I think it's official, October may have been the lowest blogging month so far in my 14 months of Peace Corps. Lately, the questions that have been filling my mind are: Why does October have to have 31 days in it? How long till I get to come home for Christmas? and How can I live in the Philippines and STILL be so pale?
Answers: Who knows, 40 days!, and maybe I really am albino?
November starts tomorrow, which makes today Halloween. I kind of forgot about it. My sister called to wish me a Happy Halloween and I realized my mental calendar was a day behind. YAY! So, anyways, I wore my orange pumpkin shirt and ate some extra pieces of candy. They don’t really celebrate the holiday here, but tomorrow will be All Saint’s Day, then followed by All Soul’s Day. Wait, wait, yep. Those sound like future blogging topics. Perhaps the blogging dry-spell has finally ended; we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
stop. drop. and i should have brought my ipod!
What do you do when you get a phone call from your warden that gives instructions to drop what you're doing and go to your safety consolidation point? ha, first you complain. SERIOUSLY? I got plans man. I had to leave my school's Math/MAPEH Month presentation. I mean, really, I had to walk out during their opening number of girls dancing to Lady GaGa while holding meter sticks and protractors. I may not have a chance to experience something like ever again in my life... or at least not until the next DepEd sponsored month festivities...
Second, you ask, is anything wrong? Answer: Nope, just a safety drill, but you got to leave NOW. Ok, I'm out the door, grabbing the passport and cell phone charger and dramamine for the cruddy 2-3 hour mountain drive it takes to get to our checkpoint; in other words, DUDE, IT'S LIKE THE AMAZING RACE! I totally could have won it too, if it hadn't been a non-elimination round.
So, for everybody who wonders (MOM, plus all my church lady looker-outers), what do you do if there's an emergency? That's it. No worries :)
Second, you ask, is anything wrong? Answer: Nope, just a safety drill, but you got to leave NOW. Ok, I'm out the door, grabbing the passport and cell phone charger and dramamine for the cruddy 2-3 hour mountain drive it takes to get to our checkpoint; in other words, DUDE, IT'S LIKE THE AMAZING RACE! I totally could have won it too, if it hadn't been a non-elimination round.
So, for everybody who wonders (MOM, plus all my church lady looker-outers), what do you do if there's an emergency? That's it. No worries :)
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Word of the Day
I was walking back to school after lunch today when I met one of my students half way. His name is Alfie. He's a really sweet kid. He's always kind and fun-loving, just an all around good kid. As we were walking, I reminded him that he has a vocabulary test tomorrow. In response, he took out his vocabulary notebook and I quizzed him as we walked.
Each week they get ten words that are from stories that are in their textbooks or other sources that we use. A few from this week's list are: glimpse, cumbersome, arid, humid, and ferocious. Those words were all taken from their textbook.
Anyways, back to Alfie. We had just about finished our walk, and were approaching the hill that the school rests on. Just as we were about to start the trek up, a motorcycle zoomed by us with one of the other teachers riding on the back. You could hear the strain of the engine as the bike made its way up the hill.
Without missing a beat, Alfie turned to me and said, "Sir George is cumbersome!"
Each week they get ten words that are from stories that are in their textbooks or other sources that we use. A few from this week's list are: glimpse, cumbersome, arid, humid, and ferocious. Those words were all taken from their textbook.
Anyways, back to Alfie. We had just about finished our walk, and were approaching the hill that the school rests on. Just as we were about to start the trek up, a motorcycle zoomed by us with one of the other teachers riding on the back. You could hear the strain of the engine as the bike made its way up the hill.
Without missing a beat, Alfie turned to me and said, "Sir George is cumbersome!"
Friday, October 2, 2009
End of the Week... Super Tired
Thursday was my site visit by not only my regional manager, but also a pcmo and our Philippine country director. They came for a couple hours to chat, observe me co-teaching with my counterpart, tour the school, and eat lunch with my host mom. It was great to have a break from the norm, and they brought Tootsie Rolls, which is always a plus :)
They were all really positive about the library. I introduced them to some of the students who have helped organize books and have taken an interest in the project. It was amazing to watch one student, Denise, describe what she got from reading the teenage edition of Three Cups of Tea. The fact that she a) read the story from cover to cover b) could summarize the accounts c) tell her reaction and thoughts and finally d) do all of this in front of foreigners made me so incredibly proud. She is one of the students who came during the summer to help organize and also comes on Saturdays to help with the little kids.
Friday became our first day of "Reading Buddies." This is what I love/sometimes don't love about my site. I say something or think out loud, and then BAM it's somehow made reality; usually with me running to catch up. So earlier this week I said we need to get high school students to go to the elementary school and read them stories. So now every Monday, Wednesday, Friday I've got to get 30 high schoolers to Central Elementary by 4:15. It's going to be great, and the elementary school is really excited about it, but getting the routine of it down is a little rocky at the moment. Today wasn't a disaster though, so I have hope that it'll be smooth by the end of next week.
Another fun thing, my counterpart's daughter's pre-school class is planning to visit the library for a field trip! FIELD TRIP!! I'm so excited!
They were all really positive about the library. I introduced them to some of the students who have helped organize books and have taken an interest in the project. It was amazing to watch one student, Denise, describe what she got from reading the teenage edition of Three Cups of Tea. The fact that she a) read the story from cover to cover b) could summarize the accounts c) tell her reaction and thoughts and finally d) do all of this in front of foreigners made me so incredibly proud. She is one of the students who came during the summer to help organize and also comes on Saturdays to help with the little kids.
Friday became our first day of "Reading Buddies." This is what I love/sometimes don't love about my site. I say something or think out loud, and then BAM it's somehow made reality; usually with me running to catch up. So earlier this week I said we need to get high school students to go to the elementary school and read them stories. So now every Monday, Wednesday, Friday I've got to get 30 high schoolers to Central Elementary by 4:15. It's going to be great, and the elementary school is really excited about it, but getting the routine of it down is a little rocky at the moment. Today wasn't a disaster though, so I have hope that it'll be smooth by the end of next week.
Another fun thing, my counterpart's daughter's pre-school class is planning to visit the library for a field trip! FIELD TRIP!! I'm so excited!
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