is just about 198 km (123 mi) west of Subic Bay—mainland Luzon. It’s within Philippines EEZ and The Hague already ruled on it. You have to understand why Filipinos don’t like mainlanders.

I ended it and changed the subject by talking about crocodiles. And snakes being gutted in a public market in Taipei, which I couldn’t stand together with stinky tofu. I said they couldn’t pay me to try those.