there is a very very fine line between authentic style and affectation.

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More notes from the field:
Freed from my existential crises I could appreciate the great store names, which I love here. Everywhere you go there are rows and rows of stalls with titles printed on Coke or Pepsi signs, like: KIT STORE; JANE MARY VIDEOKE STORE; THREE BROTHERS STORE.

Or sometimes they�re better, like: DON�T ASK STORE; Y�MOMS STORE. CARLOS VULCANIZING AND CLUTHC REPAIR STORE was my favorite. I still don�t know what vulcanizing is but I know it�s to do with cars. The CLUTHC took me longer than it should have.

I also liked HITECH STORE, which was a bamboo stall selling the same things as everyone else � small plastic bags with 1-2 pesos of oil; small chocolates or candies for a few centavos� everything is based upon very very small amounts of cash; if you have the capital to buy a bottle of cooking oil, you�re in business- you can repack it into small bags and sell it to your neighbors who have even less)

12:34 p.m. - 2008-06-21