Manila Paradise!!!

Gwapo if....

WALANG KALAT!!! No trash!!!
WALANG SAKIT - HANGIN, TUBIG, at PAGKAIN AY MALINIS!!!! No sickness -- air, water, and food are clean!
WALANG MABAHO!!! No bad smells!!!

WOOOOW!!! That'll be the day!

PS I would steal the sign for my room decoration because I like the colors, but apparently it's punishable by law. Sniff

Ok, ok, I take it back. I will be long and detailed and tell you about my day in as much of an Andy-ish manner that I can muster.

First of all I awoke to a sunny day. I was quite cold because the fan kept blowing my sheets off. However, I survived and do not have any frostbite to show for it.

Today was teeth cleaning day! I got to go to the dentist and drool and slobber on myself while she cleaned my teeth. It was a rather unpleasant experience to have water drip down my chin to my shirt more than once. Plus, she managed to pinch my tongue a couple times and pick my gum. Oh well, I still like dentists. At least I don't have any cavities yet.

We then proceeded to the Optical Shop because I needed new contacts. I decided to get my eyes checked to make sure the prescription was correct. Now, the dear eye-checker-upper seemed to think I had never sat in one of those chairs and stared at slides of letters before. He proceeded to explain the entire procedure to me while I bore it patiently and didn't once tell him I had been sitting in those chairs for the past 14 years and I was very experienced with the procedure. He then proceeded to use no grade at all and asked me if I could see the letters on the wall. Now, he had just examined my glasses and knew that their grades were 475 and 275 but I guess it didn't click.... but of course with eyes like that, I couldn't even see any letters except a slightly black smudge on the wall. Anyway, we proceeded with the rest of the checkup and for some reason, he decided to use pictures instead of letters. So now I sat there hoping I wouldn't suddenly lose my entire vocabulary and not know what a car or a dog or a horse or a teacup were. The point of the story is that my eyes are the same as they have been for the past 3 or 4 years.

In other news, my new hobby is Milo. I like to invent new ways to make Milo. Isn't that exciting? Yeah....................

Ok bye!

Andy gets more comments to his posts than I do and he updates more often... so I have to keep up! However I don't have anything to say anyway. So the end.

CLF

First Grade

Third Grade

First grade goodbye

Third grade goodbyes

The past two weeks have been a wonderful, unique, blessed experience! I spent the past two weeks in Cebu teaching English to grades 1 and 2 and math to grade 3 (except for one math lesson for grade 1). The school is a Christian school run by the Martinez family. There are about 200 kids from pre-k to 2nd year high school. I had some adjustments to the education system but the English books were American curriculum. The methods are different here but it was easy to work with. I LOVED teaching grade 3 in particular. We had a lot of fun together. Grade 1 was more stressful but I still enjoyed the challenges they presented. I fell in love with the teaching profession finally! I was finally able to apply what I had learned in methods classes... and I found out that doing poorly in Teaching Math class also manifested itself in the classroom. I couldn't explain anything! I hate teaching math! I want them to know how math works but I can't even explain how it works to them! AHH!!!

When I left on Friday, the third grade class wailed. They couldn't understand why I had to go back to the States to finish learning how to be a teacher. It was enough for them that I already taught them English and what more did I need in my education! Two of them wouldn't eat their pizza (Tita Totit bough pizza for their class) because they were too sad. They all howled so badly that the other classes were congregating outside the window and door to see what was the matter. I could barely get out the door because they were clinging to me and sobbing. Grade 1 wasn't even that bad. Only 4 of them cried whereas almost all 18 of the kids cried in grade 3. I think half of it was getting so emotionally charged by the other crying kids that they all ended up crying for no reason at all. Haha. It was touching though. I felt so inadequate but I hope somehow I touched their lives.

I am excited to graduate and possibly come back and at CLF. ;)

For ANDY

Because Facebook is being annoying, I'll take valuable time out of my lesson planning time and put some pics from Sunday up!!! YAY go me!











Ok too much effort. The End

Line up!

So Andy's face seems to be improving. Last time he was a doll and this time he's a fan! Our lovely little lineup did a little switching over the years heightwise...

Hey wow it's July 4th! I almost forgot. Anyway... I found this gem of a sentence attached to a doll in Balikbayan Handicrafts:

A typical barrio lass garbed in baro at saya, being in a tropic with humid climate, women carry an alampay, a piece of cloth to wipe away dirt and perspiration worn over the shoulders.

BEAUTIFUL! I love the English language!!!

Back to REAL jokes!

For what it's worth, here's the latest text message joke sent to me. I miss this style of humor because it just doesn't translate properly in English... and this one is mostly English but it's still not as funny outside of Filipino circles. So I wrote it down and here it is in case I lose the paper. Feel free to not even get it but I thought it was hilarious:

Once I crush a guy from my alma mother who got my number so we could keep intact. Sabi ko, connect me if I'm wrong, but are you asking me ouch? Sabi nya, "The?!?!" I mean, tell me to the marines ang kapal! The nerd! Naiyak ako because of hunger. I cried buckles of tears. Tapos sabi nya, "Don't cry! Isipin mo na lang this is a blessing in the sky. Irregardless of my feelings let's go out na rin." Now we're so in love. Mute and epidemic na yung pass. Thanks we shallowed our fried.

Now to completely spoil it and give you a translation of what it is trying to say:

Once I crossed a guy from my alma mater who got my number so we could keep in touch. I said, correct me if I'm wrong, but are you asking me out? He said, "Duh?!?" I mean, tell it to the marines, how thick! The nerve! I cried because of anger. I cried buckets of tears. Then he said, "Don't cry! Just think of this as a blessing in disguise. Regardless of my feelings, let's still go out." Now we're so in love. Moot and academic is the past. [Good thing] we swallowed our pride!