Sebastian & a Rip Tide

I'm sitting in my room eating some grilled bananas....sarap sarap! So I wanted to give a quick update!

I'm currently procrastinating from packing for supervisors conference - a week with all of the other PCT's in an area called Batangas (about a 5 hour bus ride.. were catching the bus at 5:30 tomorrow morning... Expect grumpiness) So SupsCon is where we all get together and learn where we are going to be stationed the next two years!! I have so many stomach butterflies. We've heard some leaked information that we're all generally going to be in the Visayas, the region of the country that is made up of a bunch of islands. So odds are that I'm going to be on a beach! And - something different this year - we are all mostly in the same region so were going to be much closer to other volunteers than usual. I'm actually more nervous/excited about who I'm going to be placed with rather than location. I love (L word) everyone I've gotten close with in Subic and definitely want to be close to them! So SupsCon is very bitter sweet.. obviously so excited to find out where I'm going to be (I almost don't believe it.. this has been such a huge mystery for so long!) but I am realizing how hard its going to be leaving Subic.  My family here still couldn't be better.  I've started playing basketball with my kids every night - girls' team is undefeated so far!...also I have about 3 feet on all of them.  They are so fun and I honestly feel guilty leaving them - I don't think the younger ones will understand why I'm leaving. Raen, my four year old nephew, cries when I go out to dinner.  I'm definitely coming back to visit as soon as I can. These are my kids:

The past weekend was really fun.. on Friday night we all went to a fellow trainee's house (Derek's) and hung out on his roof with some Red Horse and just chatted. On Saturday, we were set to have a pretty normal night going to a bar in Subic Town and meeting with some trainees from a nearby barangay, but things took a turn for the epic while Allie and I were walking down the national highway.  To get to Subic Town, we usually take a jeepney but its also a nice 20ish minute walk down the "national highway" (a pretty busy street) so Allie and I decided to walk.  About half way there we came across a total game changer - Sebastian the crab.  Just chilling right on the side of the highway was this little grey crab - no where near the ocean.  We still have no idea how he could have gotten there.  We like to think he's a fighter and made a dramatic escape from the market.. but instead of walking right by we decided to pick him up in a little baggy (which involved a few shrieks and being openly laughed at by a jeepney full of Filipinos) and, what else, took him to the bar with us. Subic Town was a little crowded when we got there and I can only imagine how two young white American girls looked walking around carrying a crab out in front of them. So we obviously didn't think this through too much and lacked a game plan when we got to the bar, but we found a little covered spot in front of the bar and put Sebastian down and told him to sit and stay. And he did! About 8 of us got together and had some beers for a couple of hours and by the time we left, Sebastian was still there. Sooo we picked him back up and jumped on a jeepney to get home. Again, strange looks from Filipinos not only because we are American but because I was sitting in the jeepney with a crab on my lap. So Allie and I get off at our stop and debated what to do with him. Allie somehow had an idea that there was a small beach down this dark, creepy alley.. soo.. we went down it. Led by a gang of young boys (Magandang gabi... Saan sa dagat?) we tried to find the beach (we figured it anyone tried to attack us we could just throw Sebastian at the attacker).  They kept telling us that there was water down the way, so we followed and ended up at this super weird, super cool restaurant/bar place! And there was water.. but it was this weird fish farm pond. So we walked to the edge and dramatically flung Sebastian to his new home/freedom. As we were walking back to our barangay, we passed a bunch of guys sitting around drinking and playing cards. As we walked by they all called out of names and asked specific questions about our personal lives - we have never seen these guys, but that's how fast news spreads in Mangan Vaca. 

The next day, Sunday, I did the usual washing of clothes with my mom and dad then went to the birthday party of one of our language instructors! So my group is technically two clusters (although we spend most of our time together) and we each have a language instructor - Ate Eva teaches the other cluster and Ate Shirley teaches us. It was Eva's birthday so most of us went over for some Filipino food and Videoke! I'm not sure if my standards are getting lower or if we are getting better, but it didn't sound to bad! The best was my friend Chris who happened to find (in the giant binder of song options) the song Imagine by...... Manny Pacquiao. So he obviously selected it and it ended up being a video of Will Ferrell and Manny Pacquiao doing a duet of the song Imagine. It was completely random and ridiculous and perfect. We think it came from some pop-culture alternate universe. However it came to be, we are definitely thankful. 

So after maraming videoke a few of us set out to revist Sebastian's new home - the really cool 'restobar' by the strange body of water. It turns out to be a place called Hydra and is the best thing we've found so far. A little expensive, but not too bad, it has a really good drink menu and live bands every night! So Chris, Allie, Dan and I split a pitcher of blue margaritas - perfect evidence to support the claim that Peace Corps Phillipines can sometimes be called Posh Corps. But whatever - sometimes we don't have toilet paper. And the band was really, really good. They played pretty much all American cover songs and one of the band members is my first official Filipino crush! But we think he is half American so I think it only half counts. Allie and I stayed out until 10:30 at night. I'm not sure if you understand how big of a deal that is.. but its huge. 

Then this past week was really fun as well! Monday and Tuesday were school holidays so we just had some technical and language sessions, then Wednesday was our last day of classes! We were supposed to go over the tests they took the last week, but both of my classes fell quickly into a full on photo session - details in my latest Facebook album.

On Thursday, we took an awesome, much needed field trip! Our TCF, Sam, is one of the most interesting guys and is realllly into outdoor survival things. So we went on a hike in the jungle!  We took a van about an hour outside of Subic to the jungle where they used to train the US marines before sending them to Vietnam. Our guide was an Aeta (Ita) - indigenous Filipino - who showed us different herbs and plants they use for sicknesses.  I was given this giant root/plant that was supposed to help with colds that I carried with me through the whole hike then I forgot it. Wah wah. Then he showed us how to basically survive off of bamboo alone by making cutlery, cooking utensils, and fire. It was really really interesting! But sooo many mosquitoes. Which is kind of scary because three trainees just got over Dengue Fever - which you get from mosquitoes and they nickname the "Break Bone Fever" because it literally feels like all of your bones are breaking. I guess our three cases weren't too terrible, but I'm still not super pumped about getting it. 

So after the jungle hike we jumped back in the vans (we did not smell good) and drove a little ways to the site where there was a Vietnamese Refugee camp where our TCF, Sam, worked for about 7 years teaching English to refugees and where Carl (other trainee) worked for a couple of months during the war. It was mostly just a shell of what it used to be but there had a little museum with pictures and information about the camp and Carl and Sam shared some really interesting stories. 

Tapos, we went to Morong where another group of trainees are stationed. Allie and I got some delicious buko shakes then went the beach for some swimming! The beach was a surprise so we all just jumped in in our clothes (Dan in his underwear) even though it had started raining and the waves were pretty big.  We were joking around and having fun and ended up kind of far out.  I was standing between Dan and Allie and all of the sudden Dan turns to us and goes, "What we are experiencing right now isss.... a ripe tide" then BOOM both of them are gone. Dan panicked and his survival training kicked in and he went with the current (until he realized that he was tall enough to just stand up) and Allie panicked and forgot all of her survival training and viciously swam straight to shore. I didn't really know what was going on (typical) and somehow just rode the waves out of the current. Dan ended up getting swept pretty far down but was fine when he figured out how to stand up. We all had a good laugh about it until we got out of the water about 40 minutes later and talked to some of the other trainees who told us that, despite living there the past month, have never gone swimming there because its locally called something like "Beach of Death" because of the notorious currents and frequent drownings. Thanks for the heads up, gang. But we survived and I can officially say that I almost died in the South China Sea! (Just realized my list of places where I have almost died is rapidly expanding)

Last night Allie and I went to another barangay about 20 minute jeepney ride away to meet with the group from Dinalupihan for a friend's birthday dinner! This is the group that got the worst of the flooding a couple weeks ago and actually hasn't been able to go back to their host families.. its a really hard situation as they try to juggle training and language and commuting to their school whenever they can. For now, they are living in a hotel in this neighborhood (that I think I've mentioned before) that is the area where men from the U.S. Navy used to frequent, so it is basically comprised of overpriced restaurants and clubs filled with prostitutes and their old, ex-Pat husbands.  But Allie and I went out to meet them and went to this restaurant owned by an American that has amaaaazing (for the Philippines) American food and celebrated our friend's birthday with hamburgers and nachos! We went back to their resort afterwards where Daniel, Chris and Iriss came to meet us to sing some videoke - actually without the videos though. Sad. But another fun night!

Today, Saturday, I just hung around the house with my family and prepped to leave tomorrow! I actually just got back from dinner with Carl and Allie and a few others. Carl had a bit of a rough week and offered to take Allie and I out for all the margaritas we can drink..... obviously not turning that down. So we split some pitchers with Carl at Hydra and saw another amazing band play! 

Also don't let all of this fun fool you - we are working so hard on our community project.  As I said before, we had this big thing planned out for teacher training (because that is the number one thing the teachers want/need) buuuut of course everything had to be thrown out because of scheduling issues. Peace Corps and DepEd rescheduled a bunch of things and for this training to be official it has to be 8 hours.. and between now and September 15 there is not one day that both us and the teachers would have 8 hours free. Sooo now we basically taking all of the material we prepared for the training and throwing it together into a resource binder accompanied by a DVD/powerpoint with some instructions on how to use the material. We are also making some big tarp/poster things that have common grammar rules that we've noticed our students struggling with.. one of the most frustrating things is when our teachers have to get through DepEd material that is way beyond the student's level. During these lessons, they have to stop every few minutes to go back and explain things like a certain verb tense or what articles are because the kids just don't have this stuff down. So we figure by giving them these easy to use visual aids it will help them get everyone on the same page and be really useful visual aids. Another different thing about Filipino schools is that the students don't change classrooms, like the States, but instead the teachers move from one classroom to the next.  This means that they don't have the freedom to decorate their rooms or keep up any visual aids.. they only bring to class what the need/can carry that day. So were going to keep these tarps in the faculty lounge so if the teachers think they need it for a class they can quickly grab it. On top of that, we are trying to arrange a small maintenance/construction project for the school because we are going to end up with a little extra budget from the Peace Corps. But, again, scheduling is getting in the way so its really stressful.  The Philippines, and especially the education system, is built on a strict hierarchy. So we have to talk to the head teacher before the principal and write a letter to the principal to set up a time to talk to him about the project then set up a meeting with each other to discuss what the principal said then write another letter to ask to see the principal again annnnnnnnd its just ridiculous. So - again - despite fun margarita nights, we have been really stressed out. 

Alright! I should go to bed. I just did some margarita packing - basically threw all of my clothes in a backpack. We're supposed to pack for six days...... that's pretty much my whole wardrobe. 

So tomorrow I have to get up at 4 am to get to the bus by 5, in the afternoon I find out where I'm going (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) then on Monday our supervisors (for me, it will be the principal at my new school) join us for two days of sessions. Then on Wednesday all of the education kids travel to Manila for two days - we're going to meet so high up person in DepEd and do some observations of schools in Manila.

Check back in the next few days on updates about where I'll be and who I'll be with!!

Mahal kita!! xxxx

"Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience." - Paulo Coelho

Its More Flooded in the Philippines

**okay! This post is from a week or so ago.. but I'm behind. So I'm putting this one up then will pick up where it left off and get a more recent one to you asap!

Staff meetings, videoke, and floods! It's been a hectic week!

Last Friday, we had a staff meeting to introduce ourselves and mingle with our co-teachers and some other faculty. Staff meetings here involve giant plates of food and mingling means spending an hour in a giant dance circle with Call Me Maybe on repeat at 10 AM.   Before the meeting, we were asked to go outside. Waiting in the middle of the school yard was Subic National High Schools newest activity - their dance team and band.  It was awesome - they played a couple of songs, including the national anthem and Firework by Katy Perry, on mostly handheld xylophones and drums while the dance team twirled batons and dropped it like it was hot. We then went back to the library to munch on pansit (yummy kind of noodle dish that is traditional for parties), rice cake (purple rice cake), and a few other Filipino delictables. It started pretty tame with some great 80s ballads on the boombox but once Call Me Maybe came on, all formality was dropped.  I honestly cannot explain how much I love the Filipino people - yeah maybe having a dance party instead of a formal meet and greet maybe be detrimental to our over all development responsibilities at the school, but it is awesome that these people are willing to take 2 hours out of their morning for a noodle and Coke fueled dance party. Its more fun in the Philippines! (or, since Filipinos generally cannot pronounce the F sound, Its more Pun in the Pilipinas)
Friday night was also a bit of an adventure as I ventured out of our barangay with 5 other trainees here.  We hopped a jeepney to an area called Barretto - the area where all of the U.S. Navy men used to go out when they were docked in Subic Bay.  It a strip along the National Highway that is moooostly strip clubs - The Wet Spot, Route 69 - but we had heard rumors of a place where we could get some tacos. The plan was to go to find a bar where we could watch some Olympics, but bars in the area are notorious for prostitutes soooo we went to The Coffee Shop: Home of the Jumbo Tacos.  The tacos were nothing special - at all - but it was really nice to have some time for ourselves, have a few Red Horses and vent about the Department of Education... big Friday night.. And we ran into a couple of CYF people from the other barangays, so that was fun!
On Saturday, we had some sessions in the morning then free afternoon. At night, a couple of people came over to my house for videoke! So, my dad is the barangay captain but also seems to be the self-elected party captain. In our house, we have at least two disco balls, some stage lights, and this box that shoots lazers throughout the entire living room.  So my dad set up a lights display and we started videokeing at 5pm.  So.. my voice is not good. I have never been able to sing.. but it honestly does not matter in videoke. They just love to hear anyone sing and to sing anything.  It doesn't even have to be any sort of event.. sometimes one of my family members will just sit on the couch and sing by themselves.  Anyway, about 5 of my group came over and we took turns singing some classics - mostly dramatic ballads - while the stock videos played in the background. And the videos are so weird! Videoke is different from kareoke because the songs are set to videos.. but they are completely random.  It started out with clips from old NBA games, then moved to women in bikinis on the beach, then there was this weird sort of doll commercial with creepy girls and creepy dolls, then there is the african safari video which features crocodiles viciously devouring different animals, then theres a photoshoot of naked girls with painted bikinis and painted sports jerseys, and finally there is an undersea video.  All of this would play randomly under Girls Just Want to Have Fun or Hero, by Enrique (obviously my videoke go to). So we sang in the lazer lights for a while, then people started to head home and I ended up staying up until 11 with my family just singing - and went to bed with NO voice. I then woke up Sunday morning to my dad singing Michael Jackson in the living room at 9 am.
Sunday was a usual Sunday.. washing my clothes and lesson planning. My co-teacher is really, really sweet but gives me very little information to go off of, so for example of Thursday she told me that we're covering adjectives on Monday... and thats all she said. It gives me a lot of freedom but its also a challenge because I really can't tell yet what level these students are and what kind of activities are best.  We were warned about this, but we've all been noticing in our classroom how the students are extremely quick and capable of rattling off information that they had learned before.. they can recognize an adjective and have some that they can yell out in class, but if you ask them to make their own sentence, they freeze up. They are just so used to memorizing everything and have had no practice in constructing their own sentences or using any sort of imagination.  So I love putting in activities that they have to be creative and I think its good to encourage them to start thinking that way, but its just so frustrating trying to explain and to get them to even try.  Its also really tough because when any student offers and answer that isn't right the whole class laughs openly at them.  Its frustrating obviously because kids are too shy to even try. So, school on Monday was my first day of really crashing and burning in front of the class haha. I'm working with another trainee in my classes and we just didn't plan enough activities and they just weren't working as well as we hoped and so in class our teacher actually stepped up and took over for a bit then gave us excersises to run.. it was really painful at first but being able to improvise and get support from the coteacher was really good. She is so quiet when we try to talk about our lessons or how the classes went, but finally seeing her teach made me more confident that I do have a lot to learn from her. Also - improv is coming in handy so much here. Thanks Moeller and Montreal Improv!!
Theeeen.. Tuesday was flood day! Like.. an actual flood day.  I woke up around 6 to find that there was maybe three or four inches of water in my house, but the water wasn't too dirty and my neices and nephews were having fun pushing it out of the front door with brooms and mops. The water outside of the house was probably up to my knee but still just sort of fun, but the water kept rising. The back of our house is lower than the front so water was coming in through the back door and we tried to bucket it out of the front.  The back of our house is also right up against the river that runs through the barangay but we have some concrete walls to keep it out. It kept raining until the water outside was almost above my thighs and the water in my house was mid-calf... then one of the walls in our back yard broke. And water came rushing to the front and into the house, bringing the water in the house up to our knees. Luckily, before that we had run through the house and picked everything up and moved things from lower cabinets to the top of tables. My room is up two little steps from the main floor so luckily water in there was only around my ankles and all of my stuff was piled on my bed.  This is the point where it wasn't so much fun as it was scary.. my family had had some water in their house before from flooding but they were saying that it had never been this high.  Outside, our street was literally the same thing as the river.  The current was crazy and it was up to people's waist - people were out in the street trying to go buy some food and there were a few who would float by on an innertube having a great time - at one point about three boys floated by on a giant inflatable turtle. So the day had its fun moments, but when the house was filling up my family was really worried - my little nephew wouldn't let me put him down. But, luckily, the water stopped rising and slowly went down as my dad and some of his barangay staff bucketed water out of the front door. The kids and I all helped sweep the water to the front, but all in all the house was flooded from about 4 AM to 10 PM. It was a looong day for everyone.  Four of the people in my group were actually moved from their houses - one woman, Jo, lives on really low ground and has had flooding problems since we got here and two of the other girls live behind the river, so they picked them up in case the water got any higher/didn't go down.
But, ultimately, we were definitely the lucky ones! There are other PSTs staying about an hour away in each direction - in a place called Morong (on the beach) and Dinalupihan.  The Dinalupihan group is 11 education volunteers and they got the worst of the flood.  I got the story last night but I'm afraid I'm going to mix up the details (and start some unintentional chika chika!) so I'll just give you the gist - half of the group managed to get their stuff and themselves to a safe, dry place but the remaining six were moved to a "safe house" that was two stories and on high grounds... but the flood was so bad that it reached the house and they were stuck in the second floor for 30 something hours.  There was no power so people's cell phones were dying or they were running out of credit, so there was little to no communication with them.  In the end, Peace Corps had the military bring in help and they six were picked up by a military truck. The entire group was moved to a hotel in the city right next to ours so they are all safe and sound now, although a little shaken up.  There were three or four people who actually lost all of their stuff.. everything they packed for two years is underwater.  We went to see them last night and had a big, happy reunion and despite what they went through, they were in really good spirits.
The Morong group was also there! Including Education and Coastal Resource Management kids.. they didn't have flooding in their place, but had lost power and water and were expected to be without both for the next two weeks, so they moved them out. So on Friday and Saturday my group took a 20 minute jeepney to meet all of these guys for dinner - which was so fun to see everyone.
Also on Saturday I went on a day trip with my family - including Carl - and my friend Allie! We went to Duty Free stores in Subic Bay... but after being there, I still don't really know what that means. We went to two kind of mega grocery stores that basically had regular Filipino stuff then a lot of American stuff for ridiculous prices - a small jar of peanut butter was about 6 US dollars.. ridiculous. But it was a fun trip and we drove in one of the vans that each barangay gets - its kind of like a prison van with some man's face on the side.
Other than all of that excitement, my group has literally been working non-stop. We only had school on Monday last week because of the flood so we didn't have much time at the school - where we are supposed to be collecting data for a community project.  We have had very little time to do this so we are planning an entire community project based on not too much research.. so hopefully we can pull it off.  The project we have in mind is a few parts.. first, we are definitely doing a teacher training session because that was one thing specifically asked for by the faculty.  We are calling the event Innovations in Teaching (or something along those lines) and will be giving sessions on learning styles, pronunciation, how to use internet sources, classroom management, and a few other topics. At the end of the event we will give teachers a certificate that is signed by a Peace Corps representative and the school principal, then the teachers can use this certificate to help them get a raise and higher pay! So it helps everyone.  We also have some pesos to spend so we are going to provide a sort of home made text/activity book for the teachers and then have a second (or third) project that we can spend the money on. One big problem at the school is that fact that students do not use English outside of the classroom - at all. And basically all Filipino children are obsessseeed with video games SO our idea is to try and buy some fun educational (oxymoron? lets hope not) video games to install in the computer lab at school. They have about 10 computers that no one seems to use so were hoping to utilize those. So! We have about a week to plan this 8 hour event for the teachers then about three weeks for get our other project together.. also if anyone has any connections with some computer game companies and think they might be able to get some discounts for the Peace Corps, please please please let me know!!
My family is still great! I'm really bonding with my neices and nephews - and have been thinking about how badly I am going to miss them when I have to leave! I'm already thinking that if I have the time/money, I'll definitely travel back here for either Christmas or New Years.
Also my sister seems to have given out my phone number to a random "text mate".. I woke up the other day to this text:
morning po xa lhat qng nkatxtmate kagv?
and the signature:
"mr'three" _much2luv_ 'can'produce'#-=baby=-#
Sooo.. first of all, learning Tagalog is challenging. Then I learn that the world of Tagalog texting is out there. Its ridiculous.. they have codes and patterns and stuff. To me it pretty much looks like someone sat on their phone and accidentally sent it.
Then, on top of that, my new "text mates" signature includes the fact that he is fertile?
My friend Allie and I could not stop laughing and considering we have heard nothing but the song Call Me Maybe since we landed on this archepelego, we came up with a little diddy for any new mystery text mates.
Hey, I've never met you, and this is crazy! How'd you get my number? Don't call me, maybe?

Love you all!! xxxxxx

"If you only do what you know you can, you never do very much" - Tom Krause

Subic: Balut and Flood Days

Ohh haiii!! Finally! The much-delayed, much-anticipated (right?) blog post!! So, about two weeks ago all of the PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) left Center Based Training and split up between three cities - Subic, Morong, and Dinalupihan.  My group - 12 education volunteers and about 20 CYF volunteers - braved the 6 hour bus ride through flooded streets to get to Subic. We were all split between four different neighborhoods - or barangays - and my group was the third stop, so we were all super nervous and excited by the time we got there.  Luckily there was a short break in the torrential downpour so we had time to get our bags from the bus into the covered basketball court (also the barangay hall) where our families were waiting.  To find out families, we were all given a puzzle piece and had to find the family with the matching half.  Before this, a member of our group gave a little speech thanking the families for hosting us followed by a short welcome speech from our barangay captain.  The barangay where we are living is called Mangan-Vaca (translates to Eat Cow) and is where Subic National High School is, the school where we are working.  So a barangay means village and each barangay has an elected leader, the barangay captain (named because barangay comes from an old word for boat, so the leader is the captain). Anyway, this is only remotely relevant because after his welcome speech we matched up with our host family and the barangay captain is my dad! So we had a brief (awkward) lunch with our host families.. we were eating while the families were laughing and pointing at all of us.. before heading back to our respective houses and meeting the rest of our families.
So! Pamilya ko (my family)! My house is in one kind of complex with four separate houses - in my house, I live with my mom, my dad, and my little brother (16). The two houses the are just off of mine belong to my Ate (older sister) Annie and Ate Abigail.  They each have two kids - a boy and a girl - from 2 to 11 years old. And I can confidently say that they are absolutely the cutest kids I've ever met. Pictures to come soon! Then the last house that is right next to mine is my mom's brothers house - he lives with his wife and kids and my new cousin Carl, who I mentioned before. It's really nice having him right next door!  So my dad used to be a heavy machinery operator when the U.S. Naval Base was still in Subic but lost his job when the Navy left.  Since then, he has been working as the barangay captain.  My Uncle, Carl's dad, is a trike driver (trike is a motorcycle with a sidecar attached that are EVERYWHERE here.. if a Filipino has to walk more than about 8 minutes, they opt to take a trike).  But its nice having a trike driver in the family because he gives us rides on super rainy days.
So life with my house family has been awesome so far.  They speak some English and mixed with my Tagalog we can have actual conversations most of the time.  In the Philippines, when they forget a word they call it a "nosebleed", so most of our conversations are intermixed with a lot of laughing and miming of nose bleeding. My mom is hilarious and constantly laughing and making jokes.  My dad is also really, really funny. Last night I was scratching a mosquito bite on my leg and he asks, "Where did you get that mosquito bite?" I told him I wasn't sure, probably walking from school and he gets this super serious look on his face and goes, "If I find that mosquito... I swear I will kill him, inch by inch!!".  After dinner, my family and I usually sit in the living room and watch the news (floods, floods, floods) or, more often, watch Filipino soap operas (my favourite is Luna Blanca.. about twin girls, but one of them is painted fully black because her dad is this creepy smoke monster thing and the non-painted one lives on a trash heap but dates a famous pop star.. or something.. I'm trying to put it together..) We also play cards most nights.. my mom and I went out and bought some candy so we can gamble while we play hahah. We always play this game called Tong-It (I think).. Its really fun, so I'll be sure to teach everyone I meet. I've also started eating with my hands (some things) and hand washed my clothes with my mom on Sunday! My life is sort of in a constant state of dampness - from rain or from sweat, and nothing can ever truly dry here.
One of the bonding moments I had with my family was when I had balut. Balut is a Filipino food - its a fertilized duck egg that has been developing for about 18 days. So.. its essentially a fetus. My family lovingly calls it a "chicken abortion".  So Carl and my friend Allie (who is living with a woman who is my mom's friend - I get great "chika chika" (gossip) from my mom about Allie, for example "Allie went to the market today and bought a green mango!". Filipinos love to chika chika) came over to enjoy some bird fetus! And honestly... it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. They are slightly cooked so you crack open the egg and kind of suck out the juice (I know I know I know so gross) then keep peeling it and taking bites.  Some of it is kind of cooked like a soft boiled egg - and tastes just like it - theeeen you get to the bird.  Carl was very gung-ho about trying it and got there first... then made sure to show me the bird's eyes before taking a bite.  So we all succeeded in eating all of it.. but I definitely don't want it again any time soon.  Now my dad is really excited that Allie and I are willing to try different foods.. up next? Fruit bat and snake. Nom nom nom.
About a 5 minute walk from my house is Subic National High School where we teach every morning. I'm teaching year 2 English (equivalent to 8th grade) with about 60 kids in my class. I've only been at school for a week and its already a huge learning experience.  With the Peace Corps, education volunteers don't teach their own class for two years but instead are paired with a local co-teacher for their classes.  The purpose of that is to build the skills of the co-teacher and fellow faculty while teaching. I'm working with a co-teacher with another trainee (Jennifer) and she is really sweet!! Very cute and very nice, but more than willing to just throw us in the classroom hahah. Jen and I have been going to each others classes and sort of co-teaching with each other while our co-teacher monitors the students and observes us.  So far so good! I really do like being in the classroom and teaching.  My favorite I think is coming up with the activities and making visuals.. a good time to be creative.  But seriously.. teaching is so hard. We've obviously been talking more about the plight of Filipino teachers.. one thing that my group has observed is the fact that the Department of Education (DepEd) gives teachers really unrealistic goals and content with very little time.. teachers have no choice but to rush through lessons full of rote learning and move on the next day, whether the students absorbed anything or not. And teachers have days full of classes with 60 kids per class so they are constantly working. So it will be exciting to figure out the little ways that we can adjust lessons to be more student-centered and creative.  The big thing I've noticed in my class is that the kids are more than happy to recite sentences or when they read something they can identify what it is (we've been doing literary devices this week) but if you ask them to come up with their own sentence, let alone a simile or personification, they freeze up and don't know what to do.  Most of their education is rote learning, so moving from that to a more creative lesson is really challenging. So that's one thing I'm really excited to work on!
I'm adjusting pretty well to living here.. minus some stomach issues and strange face rashes! Our schedule is pretty grueling.. we are all up at 6 (to take our bucket showers - no showers here!), then get to school for classes from 8-12, followed by Tagalog classes 1-5. We're all pretty dead by the end of the day but this week we've managed to get together one evening (at my house for some Red Horse) and we have some fun things planned this weekend! It will be nice to get out of the barangay.. we're hoping to get to this "sports bar" in the more touristy part of town (about 25 minutes away on jeepney) to watch some Olympics and get a drink.. two things we are definitely missing here.
We've also been adjusting to the weather.. we're getting a lot of heavy rain from a typhoon that's going through the north of the country.. luckily nothing too destructive and we've had two days of classes cancelled for flood days! yay!!
I love hearing from everyone!! I have internet at school so I usually have some time in the morning (evening for most of you) to get on.. so try to catch me on Facebook or Skype from like 8:00 - 9:00!
I love and miss you all! I'm going to start naming my bug bites after everyone I miss to fight off homesickness.


"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others" -Gandhi