Yeah, thats right. I've written it down so now its a fact.
Its been 3 days since I landed in Dumaguete, the land of beautiful beaches and mountains. Be jealous. I was greeted by my host momma Lupin who is very nice and sweet. She lives by herself with a maid (that's gonna take some getting used to) in a two story house. She is a widow and her kids either live abroad (Australia & U.S.) or in Manila. Shes visited them all plus been to Europe since 2 of her daughters are stewardesses and get crazy discounts. Shes hosted one other Peace Corps voulnteer and students from the nearby university. It's a pretty awesome set up except for the fact that it can get pretty lonely when all your host mom wants to do is sleep. I havent learned very much of the language yet but hopefully i'll make cool Filipino/a friends and of course my cluster is full of cool people to hang out with too.
By far the craziest experience has to be joining my host mom in attending her friends dinner party. She hangs with the cool people in town, including the city counselor, a deacon (priest), and a dentist. They fed us crazy good food like paella and kasava cake. I was told I eat too little and spoken to in Spanish. It was a good time but only lasted 3 hours. We got invited to a nearby towns Fiesta on tuesday but Language and Technical Training Classes come first (boo) so we politely declined.
All in all its been good. Can't wait to travel and see more of the island were on. That will make for amazing pictures.
p.s. Tuesday we're meeting the mayor and police and other respected city officials.
Yup were legit.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
I haven't written anything in my blog,
I know... My apologies. You will now receive a (hopefully) brief synopsis of my week.
We arrived safe in sound after a long 20 hour flight, rest, flight last weekend into the hands of Peace Corp Staff at a nice resort about 45 minutes from Manila. It’s a lovely place with a water park (aka 2 pools and 4 slides), Animal Island (aka the place where you can get dangerously close to ostriches and feed dead chicken to crocodiles) and a fishing place (aka the spot with murky fish water). This would all be awesome if we weren’t dying to start learning the language and finding out approximately where we will be for the next 2 years. Most of us are thinking aren’t we out here to teach? Why the resort? Well my thoughts are there are a limited number of places that have the equipment to host 140+ of us, so basically cruel joke. This is exactly what we won’t have in the duration of our stay in the Philippines.
Good times.
The fun part is I have never been more ready to leave the lap of (somewhat) luxury in my life. Sitting in a ballroom from 8:30 am to 5pm is not fun, especially when your bum hurts so much from the previous day its hard to sit still. We've been given exciting info on how to send the medical officers stool samples if we ever get sick and heard from the embassy all the extreme case scenario ways we could die, as well as the different creatures of the seas and how touching one can kill you. All of it very helpful but I still plan on swimming with Whale Sharks and going island hopping. The possibility of having to send a stool sample is definitely the scariest part of it all as crazy as that may sound.
Thursday we shall finally find out where our training sites will be. This means we'll know which of the four languages we're learning, what regions we could possibly be placed in and we'll get to meet the first host family. All very exciting and definitely better then what we’ve been doing.
The few things ill miss... Seeing all the lovely people I've gotten to know this week since we're getting split up into 4 groups and of course getting fed 3 times a day plus mid morning and mid afternoon snack, although I think that’s a common practice outside these walls too... Something I could for sure get used to.
As far as what the future holds who knows, the Peace Corps now controls my life (but only a lil bit). I’m just happy I got here in one piece.
_Jessica_
P.S. I have already been asked twice if I am Filipina and once I tell them I am Mexican they understand. I am sure and have received confirmation that more of this is to come, bring it on, I love talking about my culture.
We arrived safe in sound after a long 20 hour flight, rest, flight last weekend into the hands of Peace Corp Staff at a nice resort about 45 minutes from Manila. It’s a lovely place with a water park (aka 2 pools and 4 slides), Animal Island (aka the place where you can get dangerously close to ostriches and feed dead chicken to crocodiles) and a fishing place (aka the spot with murky fish water). This would all be awesome if we weren’t dying to start learning the language and finding out approximately where we will be for the next 2 years. Most of us are thinking aren’t we out here to teach? Why the resort? Well my thoughts are there are a limited number of places that have the equipment to host 140+ of us, so basically cruel joke. This is exactly what we won’t have in the duration of our stay in the Philippines.
Good times.
The fun part is I have never been more ready to leave the lap of (somewhat) luxury in my life. Sitting in a ballroom from 8:30 am to 5pm is not fun, especially when your bum hurts so much from the previous day its hard to sit still. We've been given exciting info on how to send the medical officers stool samples if we ever get sick and heard from the embassy all the extreme case scenario ways we could die, as well as the different creatures of the seas and how touching one can kill you. All of it very helpful but I still plan on swimming with Whale Sharks and going island hopping. The possibility of having to send a stool sample is definitely the scariest part of it all as crazy as that may sound.
Thursday we shall finally find out where our training sites will be. This means we'll know which of the four languages we're learning, what regions we could possibly be placed in and we'll get to meet the first host family. All very exciting and definitely better then what we’ve been doing.
The few things ill miss... Seeing all the lovely people I've gotten to know this week since we're getting split up into 4 groups and of course getting fed 3 times a day plus mid morning and mid afternoon snack, although I think that’s a common practice outside these walls too... Something I could for sure get used to.
As far as what the future holds who knows, the Peace Corps now controls my life (but only a lil bit). I’m just happy I got here in one piece.
_Jessica_
P.S. I have already been asked twice if I am Filipina and once I tell them I am Mexican they understand. I am sure and have received confirmation that more of this is to come, bring it on, I love talking about my culture.
Friday, August 20, 2010
1.5 hours to take off
So I am sitting in the JFK airport using the t-mobile wifi with other fellow laptop users, getting in our last minutes on facebook, emails and various other tasks.... In short, the time has arrived! We will soon be boarding on a plane bound to the Tokyo Narita airport and then the Philippines. A years worth of waiting has finally paid off. I am beyond excited after a day of training that resulted in meeting lots of new names and put faces to the people I FB stalked since joining the group. Cant wait till we actually land, even in the midst of rain and humidity I'm sure it'll be a great experience.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
14 days
Things i've been up too...
Currently finishing off my PC To Do list.
Trying to spend as much time with my friends and family as possible.
Eating all the tacos, burritos, and mexican food that I can get my hands on.
Attempting to rent a water slide for my going away shindig, poooool party!!! (yes i'm 22 years old, FTW)
Buying last minute travel accessories
As nervous as I am to say good bye to all those I know and love I'm incredibly impatient to leave already. 2 weeks might as well be an eternity. I'm sure once I'm on the other side of the world I'll think differently, or maybe I wont... We shall see!
Currently finishing off my PC To Do list.
Trying to spend as much time with my friends and family as possible.
Eating all the tacos, burritos, and mexican food that I can get my hands on.
Attempting to rent a water slide for my going away shindig, poooool party!!! (yes i'm 22 years old, FTW)
Buying last minute travel accessories
As nervous as I am to say good bye to all those I know and love I'm incredibly impatient to leave already. 2 weeks might as well be an eternity. I'm sure once I'm on the other side of the world I'll think differently, or maybe I wont... We shall see!
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