Friday (Aug 12) - I had language class most of the day and honestly don't remember what I did that night... Tagalog is coming along. I'm able to communicate a little, but still can't understand most of what people are saying.
Saturday (Aug 13) - Assessment was cancelled for the morning so Karen, Gina, Cristy, and I headed out to Subic Bay for the day. We just walked around Subic and enjoyed our day off. We walked through the bay and ate at Gerry's Grill. The bay was pretty, but still some dirty water and parts of it smelled really bad. We went to a resort, Lighthouse Resort, and hung out in the lobby for a while and used their bathroom. At home I like to avoid public restrooms. Here I take advantage of public restrooms when they have flushing toilets and tp. No one said anything about us just hanging out because we're American. When we got back from Subic we went over to Catherine's house. It was her birthday and her family had made spaghetti (what Filipinos make for everyone's bday) and had a cake. We bought her some doughnuts in town. That evening 6 of us went into town and ate dinner at Mang Inasal and just hung out for a bit.
Sunday (Aug 14) - I got up and went to mass with Ariel. There is a house between our house and the church. We can always hear the services from the house. It used to wake me up in the mornings, but I can pretty much sleep through it now. The service was in Tagalog, but I just tried to follow along, really didn't understand anything. After church Mhay and I went to San Ramon to her sister's birthday party. It's just 15 minutes down the road. We had lunch and played Tong-Its. Mhay taught me at home and we taught some of the other Americans how. Playing at the party we were betting and it was a little different. I had some trouble following what was going on. When we got home from San Ramon, we went to the hospital to see Ariel's mother. 11 of us rode in an SUV that had seats for 7. His mother is at a different hospital now, but was still in the ICU. It had a shade that could be pulled up and we could all see her through the window. On the way home there were 10 of us in Ariel's 4 door pickup. It's a Ford Ranger, but a little different than the ones in the US. In Subic, where the hospital is, it's against the law to ride in the bed of the truck, so we all had to squeeze into the cab until we got out of Subic. Quite an adventure!
Monday (Aug 15) - I was in the classroom for my 4th time. I taught a little bit of the lesson and Sir Jake did the rest. He tells me what he wants me to do for the lesson, and I think I need to step up and be creative and come up with something different. I haven't taken the initiative though, and have just followed what he's told me to do. Maybe next week I'll change that! Next week is our last week in the classroom. In the afternoon we had language all afternoon.
Tuesday (Aug 16) - Had language class from 8-3. After that we had independent study time. Karen, Pam, Regina Renee, and I headed into town and ate at Jollibee. We really just wanted to get out and get some food, so that's what we did! We've been eating our meals over at Ariel's parents’ house since his Mom is in the hospital and dad has been gone most of the time. Ariel has a 13 year old sister and 12 year old niece that live there and Mhay's been cooking for all of us. We have been eating lunch and dinner there. So after dinner I got my cards out and taught the girls, and RG, how to play Spoons! We had a lot of fun playing cards. I've been getting plenty of card playing in. Between playing cards with the girls, the boys at my house, and Karen, Gina, and Catherine, we've been playing a lot! And I like it :)
Wednesday (Aug 17) - I had another team teaching up at the school. I did most of the lesson and I think it went pretty well. I'm getting a lot more comfortable teaching the class and learning some of the students’ names... and I'm only going to be there two more times. Right when it starts to get comfortable, it's over. We had language from 1-3 and then I went over Eva's house to figure out with her group what our plans for the next day were. We had a cooking day and figured out the menu. Then I went to Cristy's to work on a project with Mike, Gina, and Rich. The 4th of us are conducting a session on Job Interviews at an alternative learning center on Friday. When we were done planning we played cards for a bit and walked around the neighborhood. We just like to hang out until it's about to get dark and we have to go home.
Thursday (Aug 18) - Our language class had our cooking day! We joined Eva's cluster and went to the market this morning to buy all of our ingredients. We were supposed to practice our Tagalog in the market. Don't really know how much I spoke Tagalog. Then we went back to Eva's and spent the morning preparing all of our food. We had some really yummy food! This afternoon we had medical from 3-5. I got a flu shot! I think they said it's the last shot until January. After medical Karen, Gina, Cristy, Jufer, and I went over to Chow King and had a Halo-halo. It's pretty good, but not as good as ice cream! Then they had to take the Doctor to Subic. So we rode along just for the ride.
Pretty good week! 3 more weeks in Dinalupihan and then off to Manila for our swearing in!
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