Ok, here's the long overdue update on my life in the Philippines...

Things haven't been too exciting in the past few months. I have started teaching now which is a much bigger challenge than I had anticipated it being. When the students don't seem to care and don't want to listen it's hard to keep caring and trying to make them listen and understand. I'm taking these last few months of the school year as a lesson in what's happening in the classroom and will spend my summer months coming up with ideas and plans for how to make at least a little bit of a difference in the upcoming school year.

Christmas came and went pretty quietly. They start celebrating Christmas in September here, so when December 25th actually rolls around it doesn't seem like anything too special. I did participate in Simbang Gabi with my family. It's a tradition of early morning (4am!!) mass that begins on Dec. 16 and continues every morning through Christmas Eve. I didn't make it every day. I was just too tired! I wasn't sleeping well to begin with during that time and then to have to get up for the day at 3:30am was just more than I could handle for 9 straight days. I made it for 5 days, plus Christmas Eve "midnight" mass that was actually at 8pm. Other than that, nothing really felt like Christmas to me. It was hot and sunny every day, presents weren't exchanged, I didn't get my mashed potatoes (something everyone commented on when I made my calls home to the family). Instead, Rebecca, Dom and I spent the night of Christmas Eve eating with Dom's host family and then walking down to the pier and around town. Christmas day was spent eating, drinking and singing videoke (everyone except me, of course. I took the pictures). It was a great day, just not really Christmas.

For New Years I went to the island of Boracay with a large group of Volunteers. It was beautiful there. White sand beaches, bright blue water, gorgeous sunsets. Plus great food, cheap drinks from beachside stands and fun bars and restaurants on the beach to celebrate the new year. It was nice to have a break from site and not be the only white person around. Really, it was just nice to not be stared at constantly. It was fun to listen to all of the accents and other languages as people walked down the beach.

Now I'm back at site. Teaching more and more every week. I will be heading up to a Peace Corps training for the last 2 weeks of February. I am looking forward to seeing people from training who I haven't seen since November. Out of the 11 volunteers I trained with there were only 2 of us in Boracay. I can't wait to be back around everyone for a few weeks! Then when we return it will be time to move out of my host family's. Rebecca and I have found a great house to live in. It is closer to the water than I am now, with great views of the bay and the piers. It has 2 stories, 4 bedrooms (lots of room for visitors!), and a big open kitchen and dining area. Plus we have a little backyard (Rebecca is hoping to get a goat! haha We'll see about that one...). The owners are doing a lot of work to fix it up before we move in. It's going to be nice to be on our own. I'm not going to lie though, I'm a little nervous about having to cook for myself and getting back into the habit of washing my own clothes by hand again.

February is also when we are allowed to start taking time off and traveling. I can't wait to start visiting other parts of the country. I have started a long list of places I want to see while I'm here. I will also hopefully be getting scuba certified soon. There are so many amazing dive opportunities here, I don't want to miss out on them!

Well, that's about all for now. For those of you who have sent cards and packages, thank you! It makes my day to see that I have mail waiting for me. Just a heads up though, it takes about a month for letters to get to me here at site. I'm not sure if packages take the same, but make sure if you do send packages they are taped up good. Cardboard tends to fall apart here with the humidity!

I hope all is well at home! I'd love to hear updates from home when you get a chance!